 Okay, good morning everyone Welcome to another session lifestyle evangelism. Let's just begin the session with a word of prayer Can anyone of us please lead in prayer? Jafina Can you please lead us in prayer? Yes, Patrick Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you under the name of Jesus. We thank you for this beautiful day and for the Beautiful class that you're about to have Lord we welcome your presence Presence of the Holy Spirit to lead us as we listen to this class Give us an understanding heart and eyes that sees into the deepest secrets of your scriptures bless everyone who are listening to this and Let us all rise up and preach this God Gospel boldly so that people could be saved and we can make heaven crowded in Jesus name of pray Amen. Amen. Thank you. Jafina. Okay, so before we begin today's session This is quickly review what we did last week. We looked at chapter 7 and We drew insights from John chapter 4 the whole episode where Jesus meets with the Samaritan woman Jesus was pushes past the inhibitions That were there You know between the Jews and the Samaritans during that time and we saw that he was able to connect with her He was able to impact her life and then we see that there was a ripple effect So what she experienced she was able to go and minister to other people as well So that was a powerful, you know whole encounter and there's so much that we can learn from that and Before we start chapter 8 just wanted to ask did any one of us get an opportunity to Maybe minister to someone or share the gospel with anyone it could be through You know WhatsApp or even through message or even in person if you've been able to meet somebody Did anyone get a chance if you don't mind you would like to share here? It's alright even if it didn't work I can share go ahead Jafina Yes, so It's not like sharing the gospel, but a girl came to me and asked me so much about is Jesus the real God Because Jesus most of the time he said he needed the help of angels and He was praying to the father then how can we worship him as God and It was more like saving that girl from out of all the confusion I told her Jesus came as human being he didn't come as God He came as human being for us so that he can go through all the temptations and so that he can Get it all get all the struggles from us and give us happiness and that's what that's his ultimate plan was So I got this opportunity to make something clear to this Christian girl So that she don't lose the hope so that she don't move away from the truth and She can go more closer to God knowing that this is the truth That's nice. Thank you Jafina anyone else get got an opportunity. Yes. Go ahead Divya Yes, pastor not necessarily, you know sharing the gospel. Yeah, there was a Mother who came to our home just for a you know, play date with the kids So I could talk to her and got to know like she is from Cambodia and she is They practice Buddhism and all these things so in between our conversations I just tried to you know bring up like the church that we go or something Related to these things. So it's my prayer that ultimately at least by Christmas, you know, I'd be able to Invite her to the church that we attend. Yeah, so yeah Yeah, that's nice. Thank you Divya for sharing one of the things that you can do Divya is if she's a Known friend and you feel that you're gonna meet her every now and then Just read up a little bit about her faith. We said it was Buddhism So so just you know, just get a brief idea about what Buddhism is what they believe in You know, so when you you know if you can just read up so you have some kind of a you know Backdrop for you to even speak to her as well. So that's good. Now great that you got that opportunity To bring the gospel anyone else would like to share last person Anyone else, okay, okay, what's that go ahead? I've been trying to reach out to one brother You know, he is kind of kind of backslided and you know, I've been trying to catch up with him invite him to inviting inviting him to church and all but you know, every time he has an excuse But day before yesterday, I just felt that you know, I need to go to his house and minister to him and his family So like I just like I showed this to my pastor and my pastor and I we went and Minister to their family and you know, like I just feel that you know, like as we encourage The family with a word of God, you know, I believe something he's been done in the spread rooms They heard, you know, like they were all very receptive and You know, and I believe God will continue to work in their life and Looking forward because we have for like invited him and his family to the church this Sunday. Yeah, we'll continue to follow up with him That's nice. Thank you. What's up for sharing? Yes. So even as we go about, you know, evangelizing as God gives us these open doors, remember What's important is we need to also keep them in prayer because eventually More than our words more than what we are saying. It is the Holy Spirit that brings Conviction into people's heart. It's the Holy Spirit who will change their lives, right? So continue to keep them in prayer and continue to minister to people. All right, this Class we will look at chapter 8 on Understand and reason right on page 26 if you're following on the notes. So we're gonna look at