Video Transcript: The Gospel Ask

Welcome back. We continue with our study developing great commission skills.  We're working our way through our final skill, leaving a gospel footprint. And  today we're going to focus on a skill topic that's called the gospel ask. Now what we're pushing for here, in terms of the gospel ask is, you know that moment in  the process, that conversation, the flow of relationship, when you actually ask  someone if they're ready to receive Christ. So the gospel ask. This is when the  Great Commission, pastor or leader finds many ways, many ways you have to  think these things through in advance. You need to think of many ways of  entering into this gospel ask scenario where you ask if he or she is ready to  receive Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. And of course, this, this is much  broader than just pastors and leaders. This is for any, any Christian who is  sharing faith, who is in the process of leading someone toward faith in Christ.  You know when the time is right, when you sense that the Spirit has moved, that this person is really ready, it's time to extend the gospel Ask, you see, people  are going to need a response mechanism, and you're going to provide that.  There have been many situations that I have witnessed where you know the  gospel has been articulated. The benefits of the gospel have been articulated.  There's a sense that the Spirit of God is moving among people, and then there's no gospel ask, and I find that that that can leave people frustrated. Let me, let  me give you an example. Years ago, during my ministry time in Southern  California, our church was growing extremely fast, and we had a certain process of helping newcomers become folded into the life of our church in a very clear,  direct and quick way. So one of the things that we did was we had a seminar on  Saturdays, and we would, we would hold a seminar at least every two months,  and it would be an opportunity for people to come and discover more about our  church. It was called the discovery class, and the idea was to discover, certainly, lots of things about our church, but also to discover things about about God,  about Christ, the gospel would be shared. You know, all sorts of things were  covered in that orientation session. And of course, that was a group session,  and frequently we would have anywhere from, say, 10 or 12 up to maybe 20  people that would be part of that little seminar. Well, again, that was a group  experience, but that would be followed with a conference with either the church  planter with whom I was working or myself. And that in that conference, we  would be one on one, either one on one with this with an individual, or one on  one with a married couple. And it was it was in those meetings that we would get down to the very specifics of where that person was in terms of his or her faith.  And I will say this, many of the professions of faith that were made at that  church were made in those those follow up to discovery class conferences. They were really positioned well for that gospel ask. Well on one particular day, it was  a Sunday afternoon. And I had been scheduled with several of these, these  conferences and so one by one, folks would arrive, and we would have our time  together. I had certain things that I wanted to make sure we touched on, and 

they would have opportunities to share what was on their mind. Eventually, we  would talk about where they were in their spiritual journey, and when  appropriate, I would offer some form of a gospel ask. Well, on one occasion, a  young woman was scheduled to meet with me, and she came into the meeting,  and I said to her my typical opening line, I said, you know, I have several things  that that I like to share with you, but before I get into that, let me make sure that  I hear what's on your mind. So do you have any particular questions or things  that you want to share? And she looked at me, she said, Yes. And you know,  there was an edge to her voice and her attitude, and I was a little bit surprised,  and I said, Oh, okay, so, so what is what? What do you want to say? What's on  your mind? And she said, Well, I want to receive Jesus as my Savior and my  Lord, can you help me with that? And she she expressed this in a very  exasperated tone. Well, come to find out, for a number of weeks, she had felt  that call on her life. She had felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. She was ready  to give her life to Jesus, but we had not provided an opportunity for her to step  forward and say so. We had not provided a gospel ask in some other venue that would give her the opportunity. So I don't know how long she had, she had been feeling this way. I'm ready to receive Christ. Can you help me with that? My  goodness? So, of course, we prayed she received Christ, and I learned a big  lesson that day, and the lesson is that anytime, anytime that you are sharing  faith, promoting the gospel, you've got to include the gospel ask. You've got to  offer people an opportunity to say yes. Now here's another example. I had been  meeting with a gentleman who had a terminal illness, and he had been a person outside of faith, but upon his diagnosis of a terminal illness, he had contacted  me and expressed the desire to try to figure some things out here at the end of  his life. And so I began meeting with him and discussing the matters of the Lord, sharing scriptures, sharing my personal life. I had known this gentleman for a  long, long time, and eventually he did come to Christ, and I had the privilege of  baptizing him. And so we got to the point where he had passed away, and I was  officiating at his funeral. Well, his story of coming to Christ was quite a  compelling story. I wish I had a half hour more with this video to tell you the  whole story, but it was, it was quite a profound profession of faith and his journey was was interesting. It was compelling. It was it was emotional, it was moving.  And so I asked his wife if she would be okay with my sharing that story as part  of the funeral itself. And she thought that would be a great idea, that her  deceased husband would probably like that. And so I did. I took a portion of my  remarks at the funeral to share his story of coming to Faith, and once I had done that, I extended the gospel ask. Now this, of course, was not based out of long,  sustained relationships that I had with all of those people who were attending  the funeral, and numbers of people who were connected through the internet to  the live streaming of the funeral. And so I didn't have that advantage, but I  thought, you know, I'm going to share this dynamic story of how someone came 

