Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Harvest Time

Hallelujah! We have an email from Tony that just came in. I know that it will be a blessing to everybody that was on the trip. We're looking forward to a time of fellowship tonight. We've edited the eighteen hours of tape that Gary took down to 12 hours, so you'll enjoy tonight's service. I think they have it a little shorter than that, but it will be a good time. It will be a blessing for everybody. We're looking forward to hearing from some of the team. I know many of you were blessed in the Home Fellowship groups yesterday.

The one thing that we wanted to emphasize, we emphasized it in the men's breakfast. I want to share a little bit on evangelism this morning, but we wanted to share that we can't glamorize Africa and cause it to be more than what you're doing here on a daily basis on your jobs, on the outreach to the rest homes, the youth detention centers, the prisons that we're involved in, the many different aspects of outreach. One is further away, it's kind of an exotic location, but those souls are no more important than the ones you're going to come in contact with tomorrow. The ministry is no more spiritual than that that you're going to perform tomorrow on the job, in the grocery line, at the gas pump, wherever we take opportunity to share the goodness of the Lord. "That, that we've freely received, the Scripture says we are freely to give" (Matthew 10:8).

Tony writes these words, "We arrived safely last night from Nairobi in a long trip [you saw on our video what it was like riding up and down that road] with overwhelming thanksgiving and praise. We're spent but rejoicing in what we've experienced. I'm going to need some time to comprehend what happened. It's far beyond any words that I can express at this time. Sufficient only to say, that I feel that the fruit of Pastor's labors in establishing godly seed and building a body is truly redefining the term "missions" to me. Most missionaries are very alone--we see them constantly--but we're a body going forth in power, for we are the Church. We've been given the keys of the Kingdom, and the gates of Hell cannot prevail against us. The churches were confirmed and further established as they met with their father in the faith. This is causing me to reevaluate my whole understanding of world missions in light of the demonstration of the Spirit and the impact that you had and that this team had, as every place visited was shaken. This is quite different, and I've never heard of such a thing among all the missionaries that I've ever read or observed. There's an element of something greater in this. It's the true church. It's the body. It's the people of God, not a one-man show. It's the fullness of God in His body. My heart is overwhelmed. It's hard to comprehend what we've witnessed. Our hearts are full of gratitude. Thousands of souls have been affected. The churches will never be the same. We thank God for the great labor of love that you've sent to the churches and the lost souls of Kenya." It's a good time of rejoicing. We just ask that you would continue to hold everybody up in prayer over there, and we're looking forward to the testimonies this evening.

Acts, Chapter 1, verse 8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me . . ." We've talked about the misconception that the Church's primary purpose is evangelism. I don't believe that. I believe that the Church's primary mission is to exhibit the glory of God in holy living, in obedience, in unity, in love. By this shall men know that you're my disciples when you evangelize the world. Is that what the Scripture says? "By this shall men know that you're my disciples when you...what? Say it; when you love one another" (John 13:35). Our primary ministry is in exhibiting His presence, His lordship, as we love one another, as we move in unity, as we are built into the image of His likeness, as we replicate His obedience to the Father. "I've not come to do my will but the will of He that sent me, not to speak my words, but the words of He that sent me" (John 6:38). As we move in obedience, as we move in community, as we move honoring the presence of God, for the first and greatest commandment is not to reach the lost but to love God with all of our hearts. Amen? Then, the second is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Man is not the focal point; God is.

When we realize that our first role is to honor the Lord, to seek Him first, to exhibit Him in holy living and the emptying of ourselves so that others can be promoted and exalted, then we're getting a little glimpse of what our role is, but not at the cost of evangelism. Even the pastor, as we see, as Paul admonishes the young pastor, Timothy, he said, "I want you to realize what your role is. I want you to bring edification to the body. He said, I want you to take the Word of God that you've been proved in, that you've known from a child, and I want you to realize that it's profitable unto doctrine and reproof and rebuke and to bring the men of God into soundness, to the perfect man to the obedience of Christ" (2 Timothy 3:15-17). He admonishes him in that. Then he says, "I want you to also realize you have a task, and you're to do the work of an evangelist."