this entire You know sequence that happened in Paul's second missionary journey, right? Now Paul has finished his possible Paul has finished his first missionary journey. He's come back to Jerusalem. He's all set And he's ready to go for his second missionary journey. Now the second missionary journey lasted for about three years It is said that the second missionary journey was the most impactful time in Paul's life because The most number of churches was planted. The second missionary journey has You know, wonderful wonderful events That happen is the example in in Athens in Greece and Corinth in Ephesus Even his small visit to Rome as well. So So we're gonna look at how Paul was able to You know Bring the gospel by understanding the other person's religion or religious beliefs and also how he was able to reason with the people During his second missionary journey. So In this missionary journey Paul went into Asia Minor. He went into Europe and he visited some of the most Influential cities in the world including Philippi Thessalonica Athens Corinth Ephesus all of Asia Minor and then Also going into Europe now in today's class We're going to look at the episode that happened in Athens, right? Now, let's do a little bit of a background right As to what was the condition? Or what was the moral beliefs? What was happening during the time? The great apostle Paul went there to minister to people right as we all know Athens is the capital of modern Greece and Athens even now is considered Uh, the intellectual capital of the world got You know, the the greatest minds came out of Athens This whole city was was named after this Greek god goddess named Athena and Being one of the oldest cities in the world. It was Constantly inhabited with people. So there was always people coming in People moving out people coming in and going out. So Some of the great philosophers Socrates Plato Aristotle came out from Athens now if if you're You know, aware of a little bit of history. These were the brightest minds you know Aristotle Plato and Demosthenes, they were all intellectual people with high understanding right They would you know, Athens was considered a place of learning place of science a place of philosophy And so the you know, it is said that If you're an Athens, you're considered you're already considered as a You know a learned person It is also said that during those times in Athens, there were very few people who were illiterate meaning not learned even the people in the marketplaces were had an idea about you know, religion and Philosophies and god and arts and said even the working class professionals, right? So So Athens was filled with this kind of philosophy Now during this time There were two kinds of Philosophies that were running around One was called the Epicurean and the other was called Stoicism, right? And you can see that in the in in the book of Acts also They mentioned the word Epicurean and the stoic believers, right now. What are these two belief systems the Epicurean is Followed by the teachings of a person named Epicurus. Now what he did was what he believed was everything happened by chance right and Death is the end of all and all that who all of them who believed in gods were And gods were remote from this world. They didn't care about us. They they had no relationship with us and The end of life the chief end of life is the pleasures of this world Right, so that's what epicureans believed in And then there was the contemporary of epicureans called stoics now the stoics was This whole belief system was started by a man named Zeno and They believed in something very different to the epicureans. They believed that Uh, everything was god and god was like a fiery spirit So when god created us, there was you know, this fire of the spirit of uh inside us Remains in us and so when we die That little spark or that fire goes back and reunites with the god of the universe But they also believe that uh, you know, they will come there were there are times when the world will disintegrate And it will come back to form again Right now all of these philosophies were man-made yet These were man-made by men who were highly intellectual Right, so these were the two beliefs. You've got the epicureans And you got the stoics a learned place intellectuals Paul The apostle is ready to go into this place To minister the gospel of jesus christ Now here's the best part, you know The the bible does not say that You know Apostle paul was afraid or he was you know doing some studies and trying to find out the bible doesn't teach anything about it he knew That he's going into a place Where they're going to be learned people And there could be persecutions ahead. He knew right where he was. He knew Uh, the things that is going to happen ahead of him, right? So paul sent a message to Silas and timothy who joined him into this second missionary journey now We got a background of the people In in Athens Another aspect that we can also understand is since they believed in different kinds of gods There were gods and goddesses everywhere across the country of Greece especially in Athens Because it is said that if any of these intellectuals would see a star And they've somewhere in the heart. They feel okay. That could be the star Which god is sending a message to us Right, so it becomes