 Well, here we are again, our last session, and it's been a real blessing to teach this class and to just to pray for each one of you and pray that what God has for us, because I know that each one of you, God, is going to use you as you take these things that you've learned and use them, you know, whether it's a coworker, a friend, a neighbor, a relative, or maybe you don't have any Muslim friends right now, but God's going to bring them to you. If you have an open heart and if you begin to pray, I guarantee when you pray, God listens and when you pray, God answers. But the key is we must ask Him. Just ask and say, Lord, put Muslims in my path and God will do it. And that's where it starts. You know, if we have an open heart, God wants to meet that. And so, so here we are, session seven and we're going to be doing, communicating the gospel and we're going to start off here today with the scripture that I have here at the top of the page. By the way, the outfit I am wearing is from Morocco. And the last week I wore a Jalava, which is something traditional to the Moroccan men. This one is, as you can see, worn especially in the summertime because it's short sleeve, but it's especially used by the Tuareg Berbers in the Sahara Desert of Morocco. So this is a type of the color and the decoration and the kind of outfit they wear. So I just thought I could wear this today and something different. So here we go. 1 Corinthians 1.18, for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. We have to keep this in mind as we are sharing the gospel with Muslims that the message that we proclaim is foolishness. It is something that the enemy has blinded their minds and the message of the cross, it's something that the unbeliever sees as foolish. Why would God come down and become a man? Why would he go to the cross? It makes no sense. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. And so we have been called by God not to change the message, but to take the message and communicate it to the Muslim people in the best way possible. So the first thing that we're going to look at today is obtaining salvation. So keep in mind, there's several things I want you to keep in mind. Number one, keep in mind that the Muslims don't believe that God loves sinners. Allah hates sinners and unbelievers. He only loves those who do good. Whereas in Christianity, God hates sin and has holy anger towards sinners, yet he loves them exceedingly. So much so that he gave himself to save them. Now first of all, let's look at some verses in the Quran. Surah 2 verse 190. Fight in the cause of Allah, those who fight you, but do not transgress limits. For Allah loveth not transgressors. And Surah 3 verses 31 through 32. Say O Muhammad to mankind, if you love Allah, follow me. Allah will love you and forgive you your sins. Allah is forgiving, merciful. Say, obey Allah and the messenger. But if they turn away, lo, Allah loveth not the disbelievers in His guidance. So there Allah says He will love not those who are unbelievers or disbelievers. But we know what the Bible says in John 3.16, for God so loved the world, the world, the entire world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. It was the love of God that caused Him to come and to die on the cross. And look at what Romans 5.8 says. I wrote it down here for us, but God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. See, Christ didn't die for His friends. He died for sinners. While we were enemies of God, He died for us. And that's how God demonstrated His love towards us. And in the Bible, we have several scriptures where God declares the problem to be spiritual. And I gave you several scriptures here, Jeremiah 4.4, Romans 1.18, James 4.4, where God says to us that the issue that God has is our sin. It is sin that He hates. And it is the sin within us that needs to be forsaken and repented of. But it's that sin that blocks and separates us from God. Listen to what Donald Barnhouse said. The Bible does not teach that there is no good in man, but it teaches that there is no good in man that can satisfy God. You see, you may run across somebody that says, well, wait a minute. You say there is none good, no, not one, but I know many good people. They do a lot of good things. And a Muslim may say the same thing. They do good things. And it's true. They can give to the poor. They can help the needy. They can build hospitals. They can do a lot of good things. You cannot negate it and say it's bad. But see, the Bible says, and this is where he hits it right on the head, it's not that man can do no good. It's that the good that man does is not acceptable to God. And it does not grant him entrance into God's presence. We need Jesus Christ. You see? And that's the key. The second thing that we need to keep in mind in ministering to Muslims is that they don't believe they are born in sin. That is so important. Nor that they are born separated from God because of their sin. In Romans 5.12, it says this, and in Romans 3.23, the Bible says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So the moment we are conceived, the Bible says we are sinners and we need a Savior. But as a Muslim, remember, they do not believe in original sin that a person is separated from God. They simply believe that you are born innocent and you come into this world and over time you begin to deviate from the way. And so every person, remember, every person is born a Muslim, don't forget that. They believe that you were a Muslim, but you have simply deviated from the right path and you need to be brought back to Islam, okay? The Bible teaches opposite. Thirdly, we need to keep in mind that the Muslims believe in judgment day, that on judgment day everyone will be judged by scales. So they believe there's going to be scales. The good deeds versus the bad deeds. In other words, they will gain entrance into heaven by their own efforts, by what they themselves did on earth. It is a reward earned, not a free gift that is unearned or undeserved. What's the difference between something you earn, a reward is something you did. You worked for it and you earn it. A gift, you did nothing to deserve it or earn it. It's free. It's grace. That is the difference. In the mind of many Muslims, this is important. For eternal life to be a free gift is too good to be true. I've talked to Muslims where they say that's too good to be true, that God would give us a free gift of eternal life, that I have to do nothing to get it. Yes, nothing. Christ did it all for us. What you need to do is put your faith in God. And I heard a very great description of what is faith. Faith is the hand of the heart. Have you ever heard that? No. It is the hand of the heart. Just simply receive. Because all a person does is receive. But if they don't receive, they have not accepted it and received it. But faith is the hand of the heart. And so it says, in Surah, in the Quran, Surah 23 verses 101 through 104, then when the trumpet is blown, there will be no more relationships between them that day. Nor will one ask after another. Even those whose balance of good deeds is heavy, meaning they have more good deeds, they will attain salvation. But those whose balance is light will be those who have lost their souls. In hell will they abide. The fire will burn their faces and they will therein grin with their lips displaced. So the idea, obviously, if you have more good deeds on Judgment Day, you will enter into paradise. And even then, the Quran says, whom God wills, it depends on God. If he wants to, you will go to heaven. If he doesn't, you will go to hell. There is no assurance, there's no guarantee. There's no consistency in the nature of the God of Islam. But the Bible says in Romans 6, 23, for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's so simple. Romans 6, 23, it summarizes the Gospel. What did you do? You worked. You worked for what? You worked for death. What you deserve and what I deserve is death because we worked for it. We earned it. But eternal life is a free gift. You did nothing to deserve it. You and I should burn in hell. But God has given us a free gift, completely grace, completely grace. I did nothing to deserve it. And what does that do as a response in my heart? I want to serve Him for all of my life. I want to love Him. I want to give Him my all. But see, we have to understand the greatness of our sin and of what I deserve so that I will understand the amazing grace. See, amazing grace is only amazing if I understand how great is my sin and how great it cost God. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, we know this, for by grace you have been saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So we can tell our Muslim friend, you see, if God is going to judge you according to your works, there will always be somebody better than you and there will always be somebody beneath you. And each person can boast before the other and say, well, I did more than him. I did more than him. And somebody did more than you. You see, but on that day when we stand before God, no one will get the glory. And nobody can boast. We will all boast in the Lord, because we'll say he did it. It's all of Jesus. And that's what God wants. It's everything to His glory. So we need to understand that, that they believe they will be judged by their works. But grace or rather salvation is a free gift. Don't forget that. We need to communicate that to them. And these are scriptures to help us communicate that. Fourthly, they don't believe that God made provision for their redemption through the blood sacrifice of Christ on the cross. But that they themselves, through their good works, righteous deeds, can satisfy God and obtain salvation. In fact, their good works can erase their bad ones. In Surah 2 verse 271, it says, if ye disclose, or in other words, if you do charity, even so it is well. But if you conceal them and make them reach those really in need, that is best for you. In other words, you do the good deeds without telling anyone or doing it secretly. It will remove from you some of your stains of evil. And it says some of your stains. So I have to ask the question, well, which ones and how many? So we don't know. It's just left for us like that. Some of your stains of evil. And Allah is well acquainted with what you do. He's well acquainted with what you do, but I don't know what He's going to remove. The Bible says in Isaiah 646, on the other hand, but we are all like an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. Remember when Jesus came before John the Baptist, and in John 129, John the Baptist said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. John the Baptist was pointing to the Messiah that he was God's Lamb. You see, remember how we went through the principle of the blood sacrifice, the scarlet threat of redemption, all through history. Sacrifices had been made. Lamb's had been given. The people's ram, the people's lamb. But now he says the Lamb of God. As if God said, now it's my turn to provide the sacrifice once for all