The Labourers Are Few (Soul Winning) 2 Of 2

(1) THROUGH LIFE-STYLE EVANGELISM

Perhaps some might be saying, “WHAT IS LIFE-STYLE EVANGELISM?”

It is simply living the Christian life in front of the lost in such a Christ-like manner, that the lost will want to know Christ also.

Illus: Howard Hendricks said, “Recently, I was walking the streets in San Mateo, a small town on the San Francisco peninsula. I met an attorney I knew from a local evangelical church.

• I said to him, ‘What are you doing?’

• He said, ‘I'm looking for a job.’

• I said, ‘You've got to be kidding.’

• He said, "No, last week I walked out the front door of that corporation and told them, ‘You can hang in on your beak. I'm no longer going to write contracts that you and I both know are illegal and illegitimate.’”

That man is regarded as one of the top five corporate lawyers in America, and he's unwilling to sell his value system for a mess of pottage. We need a larger core of lawyers like that. (Howard Hendricks, "Beyond the Bottom Line," Preaching Today, Tape No. 101. )

One of the most effective ways of witnessing for the Lord is through LIFE-STYLE EVANGELISM.

This crowd will not sell out for POPULARITY, MONEY or for FAME.

It is living the Christian life in front of the lost. But listen, if you are not going to WALK IT, please do not TALK IT!

The second way we witness for the Lord is-

(2) THROUGH VERBAL WITNESSING

That is, not only through our lives, but through our words we communicate the need for the lost to come to Christ.

In the last message we found that we do this through A GENUINE LOVE.

But also, we must have a-

II. A DEDICATED LOVE

A lot of folks have a dedicated love today, but their love is dedicated to the wrong things.

Illus: They remind me of the fellow who was dedicated to playing golf.

He came home late for supper one night and his wife told him if he came home late one more night, she was going to leave him. Sure enough, the next evening he came home late and she had her suitcases packed. As she was getting ready to leave, he said, “Let me explain why I am late.” She put her suitcases down and decided to listen to why he was late. He said, “I was playing 18 holes with Charlie this afternoon. We got to the first hole, and Charlie had a massive heart attack!” And he said, “I am late getting home for supper, because after Charlie had the heart attack, for the next seventeen holes it was hit the ball, drag Charlie, hit the ball, drag Charlie.”

If we are going to reach the lost must have a DEDICATED LOVE. A DEDICATED LOVE requires that we-

A. CONSIDER PEOPLE

Illus: I like that song that says that as He hung on the Cross we were “On his mind.”

The fact is, Christ had people on His mind all His life. Not power, not material things, not popularity, but people.

We see that in John 4:3-4, the Bible says, “He left Judaea, and departed again into Galilee. And HE MUST NEEDS GO THROUGH SAMARIA.”

Look at the words, “Needs go through Samaria.” That is, he felt compelled to go to Samaria.

Why? Because there was a Samaritan there, a half-breed that was despised by the Jews, that the LORD LOVED AND WANTED TO SAVE.

Wouldn’t it be great to hear professing Christians saying, “I have to go by and see ( ), he is lost and needs to be saved. I have to go this week!”

You can only have that when you have Christians who have a dedicated love for people.

WHY IS IT DIFFICULT TO GET PEOPLE TO DO THAT?

One reason is because of the society in which we live.

We live in a society today that promotes strife, hatred and division.

• We have politicians who do everything they can to stay in office, by trying to make the poor hate the rich and the rich hate the poor.

• We have political pundits who travel across this nation making millions, trying to get one race to hate and despise another race.

• We have people today in Hollywood that are filled with immorality, and they do everything they can to get people to think the way they think, and become as evil as they are.

• We have political parties that try to entice us to line up with them and do everything we can to destroy other political parties that do not agree with them.

WHAT ARE YOU SAYING PREACHER?

I am saying that we live in a society that is filled with hatred and division, and there are many that are doing all they can do to spread their hate in a greater way.