a whole new philosophy A whole new kind of a teaching Right and people would grasp it people would accept those kind of teachings because these are intellectual people Right, it is said that you know in Athens It was more easy to find gods than people meaning there were more statues and more temples around in Athens than people And so it was Oh, it was a it was a place of idol worship It was a place of immorality. It was a place of sexual immorality Life was just you know, even though they were very intellectual. They were living a morally Defiled life right So Paul goes in and what does he do? He gets he engaged with people in the city Right, he reasoned with the jews in the synagogue. So first he went he went to the synagogue He began to reason with the jews. You said, okay jews You should know that the we are mating for the messiah He began to proclaim the gospel to them And then he went to the gentile worshipers in the marketplace now The marketplace is called the agora during the times of Athens Now if you've seen a few pictures, you can see a few of them It is it is an open space, right? And right at the center you have like a small kind of a stage right elevated platform and people could come there and Speak whatever they wanted to right and so on the all throughout around this small elevated place would be Would be like a marketplace people would be selling things selling, you know household items or you know Cloth and Business and all these things were happening around And so if anyone had any intellectual idea they would come there and start speaking so anybody could do that something like Speaker's corner that's in the uk Where you know anybody can go there and speak anything they'd like to so paul goes there And he begins to Speak the gospel of jesus christ Right people people came and they listened to it Uh, this was a place where political ideas are shared You know Religious ideas are shared Uh, and so people began to listen. What is this man talking about? Now we've heard the the epicureans may have thought okay We heard that there is a god, but he's not here. He's just fire But what is this man talking about god came in the form of flesh? So they all were listening to this man apostle paul And probably the stoics came and they said okay, we've we know that there's a god. We know that death is the end But This is something new We don't know about forgiveness of sins. We haven't heard of this Somebody dying on the cross for the forgiveness of sins. It's an offense you know It is actually the the the persecution was founded by the By the persians and you know, the persians founded the whole thing of crucifix crucifying crucifying people And then the romans mastered the art so the roman greco culture the greeks knew what you know Why would someone be crucified? They knew that okay only murderers and you know People who have not abided by the law will be crucified Now here comes paul And he's telling them hey There was a man named jesus. He came he's sharing the gospel. He's talking about how jesus died and he took up our sins And so the stoics and the epicureans these two belief systems that were contemporary They said okay paul you're out of your mind. Who are you? Who are you? Why are you come here? You're out of your mind What you're talking is not making sense at all All right, now Listen to paul you may be learned, but we are much more learned because we are in You know, we have probably studied in the academy of playtoe and We know all these things. We we see the stars. We know the signs. We do Study on science the paul Mr paul you don't know anything of all of that You're talking about a man who came into this world took up our sins died on the cross and rose again And and when we believe in him we have forgiveness of sins. It does not make sense What are you talking about? And so after all of this they said okay, we'll do this You come to the main center You know and you preach this whole thing you're talking about It sounds like a new study. It sounds like a new philosophy. You come you come to this place uh, this place is called the uh, aeropagus now the aeropagus is the is like a city council. So For example, uh, if somebody has Legal problems, right? It's a place of court, right? They would meet there judicial system educational Ideas educational policies cultural policies religious matters Everything is being discussed in this place called the aeropagus. It's also called the mars hill, right now They said paul You're talking something which is very new to us. We haven't heard of this You come to mars hill to aeropagus We're going to call all our leaders the stoic leaders the epicurean leaders our religious leaders now since this is a religious matter We're going to call all of them And we will listen to what you have to say And so paul comes there Right at the at the given time And acts chapter 17 22 and 31 Apostle paul delivers this amazing amazing sermon Called the sermon on the mars hill He begins to preach the gospel of jesus christ He begins to he starts off by saying I see that your people Are god fearing people Everywhere I go. I see there are temples I also see an inscription saying to an unknown god So He begins to preach this whole gospel And towards the end after he finishes There were some of the leaders and the epicurean and the