326 Sermon Illustrations on Evangelism

God has given every believer, in every one of our churches, a mission -– to go into the world and share the Good News about Jesus. Why? Why should we care enough about the people around us to tell them about how to get to Heaven? This can be a difficult concept to teach our congregations. How do we motivate them to take the Good News and share it with others? Here is something that might help.

The Bible -– in 2 Corinthians 5:14 –- says: “For the love of Christ compels us.” Our love for Jesus motivates us to fulfill our mission.

Everybody matters to God. God has never made a person that he didn’t love. God made some people that I don’t love, and God has made a lot of people that I don’t even like.

But God loves them. The most despicable person you can imagine is still loved by God. And because God cares, we must care.

I once watched a televised interview with Jane Roe –- of the famous Roe V. Wade abortion case. During the interview, she shared that she had become a believer in Jesus Christ. As she told her story, you could hear how her heart had been softened and she’d become a warm, caring, loving individual.

It dawned on me that one person who showed love and attention and shared the Good News with her –- one loving relationship –- in Jane Roe’s life did what all the protests in the world had failed to do and that was to change her mind.

You change people by love. Society is changed one life at a time. God has put specific people in your life that he expects you to share the Good News with. You’re the only Christian some people know.

If the members of your congregation don’t share the Good News, who will?

God will hold us responsible for the lives of the people he has put in our path to tell the Good News. Not just family, friends and relatives, but all the people we come into contact with.

That might scare some of your church members. Second Timothy 1:7-8 says, “The Holy Sprit doesn’t want you to be afraid of people but to be wise and strong and to love them and enjoy being with them. If you will stir up this inner power, you will never be afraid to tell others about our Lord.” That Living Bible paraphrase says the antidote to fear is love. The reason your church members don’t share the Good News is that they don’t love people enough to want to get them into Heaven. If they loved them enough, they'd want to tell them the Good News.

If one of my kids were in a burning building, I wouldn’t care how big the flames were –- I'd go in after them. I wouldn’t care if I got hurt. I wouldn’t care if other people said I was crazy. I'd still go in! I’d grab my child and bring him out. I may be singed and burned. Then people would say, “You were brave!” No, I wasn’t brave or courageous or crazy. I was motivated by love.

When we finally love our family members enough, we'll have the courage to tell them about Jesus. It’s not like we’re trying to give them cancer. It’s not like we’re trying to sell them swampland in Florida or get them involved in some racket or scheme or con job. We’re telling them the greatest news in the world -– about forgiveness of the past, power and purpose in the present, and a home in Heaven in the future. We can’t get that deal anywhere else.

Many people in our congregations wonder how they should go about sharing their faith. You do it two ways: You’ve got to show it and share it.

Remember “show and tell” from your school days? That’s what God wants us to do. He wants us to help others visualize it with our lives and verbalize it with our mouths.

If you’ve ever served on a jury or watched a case on television, you know that the number one tool of a defense attorney is to discredit the credibility of the witness. If he can do that, then the case is thrown out. We’ve seen this over and over again. The witness turns out to be a drug addict or we discover he’s lied in two previous experiences or he has the same problem himself.

Don't you think Satan is trying to do that with our members? He wants to discredit our lifestyle so other people will say, “If that’s a Christian, forget it.”

We can actually keep people out of Heaven by the way we live. The fact is -- you’re being watched by your boss, your neighbors, your employees, your children, your relatives. Every conversation you have, every action you have, every word you speak has eternal implications.

That’s an awesome responsibility!

I shudder thinking that one day someone might use my life as an excuse for saying no to Jesus. “I’ve seen how Warren lives. If that’s a Christian, then forget it.” I shudder to think of standing before God one day and explaining that somebody went to Hell because of my example.

We need to show God’s love and live in a way that brings credit to God’s name. How we live is influencing where people will spend their eternity -– Heaven or Hell.

I need to show the message, and I need to tell it. Colossians 4:5 says, “Make the most of your chances to tell others the Good News.”

Some people say, “I don't need to tell people. My witness is my life.” Do you realize what an ego trip that is? Even Jesus had to tell them how to be saved, and he was perfect.

