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Summary

In this conversation, Byron Chapman discusses the critical role of evangelism within the church and the family. He emphasizes the importance of personal commitment to sharing the gospel, the need for families to work together in evangelism, and the necessity of teaching children about faith and service. Throughout the discussion, he highlights the urgency of the gospel message and the responsibility of believers to actively engage in spreading the word of God.

Chapters

00:00 Standing on the Promises
00:04 The Importance of Evangelism
13:17 Building a Foundation for Evangelism
26:00 Involving Families in Evangelism
30:11 The Call to Action

Transcript *This transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.*

Byron Chapman (00:04)
I’m not quite as old as it appeared the way I was moving right there. Having a little back issues, but that’s okay. We’ll make it through there. If you ever had a herniated disc, you know it is not at the least very pleasant for sure. So what a blessing it is to be here this afternoon with you. It’s a joy and a privilege. And I think Ty might’ve been 15 or 16, something like that when I met him the first time on a Yes to campaign.

And if it wasn’t for the Garners over there, I might not have ever have met Ty with the work of the Latin American mission. it’s amazing how things all mesh together with God, isn’t it? How small this world is when it comes to us serving the Lord and doing the Lord’s work. ⁓ Ty is a perfect example, by the way, of some of the things that we’ll talk about when it comes to evangelizing and the family today. And hopefully it’ll be a blessing to you and some of the things that I will be talking about.

today, but I’m persuaded that as we’ve talked about this whole, hi Jim, by the way, I didn’t see you back there, we’ve talked about this whole week has gone by on evangelism, persuaded that we know how important evangelism is and that God has commanded us to evangelize. And I think that if we answer some questions within the church itself and generally speaking, we all could agree that we typically a lot of times in

A lot of congregations don’t do enough.

of evangelizing for God.

And sometimes we don’t put enough effort into evangelizing.

My question that will start off with you to this morning would be, you think that God will be pleased with the value that we all place on someone’s soul?

You know that God has designed us in such a way that the more that we do something, naturally, the better we’re typically going to do it. And the opposite of that is the less that we do something, all the times that we’re going to struggle with it more, chances are we’re not going to be quite as good at it. We’re going to want to abstain from it because we’re going to be a little bit more uncomfortable a lot of times in doing it, right?

This is how we are designed. And do you think God, our creator, knows this?

Granted, some people are just a little more gifted at some things than others are. Watching Ty get up here and present his lesson without really having to look at his notes, Don coming up here and never even having any notes is impressive to me. Wow.

Take myself, I am not very good at putting things together, at fixing things, at building things. I’m not very mechanically inclined to say the least. I struggle with doing those kind of things. I just had to put a swing set together for my grandchildren for Christmas, and it was a little bit of a struggle for me. Maybe putting furniture together, whatever it might be, it becomes a challenge for me. Whereas my son-in-law, Coit, it takes him about a quarter of the time to do something, to put something together, than it would take me to do it.

And he does it much better than me. And a lot of times he doesn’t even have to look at any instructions or directions when he’s putting it together. And I’m just, wow. By the way, Quaid, if you’re watching, he’s not here with us today. But if you’re watching, I love you. And I appreciate you very much and your abilities that you can do and you help me with. So we all have been given various talents. We know that, right? And abilities. But just because something doesn’t come easy to us.

Does that mean when it comes to fulfilling God’s commandments that we just don’t do them?

You know in Acts chapter 17 verse 11, the Bible says there that the Berean searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. And in Paul, in Romans chapter 12 verse 2, Paul says that in order to not be conformed to this world, what must we do? He says, we must be transformed, right?

by the renewing of our minds.

You know what? Searching the scriptures daily will certainly cause us to be transformed and to cause our minds to be renewed, won’t it? In renewing our minds, it’s going to be easier to live the Word of God, and it certainly is going to be easier to share it. Amen.

But saying it and doing it are obviously two completely different things. It’s so easy to say that we’re going to do something. It’s such more difficult to implement.

Of course, that’s the way it is with most everything in life, isn’t it? So, what is this say? We’re going to do something.

And then typically, we a lot of times just don’t get around to doing it. The more we focus on something, the more we practice it, the more it becomes who we are and what we do, the more successful we are going to be with it.

