Pete McKenzie 0:00
Way to go. It’s always good to get caught up a little bit, you know, this group is what we call a face to face group are guys that sit over here and never met guys sit over here have no idea what their name is. And besides that they don’t care. So it’s good to meet new guys. And you might see each other at the police station and hey, I know that guy. You never know where where you’ll run into people are on the golf course and say that guy goes to our men’s group can’t believe he just threw his club. That would be me. Worst when you teach a men’s group?
I know you said something new. But I’ll get to what it was later. Yes, indeed, warrigal. There’s a man of God, right? There. We are, we’re going through a series guys. And we’re nearing the end of the basics, the foundational basics of the Christian life. And what are those basics in we’re unpacking them a little bit, because we’ve been talking about them for years. But it was time now as the Lord told me that there’s just take each one of them and unpack them. The way illustration is basically the navigators, little illustration to show us what the basics are. And what Bill went over with you this morning, is depicted in that illustration. And I’ve shared this with you before, but let’s go over it again. There’s a wheel and picture wheel. And in the middle of the wheel, there’s a hub. Now the power comes from the hub, it emanates right out of there, and the hub in the wheel in this spiritual wheel is Jesus is Lord of your life. And then there’s two vertical spokes and two horizontal spokes in the wheel. The vertical spokes have to do with our relationship with God be that foundational word in prayer. So the foundational, vertical, foundational spokes a word and prayer, then you have horizontal spokes, that has to do with our relationship with each other in relationship with people witnessing and fellowship. Last week, we talked about fellowship. And so this week, we’re going to talk about witnessing, and we call it giving it away. God didn’t give me the gospel, so I can hold it for myself, he gave it to me and changed my life so I can help others get changed. And that’s the way it works. It’s always a multiplication process. It’s not an addition. In the Christian life, Paul told Timothy, Timothy, these things you’ve seen and heard me in the presence of many witnesses, pass on to faithful men who will teach others also. And therefore generations in that in that verse, which shows you It’s Paul and Timothy and faithful men, and who will teach others. So you have four generations. And that’s the way God designed it to work. Unfortunately, it gets aborted. Because of that I shared with you many times, there are two things that men don’t attend. We found over the years, when we when we put on different workshops and events. One of them is they don’t come to prayer meetings. And we’ve talked about that when we talk about prayer and the reasons that men are reticent to come to prayer meetings. The second thing they don’t come to is evangelistic training. And so what we’re going to find out as we go through this this morning, there are a couple of ways that you can share the gospel, you can share it through a presentation where you’ve learned the Roman road is some call it are the four spiritual laws that bill has, the Albright had with the Crusade, and Billy Graham had a similar little booklet that he had. And so there have been so many pamphlets and booklets. And so all saying the same thing, sometimes coming at different illustrations and angles. But it’s all talking about the gospel that that there’s a bad news and the good news. And the bad news is that man is a sinner All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The further bad news is the wages of sin is death. And that’s a spirit not just the physical death, but a spiritual death where you’re separated from God for all eternity. And then a place called hell that Jesus talked about a lot. And then there’s they may get back to my train of thought, yeah, Hebrews 927. It’s appointed on demand to die once and then comes judgment. So the bad news of the gospel and if the bad news in really bad if you don’t really think your center If you don’t really understand the wages of sin, his spiritual death, we have two roads, one is going to heaven and Christ and the other is going to hell without Christ. And people are asking that question all the time. Are you telling me that if I don’t believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I’m going to hell? And that question was asked this week. And I said, Well, that’s what the Bible says, and I believe the Bible. Jesus talked about that a lot. And then another person said, and I told him, I said, Jesus said that this is that he is away the truth in the life and no one comes to the Father, but through him. And I had a gal respond to me, a couple I was talking to, and she said, Well, that’s so exclusive. I said, if you bond belong to the country club, that’s exclusive to.
