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00:24 Amen. Glory to God. Welcome to the program, Welcome to the Cafe.
00:28 Pastor Clark Covington here with another episode of KJV Cafe. I’m so glad you’re here. I hope you’re having a great week, great month, great year.
00:37 You know, if you’re listening to this on the radio, it’s New Year’s time. I say the radio because guess what? We got a podcast now. If you like pod, if you have a podcast app or something, I don’t know how you listen to them, but you individually, but I know they have apps out there.
00:56 Look us up, KJV Cafe, subscribe to the podcast. New episode every day, seven days a week, amen. And yeah, we’ve got an archive of many episodes, I think over 300 at this point.
01:09 So we’ve got many episodes that are coming online there every day, one a day. But if you listen on the radio, it is about the new year, isn’t it? It’s just past the new year here,
01:31 still in the month of January, and we’re looking at evangelism in 2023 and what that looks like and the importance of personal evangelism in 2023, as in not just, oh, the church should witness to people in this year.
01:43 But you know what? What are you doing to witness to those this year? And the importance of understanding the context in which people are living and how we can reach them.
01:48 I think that, you know, I don’t go to any like evangelism conferences or anything, but I hear myself preaching and I’m like, that almost sounds like something out of a conference.
01:55 But I think if you were at a conference, you know, people that are involved in soul winning would say it’s an exciting time to be a soul winner and it’s a challenging time.
02:03 It’s exciting time as in people, I think like never before in history are looking for peace and they’re looking to be made whole in a crazy broken world where the grocery store can leave you absolutely shell-shocked, amen.
02:20 And what’s on the TV or the news can leave you shell-shocked even more. And on and on and on, there’s just, you know, rent, everything is just expensive and problems and wars and rumors and wars and crazy weather events and all this.
02:35 Is it not God shaking things up just a little bit here or maybe a whole lot right before he comes back to let us know, hey, time is at hand to get, you know, make your call on elections.
02:48 Sure. You know, get right with God. And so look, it’s an exciting time.
02:54 And then I said, it’s a challenging time because it’s a challenging time. Hey, you know, people aren’t maybe necessarily going to the church house like they used to. Maybe they’re going to say, oh, I’ll live stream it or I don’t need to go.
03:05 And statistics show that the younger folks coming up are maybe less involved in organized religion than those that came before them. And I don’t know the exact numbers. I’ve gotten statistics in the past to kind of make that case.
03:19 The younger generation is less involved in church. And if they’re less involved in church, something tells me they’re less likely to be open in that sense of being saved in a traditional sense.
03:35 And so that’s where you come in, brother or sister, the nontraditional sense of winning souls.
03:43 That’s what I think 2023 is going to be all about. How do we win them? How do we win the lost?
03:49 Maybe in ways that we hadn’t thought of before. And guess what? Some 2000 years ago, Paul wrote about this exact topic.
03:57 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, for though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews, I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jews to them that are under the law is under the law that I might gain them that are under the law to them
04:10 that are without the law as without the law, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ that I might gain them that are without law to the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak. I made all things to all men that I might by all means save some.
04:24 And this I do for the gospel sake that I might be partaker thereof with you. And so this beautiful passage of scripture has Paul giving us kind of a playbook for how to win souls unconventionally.
04:39 And for time’s sake, I won’t dive deep into why Paul is talking about this, but let’s just understand that Paul is preaching a gospel that is seasoned with humility and restraint and forethought.
04:54 OK, and so the idea that we’re just going to go bump into someone and God’s going to ordain it, that we win them to the Lord, that could happen. But more than likely, we kind of need to be about our father’s business, which means that we need to get right with God. We need to get our sins washed under the blood.
05:10 We need to be saved. We need to get sanctified. That means repent before God.
05:24 And then we need to really seek the Lord and how he’d have us to win souls. Because Paul had an end vision. You know, he had an end goal vision.
05:27 He said, I would like souls to be saved. So therefore, let me do these things that could be uncomfortable for me, that could make me look foolish, that could endanger my safety, whatever it was.
05:34 Paul was thinking of the end and then therefore shaping his life into that way.
