RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Evangelism – 5
Sammy Tippit: I want to welcome you back to our session where we’re talking about sharing Jesus Christ with other people. We’ve been talking about prayer and the relationship of prayer to sharing your faith with others and sharing Jesus with others, but we want to move into another subject. That is the Holy Spirit. Actually, these two things are very, very closely related, so as we pray, we need to be praying for the work of the Holy Spirit. As an evangelist, I can tell you this. I live with this deep sense that if God doesn’t do it, it isn’t going to happen.
Wayne Jenkins: That’s right.
Sammy: We need God’s work in the hearts of people and even in our own hearts. Wayne Jenkins, it’s good to have you sharing with us again. Let’s talk about the role of the Holy Spirit in sharing Christ with other people, people who need Jesus. Talk to me a little bit about that.
Wayne: Yeah. I think there are two parts. One is what the role of the Holy Spirit is in the life of the one doing the witnessing. We’ll talk later about what the role is of the Holy Spirit as he deals with the unbeliever.
Sammy: Okay, so as we’re talking about…
Wayne: What now?
Sammy: What does the Holy Spirit need to do in me for me to be able to share my faith in Christ with others?
Wayne: Yeah. That’s exactly right. Our problem is that in the flesh, there’s no good thing. We’re ineffective as witnesses.
Sammy: Let me define the flesh so people know what the flesh is. The flesh is that work in us. It’s the old man, so to speak. It’s that part of us that works in us that is contrary to the will of God. We’re born with this natural tendency toward sin, to do our own thing, to do it in our own power, to go our own way. That work within us is a part of what we call the old nature of man. We have a new nature in Christ, but I just wanted to define that. Some people may not know. As we talk about the Holy Spirit, we have to deal with the flesh. I’m sorry. Go ahead.
Wayne: Now what we have to realize is that, first of all, the Holy Spirit indwells us the moment we believe.
Sammy: Right.
Wayne: The Scripture is clear in Romans, chapter 8. If we have not the Spirit of God, we are none of his.
Sammy: He is in us.
Wayne: He dwells within us. It’s not something that happens to us at a later time when we get the Holy Spirit. He comes in the moment we trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior. He indwells us.
Sammy: We have the resources within us.
Wayne: That’s right.
Sammy: The problem is that most people don’t know how to utilize those resources. Actually, it’s about his utilizing us or how to make ourselves available to him. Would that be an accurate way of saying that?
Wayne: Right. Yeah. Then the Bible says he seals us until the day of redemption. Now what’s important about that is that give us a sense of security. A witness is one who tells what he knows for sure. If I’m not sure whether I’m saved or not, I’m reluctant to share the gospel with people, so we have to realize we are sealed from the moment we trust in Jesus until that day of ultimate redemption out there.
I think the third thing is that the Spirit of God is the one who opens those doors and gives us those divine appointments. A perfect example is in Acts, chapter 10. Here you have Peter residing in Joppa at Simon the tanner’s house. You have Cornelius way over here about a day’s journey away in Caesarea. They don’t know each other, but God is in the business of bringing those two together.
If you read all the way through, you see the Spirit of God working all the way through that passage to bring them together and giving him the words to say. He has to work on Peter, because Peter has a problem with Gentiles, so he has to work on Peter over here while he’s working on Cornelius over here. He’s bringing them together to give them that divine appointment that ends with Cornelius and his household being saved.
Sammy: You know, Wayne, I want to just hang out here for just a second because I really believe God has divine appointments for all of us.
Wayne: That’s exactly right.
Sammy: If we’re praying and we say, “Lord, lead me today,” he will put people in our paths, circumstances we’ll come across, incredible opportunities… I mean, I have met people… You’ve had the same experience where you’ve seen people ready to commit suicide. You’ve come across their paths, and boom! They find hope. It’s amazing what God will do if we will pray. I think this is something people really need to pray for: for the Holy Spirit to give some of those divine appointments.
Wayne: Yeah, that’s right. We don’t have time to go into all of those illustrations, but there are some wonderful illustrations out of my own life that I can recall where God opened a door in such a way that you would almost think, “That’s a miracle,” or that kind of thing.
Sammy: It is a miracle. It was the Holy Spirit.
Wayne: It is a miracle.
Sammy: What else?