And so there’s many good, I mean, all those good people out there that never knew about Christ, and all the aborigines or 1000 years in Australia in the outback, and they never heard about Jesus, they’re all going to hell, how fair is that? And that’s a common question. Because what we try to do is pay to take Jesus in what he is and who he is, and what he’s done. And we try to bring it down to our logical, practical understanding of justice and fairness. And so the way I answer those questions in in my own heart is that does seem unfair. So there must be some answer to it. And God told me, he said, Pete, don’t you know, I know everything. I’m omniscient. Don’t you know, I created everybody. And I created some for me. And the Presbyterians called that elect you been elected, or Manian say, well, we don’t believe in election, we believe in free will. I believe in both of them. Again, I understand both of them. But I believe in both. As a lot I don’t understand about the Christian life. And one thing that keeps me from evangelism and sharing their faith is they don’t have all the answers because I can’t answer that question. They would rather not get themselves in a situation where people are asking because they do ask questions. But let’s just take the one about the aborigine. If God knows everything, and everybody if that aborigine had heard the Gospel, Jesus knows whether he would receive him or not. So let’s put it this way. There’s not anybody going to be in heaven. God goes, gosh, how did you get here? There’s no one gonna be in Halo. I didn’t mean for him to go to hell, I met him to be in heaven with me. God’s gonna call us. And there’s, there’s, I think a call that’s irresistible. Paul had an irresistible call, I believe, we might look this morning at Matthew 419, where Peter and Andrew had a call that was irresistible, do said, Follow me. And I’ll make you fishers of men. And so some people, that’s an irresistible call for others, not so much. Now, I don’t understand all I know about that. But whosoever will may come is what the Bible teaches. If you’ve heard the gospel, and then I share with guys, well, you know, I wouldn’t be so worried about that. But originally says you should be worried about yourself. You’ve heard the gospel, they never had a chance to hear the gospel, they’re going to be under the same standard, but different. Jesus knows what would happen to them. And there’s not one aborigine in hell that should be in heaven. And God sorts all that out. And my God can do that he didn’t lay that burden on me to try to understand it. I just receive it by faith and believe in my God who is faithful, and God who is loving and God who’s compassionate. So you have all kinds of situations like that when it comes to evangelism. And there’s two parts to evangelism. One part is presentation. You learn how to share the bridge illustration of the four spiritual laws are some way that you use and I like to ask guys, what’s your favorite way? It’s kind of like a crusade staff gown campus at Auburn, told me one time he’d go around to fraternity houses and share the gospel and share the gospel with people on the campus. And he took a young man with him one night to attorney house and he shared the gospel with the guys in that fraternity. And he shared the shared the Four Laws after they left. He asked the guy said, What do you think? He says, that sounds so canned. I don’t know. I wouldn’t know. I don’t like that. He says uh, what what do you do? without doing anything? Well, I like my can talk better and you’re nothing.
