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[0:00] All right, well, thank you. So we have been in the book of Mark, and we started with the parable of the sower. And I'm sorry to say, in the last week, I wasn't here because I was at my sister's wedding.

[0:14] That's another announcement. My sister got married, which I was super excited to see. She married an excellent, just a good man. And it just thrilled my heart. I got to meet his family, such good people.

[0:26] So, and that's an answer to prayer for me, and I know for her, too. But, so we skipped. I got halfway through the parable of the sower, and I was planning to do that today.

[0:40] And I'm sorry to say, we're not going to finish the parable of the sower today. Since we've been doing this fair, I wanted to just talk about it. Talk about the fair, the outreach that we're doing, trying to reach people with the gospel, and talk a little bit about, well, what exactly are we sharing?

[1:00] What is this gospel message? How should we go about sharing our faith? And so today is just a little bit about evangelism, reaching out to those who need the Lord.

[1:11] We'll start by opening, we are going to open up our Bibles. So if you've got a Bible with you, open up to the book of Colossians. Colossians is in the New Testament. It's, I don't know, maybe halfway through the New Testament.

[1:25] And, excuse me, Colossians chapter 4, Colossians chapter 4, verse 5 and 6. And we'll use this as kind of our foundation verse for today.

[1:39] Colossians 4, verse 5 and 6. By the way, one of the things we're going to do, we're going to get some testimonies from some people today. Did I leave the microphone over there?

[1:49] Is it on the seat? Oh boy. I lost the microphone. Oh, you got it. All right. Yeah. Run it up to me, buddy. Oh man, that is awesome.

[2:01] Thank you. I'll put it right down here. Don't let me forget that I put it right there. Okay, so Colossians chapter 4, verse 5. It says this.

[2:13] This is Paul speaking to Christians in a town called Colossae. He said this, Walk in wisdom towards those who are outside. Who's that? Those who are not Christians.

[2:25] Walk in wisdom towards them. And what does that mean? Redeeming the time. The time is short. Not just the time until the end, right? Who knows when that will be?

[2:36] But the time for all of our lives. We have a short time. The Bible talks about our time on this earth is like a vapor. It's here and then gone. It's like smoke.

[2:48] It's like a mist. You see it and then all of a sudden it just disappears. And that's what our lives are like. Redeem the time. Let your speech always be with grace and seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

[3:06] There are people who don't know the Lord, don't know Christ. They're still in their sins, as the Bible says. And we ought to know how to talk to people who are not yet Christians.

[3:20] How to speak to them. With grace. Grace just means favor, gentleness. But also seasoned with salt. Sometimes you have to add a little spice when you're talking to people, right?

[3:34] And so, and this takes wisdom on how we do that. Another passage, you don't necessarily need to go there, but this is in the book of Matthew. This is something that Jesus said. And this, I thought about this a lot as I was at the fair this week.

[3:46] There's lots of people, crowds coming. Sometimes we had 15 people at our table wanting to play our game, win a prize. Verse 35, it says this.

[4:00] Then Jesus went about all the cities and the villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion.

[4:14] Because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

[4:29] Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. And is that any less true today? There was a harvest back then, 2,000 years ago.

[4:42] There is a harvest today. And are there lots of laborers to bring in the harvest? There are just a few. There are just a few. There's just a few who are willing.

[4:53] And we need more willing harvesters, more willing laborers. To just, as we've talked about in the parable of the sower, right? It's about the seed. The seed is God's word. And what does the sower do?

[5:04] You broadcast the seed. You throw the seed out. And that's what we're doing here at the fair. We're throwing out the seed. Some of it won't stick. It just won't. Some of it will.

[5:15] It's God's word. It's a good seed. It's not a bad seed. It's a good seed. And it depends on the soil, right? It depends on the soil, the ground, how it will be received. Some, they don't care.

[5:27] They've got other things to do, other things that are more interesting than what? Their eternal soul, I guess. And so, we're scattering seed.

[5:39] And the Lord needs more laborers. So, I'm going to talk about kind of what we're doing and kind of my strategy as I share at the fair. And hopefully, this will be, even if you're not going to be involved in the fair ministry this week, this will be helpful to just other opportunities that you have to share Christ, share your faith with those who are, as it says in Colossians, those who are outside.

[6:06] It might be the mechanic working on your car or, you know, the salesman that is trying to sell you a car. Or maybe you're a mom. You're taking your kids to the park, you know, the playground or whatever, and you have a chance to maybe talk to another mom or a co-worker.

[6:21] You're on a plane, you know, flying somewhere fun, and you've got somebody sitting next to you, and you can strike up a conversation. One of the things, I was talking to my wife, Jamie, this morning, and she was saying how she was nervous going to the fair yesterday.

[6:37] And that's true, right? When you're talking to people about spiritual things, it can make you nervous. What, am I going to know what to say? What if I say the wrong thing? Anybody ever think that?

[6:49] And so, you don't worry about that. You are definitely going to say the wrong thing. You will. You're going to say the wrong thing. It's going to be, you're going to have a conversation, and you're like, oh, why did I say that?