Wayne: Then Acts 1:8… We’ve talked about this. The Holy Spirit gives us boldness. He says to those disciples, “You wait here until the Holy Spirit comes on you. When the Holy Spirit comes, you will be my witnesses.” He doesn’t say, “You can be my witnesses,” but, “You will be my witnesses. When the Spirit of God takes a hold of your life, you will have the boldness to share.” That is important. The Scripture also says the Spirit of God…
Sammy: I think a lot of people are afraid.
Wayne: That’s right.
Sammy: That’s the biggest thing. We talked in the prayer session about how perfect love casts out all fear. The Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit… The very first thing mentioned is love. So when your life is controlled by the Spirit, you’re going to be filled with love. That’s where the boldness comes from. That gets my eyes off of myself, what people are going to think about me. It gets my eyes on God and gets my eyes on the other people when the Holy Spirit is in control. Anyway…
Wayne: That leads to talking about this last thing. The Holy Spirit fills us. We are filled with the Holy Spirit. Now we’re not always filled.
I need to be filled with the Spirit of God to have that boldness. There are two words in the Greek that talk about filling. One is an example of taking a glass of water and filling that glass with water. That’s not what he’s talking about. The word he uses here is controlled. It is a matter of controlling you. You yield everything you know of yourself, everything, to him for him to control you.
Sammy: So we have to come and be emptied of ourselves and emptied of sin. He can’t control sin. He’s going to control your life when you are honest, when you’re emptied of those things that are not pleasing to him. When you yield control, that means you’re giving him access to every area of your life for him to control.
I heard an illustration once of how Christ comes into our hearts. He’s coming into our homes. Often there’s this place where he sits. He takes the master seat in the home. But the problem is that many times we have closets filled with stuff. We don’t want him to get into the closets. “Oh, you take the living room seat, but don’t go into the closets.” We have to give him access to everything. Is that what you’re talking about?
Wayne: That’s exactly right. Yeah, yielding everything to him.
Sammy: Okay.
Wayne: It is then, when we yield everything to him, when he empowers us, that we’re going to be those witnesses. He’s going to give us the words to say when we need those. We’re going to recognize, if we’re walking in the Spirit… This is synonymous to what we’re talking about. If you’re walking in the Spirit, you recognize those divine appointments. Otherwise, you miss them.
Sammy: Yeah.
Wayne: You may think later, “Oh man, I missed that.”
Sammy: Well, there are so many things that are tied together here. We talked about renewing your mind and your body, surrendering all of this and giving it to him… You begin to think those thoughts he thinks. When you begin to think the way he thinks, that’s his kingdom coming and his will being done in your life.
Wayne: That’s right.
Sammy: You’re becoming like Christ. The Holy Spirit… We talked about praying for the eyes of people who don’t know Christ to be opened. Sometimes we need to pray for our eyes to be opened.
Wayne: That’s exactly right. Yeah.
Sammy: Jesus touched a blind man, and then he could see, but he saw people as trees. Jesus touched him a second time, and he saw people as they really were. I think that what happens is we go through life and pass by people, and we see them as inanimate objects. We need to see them as people, people created in the image of God. That only comes as the Holy Spirit has access to every area of our lives.
Wayne: I was on Colfax Avenue in Denver, which is not the safest street to be on at some parts. I was there late at night with another person. We were sharing our faith. We came across a man who… I just stopped him and started talking to him about the gospel, and he basically asked, “Why are you talking to me?” I said, “Well, I think God led us here.”
I went on to tell him, “God must love you, because I’m from Louisiana, and this guy is from Texas. We’re on this street, and he opened up an opportunity to talk to you of all people.” He said, “Well, let me add something to that. My wife died three months ago, and I haven’t been walking down this street since. This is the first night since.”
Sammy: Wow.
Wayne: Again, it was a divine appointment.
Sammy: It was one of those.
Wayne: Yeah.
Sammy: The Holy Spirit will lead you.
Wayne: That’s right.
Sammy: He needs to have access to all of your life…not just a part, but all of it. You say, “Lord, here’s my life.” You yield your life to the Holy Spirit, and he will take you. He will open doors. He will give you opportunities. Those divine appointments will come. You yield yourself. Be filled with the Holy Spirit, not just today but tomorrow when you wake up. Say, “Lord, here’s my life. Take control by the Holy Spirit. Make me a witness for Jesus.”