Ministry Update September 13, 2015
On September 11 2015, I witnessed at MSU during my lunch hour. I was open-air preaching when an elderly lady in a pink sweatshirt stepped right up to me and said “I’m Jewish. What about that?”
I replied “My wife is Jewish and God saved her, He can save you too.”
“You mean I have to change religions?”
“Jesus was Jewish. He came for the Jew first and then the Gentile.”
She then mumbled something and walked away. I yelled after her that the Jews rejected Jesus while He walked the earth 2,000 years ago and she shouldn’t continue rejecting Him now. Shortly after that a young man on a skateboard came and interrupted my message. I asked him how I could help him and he said “why are you doing this? No one is listening to you?” You’d think by now Satan would realize this tactic doesn’t work against me. I told the young man that Jesus told the parable about the sower and the different types of soil. Yes, some seed fell on hard ground, but other seed fell on good ground. He skated off and I warned him that he shouldn’t continue being hard ground.
I also had a few other walk by scoffers and a group stood over to the right of me, but they heard most of the message. There were others who heard the Gospel that were waiting on a bus. May God convict and convert people who heard God’s truth.
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Then later that night I joined Aaron, Erica, Diana and Elise downtown witnessing. A couple of churches were having some kind of concert on the square, so we were at South and Walnut. The crazy lady that caused Aaron to receive many of his tickets last year, was at it again. She kept getting in Aaron’s face, but we just kept singing. I think she called the police, but they didn’t even come over and talk to us.
Girl Asked For A Tract
A cool thing that happened while we were singing hymns was that a lady walked over and asked us for a tract.
Then while I was bringing a message about false converts (like I used to be) a drunk, professing Christian came up to me and wanted me to step off the box. He wanted me to bring it down a notch. He kept talking about God’s love (in other words how he could live anyway that he wants to and it’s alright because God is loving) and I kept talking about God’s wrath (Colossians 3:5-7). He was the poster child for my message. Aaron ended up talking to him for a while as I continued preaching and Aaron even ended up praying for the young man before he left. May God convict and convert him.
Aaron Preaching On The Square
After my message, we moved to square. While Aaron preached (and he wasn’t even preaching hard), a man walked by with a few other people and the man put his fingers in his ears, just like a little kid the whole time that he walked by. He wasn’t having any part of listening to the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Lord.
We also met two Michaels Friday night. One Michael was saved and God delivered him from drugs. The other Michael is homeless and still bound by alcohol. So Aaron to the homeless Michael to McDonalds and fed him after we finished up. May God reach Michael number 2 and save his soul.
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On Saturday September 12, 2015, Brad St. Clair with Repent and Turn Ministries joined Greg Marlin, Jerry Savage and myself (the three of us belong to Crossway Baptist Church) and we witnessed at MSU before the football game. This was our first Sports Fan Outreach International outreach that is a part of SFOI 1,000. It was a beautiful day and there was a large crowd. We started out handing out tracts at the main stoplight where people cross from the parking lot to the stadium. We all had conversations with people here.
My best conversation was with Chet. He is a science major at MSU and he discussed many different subjects. He asked a lot of questions, but didn’t give me much of a chance to answer him. But throughout the conversation he admitted that he was a liar and that he is currently having sexual relations with his girlfriend and he understands that God considers fornication a sin, even though in Chet’s mind he is faithful and loving to her. But after admitting various sins throughout our discussion, his main problem came out and it was a sad one. His mother died when he was a young child and he watched her die. He wanted to know how an all powerful, all knowing and all loving God could allow such a thing to happen? I told him that I was very sorry for his loss and explained that we live in a fallen world where we all die and we die because of our sins. I was able to share various Scriptures with him. Then he took a Bible from me and allowed me to pray for him.
Greg and Brad checked out the Bearfest Village and they said it was packed. Many people were drinking there, so they asked several people to name 10 beers and after they named them off, they asked people to name the 10 Commandments. Most of them could name more than the 10 beers, but couldn’t name the 10 Commandments. But Greg and Brad used this as a way to share the Gospel with people. While they were witnessing North of the stadium, Jerry and I witnessed to people who were tailgating in the parking lot. Jerry witnessed to a family of four who struggled to answer questions about why we need a Savior and how we make it to Heaven. At the end they told us that they are Catholics and that they live in St. Louis. Jerry clearly presented the Gospel to them and I handed them tracts.
While Jerry talked to a couple of young men, I got into a good conversation with Jake, Kristen and Chrystal. I shared the Gospel with them and Chrystal thanked me for doing so. She is a professing Christian, Kristen didn’t say much and Jerry is a Catholic from out of town who is attending MSU. I asked them if they all had Bibles, they said yes, but I caught Jerry said that he had one back home. I asked if he would read the Bible if I gave him one and he said yes.
Then Jerry and I were heading back to meet Greg and Brad at the corner where we met up to start the outreach and a couple walked by us heading the other way. We gave each of them tracts and Jerry started asking them questions. Kristen professed to be a Christian, but Tommy was not. Jerry used football analogies and clearly shared the Gospel with him. Tommy understood that he was a sinner and that he needed salvation, but he’s holding back. Jerry gave him several other tracts and booklets and encouraged him to put his faith in Jesus.
The harvest was plentiful and the laborers were few, but it was a good outreach. May God bless and multiply the tracts that were handed out, may He save those we talked to that are lost and May the good Lord convict people to read the Bible, since faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.