They may not know why you’re good. We say, “My witness is my life.” That means you just walk in the room and people look at you and automatically fall on their face and repent and accept Christ. I doubt it! We've got to tell them.

Our mission is the same mission regardless of where we are in the world. It is to invite people into God’s family. I challenge you to challenge your church to get serious about sharing the Good News with the people God has put in their life.

Ask them, “Is anybody going to be in Heaven because of you?”

*

Acts 17:16–34 — At Athens — (outline by F. F. Bruce, NICNT) « Leader information shown in this fashion »

{A.} The Birth of the Church (1:1–5:42)

{B.} Persecution and Expansion (6:1–9:31)

{C.} The Acts of Peter & Beginnings of Gentile Christianity (9:32-12:25)

{D.} Church Extension from Antioch & Apostolic Decree at Jerusalem

(12:25–15:35)

{E.} Paul Leaves Antioch & Moves to the Aegean World (15:36–19:20)

{1} Recently Planted Churches Revisited (15:36–16:5)

{2} Philippi (16:6–40)

{3} Thessalonica to Athens (17:1-34)

A. Arrival in Thessalonica (17:1-4)

B. Trouble at Thessalonica (17:5–9)

C. Berea (17:10–15)

D. Athens (17:16–21, NKJV): 16 Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. 17 Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshippers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. 18 Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him. And some said, “What does this babbler want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods,” because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? 20 For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore we want to know what these things mean.” 21 For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. « (Epicureans: “eat, drink and be merry boys”; Stoics: “real men don’t cry” – cf. Henley’s invictus: “I thank whatever gods may be / For my unconquerable soul.”) »

1. What is the “therefore” in verse 17 there for? « – it points to the idol worship in particular that initiated Paul’s actions and speech »

2. What made this in Athens different from other Gentile cities? « – the degree and extent of idolatry; they seemed to adopt every deity that came along as was widely recognized »

3. We can see why Paul would argue in the marketplace about this; but why in the synagogues (Psalm 96:3)? « – evidently the Jews had had little influence against idolatry in their community »

4. What gods did they think Paul was preaching? « – Jesus and Anastasis (resurrection); the Greeks and Romans established gods for almost every commonplace occurrence of life »

5. How did they spend their time? « – looking for novelties – also a known characteristic of the Areopagus »

E. Paul’s Addresses the Areopagus, a Court (17:22-31, NKJV): 22 Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; 23 for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: 24 God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. 25 Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. 26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; 28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ 29 Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. 30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, 31 because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” « – Paul here faces a court, not a synagogue; not a court of justice, but of opinions; so this is a defence, apologetic (demonstrating the reasonability of faith) rather than didactic (because it is evangelistic) in nature »

1. What is Paul’s starting point? « – their religiosity (or superstition) which is recorded in secular writers; to the Athenians, a matter of course; to Paul, as a Jew, it was abhorrent » « »

2. What is Paul’s avowed purpose? « – to introduce them to the one, the true God, which their altar admits to be unknown to them »

3. Reread Acts 14:15–17; like that speech, Paul addresses this to a pagan audience. How doees this speech contrast with those he made in the Jewish synagogues (as, e.g., Acts 13:16-41)? « – (1) there are no direct quotes of the Scriptures here (2) there is no reference to the fulfilment of the Messianic promise »

4. How does Paul compensate for this? « – his speech is theological, not rationalistic; based on revelation and not on philosophical or other human logic; not mere memorization but understanding »

5. What use is made of the following:

a. Genesis chapter 1 « – there is One Supreme God who is creator

»

b. Genesis chapter 2 « – all men are descended from one (blood) »

c. Psalm 139:7–12 « – God’s immanence (he is not far) »

d. Psalm 50:9–12 « – God’s transcendence (not in need of any) »

e. Deuteronomy 32:8, Daniel 4:25, 34–35 « – God’s sovereignty setting man’s bounds »

f. Other Old Testament truths « – ask class to discover these »

6. What “authority” does Paul employ? « – two pagan poets »

a. Supposedly Epimenides the Cretan (c. 600 BC) -

« They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one –

The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies!