[7:01] Or you're going to say, oh, I should have said this, and it'll happen every time. And you know what? That's fine. It happens to me every time I have a conversation with somebody.

[7:13] And so, it's no reason to be afraid to talk to somebody about the gospel. You know, there are people who sell other things. You know, we're selling Jesus, right?

[7:24] Right. Which is a great product, you know. There's people that sell other products. And sometimes, somebody will, you're trying to sell, let's say it's a car, and they're going to ask you about, like, I don't know, the transmission or something.

[7:38] And I don't know the answer to that. And so, if you have a customer that comes to you and they have questions that you can't answer, well, that shouldn't stop you from doing your job, from trying to sell the car.

[7:51] But what can you say if somebody asks a question that you don't know? You say, oh, I'm not sure about that. And that's okay, right? We don't have all the answers, do we? There's lots of difficult questions when it comes to things about spirituality and God.

[8:07] Things that maybe we ourselves struggle with, but that's fine. Sometimes, if it's somebody you know, you can say, you know what, that's a great question. I'm not sure if I know how to answer that, but I'll think about it.

[8:18] And maybe ask some friends to see if they have a good answer, and I can come back and talk to you about it later. So, there's always reasons to have fear and doubt when it comes to sharing the gospel with people.

[8:31] But, you know, we should be bold. We should be bold, and even though we are afraid, and is it possible to go through life without fear? It's just not.

[8:42] Fear comes and it goes. But you shouldn't let fear control you, right? There's a phrase that I heard years ago, and it always stuck with me. And it just says this.

[8:52] It says, do it afraid. Sometimes, you just have to do things afraid, and that's okay. That's what courage is, right? You're afraid. You know, you're not sure if you're going to have the right things to say, but you just do it anyway.

[9:04] And so, we should be bold, and even if we're afraid, do it afraid. So, here's what we've got set up at the fair. We have a booth, and it says, what does it say?

[9:18] Play a game, win a prize, I think. And we've got a little wheel that you spin. And when you spin the wheel, you get a prize. And we've got a bunch of little things.

[9:28] We've got some chocolate. We've got some bouncy balls. The bouncy balls, I think, are one of the favorites. Sunglasses, all kinds of little prizes. But it draws people's attention.

[9:40] And they come over, and they want to see, oh, what can I win? And we have a little box, and it's got a quiz on it. I call it the quiz box. I said, well, if you want to win a prize, you have to take the test.

[9:53] Take a quiz. And so, this is an opportunity to engage them on spiritual things. So, when you have an opportunity to talk to somebody about the gospel, and again, we shouldn't always wait for opportunities to come to us.

[10:11] Sometimes, we create our own opportunities, right? You know, sometimes people have said, well, I'm just waiting for an open door, right? And that's great when there is an open door.

[10:23] Maybe you have a co-worker that says, you know, I heard you go to church. Can you tell me more about that? That's awesome, right? Right? Somebody comes to you, but you know, that barely ever happens to me. I don't know about you.

[10:34] Does that happen to you a lot? No. Almost never. I mean, I can count on one hand, or maybe two, the times people have come to me and asked me about my spiritual life or faith.

[10:45] So, sometimes, instead of waiting for a door open, we just open the door ourselves. You look for opportunities. It's like, I'm going to open that door. Or, sometimes, you know, maybe the door's kind of a little, the knob is kind of hard to open.

[11:00] Sometimes, you just have to kick the door open. That works, too, right? And so, engaging with people is an important kind of, it's just an important part of life, learning to start conversations with people.

[11:16] So, we have a few methods of engaging with people at this booth, and one of them is this quiz. And so, as people come up, they walk by, they've got people selling all kinds of things, you know.

[11:28] And so, there's lots of things to attract their attention. I'll say, hey, are you good at taking tests? And, you know, some people, yeah, I'm pretty good, and a lot of people are, I think, more people, not really.

[11:44] It's like, all right, well, this is a pretty simple test. You engage people with, what's the number one thing I think it's important when you engage people, start a conversation, is to welcome them with something on your face.

[12:01] What do you call that? A smile. A smile. A smile. And for some people, that's kind of hard to do. If you're not sure how to do that, you kind of just take the corner of your mouth like this, and you shift it upwards.

[12:13] And, you know, a smile on your face can make an immediate connection with someone. Sometimes, because I tend to have to work at smiling.

[12:26] My wife will tell you this. When I was, when we met, we were in a Bible college, and I played the keyboards for the church band or whatever. And when I'm intensely trying to think about something, I have a frown on my face, because I'm, like, really trying to concentrate.

[12:44] So whenever I was up there playing the keyboards, she would tell me, you look like you were mad. So I was, like, I'm happy. I'm praising the Lord, but I'm trying to make sure I don't play the wrong notes, you know.

[12:56] So it depends on what's going on, and if I'm thinking deeply about something, I may not smile. So sometimes I have to think about it. You know, I need to make sure my, the corners of my mouth are pointed up instead of down. So for some of us, it comes easier, more naturally.

[13:09] For others, it's, for others, it's like me, it's harder. But smile at people. Another, another thing, just to, I'll tell this to my kids, because I want them to learn, you know, maybe some of the lessons that I learn later in life.