05:38 He was doing that in all facets of his life. He was making tents so he wouldn’t be accused of taking money while spreading this gospel. He wasn’t going to look like a profiteer.
05:46 And I love the idea that not only was he not profiting off of the gospel, it’s free, the gospel is free, but he wasn’t even having that vain glory, right?
05:56 You see like a politician who may have a bunch of money in the bank, but they’re still trying to profit off of the office by having vain glory and pride and status and all these things.
06:03 And Paul wasn’t doing that either. In fact, quite the opposite.
06:08 He was making himself humble. He was putting himself back into places that he didn’t need to go. Uh, you know, I would say this and then I’ll try to be delicate with this, but imagine you leave a church.
06:19 Okay. That’s why I could say it. Like, let’s say you went to a church that was very legalistic.
06:25 Okay. And, and, you know, we’re, uh, our church is independent Baptist. And so, uh, you know, some of these independent Baptist churches can get pretty legalistic, uh, not all though.
06:33 Amen. And some of them can be on the opposite end. They’re way too liberal, but, um, that’s why I don’t really harp on the independent aspect of it, but, uh, imagine you’re in a legalistic church.
06:42 Okay. And you’re not there. Um, you know, after a while, because you realize that you’re not under the law and they’re trying to put you under the law.
06:50 They’re saying, look, you know, if you don’t look a certain way or act a certain way, you’re not right with God and you can’t be right with God and all these things.
06:57 And, you know, you’re reading your Bible and you’re like, man, the Lord loves me and I’m saved by grace. I’m not under the law, you know, and you, you realize it’s hard to reconcile this idea of, uh, you know, uh, by grace alone, you know, uh, with this legalism in the church, but let’s say there’s people in that church that you love, amen.
07:15 And you, you want them to be saved and you’re concerned for them because maybe they’re not, and you know, for a fact, they’re not, you know, maybe they’re new visitors, maybe their family friends.
07:24 And so you start going back to that church, but you know that they’re going to be doing these legalistic practices that are not, uh, that are not necessary.
07:35 But you go through those practices so that you could help win your friends and your family.
07:40 That is kind of, I think what Paul was saying when he said he became a Jew to the Jews, see, he was a Jew. He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Amen.
07:50 He was like the chief Jew. He was going to persecute these, these pesky Christians. He was going to jail them.
07:57 He held the coats while Stephen was stoned. Amen. And he understood the law of the Jews very well.
08:03 And he’s converted miraculously on the road to Damascus. He sees Jesus himself. He learns his doctrine from Jesus three years in Arabia, in the wilderness.
08:12 Jesus himself teaches him the doctrine of, uh, being called to the Gentiles and saving the Gentiles. But what does he do? He says, I became a Jew to the Jews.
08:23 He w when you read about his missionary journeys, the first place he’d go as Paul would go to a new place is to the synagogue, the Jewish temple, their version of church.
08:32 Amen. He would go there. And so here’s this fascinating, fascinating idea that Paul himself.
08:37 Okay. This is true fact that Paul himself who had been graduated from that program as a legalistic Jew and, and taught and bought with the blood of Jesus. Amen.
08:49 That now he goes back to the Jews, not all puffed up and not like, what are you doing these rituals for? Oh, you, why, why are you doing this? Why are you doing that?
09:00 Why are you sacrificing, sacrificing this? Why can’t you eat that? He doesn’t go back arrogant and obnoxious. He goes back in love and kindness. And by doing that, he’s able to win some, not all, but some amen.
09:13 And that’s just a beautiful picture of servant minded evangelism of a mentality of I’m going to serve God above my own pride. Because again, if you, if you could think of, I think I mentioned this in the past episode,
09:26 that someone was in Arabia with Paul or on his missionary journeys and it saw him go back to the temple and saw him put himself under. Their laws there, that person would say, what’s this guy doing? He knows better.
09:39 Is this guy lost his mind? But Paul was willing to look foolish to the outside world so that he strategically could win souls for the Lord. And God expects us to do this. You know, you gotta remember God’s in full control.
09:52 And so if God’s allowed Paul to do this, if God has put this in his word so prominently and so beautifully, then this is how God wants us to operate. Which is what are the themes here?