But thou art not dead; thou lives and abidest for ever,

For in thee we live and move and have our being … Cretans said they had Zeus’ tomb; Zeus was the supreme being in Greek pantheon – Paul does not hereby make Zeus equivalent to the One True Living God but only extracts one truth about the Divine Nature »

b. Aratus, a Cilician (c. 310 BC) « – a section which ends, “In every way we all have to do with Zeus, for we are truly his offspring.” »

7. What is the point of each quotation?

a. Epimenides « – the immanence or omnipresence of God »

b. Aratus « – man reflect God’s image (Luke refers to Adam as the Son of God in his genealogy of Christ Jesus) »

8. What was God’s purpose in all He has done? « – that man might seek and find him, repenting of sin to be saved from hell »

9. Was Paul’s message appropriate to the situation? « – discuss »

F. The Athenian’s Reaction (17:32–34, NKJV): 32 And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.” 33 So Paul departed from among them. 34 However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

1. Read 1 Corinthians 1:23; what are some reasons that the cross forms such an obstacle to coming to Christ?

a. « His death; that God the Son could become man and die »

b. « His bearing of sin; how can one being take another’s sin »

c. « His bodily resurrection; it goes against all our experience »

d. « Man’s proud mind; what is not understood is denied »

2. Read the next several verses following 1 Corinthians 1:23; what truth does Paul’s Areopagus experience illustrate? « – verse 26, “not many of you … were wise men by human standards” (NIV) »

3. Would you consider Paul’s message successful? Why or why not? « – discuss – there is today a bronze tablet at the ascent to the Areopagus bearing the text of Paul’s message; the thoroughfare nearby is named in his honour and another in the vicinity after Dionysius »

He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from, death, and … hide a multitude of sins. — James 5:20.

One night when storms were beating in full fury, a wreck was firing the minute guns, and a lifeboat was manned and sent out. Relay after relay rescued the whole crew but one; and the life-boat was being manned for the last trip. One young fellow, John Holden, stepped in. “John, don’t go,” said his mother. “Your father is dead, your brother William is lost at sea, and I have no one left but you. Surely you won’t risk your life for only one?” But John went. Slowly the lifeboat disappeared amidst mountains of foam. After anxious suspense the boat returned. “Is the man saved?” was shouted from the shore. “Yes,” rang back the voice of John, “and go and tell mother, it is William.”

Then let us seek the perishing.

We may yet lead them back,

With holy words and tones of love

from misery’s thorny track.

Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest. — John 4:35.

If I take one long, clear, sane look out … out beyond the microcosm of my tiny experience, on a confused and reeling world filled with hearts hungering for they know not what, and if this look leaves me cold and unmoved, then it is time for some mighty heart searchings in the presence of the God Who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. — J. Boyd Nicholson

Shall we whose souls are lighted with wisdom from on high,

Shall we to men benighted the lamp of life deny? Salvation!

O Salvation! The joyful sound proclaim,

Till earth’s remotest nation has heard Messiah’s name. — Reginald Heber.

ACTS 8: Philip’s Ministry Of Jesus Christ — By David Coulter, Wellspring Editor

Who Was This Man Called Philip?

This particular disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ was not the Philip of Bethsaida whom Jesus chose as His disciple during the Lord’s incarnate-ministry. The Philip of Acts 8 is first introduced to us in Acts 6 when a crisis within the Jerusalem-church prompted the Twelve apostles to appoint seven deacons to oversee the problem at hand. Because they were full of faith and the Holy Spirit, Philip and six others (including Stephen) were chosen as the first deacons of the Jerusalem-church. (Acts 6:1-6)

Methods Of The Ministry Of Jesus Christ Modeled In Philip Which Can Be Applied To The Ministries That Jesus Christ Has In Us:

1) Move around and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ wherever you go. (Acts 8:1-5,14-25,26-40)

2) At times God may choose to use the persecution of you (personally) and His church (generally) to spread His gospel message. Persecution may be one of God’s greatest blessings to unsaved neighbours, friends, relatives, colleagues, social groups, communities, regions and countries. (Acts 8:1-4)

3) Create opportunities to attract people to the gospel message (ie. perform good works in the Name of Jesus). (Acts 8:6-8)

4) Not all of your evangelistic work has to be complete in of itself. Sometimes you are called by God to present a specific portion of the gospel. God will provide the rest of the message in His way and in His time to those who hunger and thirst after His righteousness. (Acts 8:9-17)

5) Your work as an evangelist may include the need to correct false teaching and misunderstanding. (Acts 8:14-24) This part of the ministry of Jesus Christ was actually modeled by the apostle Peter (Acts 8:20-23), not by Philip. It is included here because it is an essential part of the ministry of Jesus Christ.

