John 3:30

He Must Increase, I Must Decrease

Prayer

Illinois @ THE Ohio State University Outreach Report 2017

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November 18, 1999: my friend Kurtis Gould was born. 18 years later, this young man’s desire on his birthday is to be on the street for a few hours preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost. If you know me, you know that at 18 I was not a Christian. What I looked forward to on my 18th birthday is not even to be spoken of in polite company. Praise God for Kurtis’s faithfulness!

As this was the last home game of the season, we were all very excited to go and minster to Buckeyes fans one last time at home. What a joy it was to have 5 teens from my church, Chase, Kurt, Kenton, Alexandra and Nicholas,  with me along with Josh Smith, Joshua & Rachael Richards and the steadfast and faithful Caleb Davenport.

We began the day by singing How Deep the Father’s Love for Us and Joy to the World from my custom made, waterproof, hymnbooks. This really gets everyone in the spirit of worship and allows us to labor with great joy in Jesus Christ.

I cannot stress enough what a blessing it is to have a team of mature evangelists because it allows us to split up and cover more ground. With 10 people Saturday, including 4 preachers we were able to cover 3 corners of an intersection with tracts, and two corners with gospel preaching. It is possible that almost 50,000 people heard the gospel or encountered a tract that day.

We don’t know who the elect are, but we know that God will use means to reach them. May we be that means for some of those Christ died to save!

A few notes about the day. I have noticed a hardening of men’s hearts over the last 5 years where it seems more people act indifferently to the preaching. I am not intentionally trying to incite people, but I have found that talking about abortion seems to turn more heads than anything else. When I preach that anyone who is even pro-choice is a murderer in the eyes of God, because they give approval to those who do evil (Rom 1:32), it generates more attention than anything else.

My goal is not to fight with people, but to preach righteousness in such a way that they are convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit of God. If they are so hardened to their own sinfulness that I need to be descriptive and graphic concerning the evil of abortion they either support or combat, then I will do so. I am neither afraid to call out specific sins of our culture like sexual immorality or homosexuality, nor am I apt to focus on those pet sins. My goal is to preach to the whole man from the whole counsel of God.

There was a man who took a tract from Kenton. Alexandra and Kenton noticed that he came back and stood next to Kenton as he read it. The man eventually argued with Kenton yelling at him. Kenton gave the man the gospel, but mostly the man didn’t listen; he just spoke. Praise God for Kenton being willing to engage!

God abundantly provided for us so that I was able to take the teenagers to the game. For 4 of them it was their first Buckeyes game ever! The man I bought tickets from even gave us 6 ponchos for free (all of which we used)! It was a special treat for these faithful young people who missed the first half of every game for their favorite team because they were out evangelizing. I thought it was an appropriate ending to a season of hard work for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Here are a few pictures from the game.

Kenton, Alexandra, Kurt and me at the game.
Alexandra and a few of the boys moved to the front row after the rain emptied out The Shoe.

As this was the last Buckeyes home game, this marked our last time evangelizing Buckeyes fans…in Columbus. Because the Buckeyes won Saturday and Wisconsin beat TTUN, we now have the privilege of evangelizing Buckeyes fans once again in Indianapolis before the Big 10 Championship game, December 2! I already have 3 youth committed to going with me and over half a dozen other helpers. Pray for us to have a great day in Indianapolis, especially that we will have favor with the police as we had a problem once in the past.

Thanks to all of you who’ve read my posts, prayed and given financially to help us. Your gift to us of encouragement and help is not unnoticed by the God who sees everything. May He richly reward you for your faithfulness to His Son.

A Beleaguered Believer is Beached

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Jonah cried out to God from the belly of the great fish. Then, God grants Jonah a change of heart whereby he agrees to obey. Another brilliant OT text full of application for today. Here is the sermon I preached Sunday, May 15 at the evening service at Bethel Baptist Church of Pataskala. Make sure to check back this week for chapters 3 & 4.

On Praying ‘Hard’

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I can no more adequately explain to you the difference between the way an apple tastes and the way a pear tastes than I can explain the difference between ‘praying hard’ and ‘just praying’; but I know which one I’m experiencing when I taste of it.

OSU vs Indiana Outreach Report

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Greetings! On Saturday, November 22, 2014, Fred Triplett and I rode down to Ohio Stadium together to meet newly ordained apostle evangelist, Joe Conkle.