Evangelism is important enough that one of the ministry gifts, Ephesians says, from Jesus to His church is the office of evangelist. He set in the church as it pleased Him, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers for the edifying of the saints. Yet, many of us are a little bit uncomfortable.

I was sharing with the men yesterday in breakfast, I think the thing that makes most of us uncomfortable in evangelism is when it's structured evangelism. What I mean by that is when we're going to go out and stand on the street corner and preach like Tony has done so many times in Africa, like many of you just got the opportunity to do. Many times we're a little apprehensive in that. How many of you just delight in door-to-door evangelism? How many of you really enjoy that? I think that's probably the worst of all. How many of you agree with me, that's the worst of all, isn't it? I hate that. It's structured, and you're at a disadvantage because you're on their turf, and they don't want you there, and you just kind of feel like a Jehovah's Witness.

Yet I believe there's a place for structured evangelism, but I believe the most effective evangelism is natural evangelism; just saying I cannot help but speak the things that I have seen and heard. Amen? You know where you're just going through life, and you're running into people. You're just sharing with them how good God has been to you, the reality of regeneration. "All I know is once I was blind and now I see." Isn't that a great testimony? In the Gospel of John we read that. They said, "Who did this, and who do you think should be?" He said, "Look, don't bother me with all that, I'm not a theologian. I'm not even to the place right now where I could probably help you with sound doctrine, but what I do know is once I was blind, now I see. Once I was a sinner, now I'm born again. My sins have been forgiven. They've been cast and removed from me as far as the east is from the west. My sins have been cast into the sea of God's forgetfulness" (John 9:19-24). "Well, how do you know that? Give me chapter and verse." "I don't even have chapter and verse, but I know it, praise God." As we've shared with you before, a man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument. That's why you have trouble arguing people out of occultic experiences. They're real. They believe that, and you will never argue them out of it. God can deliver them. God can bring revelation to them. God can impart to them the gift of faith so that they can believe, but you'll never argue them out of that experience and nobody can argue us out of ours, praise God. Amen?

The Epistle of Peter says that we are to grow to the place to where we're able to give an answer, a reason, an explanation of the hope that's in us (1 Peter 3:15). That's why we come to church, to be taught, to establish doctrine, to learn what's happened to us in our experience so that we can give that reason of hope. Tragically, the Church has been taken up with just doctrine and learning and arguments, and most of us have become apologists instead of evangelists. We want to explain God to everybody instead of just share Him. Amen?

An evangelist just heralds God, just talks about God, and what He's done for them, and what the Scriptures have declared that He historically did, but there's not a theological approach, it's a compulsion. "I can't help but speak the things I've seen and heard."

Is there life in you today to where you've been empowered to be a witness? "You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me." If you're full of the Holy Spirit, you will be a witness. You can't help but share what you've so freely received. You can't help but shout from the housetops what's happened to you in the innermost recesses of your heart.

Look over at Isaiah, Chapter 62 for just a second, and look with me, if you would, to verse 6, "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem . . ." We're all familiar with the watchmen ministry. Most of us when we hear the term watchmen, we're thinking about that passage that talks about the watchman who cries the sword of the Lord, and if we're not careful to tell people judgment is coming, their blood is going to be on our hands. That's a very vital role that we have in the ministry, to let people know when judgment is at hand. In the same context of that, listen to what he says, "I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night: [I just wanted you to get this phrase in your hearts and in your notes. Think about this for just a moment; let it affect you.] ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence." Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silent.

How many of us can talk about everything else under the sun? Dear Lord, people will talk you to death with fabrics, flowers, things that are just mundane, dresses, fashion, even important stuff like cars; and talk about all of these different aspects of it. They'll be glad to visit with you about their newest hobby, their pet. Some talk so much they'll even worry your pet to death. Isn't that what the song says? "You talk too much, you worry me to death. You talk too much, you even worry my pet." We talk about everything.