6) Your evangelistic endeavours may be short-term mission trips — brief but powerful, informative and effective. (Acts 8:14-25,26-39)

7) Let the Lord lead you into specific contacts. (Acts 8:26-39)

8) Look for openings (opportunities) to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is not in conflict with point 3. Points 3 and 8 work different sides of the exact same street. (Acts 8:30-34)

9) Use the Word of God (the Bible) when proclaiming and explaining the gospel message. (Acts 8:32-35)

10) Work with the fragments of truth that another person already acknowledges and trusts. Acts 8:30-35)

11) When the Lord directs you on a mission, run don’t walk to the mission field! (Acts 8:26-30)

12) When you are leading a person to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ do not hesitate in discovering the person’s motive(s) for wanting God’s grace and the Holy Spirit (ie. is he or she merely going through the actions to please you or someone else or is the person truly ready to trust his or her entire life to the gospel of Jesus Christ). It is in the person’s best interest for him or her to understand why we are all in need of Jesus Christ to be in our lives. (Acts 8:18-24)

13) Recognize that the gospel of Jesus Christ is for all people (Jews, non-Jews, crowds, individuals, the sick, the demon-possessed, practitioners of the occult, men, women, the rich, etc.). (Acts 8:5-7,9-13,25,26-40)

Prayerfully read through Acts 8. Is God teaching you other methods of the ministry of Jesus Christ? If so, list them on the back of this paper and share your findings with other born-again Christians.

How Can You Join And Share In This Ministry Of Jesus Christ?

Just like Philip had to at some point in time in his life, you need to get your heart right with God. And the only way that you can get your heart right with God is to repent of your sinful life and to pray to God for His gift of forgiveness which He makes available to all of us through personal faith in the death, burial, resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. When these prerequisites are met in your life then you have joined in and have a share in the ministry of Jesus Christ. (Acts 8:20-23)

Vladimir Kuznitsov’s father was a village shaman, a dealer in spirits and spells.

He drowned in a puddle of water one night after running down the street, screaming he was being chased by evil spirits. Some say it was an accident or the old man was crazy.

Kuznitsov believes his father was killed by the spirits that oppress Russia’s Udmurt (OOD-mert) people.

Kuznitsov, too, once had a gift of “healing.” But it became a curse as he sensed the evil at work in his life and saw the fear in those around him. Alcohol also tormented him, and he nearly lost his wife and family as he battled the darkness within.

He got a job as a fire truck driver in the city. His boss was Alexander Popov, who would later become the leader of Baptists in the Russian region of Udmurtia. The first time he attended one of Popov’s informal lunchtime Bible studies, Kuznitsov’s eyes rolled back into his head and he became violently ill. For months he couldn’t listen to the Word of God without a similar reaction. But something drew him back.

One day he attended a showing of the “JESUS” film in a local theater. “At the end of the film there was a prayer [to receive Jesus as Savior],” he recounts. “I said, ‘That prayer is for me. God, I need you.’”

Through Popov’s patient witness and more viewings of the JESUS film, Kuznitsov repented and gave his heart to the Lord. When the Holy Spirit entered him, he felt the old spirit of evil flee.

Within a month he was driving a bus for a JESUS film team going from one Udmurt village to another. “When we showed the film, people didn’t want to leave,” he recalls. “We would say, ‘Go home already. We’ll talk more tomorrow.’ They would say, ‘God spoke to us in our language, to our people!’”

Fourteen years later, Kuznitsov is the national JESUS film representative in Udmurtia for Campus Crusade for Christ and a passionate member of Resurrection (Baptist) Church, which was started by Popov.

