Was Last Night a Success?

A sister in Christ asked me to tell about some success stories in witnessing. I have seen Aaron lead people to Christ after street preaching, including a Muslim man, a suicidal woman and others. I’ve seen people crying under conviction while listening to street preaching and I’ve seen people under Holy Ghost conviction after one to one conversations. I’ve even witnessed people being brought to tears from reading Gospel tracts.

But I’d like to recap our street witnessing last night. We stared out singing hymns while Elise (a teenager) played her violin. Elise and her mother as well as others from their church  come out witnessing faithfully week after week. Last night, two young men came up to us at different times and donated a dollar to the ministry (and Aaron promptly gave the money to our violinist).

Then we started open-air preaching. I started off talking about the importance of our words and before I could read a Bible verse, a truck stopped at the stop sign in front of us and the driver kept revving his engine, blowing out black diesel smoke that was so thick I could hardly see or speak. Then a guy walked by with a group of people and said F you and F your God and kept yelling as he walked down the sidewalk. Then a couple of guys on motorcycles pulled up and kept revving their engines so loudly that I still couldn’t read the verse. But I waited and then told the crowd that God must really want one of them to hear the message tonight.

After a little while a drunk man staggered up in front of me and kept demanding to know if I had personally been to Hell. I have not and I never will since I’ve repented and put my faith in Jesus. He kept asking me how I could be so sure that Hell is real. I said because God’s word says so. Jesus said that the rich man died, was buried and in Hell (Luke 16:19-31). Then Aaron took him aside and talked to him some more. After a while the man walked off mad.

I don’t like unrepentant sinners to think that I’m just picking on their particular sin, so in addition to stating that no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God, I pointed out that no adulterer, idolater, fornicator, homosexual or thief will make it to Heaven either. So then a guy came over playing a guitar while his buddy across the street was recording us and the guitar player kept yelling out “we hate gays.” He was just mocking me, but I pointed out to him that I don’t hate gays. He kept singing anyway. So then I asked him, how come out of the whole list of sinners was he just focusing on that one category of sin? He didn’t answer me, but after a while he gave up and walked away.

Aaron preached next and while he was preaching the lady pictured above came up and listened for a while. She wanted to ask a question, but she didn’t interrupt him and instead came over and talked to me. She wanted to know if we were out here preaching against the rock n roll and the bar across the street. I told her that I don’t preach against rock n roll, but that Aaron might do so. I also told her that we were explaining that drunkards will not inherit the kingdom of God and she put her hand up in the air – like stop right there and she said “SMH” and spun around and walked off.

Also pictured above is Erica talking to a young man. They were talking while I was open-air preaching so when I finished I walked over and stood near them and handed out tracts. After a while Erica brought him over to me and said he had some questions. He proceeded to ask several questions all at once. He said that he wasn’t a Christian but that he thought that there may be a God. I gently pointed out that Jesus said that we are either for Him or against Him. I pointed out that if we are not His followers, then we really are against Him. He said that he tries to be a good person and that he doesn’t cheat on his wife. I said that’s good and then I don’t know why (except maybe it was the Lord’s prompting) but then I asked him if he ever gets drunk and he said yes, sometimes. So I pointed out that no drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God. All of a sudden his demeanor changed, he walked away from me flipping me off and threw the tracts in the air that Erica had given him.

We continued handing out tracts and after Aaron finished his message, we sang several more hymns and handed out a few more tracts. Now, no one fell to their knees and cried out “God what must I do to be saved?” So was last night unsuccessful? No, not at all. When I first started street witnessing, I would come back home and mentally replay the encounters and try to determine if that night was a success or not. Thankfully, I’ve had several evangelistic friends over the years that have pointed out that only God saves through Jesus Christ our Lord. We can’t save a single person.

Jesus said, No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day (John 6:44). Only God saves sinners. In Luke 9:2 it says: And he (Jesus) sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick. Please notice that Jesus didn’t give them quotas. He didn’t say “each of you need to lead at least 20 people to repent and believe in Me before you come back.” No, He sent them out to heal the sick and to preach the Gospel. So was last night a success? I believe God considers that it was. The Gospel was faithfully proclaimed, our Lord and Savior received praise through the hymns that were sung and God’s truth went forth from the tracts that were handed out.

Jesus commanded us to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). To be successful in evangelism is to be faithful to our Lord. The faithful laborers from Aaron’s church are successful. They faithfully come out week after week and praise Jesus Christ by singing hymns in the open; they hand out tracts and get into one to one conversations.

Every time you hand out a tract, share your testimony and/or share the glorious Gospel with others; that is successful evangelism. Pray, study the Bible, and then go out and share the Good News with this lost and dying world. We must redeem the time because the days are evil. Share your faith in Jesus with others and leave the results up to God. Share the Gospel with others and do so for the glory of God.