Evangelism On The Way - Pastor Brad DeLong

So, we've been talking about evangelism. This is what we're called to do. And tonight, we're going to discuss evangelism on the way. And I use that phrase on the way uh for several reasons. One of those is because it's a key motif of Jesus's ministry. It's even referenced uh for about 10 chapters in Luke as Jesus makes his way to Jerusalem for the climax of that Luke Acts narrative. Truth is Jesus was always on the move and he consistently ministered to people and he evangelized on the way. And one of the more notable occurrences of that will be our text tonight, John 4, when he tells his disciples, "Hey guys, I got to go through Samaria." That was not probably what they wanted to hear.

They would like to take the long route around. They didn't like to go through Samaria. They didn't particularly enjoy the Samarans and get along with them. And when he did, he encountered the woman at the well. He struck up a conversation with her, one that got uh just a really, it was a really deep conversation. And she really didn't anticipate. And I used the word deep as kind of a well pun there to see if you were paying attention. No one really was, but that's all right.

I didn't deliver it all that well. So, there you go. Okay. So, he wasn't in a synagogue. He's not in a home. He's not at a public gathering. He's not at Fall Fest. He's on the way. He's on a mission. And you notice in the chapter that he proceeds to blow her mind and sends her off to find more disciples. Verse 31, chapter 4 says, "In the meantime, his disciples urged him, saying, "Rabbi, eat, but he said to them, I have food uh to eat of which you do not know." And they're asking one another, "Who who brought him Taco Bell?

Who who fed him?" Jesus said to them, "My food, my fulfillment is to do the will of him who sent me and finish his work." Let me pause here and say, I think there are very few things that are more fulfilling than reaching other people. It's hard to find something more fulfilling than evangelizing and reaching somebody who is lost. He says, "Do not say there are still four months in the uh and and then comes the harvest. Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes.

Look at the fields. They're already white for harvest. He who reaps receives wages gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sws and he who reaps may rejoice together. For in uh this the saying is true, one sws another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you've not labored. Others have labored and you have entered into their labors. Verse 39 says, "And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in him because of the word of the woman who testified and said this that he told me all that I ever did." Jesus knew exactly what he was doing at that well where he likely went to grab some water and some rest.

He's the most intentional evangelist on the planet. But notice that he calls us to do the same in that moment, to reap a harvest wherever we find it. We're going to talk about a few very simple steps to do that tonight as we talk on this subject, evangelism on the way. Before we do, would you help me pray? Because likely within the next 24 hours, you're going to come across someone, maybe multiple someone's who need you as badly as that woman at the well needed Jesus.

They need you to share with them the words of life. So, I want us to pray because this is a an eternal subject we're discussing tonight. And we all need to fully engage with our ears and our hearts. Would you help me pray right now? Lord, I want to be better. I want to fulfill this great commission. It is a great commission. And I'm so glad that I'm included in it. That someone made a disciple out of me and that I get to go and make disciples, teach them, engage with them, talk with them.

And I pray you'd help me, Lord, to hear your word and not just to teach it tonight, but to live it. And I pray you'd help us all to hear it and to heed it and to walk in it, Lord, and to reach somebody, whether it's on the way or wherever way we can. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Let me give you the simple premise tonight. This is what we call our 3:00 a.m. sentence. So, if you were to call me at 3:00 a.m.

this morning and say, "Hey, what are you teaching tonight?" uh I would clear my voice and I would say this premise that we can and should evangelize on the way and during the routine of everyday life. It doesn't have to be a set time where we gather together and say, "All right, now we're going to go evangelize." We should just be evangelists. All right? We should be on the lookout for the woman at the well, the coworker who also has a troubled path, the neighbor who may be lonely, the cashier who has a nice belt.

Brother Aaron, if you weren't here two weeks ago, go watch that. Was a it was a classic. The co-orker or the the cashier who's quiet and won't talk. The person in the Walmart checkout line with what seems to be the way of the world on their shoulders. Everywhere we go, we should be looking for them. which is the first principle we're going to discuss tonight. The simple fact that evangelism on the way happens when we're looking out for people, when we're looking for people. Second point, if you're taking notes, is that evangelism on the way happens when we're led of the spirit.