So guys can judge those kind of things. But when you have evangelists that training there guys, it’ll show up but the overwhelming number won’t. And there’s that reason and others that they don’t come to learn how to share the gospel. But you know, if you have the gospel, if you’ve received gospel if any man’s in Christ, if you’re in Christ, then sharing the gospel is the most natural thing in the world. You want to know how to share it, you’re eager to do that. Now some guys have a gift of evangelism, I think. And they and just everywhere they go, people are coming to Christ, and they are winsome. They have pretty good theologically. They know how to relate to people, they share, they share their faith. And some don’t know they’re not that gifted with other people. But when they share the gospel, people prayed to receive Christ with them. And I think they have a gift. But every one of us call to be witnesses. When you and the Holy Spirit is calling upon you, you receive power to be my witnesses, he said. So there are some people that are gifted evangelists. I don’t think any of us going to get up like Billy Graham and have his anointing. But there are other people that have anointings of evangelism. And I think what they have to do is be careful, they don’t judge everybody else by their gift. And by their anointing that everybody should be sharing, like they’re sharing and seeing fruit like they’re seeing an evangelism coast where a lot of us are just not. So in Matthew 28, is where this whole evangelism worldwide missions Global Mission started. Jesus had spent those close to three years with his disciples, and now they had murdered him on the cross. They had buried him he had resurrected. And you know, the lot of the all the accounts of his resurrection and showing himself to people and appearing in the room with the disciples and being on the beach with his disciples and on the road to a mass and all those appearances he had after he had resurrected. And the last thing that Jesus said to the his disciples, the very last thing if and if we said that, Jesus, okay, you’ve been here three years, you’ve taught the Sermon on the Mount multiple times, you’ve healed all kinds of people, hundreds, if not 1000s, you preach unbelievable messages. What’s the last thing you’re going to share with your disciples? What are you going to leave him with? And he is in Matthew, 2819, and 20. And Jesus came up and spoke to the I’m saying, All authority has been given to me and heaven and earth. So Jesus is the king of kings in the Lord of lords. And God gave him all authority. That means when he says, For a demon to get out, that demon gets out. When he says, For the Holy Spirit to come in, the Holy Spirit comes in, when he says, Get up, and you cripple get up and walk, then they get up and walk, he has authority to do that, and He will give His disciples, those who love Him and follow Him and serve him certain power to be able to do those things. Power to live it out power to turn the other cheek. Power to go the second mile and volunteer to do it. Power to pray for your enemies and bless those who persecute you when you receive. And there’s a big underlying in my Bible of when, when you receive the Holy Spirit, the when you receive the Holy Spirit, you will be my witnesses, and at the end all over the world, in Judea, and the uttermost parts of the world sumeria all over this known world. But today Now we find where the outermost part of the world when he was given this 2000 years ago, and we’re living in the other most part of the world. So that’s where it all started, go and make disciples of all nations. And so how do you do that? baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all I commanded you. And lo. And if he hadn’t said this, all the rest with I think been worthless, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. So I’m not sending you out on your own alone for your giftedness and your wisdom and all your great stuff to get the job done. I’m going with you My Holy Spirit, he had told him and trying to prepare them for him leaving and being resurrected and leaving them here. He said, I’ll send you where I’m going, you can’t go but I’ll send you a comforter, the Holy Spirit that lead you into all truth.
And so he’s done everything he needed to do to help us become evangelists if you will, help us become good witnesses for him. So there’s a sharing of Christ when you presented in the biblical setting held out in judgment and then patients to eight nine were saved by grace through faith is not of ourselves. It’s a gift of God. It’s not a result of work, so no one can brag about it. And then, of course, john 316, For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son. There’s I mean, john 524. Anybody know john 524. I don’t either, so don’t feel too bad about and then an x one eight. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be My witnesses. Both in Jerusalem and Judea, and Samaria, and even the remotest part of the world. Paul little said this, he wrote several books on evangelism and Paul said, it’s the Holy Spirit not us, who converts another person. We the privilege ambassadors of Jesus Christ, can communicate a verbal message. We can demonstrate through our personality and life message, what the grace of Jesus can do for one. But never let us naive. Lee think that we have converted a soul and brought him to Jesus Christ. No one calls Jesus Lord except by the Holy Spirit. So I don’t care how slick we are, how great illustrations and presentations we have. If the Holy Spirit in doing his work in it, and through it, nothing’s gonna happen. Nobody’s coming to Christ. All I am all you are as a Christian, if you know and love Jesus, all you are as an ambassador, you’re a messenger you sent from God. And the, you know, at the basic messages, Jesus saw a blind man and he healed him in a crippled man, and he healed him. And the Sanhedrin called a man because unfortunately for Jesus, he had done it on the Sabbath, and you just don’t go helping people on the Sabbath in their religiosity. And so they were questioning the blind man, and they were trying to