stoics religious leaders They said hey, we want to hear more of this While others said You're not you're not making sense at all. It doesn't make sense They just you know pushed him away and went on with their work But they had to said we want to understand more and we want to You know believe in what you're saying we need to understand more So we see here that paul did not only go to You know places like like example galatia where they were not very too intellectual You know iconium listra derby the churches in galatia They were not very intellectual So paul was able to minister to both the unintellectual The the poor the sick the the You know the just the regular working class people and here paul was also able to minister to the highly intellectual people Right now, uh, let's quickly To put this into context all that I've shared let's read ax chapter 17 22 to 31 can one of us please read that ax 17 22 to 31 So paul stood in the midst of aria peckerson said Men of Athens I observe that You are very religious in all aspects For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship I also found an altar with this inscription to an unknown god Therefore what you worship in ignorance this I proclaimed to you the god Who made the world and all things in it since he is lord of heaven and earth Does not dwell in temples made with hands Nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything Since he himself gives to all people life and breath and all things and he made from one man Every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth Having determined their appointed times and boundaries for the habitation That they would seek god if perhaps they might grow For him and find him Though he is not far from each one of us for in him will live and move and exist And even some of your children some of your own poets have said For we also are his children Being then the children of god We ought to not we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone An image formed by an art and thought of man Okay, thank you john. Thank you for reading that right. So we're going to pick up we see here apostle paul so brilliantly Uh, you know brings in this whole Um aspect of the gospel now. Let's pick up a few points first one Without condemning Paul appreciates their inclination towards god Right. So what does he say he says I see that you are very religious right Now the mistake that we may make sometimes is I see that you're very religious, but you're the problem is you're worshiping a wrong god right Sometimes we may end up saying that we may end up condemning others but paul didn't do that But he didn't say your your your intellectual has intellectual Thoughts are all wrong and you don't even know what you're doing. You know, he didn't condemn them But he appreciated them. He said first. Hey, I see that You are all are religious right Looks like you are searching for something you're searching for a god Right and so paul was able to recognize Where people were in their spiritual quest meaning he said, okay This never happened in galatia in this first missionary journey This never happened in the places that he ministered to before but here he's seeing that he people are Searching for something they're searching for a god And so paul uses that as a background and he says you are very religious Right, he does not bring condemnation, but he says he tells them you're very religious. That's a good thing You're searching for a god. That's a good thing Right. So firstly, even as we evangelize See where they are in their spiritual walk Either they may be, uh, you know, atheists. They may be agnostic They may be people who have a lot of questions. They may be christians who have turned from the faith They may be people who have, uh, you know come to know the lord, but you know, they don't really understand I know of many christians who just You know have lived their whole life being christians, but they still don't get the concept of trinity They still it's too confusing for them Right So get to know people Right get to know where they are standing No, so for christian or or somebody comes and shares with you. Hey, uh, how can You know trinity god be three gods, right? Now the first thing we shouldn't say is hey, oh, you should understand these things No, you've been a christian for so long or uh, no, this is the basics of christianity. No So first thing you can do is appreciate them Right appreciating what what they are. See you're not appreciating what they believe in But you're appreciating the person that you're ministering to Right. So paul is not apostle paul is not appreciating their belief system But he's appreciating the people for the search for their search for god Right. So people like, you know ask you questions Uh appreciate them Hey, that's a good question. Uh, you know, uh, or if they say, you know, uh, they're asking you questions about How can jesus be a god and man? You know, you appreciate them. You say, hey, uh, yes, that's a good question And uh, you know, even I had been thinking about this. So even when I was not a believer You know, and these are the things that helped me and I'm sure you know So what you're doing is you're appreciating them as a person I'm the question that they ask and and you're honoring Their question, right? So first thing do