# FREE GIFTS FOR EVERYONE! - Part 1
Sharing Christ: The Spiritual Gift of Evangelism
# Ezekiel 33:1-9
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(NLT)
Once again a message came to me from the LORD:
“Son of man, give your people this message: „When I bring an
army against a country, the people of that land choose one of their
own to be a watchman.
# 3 When the watchman sees the enemy coming, he sounds the
alarm to warn the people. 4 Then if those who hear the alarm refuse
to take action, it is their own fault if they die
# 5 They heard the alarm but ignored it, so the responsibility is
theirs. If they had listened to the warning, they could have saved
their lives.
# 6 But if the watchman sees the enemy coming & doesn‟t sound the
alarm to warn the people, he is responsible for their captivity. They
will die in their sins, but I will hold the watchman responsible for
their deaths.‟
# 7 “Now, son of man, I am making you a watchman for the people
of Israel. Therefore, listen to what I say & warn them for me. 8 If I
announce that some wicked people are sure to die & you fail to tell
them to change their ways, then they will die in their sins, & I will
hold you responsible for their deaths.
# 9 But if you warn them to repent & they don‟t repent, they will die
in their sins, but you will have saved yourself.
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# Today we will begin a new series that will discuss 5 of the
Spiritual Gifts bestowed by the Holy Spirit upon Believers & to
strengthen & build up the church of Jesus Christ.
# The spiritual gift we will examine today, while vitally essential,
usually strikes terror & a sense of fear in the minds of most
Christians. That gift is EVANGELISM.
[PAUSE]
# Calvin Coolidge was vice president of the United States between
1921-1923, under President Warren G. Harding.
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He was not a very active vice president, but he took great
pleasure in presiding over the Senate.
One day, as he was presiding, one senator angrily told another
to “go straight to hell.” The offended Senator openly
complained to Coolidge as the presiding officer. Coolidge was
leafing through the book of rules as he made his complaint.
He looked up from the book & replied: “I’ve looked through
the rule book. You don’t have to go.”
That is the good news that we have to share with the world. We
have looked it up in God‟s book. # No one has to go to hell,
for the Bible says in 1 Timothy 2:4 that “God wants everyone
to be saved & to understand the truth.”
 The heart of God beats for every human being & longs for
them to be with Him in eternity.
 Every human being bears the stamp of God on their soul, for
they were made in His image.
 He created them & came to redeem them.
 To live apart from Christ & not experience the presence of His
Holy Spirit in your life is the greatest tragedy of human
existence.
 You can have everything this world has to give, but if you do
not have Christ you have nothing.
 You may have more than enough money, great looks, great
education, great family, but if you don‟t know Jesus Christ in a
personal way, you’ve missed the point of this life.
# Jesus put it like this: “And what do you benefit if you gain
the whole world but lose your own soul?” (Mark 8:36).
With that in mind, I want to say, first of all, that when it comes
to sharing Christ with others, you must understand that:
# 1. People are eternally lost without Christ.
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This is a truth that is often overlooked in our culture. We have
redefined sin & softened the Gospel to the point where we
really don’t believe that people are lost without Christ.
We can‟t imagine that anyone could possibly be in spiritual
danger. “As long as they are sincere,” we say.
Or “They were religious in their own way,”
I have often heard. “They were such a good person that I am
sure they are in heaven.”
Those are nice sentiments, but are they true?
# Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way & the truth & the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
When people talk about their children, they say they only want
them to be happy.
Is that all we want for our children?
 Aren’t we concerned whether or not they are moral?
 Aren’t we concerned whether or not they have a
relationship with Jesus Christ that is real?
 Aren’t we concerned about whether they are going to
spend eternity with God or without him?
They may be attractive, intelligent people,
but are they living for God? …or themselves?
# Hebrews 4:13 says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from
God. Everything is naked & exposed before His eyes, & He is
the one to whom we are accountable.”
Increasingly, there is a tendency to believe that all good
people, whether or not they consider Jesus Christ to be their
Savior, will live in heaven after they die.
In 1992 40% of people surveyed agreed with this notion.
In 1994 the percentage had grown to 46%.