[13:25] I said, you know, when you interact with people out in public, you can, you can actually make someone smile. And the easiest way to make someone smile is to do what?

[13:37] Is to smile at them, right? And the bigger your smile, you know, sometimes people are having a really bad day. And so what I'll tell my kids, sometimes I play this little game.

[13:48] I'm checking out at the grocery store. Or here's an even bigger challenge. I'm going to the, to the BMV to update my driver's license. Some of those people are cranky.

[14:02] And so I'll tell my kids, you know, I'll make them a bet or a wager or something. You think I can get this person to smile? Or sometimes I'll ask them to see if they can do it.

[14:13] And so we'll just try to have an interaction where you get somebody to smile. And that's a great way to engage people, to just create a small little connection. Ask somebody their name. That's another great thing to do.

[14:24] What's your name? And then use their name. I mean, don't you appreciate it when somebody uses your name? Even if they're a complete stranger and they say your name, it feels kind of like you're almost friends, right?

[14:35] So whenever I'm checking out the grocery store, I always look at their name tag. And then I say, hi, you know, Susan or Jeff or whoever it is. And then smile at them.

[14:46] Another great way to make a connection is to, you know, maybe observe something unique or interesting about them. The other day, as I was at the fair, there was this young man.

[14:58] He was maybe 10 years old. And he had on his T-shirt, he had a picture of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. And when I was a kid, my favorite thing in the whole world was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

[15:14] And I knew the name of that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. And so I said, hey, do you know the name of that Ninja Turtle? And he looked down and he says, I don't know. And so I made sure that he walked away knowing that that was Michelangelo.

[15:28] So every kid should know. My kids know who all four Ninja Turtles are, don't you? All right. But that just creates another connection, right?

[15:42] So we have this quiz box. And I'll say, hey, are you good at tests? And we've got this test. And if you take this short quiz, you can spin to win a prize. And pretty much everybody, hey, I'm up for it.

[15:54] Let's do it. And the quiz just has one question. And it says this. According to the Bible, how do I get into heaven? That's an interesting question.

[16:07] According to the Bible, how do I get into heaven? Having this quiz helps us to figure out where are they at? When they answer these questions, it helps you understand where they're at spiritually.

[16:22] How much do they know about what the Bible says? All the answers are false. Which surprises many people. The first answer is, well, in order to get to heaven, you have to be a good person.

[16:37] Is that true or false? And what 90% of the people will say, well, of course, yes, true. You have to be a good person to get into heaven. And it's actually partially true.

[16:49] It's partially true. The Bible says that there will be a judgment day. God will judge whether you've done good or evil. But one of the things that many people miss, is there any good?

[17:03] One of the things that Jesus said. In fact, I think we read it in Mark, or maybe not yet. Maybe this comes in the future. But somebody called him a good teacher.

[17:13] Is there any good but God? We'll get to that in a second. We'll talk more about sharing with people what the problem is that they need to try to solve.

[17:26] So we ask these questions. Are you a good person? I'll ask, have you ever read the Bible? This is a Bible quiz. This is a quiz about the Bible. Have you ever read the Bible? If they say no, wow, we know a lot about you, about where you're at.

[17:41] You've never read the Bible. You're probably not a Christian. And then talk about this whole idea of heaven. I'll ask, do you think this is an important question?

[17:55] How to get to heaven? And almost invariably, everybody nods. Yes, that's an important question. And sometimes I'll follow up and say, do you think there's any question more important than this one?

[18:12] And a lot of people will say, no. I think this is probably the most important question that there is. So the answer is important. We want to kind of show the gravity of what we're talking about here.

[18:25] This is something not trivial. This is something important. Sometimes I'll ask, well, do you think that there is a heaven? And almost everybody believes in heaven, even those who are not religious, those who are not Christians, those who don't believe in the Bible.

[18:42] They believe that there is a heaven. It just seems that it must be the case that there is a place for us to go after we die. It's hard to imagine, I think, for most people that once you die, kind of that's it.

[18:55] The Bible says God has put eternity in our hearts. And for most of us, it just feels that way. We feel our bodies don't feel permanent, right?

[19:06] Our bodies feel temporary. But there's something within us that feels very permanent. Does anybody jive with me on that? Yeah. Yeah. So, and I think that a lot of people kind of sense that, that there's a permanency to life.

[19:25] Some people, there were a few the last couple of days that said, no, I don't believe in heaven. So, I'll just say, well, if there was one, if there was, just theoretically, would you want to go there?

[19:39] And yes, of course. Yes. Yeah. So, the, kind of the goal here is to just, and I was telling people this when we were kind of doing the training for the fair, is just to get people one step closer to knowing the Lord.

[19:54] For most people, some people may be really far away. They're not even thinking about their spiritual life, their soul, their eternal state. So, just getting them concerned, thinking about it, is a step in the right direction.

[20:07] And it's a success. Yes. But there's something that's been around for a long time called the Roman's Road. Anybody ever heard of the Roman's Road? Okay, good, at least half.

[20:18] And what a tremendous, I don't know who came up with this, if it was Bill Bright or somebody else, but Roman's Road is using a few passages in the book of Romans.