not condemn right Apostle paul could have you know, he had the power of the holy spirit. He had the anointing of god upon him Yet he humbled himself Right the mistake that we may make sometimes is and I've seen it in a lot of especially pastors and leaders around Not to condemn them, but I've seen that, you know, they've anointed and strong and you know powerful in the world But when in certain things they bring condemnation upon people or other religions And so that is why even though we are filled with the holy spirit We are to learn how to minister to people Right appreciate them secondly He addresses one of their ignorance, right meaning He uses something that They can relate to right Word chapter 17 verse 23 says I see that everywhere you have gods and one of your gods even said to an unknown god So now apostle paul is using that That whole statue that he saw Right. He's he's using that as a base. Listen, you're searching for god. That's great To you also searched so much that you've also put an inscription saying to an unknown god a god that you don't even know so he's Using their own You know gods to bring forth the gospel. He's trying to relate to something He's using that inscription that god that statue that he saw as a starting point to bring the gospel Right. He used it as a backdrop Listen, you're searching for an unknown god. I will tell you who that unknown god is God has revealed it to us And probably the heroes was like, okay we've had this You know this statue here for over maybe 100 years now And to an unknown god and now this person comes And he's talking about some, you know, man who came into this world And he's saying i'm going to reveal Who this unknown i'm going to share about this unknown god. And so immediately He catches their attention immediately Right. So even we as we even evangelize with people Use a starting point Use something that they can relate to One of the most Convenient things I believe in sharing to a muslim Right, just an example to a muslim is that you can start off by You know talking about Abraham. You got Isaac. You got moses You can start off there because they believe in the Pentateuch the five the first five books So you got Something to start with something to relate with them with Remember this one time I was with a friend and We were talking he was a muslim and Now I know all about their feast Bakrid right where they slaughtered the lamb I knew it but So while we were talking I said hey, what is this bakrid? Why are there so many sheep around? What do they do? He said paul you should know you're a christian you should know. I said no, I'm not really sure. Can you tell me? And so he was he's a fervent muslim and so he knew it in and out Right. He's quoted chapter and verse and all of it And then after that whole thing he you know, he began to explain the whole thing And so Abraham took Ishmael up the mountain and he sacrificed him and god You know instead of sacrificing him there was a there was a ram stuck in its horns In the in the thorns and he took that and he sacrificed it to god And so we celebrate that by cutting a sheep. I said that's wonderful And so I asked him so What is it that you learned from that whole thing? How do we apply it in our lives? So he said I don't know how do we apply it in our lives? I said no because everything I mean even the Quran or even the bible If you're just reading it, it just becomes a storybook. Um, it's something that we did in school read it It becomes a storybook. How do we apply these things into our life? What you've said, you know, you're a fervent muslim How will you apply it into your life? What did you learn from this? So he said, you know, god can send anyone Sacrifice our lives are very is very important. The moment he said sacrifice I was able to slowly bring in the gospel it all started off with one question What is bakrid? Right. So I was there will be times when we can relate to people Uh, and so even in if you're speaking to Let me maybe a Jehovah's witness Right now they know about Jesus. They know, uh, about the you know, the The word of god, uh, and they know the whole aspects of Jehovah in the old testament And so again, you've got something that you can relate to Right if you're talking to a person who's an atheist doesn't even believe in god You know, we came out of nothing Uh, so again, we need to find some point That a point of reference for us to bring forth the gospel Now it may be difficult at times you may say, you know, Paul you've tried it before But for us, we don't have a starting point. No god will you know, even as we pray the holy spirit will bring something Into remembrance, you know, that's the work of the holy spirit. He brings to remembrance He gives us the wisdom to ask the right questions Right. One of the gifts of the spirit is the word of wisdom So we need to rely even as we you know, use all these relatable points rely on the holy spirit Thirdly, he he was able to Let them know that, you know, he's made an effort to learn something about their religion Right in verse 17 verse 28. He says some of your own poets have said For we are also his offspring. So what is paul doing here? Brilliant move Uh brilliant step that paul has taken. He said I've read what you guys study about. I've read about your belief system Right, your own poets