His team has shown the JESUS film in about 500 of the 2,000 towns and villages in Udmurtia. They fully intend to reach the rest.

“The guy is a walking evangelism machine,” Southern Baptist missionary Tim Wicker says. “Whenever he’s out with us, we’re constantly waiting on him because somebody walked by that he just couldn’t resist talking to.”

Once, driving late at night, Wicker and Kuznitsov were pulled over at a police checkpoint. Kuznitsov got out and began talking to the Udmurt policeman. Soon he returned to the car, reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a New Testament and tract to give to the policeman. When he came back, Wicker asked why they had been stopped.

“We never got around to that,” Kuznitsov said, grinning as they drove away.

He prays for the day when evangelical believers grasp what it will take to reach all Udmurtia with the Gospel. It won’t be easy, he knows.

“There’s a spiritual battle going on everywhere,” he asserts. “So I don’t live by my feelings. I live by the Word of God. Inside of me God lives, and He is victorious.”

Penn Jillette, the verbal half of the magician duo Penn and Teller, and an outspoken atheist, has posted a YouTube video exhorting Christians to share their faith.

Penn and Teller are headliners in Las Vegas, and their shows generally are marked by foul language and shock appeal. Penn Jillette, though, used no coarse language in telling about an audience member who gave him a New Testament.

Jillette was signing autographs after a show last fall when he noticed the man standing over to the side of the crowd.

“And he had been the guy who picks the joke during our psychic comedian section of the show. He had the props from that in his hand because we give those away. He had the joke book and the envelope and paper and stuff,” Jillette said in the Dec. 8 YouTube video.

The man walked over to Jillette, complimented him on the show and handed him a Gideons New Testament.

“And he said, ‘I wrote in the front of it, and I wanted you to have this. I’m kind of proselytizing,’” Jillette said. “And then he said, ‘I’m a businessman. I’m sane. I’m not crazy.’ And he looked me right in the eyes.

“It was really wonderful. I believe he knew that I was an atheist. But he was not defensive, and he looked me right in the eyes,” Jillette said. “And he was truly complimentary. It didn’t seem like empty flattery. He was really kind and nice and sane and looked me in the eyes and talked to me and then gave me this Bible.”

Jillette then stated he doesn’t respect people who don’t proselytize.

“I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward, and atheists who think that people shouldn’t proselytize ...

“How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize?” Jillette asked. “How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that? If I believed beyond a shadow of a doubt that a truck was coming at you and you didn’t believe it, and that truck was bearing down on you, there’s a certain point where I tackle you. And this is more important than that.”

Jillette reiterated his impression of the man’s demeanor.

“This guy was a really good guy. He was polite and honest and sane, and he cared enough about me to proselytize and give me a Bible, which had written in it a little note to me -- not very personal, but just ‘Liked your show,’ and then listed five phone numbers for him and an e-mail address if I wanted to get in touch,” Jillette said.

“Now I know there’s no God, and one polite person living his life right doesn’t change that. But I’ll tell you, he was a very, very, very good man, and that’s really important. And with that kind of goodness, it’s OK to have that deep of a disagreement. I still think that religion does a lot of bad stuff, but that was a good man who gave me that book. That’s all I wanted to say,” Jillette said at the end of the short video.

John Mark Simmons, pastor of the Las Vegas-area Highland Hills Baptist Church in Henderson and a member of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, told Baptist Press that Jillette’s video should inspire believers to share their faith even when they think people won’t be responsive.

“That episode is a wonderful encouragement for all of us to be salt and light,” Simmons said. “If you know anything at all about Penn or his shows, you know he pretty much represents the decayed and dark world we live in, yet someone’s obedience got his attention.”

The mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace. –Romans 8:6

A development company had purchased 150 acres on the south side of a main suburban street for the purpose of building middle-income homes. When the people who lived on the north side of the street learned about it, they went ballistic. Because they lived in higher-income homes, they were afraid their property values would be lowered. They were sure the traffic would increase and the neighborhood would deteriorate.

So they went before the township board. They sent a delegation to put pressure on the developer. They even offered to purchase the land from him at a profit to keep the “low-lifes” away.