get evidence against Jesus to arrest him. And so they said, they held you. He said, Yes, he did. He said, they did it on the Sabbath yesterday. Well, don’t you know that it’s wrong to do that on the Sabbath. And the blind man saw where they were headed with this. And he says, Look, guys, you’re the Pharisees, you’re the guys that are supposed to know all things. All I know is once I was blind, and now I see you figure you go tell me whether that’s right or wrong. Jesus broke all the manmade rules that the Pharisees had, they did it casually but on purpose. And he just stuck it right in their face. And john the baptist and the chosen, ask him, you just can’t be nice to everybody. He said, probably not. He said it so casually. But when he looked at the daymond, john, the Baptist had already said, You brood of vipers, Who told you to come to flee from the wrath to come? They were pretty tough on the Pharisees, and who are the Pharisees are the legalist. They’re the ones that put loads on your shoulder, they won’t even care themselves. They’re hypocrites. And Jesus and john the baptist both undressed them in publicly. So they cut down the Baptist head off and put Jesus on the cross. Jesus requires a lot of those who follow him. He requires us to live out what we say we believe because it’s very evangelistic when we do that. When you are slapped on one cheek and people are watching and then you just turn the other cheek people are amazed when you’re slapped on one cheek and you feel the room fuller uppercuts and nail the guy with a good right cross after he slapped you on the cheek that surprised and impressed. But when you turn that other cheek, and you volunteer to go that second mile, that’s very evangelistic, you know what they want to know what that point? Where did you get the power to do that?
How could you become that kind of person, and in their heart of hearts are saying how can I be the kind of person they wanted in their hearts. They just need somebody to show it to somebody to prove to them living in the power of the Holy Spirit that that life can be lived that there’s power in this life to live out the Christian life that he’s given us and that’s extremely vangelis stick. Jesus wouldn’t have told us to do that. If it wasn’t evangelistic. He will tell the scope protect yourself defend yourself. vindicate yourself, explain yourself. He told us to do just the opposite just shut up. So what he did when he was reviled, he reviled not when he suffered he effort under no threats. And then my favorite verse in when it comes to evangelism is Matthew 419 Follow me and I’ll make you fishers of men. Well, he was talking at this point to fishers, Andrew and john and James and Peter. And he put things in their language. That’s reason he said, Follow me. And I’ll make you What? engineers to me, now fishers of men. And these guys were pro fishermen. That word follow means to come after come after me, it means to engage in as a calling or a way of life. And that’s what he was calling these men, I’m calling you to a different way of life. And they were going to be set apart to be church planners, to be leaders in the church. So it was a calling that he was giving them, that God doesn’t call everybody to be preachers, or full time ministers or even full time missionaries, but he’s called all of us to be witnesses, witnesses in our homes, in our jobs in our neighborhoods. Come and it means to proceed along the way. Come and follow me. And as we go along, you’ll proceed, you’ll evolve into maturity, you’ll see and see a breakthrough. Now this really happened not before, but after Pentecost, when they received the Holy Spirit. And then they began to grow in Christ and understand all those things. He was teaching that they didn’t understand the parables and they’d get him off to the side and go, No, what is this thing about the sower? What’s the seed falling on and he explained the seed and the sower, the seed in the ground it fell on and what that represented. But they didn’t get that until they got the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It means to act in accordance with come and follow me and act in accordance with how I’m living and what I’m teaching you. That’s what he was saying to these guys to accept his authority. following me means you’re going to put yourself under my authority, you’re going to make me Lord of your life. And that’s a big order. Cause in our sinful nature, and the the root of the sinful nature was when he was, the devil tempted her with the fruit on the tree of righteousness. And she looked at it and she It was beautiful fruit. And she had just said, you know, if you eat that fruit, you’ll be just like God, you could be your own God. That appealed to her. It appeals to me, it appeals to you. You’re in total control of your life, the coming in the going expanding in the saving, the speaking in the band quiet, they go, go where you want to go, do what you want to do. You’re the ruler of your own life, you’re the captain of your own ship. That’s what the devil tells you and me. And that’s, that’s the mo emanates out of a sinful, fallen nature. We just want to be Lord, we want to be in control. And there’s a lot of guys that hear the gospel, and they’re tempted by the Spirit to follow Christ, but they don’t. Because they don’t want to surrender their way of life. They want to they don’t want to give up. They’re not Las Vegas, in their gambling. They’re drinking their party in their language, the way they treat their wives, the way they do business on it with integrity and honesty. They don’t want to give that up. That’s the only life they know and they enjoy that life. But one day when they become desperate enough, and when I’m sharing Christ with a guy and he’s this kind of guy, he’s not ready. He still wants to hold on, he won’t let go or surrender or repent. I tell that guy Well, the day may come when you’re desperate. This happens with guys. They’re on the top of the heap. They’re on the bottom of the heap. They’re doing great. They have a great loss. They just had a guy this week, I have no family. I have no friends. No one ever calls me.