The Scripture says it this way, as the prophet reveals it to us, "Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silent." How much do you talk about Jesus? We all know that out of the abundance of the heart...what? You know, what's really exciting to us is what we talk about. Man, we can sure weary people with our grandchildren, can't we? What about the Lord? "Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silent."

Look over at the sixty-sixth chapter of the book of Psalms, verse 16. "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul." What has the Lord done for you? Now, what are we looking at here? We're talking about the greatest ministry is your personal testimony. You want to know why? When you're sharing your personal testimony, you're excited about it, and that's contagious. Doctrine can be dry. Doctrine can be sterile. Your testimony to you is exciting, could be boring to me, but it's exciting to you. Have you ever noticed that people's testimonies, like when we're in Home Fellowship Group or whatever, most the time, unless they're people that just talk too much, when they're sharing their testimony, you want to hear what happened to them? You're excited. "That's cool, man. That's similar to what happened to me. I've never heard that before."

The principle is this: listen to what the prophet says. He says, "Come here, I want to tell you [verse 16], what the Lord has done for my soul." "I used to be bound up in pursuing pleasure and riches." "I was so fearful I couldn't even function, I couldn't even come out of the house," someone's testimony might be. "I was so bound with pride and covetousness." "I was under the bondage of alcohol, of drugs." "I was suicidal." "I was a workaholic, and Jesus set me free." "My life was changed because for the first time, I realized somebody loved me unconditionally." "It became real to me that Jesus was made sin with my sin. He bore my guilt and my pain in His own body on the cross, and I've been reconciled back to God, and I can call Him Father, and I'm a son of God. I'm an heir and a joint-heir with Christ Jesus. I'm blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. I'm not afraid anymore. I'm not powerless as it pertains to sin in my members anymore. I'm not totally overcome by covetousness, greed, lust. I'm free to love other people and not just myself. Let me tell you what the Lord's done for my soul. I'm not an alcoholic like the rest of my relatives." We go on, and as many people as there are in this room there are testimonies. We're all able to share that one thing, what God has done for our souls. I was blind but now I see. I was lost and now I've been found. He took my feet from the miry clay, and He set me on a rock, praise God. We all have a testimony.

Every one of us with a testimony, well, the word "every" is probably too much, almost everybody with a testimony can add to it, "You know, one day somebody told me about Jesus." "I saw someone living a life differently, and I asked them what was different." "They just approached me..." Or, as I've shared with you in my own personal life, as it stands out so vividly. I can remember, man, walking down that street with a stick on that picket fence, chick-a-chick-a-chick-a-chick-a-chick-a-chick-a-chick-a. In those days you could do this, and a lady saying, "Would you kids like to come in for some cookies and Kool-Aid?" You can't do that today. Huh, you kidding? Mom and dad are at work. I'm seven years old, I'm on the way home from school. Seven year olds today have armored cars, armed guards, silk pillows, and helmets. We're just walking home through the neighborhood. "Yeah!" We go in and sit down. We get the Kool-Aid and the cookies, and this flannel board goes up with this big red heart and these two figures, the devil and Jesus. The story is that they're warring for your heart. Who are you going to let be the Lord of your life? Seven years old, heard about Jesus for the first time. She asked if we'd like to go to church. I said, "Yeah." I think I was seven. Maybe I was eight. We had a 1955 Station Wagon. I was just about eight. I was seven to eight. I remember everything in my life that happened by what cars we owned. I'm serious. Oh, yeah, that was the '55. Oh yeah, that was the '58. Yeah, that was the '59 Olds. Oh yeah, that was the '62 Starfire. Wasn't that the '66 Grand Prix? Oh, that was the '61, '62, '63 Corvair. We had three of them at one time. For you old people, you remember what the Corvairs were. Just in case some of you think that cars are new to me. Anyway, we had the '55 because I can remember the picture of me standing outside with my first suit. My parents had bought a suit for me to go to Sunday School, so I went to Sunday School. After hearing that story, I went to Sunday School. I've shared the story with you. We sat down, we had to learn a verse. "Wherefore, by their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20). Then the Sunday School teacher said that you shouldn't watch football games because they advertised beer, so I never went back. You see, I loved football more than Jesus. I hadn't really encountered the Lord. I'd heard about Him. I didn't want to go to Hell, but from that day on, I believed in Jesus but I didn't serve Him, and I hadn't been born again. From that day on, if anybody would ask me whether I believed that Jesus was the Son of God, my answer was, "Yes." I would argue with people, while drunk, about the reliability of the Bible. I'd never read it, but I knew it was true. I'm don't want to spend too much time on my testimony, that's not what we're here for. You're already saved, so I'm preaching to the choir.

