Welcome. I'm glad you could make it today. We have back with us 00:00:32.27\00:00:35.34 Jason McCracken who is the marketing representative for the 00:00:35.37\00:00:38.41 Review and Herald Publishing Association and a youth 00:00:38.44\00:00:41.83 evangelist. And the last time he was here with us we talked about 00:00:41.87\00:00:44.99 outreach to the community and the world. You know, these times 00:00:45.03\00:00:48.35 require that we have a Bible foundation for what we believe 00:00:48.39\00:00:51.49 and that is what he's here to talk about with us today. This 00:00:51.52\00:00:54.61 time it is winning people to Christ. Welcome to the program. 00:00:54.65\00:00:58.20 Thank you, thank you, thank you. Well I'm glad to be here and I 00:00:58.24\00:01:02.22 want to thank you for inviting me once again. We're going to 00:01:02.25\00:01:08.25 start with the word of God. Matthew chapter 28, because our 00:01:08.29\00:01:13.64 topic today is winning people to Christ. So Christ has given us 00:01:13.68\00:01:18.62 some excellent information that we need to share not only with 00:01:18.65\00:01:22.53 ourselves but people all over the world. The Bible says in 00:01:22.56\00:01:27.76 Matthew chapter 28, verse 19, it says go, go ye therefore and 00:01:27.79\00:01:33.38 teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and 00:01:33.42\00:01:38.98 the Son and the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all 00:01:39.01\00:01:43.13 things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with 00:01:43.16\00:01:47.21 you alway even unto the end of the world. Amen! Now when Jesus 00:01:47.25\00:01:51.88 was talking to his 11 disciples, today he's talking to the church 00:01:51.91\00:01:56.51 He wants the church to go. G means get, O means out. That's 00:01:56.54\00:02:02.20 how I use it. Get out. Get out and teach all nations. Get out, 00:02:02.24\00:02:06.89 baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy 00:02:06.92\00:02:10.99 Ghost. And that brings us to our topic, Winning People to Christ. 00:02:11.03\00:02:15.07 How do we win people to Christ? 00:02:15.10\00:02:18.19 Well that's a question people want to know. How do we... 00:02:18.23\00:02:20.51 You know there was a book that was written, How to Win Friends 00:02:20.55\00:02:22.66 and Influence People. People want to know how to have a 00:02:22.69\00:02:26.81 winning personality. 00:02:26.84\00:02:28.15 Well, let's look at six different areas here. OK. 00:02:28.19\00:02:30.47 The first is we need to equip members... 00:02:30.50\00:02:42.87 There are two essentials we need to pick up here. Equip and to 00:02:42.91\00:02:49.81 share. The first is to equip. How do we equip? In order to 00:02:49.84\00:02:56.37 make disciples, we must teach disciples. We must sit down with 00:02:56.41\00:03:02.63 members of the church in not one session or two but we must do... 00:03:02.66\00:03:08.85 I do it in a period of six months to a year. Can you 00:03:08.88\00:03:13.26 imagine sitting with me for a whole year? But now I teach 00:03:13.30\00:03:19.12 people. We have to teach them how to become a disciple. 00:03:19.16\00:03:24.95 Now is the pastor supposed to do this only? 00:03:24.98\00:03:27.54 A lay person, an elder, a deacon, a church officer, an 00:03:27.58\00:03:33.93 associate pastor, the pastor of the church. It doesn't matter. 00:03:33.97\00:03:38.60 The person that is equipped for training people, that person 00:03:38.63\00:03:42.95 should be designated how to train. There are people in the 00:03:42.99\00:03:46.31 church that just can't do everything and the pastor cannot 00:03:46.35\00:03:50.04 do everything in the local church. So he must delegate 00:03:50.07\00:03:54.27 responsibilities to people who have the gifts. There are 00:03:54.30\00:03:58.23 certain gifts that people possess and I think the pastor, 00:03:58.27\00:04:02.37 if he cannot do it, assign it to someone else. If you want to 00:04:02.41\00:04:06.48 equip work like we do in a university on a curriculum 00:04:06.51\00:04:11.64 