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.
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.
This is very encouraging to read. God bless you Michael and God bless your labor in Indianapolis.