The Evangelist – Cardio & Reach
Body Builders: Training the Church to Full Strength • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Bodybuilders - training the church to full strength
Prayer
Apostle - Core strength
While some believe their gifting bestows an office, such as an office of the Apostle, it may be more appropriate to identify themselves as being Apostolic, or one who pioneers new endeavours and nurtures people.
Like Di, I see how my gift carries across the other four expressions of roles that build the church.
With an apostolic base, I see the big picture. I love multiplying leaders and ministries, and I love pioneering and establishing a good culture.
When the apostolic person functions prophetically, they discern spiritual seasons and shifts (this is how I prepare for the year) and speak truth to power.
Prophet - Form and alignment
When functioning pastorally, I care about creating healthy teams and systems of care, building a culture transformation, not just comfort. Talk more about this next week
In teaching mode, I love to develop reproducible frameworks (BDM) and equip others to teach.
Finally, in the function of an evangelist, I love raising up evangelists and creating structures for outreach
Evangelist - boosts our cardio and reach - taking the gospel beyond the walls and energising our mission.
Evangelists are bringers of good news who invite others in. Expanding the church body’s range and vitality. Outreach, invitation, challenge.
This is because there is a strong conviction for each person's soul and the eternal nature, when our earthly form dies, and we stand before God.
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This is the reality for the eternal soul. The knowledge of God's incredible gift to the humble soul, coupled with the reality that it is a tragedy for even one person to remain ignorant of this gift and become eternally damned. David shared with me that it is certainly his motivation, and can I encourage you to ask him for his testimony, as I was thankful he shared with me this week.
However, I wonder if the word Evangelist stirs feelings of unattainable or undesirable.
I asked Chat n choose what they thought of an evangelist, and they said Billy Graham or Bill Newman, someone on TV or can attract a crowd. This I would consider unattainable for the average person, and it makes it feel like it is for those touched by God who have the confidence to speak to the multitudes.
I then asked the ladies at chat n choose what the biggest barriers are to you about people sharing their faith. Would it be fair to say 70% in the room don’t have a faith or have walked away? Well, they answered, when it feels like they are trying to sell me something, I would say this is a remark to people that share a presentation of the gospel void of connection to the hearer's reality. Which was their second barrier was when someone disrupted and put them on the spot, with no actual ability to engage with the message they were sharing.
Like the rogue prophet not in community, an Evangelist with no accountability can also be harmful. They present a reductionist Gospel that’s all about getting out of hell, now, hear me when I say reduced gospel, often what is not included is Jesus’ invitation to grace-filled discipleship and the availability of the kingdom that was his central message.
You see, Jesus refers to Hell approximately 12-15 times across the Gospels
Gehenna – a fiery place of judgment (e.g., “hell of fire” in Matthew 5:22)
Outer darkness – where there is “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12)
Fiery furnace – in parables of judgment (Matthew 13:42)
Eternal punishment – contrasted with eternal life (Matthew 25:46)
It is important to note that John Piper, a theologian and writer, concludes that Jesus spoke of hell more than anyone else in the Bible. It is also true that Jesus, when he returns, will bring a holy wrath against those who reject his gracious rule.
This is true of anyone who does not confess they need Jesus and accept that he paid the price on the cross.
If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
However, Jesus refers to the Kingdom of God/Heaven over 100 times in the Gospels.
He teaches about the kingdom in:
• His opening proclamation: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near”
• The Beatitudes: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom…”
• Numerous parables: Sower, Weeds, Mustard Seed, Hidden Treasure, etc.
• His final commission: making disciples who live under the reign of the kingdom
Kingdom of God/Heaven: Jesus’ central message—inviting people into God’s reign now and forever.
Hell: A sober warning—used to emphasise the gravity of rejecting God’s way.
We are all commanded to share our faith and Hope with others and should not be deterred.
We share and God saves! JP, a Baptist pastor at Harris Creek, Texas, has tried to share his faith at least once a day for the last 25 years. He says some things are gifts, other things are disciplines... Evangelism is a gift, but we can all learn the discipline.
Today, I want to encourage us to have the confidence and competency (skills, practices) to be evangelists and share the gospel, good news, with others.
Evangelist
People who score highest with an Evangelist position are Story Tellers* in the Kingdom of God. They make the stories of Jesus’s remarkable goodness and love famous. They are the carriers of good news and partner with Jesus in celebrating people’s transformation (turning from a life of sin). They stir curiosity and desire to know Jesus. Their life is a living invitation to all to join the Family of God.
The Great Commission
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go.
When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
We often skip over the reason Jesus had to give this commission - doubt
We are to multiply our lives into others, teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded
Make disciples and teach obedience
This command gives us the mission and method: multiplying followers who live out Jesus’ way, just as you are being obedient.
