Keys To Effective Evangelism

Colossians 4:2-6

Adapted from a Jeffery Anselmi sermonhttp://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?

ContributorID=&SermonID=94959

Colossians 4:2 ESV Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in

it with thanksgiving. 3 At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on

account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I

ought to speak.

5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let

your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each

person.

From the old record book of theLindley Christian Church.

By-Laws ofLindley Christian Church

Buffalo MissouriWe the members of the Lindley Christian Church of Buffalo, Missouri, an something

scratched out enominational body of Christians, congregationally governed by the Word of God, in order to promote the work of the

church in the Spirit of Christ and thus advance His Kingdom, do hereby adopt these by-laws.

Article II (purpose)Section I The Lindley Christian Church of Buffalo, Missouri, acknowledging the

Deity and absolute authority of Jesus Christ and the inspiration of the Holy

Scriptures, is committed to preach the Word and to advance the spiritual

growth of Christians at home and away from home.

Section II This congregation adheres to and recognizes the writings of the

Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God, and as such the

only unerring guide and standard of Christians’ faith and practice.

These statements summarize why we are here as a church.

We are governed by the Word of God, in order to promote the work of the church in the Spirit of Christ and thus advance His Kingdom committed to preach the

Word and to advance the spiritual growth of Christians.

We exist to bring glory to God by making followers of His Son Jesus.

This is a two-part process. Part one involves finding a person who is not

saved and sharing the message about Jesus with them.

The second part has to do with teaching them how to live for and love

Jesus.Which of those two things would you

rather do?

Which is more difficult?

Today I want to spend some time talking about the first part of making

disciples.

This can be one of the scariest things we are called to do by God?

Evangelism

We are easily intimidated by the thought of actually telling someone

about Jesus.We are intimidated by what to say, how to say it, and by the potential reaction

from the one we are trying to share our faith with.

I really do not think we fully grasp the importance of what we are called to

do.There are people who are dying every

day without Jesus.We can wish people into heaven all we want, but the truth is that without an

active relationship with Jesus, nothing will get them there.

There are people who are hurting and people who are living without direction

and purpose.It is our job to bring the gospel to them.There are three keys that will help us to

be successful in our endeavor of reaching a hurting, dying world for

Jesus.One key to effective evangelism is:

Our Prayers

This is such an important aspect to the success of anything we do in life, but it

is maybe one of the most neglected.

How many times have we tried to say something to another person about our faith without any prayer preparation?

Do you have a list of people you are praying will be open to receiving and

accepting Jesus as their Lord?

Look at what we are told in verse 2.2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being

watchful in it with thanksgiving.

Prayer is something that I cannot stress enough.

I know if we would take prayer more seriously, we would see results we

never before could imagine.How are we to pray?

As you look at verse 2 again you will see a few things.

The manner of our prayers.

This passage gives us three things to do.

First we are to continue steadfastly in prayer.

This is an issue of perseverance. It means to be courageously persistent. We need to all have a list of people we

are persistently praying for.

Luke 18:1 ESV And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought

always to pray and not lose heart. 2 He said, "In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. 3 And there was a

widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, 'Give me justice

against my adversary.'

4 For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, 'Though I neither

fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she

will not beat me down by her continual coming.'"

6 And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge says. 7 And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? 8 I tell you, he will

give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"

Jesus told this parable on prayer that was designed to show us that God

loves persistent prayers.How many times have we prayed once

or twice and then given up.Are you glad that someone did not

give up on praying for you after one or two times?

I bet if you ask the person who helped lead you to Jesus how often they

prayed for your salvation, it was more than once or twice.

The second manner of our prayers is being watchful in it, stay alert.

This is kind of funny but the phrase literally means that we are to stay

awake.

No sleeping while you pray.

It was used this way when Jesus chastised His disciples for going to

sleep on Him as He prayed.Matthew 26:41 ESV Watch and pray

that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the

flesh is weak."

In the context what it means is that we are to be aware of what is going on around us in our world that would

require prayer help from God.

Christians cannot so isolate themselves that they have no clue as

to what is going on around them.

The third manner of our prayer is we are to be thankful.

Our hearts should overflow with thanksgiving.

As we see we are called to pray, what are we called to pray about concerning

our evangelistic efforts?

Let us look at the…

The focus of our prayers.

As we spend a great deal of time in prayer, what are we to focus on?

Colossians 4:3 ESV At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the

mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

We are to ask God to open the door for the gospel.

We must resist the temptation of kicking in the door ourselves.

If we try to force the seed, the gospel, into unprepared soil, it most likely will

not produce a harvest.

Farmers do not just throw their seeds indiscriminately; they prepare the soil

before they plant.