to Christ. So I've got to include a gospel ask. I've got to include an opportunity  for other people to step forward. Now, we didn't have an altar call, we didn't  have a mechanism set up for that particular moment, but I did invite people that  if they would like to know more about faith, about matters of the soul, if they  would like to discuss their own prospects of eternal life, that I would love to have that conversation, and I shared how to get in touch with me. So here's the thing  you know, what was I attempting to do? Well, I was attempting to leave a gospel  footprint in the middle of that funeral service so that so I included the gospel ask. Interestingly enough, there was one person who actually was a good friend of  the gentleman who was deceased, who spoke at that funeral, and he spoke with me afterwards, and told me how meaningful the service had been to him. He  asked me if I would have some of those conversations that I had had with this  other gentleman and and then later, within less than a year, this gentleman had  passed away, and when his family was going through some files in his desk,  they found a file where he had articulated some of the things that he would like  to include in his funeral service, and over in the margin of one page, it said, I  would like for Ken Priddy to officiate at my funeral. So I was invited to do that,  and I had that opportunity as well. So you just never know. You know these  seeds that you're sowing, these gospel seeds that you're sowing, you have to  give people an opportunity to respond. Don't leave them frustrated wondering.  You know, I'm feeling something, I'm understanding something, but what do I do  with it? You have to include the gospel ask and bring them further along the way. So what are the components of a gospel ask? Well, I've broken this down to five things that I'd like to share with you. Number one would be the sustainable  relationship. Get involved with people at a deep level. Come alongside them.  Embed your life into their life. Do life with them. Let them know who you are. Let  them know you're a person of faith. Let them see your faith in action, in the way  you live your life. And that's the starting point, if at all possible. The second  component is just simply prayer these people that you're engaged with on this  sustainable relationship, be praying for them. Be praying for their faith, praying  for God to step into their lives with his spirit and turn the light on, if it's not  already on, so that they can receive the truth as truth and either strengthen their  faith or develop faith. You know, the next component would be the movement,  the movement of God in a person's life. You know, we're told in Scripture that  that no one comes to Christ unless he or she is drawn by the Holy Spirit. So we  want to pray that that drawing is taking place. Now there are a few triggers that  tend to tend to turn the light on in people's minds toward things of faith. One of  those is crisis. You know, when a crisis hits, sometimes people feel like they  need help, and sometimes they conclude that some of that help is spiritual help.  That was the case with this gentleman who, out of nowhere, received this  terminal diagnosis. It was a shock to him, and his reaction was, Wow. What's  next? And he had not tended to his soul. He had not been faithful to God. He 

