Welcome to Traveling 4 Christ Ministries.
Tonight you are going to journey into my
mind and eavesdrop on a conversation.
What you are about to hear is about spreading the gospel.
Oh no, not that… Yup, that is where we are headed tonight. I will quote and paraphrase scripture and
give you, hopefully tips or help encourage you to get out there. This has been weighing on my heart
for about a week. After being saved a lot of people just stop and go through the motions. Such As, far as church is concerned it is come and listen, that’s it. We are a Go and Get church, once we are off the
phone we should be going and getting more people. It is now time to step out of comfort zones and
help others to the eternal life we have in Christ.
Now here begins the conversation, by the way as we enter my mind please keep your hands and
feet inside the vehicle for the duration of the ride.

Alright, here we go, let’s do this, I love you Lord. I know I can do this. This is going to be easy.
Just like you said in Act 8:4 “But the believers who had fled Jerusalem went everywhere preaching
the good news about Jesus.” I got this. I am going to go out and tell people about you.
Him, I am going to talk to him. OK, here’s where the rubber meets the road.
Excuse me sir, do you have a moment so I can talk to you about Jesus? What? Pardon me?
That’s not very nice.
OK forget that one, I will talk to her, she seems nice.
Ma’am do you know where you would end up tonight if you were to die today? I’m sorry
I didn’t catch that, oh really? OK well thank you and have a nice day.

Man this is tougher than I thought, why can’t I do this? Why won’t people listen? Don’t they
know I am only trying to help them and look out for their eternal soul? I mean who wants to spend
eternity in hell, separated from God with zero chance of redemption? OK, when in doubt go to God’s
word, it always has the answers. There is nothing you can think of or talk about that God has not
already spoken or given directions about. Hmmmm, here we are Acts 8:29-31 “The Holy Spirit
said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.” 30 Philip ran over and heard the man
reading from the prophet Isaiah; so he asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 The man replied, “How can I when there is no one to instruct me?” and he begged Philip
to come up into his carriage and sit with him.
OK so from this passage of scripture the man was already into the scripture, how easy would
that be to find someone that is in scripture asking for help?
Alright so Philip comes across this Eunuch and finds out what he knows and works from there.
He starts to explain what has been written and what he is reading. So my task is to find out where the person is and start there. Whether they are a non believer, semi believer or maybe a actual believer.

Rule 1: Start where the other person is, not where I want to start.

It is going to take some listening and learning about others before I try and jump in, I guess.
Let’s see what else I can learn:
2 Corinthians 11:6 say “I may not be a trained speaker, but I know what I am talking about….”
So I need to make sure I know what I am talking about. Paul wasn’t an established speaker but he was
dead set on the message. He knew without a doubt what he wanted to say. So it tells me that content is
more important than the presentation. That is a relief, I know what I want to say to people I am just not

sure how to put the words together. 1 Corinthians 1:17 says, “For Christ didn’t send me to baptize,
but to preach the Good News- and not with clever speeches and high-sounding ideas, for fear that the
cross of Christ would lose its power.” So I don’t have to be a professional speaker to do this, great,
now I feel much better. And after reading 2 Corinthians 4:2, paraphrasing it, we can’t trick anyone by
distorting or changing the Good News.

So Rule 2: Content is more important than presentation.

OK God, this is great, let’s keep going…….. teach me more……..wait, content, hmmm, let’s see
what I can get for content. Just to make sure I get this right. Alright, alright, I have read, and read and
read and for me it comes down to the Roman Road. To me it says it quickly and I understand it and I
know I can repeat it. Here it goes: in my words of course;-

Romans 3:23 says we are all sinners.

Romans 6:23 says we deserve death for our sins.

Romans 5:8 Jesus Christ died for our sins.

Romans 10:8-10 To be forgiven of our sins, we must truly believe and confess that Jesus
is Lord. And that salvation only comes through Jesus Christ.

Now I can explain the different areas of Romans if I need to; Telling the person how we are
all sinners, where and how it started. I can explain to them why we deserve death, a Perfect God
who abhors sin and cannot be near sin, so we must die and be separated, meaning hell. Thirdly, as a
perfect God, he orchestrated a plan to bring us back to him. This is where John 3:16 falls into place.
Finally, we confess and truly believe that Christ is our Savior and without him we will not be able
to enter into the presence of God. Here is where John 14:6 comes into play. Jesus replied, “I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” Done, now I got the
content and know what I am going to say. Now I just need to go out and do it. But I have to keep
in mind the parable that Jesus taught about the seeds in the Four Soils. Found in Matthew 13:3-9,
to sum it up the footpath with the birds, shallow soil with rocks, soil among the thorns, and finally
fertile soil. The 4 soils are different people who hear the seeds or the Good News. The Footpath seeds
are eaten by the birds that is people who hear but don’t understand, and the bird is the devil taking the
word before it takes root. The soil with rocks, is people who her the Good News and are happy and do
nothing with it. The third is soil with thorns, again they hear the message and are happy about it, but
life gets in the way and they message gets crowded out. The fourth is the fertile soil, the message
is heard and takes root and blossoms and the message is continually spread.
Not everyone is going to respond favorably to what I am going to say so I just have got to keep
trying. Remember Pat, not everyone listened, responded to or even liked Jesus when he was doing
this. Wow, just think about that, YOU are going to go out and do what Jesus did, actually what Jesus
wants you to do. As you talk to people the reactions may not be immediate, you may never know if
you made a difference. That is not your concern, you give them the message and let the Holy Spirit
do the rest. You just share the Good News to everyone you can and like a pebble thrown into the lake
it will ripple across to the other shore and you will never know how many people saw the ripple and
wondered about it.

Let’s see just to remind myself

Start where the other person is, listen to them.
Content is more important than presentation.
Take them down the Roman Road.
Don’t get upset about reactions.
Keep spreading the message.

So I guess what I am trying to say is, as a Christian it is our responsibility to tell others about
the gospel. Here at Traveling 4 Christ Ministries we are not a come and listen church. We are a go and
get, go and get more people. It is even in our name, “Traveling” we should be out spreading the gospel
as much as we can. In Matthew 28:18-20 The Great commission, which reads; Then Jesus came to
them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the
very end of the age.” is still in effect and is still our number 1 request from Christ. After what he went
through to save us, how can we not at least spread the gospel. Remember, start were they are,
content over presentation, the content is the Roman Road, don’t worry about the reactions, and keep
spreading the message.

Now it is time to get out of my mind please.

Heavenly Father,
I thank you for putting this message on my heart, I thank you for giving me the opportunity
to share it in this setting. I pray that you will stir our hearts to go out and witness for you.
You have given us so much, and ask so little of us. Please use each of us to be the instruments
of your word. Let us be one of the many to go out to the utter ends of our neighborhoods and
proclaim your word. I know in my heart that you are with me at all times and will give me the
words when needed. I just ask that you help me find the courage for that first step.
It is in your Almighty, loving name we pray.

Amen.

pk.

 

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