have said That we are his offspring. So I'm not quoting something from my bible of my scriptures from the old testament I'm not quoting something from the jewish calendars. I'm not quoting anything from, you know, uh, our jewish You know studies that I studied in now. I am quoting something that you all have written Your own poets have said we are Also his offspring. So what what is him? What is interesting here is paul help them know That hey, he's not just randomly coming and speaking something here. He's done his work. He's done his studies He's gone. He's read about us. He's made an effort to understand our religion He's not just coming and mocking other religions and going Right. So this is a very very very important point Right. Now, for example, if we want we have a friend who's an atheist I don't just go To them the mistake to do is to go to them and say, hey, you know what? It's so foolish. How can something come out of nothing and it doesn't make sense How can there be no god? You don't know what you're talking about Now that will be condemning the person But the right thing to do is to go back And to study something about atheism get a brief idea get an understanding. Yes, that's the effort that we need to take Right. Uh, Divya was sharing early in the class how She was able to share about To a buddhist and the first thing I mentioned was go back and study a little bit about buddhism because it's going to you know Imagine you're speaking to a buddhist and you say, hey, who's the founder of buddhism and And and if you don't know anything This person who's listening to you say, hey, you only know about what you're talking about. Why don't you also study this? I study about buddhism And so I'm just taking this as an example Uh, so we need to be well prepared right There are times when you know, I've got the opportunity to share with the Jehovah's Witness and I was like I had no idea what I mean I had a little bit of an idea but I realized that hey, I'm not able to share effectively because I don't know their belief systems I don't know what they Believe in what they don't believe in so I didn't have a starting point I didn't have something that I could you know really hold on to and you know bring the gospel and So very important Let them know Right that you have you know read the They have their religious books. It's all right now You know one person came up to me a young man and he said Uh, you know pastor if I read the Quran Won't the devil come and attack me because I'm reading the word of God and no Nothing's gonna happen. All right. Don't be afraid We are here. We know our identity in Christ. We know that the word of God is truth the only reason we are You know reading this and studying this itch so that you know, we we can hold our you know The whole thing of apologetics we will Be more effective in that Right, even as we go on as you go on to the third year You will be also learning world religions and contemporary cults. And so that will be another asset for you to learn and evangelize even stronger. So So here's the thing make an effort Right to learn about the other person's religion Um If for example, you there's a Sikh and you want to minister to him go back Study about it. Just read it. And as he studied don't you don't have to do like one, you know, uh 10 days study or not Just look at make points, you know, look at what the belief system is Uh, just pick up from there Right Make an effort now after this He Bossel Paul Brings in that amazing move where he brings in the gospel and he says this who you are searching for To an unknown god i'm revealing it to you. It's not made by human hands And god does not need human hands to live in he does not need a temple To live in god is above time above space above matter He brings in the gospel talking about repentance judgment Jesus the resurrection of the dead and and so powerfully he shares the gospel there Right he we see that god he was not only able to recognize He could relate to some things that they were belief system He was able to you know, uh, let them know that he's made an effort to share the gospel Finally he brings in the gospel And it's so powerful when we look at the outcome Some of them mocked Right So it's okay if people mock you It's okay It's happened. It's happened during jesus' time. It happened during apostle paul's time It'll happen when you do it. It'll happen 10 years late from now. It will happen till the end of time The gospel is an offense to people To some of them it's an offense, but it is the power of god Up to salvation. So what happened some mocked at them This is you know nonsense. It doesn't make sense at all But some of them wanted to share more And some of them believed in that gospel right amazing people in the council people who were leaders in the Aeropagus council Accepted the gospel of jesus christ Can you picture that? Right all is there. He meets with them These religious minds who may have been studying stoicism or epicurean study philosophies for maybe about 20 years 30 years These men who are sitting in the council hear the gospel for the first time And they accept jesus as a personal savior Right, one of them was daronesius and another one aeropagate Highly religious and intellectual people All established a church in their midst What a powerful work What