And you know what? It’s the same with personal evangelism. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 7 through 9, Paul there has given some encouragement to the church of Thessalonica and some of the things of pain and suffering that they have been going through and some of their struggles. But he’s also going to give a warning to two people, two different types of people. He says, to give you again, that 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 verses 7 through 9, Paul says, and to give you who are troubled, rest with us when the Lord Jesus

is revealed from heaven with the mighty angels and flaming fire taking vengeance on those who number one do not know God and on those number two who have not obeyed the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. You know the command to go and to preach and to make disciples is just as urgent today as it was

When Paul penned these words.

We’ve got to make sure that those that we know, know God. We’ve got to make sure that those that we come in contact with, that they obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, because look what the answer is if they don’t.

Someone once said a religion that cost everything is worth everything, but a religion that cost nothing is worth nothing. What are we sacrificing for our God in heaven? Sometimes I like to think about it this way. If you take two circles and you put one circle up and that thing that you put, that circle is going to be the things of the world. And how many things are in that circle? The circle over here are the things that you do for God. How many things are in that circle?

I would say there’s a lot of times in our lives that we need to take a whole lot out of those things, that circle of the world, and add a whole lot more of that circle for God. What are we sacrificing?

Jesus says a minimum of 18 times, depending on what type of ⁓ version of the Bible you’re reading, minimum of 18 times, he says, to follow me. We have a choice to make on whom we’re going to follow.

He gives us that, a choice that we’re gonna make. Are we gonna be like the early disciples and choose to follow Jesus and follow his commands and be more like him to have his mindset that he had on this earth? How important is saving someone’s soul to us? Do we really care?

A lot been discussed this week about.

How much Satan wants us to just sit back and say that someone else is going to do it. As Ty talked about earlier, someone else that has a title. Someone else will go, someone else will preach, someone else is going to make disciples, someone else is going to save souls because guess what? Mine’s already secure. Or is it?

If we’re going to be fishers of men, as Jesus talked about in Matthew chapter 4 when he invited Andrew and Peter to become fishers of men, we’re going to have to put out our nets.

And if we’re going to put out our nets, we got to make sure that they’re strong, that they don’t have holes in them, that they’re not torn, that they’re prepared. Otherwise, the fish are going to slip right on through. If we’re not prepared, we’re not going to catch anything. You have to be prepared. Just like if you’re going out to do hunting. I don’t know if any hunters in here.

I’m not a hunter by the way, but I’ve got a lot in my family. You better make sure you get prepared before you go out hunting or you’re wasting your time. Spiritual gnats must be strong, they must be sound, they must be prepared. Satan hopes the opposite, doesn’t he? we’re fighting against Satan. Better believe it. He hopes the opposite. He hopes that we’re just gonna sit back and say that someone else is gonna do it, someone else is gonna go, someone else is gonna preach, someone else is gonna make disciples.

He wants us to believe that lie.

We need to be mindful of the things of God, not the things of men. Matthew chapter 16 verse 23. Satan knows that it requires effort on our part. It requires effort on our part to fulfill God’s commands, to make sure that we’re following what God requires us to do. And it requires the majority of us, or if not all of us, to fulfill those commands. Satan just wants a few of us to do it. Satan just wants us to sit in our seats and hope someone else is going to do it.

To be mindful of the things of God we must see through the eyes of Jesus. When Jesus was on this earth, what did he see? He saw a field ready to be harvested. He saw a field that needed seeds to be planted with the truth of God’s word. That’s what he saw. He saw people that were hurting. He saw people that needed to hear the truth. He saw people that needed to have forgiveness. He saw people that were lost.

Today, planting seeds requires messengers for God. Those that love God and want to fulfill God’s plan and his desire. And it requires all of us to participate if we want his kingdom on this earth to grow. 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15 says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer or give a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.

