A drunken man got on the bus late one night, staggered up the aisle, and sat next to a woman who was clutching a Bible.
She looked the wayward drunk up and down and said, “I've got news for you, mister. You're going straight to hell!”
The man jumped up out of his seat and shouted, “Oh, man, I'm on the wrong bus again!” (Keith Todd, www.sermonfodder.com)
Sometimes, in our attempts to witness, we fail to connect with those we’re trying to reach. The fact is that 98% of believers here in the United States have never had the privilege of leading someone to faith in Jesus Christ.
Oh, if you’ve never had that privilege, you don’t know what you’re missing. I don’t know of any greater thrill! For me, there is nothing greater in this life than being there when a person puts his or her faith in Christ and their life is eternally and dramatically changed. I wish that all of you could have that experience just once, if not several times over, in your lifetime.
I know that Jesus Himself also wants you to have that experience too. He didn’t intend for 98% of his followers to be fruitless Christians. In fact, He said, “If a man remains in me and I in Him, he will bear much fruit” (John 15:5). When the seed of His Word falls on good soil, he expects it to “produce a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown” (Matthew 13:23). His last words to us, before He ascended into heaven, were, “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19-20). It is Christ’s express desire that believers multiply themselves in other followers of Himself, 30, 60 or 100 times over.
Is that your desire? Do you want to be a fruitful Christian? Do you want to bear “much fruit” for the Savior? Do you want to introduce a friend, family member or co-worker to Jesus Christ? Do you want to reproduce yourself naturally and organically in other followers of Christ? Do you want to win people as a normal part of your everyday life? Then turn with me, if you will, to 1 Corinthians 9, 1 Corinthians 9, where we see how the Apostle Paul did it.
1 Corinthians 9:19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them (ESV).
Literally, that I might “gain” more of them. Paul wants to gain as many new believers in Christ as possible. It’s the same word used in Matthew 18:15, where a brother speaks to a sinning believer to win him back, or to gain him back from his sin. It’s the same word used in 1 Peter 3:1, where the wife submits to her unbelieving husband in order to win Him from His unbelief. If you want to win people out of unbelief to faith in Christ, then…
SUBMIT YOURSELF TO THEM.
Enter their world before they enter your world. Accommodate yourself to them. Yield to them. Adapt to them. Identify with them, before they identify with you. Paul “made himself a servant” to the ones he wanted to win.
1 Corinthians 9:20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law (ESV).
When Paul was with Jews, he behaved like a Jew to win Jews.
1 Corinthians 9:21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law (ESV).
When Paul was with Gentiles, he behaved like a Gentile to win Gentiles, but not without boundaries. Even though he accommodated himself to every man, Paul never accommodated himself to sin. He never violated the principles of God’s Word. You don’t have to get drunk to reach alcoholics. You don’t have to prostitute yourself to reach prostitutes. You just have to meet them in their world, not yours.
Until the COVID-19 pandemic, Roman Khripunov didn’t realize the missionary potential of video games. Khripunov ran soccer academies for refugees and immigrants in Houston, using the sport as a platform to share Christ with children. When the coronavirus paused in-person outreach, the ministry came up with an alternative: Soccer coaches would begin playing video games on the livestreaming platform Twitch and invite players to watch and ask spiritual questions. On Twitch, participants talk with each other as they play or type back and forth in a chat box.
It was a hit. Teenage soccer players reluctant to spend 15 minutes discussing spiritual matters in person were willing to engage for three to four hours over video games online. Eventually, the ministry opened its Twitch channel to the public and began to establish a presence on other gaming platforms as well, with coaches talking with people online.
In one of many cases, a man from the Netherlands came to faith in Christ while gaming, then brought in five friends to hear the gospel too. Khripunov said, “The people that we’re starting to observe on these [gaming] platforms are actually seeking a lot of spiritual things. They’re very hungry for the gospel.”
Now, some believers have shied away from video games, because a lot of them include sexualized and violent content. There are also concerns about gamers who show signs of addiction, which has been linked to a boatload of anxiety and depression among gamers.
Canadian Stefano DiSalvo, the most prominent professional esports player to share his Christian testimony, has experienced the dark side of esports. He said that many teenage gamers are “escaping from their own reality and kind of taking out that anger, taking out that depression on other people online. It creates this toxic environment at times.” That may be a reason to avoid esports. Or it may be a reason to find lost souls there (David Roach, “Playing For Souls,” CT Magazine, October, 2020, p. 12-15; www.PreachingToday.com).