a powerful work He went in alone He went in he brought the gospel in front of all these people Some of them mocked But some of them highly intellectual people believed the gospel and a church was planted in Athens at that time How do we know that later on there was a community of believers in Athens? picture this A city Just thriving with intellectualism All kinds of gods All kinds of temples And all of a sudden you've got these few believers meeting together Maybe in somebody's house And these believers are impacting the city of Athens Later on we we see that there's no account of what happened to the church in Athens I'm sure there would have been a growth. I'm sure that you know The church would have you know established itself there The pole moves on to Corinth from there about 55 miles from Athens And we have a record of what happens in Corinth Right just 55 miles We see that Paul ministered to them same thing ministered in power Planted a local church in Corinth We know the church in Corinth was a church that was filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. They were gifted In speaking in tongues. They were gifted in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They were flowing in those gifts A powerful church In the heart of the city of Greece So what are we what are we trying to learn here? God can use us Even for the intellectuals right Here are some additional insights of how Paul ministered He he was able to do all of these above things that we studied understand reason But here's the thing his reasoning alone did not do the work His complete dependence on the work of the Holy Spirit Was what did the work? I'm sure apostle Paul, you know may have gone back the previous night and said okay tomorrow I'm going to go speak in front of these people and Mars Hill And so he's going back and maybe he did a little bit of a study or Just putting it for maybe what he did Right, maybe he did a little bit of a study and then what he would have done He would have spent the whole night praying and seeking God And in the morning You know they would have As he would have gone to this place the power of the Holy Spirit Would have worked in their lives. That is why I always say this your personal life Will reflect your public ministry Right If you want a public ministry to be fruitful We have to look at our personal life our personal walk with God Right and Paul did that he would have you know imagine, you know history says that Paul was a short bald man Not very good-looking And with all his bruises and hurts Many times he was beaten his face was just the girl he had bruises on his body Yet they came to listen to this man intellectual Highly intellectual people came to listen to him And they accepted not what not because of Paul Not because of the way he spoke, but they accepted because of the anointing that flowed that flowed Through Paul to the people outside Right, so remember it is the Holy Spirit. It is the anointing of God That will touch other people's lives So we need to balance it Right, we need to prepare ourselves in the natural Right be able to you know reason understand appreciate share But all of that is done Out of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. You can't say I'm anointed of God and not know what to speak Right, or you can't say I know everything here But not be anointed of God I'd say you got to blend these two together Right, so some of you shared that you all are inviting people to church You know sharing the gospel with people That's good Sit and pray for them ask God to minister to them ask God to put the right words in your mouth Ask God to make their heart ready to receive the word of God And that the seed of God's word will do something in their lives Another important point do not get into arguments Right, of course Debating is okay right to a certain can debate them right And you'll learn more on that in apologetics But don't get into arguments Right Don't get into arguments The moment you feel a conversation is getting into arguments Stand back Just walk out that is wisdom Right Sometimes we don't have to prove yourself right I think we should come to this place and say Even if we have proven wrong, it's all right Right, the message is of the gospel is faith in Jesus Christ Sometimes we can't prove everything Sometimes we don't have the answer to everything Right, so it's all right So now let's bring all of this into context If we are talking to a Hindu if you're talking to an agnostic How will we bring this gospel in? Right for a let's just look at a few examples If you look at the pantheistic worldview Right meaning You know, there's there's evil There's sin. There's suffering There's karma. There's reincarnation and all of this And so how can we bring in the gospel through that? Right, so say okay, you know that is sin That is suffering that is evil in this world. That is just that is, you know When you're talking about karma, what do you feel about it? And so you're bringing in the gospel now You know, it may be easy to share in a classroom. Maybe some of us are thinking, okay It's easy to talk about this in the classroom But you know, what about when people are there, you know, and they ask questions How do I answer them or what if I don't say the right things? Yes, it's you know, it is easy to speak