 Jesus said to go into all of the world and to preach the gospel. That was not the great suggestion, but the great commission. And today's a great time to get some street smarts about us. I'm Amy Schaefer. I'm here with Tom and with Sydney on Hope Today. Tom, what's coming up? Well, you said it. We're supposed to go into all the world. But sometimes we have a tough time with tough conversations about our faith just with our friends and family members. You know, I don't know. It can be really frustrating. I mean, there's all these defenses that come up and arguments. Well, coming up, our guest, Greg Coco, is going to share with us the number one mistake that Christians make when talking about their faith. And he's going to show us the best way to engage in meaningful conversations about the Lord with anyone you meet. Guys, this is going to be a great conversation. You're going to enjoy it. He kind of takes all that fear and that kind of concern away in the method he's going to show us. That's really exciting. And then coming up, we're going to have a movie trailer about Mother Teresa called Mother Teresa and me. So you definitely want to stay tuned and miss it. But right now, we just want to bring a very special guest onto our set today. All right. Will you come here? Yes, sir. Yay. Hi. Hi. Hello. So this is Anthony Gilbert. He is the son of Pastor Jay and Tiffany Gilbert. You see him on Hard Questions and Tiffany's on Sister and Sister. And we are so excited because how old are you today? Eight. Eight years old. And this was you wanted to come on Cornerstone today and you wanted to just say hi to everyone, right? Yep. Because my brother, because the last time my brother came, the last time your brother came, so it's time for you to go. So Anthony, there's a scripture that you have memorized. Can you like look at the camera and share with our viewers the scripture? For you created me in my inmost being, you knit me together on my mother's womb, Psalms 139 verses 18. That's awesome. High five for that. Happy birthday to you. Can we give them some sprinkle joy, Larry, little confetti? We'd like to sprinkle joy for your birthday. Look at that. That is awesome. Well, we love your parents and we are celebrating you big time and your brother's awesome and you both are going to do phenomenal things in the kingdom. Absolutely. Yep. Yes. Yeah. So, you know, so much going on in the city, so much to celebrate. I know that there's a great men's retreat conference this weekend and also Angela Madden and I will be speakers at the All Daughters Conference at Victory Family Church on October 21st, 20th and 21st. So make sure you register. I'm telling you, it's going to be a fiery Holy Ghost film. You and Angela. Yes. That's going to be lots of excitement. Crazy. Yeah. It's going to be like, whoa, like buckle the seat belts. Make sure you register at women at victory.com. We would love to see you there. That is so great. It's so great that Anthony wanted to come on the show to share his birthday with us was Christians. Most of us have had to defend our faith at one point or another. Haven't you at times it can be challenging, but our next guest has an effective approach when it comes to engaging in difficult conversations. Greg Coco is the founder and president of stand a reason and he's also a bestselling author. And in his new book, street smarts. I love that name. He offers a unique approach to equipping believers to navigate criticisms, questions, challenges, all those kind of interactions we have and that we face. Greg, welcome to hope today. Well, good morning all good to see you. Well, good to have you and Greg, just give us a little bit of your story and just what you do as a ministry. Well, stand a reason has been around for 30 years now. And our goal is to train Christians to think more carefully about their convictions and then to offer a thoughtful, a gracious and incisive, effective defense for classical Christianity and classical Christian values. And I was about 20 years old in the Lord. I became a Christian as an adult when I was at UCLA. I was 23 years old and been serving the Lord pretty much ever since. In fact, I think it was five days ago now. I had my half century anniversary with the Lord. So it's been a it's been a very interesting journey with him. It was birthdays all around here on hope today. That's right. Well, let me ask you about, you know, we all know the Great Commission. We started off with the Great Commission, you know, at the top of the program. Let me ask you about sharing your faith. It's so much related. It seems so fearful for so many people, but you make a big distinction in harvesting and gardening. I think it's important to understand. Yeah, I kind of came to this conclusion over a long period of time, but I saw it captured really well. And John chapter four, that's a woman at the well. And at the after that incident with the woman, the disciples come up to Jesus and Jesus says you are about to reap where you did not. So you're about to reap where you did not. So in other words, somebody did the heavy lifting and probably Jesus or maybe the