The Power & Necessity of Evangelism, Part 6 | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr. | 25 MARCH 25

Holy Spirit, you welcome me in this place. Holy Spirit, you're the sweet Holy Spirit. I need love. We love you, Jesus. We bless you, God. We bless your great name. You're mighty, God. You're awesome. You're glorious. And beside you there is no other. Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, I'm in love. Praise the Lord, everybody! Hallelujah! Yes, indeed, we love Jesus. He's our King. And he's our God. Glory to God! And welcome to day 6 of these teachings. Uh, this is actually— what is this? This is actually day 8 of our fast. So we're super excited to be here, uh, with you again at 12 noon. Uh, do me a favor, guys. I'm going to make this request every single time because it's so very important that you, one, like the post. Number two, that you share this post. Glory to the name of God. And thirdly, that you comment below and let us know that you are here. I want to just extend a warm welcome to everyone that is joining us, and I want to say thank you to everyone that's joining us at 5 AM for prayer every morning. Um, prayer was tremendous this morning. The Lord met us there through his word and through, uh, our decrees and declares from the selfsame word we was reading. Uh, just tremendously blessed in prayer today and, and just looking for God and the angels of the Lord to give us results, uh, from our praying. Glory to God. So good afternoon to everyone. Welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. Glory to God. I see Pastor Jasper and Pastor, uh, Sharia. I see, uh, glory to the name of God, uh, Stephanie. I see all you guys. Thank you for being here today. Glory to God. Oh, God is so good. God is so kind. God is so wonderful. We love him. We love him. He is, he is amazing. Glory to the name of God. And beside him there is no other. Lord, just take a few moments to worship him. I feel Jesus. Glory to God. I feel Jesus. Glory to God. And I believe that as we teach the word, the Bible says he sent his word and it healed them. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We give him praise. Hallelujah. God bless you from Alabama. God bless you, woman of God. Good, thank you for being here. Glory to God. Hallelujah. This is going to be great today. Um, we're going to start again diving into some methodology and some practical things about winning souls, because again, this whole fast is about the salvation of souls and the synergy of the saints. And I believe if we could synergize and get on the same page about souls, man, so many great things can happen. So let's pray. Glory to God. And then we're going to jump into this teaching. So Father, we love you and we praise you. We give you glory. Uh, we declare, God, that besides you there is no other. Yes, Lord, you, you rule and you super rule. God, heaven is your throne and the earth is your footstool. The heavens declare your glory. And the earth your handiwork, God. And Father, even as we teach this word, I pray that believers, glory to the name of God, from, uh, every part of the country, every part of the world, would tap into this teaching, and that there will be a zeal, there will be a fire, uh, for us to move into this space of winning souls, God. I pray that we will just begin to internalize this burden, glory to the name of God, and that we will advance the kingdom like never before. And we give you praise, we give you glory, we give you honor. We thank you that what's to come for us is better than what has been, and we bless you for it, God. In Jesus' mighty name, amen and amen. Again, family, glory to God, I need you to share. Hallelujah! I need you to share. It's just nice to be nice. Glory to God. Hallelujah! So please share. Praise God, someone needs this word from the Lord today. Hallelujah! Someone needs it. Amen. I, I mean, I just believe it. Glory to God. And I believe that as a result of people receiving this, others will have an opportunity to actually encounter and experience Jesus Christ. Glory to God. And that's what we want, you know. I believe if you will grab this as a purpose, man, I believe you'll live a long time for real, because your purpose will always be necessary. Because at the end of the day, they're gonna always be people that need Jesus. Glory to God. And I believe if you grab this as a way of life, my God, I, I promise you things won't be the same. So please, guys, let's get this shared. Glory to God. And let's trust God. Hallelujah. That our greatest days are ahead and that someone is going to be blessed by what we do and what we say. Amen. Hallelujah. Glory to God. We love him. We love him. I'm gonna get started. I just feel God. Glory to God. I'm just trying to absorb this presence right now. I, I, and I wish you would just, right where you are, I know you may be doing things, but just lift your hands for just a few seconds and tell the Lord thank you. Lord, we thank you. We give you glory. We give you honor. You are our King. You are our God, and beside you there is no other. And we take a moment and we worship, we glorify you, we makrograph your name, we supplement you, and we say, Lord, you are our omnipotent Father, and we bless you. Thank you for your mercy, thank you for your grace, and we praise you, God, even for this word. Thank you for the intelligence of heaven. We give you glory, God. Hallelujah! We give you honor. We bless you, God, and we praise you. We praise you. God is so good. God is so kind. God is so wonderful. All right, family, let's, uh, Kuramandi ki sandama mandi onsaia. Kuramandi osa. Yes, God. Goramama mandi ansa talabandi oso. We give you praise, we give you glory, we give you honor, we extol you. Gloramandi oso toramandi aya. Jesus, you're wonderful. Jesus, you're mighty. Omansiya talabate. Well, I'm trying to go, I'm trying to move, but I feel Jesus. I feel healing. I feel deliverance. I feel breakthrough for those that will come in live or by replay. I feel an anointing on this. Hallelujah! A weight of glory. Hallelujah! That's extending through this camera to every person