about it in the classroom But in reality It may be different But that's okay. We are to you know, continue to do this continue to you know, minister to people whether they are comfortable meaning comfortable in the sense that whether they Want to hear it sometimes they don't want to hear it and step back But but this is the call of God on our lives Right. It is something that we are called to do And and so God will give us You know, one of the important things that we can do is bring about christ uniqueness Every religion went searching, you know, there's a search And it and that search ends in That, you know being unfulfilled Or you can talk about the Man Jesus Christ Right, you know people say, you know, Jesus was not even a person It was it's just a whole ideology So remember this one man here one person that I was talking to a young man He was saying there's no such thing that Jesus was not not You know was not God. He was not even there during the times So I remember going back and I To printouts this has come a couple of years back and I The printouts was about the you know, the whole genealogy of Jesus and that Showed that there was forget about Jesus being God But there was a man who lived in Jerusalem was born In you know, and and he did these works who was crucified. There was a man. It is history. It's proven Right, so there will be many things that we will have to do But even as we do all this let it be through the anointing of the Holy Spirit And we all are studying Different subjects right now in our course It's good. It's wonderful that we learn all of this. Now. Let me give you this example I close with this When I was in bible college you know We finished our first term first semester and I got my answer papers on faith right I'll ever forget this 2000 I think it was 2011 or 12 I got my answer paper on faith and I had got 99 out of 100 like I was so happy. Oh man 99 out of 100 and faith You know, I was so excited. I said wow Uh, and so a couple of days later. We all are students, you know our classmates We plan to go and do some evangelism in their hometown. So we we went to Andhra Pradesh and we were ministering there I think I've shared this before but And as we were ministering there I was full of you know, I thought okay, man We are going to do some great evangelism here We went into this small town in Andhra Pradesh and we went into this church Some of the pastors who invited us I was probably 24 years old I I delivered a powerful sermon After the sermon A man who was blind came in front of me and said pray that I can see At that moment the Holy Spirit reminded me of my faith answer sheet Which was 99 on 100 Which I'm so proud of but then In reality, I gave myself a big zero As I said, I don't know if this guy can get eyes. How can he get eyes? He didn't have eyeballs I thought to myself, hey I thank God for that whole event that happened because I realized that hey It's not only about studying and getting 99 on 100 or all of that I paper on paper. It's good But if I don't put it into practice in my life It's a waste And I thank God I realized that And I began to pray and I began to seek God So it was now I'm not saying don't do well in your exams All right do well in your exams prepare well study well But put it into your life put it into practice All that we study and that's when you know this life of living the life in the ministry will become even more meaningful Right I love God to work in us. I love God to minister in and through us. Now. We're learning about lifestyle evangelism Put it into practice. You're learning about other subjects Put it into practice Right study it read it See where you can improve if you're studying on home illics and All these other hermeneutics and all these subjects put it into practice That you may use it and glorify God in your life amen Amen, sorry. I've taken Five minutes extra Let's just any questions any thoughts anyone or we can close in prayer Right Divya. I see your question. Can you suggest a good book to study about? How the world is okay? Yes, there are a couple of books. There's Jesus among other gods Among other gods by Ravi's a cry is Uh and and so you can start off with this. It's a good book. He talks about how the uniqueness of Jesus And and then he also talks about There's another book called Jesus talks to Buddha I don't know if that book is available, but you can look at it But you can start off with this book gives a good understanding initially, so Right any questions any thoughts? Shall we close? I hope this class is making sense And you know impacting each one of us Is it okay? Is it too much? information or Is it okay? Okay Okay, thank you. All right, let's close in prayer. John. If you don't mind, can you please close in prayer? Father we Thank you for the lessons that we learned today We pray your god that you would be able to Put these things to practice and help all of us to Really depend on you even as we learn all these subjects a lot jesus and pray for possible to Um continue to bless him. Thank you for his life and thank you for all the testimonies that you've been listening and be being encouraged or god We thank you for this time bless each one of us In jesus precious name we pray Amen. Amen. Thank you. John. Thank you everyone. Have a wonderful week ahead. God bless you all