 Okay. Good morning, everyone. Good morning to the students online as well. Thank you for joining. All right, so how was your week? Good. Everyone's talking about books, right? Okay, so those online, feel free to just pull up the notes and just walk along with us as we are studying together. Okay, so as of last week, we completed chapter three on the notes. You see that power and love, right? We talked about how Jesus combined these two elements in his ministry. He walked in power and he walked in love. And so as believers, you and I must have this combination of power and of love. Okay, I'm only powerful and I can do all things. It's all sort of love, right? So when we minister to people, it should be out of love for people that their hearts may be changed, right? Now, if we have, if we think of it only in one way, right? I want to be a creature who can bring feeling and deliverance and do the prophetic. And if I don't have a job, the pause of fault rights, it's meaningless. It's not. Our ministry, the foundation of Jesus' ministry was love. And out of that, love came the power of God. So even as we grow in ministry and even as we are learning, let us be in a sense of quality in each one of us. That love of God will portray the power of God. Don't focus on the power of God and forget about the love of God. But don't focus only on the love of God and forget about the power of God, right? So we must learn to combine these two, like how Jesus did. Now, most of you will go back and serve in your churches, right? And when you do that, remember, when you're ministering, minister out of the love. When you do that, you minister the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the anointing that God has given us. Amen? Okay. So let's go to the next chapter. We're going to chapter four. Any questions? Any of you have any questions? Any questions? Any of you who are able to try to share the gospel, try to share the gospel with people? I know that the in-person students went with a couple of outrages, did they all do? Did anyone get an opportunity? No, I just gave the traction right away. Yeah, it can be scary at times. Sometimes we may have a lot of questions and we may feel, hey, this is not what I came for Bible college. I came to study the word. I don't understand the word. How many of you felt that? It's okay. Nothing wrong to feel that. So that's like this chapter. Next chapter is called overcoming inhibitions. What is the meaning of inhibition? Something that we must do, but we feel we should not do. We must do, but we feel we can't do it. Something stops us. I want to see maybe some of us here in the line as well. You want to learn an instrument. You've learned it. But something stops you to go and play in front of people. What could those reasons be? One. Okay, tell me. Insecurity. What else? A lot of musicians here. Shy stage care. What else? Confidence. Fear of making mistakes. What else? All of the opposite. You play the keyboard, so you should know. Initially you went inside the plane in front of everybody. What made you to stop going and playing? Initially, why you didn't go? Was it shyness? Confidence. So we all have inhibitions. But how do we overcome those inhibitions? Not all of us are made in a way that we can go talk to people and give out tracks. This is what Jesus did for you. Some of us are not interested in that. We want to only sit and worship the Lord 24 hours. I can do 24 hours worship, no problem. Don't send me for ministry. There are some who I can preach. I can prepare 100 summons and preach. Don't send me for ministry. We don't go through these things. And it's natural. Some of us feel like I'm doing children's ministry. So I don't want to be involved in these outreaches. We may have many reasons. But what we studied in the first chapter, God has commissioned us to ministry to people. Just now, how God has commissioned us to praise Him, to worship Him. God has commissioned us to preach the word in the church. God has commissioned us to walk in the Holy Spirit, to be anointed from God. The same way, God has commissioned us to share the gospel with people. Now, whether we like it or not, God will bring opportunities in our life to share the gospel. How many of you have friends or people around you, your relatives? They've got everything fine with them. And you've never got an opportunity to share. Anybody living here? You feel that you've never got an opportunity to share? Never got an opportunity to share. You never got an opportunity to share. What about people who you know that they're going through a difficult season? And you know that they don't know Jesus. Were you able to share the gospel with them? We have a lot of questions in our mind. When they said, okay, you lead the worship, I was very scared. Because the other people are much better than me. They're much better than me. What if I fail in this? What if I play the wrong chord? What if I play the wrong song? What if my voice doesn't reach that pitch? What if the congregation don't like the song? What if I miss the beat? I have so many questions. So I said, no, I'm not doing this. I like to talk to people, so I'll go and do that. But I'm making that, hey, if I'm not reaching my full potential, what God has for me, I have to overcome these inhibitions. I'll tell you something which I think not many of us know, but some of you, a lot of our friends and church folks know that. From the time I was small, till 10 standard. I never went on a stage. Till 10 standard, right? Because the stage failed me. Even now I have stage failed. I'm just not showing it. How's this work? Till 10 standard. Dance program, these children's. When you're small, you have all those singing programs and dancing programs and all that. Children's day program, teacher's day programs. I never went on a stage. It was too fearful. 