Peter’s saying we’ve got to have our nets ready. We’ve got to have our nets prepared if we’re going to be able to reach people. Urgency and diligence.

are the traits of God’s messengers that we must have. Being prepared is the responsibility of us as God’s messengers. The mission of the Lord’s Church is to save the souls, to seek and to save those that are lost, and that’s what Jesus came to do. Messengers of God must care enough to love, they must care enough to want to spend the time.

to make sure the message of salvation is preached. The one true message, the one true hope, the one true gospel that is able to save souls. Ephesians chapter four, verses one through six. God has supplied us with the message. He has given us the message. All we have to do is share it. And I know a lot of you in this room are doing just that. But it sounds easy, doesn’t it?

How can we better fulfill the Great Commission and evangelize the world is what I’d like to talk about today specifically for our families. How can we get our families more involved? How can we better train for service? So often in our walk as a Christian while we’re on this earth, we get overcome, don’t we, by the things of the world?

The things that Satan wants us to focus on, the things that Satan wants us to draw our attention to, the things that Satan wants to say, hey, you don’t have time for God, you need to do this. He does not want us bearing fruit for God. This is especially true, as Don talked about just a little bit ago, for our Christian husbands and fathers. I’m going to challenge us for a minute, if you will.

Most of the time in congregations, as you go to congregations, you’re going to see a lot of the ladies, a lot of the women that are more evangelistically focused than our men.

That’s a blessing. It is. But if God can keep our Christian husbands and fathers distracted from evangelism, are likely going to win that. God, Satan is likely going to win that household.

higher probability that others within the household are not going to be focused on spiritual things because the husband or the father is distracted. That the whole household is not focused on spiritual things and that household will lose sight of why we are here on this earth in the first place and will not be evangelizing as we should. As Christian husbands and fathers, our example is crucial in determining how much work

for the Lord is going to be accomplished. Having the urgency to show our family how important evangelism is is crucial for the growth of the church. Getting the whole family to work together, everyone on the same page in the family.

In your congregation, think of that person or that couple or maybe that family that you look at in your congregation, you say, man, they are focused on evangelism.

Can you think of them? Maybe it’s you.

We need more. We need more of those families that are focused on evangelism so amazing things can be accomplished for our God in heaven. How can we go about with our families of getting more focused on evangelism? Number one, a few things for you this morning to think about. My plan is to keep it simple. Teach the importance of fulfilling God’s commands. These verses we know of because we’ve grown up with them. A lot of times we read them and we read them quickly. We really don’t think about them, in my opinion. I don’t sometimes. We must build a foundation.

within our homes. We must build a foundation within our homes. In Deuteronomy chapter six, verses five through seven, you shall love the Lord God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, with all your strength. In these words that I command you shall be in your heart, you shall teach them, you know the words, diligently to your children. You shall talk of them.

when you’re in your house.

when you’re walking by the way.

when you lie down and when you rise up.

Do you think he’s got it all covered?

At the end of Joshua 24, 15, it says, before me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Ephesians chapter 6, verse 4 says, you fathers do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture or training and admonition of the Lord. Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it. How often are we fulfilling those commands?

If we truly love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, we will want to teach our children diligently the words of God. We will want to make sure that we’re doing it often, all the time. It should be something that’s constantly in our children’s mind, the importance of fulfilling God’s commands. Our children will know by our example as parents where God is on our list of priorities. We must not just say it. We’ve got to put it into action. As parents, we must set

the precedents on how crucial it is to evangelize. Having the mindset of Jesus on evangelism is to be our foundation in our homes. Discussing biblical scripture should not be an unusual or peculiar action.

but rather a normal occurrence within our homes. Immerse our families into the word daily, not just within the four walls of the church building.

Make devotional time and study time a priority. I know we hear this a lot, how many of us do it? We need to put that love into action and by doing that so our families can see it is take the time in your evenings to make sure your children are getting spiritual food. Do this daily if possible. know life gets in the way and it doesn’t happen all the time, but make it a priority to do it every evening that you have available. Make it a bedtime tradition while your children are young.

Pray together, asking God for specific opportunities to be able to reach someone’s soul. Pray together for opportunities to plant seed that may come up every day of your life, no matter how old your children are. The opportunity to say God is good is always available. Build confidence in our family members that sharing the gospel is a blessing. And while we’re doing this, God will be with us.

for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God for salvation, for all who believe, for the Jew first, and also the Greek. We don’t have to be ashamed of the gospel. God will be with us. How many opportunities do we miss to share the gospel because we are apprehensive of it, we don’t have the confidence to do it, or maybe we’re just a little bit.

