Keys To Effective Evangelism Series

INTRODUCTION

• I want you to take a look in your bulletin for a moment.

• I would like for you to look on the inside cover if you would.

• On the inside cover you will find a purpose statement. This statement summarizes why we are here as a church.

• When you look at the statement, it really looks good and it realty looks churchy.

• What it says is that we exist to bring glory to God by making followers of His Son Jesus.

• This is a two-part process. Part one involves finding a person who is not saved and sharing the message about Jesus with them. The second part has to do with teaching them how to live for and love Jesus.

• Which of those two things would you rather do? Which is more difficult?

• Today I want to spend some time talking about the first part of making disciples.

• This can be one of the scariest things we are called to do by God?

• SLIDE #1

• Evangelism. We are easily intimidated by the thought of actually telling someone about Jesus. We are intimidated by what to say, how to say it, and by the potential reaction from the one we are trying to share our faith with.

• I really do not think we fully grasp the importance of what we are called to do. There are people who are dying everyday without Jesus. We can wish people into heaven all we want, but the truth is that without an active relationship with Jesus, nothing will get them there.

• There are people who are hurting and people who are living without direction and purpose. It is our job to bring the gospel to them.

• I have three keys that will help us to be successful in our endeavor of reaching a hurting, dying world for Jesus.

• SLIDE #2

SERMON

One key to effective evangelism is:

I. OUR PRAYERS (2-4)

• This is such an important aspect to the success of anything we do in life, but it is maybe one of the most neglected.

• How many times have we tried to say something to another person about our faith without any prayer preparation?

• Do you have a list of people you are praying will be open to receiving and accepting Jesus as their Lord?

• Look at what we are told in verse 2.

• SLIDE #3

• READ Colossians 4:2

• Prayer is something that I cannot stress enough. I know if we would take prayer more seriously, we would see results we never before could imagine.

• How are we to pray? As you look at verse two again you will see a couple of things.

• SLIDE #4

1. The manner of our prayers.

• This passage gives us three things to do.

• SLIDE #5

• First we are to be DEVOTED to prayer.

• This is an issue of perseverance. It means to be courageously persistent.

• We need to all have a list of people we are persistently praying for.

• In Luke 18, Jesus told a parable on prayer that was designed to show us that God loves persistent prayers.

• How many times have we prayed once or twice and then given up.

• Let me ask you a question. Are you glad that someone did not give up on praying for you after one or two times?

• I bet if you ask the person who helped lead you to Jesus how often they prayed for your salvation, it was more than once or twice.

• SLIDE #6

• The second manner of our prayers is we are to stay alert.

• This is kind of funny but the phrase literally means that we are to stay awake. No sleeping while you pray. 

• It was used this way when Jesus chastised His disciples for going to sleep on Him as He prayed in Matthew 26:41

• In the context what it means is that we are to be aware of what is going on around us in our world that would require prayer help from God.

• Christians cannot so isolate themselves that they have no clue as to what is going on around them.

• SLIDE #7

• The third manner of our prayer is we are to be thankful.

• Our hearts should overflow with thanksgiving.

• As we see that we are called to pray, what are we called to pray about concerning our evangelistic efforts?

• Let us look at the…

• SLIDE #8

2. The focus of our prayers.

• As we spend a great deal of time in prayer, what are we to focus on?

• SLIDE #9