that's watching us now. Glory to God. We love you, Jesus. We magnify you. We bless you. We honor your name. Hallelujah. I'm gonna try to bridge out of this, guys. I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying, I'm trying. So welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. Glory to God. Welcome to 12 Noon. This is what we're calling Bible Immersion. We're getting in the word and we're talking about, glory to the name of God, evangelism and how important that is. We've taught, uh, 5 messages prior to this. Uh, this is day 6. And, uh, I pray you're grabbing this. I pray that something is being stirred in your spirit, uh, to win souls for Jesus. Amen. So glory to God. Let's, let's, let's jump in it. Glory to God. Hallelujah. And, uh, we're going to talk about this today. Let's go to Matthew's Gospel, chapter number 4. I love y'all, man. Hallelujah. Chapter number 4, and we're going to read verse number 19. Glory to God. Hallelujah. 4:19. Glory to God. So that we could continue to see, praise God, the importance of— are you, are you here? Glory to God. Uh, the importance of this teaching and what we're supposed to be doing. And anytime we can align something in our life, watch this, with what Jesus says, I need you to hear me, uh, we're doing a good thing. Glory to God. Because watch this, whatever Jesus says He is a king and he decrees it, it's law. It's intended for us to hear it and obey it, right? And then secondly, whatever Jesus says is truth. He can't lie. So if he said it, praise God, there is a real purpose and intent behind his reasoning. He honestly wants us to operate in this realm. Glory to God. So Let's praise God, uh, read, uh, 4:19. Glory to God, and, um, we give him praise. Praise God, we give him glory, we give him honor. Jesus told his disciples in this particular text, he said, follow me, hear this, and I will make you fishers of men. I'm gonna read that again because it's just all right to read the Bible. Amen. He says, follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Glory to God. Now I need you to grab this. Matthew 4:19, Jesus is talking to newly called disciples. And he's telling them to follow him. And watch this, you're not going to practice what you've been doing, Luke, as a doctor. You're not going to be a tax collector anymore, Matthew. But as you follow me, you're going to be a fisher of men, which means now following Jesus, hallelujah, is an idiom for fishing of men or an idiom for evangelism. So I want to venture to say, if you're truly following, you are also fishing. I'm gonna say that again. I'm saying it up front. I'm, I'm throwing this curveball real quick. I'm coming at you with my best pitch right now, because for real, if you're actually following God like most of us say we are— hear me— you're also fishing. I didn't say if you're following, you're prophesying. I didn't say if you're following, you're apostling. I, I didn't say if you're following, you're teaching or pastoring. No, if you're following— because guess what? You can claim those offices. You can have— you could be a believer and go to church and not be fishing, all right? As a whole lot are, which is indicated by indicative of the numbers. I said it the other day, Muslims outgrowing us 15 to 1, Jehovah's Witness 11 to 1, and I can keep going with every world religion that's outgrowing us in conversion because they are engaged with people, they are evangelizing. We go to church, we jump, we shout, we speak in tongues, we fall on the floor, and we claim that we're having revival. We claim that the fire is moving in our service, but nobody's getting born again. Our people are not being empowered and deployed to show up in the world, hear me, to change life, to use those very same gifts that they're learning about that they have in the world to help bring people into the kingdom. And if you miss this, you miss— so that's just not my ministry. Well, you're not following. You're following your own agenda. Jesus called disciples to make them fishers of men. So here's my question to you. When was the last time you went fishing? For real, when the last time you went fishing for men? Again, this teaching is not popular. People are not going to jam-pack it because people don't want this, man. But the reality is, you know, you're just a church goer— glory to the name of God— and you're born again, but you're operating in a supreme space of disobedience. And I call it supreme space because you are avoiding a reality that God has commanded you to do something and you're choosing not to do it, or you're afraid to do it. But the reality is, if you're not fishing, you're not following. There are some people that need you. Right? And so that's why we're teaching this, because again, the indication here is if you're really following Jesus, you're fishing, you're soul winning. The last words Jesus gave to his disciples: go and teach all nations, make disciples of all nations. Glory to God. And, and then you would see throughout the Bible those who were converted, those who believed in Christ, sharing Jesus everywhere, preaching the word. Glory to God. This was the whole focus. Glory to Jesus. I'm living for the day, man, where we can preach the gospel like Peter on the day of Pentecost and 5,000 people get saved, come to Jesus. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Another instance, 3,000. In one instance, bam, get born again. The reality is That's the power of evangelism, because those people that didn't know about the gospel learned of it by those that were connected to the apostles. They went out and brought them to the word. Are y'all hearing this? See, and we have a responsibility that the church is missing. Again, we got a lot of membership transfer and very little church growth that is actually biblical, because he adds to the church daily such as would be say. Glory to God. Somebody said, Apostle, I ain't taking my lunch to hear this today. Well, okay, I mean, hey, it's up to you. Let me just show you another part of this. Go to 2 Kings 6. Glory to God. Uh, 2 Kings 6, and we're gonna look at— glory to God. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. We're gonna go to— let's see. Huh, verse 19. Let's start right there. 2 Kings 6:19-20. The Bible says, and Elisha said unto them, this is not the way, neither is this a city. He said, follow me, I'll bring you to the man whom you seek. Now let me bring you up to speed on this. So you had some spies who came looking for Elisha. They thought he was the man they wanted to kill and capture. Elisha immediately says to them, this ain't the way, you're in the wrong place, and this ain't the city. But he says to them— these are people that are coming to kill him— watch this, he says, follow me. So this is, this is evangelistic, man. He says, follow me and I'll bring you to the man you seek. So Elisha is a prophet. He is using his prophetic gift not only to save his own life but to get these people to see God. We're going to see that in a minute. So the Bible says, but he led them to Samaria. And it came to pass when they came into Samaria that Elisha the prophet said, Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see. Now let me, let me tell you why they were blind. If you read in verses 17, 18, when these men showed up, he used his gift, he used his power. We talked about power yesterday, we talked about that authority. Glory to God. And he said to God, cause these men to be blind so they can't see. Hallelujah. So God caused them to be blind. Glory to the name of God. So now this is a physical request that Elisha is saying, okay, now open their eyes again so they could see. So now they could see the person they're actually looking for, and that it wasn't Elisha. They were actually looking for the king of Israel. Are y'all here? Glory to God. And the Lord opened their eyes, and behold, they saw, and behold, they were in the midst of Samaria. Now, the journey from where they were— watch this— to Samaria, uh, the topography or the maps would suggest on foot it was about 14 days. Now, I don't know what happened in those 14 days, between where they were and Samaria. But obviously the prophet was doing his good preaching. He was doing his good evangelism. Because if you keep reading this, you're gonna find that these men also begin to call on the name of the Lord and they became converted. Glory to God. The God of Elisha became their God as well. So this is a great example of using power, authority, gifts, prophecy, anointings. Hallelujah. To evangelize, to fish. Listen, if you ever fished, watch this again. When the last time you went fishing? When the last time you went fishing? If you, if you went fishing in the natural ever in your life, you're gonna have to have a few things, right? Number one, you're gonna have to have a fishing pole of some kind, unless you plan on— unless you Bruce Lee and could catch fish with your hands, and I just don't believe you can. Glory to God. Uh, And I think some of him catching fish with his hands in the movies was Hollywood. But the reality is, glory to God, if you're gonna fish, you're gonna need an apparatus, a pole of some kind to control bringing the fish in. You're gonna also need a hook. You're gonna need bait. You're gonna need a line that the hook is connected to. Now, if you got those basic things, now there's a lot of other things you can add you can fish. If you got a pole, a line, and a hook and bait, you can go fishing. Glory to the name of God. Now, if you're a fancy fisherman, there's a whole lot of other stuff you can get— weights and spray and fake bait, all that stuff. Listen, but basic things: hook, bait, line, pole. Now, in the realm of the spirit, in order to bring— be a fisher of men, you need those same apparatus. The, the hook is the device that actually captures— glory to the name of God— the fish. The bait is what causes him to bite because he doesn't see the hook. So you got to be wise in how you win souls. That's why the scripture said he that wins souls is wise. You cannot enter into a situation just beating folk over the head. And so here Elisha uses power, anointing Glory to God. Prophecy as bait to get them on the hook. So you have to be able to operate in the realm of the spirit to get people on the hook. And once a fish bites a hook, that line tightens up, and now he's fighting because he know he's caught. And now you reel him in. Glory to the name of God. So the reality is here— hear me, guys— you, you got to be able to lead with the right thing that gets people's attention. And that's what we're going to talk about today. And we want to talk about how you can be really for real. I'm gonna give you a few things and just share with you how you can be an effective witness for him. Just touch yourself and say, I am an effective witness for Jesus. Glory to God. So I'm gonna give you these things, and then I want you to stay with me. Glory to God. Hallelujah! Can you do that? Hallelujah! Can you, can you stay with me? Praise God, because I believe this is going to bless you. I believe it's going to do something great for your life and for your desire to win people to God. Because I believe as we're teaching, those of you that are staying with this, those of you that are praying with us, I believe something is being stirred in your belly for those who are lost. I believe you realize, glory to the name of God, that you have a responsibility to reach people who are not in Christ Jesus. Okay, so all of the, the latitude of gifts that we have, we have them, glory to God, for the express reason so that we can show people who God is through the anointing and through his power. Now let's, let's, let's get through this. So one thing I want to give you really quick before we jump into this, I'm gonna give you some things. So When you understand, again, the question is proposed today, when was the last time you went fishing? So I want you to start thinking about how you're gonna adjust your answer to that question and wise ways that you're gonna begin to engage people. Because again, heaven is waiting on you to be a vessel of light to engage people, glory to the name of God, and win them into the kingdom of Jesus. Glory to God. So