Their rallying cry has been heard so often in suburban areas across the United States that it has been given the acronym NIMBY: Not In My Back Yard. Oh, these people believe that lower- and middle-income homes should be built somewhere; they just don’t want them built in an area that might affect them.

I see a parallel in our situation as followers of Jesus Christ. We are shocked at the indifference our fellow believers have toward sin or suffering. We speak out against prejudice or abuse. We’re vocal about the wrongs of materialism, greed, or the abuse of power.

Yet when the Holy Spirit cuts through our defenses to show us that these elements are present in our church or in our own thinking, we don’t like it. We mobilize our defenses. “Not in my back yard!” we shout. “Take your meddling and conviction somewhere else. I’m comfortable and secure as I am. Get after the people who really need it.”

But the people who need it are us. We must listen and respond to the conviction of the Spirit. We must never use the NIMBY defense against God. –DE

REFLECTION

• Why am I so reluctant to give up little sins I’ve been comfortable with for years?

• Do I carry deep-seated negative feelings about certain neighborhoods or people groups represented by my fellow believers?

• In what ways am I resisting the conviction of the Holy Spirit?

Guilt is usually God’s voice of correction.

Another [reason for not witnessing to people] is, a secret infidelity prevailing in men’s hearts. Alas! brethren we surely do not believe men’s misery; we surely do not believe the truth of God’s threatenings. Did we verily believe that all the unregenerate and unholy shall be eternally tormented, how could we refrain from speaking, or avoid bursting into tears, when we look them in the face, especially when they are our near and dear friends? Thus doth secret unbelief consume the vigor of each grace and duty. O Christian, if you did verily believe that your ungodly neighbors, wife, husband, or child, should certainly lie forever in hell, except they be thoroughly changed before death shall snatch them away, would not this make you address them day and night till they were persuaded? Were it not for this cursed unbelief, our own and our neighbors’ souls would gain more by us than they do.

________

Richard Baxter (English Puritan, 1615-1691) in THE SAINTS' EVERLASTING REST (PDF page 84 from the file Saints_Everlasting_Rest_Richard_Baxter.pdf). The second sentence is from a different edition, THE SAINTS' EVERLASTING REST (Abridged Edition), (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Education, 1847) p.209.

How to move men on the fringe into active, focused discipleship.

Looking back, Larry Kay says his life was “full of confusion, full of lust and pain, and almost completely void of God.”

“It impacted everything — business relations, my marriage, my friends,” says the 45-year-old Georgia resident who used to work 60-to-80 hours a week.

“We had been attending church for several years but we were in the balcony, sneaking in and out, not being involved, going there because we felt that church should be part of our children’s lives. I was going through a lot of pain. My business was doing well because I had concentrated on it; it was my life. My marriage, however, was suffering drastically.”

Larry’s wife, Meg, had asked him to attend a men’s conference their church was sponsoring. The father of two teenagers went, but tentatively. After all, he thought, what good is success in business if the life it provides for is an utter failure?

No man fails on purpose. No man wakes up in the morning and says, “Well, I think I’ll see what I can do to ruin my life today.” But they often do.

And churches that reach such men are few. As one leader puts it, “A man is a hard thing to reach!”

The scandals currently engulfing the IRS, the National Security Agency (NSA), the Justice Department and other government agencies have something in common: information.

Who has certain information and for what purpose? How should they be able to obtain it? What should they know and when should they know it? And so on.

“Big Data” offers enormous power to those with the resources to gather, analyze and use it, for good or ill. The challenge for free societies is to harness Big Data without allowing governments or corporations to become Big Brothers and manipulators.

Secrecy is another common element in the latest scandals. Public officials at every level of government, regardless of political affiliation, seem to have a compulsive need to classify information -- regardless of its sensitivity. They’re not the only offenders. Questionable secrecy is common in the business world. Bureaucrats and managers who regard knowledge as power withhold important information from underlings who need it to do their jobs. It only hurts the companies they work for, but it’s almost impossible to eliminate. Why? Human nature. People love secrets.

But there’s a secrecy -- or silence, to put it more accurately -- that’s much worse than the bureaucratic brand. It has potentially eternal consequences, and it’s practiced consciously or unconsciously by many folks who claim to follow Christ. We have the most important information there is: Jesus is Lord and Savior of the world. But we don’t tell others He is the way, the truth and the life.

