THE GIFT OF EVANGELISTS

(INTRO) YOU MIGHT BE AN EVANGELIST IF…

[1]WELCOME: Well good morning everyone! I love getting to gather with you each week and worship Jesus together and seek to follow and serve him well. If you’re new with us or just now joining us online, my name is Nic Cook, and I’m one of the pastors here at Cornerstone church. We are continuing our teaching SERIES: called FIVE and it’s based on a passage out of the book we call Ephesians. In chapter [2][4:11] it says “11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers.12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ.” It tells us that Jesus intends every single Christian to live into one of these roles. His goal is to build a spiritual family that looks like Jesus and does the things that he does. We are part of his mission to bring the kingdom of peace and light into a world filled with division and darkness. We’ve called these roles and responsibilities APEST. And over the last two weeks we have covered how Apostles and Prophets do what Jesus calls them to do. Today we’re going to be talking about what it means to do the…[3]

· ROLE OF EVANGELIST: Just like we’ve done with the previous roles, I’m going to say some statements that are often used to describe people who are evangelists. Let’s see if you feel like any of these describe you. [4]When I’m excited about something, I get others interested in it too. When I like a movie or restaurant, everyone will hear about it. [5]I mix easily with a wide variety of people without having to try to be one of them. [6]I like to tell stories, especially my own. [7]I love to meet new people and get to know their story. [8]People say I get passionate about the things I believe in and it shows. Evangelists are the Kingdom recruiters, marketers, storytellers, and networkers of the family of Jesus! The truth is that every single Christian is called to share with people the good news of how Jesus changes everything. However, there are some people that are just naturals at it. They’re like a candle that draws moths directly to it. They can’t help themselves, they’re constantly striking up new friendships and conversations. We’ve also said that there tends to be a progression in the way these 5 gifts work together. That Apostles and Prophets tend to be part of the Go and Start Team. And the Evangelists, Shepherds, and Teachers tend to be part of the Stay and Grow team. Well, the Evangelists are kind of like the bridge between the two teams. They don’t love starting new ministries or have the confrontational posture of Prophets, they love new people and being part of bringing about new life. They make sure that a church doesn’t get comfortable and focused on themselves. They reach out to the lost and the hurting and help bring them into the church, which is both a blessing and a source of holy disturbance. We’ll talk more about that in a minute. But before we do, please turn in your bibles to [9] [Luke 15:1-10] We’re going to start with how Jesus is the perfect Evangelist and then we’ll unpack together how to continue to do the work that he started as evangelists. Let’s Pray. [READ]

(TEACH/APP) SEEK AND SAVE THE LOST (God)

[10]GOOD NEWS FOR THE WHOLE WORLD: The passage we just read was out of what we call the Gospel of Luke. Luke was a follower of Jesus who wrote his own account of the life and ministry of Jesus after interviewing tons and tons of eye-witness. His account of Jesus is often called “the good news for the gentiles.” That’s because the first half of our bibles is written about a group of people called the Jews that were the only people able to claim that God had chosen them as his own special people. God entered into a special relationship with them that no other nation or people could claim. That meant all the promises he made to them about blessing them, loving them, and ultimately saving them from their sins and creating an eternal home of peace for them, did not apply to anyone else, unless you became a Jew. So, what was good news for the Jews, was bad news for everyone else. Now there are hints all throughout the first half of our bible that God had much bigger plans than just a small nation of Jewish people, but we don’t get to see it clearly until Jesus. One of the problems with the human heart, is that what starts out as an undeserved gift to be chosen by God, often turns into a source of pride. What was once: THANK YOU GOD FOR CHOOSING ME, BECAME TOO BAD GOD HASN’T CHOSEN YOU! INSTEAD OF THANK YOU GOD, YOU MADE ME AN INSIDER, IT BECOMES TOO BAD YOU’RE AN OUTSIDER! Now Luke was most likely a Gentile. An outsider with no hope of being in relationship with God. So when Jesus makes it possible for the whole world to become children of God, he wants to make sure that everyone has a chance to hear about this good news, especially those who used to be on the outside! So, Luke weaves into his account of Jesus the special ways that Jesus was constantly stepping over the lines to invite people into a relationship with God. It’s been said that if you wanted to summarize what Luke wants people to hear about Jesus, it would be in [11][Lk. 19:10] “For the Son of Man came to…

· SEEK AND SAVE THE LOST: As I was thinking about how to illustrate the power that lies behind this phrase, I started thinking about something that was incredibly important that I thought was lost. It reminded me of a moment not too long ago. I was at my in-law’s house on Sunset Lake. [12]They have a dock that we love to go swimming off of. Everyone has to wear a lifejacket because underwater it drops off really quickly to 40 feet. Well, a couple of Levi’s friends were out with us one day. I came down to the dock to check on the kids and only saw one of the kids with Levi. The second one was nowhere to be found. In fact, their lifejacket was on the dock. I also saw some large bubbles over towards the deep part of the water. My heart started pounding. I frantically started yelling this kids name and asking the other kids if they knew where he was. I was just about to dive into the water when this kid comes bouncing around the corner of the house after getting a snack. I wanted to shake them and hug them at the same time. The bubbles on the lake were probably from a big fish or turtle. However, the importance and urgency I was feeling I think illustrated…[13]

o HOW IMPORTANT THOSE WHO ARE LOST ARE TO JESUS: When Jesus talks about a lost sheep that the shepherd leaves everything behind to go and rescue, or a woman who has lost a coin and tears the entire house apart looking for it, he’s not talking about sheep and money. He’s talking about people, human beings. He’s talking about our children, our brothers and sisters, our parents and grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, our neighbors, our coworkers, the person sitting next to us in school. And instead of seeing bubbles from a fish, he saw a world full of people he loved who were actually drowning in sin, lost and hopeless and dove in to save them. THIS IS THE HEARTBEAT OF AN EVANGELIST! THEY LOVE THE LOST AND ARE READY TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES. [14]THEY BELIEVE THAT FOUND PEOPLE SHOULD FIND PEOPLE! Neil Cole calls them the Lost and Found department of the church. Evangelists look at people the way that Jesus looked at them. This great love for the lost means that…[15]

(JC) EVANGELISTS… (JC)

· EVANGELISTS LOVE BEING WITH BIG OLE SINNERS: The reason that Jesus tells these stories is prompted by the religious people of that day looking at the people that were drawn to him. It’s interesting because it says, “Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach.” [Lk. 15:1] If you want a good explanation of how the Jewish people felt about Tax-collectors I’d encourage you to watch the TV series, the Chosen and see how they felt about Matthew. I’m not going to go into detail here because I want to focus on how this applies to us today. The idea is that religious people tend to make categories of sin. This is a small sin. This is a bigger sin. Then there’s the biggest ones. The kind of sin that defines you, it becomes your identity. Oh! You’re one of those kinds of sinners. You’re a Tax collector kind of sinner. I’m going to be explicit here and I’m going to risk getting in trouble because no one’s saying it. They either hint at it or ignore it. Each generation picks their major issue. Adultery, alcohol and addiction, divorce, abortion, same-sex attraction, racism, greed. Oh, you’re one of those kinds of sinners! And evangelists don’t avoid sinners. They are drawn to them. They listen to those who are hurting. They get to know their story. They listen well. They love well. They serve those who are lost. And over time they earn the right to…[16]

· TELL THEIR STORY AND HIS STORY: They love to say “I’m one of those kinds of sinners. I’m one of the biggest.” They love the phrase “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, I once was lost, but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.” They live out the old Hymn, this is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. They don’t label sinners because they remember what it was like to be one. They love talking about the Savior who came to seek and save the lost, who came for the sick, who came for every single one of us. So if evangelists love being with lost people they also love.. [17]

o GOING WHERE THE LOST ARE: It’s been said that evangelists are often more comfortable being at a bar than they are at a bible study. If there’s lost people there, that’s where Evangelists want to be. The problem with this is that religious people are going to have a problem with this. That’s what happened with Jesus. Did you hear about who he’s hanging out with? Did you hear where he went? Doesn’t he know that’s not where a Christian is supposed to be? The fear is that their way of thinking and acting will rub off on you. And if you are struggling with certain things like alcohol, a bar is not the place for you to witness. However, an evangelist is like someone carrying around a spiritual virus. They don’t get infected by sin. They’re going around and spreading something that rubs off on others for eternity. They can be in the world, but not of the world. They can be both light that discloses darkness and sin as well as salt that brings flavor and keeps things from spoiling. They love getting in the messy places of this world and entering the messy parts of people’s lives and bringing the good news of a Savior who is the only one who can clean it up. This means that…[18]

· EVANGELISTS MAKE OUR CHURCHES MESSY: What happens when people give their life to Jesus? Do all their habits and hang-ups magically disappear? Do all the consequences of their choices quit following them around all of a sudden? No. Addiction takes time to deal with. Divorce has messy ramifications in relationships. Sexuality is complicated and is tied to some of the deepest parts of our experience. This means the church should constantly have people who are at various stages of messiness in their lives coming into the family. The other thing that happens is that newly saved people start inviting their unsaved friends and family to check out the Savior who has changed their lives. I’ve heard of churches where when evangelists really start loving people well, that the long-term people don’t like it. These new kids are bad and they’re affecting my kids. These new people are so needy. And the truth is, if our church is full of nice clean people, then we’re a dying church! Evangelists remind us of the beauty that God loves changing lives. It’s awesome to see people meet Jesus for the first time. It’s amazing to see people set free from darkness, depression, and despair. Evangelists, keep reminding us that we once were lost, but now we’re found, and that found people will go find people. Now, before we break into our groups for discussion, I want to end with this…

o WE ALL ARE CALLED TO EVANGELISM, BUT NOT ALL ARE EVANGELISTS: Every single one of us is told to “always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you”. God wants all of us to be ready to tell our story and to help people come to Jesus. But there are going to be some people that it is just natural. Their heart is tuned to find people who are open and ready to talk about Jesus. They’re constantly praying for the lost. God is always bringing someone into their path and they are excited to show them Jesus. So, evangelists, thank you for making us uncomfortable. Thank you for making our churches messy. Keep up the good work. Thank you for following the example of Jesus, the one who hung out with all us big ole sinners and died so that all of us who were lost could be found. The Jesus who came to seek and save the lost.