Got $300 in the bank, and I got no place to live. He’s desperate. He’s a good candidate. God lets us get desperate sometime because Christianity is a rescue effort for desperate men. Look for desperate man. men that are on top of their game they’re using not interested in the Gospel man who don’t have need. But when they see a guy that seems to have it together, and when they look at you and they walk across the room and go What Are you some kind of pastor or something? say why he asked you have such a piece about you? SWAT a guy said to me not long ago, and I don’t I don’t know what that means really. I don’t see where he got that. I’m not aware of that in my own life. But see men look at you. And if you got the smell of your father on you, if you have the, the aroma of Christ, they know it. They know it when you walk by they know it when you carry on business and conversation, the expressions on your face. And you can’t fake that you either got it or you don’t know you can fake it for a while, but you can’t fake it forever. And they’ll know it’s really true. When you have a reason not to have peace, and you still have it. And they see in tight situations I see You humiliated, slapped, made fun of Mark left out neglected. And they watch how you respond. It’s very evangelistic to have the Holy Spirit. And that’s the reason we need to be filled with the Spirit. not drunk with the wine, but be filled with the Spirit. Why? Because it’s a Spirit in us, his character comes out. If any man’s in Christ, he’s a new creature, what’s new about him, he’s got the Holy Spirit. He’s got a new attitude in life. He’s got self control of his language in his thinking. And he takes every thought captive. He prays about everything and prays without ceasing. He does does it naturally, it’s who he is in Christ. But you have to nurture that and that’s what discipleship is all about. You have to be a man of the word, a man of prayer, you have to be a man in fellowship with other growing believers who are chasing after Christ. And then you find yourself living the life, not because you’re gutting it out and just beating yourself up. And but because you’re drinking like that tree and someone by the rivers of life, and you’re soaking up the word, you’re soaking up the fellowship, you’re soaking up the spirit and acknowledging his presence and nurturing that in you. And then it just naturally comes out or, or not. The anger just doesn’t come out. If Susan had told me about Armando, before I came to Christ out, I had a totally different response, believe me, and that’s reason she didn’t want to come up and tell me about him. And you’re wondering who’s a mondo, some of you, as there’s somebody at your table, it knows the story, but I know it better so I’ll tell it again. Anyway, Susan, we’d been dating for years. She goes on vacation to Mexico with her with her family, they’re camping out all the way down to Acapulco, and back, they did this area that year, they went to Alaska and back two years before that, they went to California and back from Birmingham. The two years before that, now they were going to Mexico well, while she was going to Mexico I was going to Rocky Mountain North Carolina to play baseball. And she ran into a guy now before she left she said we were paying that means engaged to be engaged. She was wearing my fraternity pan on campus at Auburn. She took it off and said why we’re why let’s just not be pinned. I wanted to stay pinned And may I go ahead and read between the lines she was basically moving in direction and breaking up with me because I was such a wild man at parties and other things. And she was Miss keep the rules. She was tired. She broke up with me four times in college because I was such a crazy night. And I don’t blame her but always somehow talked her back into getting together promising I’d never do what I knew I’d do again. She meets Armando Armando is a student at the University of Mexico and he starts wine and dine in her around Mexico City. Darren thorns offer roses serenade and they’re talking in that irresistible broken English tears. This is not irresistible with some of you guys. But for Armando it was. And she they really got a thing going so she comes back and Birmingham, they’re home from the trip and she’s supposed to come out and see me in North Carolina.
