Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - How to Share Your Faith: Practical Evangelism Tips That Actually Work | Mark Spence and Jonny Ardavanis

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Are you struggling with how to share your faith? In this powerful conversation, Mark Spence from Living Waters shares practical evangelism tips that will help you overcome fear and become confident in gospel sharing.🎯 What You'll Learn: • Simple evangelism techniques that work in everyday situations • How to start gospel conversations naturally (restaurant example included!) • Biblical foundation for Christian evangelism and why every believer is called to share • Overcoming common evangelism fears and objections • Street evangelism strategies from someone who does it daily • Why we're called to be faithful, not fruitful in evangelism📖 Key Topics Covered: • Living Waters Ministry approach to evangelism • Ray Comfort and Way of the Master methodology • Using the Ten Commandments in gospel conversations • Biblical evangelism vs. apologetics • Practical witnessing tips for beginners • Christian apologetics and when to use them💡 Featured Evangelism Tools: • Gospel tracts and conversation starters • The "What happens after death?" approach • Using the law to convict of sin • Simple prayer offers that open heartsWhether you're new to faith sharing or want to improve your evangelism skills, this interview provides actionable advice for sharing the gospel confidently. Mark Spence's real-world examples from Wendy's, In-N-Out, and street evangelism will inspire you to step out of your comfort zone.

You've got to get onto those front lines. And I want to equip people and I want to inspire people to share the gospel. Yeah. Right? We're not called to be fruitful. We're called to be faithful. Yeah. Oftentimes people say, you know, I'm willing to go.

Should God call me to go? In the meantime, I'm going to stay. We need to reverse that. I'm willing to stay. Should God call me to stay? But in the meantime, I'm going to go. Well, he's already told me to go. Right.

Jim Elliott said, why do you need a voice? when you have a verse. Well, hey, folks, welcome to dial-in. My name is Johnny Ardavanis. I'm sitting here with the dear friend, Mark Spence. Mark, explain what you do, just your, we're going to talk about sharing our faith today, evangelism, somewhat of a boogie word now,

I think, in contemporary church circles. But explain what you do for a living and the heartbeat behind it. Yeah, I work for a ministry called Living Waters. We have a television program called The Way of the Master with Ray Comfort, Emil Zawain and Oscar Navarro, where we equip people and inspire people, hopefully, to get out of the batter's box and or out of the dugout. The dugout, I was like, I'm tracking with the sports analogy. What is that circle right off side?

On deck. Off deck. Get into the batter's box. Not off deck. On deck. Yeah, that's a ship analogy. Okay. Get out of the boat onto the water.

There you go. Okay, there you go. And make a swing, right? I mean, you want to be inspiration. you've got to, you know, perspire to some degree. You've got to get onto those front lines. And I want to equip people and I want to inspire people to share the gospel. Yeah.

Right. We're not called to be fruitful. We're called to be faithful. Yeah. And the fruit belongs to God. Maybe just even, yeah, extrapolate on that a little bit because you said, we're not called to be fruitful. I think a lot of people think about sharing their faith and go, what if it goes nowhere? Yeah, right.

I was at a fast food place called Wendy's. Yeah. And my daughter had convinced me to share the. the gospel with these group of students who just came from a mock trial. They're all budding lawyers. Part of this epidactic debate team. And so she said, Dad, you got to go share the gospel with these people. So I went over and I said, you know, who's the head of your debate team? Would you like to have a debate right here in Winnie's? There's like 20 of them. And so here's this girl, Dakota, she comes over in the midst. And we started to have a debate on the existence of God.

Is the Bible trustworthy? Has it been changed through the time. And we were going back and forth for like 25 hit the 30 minute mark. And I had my final remark. I said, you can have the final remark now. And she said, nothing. She didn't have any final remark. She didn't say anything. And it reminded me of what Greg Bonson once said that it's not our job to open people's hearts. It's our job to close their mouths with the law and to use the gospel as a healing balm to awaken them. Then they all begin to leave. The jury left. And nobody looked at me and said, hey, what is your Twitter handle? Yeah. Nobody asked to follow me on Instagram.

They just all left except for one guy. He looked at me and he said, are you kidding me? I listened to you every day. And to see you do this in person, man, this was such a treat. One of the lawyers. Yeah. And I said, wait a minute. Are you a Christian?

Yeah. And he says, yeah. I said, bro, where were you 30 minutes ago? Yeah. And he said, I had your back. I said, yeah, like way back. So far back, I didn't know you're a Christian. But then he said this.

He said, Mark, listen, nobody made a profession. Yeah. And that's okay. God was not calling you to be fruitful. He's calling you to be faithful. And you are faithful to bring forth the message. We get in our head and we get back to the church and the pastor says, how many people did you lead to the Lord this week?

Or we have the mothership. How many baptisms were there this month? Right? And it's like, really? Is that how we're counting success? Yeah. Right? Because Isaiah didn't have a lot of success.

Yeah. You know, Jeremiah, he didn't have a lot of success. You know, John the Baptist, his final succession. What was that? A beheading? Yeah. You know, good job. Yeah.

Right? So God's not called us to be fruitful. He's calling us to be faithful with the message. But even when we're faithless, he's faithful to bring forth fruit as he sees fit. And he's looking for laborers, not labouts. And that's really what I want to do. I want to stop with the excuses and stop saying, here am I. Send Johnny.

Yeah. I've said it my whole life. I want to say, here am I, Lord. Send me for your glory. out into the highways, byways, and gutterways. I want to compel people to come, you know, leave the results to you. You mentioned a few things. First of all, I like that you talked about Wendy's, like it was like a local hole in the wall.

You know, not at this restaurant called Wendy's. It's not Bruce Chris. Yeah. No, yeah. You know, a couple things. You said it's not our job to be fruitful, is to be faithful. Faithful to what? Well, an explicit command of the Lord Jesus Christ, right?

Go make disciples. So it's to be obedient. And you're using faithful and obedience almost, I think, synonymously, right? hey we're to go do that in romans 10 nine you know the you know the verse and others will as well as well that if you confess with your mouth jesus is lord and believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead you will be saved and then it says for what the heart a person believes resulting in righteousness and with the mouth he confesses resulting in salvation then there's a simplicity of it what is it what's necessary for someone to be made right with jesus christ it says whoever

calls in the name of the lord will be saved right so there's that that's it right it's not what we do. It's what we receive by faith in Jesus Christ. But then the question is asked, how will they call on him in whom they have not believed? Just a logical question. How will they believe in him whom they've not heard of? And how will they hear without a preacher? And then it says, well, how beautiful are the feet of those that are sent? Right. So the gospel call is simple. We have to believe in Jesus Christ that he's Lord, that he died and rose from the grave. Whoever calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. And to your point, what God does to save people is he employs human instruments. He employs his ambassadors to do that. So you mentioned it already, right? There's an

urgency. Isaiah says, here I am, send me, because he understands what's at stake. I want to talk to you about why we share our faith and then how we share our faith. And then you mentioned maybe some of those, even in that Wendy's conversation, some of the rebuttals that maybe you answered with to be able to say, hey, no, this is legitimate. And she ended up being silent at the end of that. Not that you were trying to win an argument. You're trying to win them the Christ. Let's just talk why we share our faith, what's at stake, right? From a biblical perspective, from an eternal perspective, you've shared your faith online with tears in your eyes. It's not a game, right? This isn't just some product we're trying to, you know, sell. This is life or death. So why does every

Christian, why does every Christian need to share their faith and why are they called to do that? Why are they invited in also to that rich privilege of being a part of God's gospel work? You know, people often say it's easy for you to share the gospel. You're an evangelist. Yeah. And there's a misunderstanding of really what an evangelist is, right? An evangelist will equip the body to do the work of the ministry. Yeah.

Now, hopefully the evangelist is sharing the gospel, the good news, that you on Gileon. Hopefully he's doing that and stepping out of the boat. But he is called to equip the body to go out and share the gospel. Yeah. So I am a man who has learned through many failures, many attempts to try to share the gospel. I remember trying to memorize evidence that demands a verdict back in like 1990, you know, and just realizing I'm not a very smart individual. And the gospel has simplified things.

Apologetics doesn't save someone, the apology to give a defense. That doesn't save someone. That might give some credibility in you. So I study questions. I study apologetics. Presupposition apologetics mainly is where I'll go with that. But the gospel is what God uses. And Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

For it is the power of God armed his salvation, the Jew first, and then the Gentile. So God has given us a mandate to go out. Oftentimes people say, you know, I'm willing to go. Should God call me to go? In the meantime, I'm going to stay. We need to reverse that. I'm willing to stay, should God call me to stay, but in the meantime, I'm going to go. Well, he's already told me to go, right? Jim Elliott said, why do you need a voice when you have a

verse? You're waiting for the voice of God. How is he going to speak to you? Just curious. How is this going to happen? Is there going to be handwriting on the wall? Are the rocks going to crowd and now give you the mandate? God has given us his inherent, inspired, infallible word, and he said, go. And it's the simplicity of the gospel that shares people. Justin Peters, our first, friend. He said, if you want God to speak to you, read his word. If you want him to speak to you out loud, read his word out loud. It says to go. That's why we go. The one thing you will not be able to do in heaven is share the gospel. Have you ever heard me sing, Johnny? No, I'm ready for it, though. A lot of people have not heard me sing. Everybody should sing, but not everybody should be given a

microphone. Right. Right. Everybody should go share the gospel because that is the claim of Christ on how people get saved. It's the life, death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ. You go because our marching orders are to go. And that's why I go. And I don't know how to get out of that. Yeah. compelled, really, by compassion to go. That's what Paul says. You know, the love of Christ compels me. It's the love that he's received from God, right? And his love for the people the lost around him. And so, you know, I wanna talk through how we do that. Let's just be practical.

Someone says, okay, I feel this, I feel guilty, right? Like I know I should be sharing my faith. They just, you know, and obviously conviction is contagious in the sense of, hey, if you've been gripped by what God has done for you, you're gonna wanna make people know the love of Jesus Christ, right? So you just, even Paul before Felix Festus and Agrippa, and acts he just begins by saying here's what god has done in my life um but i want to be practical

let's say you walk into me at another restaurant called in an al burger okay and you start you just i'm sitting by myself and you want to just maybe strike up a conversation with me how do you go about that like i think some people see like well i can get how do i get to the gospel what would be your approach and i think first of all like having some sort of a strategy here yeah is I think appropriate, right, because we use all this other vernacular in the scripture that he's our king, he's our captain, we're his ambassadors. So I think just maybe what are some like, hey, teach me how to share my faith. First of all, don't overcomplicate it. Yeah. Spurgeon worded it like this when it came to evangelism. Ready? Yeah. Do something. Do something. Do something.

What do we want? Well, I want to have an answer to every question before. I'm able to hit the streets. Yeah. Because what if they ask me a question I don't have an answer for? Yeah. Carbon 14 dating. Right. Lucy is the missing link.

It demonstration proves that evolution is true in 13.5 billion years. Right. So what do we do? So don't overthink it. Yeah. Begin to open up your mouth. I can't tell you the amount of conversations I've had with people where I've mumbled to hand out a gospel track, literally mumbled.

Yeah. Dubaba. Dubaba. I'm not speaking in tongues. Yeah. I'm just, they're like, wait, with curiosity. You know, what's going on? So what do I use?

I tend to use gospel tracks. Okay. So I have coins like this, or I'll have cards like this. So I'll go up to somebody inside of In and Out. And I'll say, I go, hey, night, double double. That's my choice as well. Love it. Hey, you got a moment.

I have a question I want to ask you. It's, I guess, a controversial question, but I've been getting some crazy answers. I want to know if I can get this answer from you. my name is Mark, by the way, what's your name? Johnny, hey, Johnny, good to meet you. Here's the controversial question. What do you think happens after we die? You ever think about that?

I mean, I was talking to a guy not too long ago. He said, I think we'd turn into penguins. I thought that was just the most interesting thing when he had said that. What do you think? That's it. And then just allow them to talk and you're able to jump in with a normal conversation. Now, they may say, I don't want to talk about this. Hey, no problem.

Let me leave you with a gift. And then I'll reach into my pocket. but I might give them like a nicer coin. It's the same exact coin, but it's nicer. Okay, yeah, that's nice. And I'll hand them that or I hand them an out gift card. We always have in and out gift cards that we hand out to people. Do you?

Just being nice, just being kind, right? And so you're a way, I mean, a way you go inside of a conversation that they're not expecting. And by the time that you're done, I'll tell you, people are like thanking you. They're giving you hugs. Like I remember going to a restaurant recently, the server took our order. And I looked at the server and I said, we are about ready to thank you. God for our food. Is there anything you need prayer for? And she said, what? And she grabbed a seat at her table and she began to weep as she was saying, I was just thinking about God today and what

am I going to do with my daughter? It took the manager to come over to our table to continue trying to push our server away from us so that she could go do her job. Nobody's ever asked me what I needed prayer for. The simple things. Don't overthink it. Just what do you see? What do you see? I saw a guy in a wheelchair, right?

I mean, listen, I'm a cessationist. I saw a guy in a wheelchair and I said, hey, do you mind if I just pray for you? He goes, for what? And I go, I don't know. I just want to pray for you. Yeah. Maybe God wants to hear you.

I don't know. I just want to pray for you. And he said, yeah, sure. I'd love that. And I went and I prayed for him. And he said, thank you so much. And then he looks at me and he goes, what drove you to pray for me?

I mean, I go, honestly, you're in a wheelchair. Because am I different? And I go, listen, we're all different. We're all creating the image of God. And I think God has a plan for you. And I don't think you need to think that you're not useful because you're inside of a wheelchair. Yeah. And he's like, and he was like, you know, all over the place.

And he's trying to give me a hug and everything. And I'm like, bro, listen, you value. You have great value in the eyes of God. You know, you're not a second class citizen. and you see the tears coming down from his eyes. And we think, well, I've got to finish the deal. I have to go through the life, death, barrier, resurrection. I haven't gotten to the resurrection yet.

Can you be quiet? Because I haven't gotten to the resurrection yet. We become a gattling gun with everything we need to get through. And we need to realize that God is so big that God can send somebody after me to finish the message. In the meantime, I'm just slow to speak, quick to love, you know, quick just to hear, to be there and to try to get into the message as much as I can, but I don't need to finish it because God will send somebody else to finish and I got so many stories

that deal with something like I with Jeremy Camp I don't know if we have time for that but well no I you know it's just cool you know Mark even thinking about it so if I asked the question how do we share your face you know how do I share my faith you said first of all don't overcomplicate it right

like I think people do think through that you know CS Lewis has something in mere Christianity like hey you don't know how to not everybody knows all the inner workings of an engine before they hop in the car they just start to drive and I think that's encouraging because people do kind of feel like they have to know every single rebuttal to every single rejoinder.

You know, like, I'll respond this way and then they'll say this and then I'll say this. And even I think we live in an increasing, you know, an environment where apologetics are attractive, you know. But again, as you said, it's the power of God that saves someone, not the wittiness and brevity of your answer, the conciseness of your like, well, hey, let me lawyer you. You know, I went to a gay and lesbian festival at a university in Southern California, and I saw a booth that said, God loves you just the way you are, and so do we. And I went up to that booth,

and I started engaging in a conversation with the man behind that booth, and he was a pastor at a church, who was also on the board to help translate the NIV version, smart guy. He knew what he was doing, way smarter than me with the Greek and the Hebrew. And when I started engaged in the conversation, I never came across somebody so arrogant,

but when I started going through the commandments, demonstrating that he was damned on his way to hell he melted his mouth was shut security came over to me put their hand on my shoulder said you need to leave right now

and I looked at him and I said God is not done yet I mean I don't even typically talk like that right and the security goes whoa and he walks away and I went whoa and I found myself opening or preaching at this festival with all of these people around

heckling back and forth with this gay pastor and by the time we were done the pastor came up to me and he said thank you so much for being here and talking to me today. And he left the festival with me as I left. He left with me. And I was just like, well, how would I have combated his intellect?

Yeah. I mean, there's no way I would be able to do it. But when the Word of God, which is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, you get it in you, there'll be ample opportunity to get it out of you. So I like to try to stick within scripture as opposed to philosophies and stories and things of that nature because my opinion in 25 cents might get you nothing today. A gumball, right? But it doesn't get very far. So don't overthink it. Go out there. Get the message in you and there'll be time to get it out. You know, it's helpful because I think even sometimes we take certain passages of scripture to mean what they don't mean in the sense of like, hey, always be ready to give a defense for the hope that is within you. I think people interpret that as going, I need to have. a thousand memorized answers, right? So I'm always ready to give a defense for, you know, creation or, you know,

a homosexual festival, you know, what does this mean? And how do I respond to this Greek professor, you know? So there is probably an appropriate level where we have convictions and a thorough knowledge of God's word, particularly of the gospel, knowing that it is the gospel that saves. So give me maybe some of the common answers that people have. You mentioned someone said, hey, I'm just, I'm too busy or I'm not interested. And you say, oh, okay, here's a track and a coin, you know, with the Ten Commandments on it,

the truth of Jesus Christ. What are some of the most common? Because you said you memorize. Yeah, what if I get hurt? Sure, yeah. Okay. So you get hurt. You realize that we have a sovereign God who has the hairs on your head numbered.

And the days, yeah, in the days, right? That nothing can happen to you unless God says, this is actually perfect. That's George Whitfield, right? You're immortal. Yeah, you're immortal, right? We have an insurance plan that's out of this world. Nothing can happen to you. You do not want to be at Disneyland when God wants you in Compton.

Yeah. Right? If God's desire for you is to be in the belly of a well, that's where you want to be. Because there's no safer place than in the center of God's will. Yeah. So if you go, well, what if I get beat up? Well, what if you get beat up? Well, what if I'm in the fire?

Then Christ will be with you. I mean, the hardest trial you'll ever go through is the one you go through with out the Lord. Yeah. So I'm not too worried about that, but listen, a wise man foresees danger and he hides himself. So, yeah, I'll go to Compton. I don't go at night. Yeah. I go to Venice Beach, not at night.

I don't need to share the gospel down that alleyway when I can share it over here in front of a bunch of other people. So I want to be wise in how I do it. I mean, getting arrested is so easy that anybody can do it. So I don't want to combat police officers. All right, so you don't want me to preach here. What do you think is an acceptable place? I think that this is a good place for me to preach. You don't like it.

I get it, and you're here to keep peace. Where would be a good place you think? Hey, by the way, here's an in-and-out gift card. Thanks so much for what you're doing, right? So you have your own, you know, like there's the own fear as kind of a preventative. You know, people feel ill-equipped. We've touched on that. They're afraid, what's going to happen to me?

And then maybe the unknown of how are they going to respond. So let's just say someone says, I don't believe in all that stuff, you know. Does that in a typical, you have these conversations, I'm assuming. on a daily basis, right? Like, I remember when I was talking with Ray at your office, he said, you know, I'm at the, I'm at the pier or whatever, every, almost every single day.

He's at the college every day. He's out to the pier on Saturdays. Okay. Yeah. So he's just sharing his faith. So he's kind of heard it all, right? Is there like a common thread amongst the people you're sharing your faith with

going like, they typically respond in one of three ways? And not like it's becoming, like a game to you and you know exactly what to say but in the sense of like hey what would be you know just so people can be like yeah this is the way people typically respond that's god is bigoted or why would a good and loving god you know endorse so much evil i don't believe in a god that would send people to hell like what are those common responses that you have people kind of how can a god of love send someone to hell yeah is that that's a common one yeah that's

big show me a miracle and i'll believe um the problem of evil How can a loving God allow there to be evil and suffering in the world? Those are those probably a top three. Or how can you trust the Bible? It's written by men. Everybody knows that men make mistakes. Which one do you want to hit? Do the loving God send people to hell.

How can a loving God send someone to hell? The Bible's filled with all kinds of doctrines, all kinds of ideas and thoughts. But there's only one that makes sense to me. That's hell. And the reason why it makes sense is because I, to some degree, know the heart of Mark. I know that what I'm capable of doing and not even fully what I'm capable of doing. Paul Washer said the only reason why there's not 8 billion Adolf Hitler's in the world is because of God's grace upon someone's life.

You and I are both capable outside of Christ to do far worse things. If you were to open up the LA Times and you were to see that some guy has to pay a $10 fine and you have no idea what he did, can you safely come to the conclusion that whatever he did it wasn't very heinous? Yeah. You turn the page. Some guy has to pay $300 million, $17 consecutive life sentences, but he have no idea what he did. Pretty heinous now, right? Yeah. If I lie to my dog, what can my dog do to me? Bark. If I lie to my wife, I'm sleeping on the couch. I lie to a federal judge. I'm going to prison. But it's just a lie. We begin to sugarcoat the lie, right? We say, hey, it's euphisms. White lie, exaggeration. half-truth, fibs. Embellishment, yeah. Anything other than truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth will help you, God.

That's a lie. And lying lips are an abomination of the Lord, and all liars will have their part in the leak of fire. There's things that God detests. Three of them have to do with lying. Lying is very serious. So what's the point in the midst of this? Well, if our crimes are primarily vertical

before they'll ever be horizontal, what is God supposed to do with them? God's not going to punish a lie, but he'll punish a liar. Right? What is sin? This black diabolical goo, it floats around the universe, attaches onto us, and then we do something wrong and evil? No, Luke 6th, it says it comes from the inner workings of the man's heart. Hell is eternal because God is eternal, and our sins are against an eternal God. Because God is a God of love, he sends people to hell because he's a just judge. what would you think of a judge in upstate New York

who turns a blind eye to the workings of the mafia? He's a corrupt judge and he needs to come to justice himself. The most loving thing God can say and do is to say, worship me, drawn near to me. He's a jealous God. Yeah, he's a jealous God. Worship me? How dare him? If you were created to know God, then the greatest thing God could do is to invite you to come in.

That's the greatest thing. C.S. Lewis said, we are not bodies with spirits. We are spirits with bodies. You are created to know God and to make him known. And when you rebel against that inner knowledge that God has given to every man, this conscience, and we sear that conscience. What is God supposed to do with that? We with our finite judicial system will punish people who break civil or federal laws. How much more God, whose eyes are in every place keeping watch of the good as well as the evil? Every idle word a man speaks, he'll have to give an account there of in the day of judgment. It is a fearful thing to fall under the hands of the living God. What are you supposed to do with that? You think God's going to turn a blind eye to that? No, God is holy. He is thrice holy. I think of what Sproul said about Uza.

When the ark began to tumble and it was going to fall in the dirt and he reached out his hands to try to catch that arc so it doesn't hit the dirt. He presupposed that his hands were cleaner than the dirt by which the ark was going to fall. Our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked above all things. who can know it the just desert for a man who has lived in rebellion against god is hell itself it's just the truth of scripture that you're articulating you know and it's it's what's powerful in of itself you mentioned that one of the things that you do when you're talking with someone is you bring god's law to to bind their conscience right because that's what

the law of god does Romans 215 it's already written on their hearts right 14 15 and they already feel that that sense like meaning like we're born sinners and they begin to have a there's a conscience element or ecclesiasis 311 eternity's written on their hearts they have the law of god and that's why you see us loose used to say that every person has an idea of a straight stick because of god's holy standard everybody knows of that which is crooked because of that which is straight yeah exactly exactly so you know as you're just talking how often do you see just god's word in of itself and the truth of it you mentioned lying. I think you go through the Ten Commandments often, or at least Ray I've seen do that. So by your own expression, you're guilty of adultery and lying and stealing, how often

does someone actually just neglect and suppress all of those realities? I know that it's written on their heart, right? By God, it's hardwired within them. Is it something that, obviously, someone can have a really suppressed conscience that, you know, I don't care about my sin. I'm just going to, if hell's where my friends are going, that's where I want to go, people respond like that but in most conversations do you feel like yeah you said you're just trying to water you're just trying to be faithful right do you feel like you're getting a sense of people gone i got something to think about at least almost every time when i go through the law of the head nods yeah it's impartial it doesn't even mean to yeah it nods in agreement that what you're saying is correct

it is wrong to steal it is wrong to lie it is wrong to commit adultery it is wrong to blaspheme so when somebody says OMG and I catched a lot when I'm talking to someone I'll say you know

would you ever use your mother's name in vain I got that line from Ray they say no I would never do that but yet you would use the holy name of your creator you'd bring it down to the same level as a four letter filter word to express disgust God will not hold him blameless

who uses his name in vain all of his enemies use his name in vain scripture says so as i go through the law it it nods yeah and so the primary role of the holy spirit in the life of the non-believer is to convict him of sin judgment and righteousness that's what scripture says you brought up felix earlier with the apostle paul yeah right so it says that paul reason with felix concerning self-control righteousness and judgment the sin in felix's life was a lack of self-control so when I go through the commandments, the Spirit will do his job.

So what do we think? We think if I can answer all the apologetical arguments as I get into this sword fight, I'm going to win them over to Christ. And it's almost as if when I only stick within the realm of apologetics, the Spirit stands aloof waiting for me to get to the law and the gospel. Because the gospel is what saves. I don't have a love affair with the law, but I understand, as Paul said, I did not know what sin was, but by the law.

Yeah. And for him, it was covetousness. Right. Which is what was for me as well. Right. So I go through the commandments, which is sin. He wants to convict the world of sin. You do not have the righteousness required of the law to stand before God. And therefore, you've been weighed in the balance has been found lacking. And therefore judgment. So Paul did this with Felix, self-control, righteousness, and judgment. So when I'm talking to a non-Christian, I'm looking for that sin inside their life. That's sin. I was recently talking to a lawyer. And so what did I do? I harped on the ninth command. you shall not bear false witness you shall not lie i didn't go into great detail concerning the other commandments but i dealt with that one and this is when his head really began to not we're going to release it here pretty soon and he was just like wow looking for that sin i'm going to harp on that sin every verse i can possibly think about i'm going to hone in on that because it puts a weight upon their shoulders to where hopefully they say well what must i do and when i go through those commandments

that's exactly what i'm doing i'm not looking to quickly get to the gospel I'll say, so, if God gives you justice, would you go to heaven or hell? The moment they say, I guess I'd go to hell, I'm slow to speak. Does that concern you? Yeah. Slow to speak. Now, cameras are a little bit different because you've got to keep things moving, but when I'm in person, I go, so what are you going to do, man?

And how come the excuses? Well, I'm going to go to church. It's not going to help you. Go to McDonald's. you're not going to turn into a Big Mac. What are you going to do? I'll start giving money to, how's that going to help you with God? You're going to bribe God?

You're going to bribe the judge? What do you do? And when they run out of excuses, that's when I say, do you have any idea what God did so you wouldn't have to go to hell. And I say, well, I think you do know because you live here in America, you might have forgotten. Let me tell you what happened, this forensic act that took place. And then I go through it.

but I want to get them to the place where they're just marinating in their sin for a moment. And they just go, help. Help me. Yeah, you get him to the point, biblically speaking, where they're begging for the love and mercy of God, right? Because there's no pricking of the conscience. And you already said it, but the Holy Spirit, you said he's going to send his spirit.

And one of the things he does do is convict the world of sin. Where there is no conviction of sin, there is no crying for the remedy, right? That's exactly right. and so you do that so well in your evangelism you know this has been really really helpful mark you know i think there's every single christian has a similar responsibility to share christ it's a privilege too i always want to i think tether those realities together because and maybe just maybe as we begin to land the plane you've mentioned the burden to share christ and to share your faith you've mentioned the call but you've been on i would say the front row of watching god

change people maybe just i always want to alley up the opportunity to just punctuate the privilege of watching god change lives and don't think we talk about that enough i think it's it is conviction oriented you should you should you should but i also want people that to go man if you want to live a life worth living no greater calling no greater privilege than being a part of god's kingdom work even if the fruit is limited you know my son said to me two days ago he said dad i'm going to hawaii and i'm going to go skydiving and ray goes skydiving he said listen why don't you just go open air preach you get the same feeling that same rush with you open air preaching i don't want to hear God say, well done, good and faithful servant out of the side of his mouth.

I don't, you know, listen, I get it. You know, because Jesus died on the cross, I serve him, right? I don't serve God to gain his acceptance. I am accepted, therefore I serve God. Yeah. Right. I'm not trying to win the smile of God, right? Christ did that.

He'll never punish me and I'm not worried about that. He can chastise me, he can correct me, but Christ received the punishment on that cross 2,000 years ago. And my life is not my own, John Piper said. I've been bought with a price. And what lies before me is a stewardship from the owner for the owner. Every day when I wake up, I wake up and I reach over for God's word and I seek the face of God and I say, Lord, show me you here.

Before I see the face of my wife, I want to see your face, right? What do I need? I just want to walk with God in simplicity and I want to obey what he says. That's all. He said it. And I go, okay. I'm going to trust you with the results. That's it.

That's why I step out. You think it's comfortable to approach strangers and talk to them about their spiritual? It's like talking to them about their kidneys. That's not comfortable. But oh, and God, help me to do it. Help me to do it more. You know, as I was pulling up here,

I was just saying, I shouldn't be here. I have nothing to say. I have nothing to share, Lord. I shouldn't be at this church. But God, he's kind and he uses people. That's what he does. He uses people. He can have the rocks,

nobody uses people flawed people i'm afraid of mark but my life is hinding christ and in order to get to mark you got to go through christ and i say lord today i'll go anywhere as long as it's forward things may be falling apart but they're actually falling into place so you have the permission lord do what you want to do you know mark it's and is the truth you know i'm so thankful for that and thankful for your life thankful for the manner in which you live and thankful for your boldness to shared the gospel and I want to be faithful to do that. You know, I'm a preacher, I'm a pastor, and I'm always struck by Paul's words

to do the work of an evangelist, meaning that even sometimes in the church, we get so focused, I think, on the internal maturation of the saints, that's the goal, right? Ephesians 2 and 3, and to build the body up, to do the work of the ministry, continues, and four, and all of those different realities, but it's like at the end of the day,

I want my kids growing up. um right my girls to know that dad loved to talk about jesus and it's one thing to do it in the church where it's safe and we should be right to each other there's unbelievers in my church of course and i preach the gospel there but it's it would be easier for me to preach in dodger stadium than it would be at times for me to go to my neighbor and i think sometimes i think about that people say lord open up some opportunities, praying for open doors, and the Lord gives us open doors all the time. We just need to open them. They're right next to us.

Yeah, Paul Washer says, you're willing to go across the sea for the gospel, but you can't go across the street for the gospel? Yeah, and there's truth in that, you know, and you're going to see them the next day type of people going like, it's probably easier for me in a restaurant on a road trip than it would be with someone in my cul-de-sac because I'm going to see him the next morning. And the way to do it, let me answer how you do that really quick. We're wrapping things if I get it. Be rich and good works.

The Bible says, let your lights so shine among men that they may see your good works and brings glory to your father in heaven. You know, if you're making brownies, make more brownies for the neighbor. You're getting your wife a plant

and get a plant for the neighbor. Just put it on the doorstep. We brought gift baskets to every neighbor inside of our neighborhood filled with $40 worth of Chick-fil-A gift cards and all kinds of just goodies, toys. We studied out each neighbor

as we found them on Facebook and stuff. We saw their likes, angels, and they just put an angel's cap, in the midst of that, right? You're kind of, you know, in a beautiful way, stalking them if you can. And now they're just like, Mark, Mark, right? And so when you run over their mailbox, like my daughter did this past week, you know,

they're not upset at us. They're just saying, hey, well, what can we do to get together and have dinner next? Yeah. So how do I reach them? I'm rich in good works. I'm loving on them. I'm just sharing with them things that have happened in my life. And I don't need to complete the deal in this conversation right now.

And what are they going to say? you're always thinking of me how dare you that's how i reach my neighbors different than the person on the airplane and it's you know even that's helpful because i i always think about that and i want to be that that's the group of people i i feel the most convicted you know to be like man i want to show them christ i want to talk to them about christ i know you're not saying that you never bring up jesus in a conversation it just means that it's couched and there's a there's a credible platform to be able to do it because you've evidenced your love for them and your care for them. You know, sometimes, Mark, just at the end of an episode,

I just ask the guy to, the guest to pray for maybe someone that's discouraged, does not, you know, just knows that they want to start being more active and sharing their faith. Maybe there's someone in their life they've been praying for for a long time. Even George Mueller, you know, his autobiography talks a lot about just praying for people his whole life. But whatever may be, you would just pray for people listening and watching that they would feel both the burden, the call and the rich privilege, that thrill, Ray said. of being able to share the truth of Jesus.

Yeah. Yeah, thank you. Father, we know that you are listening to every word that our heart speaks right now. We thank you that you hear and you understand and you speak more hardish than English. And so our words are few, but we come groaning and asking that you, Father, would see the people in a very real way. see the people see the hearts cry of the people that are here saying oh lord here am i send me for your glory for your fame for your name for this covenant that you made with yourself god would you do through me what i can never do myself equip and inspire maybe somebody who doesn't know you lord

people that are within elbow's reach of the people who they're thinking about how do i reach that person. I pray that you would you would use this Christian listening and watching. They'd use them to have a conversation that would go far and wide and deep that would reverberate forever. That they would not be able to escape the words that are spoken. And then you would ultimately do your job, that you would reach into the dark cavern of people's hearts and you would change them. Father, light or fire underneath us at all costs, no matter of the cost, please we don't beg you god we believe you we believe that you are the same yesterday today and forever and you still desire to seek and save that which is lost so stamp eternity on our eyelids

that whether we are awake or asleep we would have thoughts of you and we would not be able to escape to the world when only heaven would satisfy so why do we feel guilty because maybe we are guilty, guilty of squandering what you have given us, bearing in your gift. And so bring it out, pull it out, Lord, and do what you do best, be God and the man. And we ask these things not by our own merit, but solely upon what Christ did in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you, brother.