How Dare You!
Ministry Update September 11, 2016
How dare you say that I need to repent and put my faith in Jesus. I had my back to the young man at MSU because I was recording part of Aaron’s sermon. The young man had earlier told me that we were hurting our own cause. I said why is that and he replied because Jesus always developed a personal relationship with people.
It’s always interesting when people say things like that. When I read the Gospels, they say that everywhere Jesus went, He preached the Gospel and healed people. The Bible usually mentions His preaching even before the healing. Do you remember when Jesus fed the 5,000? He fed them after they had listened to Him preach. Do you really think that he developed a personal relationship with all 5,000 men, plus their families or do you think He preached to the whole crowd at one time?
Hurting Your Own Cause
When the young man at MSU first told me that we were hurting our own cause I asked him if he’s calling Jesus a liar? I reminded him that Jesus said go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. I told him that we were obeying Jesus. He just walked off shaking his head. I told him that he was wrong for chastising us and that he needed to repent and put his faith in Jesus.
Again, he caught me off guard when he walked up while my back was toward him. He whole body was shaking as he pointed his finger at me and through gritted teeth said “How dare you tell me that I need to repent and trust Jesus. I’ve been baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.”
Now I’d like to think that the Holy Spirit prompted me to call out to the young man earlier to repent and put his faith in Jesus, but even if it wasn’t, like the old saying goes “a blind hog finds an acorn every now and then.” This young man truly needs to repent and trust Jesus because his proof that he was as Christian was that he has been baptized. Baptism does not save you. Church membership does not save you. Having a one-time religious experience without a life changing encounter with the living Son of God, does not save you. You must be born again and you are born again through repentance and faith in Jesus.
Angry and Cussing
Then the young man was so angry that he cussed, so I reminded him that we are to let no filthy communication come out of our mouth. He stomped off (cussing some more) with me pleading with him to repent and trust Jesus. I told him that I was no better than him. That I had also been a false convert when I walked the campus 35 years ago. I pleaded with him to read the Bible. I told him that’s how God saved me was through reading His Holy word. May God convict and convert this young man.
50 New Testaments
Along with Aaron, Brian also joined us at the campus and he had some new Living Waters tracts. He had several new ones, but we put either The Atheist Test or The Good Person Test inside some New Testaments and we handed out 50 of them to the students. All three of us brought messages, several tracts were handed out and a few people stopped to listen to the preaching. Oh may God break the hard hearts of this younger generation and may He grant them repentance and faith through Jesus Christ. 
After we finished up, I went back to work. Brian and Aaron had lunch at the student union. When they finished up, Cindy Smock was preaching behind the building. After they listened for a little while, Aaron put up his sign a little ways away. Students came over and were angry with them at first, but Aaron calmed them down. He shared truth with the students, versus the sinless perfectionism that Smock preaches and Brian handed out several tracts.
Planned Parenthood
On Friday I went to Planned Parenthood on my lunch hour. My schedule freed up and I wasn’t able to give Aaron and Brian enough notice so they could join me. I brought a message and it was a pretty quiet time. The workers and one gentleman were inside there basically the whole time I preached. The UPS driver pulled up and backed in right in front of me. He’s never done that before, so I really think that he did it on purpose. Not to be thwarted, I just moved several feet to my left and continued with the message. I had a sign that says All Abortions Are Murder on one side and Life Begins at Conception on the other side. A couple of cars honked in support and one driver let me know they didn’t like me being there.
A person at the drive thru Asian restaurant next door sat down for a while and listened to the message. A person driving through the drive thru stopped and took a picture of me. Maybe they were surprised to someone preaching outside of Planned Parenthood. Several people in the shopping center to the East of Planned Parenthood also listened to part of the message. May God be glorified by His truth that was lifted up.
You Shouldn’t Push Your Beliefs On Others
Then Friday night before we preached, before we sang hymns, even before we prayed, a young man came up and told us that he was a Christian and that we shouldn’t push our beliefs on others. He ranted and raved and kept telling us that we shouldn’t just come out preaching on Friday nights. I guess at the same time he was arguing that we were doing wrong, that we should be doing the wrong thing more often? (The whole night was pretty much this same way with him).
We finally prayed and sang a few hymns. I started preaching first and a young man came right up to me and started asking questions. He wanted to know if he committed suicide, if he’d go to Hell. I pointed out to him that followers of Jesus, true believers wouldn’t want to kill themselves. Then he said something about God loving everyone the same. I asked him where he got that from and he couldn’t answer. I then told him that God is angry with the wicked every day (Psalm 7:11) and he didn’t believe me. I handed him a Bible and Aaron walked up at that time and read the whole verse to him. The questioning young man laid the Bible I handed him on Aaron’s Bible. Obviously he wasn’t seriously looking for truth. (He also came back again later that night).
We had some real mockers and scoffers behind us. They’ve done this for the last several weeks. They yell and cuss us out the whole time we are singing and preaching. But even during the craziness, the truth went forth. Erica and Summer walked around the square and handed out tracts. Summer even gave a couple of guys the good person test and Erica walked up in time to help her finish it.
The mockers were going strong while Aaron was preaching from Revelation 21:8, while he walked through each individual sin that Jesus lists in that verse. The mockers, the two I mentioned earlier both started in again as well as a new one, a guy riding a bicycle. They were going crazy.
Ben Hur Over The Bible?
The craziest thing was the first mocker of the night came back up and wanted to know if we believe that children born out wedlock are an abomination. He told me that his daughter heard Aaron say so. I told him that Aaron said no such thing. He did talk about sexual sins being an abomination to God, especially homosexuality and beastiality. Then the guy started arguing that sex was good and that Jesus never said anything about it. I told him that in Mark, Jesus said that marriage is between a man and a woman and that he talked about Adam and Eve. God only ordained biblical marriage between a man and a woman and sexual relations are to be within a biblical marriage.
This guy started arguing with me and said that we need to watch the movie Ben Hur. I’m not kidding you. We can’t even make up stuff as bizarre as we see on the streets. But I will state the obvious, if you argue that the Bible was just written by men and you are getting your information from Ben Hur, you are a lost soul. You need to repent and trust Jesus, just like the young man from MSU. The crazy night ended with Aaron taking a homeless man to McDonalds for a meal. Before we left downtown, I offered this same man a New Testament and he took it from. He was a professing Christian. If he is truly saved, may God bless him and keep him. But if he isn’t really saved, may God convict and convert him.
(These updates are provided to encourage Christians to share their faith in Jesus Christ with others. Life is short and eternity is long. Share the glorious Gospel with someone while you still can).