And I’ve been missing her all summer and couldn’t wait to see her and so they get up there and check into a motel come see me play that night. Then we went out afterwards and talked and I could tell you know when you can tell that something out right here. alloga tell someone right. So we start talking and she started telling me about Armando. Now she knew how it was gonna respond. She knew that I would tell her and Armando where they could go and what they could do when they got there and I’d say a bunch of stuff I would regret. And I didn’t. She thought I’d be angry and I wasn’t. I was disappointed. But I wasn’t angry. I didn’t say things that I shouldn’t say. And this confused her. She didn’t know what’s going on. I can’t even remember what I told her. I said you read the bobby Richardson story. Maybe it happened to you Maybe you could have this same thing I have. I was pretty green behind the ears and sharing the gospel. But the gospel was shared with her through the way I responded to her. In 48 hours, she went from telling me that she and her mom, she was going down to see your mando the next summer for a week at the Olympics, which would be unhealed in Mexico City. And he was going to come up and spend a week with her to Auburn. And that was more and more disappointing to hear. And she the second night we went out she was crying, and she couldn’t figure out what was happening. And what would what had happened to me. And I’m ever going back to my room that first night and saying God, of all the people in the world I thought would never disappoint me. Let me down. I thought Susan would never let me down. But I know you won’t. You’ll never let me down. So went out the next night. She had told me about all this stuff going on with him and her. And then she just out of nowhere said well, when we get back to Auburn, I still want us to date might we have been? I said, I don’t know about that. Let me get this straight. You and I are going to date steadily like we have been that Armando is going to come up for a week and I want to take a week off. I said I might be a Christian, I ain’t that strong. That ain’t happening. She said, Well, I just want to stay up here with you. I said that ain’t happening either. And then she said this amazing thing. She says why don’t we just get married? I said, I gotta pray about that. Okay. We got married five weeks later, happily for 50 years. But what made the difference in 48 hours, God changed her heart from telling me that she and Armando Rimando. We’re going to be item to ask me to merrier. And it’s all because of Christ is diamond is perfect. And I realize a lot of this when I wrote the book, toga heaven. And this started, God started putting the pieces of puzzle together for me and understanding it better when we went through that. But the point of the story is that God changes us and we become new people in Christ, and that’s attractive to other people. And that’s what the gospel is all about. Follow me, Jesus is Savior and Lord, he’s the Messiah. And it has everything to do with our concept of God. I’m almost 100% positive that Peter and Andrew had been exposed to Jesus before he came along in walked with a stranger on the beach, he is already starting to get a reputation of healing people. And they were starting to think maybe this is the Messiah. And then he comes along and says, follow me. Now in understanding those days, gurus, spiritual, holy man they had and rabbis, if you will, they had followers, they had disciples. And what you do is these disciples, like john the baptist, have been some of these guys that became disciples of Jesus, were following john the baptist, and john the baptist gave them to Jesus. He pointed him to Jesus one day when Jesus was walking by he said, Behold, the Son of God. And the disciples started following Jesus at that point.
