Video Transcript: A Workable Example of Vocal Witness

We're gonna look at a way that you can get from here to there with the people you want to share the gospel with. It's what helped me and I hope it will help you. Let's pray about it. Dear Jesus, we talked about being prepared. We've been doing that. We talked about being ready, we know that we're ready. What we want to do is have results. We want to bring lost persons to full life in you. To obey you to bring glory to the father, to acknowledge the work of the Spirit within us and to change people's lives forever. Thank you, we trust in you, and we're going to do it. We love you. Amen. 

Well, what we want to do today is look at something that I saw in the Bible, and that's been a very helpful part of my being a vocal witness. We have the verses from Ephesians, two verses one through 10. And look what it says there. You are dead in trespasses and sins. And then it goes on and says in verse three, that among whom we all lived in the passions of our flesh, so what the Bible is saying there is that we're all dead. We're born dead, and we lived in that way. And then it goes on to say that by nature, you see where it says we were by nature, the children of God's wrath, not much hope there. Paul goes on in this beautiful passage. And he goes on to say, but God who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ. We could do nothing, what can dead people do? Nothing. But God made us alive in Christ. And then we can go on and read that passage. And finally, it comes to the point, created in Christ Jesus for all good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. So that's the whole story of the gospel. That's like John 316 fleshed out in greater detail. 

And so what I want to do now is show you how to get from here to there. You love people. Jesus has called you to be a vocal witness, you know, he wants him to be saved. You have relationships, we talked about that. We live with people all the time. We don't have to make relationships, we make new ones, but we have relationships with people who aren't saved. Now what we have to do is get from being with them, knowing them, sharing time with them, to bringing them across the line to faith in Christ. I said last time that one of the ones that we could use is being born again. That's one that Jesus used in John chapter three, when he said you know what you were born once from the activity of a man and a woman, your father and your mother, and you were born into this world. What did we just read? How are we born dead in trespasses and sins. He said, so you have to be born again. Here's the fascinating thing in the language Jesus taught, the word born again means born from above. And that's why he goes on to talk about the Holy Spirit. We were born dead once with our parents. Now we have to be born from above the second time so that we can accept the gospel. That's one of the ways you can approach it. You can explain it to people. 

There are all sorts of other ones that we can talk about. Here's another one. Here's Roman road, Romans. 3:23 says, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 6:23 says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. So we're dead in sin. We're given the new life. And then in Romans 12, verse one, Paul says, after you've become alive in Christ, give your whole life to serving him, living for Him. That's another that you can use. We'd like to call that the Roman road. 

Another that we could use is the bridge. The bridge, we would say, here's something like that. Here's where people are. And here's where God is. And in between is this a big valley of sin, of guilt. And what we do is lay the cross across there, and that becomes the bridge to God's side. A lot of people have used that. And that's very effective, because most people will acknowledge that they have sinned against God. 

There's a couple more that we could talk about. What I would like to call the whole loaf. I rode on the plane from California to New Jersey once a long trip, three, four hours, whatever it was. Started talking to the man next to me. We started in the book of Genesis, about creation, and went on from there and how people fell into sin and the Old Testament. The New Testament was so fascinated you don't always have time for the whole loaf. But when you do, it's a wonderful thing. Finally end up with salvation in the book of Revelation. 

There's another that I like to call the parking ticket. And this is important for all of us. I want you to hear about this one. There was a man in New York City who was running to be a mayor and the government in New York City had been very corrupt. So he wanted to be mayor and he was running for it. And the reporters asked him, they said, What ticket are you running on? They meant, you know, is it gonna be Democratic, Republican, Independent, whatever it might have been? And he said, he is so corrupt. I could beat him on a parking ticket. And here's what he meant by that. It doesn't mean anything what I run on. I know that I can do it. I know the truth. And that's what I mean about the parking ticket. 

You know, I said use born again, use the bridge, use a Roman road. But here's a little line for you, homemade cookies are always the best. And so use an illustration that comes to you. There's nothing that says you have to use one that we talked about here. Just have one. Somebody said to Dwight L. Moody, he was so concerned about people being saved. In Chicago, he would walk up to them and stop them on the street and say, Brother, are you saved? And somebody said to him, I don't like the way you're doing it. He said, Tell me how you do it. The person said, Well, I Well, you know, I mean, if I would I would I do it. And Dwight L moody said I liked the way I'm doing it better than the way you're not doing it. And the same here. If you say Ren, what you've been sharing with us, not the way I would do it. Fine. 

What is your way? We can use illustrations from everything. Think of one of your own. How would you best explain what it means to cross the line to new life in Christ? What kind of illustration could you come up with, that is you, that you would use to bring somebody to new life in Christ. We have seen from God's word, they're dead in sin. They can't do anything themselves. God has saved them and God leads them into a life of service for him. 

And then I want to say one other thing before I show you another diagram, the diagram that I've used a lot. I call it crossing the line. And that is this. Who can play the piano. When you play a song on the piano and people can play all sorts of variations. They can change it as they go along, who can do that the best. The person who is just starting or the person has rehearsed over and over and over again, and then can add things or subtract things as they play. Or  another, maybe in your country, you don't have ice, but here in America, we have ice ponds, and we have ice shows. And so in those ice shows, they always have a clown, and he falls down and he stumbles. He has to be the best skater on the ice because he not only has to be good at it, but he has to make it look so natural and so simple. So he rehearses over and over again about how to fall and how to look funny when he falls that type of thing. What I'm saying is that when you know what the best that's when you can change it. That's when you're confident that's when you can add new stuff and take out old stuff. 