Too busy.

It is crucial that we help our family to be prepared to give the answers for the hope that is in us. In Matthew chapter five, Jesus’ sermon on the Mount there, Matthew chapter five, verse 14 through 16, we know the verse, Jesus tells us that we are to be the light of the world.

that we are to let our light shine before men, that they may see our good works. As parents, are our children seeing our good works? Are we setting the proper example we must be able as parents to teach our children that everyone they come in contact with needs to hear the saving gospel as if their life depended on it?

We have the message for the cure of sin.

We have the message for the cure of sin.

You never know when the words of God that you share with someone will prick their heart. Bearing fruit. Discuss with your home Bible studies about bearing fruit for God no matter how busy we are. I know, I know, I know, I know we get busy, I know we get distracted. That’s what Satan wants. Remember, we must count the cost. If we’re going to build a great foundation with our home, we must be able to complete our mission. And that mission is we’ve got to bear fruit for our

Father in heaven, bearing fruit will require us to use our time wisely. We all get the same amount.

We all get the same amount of time. The earth is turning the same for all of us. And our time is truly precious. Paul told Timothy, as we already saw, that we need to preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. We need to be ready all the time and be prepared all the time. Do not let the cares of this world distract us from what is most important. Jesus tells us to bear much fruit in the true vine parable in John chapter 15 verse 8, doesn’t he?

And he follows that up by saying, so will you be my disciples. So will you be my disciples. That’s big two letter word. If you are bearing fruit. To stay in Christ, we must teach our family that bearing fruit is a command of our Lord and Savior and how serious it is. How serious it is to make sure that we’re fruitful. If we’re not bearing fruit,

John 15, 6 says that we will be cast forth as a branch that is withered and will be gathered and thrown into the fire and burned, no longing having life in the true vine.

That should really get our attention.

we’re going to be thrown into the fire if we’re not bearing fruit. God is glorified when we bear fruit for him. Glorifying God should be a priority for us in fruit bearing. Fruit bearing will allow us to stay a part of that true vine.

staying grounded and steadfast in the hope of the gospel, Colossians 1.23. God wants fruit-bearing disciples. He wants champions for Christ. He wants our families to be a team when we go out into the world of champions for Christ. Do you want to be a champion?

I want to be a champion for Christ. Time to pick on husbands and fathers again. As husbands and fathers, let your family see that you truly care for others. Is that easy for us to do sometimes? For us to truly show how much we love someone? It’s a struggle for us sometimes.

Others must see that we truly care first before they will listen as Ty brought up this morning as well.

You know, if you’re going to share the gospel with someone who’s hungry, you’re going to have to feed them first. Romans chapter 3 verse 23 tells us that everyone is in need of forgiveness. Romans chapter 6 verses 22 and 23 tells us that everyone needs to be set free from sin.

We need to make sure that others have the hope of the gospel as we do as Christians. And sometimes we struggle because we get so wrapped up in this world to display our love for others all the time. Working as a team, our family should work as a team to serve first.

and then be able to evangelize those that we come in contact with. Serve first, and that will open the doors for us to be able to evangelize. Having the mindset as Christ did when he was on this earth of serving, and I love Philippians example as well, to go out into the world to opportunities to serve our endless. And the more our children see it in us, the more they’re gonna wanna do it.

A servant of Christ involving our children in visiting the sick, going over to someone’s house and doing some yard work, helping someone move. There’s so many things that we can do in serving the Lord that will impress them.

As parents, we must provide our children with the necessary examples of evangelism while we have the times and the means. And no, age doesn’t matter. Grandparents and great-grandparents, you can still do it too. Fathers, as the leader of the home, we must set an example of humility instead of selfishness. Show humility by serving first, building relationships which will lead us to be able to share the Word of God with those that we’ve built.

relationships with.

In addition to this, we need to evangelize together. We must not just, as you’ve heard, we must not just talk the talk, but we must walk the walk.

teach by showing. Our children are watching us. They’re seeing our example. They’re to emulate us. We need to make sure we’re going on door knocking opportunities with them. Have personal Bible studies. We need to involve them on those. Mission trips. Yes to campaigns is a great place to start, as we talked about already. The younger our children start, the easier it be for them to grow up and to set an example as a Christian that they’re going to be.