The part I wanted to get to is some of what I related in the Men's Breakfast. Many of us don't understand how important it is to share our lives and let our light shine. We are the light of the world. We are the salt of the earth. We are Epistles that are read of men. I didn't go to church for ten more years. Then there was a young man, David Hatton, that played ball, good ball player, football, wrestled, baseball. His dad was a Pentecostal preacher, Pentecostal Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee. Shout, jump. I told you the testimony, Great Scott. That's what I--they're in there, "Praise God! Praise God!" I thought they were saying, "Great Scott." I really did. I didn't even know that they knew I was here. I did think a little too highly of myself. This young preacher's kid lived the life, man. He was a living example, he didn't just talk about it

As he invited me to church, and I've shared that testimony with you, I was there in that church, and I was watching this, I thought, "It was different than the Baptist Sunday School that I'd been to at seven." I thought, "Boy, things have changed in ten years." Here are these Pentecostals of Pentecostals. Dear God, this hollering and dancing. I can still remember Sister Hatton excited and she spun around and was kicking her leg, and her shoe went flying across the platform. She had her little glory knot on, but something was real there. When Dave asked me if I wanted to go down and be prayed for, I said, "No, no." He said, "It won't hurt you." I thought, "Well, yeah, I guess, it won't hurt." I went down there, and I can still remember as his father laid his hands on me, and he prayed that prayer, "Father, separate this boy for Yourself, for Your glory. Father, I ask You to make Yourself real to Bob and show him Your majesty. Set him apart for Your work, in Jesus' name." I experienced something that I'd never experienced before, the anointing of God, the power of God. It's real, man. I went about my way. I won't go into the rest of my testimony from there, just to tell you that just a couple of days ago, I got an email from Dave. How are you doing, etc.?

Dave, after graduating high school, went to Bible College and went into full-time ministry. He worked some with Jay Vernon McGee and, being a Pentecostal, that was interesting. It started costing him his Pentecostal heritage working with Jay Vernon, so he left, went and worked in the . . . His dad was the president of the Bible College in Livermore. He started touring full-time in a quartet. Then he pastored a church, and then he realized something for him that was very difficult to deal with--third generation, and he wasn't called of God. His granddad was a preacher. His dad was a preacher, so he was going to be what? But God didn't call him. He'd been in ministry full-time for eight years and wasn't called. He told me one time, he said, "It was the hardest thing in my life to step down out of the ministry." He's become a successful businessman. His kids are serving God. His grandkids are in the church. He's doing everything you're supposed to do as a Christian, he's just not a preacher. It doesn't make you any more spiritual to be a preacher. You're just called or you're not called. You're not special, you're just called, or you're not called. There is a requirement of being a preacher--you should be a Christian--and he was that.

The point I'm trying to make is this: how significant is the ministry? He said, "How are you doing? How are things going?" We responded back. I could have responded to him and been very accurate if I'd use this term, though I didn't. I could have said, "Dave, we just returned from Africa, we, not Chuck, Lisa, Greer, and I, we, Dave, you and I, just returned from Africa to check on our churches." We were just able to share some of the books in Swahili, and the newest booklets that are out on grace and prayer are phenomenal. Last year, we preached to nine thousand pastors in Tanzania. You see, I think as much as anybody, Dave nudged me into the Kingdom of God. He was the vessel. His witness, his testimony, his life was the real thing.