here we go. So how can you be effective? How can you be an effective fisherman of men? That's what we want to give you today. So number one, number one, are you ready? You have to ask God for an evangelistic burden. You got to ask God to give you a burden for souls. That's what an evangelistic burden is. Get— ask him to give you a burden for the lost, to give you a burning desire to win souls. So here's a few elements to that. So first of all, every time we gather for 5 AM prayer during this fast, I believe as we're praying for salvation, we're praying for revival, I believe that we're internalizing the burden for souls. I believe that as we're praying, it's becoming a part of who we are. Matter of fact, I will venture to say that as we pray, I'm believing God that soul winning will become a part of our nature like never before. Hallelujah! That revival will flow through us and in us like we talked about and prayed about this morning. We got to internalize this thing as a part of our nature, you know, just like, you know, I grew up in a classical Pentecostal environment. Glory to God! And a lot of people, you know, um, You know, especially these quote-unquote people that think they revival types and they're really not. These revival type people who are always talking revival, they, they, they ridicule or look down on Pentecostal expressions. But man, the first moves of God happen in Pentecostal circles. Uh, the reality is we cannot disdain um, that foundation. Glory to the name of God. So, but here's the, here's the point I want to make here, you know, whether you are one that jumps, shouts, speak in tongues, whether you just worship all day, whatever you do, glory to the name of God, the reality is we have to make soul winning a part of our nature. And see, one of the things I saw in the church coming up, I saw people get saved, I saw demons get cast out, I've seen that in my personal life and ministry because that's been my burning desire. It's been internalized as a part of my nature. This generation, all they want to do is shout. And that's why people who have not experienced the kind of move I have— listen, I promise you, for most of the revival types, including Benny Hinn, I promise you— and who Benny Hinn, by the way, is a classical Pentecostal expression. Kathryn Kuhlman, all those people come from the Azusa Street evolving. All, all their fathers and progenitors come out of that movement, which is a Pentecostal movement where the Holy Ghost fell upon people that didn't have it. Now here's a reality: this generation bucks and shouts and worships and cries, you know, and goes through the motions, but they don't really have a burden to see people experience what they experience. They, you know, for most of these folk, it's just fun. They go to church and they have fun, and they don't leave, glory to God, with a burden to introduce somebody else to that. And, and man, that's a whole problem. I know the church don't want to hear this, the body of Christ don't want to hear this. With your fiery, with your anointed self, with your prophesying self, people got these ministries or these prophetic ministries and ain't got no real attachment to leadership. Uh, glory to the name of God, that's a problem, man. And, and what they're doing, they're out here renegades, and the underlying, underlying current of their ministry is to build themselves and not to introduce people to Jesus, man. Oh boy, I know I feel y'all drifting. It's okay, but I'm gonna stay right here. Glory to the name of God. So, so, because you could be doing all of that wonderful stuff, and again, like I said, hey, glory to God, I have cast out devils more than most. I have, uh, seen every type of sickness pretty much healed through the ministry God has given me. I've seen real revival. I've seen people get saved. So I'm not knocking any of that. I've seen— I mean, I've been seeing people slain in the spirit for 35 years, but none of that stuff makes no difference if you don't get up off the floor with a burden. Glory to God. If you don't get off the floor transformed and changed to want to see with a hunger not just for God. Because if you really got a hunger for God like you say you do, then you're gonna have a hunger and an appetite for the things he has an appetite for. And the things that God has an appetite for is that the world would be saved. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes should not perish but have everlasting life. Everything we do hinges on that fact. And so you could speak with tongues of men and angels, but if you don't have love, it profits you nothing. You can prophesy— glory to the name of God— see through walls and muddy water, but if you don't have love, it profits you no thing. Lord, I wish I could hear— I wish— oh my God, I wish, I wish you could hear me tonight— I mean today, I'm sorry. Glory to God, I wish you received this because we got to stop doing church as usual. We're in an hour And I'm telling you, our time is short where people need to be saved. And I'm telling you, you may not believe this, some of that blood is going to be on your hand. So you better ask God to give you an evangelistic burden to win the lost. Listen, all that means is you see the world as Jesus sees it. Listen, and when you see the world as Jesus sees it, every day God will lay on your heart a handful of people you need to talk to. I promise you that he'll, he'll lay on your heart because all of us are no sinners. All of us are around people who are not born again, and you have to position yourself to be used of God. Hallelujah! So that your colleagues, your brothers, your sisters, your family members will always be on your heart to give, to share Jesus with them. Are y'all here? Okay, I gotta go. The, the old song said The old hymn— and some of y'all don't even know how powerful hymns are. That's why the Bible said sing with psalms, spiritual songs, and hymns. Okay, sometimes you— some of these folks, you say hymn, there's a hymn. Who him? No, a hymn, which is a song. The old hymn says, Lord, lay souls upon my heart and love that soul through me, and