Who Have You Been Talking To? Series

Personal Evangelism I

“Who Have You Been Talking To?”

By: Pastor Donny Granberry

Good morning.

If you are our guest, I would like to take a moment and welcome you to Central and to personally say thank you for choosing to worship the Lord with us today.

Let’s make our profession, “This is my Bible, God’s holy word….

As you have already heard when we received the tithe and offering, today is Mission’s Sunday.

Because of your giving to Missions, in the five years that Marlys and I have had the honor of being your pastors we have gone from 46th to 3rd in the South Texas District.

There were six churches in our district who gave more than $300,000 to missions in this past year.

That is wonderful, we say “To God be the glory, great things He has done.”

This is the heart-beat of God, to “Go into ALL the world.”

And when we look into the book of Acts, we see the beginning of the fulfillment of this command,

Acts 1:8

But ye shall receive POWER after the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you SHALL be WITNESSES unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the rest of the earth.

I remind you this morning that the evangelism mandate is to begin in Jerusalem, and then to the rest of the world.

My Question this morning is simply this, “What about Jerusalem, What about Pasadena, What about our Community?”

How many in this building led someone to the Lord in the past year?

Charles Greenaway said this, “Missions is not about crossing the seas, it is about seeing the cross.”

John 1:35-50

35Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. 36And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”

37The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?”

They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?”

39He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).

40One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). 42And he brought him to Jesus.

Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of £Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).

43The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” 44Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

46And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

47Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”

48Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

49Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

50Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter£ you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

A recent study states that only 10% of those who make decisions to follow Christ do so in a church service.

This tells us that by far the highest priority in evangelism is the personal witness of its members throughout the week.

Another study reveals that less than 10% of people in the church does personal evangelism.

Why don’t Christians tell others about Jesus Christ?

Many think that it is because of Apathy – that Christians do not care.

I really do not think that Christians do not care; I think the reason is their lack of Confidence.

I think that most Christians want to be effective witnesses, but they feel inadequate, intimidated, or even fearful about sharing their faith, especially to someone who does not have a Christian background.

Most feel that they do not know how to share their faith.

• Most people are not football, basketball, or baseball experts, yet that does not keep them from sharing their passion for the sport.