11 May 2009

First Outing

His Feet on the Street (HFOTS) evangelism team had it's first outing Saturday afternoon at a major movie complex in Cumming, Georgia. We passed out close to two hundred tracts and had conversations with about 16 folks ranging from teenagers to the elderly.

My main goal for the group during the time period we had was to get as many tracts as possible into hands and share Law and Gospel with as many folks who would listen.



The most popular tract we handed out was the Million Dollar Bill tract. Whether just handing out the tract as you walk by people or using it to intentionally start a conversation, it's as easy as this;

"Hey, how are you? Did you get one of these?"

Almost 100% of the time people will gladly take the MDB and some even say, "Thanks".

I arrived a little earlier than the rest of the group so I took out a 100/pack of MDB's and set off walking around the complex just handing out tracts without starting any conversations. I quickly ran out of tracts and headed back to the car to get more when the rest of the gang arrived.

Our small group of five prayed together and then broke up into a team of two and a team of three and set off in opposite directions to cover the large complex.

My team (The team of three) quickly spotted a group of four teenagers sitting and hanging out in front of the movie theater. I gave each one of them a MDB and asked the million dollar question; "If you all were to die today, do you know for sure where you would spend eternity?"

It seems each one of them had a different answer.

"I hope Heaven"

"I don't know"

"I believe in reincarnation"

"I'm not sure"

I took them through the Law and made sure they understood what sin was. They all admitted to breaking God's Law. After telling them that it is appointed man once to die and then the Judgment, I asked them what they would say to God when standing before Him. One girl said that she would ask for forgiveness. I told her it would be too late for that. I gave her the analogy of standing before a judge after she had committed serious crimes and then asking the judge for forgiveness. I told her that the judge would say that she should be sorry, but he would have to sentence her based on the crimes she committed and give her what she deserved; justice.

After explaining to them that the just consequence of sinning against a holy and righteous God was hell, I told them that they did not have to go there. I magnified God's amazing grace through the Gospel and asked them what kept them from repenting of their sins and putting their trust in Jesus Christ today?

After I was finished talking one of the boy's innocently asked me, "What if I don't believe in hell?"

I told him just because someone doesn't believe in something it doesn't make it untrue. I told him that if I were to jump off that building across the street proclaiming I didn't believe in the law of gravity, my disbelief of the law of gravity would have no effect on the law itself; I would still hit the ground no matter how much I protested gravity didn't exist.

We left that group after giving them all another tract called, "Are you good enough to go to Heaven" and looked for some more folks to talk to.

The next conversation found us with a couple elderly gentlemen who were waiting on a bench for their wives to finish shopping. After handing them a MDB and asking the million dollar question, one of the men told me point blank that he was going to hell when he died.

After handing out thousands of tracts and having hundreds of conversations over the last five years, that was the first time anyone ever said that to me and meant it.

I was dumb struck for a moment but recovered and asked why? Why did he think he was going to hell when he died?

He said he was going to hell because he had done a lot of bad things in his life. I asked him if it concerned him that he would spend eternity in hell? He kind of blew it off as if he didn't care, so I described hell to him based on what God's Word has to say about it. He told me he knew all that and he's been through all this before. I asked him what had he been through before?

Basically he told me that he had went to several churches over the years when his wife was sick. He said in a round about way that he blamed God for letting his first wife die.

This man was hurting inside and God was an easy target for his pain. I touched briefly on sin and laid out God's marvelous grace through His Son Jesus Christ. I told him he didn't have to go to hell and asked him to fully consider what we talked about today. We shook hands and went on our way.

I can't remember all the details during that conversation but the Holy Spirit helped me through it. It had to be the toughest witnessing encounter I have ever had.

Our other team witnessed to groups of teenagers and found them to be totally receptive to Law and grace. I hope to be able to get their conversations accounts posted here this week.

Please pray for those we talked to and those who received the Gospel tracts. May God use the witnessing and the tracts to accomplish his perfect will.

BTW - I brought a camera to take some pic's of us witnessing but left the camera in the car...D'oh!


10 comments:

  1. Way to go, Wayne! Go Dawg go!

    I love the name of your new blog! I'll be looking forward to checking it out now and again. I'll throw you on my Blog'n Roll list.

    I praise God for faithful laborers. I pray you and your team's efforts be effectual in the building of the Kingdom and in giving God the glory He so rightly deserves.

    Praise be to the Lord!

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  2. Wayne,

    Do you really think hell is comparable to gravity?

    Really?

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  3. Matt - It was a simple analogy to show the teenager that just because you don't believe in something doesn't make it untrue.

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  4. Yes, but you can demonstrate the existence of gravity very easily. The analogy makes it appear as though the two are evidentially similar when they're not.

    It's not just the 'not believing doesn't make it untrue' thing, it's the 'you cannot give ANY evidence that this is true, and I don't believe it either'

    There's a difference, no?

    If you said you didn't believe in unicorns and I used the gravity analogy to show that your disbelief didn't change the fact that unicorns exist; you wouldn't be convinced, would you?

    The reality of Hell is a premise that you accept on faith, based on your belief that the Bible is the Word of God, but there is no external evidence to suggest that it's actually real.


    You're right in that a persons belief/nonbelief has no impact on the reality of things that we can independently verify to be true, but this doesn't apply to Hell because it cannot be objectively verified.


    Anyway, this is all a bit pedantic so I'll stop.



    Do you ever hear any feedback from the people you witness to; not that you hand out a 'How was your Witness Today?' questionnaire or anything!

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  5. "Do you ever hear any feedback from the people you witness to; not that you hand out a 'How was your Witness Today?' questionnaire or anything!"

    Lol.......you do seem to find a way to make me laugh Matt.

    I pictured a bumper sticker on the back of our shirts that read, "How's my witnessing - call 1-800-rat-onme"

    When we do street witnessing we are always talking to folks who are strangers to us. I have never had anyone come up to me months or years later and tell me that I have talked to them or handed them a tract.

    When witnessing, for the most part, the feedback comes during the conversation. If there are objections to what we are doing we will hear about it if the person is bold enough to speak out. But generally most people are easy to talk to and don't mind having a conversation about spiritual things.

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  6. Wayne.....you are glorifying the Lord and He will bring His sheep into the fold. I even believe Matt may be one of those sheep!

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  7. Ike,

    Are you not compelled to believe that everyone is 'one of those sheep'? I thought God desired that 'none shall perish'.

    As Wayne knows, I have deep-seated reservations about much of Christian theology, so I don't anticipate 'joining the flock' any time soon.

    Of course, you might be the one who convinces me, you never know...

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  8. Matt....I wished I could but I can't raise a dead sinner to life. If the Lord wants to knock down the door to your heart....he will!

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  9. I don't think the Lord will knock down the door to his heart. That sounds like a violation of his free will. I guess that phrase just suggests something radical will happen in his life to push him toward the Gospel?

    I do think people's minds, their intellectual faculties, have to be so inclined that belief X is actually a potentially tenable position to them.

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  10. I agree with you totally, Joseph.

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