pretty much ignored God his entire life. But it occurred to him, I need to talk to  someone about this. And he knew me. He knew I was in ministry. He trusted me, he respected me. And so he asked me, Would you would you speak with me?  Would you walk me through The basics, so that I can understand what this  whole, you know, belief business is all about. Okay, so there's crisis that strikes  in people's lives. Another thing that can be motivational is children. I have  observed many, many times where you have a married couple that's not  particularly dialed into the things of God. They're just living their lives, their way,  doing their thing, no particular thought of the Divine, the sacred, just assuming  that they're okay. You know, they're basically decent people, moral people,  ethical people, so they're just not dialed in. Then they have their first child, and  suddenly there is this pang of, wow. Maybe there's more to this than I thought,  and I maybe have been a bit careless with my own spiritual life or my own soul,  but I can't be careless with my child. And so next thing you know, they're  curious. They're looking around. They're attending a church. Almost surprised  themselves that they're there. Speaking of curious, another thing that triggers  interest is what I'm going to call curiosity. What happens here is that God is  moving in person, moving in hearts, moving in minds, and all of a sudden, this  person realizes that an interest in understanding religion or God or faith or or  spirituality is bubbling up when it hasn't before. Suddenly, there's a there's a  curiosity to know more, to figure it out. And at those times you see, if you're  walking alongside that people and a crisis strikes, or they have a child, or they  start to get curious, or some other trigger happens in their lives, and they they  want to know more. They want to find out. Well, if you're there with them,  chances are they're going to ask, to ask you how these things work, and you will have an opportunity to share your faith. So we've got sustainable relationship,  we've got prayer, we've got these movements of God. Item number four,  Component number four would be a clear explanation of the gospel. People  can't believe in what they don't know. So it becomes very important for you to be able to explain just what the good news is, what salvation is all about, what all  the pieces are and how they fit together. You don't have to be a master  theologian. You don't have to cover the entire Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, but you do need to navigate a crystal clear, simple explanation of the gospel of  the good News. And then Component number five, repeat, repeat, repeat,  repeat, never give up. If you offer someone a gospel, ask and they don't  respond, that's not the end of the line. You just wait till another time and you  extend the gospel, ask yet again. Now, of course, when people are coming to  faith, they're coming to belief. Scripture says, If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that Jesus raised Him from the dead,  that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Well, if you confess,  what? If you believe? What? That's the question. Well, I put a little short list  together that covers what I see as the very basics of the gospel. Now, you might

have a different way of explaining these things, and that's fine, but this will give  you a point of reference. What are the things that people need to believe in  order to make a credible profession of faith. Well, first of all, they have to believe that they're sinners. First thing, Do you believe you're a sinner? They have to  believe that Jesus is the Son of God. They have to believe that Jesus died to  pay the penalty. For their sins. They have to repent of those sins. They need to  believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. You see that the death of Jesus on  the cross paid the penalty for sins. But if that's all there was, we would die with  our sins forgiven, but we would remain, remain dead. It was the resurrection of  Jesus that allows us to be resurrected. So they have to believe in the  resurrection of Jesus. They have to believe that their sins have been completely  forgiven, past sins, present sins, future sins, sins to come. And finally, they need  to believe that they have eternal life. You see, those are the basic tenets of the  gospel. So when I'm discipling someone, and I'm discipling them, from the  standpoint of helping them understand how to move from unbelief to belief, from being outside of the faith to being inside of the faith. These are the things that I  concentrate on, and then eventually, when I sense that they're ready to respond, they sense that they want to respond, I'll ask those simple questions, do you  believe that you're a sinner? I do. Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God? I do. You know, I just ask these in a question form, and if they can affirm these  with I do, then I know the belief is there. I also use this when I do baptism  services, I'll ask the person being baptized these seven questions, they respond. I do, and that is their public testimony that they are receiving Jesus Christ as  Lord, as Savior. Now let's summarize very quickly, the Gospel ask, sustainable  relationship, strategic prayer, Holy Spirit, prompting, a clear gospel explanation,  and then repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. Here's how it works, leaving a gospel  footprint is at its highest peak when offering a credible gospel ask that stands on the shoulders of an authentic, sustainable relationship. Now that wraps up. That  wraps up our video for today, the Gospel ask as part of leaving a gospel footprint next time, we are going to continue looking at leaving a gospel footprint, and  we're going to be looking at our final two skill topics, the skill topics of personal  discipling and corporate discipling. And then after that, we'll be doing our final  wrap up for the entire course. So until then, may God bless your efforts on his  behalf. May God continue to bless your work and your ongoing studies in the  name of Jesus. Amen.