And so he said, Follow me, the Savior, the Lord the Messiah, and be careful who you follow. And we’ve talked about that align. Who you following you following somebody, but you got to be careful who you follow because of two things. One is because of wherever they’re going, you’re going. And whatever they’re like, you’re going to be like, and there’s a guy right there. It’s been the guy again, via walking witness to following the wrong people and finding what the right people are. But a lot of us in here can do the same thing. I was going down one trail of fraternity guy and athlete and living in the jock dorm, and then I became a new creature in Christ. And all my fraternity brothers used to quit invite me to their parties, because I wasn’t any fun anymore. I wouldn’t drink anymore. And no drunk wants to be around sober people. We had two guys in our fraternity that didn’t drink and we spent all of our time trying to get them drunk, and we were very successful. They became two of the biggest drunks in the tourney house. But if you don’t want a sober guy around when you’re acting like a fool, and he’s not follow me and I will. What does that mean? It expresses confidence to be able to make a commitment. I will make you fishers of men. I have the ability to do that. Follow me and this is what you’re going to end up. We’re going after man. You’re a very expert fisherman. I’m going to make you an expert. Catching man. I’m a makeup expert spirited getting it on your heart a passion to go after guys. Now not many guys have a passion to go after man, not many churches have even a men’s ministry. But Jesus when he called a man to come, he says we’re going after men. Now you could throw women in there too. But we’re going after men, we’re focusing on men in this ministry. Now to focus on men you have to help them in their marriage and so we do a lot of that too. But maybe Jesus has said do something like that to you follow me and we’ll make our will make you expresses an inevitable outcome. You follow Jesus Christ, the inevitable outcome is that you’re going to be a fisher of man, you’re going to have it on your heart to share what you’ve got with other guys. And if you care enough, and if you’re passionate enough, you want to be trained. You wanted someone that is reasonably love the class into seven series It teaches that bridge illustration God’s here man see are the bridge the gap is a cross. See unhealed death in judgment. That’s man’s condition. Over here, it’s came that you might have life and have it abundantly. Anyone professors may with their mouth and believes in their heart, they will be saved. God so loved the world that he gave his only son that if you believe in Him, you’ll never perish but have eternal eternal life. That’s the good news. But if you don’t understand the bad news, the good news Ain’t that good. If you’re living in, in paradise in Southern California, haven’t done look as good the you got the houses and the cars and the life. Heavens not looking as good the but when you really understand the despicable nature of man, man, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can understand it? If you really understand that to understand, and you’ve been the victim of that, and you’re in perpetrating and victory or It’s same time, then the good news sounds pretty good at some point. We want to find those guys. And you never know who they are a lot on putting on facades. It’s a it’s a determined goal, I will because I’m capable of doing it. And Jesus is still making disciples and he’s still calling men to follow him. I’ll teach you how to become just like me. And that’s the third question and becoming a man of God. Do you want to spend the rest of your life learning to become just like Jesus? Absolutely. Or why? Why do you want to become just like Jesus is a selfish reason because I’ll have less pain in my life. If I’m like Jesus, because I’ll make fewer stupid mistakes, and suffer the consequences. I make better decisions. If Christ is in my life. If I’m following him and getting the fruit of the Spirit, if I’m getting hope and joy and love and goodness and gentleness and kindness and patience and self control, then I’m going to have a fuller life. I came that you might have life and have it abundantly, not just a little good, but abundant life rising above the fray. Hard to attend.