The last one will be evangelism on the way happens in intentional rhythms. Okay. So, the first one we'll go back to starting quickly with the first. It will not take you long at all to find a lost and broken and hungry person if you're just looking for them. Simple analogy is when you get a new car uh a car maybe you rarely noticed before. Now that you have it, you start seeing it everywhere. You can't not see. Your eyes are attuned to it. They actually call this the biter minehoff phenomenon or just the easier way to say it frequency illusion.

trick of the mind that relies on two simple cognitive processes. The first is selective attention. Your brain flags your new car is this is important data. You're looking for it in the parking lot. You need to know what it looks like. It starts quickly scanning the road for matching vehicles without you even trying. It's doing this subconsciously. The second it relies on is confirmation bias. Every time you spot a match, your brain says, "Oh, look, there's another one. There's the same car." And at the same time, your mind ignores the thousands of other cars that do not match your car.

The actual number of cars on the road hasn't changed. Your brain's awareness has changed. The harvest is always plentiful. I can't find No, it's they're out there. It's usually the laborers that are few or distracted. But when we slow down or we even stop to look around us intentionally and prayerfully, it will blow your minds how hungry and how many hungry and desperate people there are around you. The way have I contextualized this for people recently as I tell them just just walk slowly through Walmart.

Maybe you don't go to Walmart. Pick your store. Jesus was the master at this. But it doesn't take a master to see the harvest in front of us. But I do want to look at his example though. It's very helpful and we're going to review it together. We'll start with the fact Jesus was the busiest person on the planet. His mission and timing was the most critical. His seconds and moments were the most precious, but he always seemed willing to stop and be interrupted by the harvest that was in front of him.

In fact, the harvest was not an interruption to Jesus. It was his mission. And that convicted me thinking about that today. It's not an interruption. It's what I'm called to do. It's why I'm here. Jesus is, we read it, he's moved with compassion when he saw sheep without a shepherd. He's moved enough to to stop what he did like he did with that woman with the issue of blood. I want you to notice this, okay? He's on his way to Gyrus's house to to heal a young lady who's about to die.

Time is of the essence. Your to-do list is not as important. My to-do list is not I can't think of anything more important that I could be doing than on my way to the house to heal someone who's about to die. So just just join me in taking your priority list and set it right next to that doesn't quite stack up. Right. I thought in this week, what in the world do I have to do that's more important than going to Gyrus's house and and helping?

But then you see Jesus still stops. I really don't have any priorities on par with that. Instead of rushing ahead, he he stops. He looks around. He speaks with the lady. I just imagine Gyrus over there like, "Come on, come on, LADY." LIKE, "WAIT IN LINE. If I was a dad, that's what I'd be doing." He's talking to her. He heals her. He says, "Your your faith made you whole. Every word, every moment's precious. I may not be Jesus, but I can at least stop. I can look around.

I can interact. I can pray. I can share the word of God with them or I can share a conversation with them. We see Jesus do the same with blind Barnameus. He stops in his tracks while others are trying to uh shush him and make him quiet down. He stops uh what he's doing. Zakius is hiding up in a tree. Just be honest. Okay, raise your hand. Which one of you is going to stop and then go to the house and have dinner with the short man hiding in the tree?

If there's someone in South County hiding in a tree as you walk by, they're probably my neighbor. Call me and I'll talk them down from the tree. It's worse than that. This guy's a notorious traitor and tax collector. Jesus didn't care. He stopped. He invested in Zakchius on the way. He even went to his house. He initiated covenant with this man by dining with him and calling him to follow him on the way. Consistently Jesus is out walking, traveling, looking for people. And he found them.

He found persistent children, unclean lepers, tax collectors, sinners, future disciples. He found many of them on the way from point A to point B. In John nine, we read of Jesus's interaction with a man born blind. It says this, "Now as Jesus passed by, he saw a man blind from birth." disciples said, "Rabbi, who sin, this man or his parents?" Thankfully, Jesus says, "Neither." And he cared enough to stop and, you know, rub dirt in the guy's eyes. What have you done today? Have you rubbed any dirt in anyone's eyes?