[20:31] The book of Romans is a great book about basically how to have eternal life, how we become, about salvation. And there are a few key verses that kind of show you how to lead someone to the Lord.

[20:45] The first verse that we look at is in Romans 3.23, which says this, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

[20:56] You know, a lot of people don't even know what sin is. When I was talking to people the last couple of days, I'd use the word sin and said, Do you know what that means? No, I don't know what that means. And so sometimes you just have to use an alternative word, right?

[21:11] Mistakes, bad things, things that you're not proud of, things that you might be ashamed of, things like that. And so there's basically four kind of stages or steps to the Romans' word.

[21:25] One is show people that they're guilty, really, right? They're guilty. All have sinned. The second one is in Romans 6.23.

[21:37] For the wages of sin is death. And so it's not just that we're guilty, but there is a consequence to that guilt. It's called eternal death. That's a big problem.

[21:51] The second part of that verse, Romans 6.23, is, But the gift of God is what? Eternal life. We get to live forever. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

[22:05] And then that fourth passage is in Romans 10.9. Well, God gave us a gift. So we went through step one. Everyone's a sinner. Two, sin leads to death. Three, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus.

[22:21] And then four, Romans 10.9 says this, That if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

[22:33] So four is, well, what now? What do I do? As the Philippian jailer said to Paul and Silas, What must I do to be saved? And we need to be able to prepare.

[22:45] We need to be prepared to give the answer. So as we walk through this, and I'll try to finish this in maybe ten minutes. And then I'm going to, everybody, I talked to a few people, but I haven't talked to you and you've done the fair and have something to share.

[22:58] Be ready. I'm going to pass around a mic. And we'll share some experiences at the fair. But all have sinned. That's that first one. And a lot of people don't know that.

[23:09] Most people consider themselves to be a pretty good person. Right? That's just a tendency. We can look out there and look at those people, and we can say that those people are pretty bad.

[23:20] But me, I'm a pretty good person. At least I'm better than those people over there. And there's always, always somebody that's worse than you, right? It's never impossible to find somebody who behaves or does things that you would never do.

[23:38] So, sometimes I'll just take a little test. Okay. So, you're a good person.

[23:48] I'll ask, have you ever told a lie? Well, everybody does that, is usually the answer, right? But, and sometimes, there's a ministry out there, a guy named Ray Comfort.

[24:05] By the way, a lot of this, I've learned from him. And if you want to really get good at evangelism, go on YouTube and search for Ray Comfort. And you'll find all kinds of great interactions that you can watch and learn from.

[24:20] But, you can ask, well, if you've lied, what do you call somebody who lies? A liar. Now, did I just call them a liar?

[24:32] No. But I asked them, what do you call a liar? They just told me that they've lied before. They just called themselves a liar. And, it's very powerful.

[24:44] It's very powerful to get someone from their own mouth to just consider their own spiritual state, their own moral condition, and think it through. And say with their own mouth, kind of some of the things that they've done.

[24:57] Some people carry a lot of shame in their life. Other people don't. And so, it depends on where's people at. There were a few people that I talked to. I said, do you think that, or are you a good person?

[25:11] And they looked straight at me, and they shook their head, and they said, no. Wow. Well, I can skip all the rest of that stuff. They already know where they stand. They already know where they're at. And so, I'm going to just move on.

[25:22] But for others, you know, you have to kind of build a little bit of a case, a little bit of a case against them. But you can do it gently, just by asking questions. One of the things, and I use this verse, there's a verse in Luke chapter 12.

[25:37] I won't go there just for time's sake. But I'll just read it. Jesus said this, In the meantime, when an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together, this is Luke 12, 1, There's a day coming.

[26:14] When everything that we have done in secret that we thought no one will ever find out about, when all that will be revealed.

[26:28] Not just to us. It'll be shouted from the rooftops. Everyone will find out. And, you know, that can be, for some people, they put on a good outward veneer, right?

[26:40] But I think most of us have an experience in our own life where there's things that we've done. Maybe it's just been in our minds where we thought about something that we shouldn't have.

[26:51] And we thought, well, nobody will ever know. Nobody can get in there. Nobody will ever know what I thought. Or maybe it's something we did in the middle of the night.

[27:04] And we think, well, I hope nobody ever finds out. So, using that passage, just quoting it. You know, the Bible says that one day everything done in secret will be revealed. Does that cause you any concern?

[27:15] Would that, you know, would you be ashamed if everything that you've ever thought was revealed? So, just a few kind of strategies for getting people to think about their sinful condition.

[27:32] And then, step two in the Romans Road is the wages of sin is what again? It's death. And so, in this case, we have to talk about judgment.

[27:47] God is a loving God, but he is going, he is the judge of the whole world, right? And he is going to judge. And it is a good thing. He is a good judge. He's a righteous judge.

[27:58] In fact, we have judges today in our civil society. And are judges evil? I mean, some of them are, right? Right? But, a good judge is one who judges righteously.

[28:11] They discern between right and wrong. The bad judges are the ones who let off the guilty or condemn the innocent. God is a good judge. And we recognize that today.