may I humbly do my part to win that soul to thee. And that's so— oh my God, that's such a burden. Glory to God to say, Lord, put souls in my heart so they can experience your love through me, and give me the wisdom, give me the strength, give me the gifting to win them to thee. But you know what? We so concerned and preoccupied— hear me, family— with ourself. Oh Jesus, huh? We so preoccupied hallelujah, with our own stuff that we don't talk to folk, that we don't share this thing that has changed our life so tremendously with others. But the love of God again needs to be shared abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost. Okay, so number one, ask for evangelistic burden. Number two, are you ready? You need to live— and we hit this really hard this morning in prayer— a consistent Christian life, a consistent life of purity. You need to live a consistent life as a kingdom citizen that reflects Jesus in your life. But let's look at it. Matthew 14:15-16, he said, you are the light of the world, a city that sits on a hill that cannot be hid. He says, let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Listen, we got to live obedient lives of integrity, man, and authentic faith. People need to see that we're integral, that we walk in what we talk about, that we really trust God with our entire lives. Listen, what that— what does that mean, Michael? We gotta love when others hate, man. We gotta forgive when others harbor grudges. We gotta remain steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the word when everybody else is panicking, because people are looking at us, man. We got to be honest when everybody around us is cooking the books or being crooks or doing the wrong thing. We got to remain integral and honest. Glory to the name of God. We got to be steadfast in who we are, even when people are not being and doing who they ought to be. Glory to God. Oh my God. And I'm not saying to you, glory to the name of God, that you have to go around being holier than thou. What I am saying is that you need to strive to be a growing, maturing kingdom citizen, so that you graduate from the pediatrics. And, and then there are some things you just are not do anymore. Some things you ought to just grow and mature out of because you've fallen in love with Jesus so that you only want to think that no more. Are y'all hearing me? Listen, you got to understand that your life is important. You got to have a life that people can respect. And that way you can have an audience with them. So number 2, you got to live a consistent kingdom citizen life. You gotta ask for an evangelistic burden. Number 1, number 3, let's go. You need to build bridges, right? You need to build bridges. Wow. So when the Lord shows you people— are we here— that need him, you got to seek to build relationship with them. Again, you can't just come out here and be a Bible thumper and hitting folks over the head with the word, you're going to hell. You know, that's— he that wins the soul is wise. You're going to turn people off very quickly. Glory to God. So when you see people who need God, you got to build relationship, you got to build a trust in you as a person. Are you hearing this? Now I want to give you an example. Remember how Jesus went to the home of Zacchaeus, right? And there were many sinners gathered in his home. Glory to the name of God. He, Jesus, went in as a friend of sinners. He went in with love. Glory to God. When Jesus got to that house, glory to God, he operated in who he was. He never changed, but it was relationship. Glory to the name of God. That got Jesus invited to Zacchaeus's house. You know, you can't be so, you know, super deep and wonderful that nobody even wants you to come to their home. Glory to God! Because they can't have normal relationship with you. You got to be relatable, you got to be real. Glory to God! And you got to be transparent, you got to be open so people can see. Now I want to submit to you that we must be careful to not put ourselves in environments that drag us down. But we gotta cultivate at the same time, we gotta friendships with those that need God. So we, we can't get in there and become them and let them bring us down. We must always be in the room and be light and bring people up. When we're going into a situation where we're trying to build bridges. I'm talking about like if you're going to a wake, you're going to a funeral, you're going to a family reunion, you— glory to God— you're going to a birthday celebration for some of your family, go in the setting and be a light. Represent Christ. Glory to the name of God. So you need to represent a life if you want to witness to people and win them that represents God. Everybody around you could be throwing back shots That's not for you to do. Are you hearing? Everybody around you could be cussing. You don't try to blend in with cursing. That's not what I'm saying. I'm saying you walk in a dark situation and it's— and let it be like you flipped on the light switch in a dark room in your house and the light now drives out darkness. Let your presence as sun and star, glory to God, drive out darkness and let your light shine So people can see Jesus through you. Oh my God. So you gotta build bridges. You gotta build bridges. You can't just go into a setting, you know, trying to strong-arm people into God. Build bridges, build relationship. Listen, you know, I think about the churches I planted. And so when we first planted the church in Jackson, glory to God, way back when— listen, when people come in that church and get saved, I made it my business to build bridges with newcomers, even as the pastor, because I wanted to make sure they were rooted in God. Glory to the name of God. I wanted to make sure they had the necessary things to strengthen their relationship with God so that they could grow. And watch this, because of that effort, because I built bridges as a leader and got to know people, glory to the name of God, and, you know, spent time with them, you know, newcomers. I would go eat with them, take them to lunch, things like that. I would, glory to the name