woman at the well, when she went back to psych are there and the disciples were going to get the easy pickings. You'll get the low hanging fruit as it were. And what that I think emphasizes is that you have one field and in that case it was psychary and you have one team that is the disciples of Jesus yet at the same time, you have two seasons and you have two different types of workers. You have us, you have a reaping season and a sowing season or you have a harvesting season and what I call a gardening season and you have two types of workers that are reapers, sowers that are harvesters and gardeners. And as I began to think about the whole process, I became a Christian and the Jesus movement 50 years ago and this evangelism was easy back then. You read the track to pray the prayer and people come to Christ. But of course times have changed radically and it's a very hostile environment out there right now for for many people and so there's a lot more gardening that's required. Okay, but the thing is people have only been given largely harvesting fruit tools and and it's hard if you think I want to say a few things and then try to get somebody to receive Christ. That scares a lot of Christians and so they just stay on the bench. All right, but when I realized that not only was the gardening most important if you don't have the gardening, you're not going to have a harvest and that that I was a gardener myself as I looked at all the things. I spoke on a 93 different universities and a whole bunch of other things. But part of what I was doing really all of what I was doing was gardening, gardening, gardening. And that is what happened in my own life so that in 1973, September 28th when my brother came to my apartment in West LA or when I was a student at UCLA, he asked he started telling me more about Jesus and I just told him, Mark, you don't have to tell me anything more about Jesus. I've already decided I want to become a Christian. Now I want you to notice something. I harvested myself. You know, he didn't prompt me. There was no altar call. It just I was ready. In fact, probably at that point our already was a Christian in my heart without even realizing it. And I prayed a prayer there and moved down in my life to walk with Christ for the last 50 years. But I've been taking polls the time with with audiences now as they share this stuff. And it turns out when I asked them how many people did not become a Christian by coming forward at an altar call or by praying with someone to receive Christ as Lord and Savior. 60% of the people raised their hand. That's my average. Most people were harvested in one way or another by the Holy Spirit and it was actually the gardening in their lives that really made them ready for that harvest. And this is why in Street Smarts I really try to give gardening tools to people. Don't worry about the harvest. It's kind of my approach. Learn how to garden doing a little bit here, a little bit there, what I call putting a stone in someone's shoe. Just kind of annoying them in a good way. Giving them something to think about. And I think that's the secret to a good harvest and also a safe engagement for many Christians who are scared to get on the street. Well, I love the whole idea of safe engagement. A lot of times in our society today we're not all about safe engagement. We're about arguing and yelling at each other. But let me ask you about, use a technique or a system that reminds you and use it in the book of Detective Colombo and his questions for those of a certain age that know who Colombo is. But tell me about that. And what are the three types of questions that you ask? Sure. Well, Colombo, of course, was a detective on TV that older folk like you and I remember. But he came in under the radar, so to speak, scratching his head, muttering to himself, you know, like he didn't know what he was doing. You know, nobody took him seriously. And he would just ask questions. I don't know. There's something about this thing that bothers me. You know, he'd say things like that. And then start asking questions. And gathering information first. And then when he had a pretty good idea who the murderer was, he began asking other kinds of questions to kind of get to the conclusion. All right. And so this is the way I developed this game plan. First of all, questions are so important because questions are easy to ask if you have the right questions. All right. They put you in a conversational mood. The ball isn't the other person's court, largely, not yours, because they're answering the questions and talking. They're comfortable with that. You're comfortable. And the important thing is that asking questions keeps you in the driver's seat of the conversation. Just like now, Tom, you're asking me the questions. I'm doing all the talking, right? I'm doing the heavy lifting here. But I'm going in the direction you want me to go because of the questions you've asked. So the key here is questions keep you safe. If you want to be safe in a conversation, you want to be in the shallow end of the pool, so to speak, use questions. So the game plan that I've