You can come up with any number of rationalizations. You aren’t good at one-on-one evangelism. It’s not your “gift.” You’re a sinner, so you don’t have the right to tell somebody else what to believe or how to live. You aren’t ready when the opportunity comes. The people you need to tell aren’t ready to hear it. They don’t want to hear it. They will reject you if you say something. Old-school evangelistic methods don’t work anymore. Blah, blah, blah. I’ve used ‘em all. Still do from time to time.

These are excuses, not reasons. Yes, you need to live the Gospel in order to share it effectively. But that doesn’t mean you wait until you have eliminated all sin from your life to tell others how to find forgiveness. That day will never come. The real reasons we don’t tell everyone we know about the Good News of Jesus boil down to three: We’re afraid of the reaction we might get, we don’t care enough about others to tell them -- or we don’t really believe Jesus is the only way to salvation. That last one is the heart of the matter. Unbelief and disobedience usually go hand in hand.

Larry Alex Taunton, an author and commentator who directs the Fixed Point Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to the public defense of Christianity, has debated many prominent atheists. In an excellent article for The Atlantic magazine, “Listening to Young Atheists: Lessons for a Stronger Christianity,” Taunton reported on a project carried out by Fixed Point to interview members of college atheist organizations about their “journey to unbelief.”

Taunton expected the young nonbelievers to cite science, rationality, logic or the conflicting claims of major faiths as the sources of their rejection of religion in general and Christianity in particular. Many did so. But he was surprised by how many had grown up in church and left the fold -- not because they felt it was oppressive or fanatical, but because they found it superficial and disconnected from its biblical origins.

“These students heard plenty of messages encouraging ‘social justice,’ community involvement, and ‘being good,’ but they seldom saw the relationship between that message, Jesus Christ, and the Bible,” Taunton reports. “Listen to Stephanie, a student at Northwestern: ‘The connection between Jesus and a person’s life was not clear.’ This is an incisive critique. She seems to have intuitively understood that the church does not exist simply to address social ills, but to proclaim the teachings of its founder, Jesus Christ, and their relevance to the world. Since Stephanie did not see that connection, she saw little incentive to stay.”

They also expressed respect for, if not agreement with, Christians who “unashamedly embraced biblical teaching.”

“I really can’t consider a Christian a good, moral person if he isn’t trying to convert me,” stated Michael, a political science major at Dartmouth.

According to Taunton, “This sentiment is not as unusual as you might think. It finds resonance in the well-publicized comments of Penn Jillette, the atheist illusionist and comedian: ‘I don’t respect [believers] who don’t proselytize.... If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life or whatever, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward.... How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?’”

Good question. Believers in many places are willing to put their lives on the line to tell others about the eternal truth they have found. We’re hesitant to share it because it might make someone else (or us) uncomfortable. Our hesitance is hastening our own society’s destruction -- and helps explain our halfhearted participation in taking the Gospel to all nations.

If you don’t have the compulsion to tell others that Jesus is Lord, do you really believe it yourself?

Studies show that 90% of what people remember and apply to their own lives comes through self-discovery. Discovery Bible Study is based on the words of Jesus in John 6:44-45, “No one can come to Me (Jesus) unless the Father who sent me draws him ... It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God. Therefore, everyone who hears and has learned from the Father comes to me.’”

The goal of Discovery Bible Study is two-fold:

1) Encouraging people to hear God for themselves through His Word. (What’s God saying to you?)

2) Encouraging people to obey what the Father is teaching them. (How will you apply what you have learned?)

A Discovery Group is the foundation of a Simple Church (and our equipping). It takes people from not knowing God to falling in love with Jesus. Later, the same process is used to master any topic in the Bible. It establishes the DNA of the emerging church.