We must prepare the soil of the heart with plenty of prayer, prayer that God

will open doors for us.

The second focus of our prayers is to declare the mystery of Christ.

God will guide us as to what to say.

How many times have we shot off our mouths only to have it drive a person

away from God instead of drawing them closer?

I have done that before, and it was because I said what I said with no

prayer, thought or compassion toward the person I was speaking to.

Let God guide you, pray for the words to say and pray for the correct timing.

A second key to effective evangelism is:

Our Conduct How we conduct ourselves has a HUGE

impact on our ability to reach people.Our conduct shows people what is

really important to us. If I have nothing good to say about the church I am attending, then it will be

hard for me to convince another person to come to the church.

If I am trying to win a spouse, child, relative or close friend to Christ and

my attitude is negative or if my life has very little semblance to what I profess,

it will be hard to win them over to a God who makes no difference in my

life.

If I do not have a heart of compassion toward brothers and sisters in Christ as well as those who are lost how can

I show someone who Jesus is

We do not have to be perfect to be effective.

Lets see what verse 5 says concerning our conduct.

Colossians 4:5 ESV Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use

of the time.

We are called to conduct ourselves with wisdom.

Living with wisdom is understanding that people are watching us.

It is understanding that for many people we are the only bible they will read, we are the Jesus they will see.

This is why it is so important for those in the church to love one another and

get along.If I go home to my family and tell them

how much I hate people and how I cannot stand someone and then

display anger and hatred toward them, do I really think I will have a chance to

win them to Christ?

If I go out and act just like everyone else in the world, do you think I will

have much of a chance to win them?

Be aware that your conduct will affect your ability to reach people.

If you stumble, be ready to say you are sorry and ask for forgiveness.

It will impress people. There are a lot of people in ministry who have been

mistreated, never to hear I am sorry or will you forgive me.

This is from other Christians.

Secondly,

Our conduct shouldenhance our outreach

The way we act should be something that attracts people to Jesus.

What we do should bring glory to Jesus.We are to make the most of our

opportunities!How we deal with people should help

them see we have something they need.

I really believe that the largest obstacle between the lost and a relationship with Jesus is Christians. We can be our own

worst enemies or we can be a real blessing.

God calls us to live in such a way as to bring glory to God.

Oh what a positive role model can do in reaching people for Jesus.

A third key to effective evangelism is:

Our SpeechPaul touched on this a little bit earlier.

Colossians 3:8 ESV But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander,

and obscene talk from your mouth.Colossians 3:16 ESV Let the word of Christ

dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual

songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the

Father through him.The way we speak, what we say and how we say it can be either a blessing to our

efforts or a roadblock.There are two things I want us to consider concerning our speech.

Let us look at what verse 6 tells us.

Colossians 4:6 ESV Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you

ought to answer each person.

What does this verse suggest to us?

Our speech is to befilled with grace

In Bible times this meant that our speech would be dotted with witty and

clever sayings and remarks.What is meant here is that our speech should be the type of language which

results from the operation of God’s grace on our hearts.

Our speech is to be something that seasons as salt.

Too much salt ruins a good dish. Not enough makes no difference in the

taste of the dish.We are to add flavor to the lives of

those around us by our speech.

Are we adding a good or bad seasoning?

Ephesians 4:29 ESV Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to

those who hear.The second issue concerning speech

is:

We need to know whowe are speaking to.

I really like Tony Chachere’s Cajun seasoning. I shake a little bit of it over

most everything I eat at home. One time I ruined some pasta & sauce

because, had I tasted it first, I would have known it needed very little to no

seasoning.

I had put sausage in the sauce so by adding Tony Chachere’s the salt taste

was overwhelming!I needed to taste, get to know the pasta dish before seasoning it.

We need to know as much about the people we are dealing with as we can so that we will know how to respond

to each person.

Our effectiveness increases as we know more about the people we are

trying to reach.We MUST see things through their

eyes.We need to know those we are trying to reach so we can better reach them.

MARKETING PRINCIPLES???Target Market Variables:

Age,Income,

Education,Race,

Gender,Religion,

National origin,Place of residence,

Life style

Conclusion

Telling other people about Jesus can be intimidating.

We may have tried it once or many times and failed so somewhere along the line it became easier to not do it.

Do you have a list of lost souls you are praying for?

Are you trying to reflect Jesus in your conduct and is your speech filled with grace as a person who has received

the grace of Jesus in your life?

Let us not be afraid to step into the water and let us be diligent about

sharing Jesus.Believers are to live in such a way that

non-believers are (1) not turned off, but (2) attracted. Every believer is to

be a verbal witness and a lifestyle witness! (Utley)