No. Please don't do that. He found so many people on the way. I believe again, we would be shocked how many people you can find if you're just looking for them. This is our calling. This is our commission, right? We're we're called to make disciples and connect with others, even strangers. You can find others everywhere. They're everywhere. Others are all over the place. Especially when you stop and you look for them. I told someone recently, this is just my personal viewpoint and pattern. I expect to meet somebody everywhere I go because I've prayed.

Aaron said this a couple weeks ago. He said, "Just look for somebody. You'll find them. They'll find you. We were leaving uh walking through Bush Stadium and some guy runs up to me. He's like, I need to talk to you. And Alex and Marlene are there right there and he rides down the escalator with me and we're talking baseball and and later I thought, did I know that guy? I'm looking at his face. I'm like, I don't know if I know this guy. They'll find you.

They will. I know that Bachman and I are extroverted. That gets a lot of focus, a lot of attention. But introverts can meet people, too. You're here, aren't you? You met people. In fact, I imagine of the group of disciples that Jesus addressed in Matthew 28:19 and the ones who were in the upper room in Acts 2, probably about half of those were introverts. They were called and they equipped with the same commission. Please do not put yourself in some introverted box that Jesus never put you in.

He didn't say, "Hey, listen. Go and make disciples unless you don't like talking to people." He just said, "Go make them." He does not give us that excuse. I think he would call it invalid. If you've got the spirit of God, you have the power and the capacity to be a witness on the way. So, walk slowly through Walmart or whatever store you frequent. Look around, talk to somebody. My last two trips to Walmart were in the last week. The first one of them I ran into Algo.

Uh he is an incoming church family member. We talked briefly in the selfch checkout. I saw him on Sunday. Again, he's already a believer, but I I just took note. Okay. I saw him on the way. And then last visit, I helped a lady get some uh it's I don't know how you say it in in Italian. Uh but it just says Classico. That's like the that's like the St. Lewis way of saying that this whatever marinara sauce this was on the top shelf. I kind of expect that when I'm walking through the aisle because I'm uh a little above average height that someone's going to ask me to reach for something.

I do it. It happens all the time. All right. That's just my thing though. That's how I You can find a way. All right. Maybe you're not uh tall, but you can find a way. I ran into Corey at Walmart. Young man I hadn't seen for about seven years. He yells my name Brad. And I ended up getting lunch with him later. I'm still working on Corey. I started a friendship with a man named Anneil. He works at Subway at Walmart. He's working on two master's degrees.

He's he's brilliant. I run into prodigals all the time at Walmart. If you look around for five seconds at that store or any, you're going to find somebody who needs Jesus. Maybe they're just running the cashier and they're miserable. And you can point them and say, "Hey, you're awesome. You're amazing. Thank you for what you're doing. It's not just Walmart. I met Melissa giving blood at the doctor's office. She talked to me about raising kids, taking care of her parents. She shared her career, her entire career, and how she landed there.

She talked about her beliefs on how we should treat elders and the previous generations. I don't even know how the conversation started. I'll be honest. I I I wasn't even in a talkative mood that day. And 40 minutes later, there's people in the waiting room and we're talking about how to treat people around. I mean, I was thinking, "How does this happen?" She had no idea who it was. I didn't have church gear on. People were just hungry. Church, most people, I believe, are are two questions away from sharing their life with you, whether you want it or not.

And maybe they're not sitting uh at the gate beautiful like that man was in Acts chapter 3, but they might as well be just as lame some of them and they're looking for somebody like you. Verse four of that chapter says, "And fixing his eyes on him with John, Peter said, hey, look at us." So he gave him his attention, expecting to receive something from them. Imagine what it's like walking through the dark. You can't see anything and you're just feeling for something. You're expecting to get a hold of something that's going to change your life.

You've tried everything. You've tried this drug. You've tried this outlet. You've tried this. You've tried that. And you're just feeling your way through the dark. And all of a sudden, you come across something that's true. And it's in the form of a human being with your name. That's just a I think that just kind of barely describes the desperation out there. John and Peter saw that guy probably every way or every day on their way to the temple. But that day they stopped and they talked to him and it changed everything in his life.

I walked fast. You can ask my wife. You can see me during pre-ervice prayer. I'm walking fast. I walk past people quickly. There was a lady at Walmart one day. I was on the move. I had my cart and I'm going. She's like, "Wait, wait." And I'm like, "What?" She's like, "Can you grab that up there?" And I'm like, "Oh, okay." Hey, you know, don't walk fast path. Slow down. Many of them have nobody to talk to in their life. And you may need to dedicate an hour, but what is an hour in eternity?

You be that person. How do I know if they want to connect with me? If they have a pulse, you're probably going to be able to connect with them some way, somehow. Especially when you consider that you and I have the greatest superpower at our disposal to be able to connect with people, which is the spirit of the living God. We have no excuses. Okay, this is our second point. We're supposed to be led by the spirit. Acts 18, but you shall receive power when the Holy Ghost comes upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria to the end of the earth.

So, be led by the spirit. Evangelism on the way happens when you're led by the spirit. Look around, pray, ask God to lead you to someone or lead them to you. Be sensitive when he does. Brother Clark shared this story with us recently. He was a new convert. He said that uh he's still trying to hear the voice of God and he looks out one day and I think it there was a man in a plaza and Linda can correct me if I'm wrong and sees a guy on a unicycle out in the plaza and said he felt like the Lord spoke to him and said, "You need to go talk to that man.

You need to share your faith with him." He's like, he did what the rest of us do. I don't think it that is not your flesh telling you to do that. And Satan ain't telling you to do that. He wrestles and finally he's moments past and you know he said about two weeks later he's in a service on a Friday night at a youth rally. That man is sitting right in front of him, seat in front of him. So naturally I hear this and I'm going downtown to meet Pastor Bachelor.

We're going to pray over the city. I'm full of faith. I'm driving down those streets. I'm getting near the river. I see a man on a unicycle. Lord, you couldn't give me a clearer sign. He he rides a unicycle under this really sketchy bridge. And I'm like, that's that's got to be a sign, you know? And I I do a U-turn. I chase this guy down. I roll my window down. He's looking at me riding. I said, "Hey, man, that's awesome. How long you been riding?" He's like, "Three years." And he pedals.

I mean, he pedled as fast as he could. And I think he even did like one of these to me, like, "Get away from me." And I thought, "Well, that wasn't the Holy Ghost." He He rode off as fast as you can on a unicycle. And I thought, "Well, Lord, you know, I tried. It's not always an exact science, okay? But the Holy Ghost is going to lead you to somebody. He'll he'll call you to the persons who are hungry and ready. Even if they are on a unicycle, you may have to run after them.

You may have to chase their mail truck. That one didn't work out either. Despite my failed attempt, I I I'll say this. I've succeeded more than I've failed. Far more. I would say one out of every 20 times is a fail. We don't like rejection. We're afraid of rejection. Not many people rejecting us out there. Honestly, they need this. And I've learned despite that, I have to be led by the spirit while I'm on the way. The same spirit of God and his angels led Philip to Samaria and then to the exact location and coordinates where the Ethiopian man would be sitting in his chariot.

Think about this in Acts 8. This is how much God cares. Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philillip saying, "Arise, go towards the south along the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza. This is desert. This is desert." In other words, this is a deserted place. Nobody goes here. But there's a guy in a chariot reading Isaiah wondering what it means. And I also realize it's the angel of the Lord that gave him that message, but he was led by the spirit in earlier times.

Either way, he's sensitive. He gets up. He goes to a deserted place. Even maybe wasn't under a bridge in downtown St. Louis, but he went finds a hungry a man hungry for the Lord, ready for connection with a believer. The spirit will prompt you in real time. I believe the spirit will lead you in advance. He did the same for Paul and Cyrus. Silas, they're they're traveling across Asia Minor. Eventually tells them to go to Trrowaz in Acts 16 and and they see the man from Macedonia in a vision.

Many people believe the Philippian jailer was that man, days maybe weeks before. The spirit of God wants to be an active part in yours and my evangelism. And he can do that when we're sensitive both before and when we are on the way to to reach others. This happened to me recently. I was going to purchase a bicycle from a Facebook marketplace ad. Those are fun. You don't know who you're going to meet. It could be someone ready to just share their their whole life with you.

It could be someone ready to take your life from you. So, I'm I'm talking to a guy named Mike to buy his bike. Mike the bike guy. And I'm getting this sense through these messages like this seems like a good guy. And as I'm about to go meet him, I was so confident Wesley wanted to go with me and I'm like, "All right, hop in." You know, he's can't be a a killer. He's he seems too nice. maybe unwise now that I think about it, but it was fine.

All right, we were okay. Uh, I tell Wesley, I feel that the spirit of the Lord move on me before we get in the car. I said, Wesley, God's going to use us to help this man. There's going to be a God moment. It didn't take two minutes. And me and Mike are talking and he says, "You know, I went to a Pentecostal church years ago, and those people were the kindest people I'd ever met, and they helped me, and they invested me, and I lost this family member and I've been grieving.

I've been and there it was wide open door. We're inviting him to church. I prayed for him right there on the spot. We're praying for uh his buddy, his neighbor nearby. And we got him another bike and uh uh trying to help him help him get on his feet. And I don't know what his eternal salvation is going to look like. I'm still uh working and hoping that he he makes his way here and we'll keep in contact with them. But it's an open door. The spirit of the Lord let me know ahead of time, hey, this guy's going to be ready.

He wants to have a conversation. And we had a conversation and we had a a a God moment. Reminds us God knows what he's doing. He knows every person that we're going to come into contact with. He wants to lead and guide us to them. He wants to if we're led of the spirit, if we're sensitive. Matthew 28:19, great commission. Jesus spoke to them saying, "All authority has been given to me in heaven and earth. Because of that, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you.

And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. I've always taken that as he's just with me. I believe that that's the case. He is with us, but he's also with us as we fulfill the great commission to reach others. He's with us to the end of the age and he's with us to the end of the earth. The same end of the earth he references a short time later when he says you're going to be witnesses by his spirit to the end of the earth.

We're not alone in this great commission. God didn't say, "Hey, good luck. I hope they respond. I hope they don't throw something back in your face or reject you." Amen. But his spirit is with us when we're doing this work. He knows where the harvest is. He's the Lord of the harvest himself. He knows where that hungry person is around us. As long as we are intentionally walking in the spirit and in the harvest, he will help us reach someone in our vicinity. That said, the key is we have to actually be in the harvest.

We have to be led of the spirit actively looking for the harvest. And we have to be in the harvest. Evangelism on the way happens when we're looking for people. It happens when we're led by the spirit. It also happens when we intentionally place ourselves in the harvest and we have a rhythm of evangelism. If you look at the life and rhythm and patterns of Jesus in the gospels, you see he was out and about consistently and constantly. Jesus did not have a cozy home. He did not have Amazon.

He did not have Walmart delivery. He did not have GrubHub or whatever your food delivery preference is. He had to walk some say an estimated 20 miles a day. I use all those services mentioned, Amazon, Walmart, others. Thankful for the convenience, but evangelism doesn't usually happen when we're locked away in our homes unless you stop that very busy delivery driver and you ask them to miss the rest of their assignments. I got to meet uh Ruben the Cuban. He dropped off our uh Walmart delivery. That's just the the uh what he's affectionately known by.

And I did this with I tried to do this with Dave uh the one male guy and he drove off and uh he was scared of me. And then uh and then I try to do that uh with Jenny all the time. And Jenny's amazing. If you see her, wave at her. All right. She loves this church. She's not been yet, but she will be. Point though I'm making is Jesus got out of the house. Maybe he didn't have a house, but I don't think he would have stayed in it if he did have one.

He went to the synagogue weekly as was his custom. The Bible says he he went where the people were. He uh we mentioned earlier that he went all the way to Samaria to find hungry people. He sat around the table with people regularly. He went to other people's homes. Peter's house, Matthew's house, Simon the Pharisees house, Zakius's house, Mary and Martha's house, Gyrus's house, the the house at the wedding in Canaa, Simon the leper's house, all the houses. He was down by the seashore selling seashells regularly, interacting with fishermen and followers.

He went to the temple to teach and to flip tables just one time. He knew where the people were. He wanted to be there. There's a song about that. I think it's a Little Mermaid song. Sorry. Jesus had a rhythm of evangelism on the way where he placed himself in the middle of the harvest intentionally. The disciples did the same thing. Someone said almost every miracle that happens in the book of Acts happened on their way to at or coming away from a prayer meeting. They had prayer meetings in the temple and they went from house to house.

So you see them, they go to the temple regularly. They go to other synagogues. Their temple had uh unbelievers there. Our temple has a lot of believers, but we also want to interact with with unbelievers as well. Then they went from house to house. They went to places like Mars Hill, Lydia's Creek, population centers in Ephesus, Corinth, Samaria, all to find people. They had a rhythm of evangelism. Acts 17 says this. When Paul uh had passed through uh Impalonia, they came to Thessalonica where the synagogue of the Jews was.

Then Paul as his custom was went into them and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures. Paul had a rhythm. Gets to a city, I'm going to the synagogue and then if they reject it, I'm finding some gentile. These disciples who were likely many of them bivocational. They worked other jobs for the most part. Made sure to have a rhythm of interacting with people, which may be one of the areas that were most challenged. At least it is for me. Okay, the Bachmann said it two weeks ago.

We get up, we go to work, we keep our head down, we do a good job, we drive home, straight into the garage, straight into our fortress of solitude, never really needing to interact with people. The only people we we may need is the ones coming to deliver the groceries. You know that there are people out there right now who haven't talked to another human being for months. And that's extreme. You're here. You're talking to people. But how often are you communing or communicating with people not necessarily for work purposes beyond this space?

It's a question for us and for me. Evangelism requires that we intentionally interact with people. I think it works best when we plan for it and we have a set rhythm of it. How does that work? Well, think of one thing you could insert into your week to give yourself an evangelistic moment. Is there just one moment or rhythm you could add? And would it be worth it to add that time? I think one soul would make it worth it. Brother Miller told us years ago, he said one part of his rhythm was he he said, "I don't go through drive-throughs anymore." Now this is precoid that uh but I love this rhythm.

He said I I will go inside so I can talk to the people face to face. That was part of his rhythm. Okay. My dad, he's got a Starbucks run. He knows all the baristas. He's invited them to church. They know his name. That's part of his rhythm. For for Aaron, it's work, jiu-jitsu, the grocery store, and the YMCA where he gets videos of people shaming uh me and another friend for not going to the gym. You want to be motivated, have two strangers tell you that you need to get to the gym at 5 a.m.

All right. Few other ideas. Neighbors taking out the trash. There's a camaraderie that happens when you and a neighbor are taking the trash out at the same time. What's up? Yeah, we're doing the same thing. Neither of us like it, but we're doing it. You can talk next to the trash can or step away from people walking by. This this one may not be for everyone. Hey, I I do this fairly regularly. It's probably why there's people running away, but go restaurants. There's a guy at Lafiesta who thinks that Sister Linda is my mom.

Okay. Uh, I mean, I grew up with with Jared, so you know, Christine at Shaking Bowl, Juan, her husband, I told him he needs to teach me how to cook cuz that man can cook. He's good. Your kids school, their after school program work. Many of you already have this rhythm. Wouldn't you like the people around you to be a little bit more like Jesus? Do you know that that's your responsibility? It's theirs as well. Do you think the Lord placed you there by accident? Or do you think that God gave you that job so you could reach those people?

You're it. For others, maybe it's your tailor, your barber. I've been talking about my Taylor Noir. My barber set up shop in Oakville, right across from Rich's Custard. He's amazing. You guys should check it out if you need a haircut. His name is Kevin. I was with him last week inviting him to church. I know every time I go to get my haircut, he stuck with me for 30 minutes at least and we're going to talk and we're gonna I'm gonna steer it to the things of God.

I do this at the kids school as well. By my calculations, I have 11 years to influence this place between my three kids. Okay? I will have 11 years of weekly rhythms. In the last two years, this is just this is just the power of a rhythm. Okay? This is not some uh super evangelist because some of these people I didn't know how to talk to them. Some of them didn't want to talk to me. You get a group of adults have never met before in the same room, we don't really know how to talk to each other.

That's a thing now. In the last two years, I've met and connected with 40 plus people there. Three of them have come to APC already. One watches online. She told me every single week, if she's watching, Diane, you're awesome. We want to see you visit. She's one of the school grandmas. Don't mess with her. She's a lady of faith, though. She said she she cracks up. She said, "My church is different." She said, "When you get fired up," she said, "I I say it to the people in the in the house." Oh, there he goes.

He's getting fired up again. She's like, "I love it." Like, she told me this morning about a a pastor in her area, a Baptist pastor, who's killed in a car accident this week. She brings me these prayer requests. We're praying for that family. Every Wednesday, you'll find me in chapel talking with half a dozen people. Sometimes I run projection screen there, my part-time job. It's part of my rhythm. I know I have the advantage of that. I have a a schedule that allows for that. But even if I didn't, I'd find a way.

I talked to Tim this morning. He's a professor at Slooh. He and I talked most mornings. We have Bible studies in the parking lot. Youth pastor Dne came with us to youth convention in April. He and I got coffee together earlier this year. Robin and Keith, uh, they come in and they say, "Hey, pastor, how you doing?" And they share their heart and family with you. Every week I have a standing invitation for an evangelistic moment. It did not happen automatically. I was grappling how do I how do I find a rhythm?

How do I I I come here and most of the people that work here are saved. Most of them Linda's got something to say. And I still I mean I I evangelize to them all the time. they probably have evangelized to me more trying to save me. So I I thought, okay, I have to find a way. And I I found a few. And it took time to build those. Takes time to meet your neighbors. Takes time to do this. It's it's relationship. But it's the best kind of rhythm.

I don't now I I really don't have to think about evangelism all that often because it just happens. It happens on the way. It happens organically. It happens more and more because the Lord has helped me to be routinely in the harvest. The disciples would walk through the harvest daily and people just find them and they'd find people. If you're stressing about evangelism, if you've been here the last couple weeks and you're like, I don't even know where to start. Go to Target. I knew they'd get at least one amen somewhere over here.

Go to a coffee shop. Get where there are people who are breathing. Pray and then talk to somebody. Ask them one or two questions. Maybe it takes three or four. Ryan, I joke I I'll be gone from the house. I'll leave, go to talk to somebody out on the street. It'll be 40 minutes later and I'm coming in the house sometimes an hour later. What happened? like you know what happened. It's not because I'm I've cracked some code. It's just because people are hungry. Go somewhere and go there regularly.

Go to Culver's. Go to Costco. Lift your eyes. Go to Shaking Bowl down the road. Meet Christine. Expert alterations. My guy No up there. He's really good. Be ready to give a reason for the hope that you have. Better yet, invite a neighbor over for dinner. You ought to know him. If you don't know him, go meet him and then invite him for dinner and then have him at the table. Say something that made them glad. Say something that made them mad. Say something that made them sad that day.

It's good conversation starter and it's a good open door for ministry. Feed them. Share your life with them. Become friends with them. Make a disciple out of them. And remember why why you're doing it. I know this could come across as overwhelming to some. Maybe it comes easier to others. I get that if you're panicking right now and your your palms are sweating because you're thinking, "I got to talk to people." Or maybe you're the already established evangelist. You've got a rhythm of evang no matter what category you fall in or extreme.

Remember, such were some of you, but you were washed. You were sanctified. And you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the spirit of our God. and someone had to come and find you. And if they didn't find you, maybe they found your parents or maybe they found your grandparent. And let me just key you in for those of us who have been around a couple generations. This gets lost on us easy because we didn't remember what it was like being out there groping in the dark.

And maybe we're three generations removed from that kind of bondage and that kind of brokenness. And so we don't have the urgency that we would if we had just come out of that. We need the spirit of God to inspire that urgency in us. If you're a couple generations in like I am, pray. Seek the face of God. Maybe you don't know what it was like. And this is all you've known. And I thank God for that. But I guarantee you, you're within five feet every day of someone who knows exactly what it feels like.

And they're looking for a way out. If all of our rhythms and conversations and evangelism just amount to one soul being saved and redeemed, what a worthy cause. We could think it's just one Bible study, it's just one fall fest invite, it's just one text with one scripture. But again, if it's just one soul or one family or even uh more wonderful than that, a ministry that will impact others, it'll be worth whatever rhythm, whatever inconvenience, whatever trip inside the restaurant as opposed to the drive-thru around it, whatever week night we'd be willing to sacrifice.

We can have a rhythm and a custom of evangelism on the way. As we come to a close tonight, I want to put this in action. I want to commit to it. Let me ask you, what's your next step? Okay, if you got your phone or you got something you're taking notes, just take that out real quick. Got a couple minutes. Take your phone out. I'm going to ask you, maybe you got multiple steps, but I just want you to commit to one and write it down.

Put it in your notes, put in your reminders. Maybe you already have a rhythm and you just need to look for people. You go to this gas station every day. You go to this coffee shop or this grocery store or uh you got this school or you got this neighbor and you just need to look for them. That could be your step. and be specific. All right? Write their name. Put their name down. Don't don't give yourself the an easy way out. I'm just going to find them.

Maybe you haven't allowed the spirit to intervene and speak just yet. So, maybe you're out there. You're looking, but you're not really connected. Invite the spirit of God into your evangelistic efforts. That could be your step. You know what? I'm going to add prayer. I'm gonna breathe a prayer and I'm gonna ask God to help me. Maybe you have no rhythm and you just need to get out of the house. Okay, I'm gonna start going to this place at this time. I'm going to interact with again.

There's some that are are uh we call it lowhanging fruit people that are already connected to you. I'm going to go to lunch with this family member that I haven't talked to in three months and the Lord's going to give me an open door. Whatever the case may be, I want us to stand together and we're going to pray. And then I'm going to ask you to make sure before you leave to write that step down. And maybe it could be multiple steps. You want to incorporate multiple.

Before we pray, I remind us, and this isn't shock factor language, this is just the truth and reality. Someone's soul, someone's soul hangs in the balance. And I could say, well, God reach them some other way. But brother Hunley said this at our missions conference. He said, whose story and whose redemption is on hold because we're not moving or we're distracted? I know there's other priorities. I know there's worthwhile things. We got to take care of our families. We We You know, this is way up there, y'all.

We've got to do it. We can do it. We can all do it. And I'm here to help you. I'm here to equip you and help you if you're struggling with it. All right. Would you pray with me right now? And not just a not just a protocol prayer, but pray with me that the Lord would sincerely lead us and that we would commit to this. Jesus, uh this is what you were about, oh God, and we know that you're Jesus. And we know that we're not.

And sometimes we can give ourselves the out. But you called us specifically, all of us, to reach, Lord, to make disciples. You called us. You gave us power to do this. This is one of the reasons that we have the spirit of God that empowers us to be a witness. We're asking that you would help us, Lord. Maybe that person will never step foot in this building. But if I can make a disciple and I can plant a seed and someone else can water it, you will give the increase and bring the increase.

I pray you'd help us whatever this step is that we need to take. If we're not even looking for people, open our eyes to see the people around us that you're seeing. And Lord, if we're looking but we're not being led by the Holy Ghost, help us, Lord, to be in tune and sensitive to your spirit and lead us to those persons who are desperate and broken and hungry for the truth and for help. And I pray Lord that you would help us to have a rhythm uh to let this be a part of our lives, a fixture in our lives, Lord.

Even if it takes some time, even if it adds to our schedule, I pray you'd help us to live this out, to walk this out. We ask for your help and we need your help. In the name of Jesus, we pray. In Jesus name, amen. Amen.