10 standard, why I went on the stage to go take my marks card. Graduation ceremony, take the marks card and smile on a photo and I ran away from there. Now tell me, how can this kind of a person begin to learn an instrument and play in the front of hundreds and thousands of feet? It all started by overcoming those small inhibitions. Small. What will they think of it? Now it could be something very insecure. I was very thin when I was very thin. So I always thought, okay, I'm a very soft person. So I don't want to go on stage. People make fun of me. I never went. I had to come to a place to step up. Now the reason I'm giving this example is maybe some of us here feel I'm not called for this. But God is a God who wants each one of us to reach out potentially. It's like God is saying, I want to give you this. We're saying, no God, just give me more of this. Or give me this or give me that. So basically to be open to what God is. Even now, the other day I was talking to the team at the church that I know the way he is. I was sitting there and I had to lead the worship but then I had to even share the work. I've led the worship maybe thousands of times over the past 15 years. What about maybe 80 people in church? But I was sitting there and I was nervous. I was sitting next to him and he said, why are you nervous? I said, I don't know. It's there. It's something that I am, right? By nature, I'm a person who... But I keep getting myself nervous. Who God's called me for? Step out. Now this happened 15 years back. Now even after this class, Supernatural, I may look confident but it'll be there. But I know that God wants me to do this to bless people. And then eventually it goes away. So same thing with ministering to people. Eventually you may be nervous, maybe fearful. But as you keep doing it, it goes away. So let's look at this, right? Overcoming inhibitions. Reasons why you may sometimes hesitate to share Jesus with people and how we can overcome them. First one, not knowing what to say. Not knowing what to say. What should I say? This is because we may be ignorant of the fact of what the gospel is. So it's very important as we, as you and I as believers and we are getting into ministry, we must know what we are doing. We must know. If you are in worship, you are worshiping God. What are you doing? What is worshiping God? What is praise and worship? What is the point of praise and worship? What else? Adoration. All are right. The moment we think, if somebody asks you, why are you praising, why are you singing these songs? What are you going to say? If a person from a different faith comes and says, why are you learning 20 years, 3 songs? What will you say? Why are you all singing in such a way? Because Jesus is here. Who is Jesus? That's a normal question. Who is Jesus? Good. What will you tell Jesus? He doesn't want to know about Jesus. He wants to know why you are singing 3 songs with the instruments. You are doing worship. Why? What will you say? Expression of? No. Be confident. You do it everything. No. What else? Francis. No? What else? It's your way of worshiping. That's right. It's your way of worshiping God. So, what we are trying to bring up is, why are you worshiping God? We can say, okay, when I worship God, God's presence comes and fills me. And it's not about me. I am a changed person. The work of God is changing my life. And that's what worship does to me. So, I'm explaining it. Now, if I don't know what is worship, and somebody from another faith comes and asks, I'll say, I don't know. They told me to do, I'm doing it. So, not knowing what to say, is one of the main reasons why we avoid sharing the gospel with people. Now, don't keep this picture of only being outside. I'm on the street, or I'm in front of the mirror, or I'm in front of the car. It can also be to a friend in his home. You must know what to say. You need to be prepared. How did Jesus wash away your sins? They'll ask you. How did Jesus wash away your sins? How did Jesus wash away your sins? They'll ask you. So, what do you want to say? So, sometimes we may hesitate. I don't know what to say for this. So, better I don't share the gospel. What if they ask, how can God become a man? What am I going to say for this? I don't know. So, better I don't share the gospel. So, sometimes the fear of not knowing what to say, we will stop sharing the gospel. Now, we must overcome that. What must we do? We must practice, we must prepare. In the previous class, for the second years, we were talking about the ministry of the teacher. So, a teacher always prepares. Preparation time is very important. So, all of us must prepare ourselves. And probably after a couple of classes, we'll do for the on campus students, we'll do role plays. We'll do role plays on how to share the gospel. For the online students, you can join us there. We do role plays. But practice, prepare. Some of the ways I practice worship or preaching is I stand in front of the mirror and for one and a half hours straight just lead worship. Whichever song comes. Practice. Initially, I couldn't lead for half an hour. What is this? You're searching for the clock. Where's the clock? When will this get over? Initially. But over time, in practice, you prepare. There were times I'm just writing it off. It's been three and a half hours. It's been four hours. I don't know it. Why is this? It's an over flow. Right? It's from inside. Right? So, as you keep practicing, you will become better at it than anything. Even, you know, you guys are leading worship here. You're sounding good, but you can sound better also now. Right? So, by the time you're finished two years, I'm sure you're not going to be much better than this. Because you're going to practice, you're going to learn. And