of God, have special sessions just for them because at the end of the day, I knew they were babes and they needed to be nurtured. They need to be trained. They need to be discipled. They needed to be developed. And the reality is a lot of those people went on to become preachers, ministers, prophets, are operating in fivefold ministry. Because I build bridges. Listen, I'm telling you right now, and I do that today. I, I do that with my clients, uh, in my business. I, I always have an agenda to present Christ, right? But I build bridges through the contract. I build bridges through golf. I build bridges, glory to the name of God, through the work that we're doing. And then at some point, bam, Christ is going to come up. When that trust has been established. Glory to the name of God. And it doesn't take a long time. You just have to be who you are in God, because you know what sinners can do, whether you know it or not. They could spot a fake, they could spot a phony, and they could spot somebody that really don't believe what they saying. So you build bridges so you could be the real you with them. Glory to the name of God. And they can see God working and moving in your life and how God has moved in your life. Are y'all here? Oh my God, hallelujah, we love Jesus. Glory to God. Number 4, number 4, here we go, let's go. Number 4, number 4, you wanna— so number 1, you want to ask God for evangelistic burden. Number 2, you want to live a consistent kingdom citizen life. Glory to God. Number 3, you want to build bridges. And number 4, watch this, this is so important. You're gonna say, that's so simple, Apostle, that's so basic, but that's what we need. See, a lot of this deep stuff we eating, glory to God, has made us lazy. So all that meat you eat, it make you fat, glory to God. It make you still, glory. It makes you unhealthy so many ways spiritually because it clogs you up, because you don't understand that you need fiber. You need to take that meat into the world, glory to God, and pour out what you receive to others. So here's number 4. You need to learn the gospel. Oh my God. So you got to be— you got to decide that you want to be trained in the gospel. Let's go to Romans. Let's go to Romans. Hallelujah. Real quick, because there's such a power in the gospel. Romans. Romans. Hallelujah. Let's go to Romans. Hallelujah. I think I want 16. Here we go, watch this. Romans 1:16 says, for I am not ashamed. Okay, here we go, here we go. Oh, this Greek word literally means I am not belittled, I am not devalued. The word is epeiskunomai. It means that you're not devalued, you're not degraded, you're not made less than. Hallelujah. Or you don't feel shame— hear me— about the gospel, all right, of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. So the gospel by itself— hear me, this is why you got to learn the gospel— is the power of God unto salvation. Because some of the stuff you want to try to give people, because it's deep and wonderful, if they're not saved, they're not going to grab that because they're babies. That, that matter of fact, they haven't even been born again yet. So the thing that gets them to the cross, gets them born again, is the power of God unto salvation. Y'all notice it says, I'm not ashamed, for it is the gospel is Didn't say you was. It said it is the gospel. So you gotta learn the gospel because it's the very power that causes salvation. Oh God. So what is the gospel, Michael? I'm glad you asked. So it's akin to that word evangelizo, which is to evangelize, but gospel is evangelion, which means Hallelujah! The good news concerning the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus Christ. There are 5 parts to this gospel. See, I know you thought the gospel— and they are the gospels because they record the gospel, the life of Jesus— Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. But no, the gospel is The birth of Jesus. Glory to God, which was miraculous. You need to learn that. Glory to the name of God. You need to understand that through and through. If you don't understand that, go back and watch my 10-part series on the story of a king I taught over Christmas. Hallelujah. Glory to the name of God. You need to learn about Jesus. See, we be trying to learn everything else and don't even really know everything we need to know about Jesus, because what you gonna say The moment somebody asks you, well, how was he born of a virgin? What's your answer? Okay, well, so that's why you need to learn the gospel. Okay, learn the gospel. Number 2, it's not only his birth, it's his life. So you need to study the life of Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. You need to study it from all vantage points. Those books are called the synoptic gospels, which means they tell the same story from a different vantage point. So you need to learn it from all vantage points. So you need to study the gospels. Glory to God. It's a lot. It's the death. Glory to God. It's his crucifixion. It's his efficacious, vicarious, substitutionary, redemptive work of the cross. You need to understand why he died and why it was necessary that he died. You need to know this gospel. And we— oh my God, you need to know the fact that not only did he die, because if I would stop reading at the cross, I would have been inclined to believe that the gospel was a gospel of grief. But I'm so glad I kept reading, and I read that he rose again. Glory to God! With all power in his hand, and that the same Holy Spirit that raised him from the dead abides in us. Glory to God! So you need to understand the power of his resurrection. Hear me, family, hear me. And then you need to understand the depths of his ascension. Many people don't talk about that as a part of the gospel, but that's miraculous, man. That— oh, glory to the name of God— that Jesus ascended. He descended, then he ascended into heaven. So you need to be able to clearly articulate the gospel. Go to Romans real quick again. Are we already in Romans? Go— well, let's go to Romans 3. Go over chapter 3. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. And 3:23, I want to read this because I want to show you why this is important. The gospel is the power of God. And we're going to go back to Romans 1, but I want to take a shortcut here. Watch this. Romans 3:23 said, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I wanted to read that because, watch this, the reality is You and I, and even the people you talk to, every person has sinned in their life because you were born in sin and shaped into iniquity. So everybody needs to be saved. The only thing that saves us from sin is the gospel, is the work of Jesus Christ in the gospel. Glory to the name of God. So you got to know that, you got to outline that, and, and you got to make people clear even when you're talking to them. That that same gospel affected your life. Go to chapter 6 and verse 23, then we're gonna go back to chapter 1. 6 and 23. So we just read 3:23, go to 6:23. Glory to God. The Bible says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through who? Christ Jesus. That's why you need to know the gospel, because the eternal life comes through Jesus Christ. It comes through his work. It comes through his birth. It comes through his life. It comes through his death. It comes through his burial. It comes through his resurrection. It comes through his ascension. Man, I left that one out. That's important when I was explaining. So the burial is a part of the gospel as well. So that's 6 parts to this gospel. Glory to the name of God. That you need to have clear understanding of. Now let's go back to Romans chapter 1 because I want to finish reading that. Hallelujah. Verse 16, he said, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. So whoever has sinned, if they believe this gospel, they'll have salvation, to the Jews first and also to the Greek. Verse 17, here we go. For therein— where? The gospel is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. So I need you to grab that. You gotta learn the gospel, listen, and you ought to always be ready to share the gospel. See, when you're talking to someone that's not saved, you ain't necessarily got to be your deepest, okay? You ain't got to squint your eyes. Come on, you ain't got to go, you ain't got to go into your tongues because they don't understand that anyway. But what you need is to be able to clearly articulate the gospel. You cannot clearly articulate it if you don't learn it. So you need teachings like this. Glory to God. You need to find other teachings where you can learn. You need to read books about evangelism so you could be effective— watch this— to obey God, to be a witness for him. Oh my God. Number 5, we gotta go, we gotta go. Number 5. Number 5. So number 1, ask God for evangelistic burden. Number 2, glory to God, live a consistent kingdom citizen life. Number 3, build bridges. Number 4, learn the gospel. Number 5, look for clues. My God, whenever you leave your house I want you to understand, even online, there are always clues. See, when you scroll and looking at people's posts, you know, and you know, God have mercy. And some, some people are just so consumed with the internet. I, I believe that there are some people, that's all they do is spend their time scrolling on their phone. And you know, I work really hard to not scroll, so I, I go on post what I gotta post. And, and that's really gonna stop here in a minute once we get our social media director working, because I mean, I don't, I don't really want to just be on there like that, right? So, but when you are scrolling, if you see something or you see someone that really is— instead of judging what they're saying, you know it ain't in God, you need to start praying about strategies to reach them. That's a clue that they need Jesus. So what do you do? You, you don't comment in their post you know, crazy, you inbox them and you give them word about Jesus. I mean, that's the way to do that. But every day around you, there are clues, man. You know, you know, people online even nowadays love to post when they're in the hospital. Why? I don't know. I, you know, okay, yeah, I get it, you know, when people need— want prayer. But okay, you could post that, but why you got to have a picture all in the bed? Listen, okay, I'm sorry, I'm Okay, I'm gonna leave that alone. But at the end of the day, that's a clue that person needs prayer. And if you see that and that person is not saved, this is a good opportunity— that's a good clue to pray for them. Or watch this, or if they're in your city, to go where they are, show up, pray for them. Glory to the name of God. And introduce them to Christ, right? Because if God heals them, then they— again, they just encounter the kingdom. So that's a clue. You can go in Walmart and see someone with a cast on. Clue, they got a broken arm. That's an opportunity for a miracle. If God leads you to pray for them, you go pray for them, you know. And, and, you know, really, when you understand that God really wants you to be that bold anyway, you don't need no really huge leading. If you really move, if you— if your faith is at that level, you can move. You got to give a healing. Because you have the Holy Spirit. Move in there and pray. Pray that their arm come back together, and then rip the cast off in the store and lead them to Christ. Glory to God. Go through the drive-through. You notice some of these children in these drive-throughs ain't saved, and you pick up something, you need to minister to somebody. Minister to them. Just give them a quick word. Watch this, because some plant, some water, God give the increase. So you got to look for clues. Let's go to 1 Peter 3:15. Let's go there. Glory to to God. The Bible says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. So Peter here is reminding us that walking in this thing, um, we're going to be assaulted. Glory to the name of God. If you read that chapter, you know, we're going to be ridiculed because nobody uh, hallelujah, really enjoys truth. So you're going to have people that will ridicule you, that will assault you. But he encourages us to be ready with rational biblical answers and to do it with humility and fear of