[28:23] There are good judges. They're the ones that condemn the guilty and reward or let off the righteous, right? And that is how God is. And so, explaining that there's a day coming in which we will have to give an account for our lives.

[28:37] And God has promised to reward the innocent or his people, we might put it, with heaven. And for those, you know, who have rejected him, who have remained in their sins, it's just judgment whether you're innocent or guilty.

[28:57] And the Bible says that we are guilty. So, just briefly speaking to that. You know, this is a big deal. It's not just a little thing that we're sinners. You know, this has an eternal impact on our lives.

[29:11] But then, once you get somebody lost, because a lot of people, they just don't know that they're lost, then you can show them the way, right?

[29:22] And sometimes, if you go too early to showing somebody the path to salvation, they'll kind of just shrug it off. Well, that's not any big deal. I mean, I'm a good person, right? So, it's really important to make sure people know that their need, just like a doctor.

[29:36] He might have life-saving medicine. But sometimes, medicine tastes disgusting. Anybody ever taken pills that are just like, maybe these big horse pills that you have to swallow? Why am I doing this?

[29:48] Or maybe it's some kind of injection or some kind of treatment that is just horrible to go through. But if, before that medicine is given, if somebody comes up to you and says, here's this nasty medicine, why don't you try it out?

[30:03] You give it a whiff, and you're like, no way. But if they sit down with you and say, you have a deadly disease, it's going to take your life. It might be in one year, two years, ten years.

[30:15] But this is going to take your life early. But here's this cure. All you have to do is, it may not taste that great. But if you take this, it'll save your life.

[30:31] And so that's what we need to do when it comes to sharing the gospel. Well, some people, well, I don't really need this. I mean, Jesus kind of gets in the way of me living my life, right?

[30:41] I mean, kind of when I read the Bible, it makes me feel kind of guilty. And I'd rather not, you know, feel guilty. I'd rather be able to live my life however I want. And so Jesus is kind of, he gets in the way.

[30:51] The Bible kind of gets in the way. But if you can convince somebody of their spiritual state that they need this, regardless.

[31:02] And sometimes, you know, being a Christian isn't, when you become a Christian and trust in, you get eternal life. But does that mean that your life becomes easy and a bed of roses, rainbows and sunshine all the time?

[31:13] No, in fact, many times when you become a Christian, you have more problems. People don't like you. You lose friends. Like, he's not fun anymore. Whatever it might be.

[31:24] But that eternal life, it's what we're all looking for, at least what we all need. The last part, and I'll finish up with this, is, well, now what?

[31:37] So you tell somebody, well, let me go back to the eternal life thing. Did you know? Asking questions is so disarming. Instead of making statements, asking questions is a very easy way to have conversations.

[31:52] So instead of saying, Jesus died for your sins, which is a great thing to say, you say, did you know that the Bible says, notice how that's a little bit less confrontational?

[32:06] Did you know that the Bible says that God loved the world so much? He loved you and he loved me so much. Even though we sinned against him, he loved you and I so much.

[32:22] That he sent his son, Jesus, to do something for us. And then I'll ask him, do you know what he did? And I've done this over and over, and I'm still shocked every time I hear somebody say, no.

[32:36] I don't know. What did Jesus do? Or who are you talking about? Must have been at least half a dozen people over the last couple of days. I don't know.

[32:48] No idea. Christian America, right? So you get to talk to them. God sent his only son, Jesus, to die for us that we might have life.

[33:01] It's the righteous person dying for the unrighteous person. That we might live with him forever. And so giving them that message.

[33:14] That's the gospel right there. That's what they need to know. But then the final part is, well, now I know this. What do I do now?

[33:24] And it goes back to the Philippian jailer. Paul and Silas in prison. Something happens. They're realizing what these guys have been talking about. It must be all true.

[33:35] God just did a miracle, released them from prison. And so he asks them, what must I do to be saved? And what do we tell people? What does the Bible say?

[33:45] What do you do to receive this gift? Because I'll tell people, I'll listen. I say, listen, not everybody wants the gift. And God won't force it on you. But for those who are willing, if you want the gift of eternal life, to live with him forever, it's a gift that's given for free.

[34:07] And all you have to do is believe. Now we read this verse, Romans 10, 9. It says this, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

[34:21] A few verses later in Romans 10, 13, it says this, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. You know, there's not necessarily a specific formula, but the Bible talks over and over about trusting in Jesus Christ, receiving him.

[34:38] It uses all kinds of language. And all of those are proper to use. But for many people, it's still difficult. A lot of people go back, well, yeah, Jesus died for my sins, so I need to try to read the Bible and do everything that I can in here, and then maybe what he did will work for him.

[34:56] So they go back to trying to be a good person. That's not the answer, is it? Jesus did it all. Jesus paid it all.

[35:07] And all we have to do is receive the gift. And the Bible says that we receive the gift through faith. Through faith. And what does that mean? And so I've thought about this a lot in having conversations with people.

[35:23] Faith is just trust. A lot of people think of faith as just this blind thing. Well, you just believe things that you know aren't true. That's where a lot of people are at.

[35:34] They think that faith is believing something that isn't true. And that's exactly the opposite. Faith is believing or trusting in something that is reliable. And what Jesus did for us is reliable.