10:02 Humility, love, patience, kindness, not offending. How many times did Jesus say in his earthly ministry, let’s not offend.
10:12 We’ll go do this because we don’t want to offend. You know, there, there’s a thought behind this. It’s not just being polite.
10:19 It’s how you soften the hearts, or at least attempt to soften the hearts of those that are not saved. And how I’ve heard preachers say this for years. You can never argue someone into salvation.
10:31 And the few people I’ve attempted to argue into salvation, it didn’t work out. Amen. If anything, they seem more entrenched than ever in their ways.
10:38 Now there’s a very interesting thing here. Paul doesn’t just go to the Jews. He goes to those without the law a
10:45 nd he’s at verse 21 of first Corinthians nine gives us a good kind of caveat to them that are without the law as without the law being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ that I might gain them that are out without the law.
10:53 Now that’s a lot of laws and stuff mentioned the word law a bunch of times. But the point is, I believe the way I interpret this, Paul was going to go to them without the law, the Gentiles who’s who he’s called to. Okay.
11:11 So he’s going to the Jews first. That was his program. Then he goes to the Gentiles.
11:14 He says, okay, you guys are not under the law. Okay. Neither am I, you know, you guys want to eat meat.
11:19 So will I. Okay. You guys want to do this? So a lot. So he became without the law to them.
11:25 And that was a kind of a way to witness to them, right. And build familiarity and build a bridge with them where they didn’t feel like, because again, in those times in Bible times, the Jews viewed the Gentiles as dogs, right?
11:34 They viewed them as unworthy and not right. And not God’s people.
11:40 And that was viewed truly from, I think God himself communicating that to the Jews, that Jews were the chosen people through Moses and everything. And if you really want to get deep with it
11:50 some believe that that God was going to use the Jews as the kind of the Supreme evangelists of the time to witness to the whole world. I mean, God in the Bible puts that he desires the whole world to be saved.
12:00 So God doesn’t look down on those that are not Jews, but God does have a chosen people and they are the Jewish people. And so Paul says, okay, you know, I’m going to break down these barriers.
12:11 So people don’t think I’m just like this legal, you know, this legalistic Jew, this Pharisee, they’re going to know that I’m different, but it says here in verse 21 of 1 Corinthians 9, being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ.
12:22 And what I believe that means is that Paul wasn’t openly sinning. He wasn’t like bellying up at the bar and drinking and getting drunk and saying, well, I’m just going to be like you so I can win souls. Never does Paul advocate for sin or reproach.
12:37 And so while we want to become weak to the weak and lawless to lawless and so forth, we never want to compromise our values. We never want to compromise biblical teaching. God is not mocked.
12:48 God does not contradict himself. God is not looking for you to find a reason to go sin. Amen.
12:53 So, you know, there are so many examples that I could give a one would be like the LGBT movement. It’s very easy to try to feel sympathetic to them and say, okay,
13:03 I’m going to come alongside them and all this stuff. But if God calls it an abomination in his word, it’s an abomination because my God does not change.
13:17 Okay. And that’s a hard truth. But the Bible clearly tells us that God made man for woman and woman for man.
13:20 And that is God’s design. And biology tells us and everything else tells us procreation tells us everything tells us that’s how God’s doing things. And so when we go against God’s design
13:29 , just to quote fit in and warm up to people, we are then confusing people and not able to bear fruit for God because the Bible says a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
13:37 Amen. And so I wish I had more time to dive into that, but I want to make it clear that we should be thinking about how we can get down to the level that people are on and relate to them and build bridges and not be obnoxious,
13:51 but at the same time, hold firm to biblical truths and not deviate from them in the name of evangelism. I heard a modern day preacher,
13:59 and I don’t remember which one, say that their church was seeker friendly and it was like an excuse for them not preaching the gospel, not studying the Bible and all these things.
14:08 And that is not an excuse. Okay. We have to stand firm on God’s word and yet meet people where they’re at with humility.
14:16 And I can’t wait to get to the rest of this and wrap this message up. So tune in next time for the, uh, it looks like we’ll be the conclusion of this series here on Paul’s writings on how to be an evangelist here in the new year.
14:27 Thank you so much. Take care. God bless and amen.