Yes! Go where the people are! Don’t wait for them to come to you. You don’t reach people by sitting in a church building, waiting for them to enter the doors. No. You reach people when you leave your comfort zone and go to them. That’s what it means to “make yourself a servant to all,” to win some to faith in Christ.
When Paul was with Jews, he behaved like a Jew to win Jews. When Paul was with Gentiles, he behaved like a Gentile to win Gentiles.
1 Corinthians 9:22-23 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings (ESV).
Literally, that I may become a partner of it. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation to anyone who believes, and Paul does whatever is necessary to partner with the gospel in its saving power. He will subject himself to any situation. He will accommodate himself to any person, short of sin, just to see that person saved from his or her sin.
After all, that’s what Jesus did for us. Philippians 2 says, GOD became a man and subjected himself to death, even death on a cross, to win a world to Himself. He didn’t wait for us to come up to Him – we never could. No. He came down to us. He met us where we were,so He could bring us back to where He was.
There is a garbage dump in Manila, where tens of thousands of people make their homes. They have constructed shacks out of the things other people have thrown away. They send their children out early every morning to scavenge for food among the garbage. People have been born in that garbage dump. They’ve grown up and died there without ever going anywhere else, even in the city of Manila.
That’s astonishing, but even more astonishing is the fact some Americans also live in that garbage dump. They are missionaries, Christians, who have chosen to leave the wealth of their own country and subject themselves to live in a dump. They did it, so they could communicate the love of Jesus Christ to people who would otherwise never hear of it. (Leith Anderson, “A God’s-Eye View of Christmas,” Preaching Today #208)
That’s what Jesus did for you! He left the wealth of heaven, and He subjected himself to live in your world, so you could know His love. It’s the only way He could reach you, and it’s the only way you can reach others with the saving power of the good news of God’s love. Submit yourself to those you want to win. Identify with them before they identify with you.
When the first missionaries from Great Britain left for China, they built British homes and British chapels and invited Chinese people to British services to hear the Gospel. They stayed on the coast and saw very few people come to faith in Christ.
Then Hudson Taylor came along. He decided to go inland, to dress like the Chinese, to wear his hair in a long braid like the Chinese, and to adapt their customs and habits. He led scores of people to faith in Christ. Why? Because he identified with those he was trying to reach.
In 1989, right after we had moved from Michigan to Kansas, I was challenging a group of people to pray for their unsaved friends and family members. I asked them to write five names on a card as a reminder to pray, and then I realized I had no unsaved friends. So I asked God to send me some. I tell you. You better be careful what you ask for, because you just might get it.
Well, God sent me Scott Behnke, a middle aged, Vietnam vet, a former drug addict, an alcoholic, and a member of the Kansas Militia. He showed up at church one Sunday, because his cousin invited him, and for some reason we hit it off right away. He called me his “sky pilot,” because he believed that I would fight the enemy with him in the trenches if it ever came to that.
Now, you must understand, I grew up in a pretty genteel home. I rarely, if ever, shot a gun in my life, and I certainly had no clue of the kind of world he lived in. He was a survivalist, paranoid that the UN or some nefarious organization was attempting to take over our country.
So I found myself, in an effort to reach this man, shooting targets in his backyard. I let him teach me survival techniques, and I even went to a few militia meetings with him. To say the least, I subjected myself to some uncomfortable situations, but I entered his world and became his friend to win him to Christ.
He met a woman through the personal ads in the newspaper, a process I don’t recommend, but I had the privilege of leading both of them to faith in Christ. Their lives were dramatically changed. He eventually lost his paranoia, and became a joyful Christian, although still a little rough around the edges. I had to joy of conducting their wedding, a Christian wedding, and a few years later I conducted his funeral. He died from emphysema, because he could never kick the smoking habit, but he died knowing he was going to heaven. He died as a believer in Jesus Christ, because somebody chose to leave the comforts of his own study and his own home and enter his world.
That’s what it takes to win people to faith in Christ. Subject yourself to those you want to win. Go to where they are, and don’t expect them to come to you. Identify with them before they identify with you.