time, to close the book, to finish redemption. It's awesome, and Jesus is the Lamb of God. And then in 2 Corinthians 521, he says this. For he made him, Jesus, who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So we can do nothing for our redemption, but God did it. He made provision, but as a Muslim, God did nothing to provide my redemption. Fifthly, they don't believe that they can have assurance of salvation in this lifetime. My question is, would God want his children, Muslims wouldn't say children. They would say his servants or believers. So if you were to ask them, you would say, let me ask you. Would God want his own servants to live their entire life without any hope and joyful expectation of spending eternity in heaven with God? Are you telling me that as a Muslim, Allah wants you to live your whole life without ever knowing when you die if you will enter into heaven or not? You have no idea. If you did enough, or you're lacking. You don't know. How can you live with hope? How can you live with joy in serving God? See, me as a Christian, I am not telling you as I'm not being proud because actually Muslims have told me, well, you're being proud by saying you're going to heaven. You know. God guarantee yes, because God's word has given me a promise. See, God has promised us in his word. He who believes in me has everlasting life. You see, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. God has given us his word. And if I don't take God at his word, then I make him a liar. You see, I believe God is true. Don't you, my friend, want to know that you will spend eternity with God? God's word tells us that. So look at this in Surah 14 verse 4. And we never sent a messenger saved with the language of his folk. In other words, Allah is saying we never sent any of the messengers, Moses, Abraham, David, without sending them in their own language. That he might make the message clear for them. Then Allah sendeth whom he will astray and guideeth whom he will. He is the mighty, the wise. Look at what it says. Allah, if he wants, he will cause people to go astray, whom he wills. It may be you, it may be you. He will make you go astray and whom he wills, he will guide. So it's all up to him. He is deceiving. Now listen to this. And I'm going to read to you that Muhammad himself had no security of going to heaven. This is from the hadith. And I'm going to read this reference. It's in this book here, Unveiling Islam. Very good book. I think I mentioned it before. Courage you to, you can order it. But this is in the hadith. And the reference is volume 5, 266. Muhammad said this. By Allah, though I am the apostle of Allah, yet I do not know what Allah will do to me. Can you imagine? The seal of all the prophets. The best messenger, the final messenger. The one on whom all of Islam rests. When he died, before he died, he said, I do not know what Allah will do to me. I do not know. I have no clue. And so the Muslim has no assurance. But Jesus says this in John 5, 24. Most assuredly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has everlasting life. It's a promise. And shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Beautiful. 1st John 5, 13. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. Notice, Son of God, we must believe that Jesus is the Son of God. That you may know that you have eternal life. And that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. You see, the scripture gives us an assurance that you may know, be certain that you have eternal life. Next, 6th, remember the Muslims believe in a heaven and in a hell. Okay. 7th, keep in mind the Muslim people are God conscious. They sincerely want to please God by doing what has been taught to them in the Quran. And this is one of those things that makes it easy in a way to talk to a Muslim. Because you're not talking with somebody that they don't believe in God. They don't believe in holy books. They don't believe in messengers. They don't believe that God speaks. They don't believe in miracles. They may not believe in Jesus or they just, that doesn't mean anything to me. When you're talking to a Muslim, they believe in God, a God. They believe in the messengers. They believe in the prophets. They believe in Jesus. All of these things, they believe in heaven, hell, all of these things. And they are a God conscious people. So they are open to talk about spiritual things. And this is a verse in the Quran that you may want to write this down, jot it down. That is something for us to know. And you may want to keep in mind or write it down or make a note of it when you are talking with a Muslim. But it points the Muslim to the Bible. And we may have gone over this before but Surah 10 verse 94. Surah 10 verse 94. So remember what we said. The Muslim, remember they, when they come to the Quran, they sincerely want to follow it. But look at what Surah 10 verse 94 says. If you are in any doubt, remember now this is Allah speaking to Muhammad and the Muslim people. If you are in any doubt concerning what we have sent down to you, that's an interesting one too. Why does Allah say we? I don't know. They have different ideas. Because they don't believe in the Trinity. Remember Allah is one. But he says we. If you are in any doubt concerning what we have sent down to you, then question those who have read the book before you. The truth has come to you from your Lord so do not be one of the doubters. So the Muslim is told that you can validate this, the Quran, by going to us, the people of the book. Because we received the book which is the Torah, the Zabur and the Injil before the Quran. And yet the Muslim will tell you the Bible has been corrupted. But wait a minute my friend. Do you know what Surah 10 verse 94 says? You can read it to them. Now just a tip. Sometimes when you are talking to a Muslim and you may say for example Surah 10, 94, they may not know what you are talking about. Sometimes. So if you have a Quran on your phone or if you have a book or whatever, you can bring them in reference. Then remember each Surah has a title. Just like we say the book of Isaiah, the book of Jeremiah, the book of Matthew. So for example Surah 10 would be the Surah of Jonah. The Surah of Jonah. Because in the beginning of the Surah it will tell you here the title of that Surah. Surah 10, Jonah. So you can tell them. In Surah Yunus or Surah Jonah verse 94 it says this. So that's just a tip. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Eighth, an eighth thing to keep in mind is that for a Muslim to obtain salvation he must believe the articles and the pillars of faith. Remember we went over those five pillars of faith. He must say the confession of faith. Remember he has to say that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his prophet. He has to try to practice the five pillars of faith as faithfully as possible. Do as many good works as possible and repent when he has sinned. Remember they believe in repentance. They believe in repentance. All along in his heart he says, God willing my life is acceptable to God and God willing he receives me into paradise. He has no assurance but he says God willing he will accept me. He doesn't know. And that's where you and I as the Christian can come and share with them the beautiful assurance that we can have of salvation to those who repent and put their trust in Jesus Christ. Both Jews and Muslims seek to please God in the flesh through doing rather than receiving. By attempting tirelessly to reach up to God rather than him reaching down to us. See God bless you. That's what it's all about. All of the religions of the world is man trying to reach up to God. I'm trying to do more, do more so God is satisfied. When God says I reached down to you and you need to receive, receive. Let's read this Romans 10 Romans 10 verses one through 15. Because what Paul the Apostle says in regards to the Jewish people, his own people whom he loved. It applies to the Muslims. And we see that. So Romans 10 beginning with verse one. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, just like the Muslims. They have a zeal. They want to please God, but they do not know the way to God. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness have not submitted to the righteousness of God. Same with the Muslims. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. You see it all ends with Christ. See all of the law, the Bible tells us that all of God's law and all of his commandments were not to be making us righteous. But it was a schoolmaster to lead us to Jesus Christ. He is the end of the law. And we are coming, we are brought to faith in Christ. So that our righteousness is in Christ. Verse five. Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven. That is to bring Christ down from above. Or who will descend into the abyss. That is to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. And believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead. You will be saved. You see salvation is not that you have to do this some great thing. Go here or go there. But it's simply in your mouth. It's simply faith in Jesus. But remember this is very severe and very heavy when Paul the Apostle by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit said. That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. What does that mean? That he is Lord. He is King. He is God. For the people in Rome that would mean their death sentence. Because if they did not say Caesar is Lord they would be put to death. So when we are leading a Muslim to Christ we are leading them to really count the cost. Count the cost that they will surrender their life to believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and God in the flesh. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says whoever believes on him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace. Who bring glad tidings of good things. So the Bible says we need to go. We need to tell them. We need to preach the gospel. Because if we don't he says how will they hear? How will they believe? How will they call unless they hear the preacher? And how will we preach unless we are sent? And God has sent us and so we need to simply obey. Now I gave you here three different illustrations that you can use because these are illustrations that I use when I share with Muslims. Concerning our sinfulness and our depravity and how we need Christ to save us. First of all imagine two people that have fallen into a deep pit. They've fallen into this deep pit. And if one turns to the other and says well get me out of this pit. He can't because he's also in that pit just as the other guy is. One can be rich, one can be poor, one can be old, one can be young. It doesn't matter what they have or who they are. One can be intelligent and one not. They are both fallen into that pit. And let me ask you who is the only one that can save them from that pit? It has to be the person who has not fallen into that pit. It is someone from above that can reach down and do whatever he can do to bring them out of that pit. And it's the same for us. Because everyone has sinned. Each person whether it's me or whether it's a prophet. We have all sinned. We have all sinned and we are all incapable to save ourselves. So salvation can only come from him who has not fallen. And there's only one who has not fallen into sin. It is God. The Muslim needs to know there is only one who has never sinned. That is God. Everyone else has sinned. Now you're going to get into a debate. They're going to say, oh no, well this and that and this and that. The Bible says all have sinned. Muhammad was a sinner. Why? Because Muhammad asked forgiveness. And so I would ask them, how can you not be a sinner and ask forgiveness? It proves the point. Of course he was a sinner. He asked Allah to forgive him. And so he was a sinner just like any of us. Here's a second illustration. Muslims understand this because when they eat meat it has to be halal. Now you have halal which is equivalent to kosher food. Halal food means a meat that was slaughtered by either a Christian, Jew or Muslim. That meat had to be slaughtered by one of those three religions. So halal versus non-halal meat. So a Muslim is forbidden to eat pork, which is non-halal meat. Pork, they cannot eat it. If a Muslim was offered three plates of meat, but each one had a different amount of pork mixed in with the beef, it would be forbidden to eat no matter how little amount of pork is in it. You see if I go up to a Muslim and say, okay this one has 20% pork, will you eat it? They'll say no way. This one has 5%. Just a little, will you eat it? No. Okay, this one it has just 0.5%. Do nothing for you. Will you eat it? They'll say no, absolutely not. Why? Because it cannot have any pork in it. It's the same with heaven. You cannot enter the presence of God even if you've sinned once. Once is enough to condemn you to hell. Why? Because God is holy and all sin must be punished. So my friend, if you've sinned once, you cannot enter heaven. You see it is in the same manner God cannot allow any amount of sin into his holy presence lest it defile heaven and compromise his holiness. See we have many times, God forgive us as Christians. We have compromised and not understand the holiness of God. The holiness of God. I mean I just think of the seraphim. These angels, I don't even know, they're creatures in heaven. They cannot look upon God. The seraphim. With two wings they cover their eyes, with two their feet and with two they fly. And they say holy, holy, holy. It's very interesting. The only attribute in the whole scripture that is said three times. You never see that God has said he is love, love, love. He is merciful, merciful, merciful. He is righteous, righteous, righteous. Nothing but holy, holy, holy. That's very serious. That's very serious. And God, the Muslim needs to understand in his mind, God is so holy that he cannot allow sin into his presence. Every sin must be punished. And so my sin was punished. Your sin will be punished. Either it will be you or it will be Jesus. Which do you want? You see I've received Jesus Christ and I have said I am a sinner, Lord. I receive that Jesus was punished for me. I receive that gift. And God wants to offer you the gift too. You just have to open your hearts. But we need to pray because God needs to take those blinders off. Here's a third illustration. A murderer in a court before the judge. If a man is charged with first degree murder and is condemned by the judge to the death penalty for the crime. Do you think the criminal would be acquitted of his crime if he showed remorse and begged forgiveness? So I mean just imagine. Here's a murderer in court. He committed murder. He's condemned to the death sentence. But he says, judge, he throws himself at the mercy of the judge. He says, I am so sorry. Please forgive me. I will never do it again. Will the judge forgive him? No. He may say, I pray God forgives you. God have mercy on your soul. But this is what the law requires. And because I am a good judge and because I'm a righteous judge, you will pay. What if the murderer promised to do lots of good deeds in order to outweigh the bad ones? Maybe feed the poor, lend money to a family in need, or volunteer his time for community service. So just imagine this murderer says, look, I'll do all these good things so that I can go free. Is that enough? The judge will say no. You can do a million good things, but you still killed a person. See, that's the thing. You can do all these things, but you still did this. And this, whatever it is, must be punished. Would that be sufficient to clear him of his charges and acquit him? No, absolutely not. What about upholding the law? Isn't there a law of the land? Yes. God has a law too. What about being a just judge? What about the victims' families, the offended party? Okay, so let's say the judge says, okay, I'll let you go. What would that do to those who are the victims' family? You will be, the judge will be mocked and ridiculed, and everyone will say this man needs to be thrown in prison. This judge needs to be thrown in prison. He is an evil judge, in fact. So imagine if God let people by and did not punish our sin and let us into heaven, he would be an evil God. He would be an evil God. But God is good. And there is a verse in the book of Psalms that says, good and upright is the Lord. That's very beautiful and very precise. God says, good and upright is the Lord. In the same manner, no amount of good works can justify you and save you from the penalty of your sin. The holy law of Almighty God must be upheld and not broken. Every sin carries a penalty. And the Bible says the wages of sin is death. And in fact it says in the book of James, if you are guilty of breaking one point of the law, you are guilty of breaking all. And so any person on the face of the earth, have you ever lied? Have you ever lusted? Have you ever had envy? Have you ever stolen anything? Have you ever hated anyone in your heart? The Bible says if you've sinned once, you are guilty of breaking all the law. And the wages of sin is death. The penalty must be paid in full. However, because of God's nature, because God is good, because God is merciful, because God is gracious and loving, he desires to forgive and justify the sinner and make him acceptable in his sight. See, it's not about you making yourself acceptable, you won't make it. You have to come to God on his terms. You're either going to come to God on your terms or come on his terms. God says every sin will be punished. But my son, I provide it out of my mercy and grace because I desire you in heaven. You see, God doesn't need me, but God wants me. See, there's a difference. If God needs me, then there's a lack in God. There's a lack in God. See, I need water. I need air, because if I don't have water or air, I will die. God doesn't need me. God needs nothing. God is all-sufficient. He is perfect. But God said, I desire you. Isn't that awesome, guys? That God says, I long to have you in heaven with me. Wow, why? All I can say is, Lord, why? And I can just fall at his feet and just say, I love you. Thank you so much. God, I want to worship you. Why did that man who came back to Jesus, he fell at his feet to say thank you to Jesus? That is our heart. That is the heart of the Christian. So we're going to go to the next section here. And this is very important. As we are communicating the gospel to Muslims, we are going to look at our relationship with God and the powerful Christian witness. The first thing is, the Christian is a little Christ, a new creation, and the Christian bears the fruit of the Spirit-filled life. We have to remember this. What does the word Christian mean? A little Christ. So when the world looks at you, you should be a little Christ. That's convicting. That's heavy. But let's look. The greatest threat to the church isn't, like so many may believe, the religion of Islam or followers or radical Muslims. Neither is the greatest threat humanism, which has permeated our modern western society. It isn't Mormonism, liberalism, or any other ism. The greatest threat to the church of today is nominal, lukewarm, professing Christians. This is the person who follows a formality and has, like the Bible says, a form of godliness, but denies its power. In other words, everything looks good on the outside, but there is no salvation on the inside. This is the person who goes to church, maybe even serves in a ministry at church, but during the week doesn't open his Bible. This person has no evidence of a Christ follower, and has no conviction of sin, no hunger for God, and no burden for lost souls. He has no desire to share the gospel or speak for righteousness' sake, lest he offend people and be hated. There is no commitment to complete obedience to God's word and a life of holy living. Let's look at a few verses, guys. Revelation 3, verses 14 through 17. These were Jesus's last words. One of Jesus's last words here in the book of Revelation to the church of Laodicea. And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans, right, these things says the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know your works that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth. Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing. And do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. See, this is what Jesus said to the church of Laodicea. And this is a very strong word. That he says, you say you have need of nothing. You look good on the outside, but you are lukewarm. And Jesus says, I would desire my, I would that you would be cold or hot. But you are saying that you have need of nothing. In 2 Corinthians 13.5, the Bible says examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified. See, the Christian is called to test himself. I should look at my life and say, do I bear fruit of a Christian? Do I hunger for God? Do I love prayer? Do I love being with the people of God? Do I want to obey his word? Do I have conviction of sin? Do I want to share the gospel? All of these things, the fruit of a holy life. Those are things that I should see in my life as a Christian. If not, he says unless indeed you are disqualified. And what he means there is you are not saved. That word means reprobate or maybe you are unsaved. And that's why we need to examine, put ourselves under the microscope of God. Matthew 7, verses 17 through 20. Jesus said, See, Jesus was very severe in his words. He didn't be around the bush. He said, Here's a good test. If you were charged with the crime of being a Christian by those who know you the best, would there be enough evidence to charge you? Or would there be lack of evidence? Again, in 2 Timothy, chapter 3, verses 10 through 12. Paul said this, See, Jesus told, I'm Jesus, I'm sorry, Paul told Timothy, You have carefully followed. Timothy saw the life of Paul and he saw that his life had Jesus all over him. In Philippians 2 12, Now people have misquoted or misunderstood this verse. It doesn't say work for your salvation. It says work out your salvation. There