You don't know whom you've touched on the job, as you're being faithful in Children's Church. We are living epistles. We are, as Timothy was admonished, the example of the believer in word and in deed and in all manner of our living. Your life is a testimony; not just your words, your testimony of God's faithfulness. Let me tell you what God has done for my soul, is what motivates everything that you and I should be speaking on the job, in the supermarket, wherever we find ourselves.

Now, we're living in a day when man is the focal point. We're living in a society that is not only secular but the worship, the religion, called humanism, where we worship, as Romans says, the creature more than the Creator. In the midst of that society, we need to not only share our personal experience but give a reason of the hope that's in us, to be able to share what the Scripture says about the condition of man, that in man all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. In man is no good thing. That there is only one name under Heaven whereby we can be saved, and that name will cause, ultimately, every knee to bow. Because of that we're not distracted by trying to set up a secular kingdom with Judeo-Christian ethics, but we live in a parallel kingdom of light, and all that is secular is darkness. As we shared in the graduation the other night, we are ambassadors for Christ.

I like to do that every once in a while. Like, if I'm on an airplane, and somebody says, "What do you do?" I say, "I'm an ambassador." That always gets people's attention. "Really?" "Yeah." "What country?" "Oh, it's not a country, it's a Kingdom." "Where is it?" "You can't see it, it's invisible." You might as well have some fun. We share the reality of our citizenship in the Heavens, that we are ambassadors for Christ, that there is a spiritual kingdom that's a reality. Here's how you identify its citizens, and here's the code and the constitution by which we live.

Turn over to 1 Peter and look at that third chapter, verse 15, the passage we've referred to. In this first epistle of Peter, I want you to understand that not everyone is going to readily accept and embrace this message that we have to bring them. In fact, only a few are going to find it. Even those that reject the message can sometimes have a natural respect. Some people will respect your stand but most will hate you. They'll accept the truth that you relate to them as haughtiness, pride, elitism, separatists, everything but someone who cares for their soul. Verse 15, Be sanctified in your thinking, in your life, and set apart, he goes on to say, or, "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."

There is no self-righteousness. There is no holier-than-thou attitude that we convey. It's thankfulness. We convey to them the fact that when I hated God, He loved me. "Who am I, David said, and my house, that we should have this privilege of contributing to the household of God? I'm nobody special" (1 Samuel 18:18). God is no respecter of persons. If He was, He wouldn't have chosen me, but whosoever will may come.

You begin to give the answer of the reason of that hope. The answer is this: Jesus died once and for all for our sins, He was buried, the third day He rose again. He has ascended to the right hand of God the Father and ever lives to make intercession for us and is coming again soon. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. "Every man that has that hope in Him is living a life of sanctification, purifying himself, even as He is pure" (1 John 3:3). What's this reason of hope? Because I know in whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He's able to keep that which I've committed to Him against that day. What is the reason of my hope? Because history, agrees a man in Galilee two thousand years ago changed the world. Some say He was deluded, but who do you say that He is? He's the Christ, the Son of the living God. Flesh and blood has not revealed that to you, but my Father which is in Heaven. Now, stop and think about this. The hope is that God has personally given you revelation that others can't receive. They can't hear it. It's foolishness to others. Christ crucified is foolishness to others, but to us it's the power of God unto salvation. What's the hope that I have? I'm not the same. I'm a new creature. This is not dogma, this is not doctrine, this is not religion. I know whom I have encountered and am a new creation and believe that, that I've committed to Him, He will keep against that day, and you can never take that away from me. You see, this isn't doctrine that we're presenting that Peter's talking about. It's the hope, the blessed hope, because if He has risen, if He has ascended, He is coming again.