constructed that is in the book, Street Smarts, it is something that trades on very specific questions in three different phases, if you will. So there's three steps to the game plan, very, very simple. And the first step is when I get in a conversation with somebody that I hope will have a spiritual impact, all I'm interested in doing is gathering information. I'm not thinking about that person deciding to become a Christian. I'm not thinking about objections or challenges. I'm not thinking about anything else. I just want to get the lay of the land because that's going to help me decide whether I go further in the conversation or not. I mean, maybe this person's a Christian. Maybe they're not interested and that's all the further it goes. So I'm going to get the lay of the land. And the model question I use, it's very, very flexible, is what do you mean by that? What do you mean by that? So somebody might be reading a book. Hey, what book are you reading? I'm in the airplane. There's a waitress or something that she has an interesting name. I'm just drawing them out. But it's especially effective when people raise challenges to Christianity. So somebody says, I'm not a Christian. I'm an atheist. OK, they're coming at your heart. Well, what kind of atheist are you? Or they say, what about the problem of evil? Well, what about it? I toss it right back to them. Well, it's a problem for you, isn't it? Well, how is it a problem? Now, I know what they're getting at, but I want them to spell it out. And by them spelling it out and giving me more information, I get more of the lay of the land. OK, I'm able to see things that maybe I didn't see before. And also, what's going to happen since I know all of these views contrary to Christianity have flaws in them. When I get them to talk more, those flaws are going to be more on the surface. OK, they don't know that, but I know that. And so much of the book is dedicated, once the game plan is in place, is dedicated to a whole host of topics, things like atheism and the problem of evil and problems people have with the Bible challenges there. Abortion, Jesus and the claims that he made, gender, sex and marriage, and really all the hot topics that people are asking about. And so what I'm doing in a good portion of the book is I'm helping the reader, the Christian reader to understand here are the problems with atheism, here are the problems with the pro-choice position, et cetera. And now they'll be able to see in their conversations with other people what these flaws are and can begin to exploit the flaws or expose them in a friendly way by asking more questions. OK, so let me give you a very quick example of this that might help. So I know with atheism one of the most powerful arguments for the existence of God is the fact that the universe had a beginning, OK? And everybody believes that. Christians believe that, of course, Genesis 1-1, but non-Christians believe it too because of the science of the origin of the universe, OK? So I will begin to ask a question. I'll tell them, can I ask you a few questions about your view? Oh, yeah, sure. They're simple ones at the beginning, but here, do you think that things exist? Crazy question. Yeah, of course, things exist. Well, I agree with you. OK, second question, the things that exist, all of these things, did they always exist or did they come into existence sometime in the past? Is the universe eternal, for example? No, nobody believes the universe is eternal. They're big bang people, right? Notice in both cases, we all agree that the universe began, you know? So now I have a final question, and this is the important one I tell them. What caused the universe to come into existence, all right? Now, I give you, it's easy. I'll give you two options. It's either something or nothing caused the universe to come into existence. So what's your opinion? Now, this person's an atheist, so they don't want to say something caused the universe to come into existence, because then it's going to have to be something powerful and personal, and pretty soon you're getting pretty close to the GOD word, right? They don't want to say that. But what's the only alternative left to them? You see, this is the weakness that I'm aware of, and the Christian who reads the book will see, oh, that's the weakness too. Now they have to say that the universe popped into existence out of nothing with no cause, with no reason. Do you realize how wildly counterintuitive that is? Now, I'm not trying to prove God here. I'm just trying to say that the option that we hold as Christians is the smart one. It's the odds on favorite. Their option is worse than magic, because in magic you've got a magician pulling a rabbit out of a hat, right? But now you have no magician. You have no hat. You just have the rabbit, like the universe popping into existence. One thing I want to mention about this too, notice how casual that is. It's all relaxed. I'm just asking questions. But now the person's in a spot to think, oh, wait a minute, maybe my idea isn't as good as I thought. Also, I've actually enlisted the other person as an