Joe brought 3 men with him who were all eager to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ. Kelly, Johan and David.

We ministered for about 2 hours, from the end of the 3rd quarter to when the crowds died down at Lane and Olentangy River Road. I preached the gospel for about an hour, and thousands of people heard the Word.

While preaching, I read from 1 John 4, Colossians 1, Romans 1 and Psalm 34. As a point of conviction and rebuke to you, dear reader, did you spend that much time in God’s Word yesterday? There are days I have not, to my shame!

I don’t know how many tracts were distributed, probably a thousand or more. I had my share of hecklers and yellers. I did my best to come back to them with winsome, rational comments. Hopefully, someone saw the fault in the anti-God worldview. One guy yelled “Shutup” to me. I replied by asking “Why don’t you?” Afterward, I wondered if it came across as rude or “seventh-gradey,” but I meant it as a serious inquiry into his logic. He didn’t respond.

God protected us from inclement weather and evildoers. That corner is covered in Police directing traffic which makes me feel very safe. After preaching for half an hour, I caught a glimpse of one of Columbus’ finest who was on the corner closest to us. He is a man I have known for years as he is a Christian and the brother of one of my best friends.

We brought a box of 20 Bibles and only gave away 1 of them. This is one area where I want to do better. I ought to be more prepared and have a sign that says “FREE BIBLES.” I suppose if people don’t know we have them, they aren’t going to just ask for a Bible. What was interesting is that while preaching, I mentioned that we had Bibles to give away. Shortly after, a man who overheard me, named Chris, approached asking for a Bible. I shut down the microphone for a few minutes and listened to him tell me about his life, and I was able to share the gospel with him.

Dear Christian, will you please pray for Chris? He’s engaged and has 2 daughters. His appearance was humble, but only God sees the heart.

On a side note, for those of you who don’t think open air preaching “works,” I’ll answer a fool according to his folly and point out that a man heard the gospel one on one and received a copy of God’s Word because he heard a preacher with a microphone mention that he could receive a free Bible.

There was one other instance to note: A drunk man was seemingly mesmerized by the preaching, (once in a while you catch someone who is CLEARLY listening and engrossed in the preaching). His friend kept trying to get him to move on, but he remained focused on me. I asked him, “Do you want forgiveness?” And he nodded in the affirmative. His friend urged him on, but he heard the message. Maybe God will use it to convert him!

May you bless God for his graciousness to me. Five men showed up to minster the gospel with me and without any conflict deferred to me as the leader and authority in the group. It is a responsibility I accept as one which was foreordained by God. I only hope that I will humbly serve, even those who submit to me, as my Lord Jesus did. May God be glorified because He is worthy and His Word was exalted and the name of Jesus was magnified.

Special thanks to Sports Fan Outreach International who encourages us, inspires us and prays for us as we labor to the crowds in Ohio.

P.S. Midway through my preaching, a couple of young ladies stood about 20 feet in front of me and held up a camera phone. I assumed they were recording me (for what purpose, I have no idea). Am I vain that I sucked in my stomach? Maybe that’s a sign I need to be more disciplined! 🙂

What Does it Mean to Pray in His Name?

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3rd part of the series on prayer:

Last week we discussed that we do not have to attach “In Jesus’ name” at the end of every prayer. But what does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus?

We will look at the first prayer in the Bible and see what we can learn from it.

The “name of the Lord,” and “the name of Jesus” are important concepts in scripture.

Do we get anything we ask in prayer like the Bible says? What about the verses that seem to say that?

Partial list of scripture references:

Genesis 4:25-26;John 15:1-16,14:13,16:23;Ephesians 2:10

Prayer, God’s Sovereignty & Praying in the Name of Jesus

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Listen to the conclusion of the teaching on witchcraft in regard to “the prayer of Jabez.”

Some questions to consider when reviewing the disciple’s prayer:

1. Is it okay to repeat yourself in your prayers?

2. Is it okay to pray in public? Can we pray with others?

3. Why pray if God is sovereign?

4. What does it mean to pray in the name of Jesus? Is a prayer not a prayer if I forget to say “in Jesus’ name?”

Listen for biblical answers to these good questions which genuine Christians can have!

Scripture references includes Isaiah 46:6-10; Daniel 9; Matthew 6:5-10; 1 Chronicles 4:10; John 14:13