[35:50] And so I'll say this. I said, you know how when we first started talking, you were saying, well, yeah, I'm a pretty good person. When you told me that, you were putting your faith, your trust, your confidence in yourself.

[36:06] That's what you were doing. You were trusting that you are good enough to make it to heaven. Having faith in Jesus is directing that confidence from yourself, away from yourself, and towards what he did for you.

[36:24] And would you be willing to do that? Instead of trusting in yourself, your own good works, your own efforts to try to make it to heaven, to make it to God, would you take all of that trust and all of that confidence and put it in what Jesus accomplished for you?

[36:42] That's what it means to receive him, to believe in him, to have faith in him, to trust in him. And I think for a lot of people, that makes a lot of sense.

[36:56] And then the last thing, sometimes there's an opportunity, and there's not always an opportunity, but sometimes there's an opportunity to say, kind of discern where people are at.

[37:08] Is that something you've ever done? Have you ever put your trust in Jesus like that? No. Well, do you think it's important? Would you be willing to do that right now?

[37:20] Not a lot of people are ready. And I asked that question to a few people. In fact, I don't think anybody said yes. No. And that's fine, right? When you receive a bunch of information, right?

[37:31] Sometimes you have to process it, right? And that's fine. But let them know any time. You don't have to be in a church. You don't have to do some religious ritual.

[37:42] Any time you can just tell God, I want to put my trust in what you did for me. And that's the gospel message. That's the message that we want to get out to people.

[37:54] So many people. I talked to these young girls, these young girls. And they said, Well, I'm young. Maybe I'll get to that later when I'm older. And so many people are that way.

[38:07] The Bible, there's... In the Bible, I think it's in Hebrews, it says this. Today is the day of salvation. Don't wait till tomorrow. Are we promised tomorrow?

[38:20] That's a great thing to tell somebody. Are you promised tomorrow? Did somebody promise you that you're going to make it tomorrow? No. I've talked to several people over the last couple of days that told me they lost somebody unexpectedly just last week.

[38:36] And those are great opportunities to try to reach people. The fragility of life is right in front of them. I used to have these tracks, and it was a round little disc, and it said on a round to it.

[38:51] It was called a round, T-U-I-T. And you just pass that to people, and they'd read it. What is that, a round to it? And it would just say, Well, some people said that they'll get right with God when they get a round to it, and so now you have one.

[39:08] So that's a fun one. But today is the day of salvation. It's been appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment, the Bible says.

[39:19] It's also in Hebrews. Back to our founding verse, and then I'll pass out the microphone here. Colossians 4, 5. Walk in wisdom towards those who are outside, redeeming the time.

[39:31] Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer. Each one. Let's not be bashful. Let's be bold. And even this week, if you have opportunities, even if you haven't signed up, and you have like an evening off or some time off, maybe go to the fair.

[39:50] Even if you just watch and see how it's going. And get a little bit of experience just talking to people and getting your feet wet with sharing the gospel and sharing this faith that we have that is so important and life-changing.

[40:09] All right. So I talked to a few of you. Even if I didn't talk to you and you have something from the fair that you'd like to share, raise your hand, and I'm just going to walk around with this. Is that all right? You can maybe switch this off.

[40:19] It died about five minutes. You've been on podium. Okay. So we'll do this one then. Is this working? Okay, great. Yeah, the battery's died.

[40:31] All right. We're going to start over here with PA. Yeah, we were at the fair yesterday, and I enjoy sort of talking to people a lot.

[40:48] But I was talking to three young girls, and I'm telling you, they're like teenage girls, and I was amazed at how much the one knew.

[41:00] And I said about her bringing two of her friends to take the test, and she said that she had taken it, and she found out that being the answers were all false, she wanted to see how her friend's done.

[41:21] And the more I talked to her, the more I was amazed at, I don't know, maybe she was 16, 18 years old or whatever, and her friends weren't near as knowledgeable, but she was a great witness for them.

[41:41] And a couple times, I mean, it got to where I was thinking, hey, she knows more about this than I do. But I just, after they walked away, I just said, thank you, Jesus.

[41:59] I mean, I needed to meet them, and they all gave me a hug. I mean, that was the greatest thing. So, but I'm sure other people have things that they want to bring up too.

[42:13] Thanks for sharing that. PA was very bold. He actually brought something himself that was impactful to him, something from the two minutes with the Bible with C.R. Stamm about how to be sure that you have eternal life.

[42:26] And that, okay, the May 29th entry. And so he was passing that out and having great conversations. You know, sometimes you might think, oh, people don't want to talk about religion.

[42:36] So many people are interested. How to have eternal life? Yeah. Tell me more about it. Anybody? Who's next? Anybody? Okay, over on. You were talking about the smile part of it.

[42:53] Yeah. And that's really important. And I'm thinking there, I'm doing all this stuff. And I've had several people, matter of fact, I had somebody from here at church last Sunday said, why don't you smile?

[43:06] And I've had other people say that. And I think I'm smiling. Yeah, I know, right? I don't know if it's a physical thing or what. I think I'm smiling, but people think, you don't smile.

