Holy Spirit Guided Evangelism Part 1
Between now and the end of this series of sermons I’d like for you to pray for God to reveal to you two people in your sphere of influence who needed to hear the good news of the gospel?
Read Matthew 28:16-20 THE GREAT COMMISSION
1. Jesus’ mandate calls for us to (here comes that dirty word) evangelize. What is it about that word that makes us hate to do it? (EVANGELISM)
A. Hard Work
1. 4 years to transitionalize a church:
Prayer, Train Evangelism team, Disciple the new converts, then send them out!
B. Laity expects Pastor to do it all:
1. Pastor can only do 10% - Laity 90%
Pastor can:
a. Preach sermons for conviction:
Such as Death & Hell, Fear God, Flee the Wrath to come.
b. Equip the Laity:
Provide information for training, share training received, or bring in an expert on subject.
c. Can go with Laity for visitation:
People expect Pastors to call as part of their duties, but if laity calls on them, it shows a real sense of caring and community. Someone once said, “they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”
C. Some feel it requires a lot of “Arm Twisting”
1. Going out and trying to evoke emotion is manipulation.
2. You put pressure on by taking it off. You appeal to their soul.
This is all about how you view people:
HALT - acronym for how you treat people; treat them like they are:
Hurting
Angry
Lonely
Tired
D. Too programmed, or it feels unnatural.
According to Robert Tuttle, there are two secrets to doing good Evangelism. "One is the Holy Spirit helps me to find interesting people. (Airlines & Frequent Flier Miles). The other is to get older women to pray for you." (Nursing Homes and Evangelism events.)
Motivation for Evangelism
Read John 3:16
1. Do we realize just how much God loves us?
A. He loved us before he made us! He set up our world with the best of everything.
B. We were redeemed before we were made. Original sin of Adam and Eve seen to it that we would need redemption.
C. God created us knowing it would cost him his only Son.
D. When Jesus died on the cross and the veil of the Temple was split in half we were exposed to the presence of God.
Here’s what Paul says in Romans 8:28-39
This tells us we can do anything because God loves us and gives us the power to be conquerors. God is for us, with us.
So with God’s new covenant, Jesus is the Paschal lamb. This was even prophesied with Jeremiah.
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34
That’s our Salvation promise. That’s God’s love, freely given. That’s our motivation to tell the world about God’s love.
One more statistic:
Lead a child too Christ: over 30% chance of whole family will come to salvation.
Lead a mother/wife; over 17% chance
Lead a father/husband; 91% chance
Continued in Part 2 : Spiritual fruit - Role of the Holy Spirit - Spirituality applied - Barriers and Spiritual laws to Evangelism - Pros and cons to Church growth.