Love your enemies and pray for them
Radical love is the hallmark of God’s kingdom—transforming how we respond to hostility and injustice.
Seek first the kingdom of God
This command reorders priorities, anchoring our devotion, decisions, and desires in God’s reign.
Do to others what you would have them do to you
The Golden Rule summarises relational wisdom and communal integrity in one principle.
Deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me
This command calls for daily surrender, spiritual vigilance, and wholehearted allegiance to Jesus.
Go and reproduce yourself
Park run - I had the confidence to run that far, but out of practice.
Confidence and competence in
Confidence that God is at work in people's lives, and when you speak of the love of Jesus in our lives, the transformation and freedom from a life of sin, that is something others want to know more about.
people of peace (I have found helpful)- people who like you, listen to you and serve you
Luke 10 - not everyone is ready to hear
discipling someone to maturity
Authentically curious - Casual, Meaningful, Spiritual (purpose, values, faith), discovery - open to learning about Jesus - reading the bible together. Josh Rowlings
Look around here, all the people of peace and conversations to practice authentic curiosity. I am blessed as your pastor to know some of those stories, and I am also sad when I see a lack of curiosity amongst us to truly get to know one another and welcome everyone.
This is not friending someone to the Gospel - there is urgency
Urgency - to be lifelong followers - not just to save people but to maturity
Kaye and I got talking about this - how we define someone to be Christian, with the remark that they are saved or not yet saved. I know I might be picking on our language here, we have all said it, but this is a reduction of the gospel, only defining someone by where they will no longer be. Why does Hell get all the glory?
Instead, that person is on fire for God, passionate, has a light, a beauty. Maturity
For those we desire to be in the kingdom, they are yet to respond to the kingdom, experience, see or hear. I don’t know about you, but this creates an urgency in me. Why do I get to experience such joy, love, transformation, peace and not share it? Why, when I go through hard times and know Jesus is there for me, do I want to allow others to go it alone, when I see someone chasing idols that will lead nowhere, would I not tell them about the creator of life that fulfils my life? Is that your experience?
Yet, if I am honest, I don’t.
I loved what David shared with me about prayer for these moments:
Prayer that God would prepare conversations in advance, prayer that the Holy Spirit would convict and grant repentance new life, prayer post sharing that they would not find rest until they had yielded, prayer that God would help them count the cost of discipleship and turn from all other god's/ vices, prayer that they would be used by God and be fruitful themselves.
When we share our Hope, 3 groups of people need to hear the gospel message and turn to God.
1st group believe there is a God; however, they are under the misconception that they don't need Him...
2nd group are atheists who believe there is no proof for God.
3rd group are religious, like the Pharisees. This group trusts that they are attending church and doing religious work to earn their salvation.
David has a strategy he uses to meet each of these groups where they are at and to move them to repentance and belief in Jesus.
Intentional, relational and simple.
The Holy Spirit is before us. At work in people's lives, and we can have confidence when we invite them to hear about the kingdom of God, that there will be a desire to
“The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”
Confidence in hearing God - prophecy course
Through His word, Spirit and in others
This is how the evangelists invite and challenge the church to reach those yet to be reached.
Let's be praying and being intentional to share the truth and love of Jesus. Be confident that people want to know about the Hope you have in a loving Father who brings eternal joy, forgiveness and turns his just and holy wrath away from all who repent of their rebellion against Him. We simply follow his commands and encourage others to do the same, so that we can be part of the kingdom now and into eternity.
Maria and the kids are in Wynyard today, celebrating with family the baptism of Caleb and Hayley. They are in their 20s grew up in a Christian home, but have never taken that step of obedience and made a public declaration of their trust in Jesus.
If you are on the fence and haven’t said Yes to Jesus, now is your chance, in a community that wants to walk with you and help you to maturity in Christ.
Baptism is
I would love to fill the tub in two or 3 weeks.
Prayer
Communion
Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?
Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,
but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
All who follow Jesus are eternal springs of living water, with the authority of Jesus, the Messiah, to invite people to drink from that well of living water and will experience in eternity.
At chat n choose after I asked those questions, I shared my testimony, and Maureen was excited to share with me afterwards that she also got to share her testimony of Jesus' living water in her life.
We are to go and make disciples - share our lives with others of the things Jesus has done and commanded. Communion is one of those times that we reflect on the living water and bread that he is to us.
and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Maybe like the 11, you are still doubting that God can use you to do mighty things for His Kingdom. Well, it starts with surrender and humility, and only God can change lives.
As we take the bread, surrender to Jesus
While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.”
Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you, I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”
Prayer