[43:20] Well, I'm smiling inside, okay? But I got a wife here that smiles all the time. But anyway, all this week, the biggest thing I saw was that these kids, not only kids, even some of the adults would take the test.

[43:36] And each one would have a whole string of red lights. And they were going, what? This cannot be. And it's amazing that they think that you have to do all these things.

[43:52] And you get to talking to them afterwards. And you start talking about the Bible. Well, what's the Bible all about? Well, it's about God. Well, who else? Jesus?

[44:03] Jesus? And they finally come down to saying, well, what about Jesus? Well, he died on the cross for sin. So a lot of people know this, but they just don't take it to this place where I know that I'm saved, that Jesus Christ is the one that did it.

[44:21] And it's not me. That's not what I do. And like I said, it's not just the kids. Matter of fact, a lot of the kids were pretty sharp. Yeah. But it's also the adults.

[44:32] Yeah. Yeah. The, the, the, the questions, uh, how do I get to heaven? They had to be a good person, uh, pray every day, read the Bible, go to church, those kinds of things. And people like, yeah, that's how you wait a second.

[44:45] What? And so it's a good opportunity to just share. Well, do you go to church? Well, sometimes. Oh, so if that's how you get to heaven, how are you doing? Right?

[44:57] And so, uh, Hey, there's a different answer. I want to know about it. Anybody, anybody else who's willing to share? All right. Back to, I wrote down some different people that, um, that really made me remember my experience with them.

[45:19] Um, and by the way, if you're afraid to go, I understand that. And even just giving your money to the church and praying for these people's hearts to be open, that does just as much as being there because it costs money to, to fund the booth.

[45:40] And next year we want to get in early enough to have two booths so that we can be talking to more people at the same time and we don't have people lined up because they, they're interested.

[45:51] They want to, they want to know what this is about. So even just you giving money helps us to fund that and the prizes that helps bring the kids there and all the tracks and the Bibles and things that we give out.

[46:05] So if you can't be there, just your money even helps when you give to the church and just praying for people. Um, but, um, some of the people that really stuck out to me is, uh, this boy, Caleb.

[46:18] Um, remember him? Nathan was with me, um, when I was there on Friday night. And this is a 17 year old boy and he was really quiet, but he, he hung around for a long time and he just really wanted to know what we were talking about.

[46:34] And he was hanging on every word, but he wasn't saying anything really. He was just so quiet. And so Nathan said, uh, we were asking him, what kind of things is he into?

[46:46] What does he like? And he says, well, I like Marvel. And so then Nathan said, well, we got this book here. Why don't you, uh, if you, if we gave you this, would you read this?

[46:56] And, and it was like a giant, like a one inch thick comic book. That's all about the Bible going from the beginning to the end. And, uh, Nathan said, would you read this?

[47:09] If we gave it to you. And he says, yeah, I'll probably read it in two days. So, you know, that, that will make an impact on him because he really wanted to know things. Um, also sometimes when Nathan was talking to kids at the, at the, um, the quiz, I would stand there as adults would start to walk by and I would just have in my hand and you could do this if you didn't feel like you could speak to people.

[47:38] But I just had in my hand CDs that, that dad had written or had given that says, um, how to know for sure if you're saved or if you're going to go to heaven. And so I would, uh, an adult would just be walking by and I would say, Hey, would you like a free CD?

[47:55] And sometimes they'd say, well, I don't have a CD player. Of course, you know, we know there's a lot of that now, but a lot of them still do have one. And they have one in their car or they have one at home and they'll say, sure. And I didn't even need to say what it was about.

[48:08] And that's fine because they would just take it and move on. But you know, they're going to look at it and they're going to see what it is. And they probably think it's music, but as soon as they put it in, hopefully they'll be intrigued and start and, and listen to it.

[48:21] And, you know, it's still more seeds planted. And all I had to do was just stand there and say, you want a free CD? You know, so, so that was easy. Wasn't there a lady that couldn't read?

[48:32] Or something? Yeah. Yeah. There. And she got a CD. She was, there was a lady probably in her seventies and she was with a walker and I was, you know, we were talking about the dinosaurs and everything.

[48:45] And, and I was going to give her the tract about the dinosaurs. And she says, well, I can't read. And I said, I said, that's okay. I said, do you have a CD player? And she says, yeah. And I says, well, here, would you like a free CD about this?

[48:58] And she's like, sure. So, you know, that, that was a good opportunity there. Let's see.

[49:09] I wanted to say, the most impactful thing was two girls. You have two new sisters now.

[49:20] Two people came to know Christ that I know of that day. And, you know, when you, when you have that opportunity, it doesn't just make your week.

[49:32] It's just like, it's exciting because you know that God used you to bring somebody to Christ. And these two, two people came up together as 11 year old and a 20 year old.

[49:44] And I started talking to them about, you know, what if, what if something happened suddenly and you weren't expecting it? And, you know, I mean, here we are at the Champaign County fair.

[49:55] I said, what if you go out here and you get run over by a tractor? Just trying to be funny or something. But, um, I said, what would you, what, what would happen to you?

[50:06] Do you think you would go to heaven when you die? Or, or do you know, or have you ever thought about it? Well, they said that they had just been to a funeral of a friend of theirs that died from choking on coffee cake.

