RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Evangelism – 12
Sammy Tippit: I want to welcome you to our session on talking about how to share Christ with other people. I’ve been visiting with Wayne Jenkins, and we’ve had some great visits. We started off with some deep spiritual truths on prayer and the Holy Spirit. We transitioned to sharing your testimony. We’ve been doing some really practical things in the last couple of ones. That’s really hard because we’re dealing with a lot of cultures, a lot of different types of people.
One of the great things is that God uses different people in different cultures, and he has different methods. We’re just trying to give people a lot of options. You may be saying, “Sammy, I can’t use that.” That’s all right. This is not some legalistic format, but there may be something in here that stimulates even your thinking. “Well, maybe I could do that.” So you begin to use that. Be creative. Let God use you.
We’ve been talking about some of these methods, but it really gets down to explaining to a person what it means to be a Christian, how to become a Christian. There needs to be some guidance, some way of sharing that, some basic truths. We need to talk about that.
Wayne Jenkins: We’ve talked about the little pamphlet. We’ve talked about personal testimony. We’ve talked about the New Testament and ways to share that way. This is a memorized approach. I have X number of Scriptures and a flow, and it’s a guided conversation. There are some advantages of having a guided conversation.
You may not have a tract with you. You may not have a Bible with you. You may be in a country that the only thing somebody can do is ask you a question, and you have to be ready, as the Scripture says, to give a reason for the hope that’s within you. So that’s what you’re doing, and you want to guide it.
It’s a great learning tool for you, because you’re going to memorize a few Scriptures. It is going to help you to have a beginning point and also to know where you’re headed at any point. You’re bringing that person all the way through a presentation that leads them to a point where they can understand the gospel. It makes it clear, and that’s one of the real advantages. It gives a clear gospel presentation, basically.
Sammy: I know some people are deeply spiritual, and some people may say, “I want to just be free to do whatever God says.” Well, we want you to be free too, but I have discovered that God normally… If I have a plan and I’m moving somewhere, if I need to go in a little bit different direction, he’ll show me. But if I’m just sitting there with nothing, it’s hard to move something that’s not moving. The plan is to have a plan, and if there’s a need you need to do… But you need to have a plan, so this is what we’re talking about here.
Wayne: It’s like a road map. You’re going from A to B. In the process, you may…
Sammy: Make a little detour.
Wayne: Make a detour. But you know you have a way of coming back to get things on here. Sometimes there’s a question, and you’re in a conversation. It’s a guided conversation, not just a monologue. So sometimes when you say, “Does this make sense to you?” the guy says, “No, it doesn’t,” and you may need to stop there and camp there for a few moments.
Then again, there are times where you don’t start at A. You started at C down here to get here, but you know where you’ve gone. You know where you’re going. You have it, again, where there’s an end point down here.
Sammy: So give us a map.
Wayne: When you learn it, it becomes part of you. That’s what’s important. It is yours. It’s internalized. The one I’m going to share is a simple approach. Many of them will be aware in some of these other countries of a thing like Evangelism Explosion, which is maybe a 13-week study they go through. It’s an excellent thing.
This is a more simple approach that anybody can do. Basically, it talks about God’s purpose for us. Then it talks about man’s problem. Man has a problem. He’s a sinner, and it deals with that. Then it talks about God’s provision for man’s sin. Then it’s man’s response. So those are four points. Under each one of those points there are some Scriptures, and there’s sort of a transition statement under each one.  Again, back to the guided conversation. You may use your personal testimony, and then say, “Do you mind if I share just a few moments with you what the Scripture says?” Then you say, “Here’s what the Bible says. The Bible says that God has a purpose for your life and my life.” Then you move to the next one. “But man has a problem. Man’s problem is he’s a sinner.”
Then it goes to, “God’s provision for man’s sin is that he sent Jesus Christ, who became as a man, who lived a perfect life, who died on the cross, who rose from the grave,” and it gives you the passages you use there, “in order to give us that new life. But it’s not enough to know that. Man has to respond to that, and man’s response is to put his faith and trust in Jesus.”
That’s where we use like Ephesians, chapter 2. “For by grace you’re saved through faith, and not of yourselves; it is a gift of God.” You need to respond. Also you can use the Romans 10 passage. We have those listed for you on the screen in that outline so you can jot it down.
Sammy: Let me just throw out some ideas for people to have. I was in India once. As a matter of fact, it was one of the very first times I went to India, and I was brought to a place where there are no Christians. In this whole area, like what we call in the United States a county, there are no Christians at all. Nobody knew anything about Jesus.
So I went in there, and I was going to preach. We were driving, and we saw all of these workers in the field, and the pastor I was with said, “Hey, let’s stop and go talk to them about Jesus.”  What are you going to say? So he gathered them all around. He introduced me. That was all the relationship I had.
I just started and said, “Hey, I’m here with my friend, and I have something really wonderful in my heart I want to share with you. God loves you. God has a plan for your life.” They all started looking. That starting place… Most people feel down, depressed. “God has forsaken me.” I just started there. Then I said, “But I’ll be honest with you. I have a problem, and my guess is you have a problem too, because the Bible says we all have a problem.”
Then I asked them, “Is there…” The third thing, God’s provision. I asked, “Is there anyone you’ve ever met perfect enough, good enough, to take the punishment for your sins that God would accept?” They all kind of looked, and I said, “I go through human history, and I don’t know anyone.” They went, “Yeah, you’re right.” I said, “Everybody is just like me…except for one person. His name is Jesus.”
I told them about Jesus, and then I went to the response. By that time… I mean, these were people who had never heard of Jesus. They started cheering. The reason they were cheering was this really is good news. When we share the gospel, we’re sharing good news with people, that there is hope, and then there is that faith response.
One of the things I like to do, Wayne, and I know a lot of people are nervous about this, but if a person is responding to what I’m sharing… You can see it in their eyes. They’ll be letting you know. I say, “Look, would you pray with me?” Give them an opportunity to pray and receive Jesus Christ.
I want us to talk about this some more in our next session, because I don’t want us to stop here. We’re going to talk about this some more, and then we’re going to wrap it all up in our next session. I want us to talk about this, because this guided conversation, these four points Wayne has given you… If you can guide people, this is the most important conversation you will ever have with anyone, explaining to them the way to know God.
God wants to use you. So if you have a plan, you have a road map, take the road map that has been given you today, God will take you, and I believe you can be used to share Christ with others and even bring people to that personal faith in Jesus Christ.