Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Personal Evangelism
Personal Evangelism
Personal
Evangelism
Gene Taylor
Table of Contents
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... 1
Lesson Two: “Why Aren’t More Christians Involved in the Work of the Lord?”........................... 5
Lesson Three: Essential Attitudes for Doing the Work of the Lord .................................................. 7
Conclusion
1. How wonderful to have the opportunity to walk in the footsteps of the Lord and continue His
mission.
2. Are you doing your part?
I. A Lack of Conversion
A. The basic idea of conversion is change. This change must include a change of:
1. Heart—intellect, will, and emotions.
2. Conduct. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11; Romans 6:1-4)
3. Relationship. As:
a. Servants. (Rom. 6:17-18)
b. Citizens. (Colossians 1:13)
c. Children. (Galatians 3:26-27)
B. If one has not made these changes, is he really converted?
C. Some have only been “churched.”
IV. A Failure to Understand That Success of the Local Church Demands Individual Effort
A. Consider:
1. The collective expressions of worship—individual involvement is demanded for success.
2. Church discipline, though a collective action, involves each individual.
B. The example of the healing of the paralytic. (Mark 2:1-11)
1. The four who brought the paralytic to Jesus.
a. Their mission was to bring their sick friend to Jesus so that he could be healed.
b. They worked collectively—cooperating with the others in order to reach their
common goal.
c. They worked individually—not a one of them loafed or gave up.
d. They worked to remove the obstacles that would have kept their sick friend from
coming to Jesus.
2. The application.
a. The mission of the Christian is to bring sin-sick humanity to the Great Physician
for forgiveness of sins.
b. Christians must work collectively—cooperating with other Christians in order to
reach their common goal.
c. Christians must work individually—no one is to be idle or to give up.
d. Christians must work to remove the obstacles that keep people from coming to
the Lord.
Introduction
1. Often the Lord’s work is not accomplished because those who claim to be “Christians” do not
possess the proper attitudes to accomplish it.
2. This lesson will seek to list and explain some attitudes which the productive Christian will possess.
Conclusion
1. Every disciple needs to possess each of these attitudes.
2. If the work of the Lord is going to be accomplished, it will be by those who are loving, joyful,
faithful, prayerful, and persistent.
3. Do you have what it takes to work for the Lord?
Conclusion
“This one makes a net,
“This one stands and wishes.
“Would you care to make a guess,
“Which one gets the fishes?”
(Unknown)
I. Lack of Effort
A. Ignorance of the fact that it is our duty.
1. It is not an optional thing.
2. It is a matter of duty to all Christians.
a. Matthew 28:18-20: “Go therefore and make disciples...teaching them to observe
all things that I have commanded you...”
b. 2 Timothy 2:2: Faithful men are to teach others.
c. Hebrews 5:11-14: “...by this time you ought to be teachers...”
d. Matthew 25:14-30: The parable of the talents. The master dealt with the servants
individually, not as a group.
B. No interest in the lost.
1. Luke 19:10.
a. Seeking and saving the lost was the primary concern of Jesus.
b. It is to be our primary focus.
2. Romans 9:1-3 and Romans 10:1-3 illustrate the apostle Paul’s concern for the lost.
C. An improper attitude toward the lost. Some “Christians:”
1. Reflect the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. (Luke 18:9-14)
2. Have the attitude of the prodigal son’s elder brother. (Luke 15:25-32).
D. Waiting for the church to organize a program.
1. Every local church needs to be greatly concerned with the task of reaching the lost.
2. As individuals, though, we have the responsibility to seek out and teach lost souls
whether or not the church ever organizes a program.
E. Spending all our time talking about it.
1. Personal evangelism needs to be considered and discussed among brethren.
2. However, merely talking about it will not accomplish anything.
Conclusion
“If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples,
they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon the immortal minds, if we imbue them with principles,
with the just fear of God and love of our fellowman, we engrave on those tablets something that will
brighten to all eternity.” (Daniel Webster)
Introduction
1. Christianity will not mean anything to the world until it means everything to us.
2. The gospel is to be adorned by our lives. (Titus 2:10)
a. A delicious-looking apple offered by a dirty hand full of sores, dirt under fingernails, etc.,
will suddenly become unappetizing.
b. The priests of the Old Law were condemned for not making their lives consistent with the
Law. (Malachi 2:4-8)
I. Committed
A. One’s life must be wholly surrendered to God and Christ. (Matthew 16:24)
1. One must seek the Lord, His kingdom and His will first. (Galatians 2:20)
2. One cannot be lukewarm and be successful before the Lord. (Revelation 3:14-16)
B. Selfishness is the greatest enemy of personal work.
1. If one is to be useful in personal work he must put away personal interests, comforts,
ease, pride, and feelings.