the Lord. So in other words, we're not to get into debates with people who want to debate us when we start talking to them when we see a clue that, hey, that person needs Jesus. So we answer with meekness. I have had, uh, one-on-one conversations with Hebrew Israelites, and you know, these guys are well studied, they know the word, and, uh, you know, they really have this case against the letter J and Jesus and all this stuff. But I've answered them in meekness, and I've seen several of them converted. Glory to God! I've seen Muslims converted because I've answered rationally, intelligently, through the word of God. Because watch this, I knew what I was talking about. Glory to God. I knew, glory to the name of God, what I had to say. Praise God. And I knew by the Spirit what they needed to hear. So that's even rationale, if fear the Lord. So you handle them with care. Glory to God. Now meekness ain't weakness. You know, Moses was meek, Jesus was meek, but they certainly weren't weak. And you could see that in scripture many times. There was no weakness in those guys. They were humble though. And so you got to learn how to balance humility and authority and be able to share what you got to share in love. Glory to God. I gotta go. Number 6, number 6, I gotta get out of here. You got to create opportunities. You got to create opportunities. You can't just look for clues and ignore them. So when you see the clues, the next thing you got to do is create an opportunity to minister that to that person that you're being led to minister to. Glory to God. And sometimes I think we wait too long, you know. We'll know somebody needs to be saved and we'll say it, we'll see their life. Oh my God, what are they doing? They need Jesus. And instead of— glory to God— actually praying and saying, God, give me a wise strategy. He that wins souls is wise. So when you see the clue, you need to ask for a wise strategy to create opportunity to minister to that person. And trust me, if you believe in prayer, I'm telling you right now what I know— God will open up an opportunity, just as sure as he's God, for you to share him with that person. So you create opportunity basically primarily in prayer, asking God for the wisdom, and then you obey. Prayer and obedience. You pray, and when God give you the strategy, you obey it. And when he give you the opportunity, when you're there with them and you got the opportunity, you use wisdom in sharing your faith with them. And then finally, number 7, I gotta get out of here. You gotta leave the results to God, right? Yeah, you gotta— it's, it's our responsibility to preach the gospel and share the gospel, but only God can convert people. Some plant, some water, but God gives the increase. Some plant, some water, but God gives the increase. Some plant, some water, but God gives the increase. So it's not your duty to make sure they get saved if they're not going there with you at that time. You just plant the seed. Glory to God. But if you see where, you know, their heart is pliable and they're ready to receive it, bam! But if they don't, then you, you, you water and plant, you water and plant, and let God give the increase. Glory to God. You know, but here's, here's the key: we do our best and we let God do the rest. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for this teaching today. I thank you for your people. I thank you for fishermen of men. And I pray, God, that every person under the sound of my voice, live or by replay, that they will literally follow you. Because, God, if we're following, we're fishing. If we're following, we're fishing. And so, Father, I, I asked of you to give them a burden for the lost, God, and that they will have a burning desire within them to see people saved, that they will become strategic fishermen of men, God, that they will— glory to the name of God— learn the gospel, and that they will be so astute at your story that at any given moment they could tell it and articulate it. I thank you for it, God, and I thank you that the days ahead will be filled with joy. Thank you for supernatural provision in our life. Thank we don't lack a thing, neither do we have a care, and all of our needs are met. And thank you, God, that even in that, we have what we need to bring people to you. And we give you praise for it now, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Hallelujah, man. Thank y'all so much for joining us today. Glory to God. So good to have all of you on. Glory to the name of Jesus. And, and share with us. Listen, if you want to be a blessing to the kingdom, I'm going to challenge you to give. The ways to give are scrolling at the bottom of the screen. And I thank you as always, glory to God, for sharing with us and be a part of these teachings. Listen, remember, we are fasting. Glory to the name of God. Hallelujah. We're fasting. Glory to God. And it's, it's not too late, glory to God, to join us in this fast. Praise God. If you want to join in, glory to God, simply go to our website, praise God, at rhodachurch.com, glory to Jesus, /fast25, and you can fast with us. Get the fast guide. It's not too late. We'll be fasting through Saturday. If you want to fast with us, please join in. God is moving. God is stirring something in our bellies. Glory to the name of God. We'll be right back here tomorrow morning, 5:00 AM for 5 o'clock prayer. Make sure, glory to God, that you join us. Glory to God. We're gonna be praying once again and trusting God to move in our midst. I know it's a sacrifice, but join us in the morning. I'm sure you'll be blessed. And when you come in, make sure you share this teaching with somebody and the prayer time with somebody because somebody else needs this. And I'm telling you, the more people that get this, the more people will be sharing the gospel, the more people will get saved. Glory to God. And the world would just become a better place. Glory to God. Because when people got Jesus, trust me, and they're really following him, the world is actually better. I love y'all. Y'all be blessed. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. Peace.