is a very big difference. I want you to think about that. We don't work for our salvation because we are saved and I am living my life from a position of being justified and saved. But I work out my salvation with fear and trembling. Think about that every day. God has called me to work out my salvation with fear and trembling. Why? Because you fear God. Trembling, why? Because I want to be careful to obey God's word. I don't want to disobey God. And we are to work it out. Our life is to be working out my salvation. Look at a few, I put a couple of quotes here from some famous Christians. Susanna Wesley, this is the mother of John and Charles Wesley, the famous preachers of the gospel. She said this, There are two things to do with the gospel. Believe it and behave it. Isn't that awesome? Believe it and behave it. That's it. This is from Leonard Ravenhill, one of my favorites. He said the world is not waiting for a new definition of Christianity. It's waiting for a new demonstration of Christianity. You see the world has heard so many denominations and so many Bibles and heard the John 316 at football games, basketball games. They've heard it all, they've seen it. What they need to see is let's see it. They want to see a real Christian living as a Christian should live. In love. In prayer. In shining. In loving my wife. In discipling my children. Not lying. Not cheating. Integrity. That's what the world needs to see. But the world is lacking. And it's my fault. It's our fault. Look at what AW Tozer said. This is very convicting. He said what I am anxious to see in Christian believers is a beautiful paradox. I want to see in them the joy of finding God while at the same time they are blessedly pursuing him. I want to see in them the great joy of having God yet always wanting him. You see that's what it is. As a Christian there is a beautiful paradox. I have God. I already have him. He's mine. But I am always pursuing God every day, every day. I want more. More. More. I'm not satisfied. But yet I am satisfied. Isn't that amazing? There's a paradox. And then Tozer said this. Religion today is not transforming the people. It is being transformed by the people. Ouch. It is not raising the moral level of society. It is descending to society's own level and congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because society is smiling accepting its surrender. Wow. We're going yes. They're smiling. Look at how they're accepting us. They're allowing us. Yes. But look at society in the book of Acts. Peter and Paul, they were in prison all the time. My Lord Jesus, your Lord, he was crucified. Jesus was only on the earth for 33 years and they crucified our Lord. So we need to ask the Lord, Lord, do a fresh work in us. And if we are not on fire for Christ, then Lord, give me a fire. Revive us. Revive us, Lord. So these are some things that we need to keep in mind. And these are things that we can share with Muslims as we communicate to them the Gospel. First of all, God dwells in His people, not in a holy site. Look at 1 Corinthians 3 verses 16 through 17. Remember for the Muslim, Mecca is holy. Because five times a day, every Muslim in the entire world is facing Mecca. That's a holy site. You see the Christian, we don't have a holy site. We don't have a holy site. Because God dwells in the believer. He doesn't dwell. I don't go to the tomb where Jesus was and get a rock or say, this is awesome or some holy water or this is the place Jesus was crucified and I want to touch it or I want to be next to it. No, no, no, no, no, no. That is the religions of the world. We have no holy site because God is within us. That is the beautiful thing of the New Covenant. 1 Corinthians 3 verse 16. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. Do you realize that Christianity is the only religion in the entire world where the person's God whom he worships comes and resides inside of him? That's heavy. For the Muslim, it's outward. Hindu, every religion, their God is outward, external. Our God is everywhere and within me. He is omnipresent, but he is within the believer. And then the same thing is also said in 1 Corinthians 6 19 through 20. So Muslims do not believe that God literally comes himself and indwells his people, thus transforming the person. Allah is transcendent and separate from his servants. There is no intimacy. See, we have a God who wants to be intimate with us. Muslims believe in physical holy sites and places. When they pray, they need to physically cleanse themselves. Remember, they have to use water when they pray. The Bible says we are cleansed by the blood of the lamb. They need a prayer rug or some clean object to pray on. They have holy sites around the world, especially the Kaaba in Mecca, which are sacred bringing blessing and cleansing of their sins when the pilgrimage is finished. Remember, if a person goes to Mecca and finishes their pilgrimage, all their sins are forgiven. And the Quran says that they are like a newborn child. For the Christian, the Bible says if you confess your sins, God is faithful in just to forgive us your sins. The next thing that we want to communicate to them is this. That we can read the Bible and pray to God in any language, in any language. Romans 10 verses 12 through 14. Okay, we read this before. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. See, I don't have to say the confession of faith in Arabic. Remember, as a Muslim, if me or a Chinese person or a Mexican or an Asian, Russian, anyone wants to become a Muslim, they have to say the confession of faith in Arabic. The Bible says whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved in any language. And 1 Timothy 2 verses 3 through 4. 1 Timothy 2. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. See, God desires all men to be saved. So although the Bible was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, God's purpose was that the whole world would receive the message of the gospel so that all men might believe and bring God the glory he deserves. The heart of God through the Word of God can only be transmitted and communicated through a spoken language. Therefore, God doesn't require everyone to learn Hebrew and Greek if they're going to know God. See, remember, for the Muslim, they have to know Arabic if they're going to know the original Quran, the actual Quran. The language isn't sacred. The God of the Bible and his message is sacred. You see the difference? For the Muslim, Arabic is sacred. The Quran was revealed in Arabic. When a Muslim prays, he must pray in Arabic. We don't have to pray in Greek. We don't have to pray in Hebrew. Even though the Bible was written in Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek, no. Why? Because it's not the language that's sacred. It's the message. And it's the God that we serve who is sacred. He is worthy and we worship Him. The fact is, 85% of all Muslims in the world cannot even read the Quran in their own native language, which is not classical Arabic. The Quran was written in classical Arabic and 85% of the world do not speak that language. They have no clue what it says. So when they go to the mosque, Friday after Friday, all over the world, they will sit and they will listen. The Quran is being read. They don't know what it says unless they've gone through extensive learning, learning the Quran. But they can't understand it. Okay? That's not their language. If prayer is one of, if not the most, intimate interactions that a human being can have with God Almighty, then would it make sense that God would require you to pray to Him in a language that is foreign to you? If our intimacy with God is shared in prayer when I pray, then how can I get close to God? If I speak English and then all of a sudden I'm going to go into prayer and now I'm going to pray in a language that is not my language. I don't understand it. It would seem that God discriminates and shows favor really to Arab speakers versus non-Arab speakers. And see the Muslims will boast and say, Islam came for the whole world. Well, if that's the fact, then why is it that the Quran came in Arabic? And why is it that you must pray in Arabic? The Quran did not come for the whole world. It came for the Arabic speakers. God is concerned with the heart, not the words. With our position spiritually, not our position physically. See, we can explain, you can share with the Muslim how we pray. You can share with him, how do you pray? How do you read the Bible? I have had Muslims at our house for a dinner and we've eaten and we've prayed. We've had events like Christmas or Easter and we celebrate Christmas and we'll throw a little, not party, but a celebration. And we will invite them and they'll come to our house and they're sitting there and we'll say, okay, we're going to eat. And before we eat, we pray and we give thanks to God. And so I've prayed and I've had people listen and afterwards they say, that was really beautiful. Do you have that written somewhere? And I say, no, can you write it down? I said, no, I don't remember what I said because it all came from my heart. You see, our prayer is not something repetitious. It's not something written down. And God is not so much concerned with my position physically. Am I doing this five times? I have to bend five times. I have to bow down five times. I have to raise up and stand up. No, God wants my heart. My heart needs to be clean. My heart needs to be right with him. So that's something to keep in mind. Another thing that we can share with them is that prayer is an intimate and thoughtful dialogue, not a formality and repetitious of words. Let's read Matthew chapter six. This is the text that I will share with Muslims concerning what Jesus taught us about prayer. Matthew six verses five through seven. And this is really neat because in Matthew chapter six there are three principles of the Christian life that Jesus teaches us on. Giving, praying and fasting. Three. So those three should be in our life. Giving, prayer and fasting. And the Muslim has no clue. They think that Christians don't give. They think Christians do not pray and they believe Christians do not fast because they give, they pray and they fast. So I have shared with Muslims, yes, we pray. Really? Yes. Let me read to you what my Lord Jesus taught us about prayer. In verse five he says, Now this is interesting because I see this, I saw this in living daylight. When I lived in Morocco, when it's the time of prayer, you hear it. So they call to prayer throughout the entire city. And wherever the Muslims are, either they will go to the mosque and walk or they will stay where they are. Or sometimes they will pray outside many of them in a group of maybe 100 or 200 in the street or in the courtyard or in their shops. So they will just pray right there in the shop or in the bank or in the post office wherever they are. And pray right there. So obviously you see them. So obviously in your mind you can say, oh that man I know, he's a man who prays. He's a spiritual man. But Jesus says don't pray where men might see you because you want them to see you. So this is very interesting. Then in verse six Jesus says, Jesus says, Isn't that beautiful? Because God is all about the heart. He wants nobody to see what you do but to seek Him in private. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. And one of the things that Muslims do in their prayer is they repeat repetitively the surah. It's called surah al-Fatiha, which is the first surah in the Quran. Fatiha, they repeat it every time they pray, every time they pray. And God tells us, Jesus says do not pray repetitiously. Because you think by saying it over and over God will hear you. So Christian prayer is one of the deepest forms of communion with God that anyone can experience. Jesus taught us to not emphasize on the amount of words we use in prayer or using vain repetitions like a formula that we use in order to sway God to do something. Rather it is a dialogue where we adore Him, thank Him, confess sins, make petition, intercede for people. And also, and this is something that many Christians don't do, we listen for God to speak to us in our hearts. Do you know that God speaks to us? See prayer is a dialogue. It's not just me talking, it's God also wants to speak to us. And you can share with your Muslim friend that my prayer is not simply just asking. We adore Him, we thank Him, we confess sin, we intercede. See the Muslim has no clue about any of this. But this is prayer. For Muslims they pray five times daily and repeat certain words over and over again ritualistically. The next thing about our witness is concerning the Christian martyrs, the past and the present. They give a powerful testimony to Christ. You know, we see in Revelation chapter 11, I'm sorry, not Revelation, Hebrews chapter 11 verses 35 through 40 how men and women suffered, were mocked, were living in the wilderness, were imprisoned for the sake of the gospel. The multitudes of Christians who have laid their lives down being mocked, plundered, beaten, imprisoned, scourged, abused, raped, tortured, wounded, mutilated and more. Those which have willfully and joyfully accepted this rather than deny the name of Christ. This is a powerful and mighty evidence that Christ is not only worth living for, but worth dying for. You see, share this with Muslims. That whereas Islam began weak and grew strong, remember, grew stronger militarily, politically, even in financially, but Christianity started and immediately was persecuted. Immediately they were burned, they were destroyed, they were killed, they were persecuted heavily. And yet they grew because Christ was worshiped, Christ was followed. They believed the message that Christ had died and that he rose again. And people are suffering all over the world, even today. You see that in Egypt. How could people in Egypt, after their churches burned and bombed, continue to go back and worship God? If that happened to a mosque, they would be bombing the churches, they would wipe them out. But do you see Christians in Egypt going to the mosque and burning them and killing them and stoning them? They don't. It is a powerful witness of the testimony of the love of Christ. And of Jesus what he said, if somebody slaps you on the one cheek, turn the other. You see, Jesus said, leave vengeance up to him. He will take vengeance. Next, the Christian who desires to see Muslims come to Christ should, number one, fall deeper in love with Jesus. Seek the God of the Bible through his word and know God's word. I encourage you to know God's word. Fall in love with Jesus. Number two, ask God to bring Muslims to your path and to place his divine, constraining love in your heart for them. Number three, I encourage you to intercede for Muslims always and encourage other Christians to do the same. Rather than promoting hatred and disdain towards them. Like I've said to you before, there's so much hatred in our world. Now I expect that from the world to hate Muslims but not from the church. As Christians, we need to pray for them. And so if God brings Muslims in your path, take them to prayer. Take them to the Lord by name and pray for them, intercede for them. Number four, pray that God would send laborers into the Muslim world and intercede for those missionaries actively laboring among them. There's a lot of missionaries out there that you will never meet, that I may never meet. Pray for them. Pray for God's protection on them and pray that God will send more. Pray that God will send us, send from here, missionaries, into those difficult areas. Number five, continue to learn about Islam and ministries to Muslims. I encourage you to go over the class notes. At the end of these notes I gave you websites. I encourage you to continue to try to learn more and grow. Number six, seek, notice, seek. So it's something that you have to do actively. Seek to be friend of Muslims and get to know them. Greet them in public and acknowledge their holidays. Remember, go over your vocabulary, okay? As-salamu alaykum, as-salamu alaykum, as-salamu alaykum, okay? Greet them when you see them and acknowledge their holidays. Ramadan is coming up, acknowledge them. Say happy Ramadan, happy Ramadan. If you have any Muslims you know at work or school, invite them out for a meal or coffee or even better to come to your home. So they can see how a Christian family relates. See, remember, if we're always here and they're always there at an arms distance, how are they ever going to know what a Christian is like? How are they ever going to know how do you relate to your wife? How do you relate to your children? How do you pray? What do you do? What is your home like? You know, they don't know. Number seven, acknowledge them on Muslim holidays, especially A'id al-Fitr, which is the feast of breaking their fast, the celebration of the end of Ramadan. And A'id al-Adha, which is the feast of sacrifice, which occurs about 70 days after Ramadan ends, okay? So 70 days after Ramadan ends is the feast of sacrifice, which is also called the big feast, which is the commemoration of Abraham's offering his son and God's providing a ram. And remember, that's when they sacrifice sheep. Wish them a happy holiday in Arabic, A'id Mubarak. Okay, if you want to memorize that, you can say that in Arabic, that's even better. A'id, A'id, Mubarak. A'id Mubarak. There it is, okay? A'id is holiday and Mubarak is happy or blessed. Okay, Mubarak. I encourage you to seek ways to become all things to all men. Remember what Paul said? I have become all things to all men. For example, in Morocco, it was common on their holidays to bring us baked goods and invite us to share an meal with them. We also learn to bring them things on our holidays or invite them over for a meal and share with them why we celebrate. So they would do that to us and we would do that with them. Number eight, be friendly. Be friendly. Take time to say hello. Give a smile and be ready to receive smiles. Men greet the men. Women greet the women. Those of opposite gender can greet if in a mixed group of people with a verbal greeting but not in a handshake. So if there's a husband or wife, you can greet the wife by saying hello. Salamu alaykum or hello, whatever you want, verbally, but not with a handshake. Men, you greet the men and a woman can greet a woman. But you would not shake the hand. A woman, a Christian woman would not shake the hand of the man, okay? Unless that Muslim offers you their hand, then that's different, okay? Same with a Muslim woman. I would greet the man and say salamu alaykum and I would say to her, if she reaches out her hand, then I would greet her hand, okay? I would extend it because it all depends on their convictions, what they feel, how they feel, okay? With familiarity comes the traditional Arab greeting, cheek to cheek on both sides for men and women, okay? This is how they are in the Middle East. You may have seen it in movies, but this is where we get in the Bible, greet each other with a holy kiss because in the Middle East and all through the Muslim countries, that's how they greet, you know? So if I see a Muslim friend of mine or a Christian Arab, that's how I will greet them. I will come and I will shake their hand and then we will go on both sides of the cheeks and kiss, you know? And many times you will even hug. There is a lot of affection, you know? A lot of affection and a lot of love. Women are more prone to greet with kisses on both cheeks. You will see that often, okay? Now, some do's and don'ts in Muslim evangelism. So these are some very practical things, okay? I want to give you. Number one, speak the truth in love with respect and meekness. Keep that in mind. Number two, know your Bible, okay? These are things we've gone over. Number three, speak with boldness and authority, okay? Don't be intimidated when they say, well, your Bible is corrupted, you can't trust it. We need to stand on the Word of God. This is what the Bible says. God's Word does not change. God says, my Word endures forever. God's Word says, heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. We need to stand on His Word. Stand on the Word of God. Remember that multitudes of saints have spilled their blood in standing for and preserving the Bible. Our Bible is awesome. Our Bible is holy. God has given us His Word and has preserved it for thousands of years. And Christians have spilled their blood to give us the Word of God. So we need to stand on it. Number four, focus on the major issues and not the minors. Okay, it is very easy to get off onto these minor issues and start talking about things that really don't matter. For example, major issues. Who is Jesus and what did He do? Who is Muhammad and how do we know that He's a prophet? Is the Koran the Word of God? For that matter, is the Bible the Word of God? Why is it or why isn't it? Why do you say the Bible is not the Word of God? Well, let's look at that. Okay, go over your class notes and remember the things we talked about. How do you obtain salvation? How is a person saved? How, my friend, do you get into heaven? Well, my good deeds need to outweigh my bad deeds. But the Bible says all have sin. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. There's nothing you can do enough to gain entrance into heaven because the wages of sin is death and there's a penalty for your sin. Why the blood atonement? Why does the Bible tell us that the only way to enter into God's presence is by the blood of the Lamb? Why did Jesus die on the cross? Ask them, why did Jesus die on the cross? Number five, commend them for their devotion to Allah and their spirituality. Commend the Muslim for their sincere desire to seek the truth. I have told Muslims, you know, I want to commend you because I know that you seek God. I know that you want to pray. I know that you want to do what is right and I commend you for that. I see how devoted you are. Rather than just bashing them, I can commend them. And then I can dialogue with them and I can share my faith with them. Number six, don't laugh at their beliefs that they express to you just as you wouldn't want them to laugh at you. We have to be careful. We have to be careful. And now there have been times where I have spoken to a Muslim and there were times where in our dialogue, we're talking about stuff and it leads into some topic and they will say something, you know, Muhammad said this and you know, the hadith says this about Muhammad and it was something that almost made me laugh because I can't believe that they said that. You know, and I have to just, you know, really just hold it and just say, you know, God, you know, help me, strengthen me because I want to laugh, you know, because it's so silly. But he really believes this. We have to remember that he really believes this or she really believes it. But we have to be careful. Number seven, ask them questions about their faith and practices. Remember, I always encourage you, ask them questions. Muslims will like the fact that you are inquiring and not condemning or criticizing them. See, it's a world of difference when you are asking them and inquiring from them versus condemning them or criticizing them. Now, there's something... Okay, yeah, this is going to lead up to this, actually. It just popped in my mind. Number eight, don't use a Bible when you are speaking to a Muslim that you have written in when sharing with Muslims but rather a Bible that is unwritten in. That's what I encourage you to do and I've shared that before because they see it. You're saying it's the Word of God. So for them, at the moment, while they're not a Christian, they do not understand. They do not understand how is it that you are writing in the Word of God which is holy, which you love, which is God's Word and why are you writing in it? So when I do ministry with Muslims, I always have a Bible that is clean or unwritten in. I use this one a lot when I'm with them. Now, another thing is if you have a Muslim in your home or if you are with a Muslim sharing, respect the Bible. So I will not put it on the ground. Hold it, okay? And even respecting their Koran, okay? Don't put it on the ground. Keep it up high or hold it in your hand. So those are just some tips to keep in mind. Be aware when handling it or giving it as a gift to use the right hand. The right hand for them is the hand of honor. And so you always shake with the right hand. You eat with the right hand and if you give a Bible, you give it with your right hand. And Muslims many times understand it. Like I said, it's so precious that I will often, I will kiss the Bible and I will give them this as a gift. Number nine, if inviting a Muslim to your home for a meal or taking them out to eat, be sensitive to them. Excuse me. Only serve or eat kosher food in Arabic, halal or lawful foods. No pork, no ham. So keep that in mind, okay? Halal foods. Number ten, be sincere with them. If you don't know the answer to a question, just tell them that you will research and find it out. See, many times sometimes Christians will, you know, either we end up lying, which you don't want to do, or making up an answer, you don't want to do that. If you really don't know the answer to their question, or they say, there's a contradiction in your Bible. This says that and this and that and this. If you really don't know the answer, say, you know what, I'm going to find out and I'll come back to you. Would you like me to give you an answer? Sometimes they really are not interested in the answer and they just want to argue and debate. Other times, other times I know the answer and I will explain to them the answer and they will say, no, no, that's not what it says. And I will say, look, okay, you asked me, you said this is a contradiction and you're saying this is what it says. I'm giving you the answer. The problem is you don't like what my answer is. So I'm sorry, this is all I can give you and this is the answer, okay? So for example, this is a big one. Well, show me, Jesus never said he was God. He never said, I am God. Okay, I give it to you, you're right. He never said those three words, I am God. But I'm going to show you that he was God based on what he said and what people did, okay? When he came to Thomas and he said, my Lord and my God, and it says he worshiped him. In the boat, when he said to the sea, be still, be at peace, it says that they worshiped him. When he stood before the Jews and he said before Abraham was, I am. And they took up stones to stone him, okay? Several occasions, Jesus declared his deity and he didn't condemn it. When Thomas says, my Lord and my God, he didn't say, hey, be quiet, that's blasphemy, don't say that to me. No, he said, blessed are you, but more blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. Okay, Jesus gave him a blessing. Now, is Jesus a true prophet or a false prophet? They will say he's a true prophet. Okay, then why did Jesus bless Thomas after he just called him my Lord and my God? You see, he's a true prophet, so Jesus wouldn't lie. So be sincere, but if you don't know the answer, go and find out. Number 11, express your love for the Muslim people and interest in their religion. Tell them that you will pray for them. You know, I try to do that. I try to say, you know, I want you to know that we love the Muslims. And you know what, maybe you will never, maybe you will not get to share anything with them, but they're going to go away and they will remember what you said. We love Muslims. Who, just think, just think, who has ever told a Muslim we love Muslims? You may be the only person. So when we do that, this is what we want to do. It's the love of Christ that's in us. So tell them that you will pray for them. If there ever arises an occasion for you to pray for a Muslim that you know, maybe there's sickness in their family. One of them are sick. Maybe there's marital problems, et cetera. Anything, pray for them. Guys, I have some examples of that. So we have a family that is from Morocco living here. They live in Moreno Valley. Maybe he's going to watch this. And they are not Muslims, but they are not Christians yet. And we've had very good discussion. And we've become close to their family, him and his wife, and they have for many years tried to become pregnant. They want to have children and they couldn't. Well, one of the occasions, I'm not sure if they were at our house or we were at their house, but we said, can we pray for you? Pray for his wife, Muna. And we said, Muna, can we pray for you? Because we believe that our God hears and He answers prayer. So we prayed. And she got pregnant. We prayed for them. Here's another example. My wife has a friend that she got close to, one of the many friends in Morocco. She still is in contact with my wife. And she called her on one of the apps on our phone. It's called WhatsApp. She called my wife on the phone and she said, Rosalie, I want to talk to you because I remember how you raised your daughters and I'm having problems with my daughter. A Muslim lady is calling from Morocco to United States of America to talk to a Christian. Remember, for a Christian, this is an infidel. You believe in the Trinity. You believe Jesus is the Son of God. But she's still calling because she sees something in her that they don't have. And she asked my wife for counsel and my wife was able to share with her this and that, this and that. That, see it's one thing you can say A, B and C, but it's another thing when you live it and there is a tangible Christianity in your life. Now you're getting to the nitty-gritty. And you know what? She's getting it upon her. She's heard many times. We've shared with them. We've had discussions with them sitting in our living room with our tea and eating bread and oil. But we know one day God willing they will come to Christ and they will know that we love them. We love them. But I want to encourage you pray for Muslims and love them. Number 12, give God's blessings to them especially if they curse you or they ridicule you. Remember, God says bless your enemies. Do not curse. So say God bless you. God bless you. I love you. God bless you. Do good to them. Treat them with love and with kindness. And number 13, preach the gospel. Be unashamed. We have to be unashamed. Be willing to take risks for God. Lead them to the cross. Rely on the Holy Spirit. Remember guys, we cannot, you're going to learn all of these things but in the end, it's the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit takes the Christian and empowers him and gives him the words and then he shares. But don't worry. Let the Holy Spirit speak through you. You can't figure out, oh wait, what am I going to say? Am I going to say this? Am I going to say that? Let the Holy Spirit give you the words to say and you'll be fine. You'll be fine. Trust Jesus. Rely on the Holy Spirit and he will fill you. He will fill you. Remember, you might be the only Christian, the only genuine Christian that God ever places in a Muslim's path. Remember especially here in the United States, it's not like when I lived in Morocco, but in the United States, remember that as a Muslim, there are a lot of Christians in their mind all the time and they've seen this person do that and this person drinks and this person sleeps around and he's a Christian. This guy, I know he goes to church but he talks like this, he does this. They're seeing all of that. But you be that genuine Christian that they will see. When that Muslim steps into eternity and stands before the glory of Christ and judgment, you'll be your witness to them. Will they say he loved me and showed me the truth in Christ? He cared or she cared and went out of his way to demonstrate it. He was just like Jesus. Or will they say he was no different than anyone else? He treated me the same way everyone else treats me. He never told me about Christ. I didn't even know he was a Christian. How many people can know for years a person and never even knew that they were a Christian? See, there's two kinds of people. You can be a really good person and never lie, never cheat but you never share the gospel that you were a sinner and Christ died for you, repent and believe. You're not going to lead anyone to Christ just by living a good life. Or there's the person that preaches, preaches, preaches but their life is dark. That's not going to get anyone saved. See, we need to have both. We need to live the life and we need to share the gospel with our words. So it needs to be both together. Now we still have some time, alright. I wanted to share with you a couple of points from this book because I thought they were very good, very practical. Once again the book Unveiling Islam by Ergun Mehmet Kaner last name C-A-N-E-R and these were again some cultural things in ministering to Muslims some things that are very practical. He talks about shaking. When you shake, don't shake with your left hand. We went over that, shake with your right hand. Calling a Muslim brother. Okay, now I have heard this before and this is funny to me. When I share with people or been with other groups that are sharing the gospel and they'll