PART 1

1. Ask: What are you thankful for this week? (Prayer/Worship)

2. Ask: What has stressed you out this week? What do you need for things to be better? (Intercession)

3. Ask: How can we help each other with the needs we expressed? (Ministry)

4. Ask: What did we talk about last week? (Review/Accountability)

5. Ask: Did you change anything in your life as a result of last week’s story? (Accountability/Obedience)

6. Ask: Did you get a chance to share the story with (the person they identified) (Accountability/Evangelism)

7. Ask: We identified several needs last week and planned to meet those needs. How did it go? (Accountability/Ministry)

PART II

1. Ask God to teach us as we read this weeks passage (John 6:44-45: Hearing God/Scripture)

2. Ask for someone to retell the passage in his or her own words. Like they were telling a friend who wasn’t there. (Understanding/Evangelism)

3. Ask the Group: Do you agree with their retelling? Is there something they added or left out that they shouldn’t have? As long as the group doesn’t miss a key component of the passage, continue. If they miss something, read the passage again. If someone states something that isn’t in the passage, ask, “Where did you find [what they said] in this passage?” Reread the passage, if necessary. (Priesthood of Believers/Group Correction/Understanding)

4. Ask: What does this passage teach us about God? (Discovery/Scripture/Priesthood of Believers)

5. Ask: What does this passage teach us about humanity? (Discovery/Scripture/Priesthood of Believers)

6. Ask: If we believe this passage is from God, how must we change? (Discovery/Scripture/Obedience/Priesthood of Believers)

7. Ask: Who are you going to share this passage with before we meet again? (Evangelism/Replication)

This process is repeated every week until the group becomes Followers of Jesus and then Disciples in obedience to the Word, which will include water baptism. This is when we consider a church to be established.

In the Bible, there are many examples of anonymous believers bringing people to Jesus. One of the most dramatic stories involved four unnamed men who helped an invalid friend drop in on Jesus.

The Lord was teaching in Capernaum when “so many people gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the doorway, and he was speaking the word to them” (Mark 2:2). Four guys showed up, determined to get their friend to Jesus but “since they were not able to bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him and after digging through it, they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying. Seeing their faith, Jesus told the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” (Mark 2:4-5).

These four men were determined to get their friend to Jesus. They arrived, saw the crowd, but were undeterred. They found some ropes, tied them to four corners of the pallet, and hoisted their friend to the roof. They started chipping at and pulling on the thatch, probably causing straw and dirt clods to drop on Jesus and the crowd below. A small hole appeared. They peeked through to be sure they were over the right spot. They enlarged the hole and lowered their paralyzed friend down to Jesus. It’s hard to believe the crowd sat quietly during the commotion. What a chaotic scene it must have been! But these men were willing to do whatever it took to get their friend to Jesus. When Jesus saw “their faith” (meaning the faith of the friends and the disabled man), he not only healed the invalid but forgave his sins.

These unnamed friends were the reason this helpless man met Jesus. They went out of their way to carry him to the meeting, risked their safety to get him on the roof, likely endured public catcalls to stop their efforts, and destroyed the final barrier to finishing the job. They were determined their friend was going to meet Jesus. Christians today must also go out of their way to meet the needs of unbelievers, find creative ways to share the gospel with them, serve them prayerfully, and wait patiently until their friends or family members decide to follow Jesus.

Many years ago, a church decided to make a concentrated effort to bring more people in contact with the gospel. They hosted a public opinion poll booth at a regional fair. They built the booth, prepared the survey materials, trained many workers, and staffed the booth daily for more than a week. While wandering through the exhibit building, I came across the booth and stopped to see what it was all about. A booth-worker led me through the public opinion survey and asked me if I wanted to answer some spiritual interest questions. I did. About 30 minutes later, I had heard the gospel and committed my life to Jesus Christ. As a young teenager, my destiny changed because some Christians did something as radical as those guys who removed the roof. They took the gospel to the fair.

Christians work quietly, faithfully, and diligently to share the gospel. They do it in unusual places like rooftops and county fairs. They stick with it, knowing it takes a long time for some people to come to faith.

Who was instrumental in you becoming a Christian? It was likely a Christian who loved you, served you, shared the gospel with you, answered your questions, prayed for you, and then supported your fledgling steps as a new believer. You have the privilege of now doing that for others. Everyday Christians sharing their faith are God’s strategy for getting the gospel to every person in the world. You are part of that amazing plan.

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This article originally appeared at The Gateway