By 1999 it was 53%. And then in a 2010 survey, 83% of
Evangelical Protestants & 90% of black Protestants said
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they believed that “all good people would go to heaven,
regardless of their religion or relationship to Jesus Christ.”
# The Bible says of Jesus in Acts 4:12:
“There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other
name under heaven by which we must be saved.”
And the Apostle Paul then reinforces this in Philippians 2:9-11
when he writes: # “Therefore God exalted Him (Jesus) to the
highest place & gave Him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven &
on earth & under the earth, & every tongue acknowledge that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
There is a judgment coming, & it is important that we are ready
to face God at the judgment. But if we have ignored Jesus
Christ we will never see God!
If we are living selfish, self-centered, immoral lives there will be
a price to pay. # Hebrews 2:1-3 says, So we must listen very
carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away
from it. 2 For the message God delivered through angels has
always stood firm, & every violation of the law & every act of
disobedience was punished. 3 So what makes us think we can
escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first
announced by the Lord Jesus Himself & then delivered to us
by those who heard Him speak?
This is our motivation for bringing people to Christ. If we believe
in “an old fashioned idea called” hell, shouldn‟t we want to
prevent people from going there!?!
We do not want our loved ones, friends or anyone else to be
eternally separated from God…Do We?
What good will it do if someone is successful & happy here if
they spend an eternity in hell…Which besides being a “REAL”
place is also an eternal separation from the intimacy & love of
God?
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# The apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:10-11, (The Message)
“It’s no light thing to know that we’ll all one day stand in that
place of Judgment. That’s why we work urgently with
everyone we meet to get them ready to face God.”
The second thing that we need to understand is:
# 2. Lost people matter to God.
Jesus was called the “friend of sinners” in Matthew 11:19.
Among His followers were former tax collectors, prostitutes,
thieves & murderers.
He did not love their sin, but He did love the sinner.
Sinners loved Jesus because He gave them hope.
Forgiveness was available if they came to Him & wanted to
change.
He made them want to leave their life of sin & to live for God.
There is an interesting passage in 2 Peter 3:9.
He is trying to explain the coming judgment. He has been asked
by people why it was taking so long for it to come. Why didn‟t
God just come & destroy all those filthy sinners in the world. #
Peter answered with these words: (The Message).
“God isn’t late with His promise as some measure lateness. He
is restraining Himself on account of you, holding back the End
because He doesn’t want anyone lost.
He’s giving everyone space & time to change.”
# The most familiar passage in the Bible reminds us that,
“God so loved the world that he gave His one & only Son, that
whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but to save the world through him” John 3:16-17.
Do we deserve the judgment? Of course we do!
But God who is rich in mercy saved us by the merits & death of
Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul expresses amazement when he says in
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# Ephesians 2:4-5
“It’s a wonder God didn’t lose
His temper & do away with the whole lot of us. Instead,
immense in mercy & with an incredible love, He embraced us.
He took our sin-dead lives & made us alive in Christ.
He did all this on His own, with no help from us!”
(The Message),
As I read the 15th chapter of Luke I am continually reminded of
God’s incredible love for the lost.
This is the chapter of lost things:
 a lost sheep,
 a lost coin,
 a lost son.
In each case God is pictured as searching & longing for what has
been lost. When the sinful & rebellious son returns home, the
father runs to embrace him.
In Luke 15:22-24, The father says to his servants,
“Quick! Bring the best robe & put it on him. Put a ring on his
finger & sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf & kill it.
Let’s have a feast & celebrate. For this son of mine was dead
& is alive again; he was lost & is found!”
And a great celebration followed.
# Jesus said, “I tell you that in the same way there will be
more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than
over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to
repent” (Luke 15:7).
The third thing we must understand is:
# 3. Lost people should matter to us.
 Some Christians act as though they hate sinners instead of
loving them.
 They look down on liars, adulterers, homosexuals, thieves,
drug addicts, alcoholics & the like as though they were not
redeemable.
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 There is a sense of smug spiritual superiority (especially among
a lot of “Church-folk”) instead of a concern & a desire to reach
out to them.
# We fail to see other people through God’s eyes.
# We fail to remember where we used to be & what God
saved us from.
# We forget how patient God was with us until we came
around.