sharing the love of Christ with people being that kind of guy, given them hope lifting them up being an encourager seeing the best and guys think they’re losers. And tell them their best days are ahead of them. That’s what Jesus said to guys. Come and follow me and your best days are ahead of you. He didn’t tell him at that point, you’re gonna die. A martyr’s death and now I’m dead but john. But then that was they got a special place in heaven because of that. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. I’ll make you I’ll bring you into being and teaching I’m coaching you form a new shape and you alter a new training you adapt and you correct a new review Can you is a lot to making us disciples, making us have lives that make other people hungry for Christ. That’s very evangelistic. The question is, and all this teaching and coaching Mr. teachable. I don’t know if you’ve ever coached the team or not. But if you ever coached a team and I have I’ve coached a few over the years, not lately, but in my younger years. And you find some kids that are very coachable. They’re just listening to everything you say. And when you say I want you to grip the bat like this, or this is how you throw a curveball. Or this is how you feel the ground ball or this is how you bought yo you bat here. Don’t do it do Don’t drop the head because it’ll always pop up. Keep that bat that angle. And if it’s down, keep it at that angle. If it’s over, keep it at that angle and the balls always going to go down when You do that. There’s some kids listening to that kind of coating and some kids don’t. And find you found some kids are coachable and some are not that I guess a question for you and me as Mr. coachable? Are you teachable? Are you hungry? Do you want to be a good ballplayer, the guys that want to succeed and be good ballplayers and get better and better listen up. And they’re coachable and teachable. But the guys that think they don’t need that. It’s like when coach next took me into the in Auburn. And he and I was a first baseman he was going to, he needed a second baseman in my sophomore year, and he says, I want you to be a second baseman, he sent all the guys out on the field, get warmed up, and he kept me in the training room. He is a blackboard there. And he said, Drew footprints on the board. And I’m sitting there looking at it. He goes, Pete, when a pitcher gets ready to pitch, here’s where your feet are. And then when the balls hit at you, this foot goes here and this foot goes here and your gloves on the ground. Now that glove on the ground, right on it. Because 90% of the balls, he misses and go between your legs. So get that glove on the ground and look at right in there. If that ball, take a bad hop, it hits you in the forehead, not in the nose, if you’re looking at in there, which happened a few times. And I’m sitting there thinking what is his footprints on the board I’ve been playing since I was nine years old. I know how to do all this. And then he took us out on the field and put us in game situations. I’ve got a gown first and second guy hits a ball up the left center alley, what do you do? What do you do shortstop? What do you do first baseman. And we all knew our positions. And he taught us the basics. And we were coachable enough to have a 16 game winning streak my senior year and be number two in the nation and go the College World Series. Not because we were just all exceptional athletes because we knew how to play the game. We knew how to hit cut off man we knew out of button move a man over pitchers threw strikes and didn’t want people we could still basis. We knew how to hit and run. We knew the game because we had a coach who was teaching us and we were teachable. And we wanted it we have one thing in common Let’s win this conference championship. And we did. And every winning team has that. Every winning team knows every guy knows their job. I knew how to play second base. And I think I shared this with you last week that my coach walked out to me coat snakes and he stood at second base with me doing some batting practice. I was taking some ground boss. He said Pete, you do your job. You can’t do Scottish job. It’s shortened Greg’s job at third or Frank’s job at first, you’d play second base and get your job done. Everybody on this team is depending on you to do your job.
So learn your job and do it. And I thought that set me free. For some reason. I thought Boy, that’s a burden off. I just I’ll focus on doing my job, which is on a team. And this is a team that’s Christian life. It’s a team sport. And so you just do your job and what is your job? Do you know your job? I knew my job at Sega base. Now No, my job is a Christian where I fit in on what contribution I can make. How can I help this team win? How can we better be better Christians and encourage each other in the Lord and not forsake the assembling together but encouraging each other all the more sad days drawn there. And that’s what we have to do today pull together as a team spirit evangelistic when we do that. I’ll make you fishers and you know what that means? pro fishers, I’m gonna make you a pro man catcher. I’m going to teach you how to go and get guys. And then you know what your target is? Well, guys, I think that’s all the time we got today. But I think I’ve said pretty much all I need to say about evangelism. You knew a lot of this. We just need to be stirred up again. And again. We need to be reminded again and again and what we’re about if you live your whole life, and it’s not a matter of leading people to Christ, it’s sharing the message. It’s God’s Holy Spirit job to get people saved. Our job is to live the message and share the message. Hey, man, Bill, pray for us as we close.
Bill Kauble 44:18
Are we just thankful for this message and thank you for the power of your gospel. We pray Father that we would receive that what you want us to do we want to be witnesses for you. By that we mean that the power and the blood of Jesus Christ,
Pete McKenzie 44:30
amen. Amen. Go get in heaven, guys.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai