Strategy #2 Go to Them Before They Come to You

Austin Minor

Six Strategies of Evangelism • Sermon • Submitted 5 years ago

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Handout

You have to decide how important person’s eternal fate is to you.

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our dead bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms wrapped about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go unwarned and unprayed for.” - Charles Spurgeon

Strategy #1: Get Your Friends to Become their Friends

How can we get our non-Christian friends to hangout with our Christian friends?

We don’t want to have to drag our non- Christian friends to Church

We don’t want them to endure an hour service where they do nothing but roll their eyes

Friends go to each other’s events

Sports Events

Hangouts

Bonfires

Sleepovers

Theme parks

Simply put, we are just trying to be a non-christian’s friend

We want to befriend non-christians so that coming to church is just like two friends doing something else together

Luke 19:5–10 ESV

5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

Matthew 9:9-

Matthew 9:9–13 ESV

9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. 10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Cautions:

Do not take part in sin to reach people.

Do not put yourself in tempting situations.

Do not allow yourself to be negatively influenced.

Hangout, Sleepover, Gospel

There are layers of conversation

Layer 1 - Interests

Sports

Music

Friends

Layer 2

Layer 2 - Values

Family/Friend Issues

Life Goals

Political Views

Layer 3 - Worldviews

Layer 3

Humanity

Life/Death

God/Spirituality

What we do with our friends and what we invite them to also progresses in layers

Find someone who is not a Christian, or at best a “Christian” who doesn’t take their faith seriously

Invite them to hangout with some other Christian friends at a bon fire or the movies or anywhere else (Monthly Hangout Night)

When the relationship grows a little, invite them to a sleepover (Spend the Night Youth Event)

And when you become a trusted and respected friend, begin to press the Gospel hard.

You don’t stop being friends with someone if they do not commit themselves to Jesus.

Youth services encompass all of these in one night

You are not going to try and talk to someone about what will happen to them when they die late at night at a bon fire when everyone is hanging out. You are going to talk about common interests.

Similarly, you are not going to invite a guy or girl you just met to your Me Me’s funeral.

When I was in Lebanon, I met a man named Yasser. He was tall and stout and very intimidating. When I was teaching them I would try to get them to be quiet and they would not listen to me, but everyone was silent and focused when Yasser walked into the room. It is because Yasser had been their teacher for years and they had great respect for him. He had been there during very difficult times in their lives. They listened to him.

We have to come to a point where the thought of the people around us going to hell is absolutely intolerable.

We have to begin to seek people out to befriend, to build relationships with, to share the Gospel with, and to invite to church.

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