If our character is to model the character of God then,
 We have to have the same compassion God has.
 We have to love like God loved--unconditionally.
 We have to overlook the sin & in order to reach the sinner
& express our love for them.
# If these people are not important to you & me then they will
remain lost… # They will die without God & without hope &
we will be at least partly responsible.
[LONG PAUSE]
In the text today Ezekiel 33:1-9, Ezekiel is using a type of
parable to explain our responsibility to warn people of the
judgment & win them to God (through Jesus Christ).
He creates an absurd scenario.
A watchman is placed on the wall of a city to look for invading
enemies that may come & destroy the people inside the city &
carry them away.
But even though he sees the danger, & knows what is coming,
he fails to warn the people inside.
What possible reason could he have for not warning them?
 Perhaps he thought the people would be annoyed by the
trumpet blast.
 Maybe he thought they would not believe him.
 It could be that he downplayed the danger in his own mind &
told himself that the army approaching the city wouldn‟t really
harm anyone.
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For whatever reason, God held the watchman responsible.
# Ezekiel ends by saying in 33:8-9, “If I announce that some
wicked people are sure to die & you fail to tell them to change
their ways, then they will die in their sins, & I will hold you
responsible for their deaths. 9 But if you warn them to repent &
they don’t repent, they will die in their sins, but you will have
saved yourself.”
I remember the stories surrounding the World Trade Center on
September 11, 2001. After the first tower was hit, people
started streaming out of the buildings. But some people died in
groups, because people around them convinced them they
should stay put. Some of the security people on the bottom floor
told people fleeing the building that the fire department had
everything under control & that they were to return to their
offices.
Many of them did, & many of them died. The real heroes were
those who understood the danger & went into the building
to rescue the people who were in peril.
People without Christ are more than in peril…they are eternally
lost. (If you take nothing I’ve said in this message so far away
with you today, then at least take these 2 thoughts with you.)
# Lost people matter to God!!
So… # Lost people should matter to us!!!
If these 2 things are firmly fixed in our minds, then 95% of the
battle is won in your quest to be able to witness to other people
about Christ.
We don‟t need more information, # we just need to be
convinced of the importance of the task…WHY?...(because)
Eternal souls are at stake!
There are some people who are able to witness so easily.
It seems to come naturally to them.
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They can present it so well that people are interested in hearing
what they have to say.
But this is a gift that can be developed & nurtured.
# Beginning tomorrow (09/12) at 12:30 am for 4 weeks & then
again starting again Sept. 28th, on Wednesday evenings at 6:30
pm, you can acquire or hone that gift of evangelism with “How
To Share Your Faith”
You don‟t have to be a theologian or a biblical scholar.
All you have to be able to do is to tell your story.
All you need to do is to learn to lovingly share the “Good News”
of what Jesus has done or is doing in your life with others.
You may not be able to quote all the scriptures, but you can tell
people how your life has changed & what God has done for you.
Just by doing that # YOU CAN (& most likely will)
MAKE AN ETERNAL DIFFERENCE in someone’s life!
I love the story of the healing of the blind man in John 9.
Jesus heals him & the religious leaders are upset that he has
done it on the wrong day & in the wrong way.
They‟re skeptical, & they want the man who was healed to be
just as skeptical as they are.
They grill him with questions. Some of them are theological, &
others are difficult questions about who Jesus is & exactly how
He healed him.
In Verse 25 the man simply responded, “One thing I do know.
I was blind but now I see!” How wonderfully simple are his
words. He didn‟t have a deep theological explanation of what had
happened, or even who Jesus was, but he was able to tell his
story. His story is our story:
“One thing we know. Once we were blind, but now we see.”
In closing, hear the word of God through the Old Testament
Prophet Daniel:
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# Daniel 12:2-3 “Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the
earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame
& everlasting contempt. Those who are wise will shine like
the brightness of the heavens, & those who lead many to
righteousness, like the stars forever & ever.”
# Let’s Pray…
# NEXT WEEK: We continue our Series: “FREE GIFTS FOR EVERYONE!”
With Part 2 –”Making Disciples: The Spiritual Gift of Teaching”
from Matthew 28:18-20
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