RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Evangelism – 1 Acts 1:8
Sammy Tippit: I want to welcome you to the mentor level, where we are beginning to turn a corner now. We’ve been talking for many weeks about developing a time alone with God and really having an intimate relationship with him. I hope you’ve been growing in your faith, in your walk with Christ, during these times.
But we’re going to begin to talk about sharing your faith in Jesus, sharing Jesus with others, beginning with this session. I have a dear friend, Wayne Jenkins, with me. Wayne, welcome to this time of sharing with people about how to share Christ with others, what he has done for us, and how to tell others.
Wayne Jenkins: It’s good to be here.
Sammy: It’s so important not just to have a relationship with God but to have relationships with people. So as we do that, we want to share. By the way, Wayne is the director of evangelism for the Louisiana Baptist Convention. More importantly, Wayne has been a friend of mine for I don’t know how many years. We’ve known each other since our high school days.
Wayne: Yeah, back 50 years ago.
Sammy: Yeah. It’s half a century or something like that. It’s great to have you. Let me just start off by sharing something that happened just recently in a conversation I had. I want you to comment on it. I think it’ll thrust us into what we want to share. I was ministering among Iranian Christians here just recently, and I was having breakfast with a pastor and one of the men in his church.
This man just had this fire burning in his heart, this love for Jesus and desire to share with others. He’s a mechanical engineer. He’s a professor. He is at the university. He shared Christ with a number of people. He’s very bold, very creative in the way he shares. The pastor made this statement. He said, “Well, he has the gift of evangelism.”
But then the man responded very quickly and said, “That’s true, but it’s not just me who needs to be sharing Jesus with others; every person who knows Christ is to be, so to speak, a witness of what Christ has done in his or her life.”
Wayne: That’s right.
Sammy: “They’re to be sharing.” What’s your take? What do you think about what he said?
Wayne: I think he’s exactly right. I think that when you look at the Scriptures, you see that even when the New Testament church was scattered in Acts 8… I think it talks in verse 4 about how everyone everywhere was sharing the gospel. Now we often think, “That’s the responsibility of the pastor or leader of the church but not everybody in the church,” or maybe, “It’s the responsibility of somebody who ‘has the gift of evangelism.'”
But when you look at it, everyone went everywhere, sharing. The word that was used was the word evangelizing, which meant they were sharing the good news about Christ. When you read back verse 1, you realize the apostles didn’t even leave Jerusalem, so they weren’t the ones out there doing it. It was all of the believers. So it is every believer’s responsibility to share the gospel, to share what Christ has done in their life and how he can change the lives of others.
Sammy: Okay. The word responsibility… I want us to talk about that. Responsibility and desire… Sometimes we just don’t feel like sharing, but we’re still to share. I’ve found that sometimes it’s in our toughest situations that we have the greatest opportunities to share. So explain to me what you mean about our responsibility to share Christ with other people.
Wayne: Well, I think we have a responsibility… The gospel came to us, and when it came to us, it wasn’t to stop with us. It was always on its way to somewhere else, always on its way to someone else. It is more than a responsibility. It’s not one of those things that when we think about… We have to understand it’s not a “got to” but a “get to.” I get to. I’m privileged to share the gospel with someone else. That which changed my life can change that person’s life. It’s the only thing which can radically shift a person’s life.
Sammy: So it’s not only a responsibility but an opportunity.
Wayne: That’s exactly right.
Sammy: Because of what has happened in us, we have the ability to share along with that. Now often, what I’ve found… I don’t know about you. You’re the expert. You train people all over the world, really. I know you’ve trained people in Brazil, the state of Louisiana, and throughout the United States. You’ve trained people in sharing their faith in Christ with other people. But I’ve discovered that if a leader, a pastor, does not have that passion, it’s going to be hard for the people to have that passion.
Wayne: That’s exactly right. You know, the best way he can equip somebody is by modeling it. He has to model it with his people. He takes his people with him when he goes somewhere to share the gospel. He tells the stories. You’re bragging on Jesus, not bragging on yourself, but when you get up there and get ready to baptize somebody who has come to Christ…
You’ve been in their home or you met them somewhere, built a relationship with them, and led them to Christ. People need to know that so they can see that their leader is someone who does it. So when he talks to them about doing it and equipping them to do it, he knows how to do it, and he has led them. I think that when you look at that Ephesians 4 passage…
Those gifts that were given to the church were given so they would equip us to do the work of ministry. That’s his responsibility or the responsibility of the leader or leaders of that fellowship: to equip people to do the work of the ministry. One of those ministries, a primary ministry, is to evangelize those people in the area who are lost, who are unbelievers.
Sammy: Well, one of the things I’ve found is that… You know, you were a pastor for a lot longer than I… I am an evangelist. That’s the call God has placed on my life and the gifting he has placed within me.
Wayne: Right.
Sammy: I just get super pumped, super excited, about sharing Christ. One of my greatest joys is to see people come to the Lord, but I do know that one of my responsibilities is not just for me to do that but for me to help others, every Christian, to share what Christ has done for them. That’s why we’re calling this the mentor level.
Wayne: Right.
Sammy: We not only want people to be able to share Christ with others, but we want churches to be figuratively set aflame with a passion for Christ and desire to share the Lord with other people.
Wayne: That’s right. Sammy, one of the things we’re going to do over the next 12 lessons is give them several methods they can put into their toolboxes as leaders, but then they can equip their people with those tools. That is the purpose. They will become better at sharing their faith and sharing the gospel, and then they will be able to equip others. People need entry points. People have different personalities. There’s a person who is an introvert.
The guy may not even talk to his wife, much less the neighbor next door, you know? So you have to find a way to help him to share. We have ways for an extrovert, this guy who just can’t wait to get out there. Like you said, he’s pumped. We can help equip him better. I think there are 52 times in the New Testament when Jesus shared the gospel with people. He never did it the same way twice. So you’re giving people different entry points, different ways to do it.
Sammy: What we’re going to be talking about during these next 12 sessions is really how to share your faith according to who you are, what your personality type is. We’re going to give some opportunities. We’re going to talk about the power that’s underneath sharing and where it comes from.
Wayne: That’s exactly right.
Sammy: We’re going to be talking about how to share your testimony, because every person has a different story.
Wayne: Everybody has that.
Sammy: We’re going to be sharing some of those things that will be helpful to people. But I think that what we want to leave people with today is the idea that it’s important, that God has called every one of us. I’m reminded of Acts 1:8. It says, “…after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
All of us are to be witnesses. A witness is simply a person who has seen, who has heard, who has experienced, Christ. That’s what we want to share with people. We want to encourage people to do this, to be that kind of witness. We’re not asking people to do something extraordinary. We’re asking them to do something that’s really quite natural.
Wayne: That’s exactly right.
Sammy: I know people who are listening to this are going to say, “It’s not natural to me. It’s kind of awkward for me,” but we want to share how it can be natural.
Wayne: It can be. That’s right.
Sammy: We want to encourage you to begin to think about and pray about who it is God wants you to share Christ with. I believe God is going to use you to be sharing the gospel with other people in these next few weeks.
Wayne: Amen.