We must build up the Lord’s Army. The first place we need to start building up the Lord’s Army is our families. Because the Lord’s Army is not an army that you’re going to be forced into. It’s not an army that you’re going to have to be drafted into. It’s a volunteer army working for the Lord. It’s a volunteer army, one that we want to be a part of, having that fruit bearing within our homes. Children will have the desire to go out.

and preach the gospel because of our example as parents. You see, in both great commissions, in Matthew chapter 16, verses 15 through 20, and I’m sorry, Mark chapter 16, verses 15 through 20, and Matthew 28, 18 through 20, they’re told to go and preach. And where are they told to go? Everywhere. We need to do this as often as possible with our families.

with our families, involve them as often as we can in the Lord’s work. We get so concerned about the worldly things that we’re involved with in our lives today that sometimes evangelism becomes an afterthought. We get so busy, before you know it, a couple of months has passed by and we haven’t even talked about evangelism within our homes.

Something always keeps us from participating in door knocking, mission trips, or simply just asking somebody if they would like to sit down and have a Bible study. Show your children, parents at a young age what evangelism should look like, that we have compassion for others. First Peter chapter three verse eight. Show your compassion to those who need to hear Jesus and the love of Jesus. Training and practice will build confidence.

and we will have confidence in going out to the world, evangelism will not scare us. We will be prepared.

Confidence helps develop who we are and who we can become. Don’t ever stop. Don’t ever stop doing these five things that I just talked about this afternoon. Paul tells us that we are called by the gospel of Jesus Christ in 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, verses 13 through 14. Paul says in Philippians chapter 1, verses 12 through 14, which I love this, he says that because of the things that have happened to him, it furthered the gospel and caused

most of those in the Lord to become confident, much bolder to speak the word without fear. Woo! Wow! What an example Paul was for us. Those words amaze me. Peter tells us that we are to grow, 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 5 through 11. In verses 5 through 7, he tells us that we are to grow our faith.

And he tells us what the things are that we should add to our faith, right? And then in verse eight, he says, for if these things are yours, and guess what they need to do? They need to abound. They need to be increasing. If they are, then you’re never going to be bearing on fruitful in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what he’s saying there is, if you are not growing, guess what you’re going to be doing? You’re going to be going backwards. You’re going to regress. And in verse nine, he says,

even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you,” there’s that if again. If you do, there’s that other two-letter word again. If you do these things, you will never stumble for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I’m almost done. Brian, getting close.

I want to be a part of that entrance into that everlasting kingdom. Do you? This means that Peter is saying that we must work.

those gentlemen here that are doing a lot of mission work. Yeah, we need to make sure that we’re working, that we’re growing, and that we desire to be faithful, and that we keep on doing it. We don’t have much time on this earth to make an impact. God has shown us how much He loves us and how much He cares for us. What an amazing and awesome God we have.

Let us make him proud.

we are called to have a zeal for God and his gospel, to be passionate about lost souls, to show that compassion to others so that they will know that we care, they won’t have any doubt about us. Use the power of the gospel to save souls. Prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. God has given us a cure for the sin disease and he asks us to be messengers of that cure and to teach our children and our families to be messengers of it as well. And as I close.

Whatever it might be that might be keeping us from being an effective messenger for the Lord, we need to get rid of it. We need to remove it. We need to change it. Our children are watching. are seeing our examples that will set them up for their future discipleship. If it is our job that is inhibiting us from being an effective messenger for the Lord, change it. If it’s some of our hobbies, 4-H, sports, ⁓

whatever it might be, limit it. If it’s the TV, turn it off. If it’s the social media on our phones, limit it.

If only we treated our Bible like our cell phone.

whatever it is that is keeping us from serving the Lord, change it, limit it.

Don’t let it keep our children from training to serve the Lord.

Do not let anything from serving the Lord, do not let anything keep you from serving the Lord in a way that will make our God in heaven proud that you are His.

Heaven will surely be worth it all. Thank you.