So when we're talking about getting from here to there, what I'm saying is you have to have a way to enter into the conversation and then be ready to go from here to there to say to that person here is what I mean. The one that I learned from Ephesians chapter two verses one through 10 is the one on your on your screen now that I call crossing the line. I want to say I've used this in the back of churches. I've used this in a car. I’ve used in restaurants. I've used this in people's homes. I've used it for older people, for younger people. I use it even when people say they are followers just to make sure they know where they are. But it's a very strong one for me. And here's the way I saw it that God showed it to me in Ephesians chapter two, verses one to 10. 

Here's God. And on this side of the line are people. And what the Bible says is that everybody who was born into the world is born on the wrong side of the fence. Born separate from God. That’s you, that’s your mother, that’s Billy Graham, that’s the pope, that’s a murderer in your town. That's the mayor, whoever it is, the Bible says we're all born dead in trespasses and sins on this side of the line. And that line that wall is so thick and so heavy. Nobody can make their way across it. You do a lot of good things, your kinds of people you give money to charity. You’re good to animals, you're faithful in your marriage, but there's no way that you can get across that line. Why? Because we're dead. Dead people can't do anything. So what happened is God came to our side of the line and that's what we call the virgin birth. Because Jesus came in a special way. This is Jesus. And because Jesus came in a special way, he was able to break that chain of sin that everybody has. 

Now, what God did was take the sin of people and put it on Jesus. Think of all the things that we've said and done, that we shouldn't have, the mean stuff and the untruthful stuff and the hurtful stuff and all the rest. And he takes all that sin from people and he puts it on Jesus. He says Jesus, you are guilty of that. That's your sin. The Bible says He took our sin to the cross and that's where the cross fits in. Jesus went to the cross, not because he was bad, but because we were. Jesus, the Bible says never sinned at all. But when he went to the cross, he was taking all the sin that had been placed on him. When Jesus was here he said, I am the door and then we can understand what he meant by that. He said there's there's no way through there except through me. You cannot cross that line on your own. It is only through Jesus. Jesus said I am the door. This is Jesus the door.

Now the key that opens that door is faith. The key that opens that door is faith. The stuff we do can open that door. The only way we can go through that door through Jesus is by faith. And you know what? Here's where we get nervous. Because we say maybe my faith isn't strong enough. I'm not even sure what faith is. I don't have the faith that somebody else does. Here's the way I want to explain faith. Faith is ABC.

Faith. A means admit. Will you admit that you were born dead in trespasses and sins? And if a person you're talking to doesn't want to admit that just say, Have you ever sinned? And you know, I've never met a person who said he hadn't sin. What they say is I haven't seen as much as somebody else, or I sinned because I had a reason or I'm getting better. But most people will admit that they have sinned. That's the first part of faith to say yes, I was born dead in trespasses and sins. 

The second part is to believe believe that when Jesus went to the cross, it was for me. It wasn't his sin. It was my sin, that when he died on the cross, he paid the debt. He paid off the sin for me. He set me free. Believe that. Can you believe that? Well, that takes people a while some time. Maybe you have to stop there. Because you don’t know how to do this very well. You don't get shook up about it. You say we'll come back to it another time. You might have to spend a lot of time talking about that. Why would God be willing to do that? Why would God punish his own son? All sorts of things like that. But faith is ABC. Admit that you've seen we believe that Jesus did when you have that. Then you cross through its faith in Jesus that gets you through and that's where the c begins, and that is commit. Once you're over, you commit to live in Jesus way. That's what you'll want to do. To say you know, what? I was dead in sin. I believe in Jesus. I'm free. I can live without guilt. It's all taken away. There's an old song. Hallelujah has done, I believe in the sun and I'm saved by the blood of the Crucified One. Okay, so you come through, you believe and then you live for him and more and more and more and more you want to do the things that God wants you to do. 

And then when I ask people I say so where are you? A lot of times, they'll say, Well, I'm over here. You put that in your commit. They'll say I'm over here because I still do things wrong. And I say well, then you're trying to get through this way. You're trying to earn your way across you can't do that. When we're over here. It's true. We still do things that are wrong. But we didn't get here because we were perfect. We got here because Jesus was perfect. And so coming through there, you commit and your faith saves you. 

Now that's an illustration that the Lord showed me in that passage in Ephesians. I have used that dozens and dozens of times. The fellow I mentioned Bob, the military veteran who was dying of cancer. When I showed this to him. I said, Bob, where are you? He said, Well, you know the kind of life I live, I said, Bob, are you trying to get over this way? He said, I know I can't do that. I said then where are you? I said Bob, have you sinned? Oh, he said you should know my life. You know what a military man is? I said, Robert, can you believe that God was willing to punish Jesus for the things you have done. And he lay there on his bed. He said, Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I believe that. I said, then you're on this side. And I don't know how much life the Lord will give you but now's your opportunity to start living for Him. 

This is just one illustration. Maybe you have your own. Like I said, homemade cookies are the best. But I'm comfortable with this. I can add to it. I can subtract it. I can do this in about 30 seconds. And I can do it in 10 minutes. So it's one of the ways and I hope it's been helpful for you. What I'm trying to stress is that you have to know how to get from here to there. That's what changed it for me. In my mind. I know. I can stop talking about this other stuff. And I can say hey, let me show you something. I'll pray for you too. That would work with you. Thanks.