Now, when we bring this message, look what he says is going to happen. As you share, and you give a reason of the hope, do it with a pure lifestyle, do it in good conscience, because the fact of the matter is, people are going to say all manner of evil against you as you bring this testimony. The purer life that you live, the more critics you'll have; so don't count it strange. "For it is better [verse 17], if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. For Christ [Himself] also hath once suffered for [our] sins, the just for the unjust, the he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit." He's telling us that as we present this testimony, we're going to receive persecution. There are going to be trials that are going to come, but stand and give the reason of that hope. Of everyone that asks you, be ready to bring that testimony.

Acts 4, verse 20, we quoted this already to you, but here's the spirit behind what we're saying. We're coming into a society when you're going to be told to hold your peace. Right now we still have the freedom of speech. Right now there is, in theory anyway, the separation of church and state. We still, basically, have some rights--a few left here in the land of the free and the home of the brave, but because of the new move toward tolerance. I was speaking with someone just the other day where on their job they received a memo that they were not to talk about religion or politics in the workplace because that becomes divisive. People have a right to their own beliefs and not to be challenged. It's interesting to me that they don't want us to speak the name of Jesus, but you can tell all the filthy jokes you want to tell. The day is coming when it's going to be costly for you to share this name.

In this fourth chapter, we know the environment that they were in. They were threatened and told that if they would continue to speak in this name, that they were going to be arrested, they were going to be beaten. Their liberties were going to be taken from them. Their response was, "How can we be quiet?" Jeremiah said, "I tried to keep my mouth shut, but the Word in me was like a fire burning in my bones." I've been there a number of times. I'm sure you have. I've just said, "Okay, I'm going to be good. I'm not saying anything," and that fire starts heating up. People start talking foolishness against the name of Jesus or against the Word of God, and you know you just can't help yourself, can you?

Now, when the Apostle said this, "We just, we can't help..." they weren't really saying I can't stop. We all know you can stop. You know, this, "I don't want to." "Why did you do that?" "I couldn't help myself." "I could have really. I just really wanted to do that." "I tried. I purposed not to, but every opportunity I'm going to share Jesus. I chose not to stir things up and make life uncomfortable for everybody else. That was my original intent, but they asked." "Did they really?" "Well, no, but they should have."

Can you be silenced? Tragically, most of us are not silenced by mandate, with threats. Most of us are just silenced with indifference. We're silenced by our own lusts and covetousness, and our eyes are caught up on the things that are temporal. We have no burning to liquidate everything to obtain that pearl of great price. We're satisfied with the mundane, the secular, the temporal, and hope that someday we'll inherit eternal life. Why would you want to be there if there's no interest?

As we get ready to close for this morning, the reality, I like what the admonition was in Acts, Chapter 5. Look just a chapter ahead in Acts. We saw them speaking in Acts 4, verses 19 and 20, "I can't help but speak the things that I've seen and heard. Is it right to hearken unto you more than unto God?"

Over in Acts, Chapter 5, a very interesting thing takes place. The Scripture says that in response to their ministry, their witness, that they were taken hostage. The high priest had them arrested being filled with indignation, verse 18 of the fifth chapter. "And [they] laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison."

Most of us, and we've shared it before, most of us live with this thought that when things really get tough, I'm going to be able to make the stand for the Lord. "I mean, if it came down to my denying the Lord and losing my job, I know I'd make a stand for the Lord. Though all forsake Him, not me. If they were to take my child and put a gun to his head and say, 'Deny the Lord, or I'm going to kill your child,' I would not deny the Lord. I know whom I have believed." We've talked about the fallacy of that in thinking that somehow--if you can't live for Him now, if the footmen have wearied you, how shall we contend with horses and chariots? If we're so distracted by discomfort and ease, how are we going to handle persecution? Don't lie to yourself.