[50:23] So when you think about something like that, that can happen to anybody, and there's nobody around maybe to, to help you, or that knows the Heimlich maneuver or something, and how suddenly your life is gone.

[50:39] And that gave me the opportunity to talk to them. You don't know, we don't know what tomorrow is. You don't know, that person didn't expect to die. And those two girls were really ready.

[50:51] And they hung on every word. And you just don't know what people are going through and what, what has happened to them in their life, even this week, or somebody that they know that just committed suicide.

[51:05] There was one person that told me that they knew someone who committed suicide. You know, you don't know what people were thinking. And when you plant that seed, God says it will not return void.

[51:18] He's always going to use it. So even those people that, when you talk to them and you say, would you like to pray? And they say, no, no, I'm not going to do that.

[51:29] I don't want to do that. This is still a seed you planted because they know this is a big deal. This is important. And they know that if you're bothering them, you can, they can get you off their back right now if you just prayed.

[51:45] And, and, and then I can move on and go on with my thing at the fair. But they know it's a big deal. So, that, that really makes them think about it, about what you said, even if they're not ready right then.

[51:58] So, give it some thought next, next year. And like Nathan said, if you, if you want to just come out and just watch and just hang around the booth next to us and just listen, you know, or just hand out CDs, even that's helpful.

[52:14] That's great. Lots of teenagers there, weren't there? Yeah. There we go. I was there with Pastor Nathan the first morning that they, that we did this and I was amazed at how many children there were who must have gone and told their friends because they were, they just, we didn't have a minute that, that we didn't have a chance to talk to somebody.

[52:36] And so, it was amazing too that Pastor Nathan knows how to, and he talked about this at the service today, knows how to approach people that, where he's not too aggressive and just gentle and, and suggestive, like asking questions.

[52:53] And, I learned a lot about how to, how to deal with the kids. And, and the parents are, are there and they've enjoyed watching the kids take that test because, you know, there's things that make us all laugh and, but they, but they're learning something and I think that the parents got as much out of that as the kids did.

[53:11] So, it was, it was just really a blessing and I think a lot of people enjoyed doing what we were doing. Right. Yeah, some of the parents don't want to take the test but they'll let their kids, but they're watching.

[53:24] Anybody else? Loretta? Well, I wasn't even there but I was there pre-COVID and I talked to a young man, maybe 17, I'm thinking and he was very interested in what we were talking about and kept asking questions.

[53:58] So, we had two friends that came up behind him and they were encouraging him to go off and they were going to do their thing. Come to find out, the serial man told me a lot about his personal life and he was in the boys' home, whatever that is.

[54:14] So, I guess they all were but, so, he continued to talk and they went ahead and left but he hung around. They came back again, he went with them and pretty soon he came back without them again.

[54:28] So, I've never forgotten that young man and I think he really was searching and I hope that he got some answers. Yeah.

[54:39] Yeah. You don't know where people are at. Some people, they got a long way to go. Some people, they, they, they just need to know what to do. Point them in the right direction.

[54:51] Anybody else? Yeah. I wasn't there but I just want to share what Marva said many times that they have to hear the gospel sometimes four to five times before they ever commit to the Lord.

[55:05] Yeah. Some people are extra hard headed and they need to hear it a hundred times and maybe we can be number 75 or something, right? So, well thanks.

[55:18] Anybody else? I don't want to, I'm actually, I'd like to do this next week too so especially if you haven't, there's still people throughout the rest of this week that are going to be doing the fair.

[55:28] I'd love to hear more testimonies next week. I also wanted to share some of the stuff that we're giving away. we have some dinosaur fossils there so there's some interesting things on dinosaurs and dragons.

[55:42] Here's one, are you good enough to go to heaven? Isn't that a great question? And a lot of people think yes, I am and hopefully reading that might convince them otherwise. This is something, this is a one million dino bucks and so because we got the fossils this really kind of goes well with the theme but there's a little gospel message on the back.

[56:09] These go like hotcakes, everybody wants money, right? You get dinosaurs and money together, like that's a winner right there. So we have hundreds of these so I just give this to everyone and everyone takes one.

[56:22] In fact, sometimes they bring their friends, but can I take a few more? Sure. So, and then this is what we're trying to give away, this is something that I wrote, we have it out on the table out here, it just says the gospel, the Bible's most important message and really this is the Romans road, it's walking them through all the Bible verses that talk about our need, our spiritual condition and then what Christ did for us and then what must I do now?

[56:47] And so I try to get this into everybody's hand and we've given a ton of these away. So, that's it. Yeah, so let's end there, we'll end in a word of prayer.

[56:59] Father, this week as we continue to do the fair, so grateful, I just want to say thank you for all the ways that you've worked, seen your hand at work these last couple of days that we've started at the fair.

[57:13] Even today as we start here, Holly and Chris are starting there in about half an hour, I ask that you would continue to be at work, give us favor, Father, you know where people are at, nudge them towards our booth to hear a message about the gospel, to grab some literature, and help each one, Father, to be bold and courageous and to speak up for the gospel and the truth.

[57:41]  In Jesus' name, Amen.