ally. Every time I ask them a question, they give an answer and they put a piece on the table that helps me get to my final question. So they're not going to be arguing with me about those pieces on the table, as it were. If I had put them there, then they would take exception with them. There are things in the universe that had a beginning. No, they put them there that can't take exception with it. And so this creates a very, very simple way of moving forward in a game plan. First, I'm asking clarification questions. What do you mean by that? The second step I had mentioned is I want to know the reasons. Why are you an atheist? And then I get more information. And then I'm going to ask questions based on the knowledge I get, like from the Street Smarts book, on the weakness to expose that weakness for that person in a very relaxed way and then just let them think about it. Put a stone in their shoe. And that's the, I think, the power, Tom and Amy and Sidney, of doing evangelism this way. It's easy. It's relaxed. And it's very powerful. That's Street Smarts. Yeah. And so much of it, you're getting the person on your side in a way. You're like, there's a friendliness that seems to be developing. Let me ask you about, you spent a lot of the second half of the book specifically talking about issues related to certain topics. One, and we've only got a couple of minutes left, but briefly, the whole question that people sometimes say, well, I'm just good. I don't need God to be good. What's the fallacy in that argument? Well, the fallacy, of course, is that the kind of goodness that God requires to satisfy him is called perfection. Jesus said in the Sermon and the Mount, you are to be perfect as my Heavenly Father is perfect. And that's true with all law. And I ask people, look at it, if you keep all the laws of the country, all the laws of your community, okay? And then you, you know, rob one gas station or even just roll through one stop sign, aren't you still liable to, or are you still liable to that law? Well, yes, then you get punished for that. So law doesn't let you just get off with keeping half and not keeping half. Law requires perfection. And God's law is the same way. And sometimes I'll just run through what amounts to the Ten Commandments. Now simply ask them, well, I'm sure you're a nice person, but have you ever put anything before God in your life? Oh, sure. Have you ever lied? Yeah. Have you ever taken something that wasn't yours? Uh-huh. I did that with one gal once and she said, well, now you're making me feel guilty. Well, of course the point is I'm helping her see that she actually is guilty. She thinks she's pretty good and most people think pretty good rather than pretty bad. That line is just below where they happen to be. And what I'm trying to do is ask questions to help them to see that they're, they're plenty bad enough to be, to be under, to be guilty before God and to need the forgiveness that Jesus offers, to need the rescue that He offers through His sacrifice and the cross for them. And that sets up the opportunity, the bad news, so that the good news is good. That's Street Smarts. That's great. And I highly recommend the book, Street Smarts, again by our, our guest, Greg Coco. Greg, what's your website? Because I know there's a lot of great information on your website as well. Right. The organization I serve is called Stand to Reason and the website is the acronym S-T-R-dot-O-R-G. They're very simple and we really have thousands of articles and videotapes and short vignettes. You had watched some yourself. You mentioned that before the show. And it's really a, a great place to go. If you've had any question, any challenge that you faced, we've covered so much in the 30 years that we've been around to serve the body of Christ. So S-T-R-dot-O-R-G. And we'll have a link on our website as well, ctvn.org for you folks that are used to coming to our website. To Greg's website. Greg, thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for Street Smarts and thank you for showing us how to deconstruct some of those arguments and some of those, those things that are out there. It's been great spending the morning with you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Well, one other thing that's coming up that I just want to draw your attention to, there is a movie coming out. It's only in theaters today, October 5th. It's called Mother Teresa and Me. Watch this. You're pregnant, young lady. What should I do? Rest for a bit. Can you still have time to think about it? You'll have to have an abortion. I know. You can't click it. I don't know. I don't know what to do. I've got it now. Oh my God. Dipali. You knew her quite well, didn't you? Mother? Yes. Dipali. Most people when in total doubt just give up on their dreams. But she didn't. I need to take dying people off the streets. You have to give me a place for them. Now. Some Hindus might not accept you. They might suspect you want to convert them. If you want to destroy this place, take me and kill me instead. Do I need to know for Christ's sake? We just wanted to protect you. I was so wrong. I was so many things. I'm lost, Father. Why doesn't Jesus not love me anymore? Are you here to save humanity or just yourself? Faith might be obscured by the clout of doubt. Kavita! Believe without faith. Without love. Looks really good. Only in theaters today. Go to fathomevents.com. Fathomevents.com for more information. Amen. Lots to talk about, but let's end this program today with a scripture. Let's go to the Book of Colossians. It's so important to know this. Chapter four, verse five and six. Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Your speech must always be with grace as though seasoned with salt so that you will know how to respond to your person. You know, there's a lot of wisdom in there. We do need what he called street smarts, but to not just arguably disagree and make this contention all the time, but there has to be a way through the wisdom of heaven that you can connect with people. So guys, I was sitting there with a lady that I am, I love this lady. We are really dear friends, but we we disagree on probably 80% of, you know, religion, doctrine, politics. Okay. So she's sitting there and she goes and she might have been a little drunk. Maybe I'm not sure. And she said, I am so passionate about Planned Parenthood. And I was like, oh, I said, really, that's interesting. I said, what, like, how did you get so passionate about that? Like, what made you so passionate about Planned Parenthood? And she goes back to tell her story and her story was heart-wrenching. And I thought, okay, God, give me wisdom that my words would be seasoned with salt with her. And I said, listen, I said, you know, I don't agree with you on this, but I understand where you're coming from. And even if any of your friends get pregnant and they, they don't know what to do, I said, we'll take the baby. We'll take all of them. I said, we love you. We love your race. We love your people. We love your friends. And she was just left like, she didn't know what to say, Tom. And we just kind of sat in that moment. We didn't argue. We didn't fight. We didn't have a fall out. We're not, we're still great friends. But you know, we have to learn how to just be that light, be that salt. It, it, there is a time where the righteous are as bold as a lion. And there is like, we are, we have to take a stand. And there are times where you've got to use wisdom because this is a long-term thing where this person needs to come to Christ. And I'm in it for her to come to Christ. You know, I think you brought up a point that has just really been on my heart. I think a lot of times when it comes to things, a lot of times as Christians it's like us and them. And the biggest thing is if we look at the example of Jesus, that he was sitting around people that, you know, came from all different backgrounds. I think about if Jesus was here today, I truly believe that he would be at the crack houses. I believe that he would be outside of the strip clubs. I feel that Jesus would be among the people and there wouldn't be this place of judgment. There would be a place of love. There would be a place of let me get to know you and I want you to get to know me. And I think that's what is the most important thing. I'm going to go into this program as I was driving here to work. God just reminded me of a moment my friend and I had about a year or so ago that we went to this restaurant called Kaia. It's in the strip district which is a neighborhood that's here in the city of Pittsburgh. And our server that came to us, he had it obviously like a different lifestyle but we just talked to him. We just encouraged him and just had this really beautiful conversation with him as he was serving our food. And as we started talking to him he began to open up to us about his church had done to him and the bitterness that was in his heart and we took a moment and we said you know what we're sorry on behalf of all the Christians that have done you wrong that have spoken things to turn your heart and we said we want to stand in the gap today and ask for you to forgive us you see what we have to understand and realize is I think a lot of times we get this us versus them mentality no we got to come humbly we got to walk with love we got to walk with grace we have to understand where people are coming people are hurting and so we have to have that compassion we have to have that empathy we have to be like Jesus you know some plant and others water but God is the one that brings the increase and so today we encourage you to show that love to speak that light to bring that word of encouragement because you never know if you're gonna water or plant for someone to come to Christ on tomorrow's hope today learn how you can bring the transforming love of Jesus to your city nation and the world authors Stephen and Renee Springer encourage you to encounter God's love with a fresh perspective that will ignite your desire for a life of passion purpose and unshakable faith don't miss tomorrow's hope today cornerstone television wishes to thank all our faithful viewers whose consistent prayers and financial support have made this program possible