basis. Say I want to give you 24 lessons on how to reach 00:04:11.67\00:04:16.73 people and so the first is to equip. We want to make sure that 00:04:16.77\00:04:20.96 when they pick up the Bible in somebody's home and when they 00:04:21.00\00:04:24.45 start whizzing through these pages and say, well the text of 00:04:24.48\00:04:27.90 scripture is here, over here, they need to know how to do 00:04:27.94\00:04:31.29 that. Most people don't know how to do that because there are a 00:04:31.33\00:04:35.39 lot of questions to objections. So we have to equip. Now the 00:04:35.43\00:04:39.25 good thing is you need to share Christ. When you equip people to 00:04:39.29\00:04:44.81 go out into the community, they have to share Christ. Now, how 00:04:44.85\00:04:49.61 do you share Christ? You share Christ because you know Christ. 00:04:49.64\00:04:54.37 That's the only way you can share. An example: Somebody's 00:04:54.40\00:04:59.65 getting ready to get married. Invitations go out. They're 00:04:59.68\00:05:04.04 sharing that that person will get married on that particular 00:05:04.07\00:05:08.18 day at that particular time. When you look around the whole 00:05:08.21\00:05:12.24 church is full. Well how did that happen? Well newspaper but 00:05:12.27\00:05:17.49 word of mouth. People need to share. If Christ is in their 00:05:17.53\00:05:22.20 hearts, if they're convicted by the Holy Spirit, they'll share 00:05:22.23\00:05:26.59 Christ in their neighborhood. So after you equip them, now you 00:05:26.62\00:05:30.95 tell them to share Christ. 00:05:30.98\00:05:33.14 Let me ask you something. About this sharing. What is the 00:05:33.18\00:05:36.91 best thing for a person to go out with? Is it good for them 00:05:36.94\00:05:41.93 to go out with commentaries on the Bible primarily or some 00:05:41.96\00:05:45.51 people have said well I think I've got a really good book 00:05:45.54\00:05:48.96 on the end times and I want to just kind of blitz my whole 00:05:48.99\00:05:52.33 community with that. What have you seen has been the most 00:05:52.36\00:05:55.63 effective way for sharing Christ as far as... Is it Bible based 00:05:55.67\00:06:00.59 or is it primarily commentaries? 00:06:00.62\00:06:02.86 Well there are many ways you can do this. First of all I would 00:06:02.90\00:06:06.25 not sit in my home and say my community needs this particular 00:06:06.28\00:06:11.17 book. That's an opinion. The reason why we have an opinion 00:06:11.21\00:06:15.63 is because we don't know. First of all we need to go into the 00:06:15.67\00:06:19.15 community to find out what is happening in the community and 00:06:19.19\00:06:22.40 based on the events that are taking place in our community 00:06:22.44\00:06:26.04 then we can decide for a book or a magazine that will help our 00:06:26.08\00:06:29.65 community grow. And our community will respond based on 00:06:29.68\00:06:33.19 the information that we send them. Let's say that three 00:06:33.23\00:06:37.06 houses caught fire in the community. Would we send a book 00:06:37.09\00:06:41.44 on end time prophecy? No they have the current events. 00:06:41.47\00:06:45.75 Or are we going to send a book dealing with grief, hope, the 00:06:45.79\00:06:51.61 resurrection? We need to send information that's going to help 00:06:51.64\00:06:56.53 the community to grow. That's sharing Christ. We must share 00:06:56.56\00:07:01.58 Christ at the appropriate time. For example: During Christmas, 00:07:01.61\00:07:06.72 a very interesting phenomenon that happens around the world. 00:07:06.76\00:07:11.84 People who are not Christian understand that there is a 00:07:11.87\00:07:18.47 Christmas. The Xmas is Christ, the X means Christ. So now 00:07:18.50\00:07:24.57 people around the world actually celebrate that event. 00:07:24.60\00:07:29.44 Are you going to go in the community and talk about 00:07:29.48\00:07:34.29 stewardship? Or how it's a pagan holiday. 00:07:34.32\00:07:39.60 Yeah. You need to share. Bad timing. 00:07:39.63\00:07:43.01 Bad timing. You need to share Christ. 00:07:43.05\00:07:46.36 Well I don't want to get on the topic that Christmas is a pagan 00:07:46.40\00:07:48.37 holiday. But we share Christ. We share 00:07:48.40\00:07:52.81 Christ. When people are sharing Christ at the 00:07:52.85\00:07:55.38 appropriate time you get a better response. 00:07:55.41\00:07:57.91 Well Jesus said if I be lifted up. 00:07:57.94\00:07:59.61 If I be lifted up I will draw all men unto me. So when you 00:07:59.65\00:08:03.66 go into the community you have to make sure that you are in 00:08:03.69\00:08:07.38 tune to what is taking place in your community and then when 00:08:07.41\00:08:11.69 you're there to share Christ it's easy. So they must equip 00:08:11.72\00:08:15.51 their members to share Christ in the neighborhood and in their 00:08:15.54\00:08:20.11 life cycles. Every day we should witness. Every day. It's a part 00:08:20.15\00:08:24.69 of our life style. It's like breathing. When we breathe we 00:08:24.72\00:08:30.35 get air into our lungs. It generates... I'm not a doctor 00:08:30.39\00:08:35.95 but see I understand some of the things. We have oxygen going 00:08:35.99\00:08:40.46 through our bodies. We breathe, we inhale, we exhale and it's 00:08:40.50\00:08:45.87 the same as sharing Christ. We share Christ because it's a part 00:08:45.90\00:08:50.69 of us, it's a part of our makeup We just don't say we're going 00:08:50.73\00:08:55.49 have a specific time and date that we go out and share 00:08:55.52\00:08:57.93 Christ. No, no. We share Christ every day, every day. Can you 00:08:57.97\00:09:06.81 imagine if a church of 15 people would share Christ seven days a 00:09:06.85\00:09:15.66 week times 52 weeks, how many people in the community would 00:09:15.69\00:09:22.31 know about Christ. Just 15 people. Christ only used 12 00:09:22.34\00:09:26.24 disciples. So if your church is small don't worry. Share Christ 00:09:26.28\00:09:31.66 on the telephone, in the internet, by passing out 00:09:31.69\00:09:35.89 literature, magazines, books, talking, communicating to people 00:09:35.93\00:09:42.63 share Christ. Let's go to number two. Be friendly. The reason why 00:09:42.67\00:09:48.38 I'm laughing is because a lot of people get the misconception 00:09:48.41\00:09:53.82 that Christians are not friendly they're not friendly. They're 00:09:53.86\00:09:58.72 sad faces. They don't show their teeth. Well now if you don't 00:09:58.75\00:10:03.58 have any it's something you don't have to worry about. 00:10:03.61\00:10:07.68 But if you be friendly. Marketing teaches us to be 00:10:07.71\00:10:11.54 friendly to people because they respond easier. 00:10:11.58\00:10:15.34 If you're mad and sad and gloomy nobody wants to talk to you so 00:10:15.38\00:10:19.67 be friendly... 00:10:19.70\00:10:23.75 Let's just say we're out in the community. We go to let's say 00:10:23.79\00:10:29.81 a county fair where they have a lot of horses and cows and mules 00:10:29.85\00:10:35.84 and exhibits and we set up a booth on health. We're passing 00:10:35.87\00:10:40.59 out magazines on health and all of a sudden our faces are gloomy 00:10:40.63\00:10:45.98 so let me give you a picture right here. I have a health 00:10:46.01\00:10:49.29 journal, actually it's a big book. Say for instance I'm 00:10:49.33\00:10:52.54 standing there saying would you like to have this health journal 00:10:52.58\00:10:57.48 Please come and get it. But if you say hello, come here, look 00:10:57.51\00:11:02.38 at this health journal. Would you like to see it. It's 00:11:02.41\00:11:05.62 beautiful. It's fully illustrated. This is what I'm 00:11:05.66\00:11:08.80 talking about. Be friendly to people. Be friendly. Christ was 00:11:08.84\00:11:14.75 friendly to everyone. He didn't care if they were drunks or 00:11:14.79\00:11:19.20 prostitutes. He didn't care if they were religious leaders. 00:11:19.23\00:11:23.34 He was friendly, he was courageous. That's the secret of 00:11:23.38\00:11:28.04 winning people to Christ. Be friendly. Be friendly. Number 00:11:28.07\00:11:32.70 three... 00:11:32.73\00:11:42.00 Let's say there's something that I do every year. There's a major 00:11:42.04\00:11:50.72 celebration that takes place in the United States based on a 00:11:50.75\00:11:54.20 pagan belief and it has a lot of spiritualistic values. 00:11:54.23\00:11:58.69 It's called Halloween. And that time of the year can be very 00:11:58.73\00:12:04.05 touchy to a lot of people, especially Christians. Now 00:12:04.08\00:12:08.43 normally we ask people to out and knock on doors, right, 00:12:08.46\00:12:12.00 before Halloween. But what happens if somebody knocks on 00:12:12.04\00:12:16.50 your door? Isn't it interesting you can have 100 or 200 kids 00:12:16.54\00:12:22.34 come to your door. Rather than giving them a trick you give 00:12:22.37\00:12:27.97 them a treat and the treat is sharing the gospel, sharing 00:12:28.00\00:12:33.28 Jesus. And when you share Jesus with them at the door some of 00:12:33.32\00:12:37.94 them will say hey this is nice. I have kids come to my door 00:12:37.97\00:12:42.13 every year. What do you got for us this year. Last year I had 00:12:42.16\00:12:46.92 the Listen magazine. And it had some famous artists that we 00:12:46.95\00:12:51.32 actually interviewed and the kids wanted to read about these 00:12:51.35\00:12:55.34 artists lives. And they came to my door, please we want that 00:12:55.38\00:12:59.34 magazine. So we featured people like Venus Williams, 00:12:59.37\00:13:03.10 Shaquille O'Neal of the Los Angeles Lakers and some of those 00:13:03.14\00:13:07.06 celebrities. One time we had Michael Jordan on the cover. 00:13:07.09\00:13:11.51 And so they want pictures and so they're sharing their 00:13:11.55\00:13:16.29 experience, Say No to Drugs, Don't Do Drugs. This is what 00:13:16.32\00:13:20.83 they're sharing. I'm sharing Christ in a magazine. That's why 00:13:20.87\00:13:24.70 they bang down my door. Now if I get 200 people to come to my 00:13:24.74\00:13:28.17 door and I don't have to leave that's good witnessing isn't it? 00:13:28.21\00:13:32.97 I can sit there and have a great time just sharing Christ and say 00:13:33.00\00:13:37.20 Don't Do Drugs, Say No to Drugs. I'm sitting there and there's 00:13:37.23\00:13:41.71 200 kids coming to my door and I'm throwing magazines in their 00:13:41.75\00:13:45.12 bags you know. This year we're going to have a radio station 00:13:45.15\00:13:48.49 right there in our community and we're going to talk to 00:13:48.52\00:13:52.21 children live over the radio. That's exciting. Yes. So we want 00:13:52.25\00:13:56.77 to be friendly, open and caring to persons visiting the 00:13:56.80\00:14:00.57 activity. Establish meaningful relationship with individuals 00:14:00.61\00:14:03.44 who are attracted to Christ. So if somebody's attracted to 00:14:03.48\00:14:06.24 Christ, they come to your door and they're attracted to Christ 00:14:06.27\00:14:08.89 now what you're going to do is you're going to establish a 00:14:08.93\00:14:11.52 relationship. You call, you walk, you talk, you share 00:14:11.55\00:14:16.93 information. How about recipes? I can share a recipe. You share 00:14:16.97\00:14:20.05 a recipe. One time I was sharing CD's with a person and they 00:14:20.09\00:14:23.14 were sharing CD's with me. Today they're Christians. 00:14:23.17\00:14:26.22 Praise the Lord. Just because we're sharing information. 00:14:26.25\00:14:30.20 You have a relationship that bonds people to you just like 00:14:30.24\00:14:34.64 Christ did. He just didn't preach in a community, but he 00:14:34.68\00:14:39.05 shared himself. OK. Now what if a person is 00:14:39.08\00:14:41.03 naturally reserved? What can they do. You know some people 00:14:41.07\00:14:44.53 are just not very outgoing naturally and it's very 00:14:44.56\00:14:48.69 difficult for them to strike up a conversation with people that 00:14:48.73\00:14:51.40 they don't know. What can they do? 00:14:51.43\00:14:53.45 Ask them can they write letters. Can they pay for a full 00:14:53.49\00:14:58.58 subscription of a magazine to somebody, a religious journal? 00:14:58.61\00:15:03.05 Do they like talking on the telephone? Now some people who 00:15:03.09\00:15:07.31 are reserved like talking on the telephone. So maybe they will 00:15:07.35\00:15:11.54 not identify with the person face to face but on the 00:15:11.57\00:15:13.91 telephone yes. How about on the internet? 00:15:13.94\00:15:16.31 That's a good one. You know I like that new messenger service. 00:15:16.35\00:15:19.70 Yeah. It's probably new to me where it makes you can actually 00:15:19.74\00:15:23.06 talk to a person and they can answer back 00:15:23.09\00:15:24.37 and you can actually get a group of people together. That's 00:15:24.41\00:15:26.57 a great idea. The internet is one way of 00:15:26.60\00:15:28.91 sharing Christ. In fact, out of the 20 million internet sites 00:15:28.95\00:15:35.96 out there, there are probably thousands and thousands of 00:15:35.99\00:15:40.40 different religious internet sites and you can communicate. 00:15:40.44\00:15:44.82 So there are... Share a site. Share a site. 00:15:44.85\00:15:48.36 Build your own website. But do something that's within your 00:15:48.40\00:15:53.23 talents and within your gifts. We all have talents. We all have 00:15:53.26\00:15:57.43 gifts. We have to discover those gifts. And having a relationship 00:15:57.46\00:16:01.23 is based on your character and your personality. So some people 00:16:01.27\00:16:04.72 like to do it quietly where others like me are bubbly. I can 00:16:04.75\00:16:08.17 out and say... I do it differently. My results are 00:16:08.20\00:16:12.56 different from someone else's results. But at least if all of 00:16:12.60\00:16:15.69 us are doing that we get greater results. Number four: 00:16:15.72\00:16:21.34 Now this is what I really enjoy. 00:16:21.37\00:16:35.81 Not too long ago I buried three people who were very close to 00:16:35.85\00:16:42.63 me in my family. Sorry about that. And so at this funeral 00:16:42.66\00:16:49.09 I was sharing with the entire congregation to accept Christ 00:16:49.12\00:16:55.52 as their personal Savior because the experiences that 00:16:55.55\00:16:58.82 I've had with the three individuals, they'd accepted 00:16:58.85\00:17:02.68 Christ before it was too late and then they died. So I'm 00:17:02.72\00:17:06.37 sharing the experience with them I said, now you have an 00:17:06.41\00:17:09.99 opportunity to accept Christ as your personal Savior. We were 00:17:10.03\00:17:15.04 in a location, in a situation that governs that decision. We 00:17:15.08\00:17:19.95 must ask. We have to ask. So invite interested individuals to 00:17:19.98\00:17:24.82 trust and believe Christ and accept his forgiveness and 00:17:24.85\00:17:27.18 unconditional love. We can do this on the airplane. We can do 00:17:27.22\00:17:30.57 this on the bus. We can do this on the street. We can do this 00:17:30.61\00:17:34.22 sitting in a Laundromat. We can do it in church. We can do it 00:17:34.26\00:17:38.08 on a baseball field. We can do it with children in a circle. We 00:17:38.12\00:17:42.91 can do it at a nursing home, at a police station, at a prison 00:17:42.94\00:17:48.92 and it goes on and on and on. Ask people to accept Christ as 00:17:48.95\00:17:54.90 their personal Savior. 00:17:54.93\00:17:56.00 Do we necessarily know what we're going to say before we get 00:17:56.04\00:17:59.05 in that situation? 00:17:59.08\00:18:00.96 That's the purpose of the Holy Spirit. We're in tune with the 00:18:01.00\00:18:05.44 Spirit of God and he will tell us what to say, when to say it 00:18:05.48\00:18:09.89 at the right time. 00:18:09.92\00:18:12.08 Well that's a relief. So then we don't have to worry about that 00:18:12.12\00:18:14.93 situation. We just trust God. 00:18:14.96\00:18:16.85 Howbeit when the Spirit of truth will come he will lead you and 00:18:16.89\00:18:19.72 guide you into all truth and that's the purpose of witnessing 00:18:19.75\00:18:22.75 The Spirit will say, you need to say this right now. And you 00:18:22.78\00:18:26.18 change you're entire theme and now you're talking to that 00:18:26.22\00:18:29.45 person and you are actually making an appeal to that person. 00:18:29.48\00:18:33.68 I went to a church in California one time and... Been to many 00:18:33.72\00:18:37.83 of them in California. You're from California, right? And 00:18:37.86\00:18:42.29 I made an appeal. I was preaching and I made an appeal 00:18:42.32\00:18:46.68 and 18 precious souls came up for baptism. Well I thought OK 00:18:46.72\00:18:51.19 that's cool. At the end of the service a little old lady came 00:18:51.23\00:18:55.32 up to me and said you know it's been 15 years since our pastor 00:18:55.36\00:19:01.54 made an appeal. Fifteen years. Wow! But 18 people were ready 00:19:01.58\00:19:07.73 in that congregation at that particular day at that 00:19:07.76\00:19:12.11 particular time. We need to appeal to people. Another 00:19:12.14\00:19:16.46 interesting area is to... 00:19:16.49\00:19:24.93 Now after we've made our initial contact in witnessing, 00:19:24.97\00:19:28.82 after we have bonded with them now we need to actually have 00:19:28.85\00:19:33.39 them study the word of God in a Bible study group. Invite them 00:19:33.42\00:19:37.93 to a seminar, a Revelation seminar, prophecy seminar, 00:19:37.96\00:19:41.09 a Daniel seminar or in your own home. Sitting down in your own 00:19:41.13\00:19:47.79 home opening up the word of God. We just created some 00:19:47.82\00:19:50.82 interesting material that will help people. We've been selling 00:19:50.86\00:19:54.77 a book called Bible Readings for the Home for many years. It's 00:19:54.80\00:19:58.91 a book that is being sold by the millions. Bible Readings for the 00:19:58.94\00:20:03.02 Home is actually a book that has been sold by literature 00:20:03.05\00:20:06.91 evangelists for many years. So we decided to have a smaller 00:20:06.94\00:20:10.47 version of Bible Reading for the Home. We placed it in this 00:20:10.50\00:20:15.49 little book called God's Answers to Your Questions. And this is 00:20:15.53\00:20:20.49 actually Bible Readings for the Home. 00:20:20.52\00:20:23.67 That's a really neat cover. 00:20:23.70\00:20:26.58 Well the cover is attractive because we want people to know 00:20:26.62\00:20:29.69 that we are dealing exclusively with the Bible. 00:20:29.72\00:20:32.85 Let me just take a pause here and tell the folks at home how 00:20:32.89\00:20:36.57 can get information about this book. Go to the 3ABN website 00:20:36.60\00:20:41.64 www. 3ABN.org and you will see a link to the Review and Herald 00:20:41.68\00:20:46.82 website there and they can give you information on how to obtain 00:20:46.85\00:20:51.96 this book. And so we use this book, Karen, 00:20:51.99\00:20:54.41 as Bible studies. This is our Bible study. It asks the 00:20:54.45\00:20:59.57 question. It answers it directly from the Bible and then we can 00:20:59.61\00:21:02.62 go into a conversation. What happens, you want to make sure 00:21:02.65\00:21:05.63 that you have enough time to deal with that particular 00:21:05.66\00:21:09.28 subject and so you don't want to move to different subjects. 00:21:09.32\00:21:11.90 You just want to stay on that particular subject. Let me give 00:21:11.93\00:21:15.06 you an idea of what are some of the questions that people are 00:21:15.10\00:21:18.40 asking. They are asking about the future. They are asking 00:21:18.44\00:21:21.67 about the Bible. They're asking about God. They're asking about 00:21:21.71\00:21:26.48 the end of sin and suffering. They're asking about the man 00:21:26.51\00:21:31.08 who was God; that's Jesus. They're asking about our future 00:21:31.12\00:21:35.23 home in heaven, of course. They're asking about salvation 00:21:35.26\00:21:39.22 through Christ, living for Christ. The end of the world. 00:21:39.25\00:21:43.14 With so many events taking place around the world, catastrophes 00:21:43.18\00:21:47.84 and earthquakes and floods and famines. I'm telling you, people 00:21:47.88\00:21:52.80 are asking about the end of the world. The coming King, the 00:21:52.83\00:21:57.99 creator. God's unchangeable day which is the Sabbath. God's 00:21:58.03\00:22:02.41 everlasting grace. They're asking about baptism and death. 00:22:02.45\00:22:06.50 People are asking about death and these tragic incidences that 00:22:06.53\00:22:10.55 are taking place across the world. They're asking about 00:22:10.58\00:22:13.56 hell. They're asking about 1000 years of peace, judgment, growth 00:22:13.60\00:22:17.93 in Christ, God's people, financial security. People are 00:22:17.96\00:22:21.77 saying how can I become financially free. Vibrant health 00:22:21.81\00:22:25.55 The Comforter and also following Christ. A few subjects that we 00:22:25.59\00:22:30.58 introduce. You know, I like what you're 00:22:30.61\00:22:33.09 saying to really focus on what of course what the interest is. 00:22:33.13\00:22:35.97 There are a lot of people who have different ways that they 00:22:36.01\00:22:38.82 like to take information. I know my husband and I, when we 00:22:38.86\00:22:41.98 travel that's one of the things we also encourage people. Find 00:22:42.02\00:22:45.93 out are they readers, are they television watchers, are they 00:22:45.97\00:22:49.83 video watcher, do they like to listen to CD's or music and then 00:22:49.87\00:22:54.00 get that information that fits that person's interest. I mean 00:22:54.03\00:22:57.46 someone who doesn't enjoy reading and doesn't belong to a 00:22:57.49\00:23:01.24 book club, you know, maybe another type of material could 00:23:01.28\00:23:04.96 be of interest to them. Maybe they like to watch things on the 00:23:05.00\00:23:08.17 web. That's right. I met a young lady 00:23:08.20\00:23:11.45 who received a tract at the door. 00:23:11.48\00:23:14.70 What's a tract? 00:23:14.73\00:23:15.89 It's a small little brochure that has a particular subject 00:23:15.93\00:23:19.80 maybe on salvation through Christ or faith. And so 00:23:19.83\00:23:22.94 they'll read the tract. It gives them a lot of Bible questions 00:23:22.98\00:23:26.15 and answers and they go to their Bible and read that. So she 00:23:26.19\00:23:29.64 flipped it over and it said from your friends the Seventh-day 00:23:29.68\00:23:33.21 Adventists. Well she went on the web and she started researching 00:23:33.25\00:23:36.75 Seventh-day Adventist and she found the web site to the 00:23:36.78\00:23:39.29 Seventh-day Adventist Church. And in the website it had 00:23:39.32\00:23:41.76 actually Bible studies. She completed all the Bible studies, 00:23:41.80\00:23:45.86 went to a local church in New York, went to the pastor and 00:23:45.89\00:23:49.49 said I want to get baptized. And the pastor said I don't know 00:23:49.53\00:23:53.25 you. She said, you will now. And she told him the whole story 00:23:53.28\00:23:57.27 I met a young lady like that. Just from the website we can 00:23:57.31\00:24:01.27 actually reach people. 00:24:01.30\00:24:02.33 I know that's true. I know when I travel a lot I have these 00:24:02.36\00:24:06.25 little cards for 3ABN and I'll pass them to people because 00:24:06.29\00:24:09.78 not only can they watch Issues and Answers, they can watch a 00:24:09.82\00:24:14.22 lot of different programs on 3ABN and people will go and they 00:24:14.26\00:24:18.14 will do that. And there's lots of stories that you hear on the 00:24:18.17\00:24:22.06 Presents program and other programs on 3ABN how people have 00:24:22.09\00:24:25.23 actually come to the Lord by watching television. So that's 00:24:25.26\00:24:28.56 another medium. We'll talk about the website now and then of 00:24:28.59\00:24:32.23 course these kind of books here. OK, all right. Somebody may not 00:24:32.26\00:24:35.87 go to the web. They may not watch television. They may be 00:24:35.90\00:24:39.03 too busy to even watch TV. I've had people tell me I'm just too 00:24:39.07\00:24:42.07 busy to watch television, but they will read as they're riding 00:24:42.11\00:24:45.08 the subway or, you know. 00:24:45.11\00:24:46.77 I was on the plane not too long ago and I was sitting next to a 00:24:46.81\00:24:50.34 senior citizen. She was going to Florida, and of course I was 00:24:50.37\00:24:53.57 going in the same direction. And we were just talking about 00:24:53.61\00:24:57.61 life. Her grandchildren, my children. And finally at the end 00:24:57.65\00:25:00.93 of the conversation as we were landing I said well I represent 00:25:00.96\00:25:04.21 a religious publication and would you like a copy of it. 00:25:04.24\00:25:07.56 She says sure. And I pulled out of my bag a Message magazine 00:25:07.59\00:25:11.11 and I gave her that magazine and I said well my the Lord bless 00:25:11.15\00:25:14.64 you and keep you. And she said thank you. I'm going to a 00:25:14.67\00:25:16.85 wedding. And I said, well read it. It's very good. And the 00:25:16.88\00:25:18.99 subject was on the Holy Spirit. Well when I was leaving to come 00:25:19.03\00:25:24.15 back, to return to Maryland, she was on the same plane. 00:25:24.18\00:25:28.93 She tapped me on my shoulder and said Hi, how are you doing? 00:25:28.97\00:25:31.91 I said, Hey, it's nice to see you. Did you enjoy the wedding? 00:25:31.94\00:25:35.63 Was it great. And she said yes. And she said oh that magazine. 00:25:35.67\00:25:39.23 Oh that magazine, I love it, it's so beautiful. I said you 00:25:39.26\00:25:42.75 like it. I said on page such and such you can call a 1-800 number 00:25:42.79\00:25:47.06 and subscribe to it. She was not a member of my church. But 00:25:47.09\00:25:51.71 she loved the content. Reaching people through literature is one 00:25:51.75\00:25:56.90 of the areas in which I think every believer should preach 00:25:56.93\00:26:01.03 through literature and also by their mouths. OK. Let's go to 00:26:01.07\00:26:05.14 the last one... 00:26:05.17\00:26:06.20 Do you not realize that there are people sitting in our 00:26:11.67\00:26:15.19 congregations who would come to our church as visitors for years 00:26:15.23\00:26:19.66 and we've never asked them to become a member. 00:26:19.69\00:26:21.34 We always say will the visitors please stand up. Now how about 00:26:21.38\00:26:25.87 the guest. Can a person say guest. Would you say in your 00:26:25.90\00:26:29.08 home would the visitors in your home... 00:26:29.11\00:26:32.36 When I was pastoring a very, very small church, a very small 00:26:32.40\00:26:36.37 church, I had 10 people in my congregation who were going to 00:26:36.41\00:26:41.08 that same church for 20 years, 20 years, and they were not 00:26:41.11\00:26:45.75 members of my church. They are now. 00:26:45.78\00:26:48.06 I'll tell you a funny one. We had a dentist in our church and 00:26:48.10\00:26:52.79 he did a health program for the afternoon and we didn't find out 00:26:52.83\00:26:56.32 until like after he had finished the presentation and a lot of 00:26:56.36\00:26:59.65 people from the community had come, that he was not a member 00:26:59.69\00:27:03.69 of any church. We said well why not. He said, well nobody ever 00:27:03.73\00:27:07.70 asked me. That's right. We have to ask. 00:27:07.73\00:27:09.65 Why don't you ask, Jason, ask our viewers today. 00:27:09.69\00:27:13.21 We would like for you, all of our viewers, right now if you 00:27:13.25\00:27:18.52 have not accepted Christ as your personal Savior, why don't you 00:27:18.56\00:27:23.64 take this time to just fall on your knees, close your eyes, and 00:27:23.67\00:27:28.72 ask Christ to come into your life. It's very simple to say 00:27:28.75\00:27:33.43 Lord I want as my personal Savior because the Bible says 00:27:33.46\00:27:38.07 in John 3:16 for God so loved the world that he gave his only 00:27:38.11\00:27:42.38 begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not 00:27:42.41\00:27:46.75 perish but have everlasting life. Accept Christ today. 00:27:46.78\00:27:50.12 Thank you so much, Jason, for coming to our program today. 00:27:50.15\00:27:53.76 Thank you. And thank you for sharing this topic and until 00:27:53.80\00:27:57.38 next time may God bless you. 00:27:57.41\00:28:00.01