When I served a little island church in Wisconsin, an elderly lady told me, “I don’t like this new contemporary Christian music.” But when she saw how it reached the young people on that island, she said, “I may not like it, but if that’s what it takes to reach them, then let’s do it every week! Let’s bring down the drums from upstairs and start a band next week!”
We eventually did that, and the church grew with a lot of young families! It grew, because some elderly people had the attitude of Paul, who said, “I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them” (vs.19). They were willing to subject themselves. They were willing to subject their agendas. They were willing to subject their preferences to the preferences of others, so that they might win some to faith in Jesus Christ.
That’s what’s involved in effective evangelism. The problem is a lot of American Christians have a messed-up view of evangelism.
Joseph Aldrich says, “For some people, evangelism is an evangelical mugging mission, where we go into a phone booth, come out with a big red S on our chests and charge out into a neighborhood, seldom our own, to win it for Christ.
“For others, it's some kind of evangelical ambush where we lure the honest, unsuspecting victim to some type of an event, lock the doors, and sing twenty-two verses of “Just as I Am.”
“Some people think of evangelism as a bombing mission where, from protective cloud cover at 30,000 feet, we fill backyards with gospel bombs.
“For others, evangelism is herding fish into the stained-glass aquarium where the big fisherman throws the lure from the pulpit (Joseph Aldrich, “How to Be a Redemptive Person,” Preaching Today, Tape No.113).
That’s why the American Evangelical Church is failing to bear much fruit. We have to change our view of evangelism. It’s a lifestyle, not a one-time “evangelistic service.” It’s developing relationships with unbelievers, and in the context of those relationships, sharing Christ when He gives us an opportunity. In other words, you must identify with people before they will ever identify with you.
If you want to win people to faith in Christ on a regular basis, then submit yourself to them. Submit yourself to their preferences. Submit yourself to their culture, and submit yourself to their situations without submitting to sin. Go to them, rather than expecting them to come to you.
Now, that’s difficult. That means leaving your own comfort zone. That means leaving the comfort of your own little church. That means leaving the comfort of your own Christian sub-culture and relating to people who may have different tastes than our own. That means you have to…
DISCIPLINE YOURSELF.
Force yourself to do things you may not like. Exert some effort just like an athlete training for the games.
1 Corinthians 9:24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it (ESV).
The idea of the Greek is, “Exert yourself to the limit of your powers” (BAGD). “Go all out” to get the prize of new believers in Christ.
1 Corinthians 9:25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable (ESV).
The runners in the Corinthian games got a pine wreath, which lasted for what? A couple of days. We put forth the effort to identify with unbelievers to get a crown which lasts forever.
In 1 Thessalonians 2, the Apostle Paul said to some people he had led to Christ, “What is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy” (1 Thessalonians 2:19-20). The crown that lasts forever is the people that will spend eternity with you in heaven, because you had the privilege of introducing them to Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 9:26-27 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body” [Literally, I give my body a black eye] and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified (ESV).
We’re talking about a man who will beat himself black and blue, if that’s what it takes, to win the prize of new believers in Jesus Christ. My friends, if you’re going to see people coming to faith in Christ on a regular basis, then you must have that kind of dedication.
Submit yourself and discipline yourself for the task. Work hard to identify yourself with people before they identify with you as a believer in Christ.
In the 1800’s, there was a Scottish discus thrower, who developed his skills alone in the highlands of his native village. He made his own discus from the description he read in a book. What he didn't know was the discus used in competition was made of wood with an outer rim of iron. His was solid metal and weighed three or four times as much as those being used by his would-be challengers.
This committed Scotsman marked out his field the distance of the current record throw and trained day and night to be able to match it. For nearly a year, he labored under the self-imposed burden of the extra weight, becoming very, very good. He reached the point at which he could throw his iron discus the record distance, maybe farther.
He was ready, so he traveled south to England for his first competition. When he arrived at the games, he was handed the official wooden discus, which he promptly threw like a tea saucer. He set a new record, a distance so far beyond those of his competitors that no one could touch him, and for many years he remained the uncontested champion (John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance, Nelson, 1997).
Oh, may we as a church become champions for God in the field of discipleship, because that’s what we’re all about. We exist to equip people to follow Jesus. It takes hard work and discipline; but in the end, we win something far more valuable than a gold medal. We win new friends that will go with us into eternity.