say, you know brother when that person is not a brother be careful that we don't say brother or sister or bro, you know bro you know we're very flippant because we say it in church and then we go outside of the church and we're sharing the gospel and we call him bro. Well, he may not be a bro yet, so be careful. Okay, well we sometimes people can do that with Muslims and say, you know my brother not my brother, I always will say my friend or call him by his name or her name okay, but you can refer to the Muslim as my friend which is a positive social statement that does not assume agreement of philosophy or belief. Accepting hospitality, it's so important if a Muslim wants to invite you into their home, accept their hospitality. He says in here family members often remove their shoes immediately upon entering and the Christian guest should follow suit. The key is if you ever are going into a Muslim home do as they do, that's what I always tell every, you know what the easiest way is do as they do, you see them you see them put their shoes down, you put their shoes down you see them going, they wash their hands you wash their hands, okay. You're not doing something like I pray the Muslim prayer and then you pray, no I'm talking about cultural things, they take their shoes off you take your shoes off, okay. If the men say okay let's go sit in this room, you go sit in that room the women say let's go sit in this room, then you follow the women follows the woman, okay. Eat everything set before you, now this can be difficult but this is actually in the Bible too guys eat everything set before you even if you do not know the nature of the food or its source Middle Eastern food is delicious it will not harm you, he's right thanking the Muslim and complimenting on the food will be a great help and eventual witness extending hospitality it's like I said here we should extend hospitality not only accept it but extend it and he talks about be careful about what kind of foods don't offer a pork explain to your guests if they're at your house that you offer thanks before the meal okay and now that's something that I will do and I will pray and thanking the Lord using the term Lord, okay, when I speak to God you can say God or Heavenly Father but Lord is a very good term to use and they can you can explain what Lord is, okay he says we the authors are certainly not ashamed of the gospel of Christ but presenting it during grace abuses the privileges of prayer, okay he said be careful that when you give thanks for your meal that you don't use that to preach the gospel to them sometimes Christians have a tendency to make their prayer like a sermon okay or I've been in prayer meetings where I'm praying or somebody's praying rather and they're trying to say something to the person through their prayer by their prayer that's not time for that okay prayer is not meant to be a sermon you know in my home we usually will pray and give thanks and it's fairly short and I even teach my kids, you know that's great you want to pray for all these things grandma and people over there but we're giving thanks for the food so we can eat because mommy's made a hot meal and we don't want it to get cold okay but it's just something to keep in mind we're giving thanks for the food and we're giving thanks to God speaking with the opposite sex it's very important that you keep it men with men and women with women and especially in our culture Americans can have a tendency it's very cross and you cannot do that in the Muslims with the Muslims okay rushing to evangelize in their eagerness to win Muslims to Jesus Christ Christians sometimes rush to a gospel presentation within minutes of introduction and confrontational evangelism may indeed be an appropriate and effective means of witness at some point the authors of this book have been trained in virtually every witnessing method and we are rarely without a gospel track in the Islamic community however the Christian must earn the right to be heard Muslims are immersed in a heritage of enmity against Christians and care must be taken to establish a connection across the divide this slow process of building relationship explains why Muslims do not come to Christ as frequently as do those from other faith systems you see with the Muslims it often is a slow process because they need to you need to earn their trust a vast difference he says exists between using opportunities that God provides faith in Jesus Christ and forcing a door of opportunity particularly in witnessing to a Muslim one must use discernment in knowing how and when to share one's faith seasoned with grace so we have to just always be led of the Holy Spirit he goes on he talks about avoiding political arguments we have to avoid that many times there are the Muslim may want to go into talking about Israel and it's easy to talk about Israel and the Middle East situation stick to the main issue the main issue of Jesus Christ as savior and why you need Jesus Christ as savior another one patriotism versus evangelism patriotism versus evangelism he says defending Christ does not mean defending a national foreign policy you see there were times when even I was in Morocco and the Muslim there was a guy I'd go to the bank and he would always put down President Bush every time I was there he would say every time I came hey Mr. Bush how are you doing and then he would start putting down the United States and different stuff look at what you're doing over there I could get into this discussion but where is this going to lead me I am a Christian first before I'm an American I am a Christian so remember that he says be candid about the sins of supposed Christians every intelligent Muslim remembers that Pope Urban II called the first crusade into being at the Council of Claremont in 1095 it was in 1095 that the Pope in this council called the first crusade and so all Muslims have this in their mind the first crusade this event remains a dark chapter in history when ostensible leaders of faith declared a Christian jihad so we have to be candid yes our history has a lot of stains there were a lot of things done in the name of Jesus Christ but I don't defend it that was sinful but let's talk about the Bible let's talk about what did Jesus do let's talk about what did Jesus say that's what stands between you and eternity not history remember what conversion may mean and this is my last point here remember what conversion may mean he says this in America a conversion to Christ seldom destroys the new believer's family relationships elsewhere conversion often means rejection by family expulsion from a country and in some cases facing the same sentence even while remaining gently firm about the Muslims need for Christ Christians must understand a Muslims hesitation to convert because of the implications yes if he understands that coming to Christ it might mean his life in a severe case it might mean divorce it might mean losing his family his father may kick him out it may mean his job losing his job it may mean a lot of implications so be aware of that Islam's complete rejection of a Christian convert alters that person's entire life affecting his heritage inheritance family connections and friendship Christians in Islamic countries may face torture and imprisonment without home, job and land but I never water down the gospel Jesus said if any man desires to come after me let him deny himself pick up his cross and follow me we have to know that Luke 9.23 Jesus said it this is the gospel we lay it down we come in love but we share the gospel and we pray that God will save them and remember it's the work of the Holy Spirit in the end it's not you you can share and you may debate you may present but it will be the Holy Spirit that's going to take your words and save that soul you have not been called to save them you haven't only been called to clarify to tear down misbeliefs and misconceptions and to build blocks of understanding and explain the gospel but that's it you are a messenger to give the message and let the Holy Spirit do the rest that's it guys you are a messenger so we come to the end of our class now at the end of our notes here I gave you my email address and I will be sending you guys when we have main events and when we have different things that are going to go on with Muslim ministry okay so any questions or comments you can write me okay and I will try to get back to you as soon as possible please keep our family in prayer and the ministry of equipping the saints to reach Muslims in prayer as well as open and effective doors to reach the Muslim community around us locally please pray for the ongoing ministry also I cover your prayers to pray for Morocco and the evangelism and the church planning there by the missionaries that's a personal request but keep that in prayer you know that we go every other Friday so I also gave you a sheet there which has the dates and the locations okay now I will I will send you an email okay and what I'm going to do is I'll send you a text and on the text is when we give you the mosque okay just to confirm so that sheet of paper go by that but I will when I know that you are coming with us you just respond to my text and let me know that I will be there I want to come okay so it normally is every other Friday okay and we normally we meet at a Denny's at a particular Denny's and it's on that sheet of paper that I gave you and we meet there with another a few other people that join us okay there is a brother that is does the Muslim ministry in Southern California and he is the one that I get all of my resources from and we go to a mosque okay so there are about 14 mosques within a 10 mile radius from here so every other week we go to a different mosque okay so if you can come it's normally Friday normally we meet at 1130 to about 1231 o'clock at Denny's we meet there and then we pray if you want to have lunch or a drink or whatever or not we go to the mosque so normally at the mosque we are there by 1115 okay and then we are there till depends on God you might be there an hour you might be there two hours if you have the time if you can only come for just a portion of time that's great if you can stay the whole time that's great too so whatever you can do if you can't then just pray for us there are also going to be events that we have in this summer there's always a festival in Anaheim a big festival sometimes there's two different Arabic festivals in Orange County where we will go and we will share the gospel we'll have a table outside we go inside outside we're giving tracks DVDs, Bibles and it's a wonderful experience you get to meet the Muslims and the same thing at the mosque okay what else so anyways I will be in contact with you and I'll put you on the email list and then you'll also receive texts if you can go to the mosque on every other Friday and I also gave you some recommended sites for further study if you want please write this down okay actually I gave you that one right there okay that's let me just double check good question she said how should she dress as a woman okay so normally sleeves and then either pants or a skirt and a shirt or blouse that preferably covers your back and then yeah hair back so hair tied yeah absolutely absolutely yes absolutely nobody has to do anything that's the beautiful thing so if you come on a Friday obviously you know you guys have never done this before except for my brother coming one time to the mosque with us but you come and observe stay there stay next to us we have teams we break up and be there and let the spirit lead you you're gonna have tracks we're gonna give you literature to give out so as they come out of the mosque I'll say God bless you can I offer you a gift God bless you can I offer you a gift and we offer them as they're walking out some will say oh thank you many will say thank you and they'll smile others will say what is this and then you can say well this is the life of Jesus Christ or this is the gospel of Jesus why are you giving this do you believe Jesus died on the cross and then they might ask you a question and you can answer but if you don't feel comfortable just stay with us and just watch just watch and that's the wonderful thing you can just watch and then as you feel led of the spirit then you can engage with conversation so yeah yeah so once I'm in contact with you through the text and I know who's coming I will be contacting through text so I will let you know really unless it's like pouring we wouldn't go but if it's what's that yeah yeah yeah so we're going to be in contact so once I send you guys the texts on your phone numbers if I hear from you saying I want to come this coming Friday then I know to be in contact with you because we'll do it in a group so I'm going to go yes yeah this coming Friday so I'm just going to pull up this website I just need to make sure I want to give you one more website okay yes this is it this is awesome okay so the first website that I gave you there answering-islam.org that has everything okay that is the website that is put out by Jay Smith he's one of the renowned debaters evangelists to the Muslim world he's an American and he lives in London and he's in the park at Hyde Park there on speakers corner they have a place which has been there for a long long time where people can publicly preach and say anything they want and then they have crowds of people you can watch it on YouTube okay but that's his website right there and he has every topic you go to index to Islam and it has everything on everything on Islam everything okay the30daysprayer.com I encourage you to go there I was looking at it this morning that's where you can order the prayer booklet which is the booklet for every day in Ramadan so you can pray for a country or a people group or a subject and then it even has for kids so I can go through it with my children okay you can order it did you? yeah yes they have a lot of resources there so just go on check it out theministrytomuslims.com that's the local ministry that I am connected with this is brother George Seig out of Calvary Chapel Anaheim he's the one whom I get all of our resources from and that hosts a lot of these events when we go out to festivals and to the mosques searchtruth is an online Quran search translations now sites for Arabic speaking Muslims so these websites are all in Arabic so if you meet a Muslim or know of someone or want to give somebody to go and look it up give them this islamexplained.com and this one islamiyet so all of the whole website obviously is all in Arabic and it has TV programs, articles a lot of videos of Muslim scholars people that they will know that are famous and well known saying something about Islam that maybe they have never heard in their life there's a lot of things out there they have no clue coming from their own like if somebody came and you went to a website and you saw what our pastor taught and then Chuck Smith teaching and then John MacArthur teaching and then Ravi Zacharias Billy Graham saying things and then you're just like what they said that that's just what they will see and then other things on subjects on Islam coming from their own scholars and then a lot of other things so that's it any questions yeah when you ask a Christian like how are you saying that they are going to teach them a different answer because I've heard from them you follow the world you're studying through that you follow the pillars or go to Mecca that's another one or die in Jihad or die or when I asked the iman he basically said that we just ask for forgiveness and Allah will forgive okay now there's a difference between how they are saved and how they are forgiven okay so for a Muslim if they repent of their sins and they ask Allah sincerely Allah forgives them and then this is another let me say another thing a side note the Quran says different things as well so the Quran also says that if they do good deeds it erases bad deeds but it also says if they repent Allah will forgive them now how they are saved they have no assurance of heaven so they must do these things all these things and that's why they say they will enter heaven so they're hoping that they will make it to heaven but they have no assurance of salvation so there's no guarantee because Muhammad was not guaranteed even Jihad Jihad the Quran says in Jihad they will enter paradise so that's actually the one guarantee but Muhammad didn't even die in Jihad Muhammad just died of a sickness yeah what's the best food? Arabic food there's so much there's so much yeah my favorite food I ate mostly Moroccan food but my favorite food within the Moroccan genre was a tajin and a tajin is actually the name of the actual plate because it has like a cone top like this and then it has a bottom dish so the top goes on like that but the meat is cooked there and there's various different kinds but I really like the one that's beef made with prunes so there's a prune and there's a type it's kind of a sweet, savory taste it's really good it makes you hungry yeah no yes yeah that's another thing you know when you are doing ministry to Muslim it's funny that we're laughing about that but it's a good issue you don't need to do things like witnessing with the t-shirts it really carries this idea of commercial Christianity there's an idea of commercial Christianity and so it kind of lessens it in their eyes you know what I'm saying so I myself if you were to ask me, Steven, what do you do I will just wear plain clothing plain clothing carry a clean Bible and share the truth everything is in what you communicate I don't need stuff I don't need shirts bumper stickers I don't need that and actually a lot of that if you really think about it even just having picture it's really too bad we have pictures of Jesus images of Jesus when it's not it's not preferable it's not preferable I don't I don't I don't so are there a lot of people at the mosque? yes yeah some mosques are larger than others but there's always a good amount yeah that one's big yeah they're all over I have been invited into a family that it's time for prayers so you have to move everything and start praying and they invite you to pray I know I will not pray I'm sorry because God is the only one I'm going to bow down to what would you say if it's time for prayer what would you say if it's time for prayer we do like before the meal we pray and bless our food and so we invite them and we pray with them what do you do I can tell you from experience that could happen so you're asking if they invite me to their prayer is that what you're asking right right so first of all in all of my 13 years living in Morocco maybe once or twice that ever a Muslim invite me to pray they know I'm a Christian they're a Muslim so if we're having a meal or we're drinking tea or we're talking and it's time for prayer they hear it we hear it right in the house all the mosques are in the loudspeakers so they hear it and they will say excuse me it's time for prayer and they'll get up and they'll walk and either they will be right there in our living room and they pull a rug out and they'll do their prayer or they'll go into their room or in their house yeah they'll do it wherever but they will almost never invite me if they were to ask me ever say oh come on why don't you pray I will say no I can't I'm a Christian I cannot say what you say because I don't believe in what you say so just love and firmness and respect we can say a lot with love and respect and with firmness and they respect that if you're firm they respect it because believe me I've had a lot of conversation they are firm they are firm so you have to be firm so you just have to you know yeah yeah but they will never invite you they will never invite you yeah no they say Bismillah which means in the name of Allah so they say Bismillah and then I tell them we're gonna pray we like to give thanks for our food and they'll say oh okay and then they'll just listen to them listen to me pray it seems like they wouldn't be arguing all the time not all the time no not all the time yeah I was the last mosque I went to I was with a young man outside for two hours talking and our conversation was as it is right now talking like this he was very calm very gentle you know so for the most part it is not for the most part it's not like that argumentative no but you have all variety you know so yes yes yeah there have been times yeah there have been times it's I mean and you just pray and you really leave it up to the Holy Spirit to do that work and you know in your mind it's not gonna happen overnight you know and I'm you know you're praying maybe there's gonna be many seeds planted many different experiences many occasions that I need to meet them you know or maybe it's gonna be that time you know that it's gonna be the thing that they their eyes are open and they're convinced you know I've spoken to people in Morocco where we share with them and then they tell us afterwards you know I had a vision about this we had a girl in Morocco that she had a dream and believe it or not she's still a Muslim but she had a dream and she came to our home and she was a friend of our families and she said in this dream I was standing in a river and there was something at my feet and I reached down with my hands and I pulled it out of the river and it was a book and we said well which book she said it was the Bible she said it was the Bible but she's still a Muslim to this day how does that work I don't know you know it's oh absolutely absolutely the cost like we said the cost she leaves but God is he's knocking she can't get rid of it and remember always they will always see you and the Muslims that they know and they will always compare they're comparing in their mind but then that means what kind of a Christian am I what kind of a person you know with them or without them they have the gospel so but they're looking they're examining your life and that goes for everyone everyone out there you know my neighbors people who are without Christ atheists Jehovah's Witnesses anyone