Well, what do we do? You shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you. If you can be silenced, then you need to take some time and get apart and begin to seek the face of God and be refilled with the Holy Spirit, so that you have a compulsion again like you did when you first loved Him and were loved of Him, to preach to everything that moved, to be able to share with every man the reason of the hope that's in you.

These having been arrested then, and the Scripture says put in the common prison, "But the angel of the Lord [verse 19] by night opened the prison doors, and brought them forth and said [Look at the admonition!], Go, stand and speak in the temple to [all] the people all the words of this life." I like that phrase, all the words of this life. The Scripture talks and makes it very clear that we go and in obedience we minister. The Scripture says that they may even take you and beat you, but the disciples then left rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer for His name's sake.

I want to end with this for this morning. We understand the need to so freely shout what we've heard in secret and to embrace the commission as salt and light, to realize that we are epistles that are read of men. It's a saying that some of us think is even trite, but it's real: we're the only Jesus some people are ever going to encounter. God, in His wisdom, will bring His Word, His presence, to every man. The knowledge of God is in every man, and God, in His grace, is going to give every man that opportunity, and some of us are that vessel. Consistent living like a Dave Hatton, a life without guile, willingness to identify with His suffering, because, ultimately, if you read the Scriptures, that's going to be the fruit of your evangelism. They hated Him, they're going to hate you, but there's a remnant to be saved. There are lives that are as brands that are to be plucked from the fire.

I end with this thought. Evangelism isn't some great picnic. It's not some great celebration always, but we go forth weeping, bearing precious seed; and we shall doubtless come again rejoicing bringing in the sheaves with us, praise God. You don't always have to consummate the encounter, just sow some seed. One sows, another waters, the Lord brings the increase. "Let me tell you what the Lord has done for my soul." If you've shared, and they're through with hearing, then go your way; God's going to send someone to water that. The admonition that we leave you with this morning is this: you can only love to the degree of the revelation of how much you've been loved. If you just don't have a heart, then we need to draw closer to the heart of Father who has loved us. What does the Scripture say? Those who have been loved much or forgiven much, love much.

Father, we thank You for Your grace imparted to us. So many believers see evangelism as a difficult, hard, endeavor because most of us have perceived it as structured, of being put into positions of discomfort, having to encounter strangers cold turkey and confront them with their sin. There's time for that, but, Father, help us to see this morning that evangelism is the natural flow of sharing of what's been done for our souls, of freely giving as we've received, of loving as we've been loved, of sharing the reality of the hope that's in us, of the compulsion, "I can't help but speak the things that I have seen and heard." Not only what God has done for me, but let me tell you what He's done for my friend, and let me tell you what He did for that person I prayed for. Let me tell you what He will do for you. Father, make our heart's cry, "Here am I, send me." How can we embrace your power? Just like the twelve, just like the seventy. You gave them power over all the power of the devil to heal the sick, to cast out devils. Why the power? To accomplish the mission. Let us be about Your business. We will know Your power, for You will confirm the words that we speak with signs following. Jesus went with them confirming the Word spoken. Make it real, we ask, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Let's stand before the Lord this morning. As Gary plays for us, we just take a moment, and it really will change your attitude toward going to work. For some of you husbands, it may even change your attitude about going to the mall. There's fresh meat out there. There's somebody to tell Jesus about. I mean, if you ever wanted an environment to talk about death to self, as you sit outside that shoe store, and the stranger sits next to you, you begin to talk to him about having your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace. You can get to the Scriptures from anywhere, can't you? What is the key ingredient to fulfilling the call of evangelism in your life? Availability. Here am I, send me. Make it our heart's desire, Father, in Jesus' name.

Let's sing this together and just honor the Lord this morning. Thank You, Jesus. We do love You, Lord. You sought us, and You're seeking every person out there. There's not one that You've not died for. There's not one that You've not loved, and there's not one that You're not calling. Speak through us, we ask. Love through us. Send us that you might be all in all. It's our heart, Father, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "He's sending you." Amen. Go in peace, God's love go with you.

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