Servant Evangelism - What is it? Biblical? Worthwhile?

Today we get to talk about one of my favorite topics.
• One that has been super influential in the life of the church.
• One that can be done individually but also has dynamic implications when done corporately as well.
• I was personally influenced by this method of evangelism
• And I have seen it touch many peoples lives and I have seen many people get saved as a result.

Those of you who have heard my story know
• that I initially walked through the doors of the church because of a personal invitation.
• I still think there is absolutely know better way of bringing people to the faith even today.
• Statistics have proven that there is nothing better than one person inviting another person for seeing people come to know the faith.
Maybe there is an important distinction that we need to talk about right from the get go.
• When we think of evangelism today it is often an invitation to a church service
o I think that definition could be very limiting,
o but I do think there is some biblical precedent for it.
There is a big difference between inviting someone to church and directly sharing the gospel with someone one on one.
• Both are very good things.
I think many of us fear the one on one evangelistic conversation.
• We are comfortable inviting people to church
• But the thought of answering deep theological questions is something better left to professionals.

2 Timothy ch 4 should be a goal for all Christians not just for Christian leaders.

2 Timothy 4: 1I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Paul is using some pretty strong words:
• I charge you in the presence of God
• 2preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
That’s a high bar for us all to strive for
• and not something I can solve overnight,
• but I promise to do my best throughout the course of this year
• to equip you with the pillars of the faith in such a way
• that you will be comfortable sharing your faith at the drop of a hat..
You will become very strong young jedis.. 😊

He gives a bit of a why?
• Alluding to the generation we are living in..
• 3For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching,
I think we are already beginning to witness this which means the time is short and we have to share the gospel all the more.

Then Paul gives us a final charge - do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

I skipped over words like endure suffering we don’t seem to like those words.
• But it does intimate that doing the one on one work of an evangelist is hard work, study, learn, grow,
• but I pray it is something that we all aspire to.

Lets flick the switch back since I digressed
• inviting people to church – servant evangelism .. what does it mean?
• Where is a great place to start?

So I came to know the lord because of a personal invitation to go to church –
• not a personal one on one evangelistic conversation.

So this is an absolutely great place to start:
• simply inviting someone to come to church where you know that it will be a safe place,
• where God will be lifted high in worship and the gospel will be faithfully preached,
• and where many, many people have come to know Jesus.

Inviting people to church is something we all should and can do.
• and have over the course of the past 4 weeks we have shared many different ways in which that invitation can happen
• or in which we can connect with people who are far from God with the hope that they will come to know God.

So as a people we will continue to learn how to have gospel centered conversations
• And I pray we will continue to invite people to church.

So how can the corporate church complement our personal invitations?

I came to the church initially by personal invitation
• but my heart was intrigued beyond belief when I received a bottle of water on a hot july 4th day in 1996
• from some people walking by in a parade with a grocery cart full of cold water.

Mary Jo and I were in Pembroke Pines, FL.
• Watching a parade, with the kids, having a great time
• then God interrupted us once again through a bottle of water
• and launched us on a path that would ultimately lead to us being in full time ministry.

What the people who were walking by were doing was practicing a very simple form of servant evangelism.

The bottle of water they gave us said Compliments of Christ the Rock Community Church.

We simply had to go check out this place that would give away something for free in a world where seemingly nothing was for free.

Corporately – if the church is a bastion of hope
• people need to know that we exist
• so that in turn we have the privilege of presenting the gospel.

I see winning souls as part air war and part ground war.

Air war –
• starts with Prayer and I pray you will join me in the prayer room
• on Sunday mornings at 9am
• or this Thursday night at 7pm. That is where it starts
But part of the air cover is the propaganda war
• and this is where churches can do a great job of reinforcing the ground war
• which is the one on one personal invitation which trumps everything.

What do I mean?
• If we let the community know we exist through
• Cards
• t-shirts
• mailers
• social media
• presencing ourselves out there in the community doing things like –
• Participating in parades, giving away icee’s to parade goers on a hot sunny day, having fun, or putting on community events.

Then when you go to do a personal invite the person might say –
• Oh I have heard of that church
• Saw them at the parade, or in orange park, or oakleaf,
• or wherever we might be and maybe just maybe they will be more likely to show up.

So don’t get me wrong these are methods – methods that may work in our generation.

Why? –
• people in America are so use to branding advertising as a means of talking about things –
• it’s inherent to our culture and is easily recognizable.
• Some brands so much that all you have to do is see their logo and you know exactly what it is.
• If you do it cheesily it can be a huge turn off and if you don’t do it at all it can also be a turnoff.

Here is my heart and where I hope we will get
• That you could not live in Duval or Clay county and not know that Journey church exists as a beacon of hope for the community.

May that be our goal corporately –
• but to me this is not really technically and Evangelistic Outreach
• It’s more advertising.

SO I have always wanted to balance that with simple acts of christian kidness
• where by there is no tangible return for journey.
• Couple these kinds of let the world know we exist outreaches with really touching people and meeting there needs where they are at.
That came a bit more slowly but is so taking root organically in our church with little backing.
• Clara White
• Salvation Army
• Streetside Prayer
• Thanksgiving food outreach and backpack outreaches

All amazing ministries from within journey church that you should get involved in and should.

Then there are gospel partnerships as well.
• Seamark Ranch
• Mercy Network
• First Coast Womens Services
• The Inn Ministry

Or Compassion International –
• A real, tangible opportunity –
• a challenge to sacrifice 4 hours of your god breathed awesome privileged American life to help literally save the lives of children around the world by helping introduce people to a virtual missions experience the weekend after easter.
Think about this if you had the chance to save 150 kids lives by giving up 4 hours of your time would you do it?

How could we not sign up –
• 100 volunteers – Lord Give us 250 or 300 lets blow the doors off of it.
• So simple
• So painless

I so want these things to continue to bubble up at journey
• where one day we can have a dream center one day
• where we 24/7/365 days a year help those who are hurting by providing shelter, addiction recovery, job training, and more.
• God is able!

Is there a scriptural precedent for this or are all my thoughts just worldly?

Matthew 20: 28even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

God set this example of servant evangelism and meeting needs .
• He healed people of their diseases,
• he raised people from the dead,
• he miraculously fed people among many more miracles.
• And in turn His disciples did many more of the same thing.

Acts 6: 1Now in these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint by the Hellenists arose against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 2And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, "It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 3Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. 4But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word." 5And what they said pleased the whole gathering, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6These they set before the apostles, and they prayed and laid their hands on them.

I often speak about the compelling need to do things but how about the benefits.
• I mean whats in it for me?

Yes we are helping others, but in doing so God does something beautiful for us in return.

Isaiah 58: 10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry
and satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
then shall your light rise in the darkness
and your gloom be as the noonday.
11 And the Lord will guide you continually
and satisfy your desire in scorched places
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters do not fail.

So church I charge you with this.

Might we be a people who served like Jesus served.
• Yes, we will advertise, and do all of the things that make us Relevant to our culture,

But frankly nothing is more relevant than meeting the tangible needs of people
• Serving
• Giving
• Loving
• Caring
• All of us can do that
• And when we do I have no doubt God will continue to expand His kingdom through us!