Sermon Tone Analysis

My position for the majority of the years I worked in the Financial Services industry, dictated that I visit the offices of our agency at least 3 times per year.

Over the years we had offices in eastern Illinois, about a couple hours from here, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and in Denver Colorado.

Our office in Denver had only one financial advisor.

His name was Jim Butler, and he had been with the company for about 30 years and was nearing retirement.

He lived in Parker, which is on the eastern side of Denver.

His office was in his home, and since he lived in the Denver area and our son Steven lived near him, usually at least once a year I drove and brought Pam with me.

On one such occasion, Pam was waiting in the car while I was meeting with him.

She had brought a book to read and was enjoying some quiet time to catch up on some reading, when there was a knock on the window.

Jim’s wife, Jodie, had noticed Pam and invited her in for tea.

We all decided that from that time on, anytime I brought Pam, she and Jodie would talk and have tea while Jim and I would meet.

In the end, that only ended up being one more visit.

A month or 2 after Pam and I had been there, Jim had decided to retire.

Our plan was to head out for one more visit and to pick up some boxes of client files to bring back to Kansas City with us.

A short time before we went out to Denver, I got a call from Jim.

He informed me that he had an aggressive form of cancer, the prognosis looked favorable as his daughter had arranged for him to receive a new experimental drug that had been pretty effective attacking the type of cancer he had.

I prayed with Jim over the phone and set up a date for our last visit before his retirement.

Fast forward a few weeks.

Jim and Jodie had moved into a new home, a beautiful home facing Castlerock, with one of the more beautiful vista views off of their deck we had ever seen.

Had we not known that Jim had cancer, you would have never guessed it, he looked as strong as ever.

Jim was a powerful barrel chested man, went to the athletic club multiple times a week to lift weights, had always kept in impeccable shape.

As I recall, he had started the cancer treatments, I believe he and Jodie still felt optimistic they would eradicate his body of the cancer, but at the same time they were worried.

Before we left, I asked the 2 of them if it would be alright if Pam and I prayed with them before we left, both immediately said yes.

We joined hands in their dining room and prayed, when we finished praying, tears were streaming down both of their faces, it is likely that no one had ever prayed with them before that day.

It was really a pretty powerful moment.

Over the next few months, Jim called me regularly to update me on how the treatments were going, each time I ended the phone calls by praying with Jim.

The following February, I was a work and my phone rang.

The caller I.D. let me know it was Jim’s phone.

“Jim Butler, how are you doing?”

There was a momentary pause, then..

“Jim, this is Jodie, I just wanted you to know that Jim has passed away.

I wanted to let you know how much you meant to Jim and me and to thank you for your prayers.”

We spoke for a little while longer and I prayed with her one last time.

Over the years I had shared my faith with Jim many times, I had prayed with him on several occasions, but I had never worked up the courage to invite him to trust in Christ as his personal Savior.

That fact hangs heavy on my heart to this day.

My only hope is that God brought someone else into Jim’s life before he passed away, to do what I failed to do.

Last week, when we began to look at the Spiritual Discipline of Evangelism, I mentioned more than once that time is of the essence.

As a result of that fact, we need to take seriously God’s very clear directive to us in The Great Commission.

This morning I want to devote some more time to this very important topic, including giving us all some tips on what we can do to effectively share the truth of the Gospel with others.

To begin with, we need to understand that: Next Slide

There are different styles of evangelism.

What we will look at this morning is how different Biblical characters had different styles of evangelism based on their own character.

We may identify a style that suits us and stop trying to force ourselves to do something that is not natural.

When evangelism becomes natural, we will start to enjoy it and do more of it.

On the other hand, if we try to do something that is not natural for us, the experience may be so traumatic that we conclude evangelism is not for us and we stop doing it altogether.

Now I want you to understand something very important from the very start.

Next Slide

The more we share with others about Jesus, the easier it becomes.

Pam and I started a serious commitment to cycling in 2009.

We started with riding our bikes to a nice paved trail not far from our house.

The whole ride consisted of about 2 1/2 miles and one hill that led up to 159th.

That ride was a killer to us, and that hill practically brought us to our knees.

In 2017 we did at least 2 century rides, that is a ride of at least 100 miles, as well as several metric centuries, which is a ride of at least 62 miles.

Had you told us in 2009 that we would be able to do rides of that length, we would have done our best to find you a psychiatrist!

But the more we rode, the easier it became.

The same holds true of sharing with others about Jesus Christ, the more we do it, the easier and more natural it becomes.

Now let’s look at the different styles of evangelism.

The first one is: Next Slides

Confrontational-Peter

Peter was an impulsive, in your face, kind of guy.

When Jesus asked His disciples in Matthew 16:15 who they taught He was, Peter did not mince words.

He declared clearly that he thought Jesus was the Messiah.

Then a few verses later, he challenged Jesus’ stated mission head on.

(Mat 16:13-22 NIV)  When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" {14} They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

{15} "But what about you?" he asked.

"Who do you say I am?" {16} Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." ….{21} From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

{22} Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

"Never, Lord!" he said.

"This shall never happen to you!"

We also see Peter’s confrontational side on the night Jesus was betrayed.

When Judas led the soldiers and others to capture Jesus in the garden, what did the impulsive, in your face Peter do?

He pulled out his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest.

God later took that confrontational side of Peter and used it in a powerful way.

But the confrontational style isn’t the only style God uses, He also uses the: Next Slides

Invitational-Matthew

We see this in the life of Matthew in Luke 5:27-29 Next Slide

Luke 5:27-29

Matthew relied on the friendships he had built with people as the basis to invite them to meet Jesus.

We use this approach when we invite our friends to events such as Christian concerts, special church events, or just to church in general.

The other person in the Bible who used this approach was the Samaritan woman.

After she has found the Messiah, she went out and invited her village people to come to hear Jesus.

We looked at her a couple weeks ago in John 4.

Friendship is important if we are to talk to people about spiritual things or invite them for church or church type of events.

People who are good in this style have an interpersonal approach that allows them to build intimate relationships.

When we use the invitational approach, it will be negative if we only call people when we want to invite them to an event.

Very soon, people can sense the superficiality of our friendship.

We need to build genuine relationships with them.

The next style is: Next Slides

Testimonial-the blind man

One of the best examples of this one is the blind man in Next Slide

John 9:24-33 Page 1140 in the Pew Bibles.

John 9:24-33

This is one style of evangelism I believe all of us should consider.

I think each of us has a story to tell, a story of what God has done in our life.

Sure many of you may not have a story of how God saved you from a life devoted to sin.

That’s my salvation story.

I came to Christ in 1966 at the ripe old age of 6, I hardly had a life of crime!

But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a story to tell.

God has done some marvelous things in my life and the testimonial style is merely sharing the story of what God has done in your life.

Last week I shared with you a story from our days in the youth ministry in Scottsbluff NE.

I’d like to share another one with you this morning that fits with the testimonial style of evangelism.