2. He must live up to his confession when he became a Christian.
C. One must be committed to the Lord’s cause.
1. The Lord needs people with the zeal and dedication of the apostle Paul. (Philippians 3:8-
16; 2 Timothy 4:1-8)
2. A suggestion on how to get such dedication: Take every member and allow them to
experience hell for five minutes.
V. A Firm Conviction
A. He has a firm conviction that every person who has not obeyed Jesus and His gospel is lost.
(John 8:24; 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9)
B. He follows the example of Jesus (Luke 19:10) and Paul (Acts 20:26-32).
VI. Love
A. Love: good will which actively works for the good and salvation of others.
B. One who has never been brought to a deep realization of his own sinfulness before God and how
great the love of God was in forgiving him will never have love for others. (See the Parable of
the Unjust Steward in Matthew 18:23-35)
C. He speaks the truth in love. (Ephesians 4:15)
VII. Humility
A. One’s attitude must fall between two extremes: conceit because of success and discouragement
because of failure.
B. The power is in the word. (Rom. 1:16)
1. We can interfere with its power but we cannot add to it.
2. The “planter,” “sower,” and “waterer” are “nothing.” (1 Corinthians 3:5-7)
IX. Hope
A. He has conviction he will reap in due season. (Gal. 6:9)
B. While being realistic and not naive, he can teach in hope because:
1. There are still many good and honest hearts.
2. The word he teaches is powerful.
3. The more he sows, the more he will reap. (2 Corinthians 9:6)
X. Prayer
A. He knows that God honors and answers prayer. (Matt. 7:7; James 5:16; 1 John 3:22)
B. One needs to pray for:
1. Help in recognizing open doors and the strength and energy to take advantage of them.
(Matt. 9:36-38)
2. The ones with whom he studies to have open hearts and minds so that they can be
touched by the gospel. (Rom. 10:1)
3. Courage to speak the truth boldly. (Eph. 6:16-20)
4. The ability to teach in a way that others can easily understand. (Jas. 1:5)
Introduction
1. In the above text, Jesus is trying to get His disciples aware of the grander aspects of life— those
things spiritual in nature.
a. Their focus was on the material. (vv. 8, 27, 31, 33)
b. They needed to start concentrating on spiritual things because they are more important.
2. Sometimes we, as His disciples, are guilty of the same-shortsightedness.
a. We easily get caught up in the material.
b. Even in spiritual matters we close our eyes to that which is really important and look only to
trivialities.
3. There are many areas in which we need to “lift up our eyes” (v. 35) or broaden our horizons but
none is more necessary than in evangelism.
a. According to Brent Hunter in Personal Work 101, within the next:
1) Minute, 156 people will die without hope.
2) Hour, 9,360 people will die without hope.
3) Day, 224,640 people will die without hope.
4) Week, 1,572,480 people will die without hope.
5) Year, 81,768,960 people will die without hope.
6) 2.6 seconds, someone will die without hope.
b. If you were to put into a line those people who are without Christ, the line would be 750,000
miles long, could circle the earth 30 times and grows 20 miles longer each day. (Pulpit
Helps, Vol. 13, No. 5, March 1988)
Conclusion
1. We need more “Philips.” We all need to be more like Philip.
2. He may not have been an apostle or as famous as Paul or Peter but he was a dedicated, effective servant.
3. Following his example, we also can be and must be effective workers for the Lord.
Introduction
1. Time is a valuable commodity. When we fail to properly esteem it we fall prey to many troubles.
2. Most of us fail to make the most of our time.
a. The worldly recognize this. All sorts of methods have been developed to help people better
budget their time.
b. Someone has said, “Don’t squander time for it is what life is made of.”
3. The Scriptures have a lot to say about time, our regard for and use of it.
a. The way one uses time reveals a lot about the character of an individual.
b. More importantly, the way one uses time may well determine where he/she will spend eternity.
Conclusion
The best motto in relation to time may be: “Live as though Christ died yesterday, arose this morning and
is coming back tomorrow.”
Introduction
1. When Joshua was appointed by God to lead the children of Israel in conquest of Canaan, God told
him to “be strong and very courageous.”
2. Courage is essential for a soldier in battle and for a soldier of Christ in the fight of faith. (Ephesians
6:10-18)
a. Courage is the strength of the soul.
b. God has no use for cowards. (Hebrews 10:38-39)
3. Spiritual strength includes steadfastness, bravery, faith in God and honesty.
a. It does not come by accident.
b. It is deliberately developed.
4. This lesson will show areas in which Christians need to be strong and courageous, sources of
courage and how they must build their lives and service upon a foundation of courage.
Conclusion
1. The Christian must purpose in his heart to build courage by taking courage in those who have
overcome before him, by seeking the encouragement that is in God and by seeking the
encouragement of true Christians.
2. Each one needs to trust in God and be strong and courageous in his service.
! Articles of interest
on many Biblical topics.
www.centervilleroad.com