when you go out to your call to your churches, they'll see that you've been through. Why? Because you have practiced. You have prepared. Same thing with the church in the hospital. Be prepared with questions. Ask yourself questions. What do you think they will ask? Learn about other things. Right? Learn about what their understanding is. So, this is a little additional step that we must take. Right? Find common interest. Read a lot. How many of you like to read? It's on the task. Two of them like to read. Three of them like to read. Others don't like to read. Okay. Read. Right? Again, I was sharing with a couple of students. I was never a reader. I don't like to read. Right? One day before the exam, studying like this, go and write something and pass it on. Never a reader. But after I came to know the Lord, I knew that if I want to become a teacher or a preacher, God is not going to open the heavens and give me all the wisdom when I receive it on my own. Is that going to happen? God will say, go, sit, read it, and then I will tell you. I'm not going to spoon feed you. That's what God is going to say. That's not going to happen. So, if we want to become something and we want to become a preacher, teacher, worship leader, anything, we need to be prepared. Preparation is very important. Right? So, prepare yourself even as you minister to people. Let's read the first Peter chapter 3 verse 15. It's a common verse, yet it's a wonderful, wonderful verse. Now, let me give you a context to this verse. First Peter 3, Peter is writing to the church. They are both Jews and they are Greeks. A lot of them are very learned people. The Greeks are very learned. They have a lot of questions. They have a lot of ideas, a lot of strategies that are going on. First Peter 3, 15. So, Paul is writing to the church and he says, sorry, Peter is writing to the church. This is what he says. Yes. Somebody can read. First Peter 3, 15. The time for you to look back in the last hours, the next day or the last week, it's a different story. Be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in you. So, Paul is writing. He's writing to the believers, the very highly learned and he's also writing to those who are probably not learning. Maybe fishermen. And he's saying, D, ready to give a defense for the gospel. As he said, be ready to always be a church. Be ready for the worshiping. Be ready for praise and worship. Be ready for the super nice little hour. What does he say? Be ready to give a defense for the gospel. People will come and say things. They will ask you questions. Be ready. Know what you are. Know who you are. Know your identity and be able to give a defense. Two, feeling that someone is interested in the gospel. How many of you have gone through this? I have. Everything is good in their life. They don't need the gospel. Leave them alone. Now, it's a misconception of our own. We think they don't need it. But maybe they are hurting in some way. So, sometimes we look at a person, we see, he's happy, he's joyful. Everything is going well in their life. Share the gospel with them. But that is far from the truth. They may look happy. They may seem joyful. They may have the money. They may have everything that they need in the material world. But they may be lost inside. There may be an emptiness inside. So, we are not judged people by their outward appearance. Looks like everything is fine. There may be a reason for us stopping to share the gospel. But we look and we see that everything is fine in their life. But remember that everyone is searching for a purpose. Everyone is searching for meaning in the life. So, you can share whether they are fine physically, whether they are fine mentally, whatever it is you can share the gospel. Because it has everything going on fine in their life. You can still share the gospel with them. Because everybody needs a saviour. That's the job. We will also talk about some of the responses that we get back. When we are sharing the gospel there will be times people will accept. People will reject it. It's not new. Did they reject the gospel in the early church? Did they reject Jesus? That's a common thing. That's why Paul writes and he says they have years but they cannot hear. They have eyes but they cannot see the truth. What we are doing is we are presenting the gospel to them. We are getting offended. Let me tell you about my love. Let them say that. Many times people have said let me tell you about my faith. I have listened to them. When it comes to preparation many times if it's a Muslim that I am sharing with I will go back and read what about their faith? What is it that they understand? What is it that they believe in? So that I have some kind of peace out of which I can talk to them. They will reject Sean. There will be people who will reject. There will be people who will accept also. They will say, can I speak to you again? Or sometimes they may say I am not very interested now. I will talk to you some other time. You make it mixed responsible but what you are doing is you are sowing seed in your heart. See this song. This is what Jesus did. Remember chapter 2 we are not coming on our own or our own ability. We are coming through the gospel which is the power of God. So we are in this place of freedom. God is presenting the Holy Spirit to you through your life. So all through when we look at lifestyle in terms of evangelism you will have mixed responses. Right? But we cannot control their response. What we can do is we can put this seed in their lives. There was this friend of mine who was from a different faith. I would share the gospel room for years and years. You just not accept it. Years maybe 2-3 years of sharing the gospel sharing sharing. People who accept the gospel just not accepting the gospel. Right? Given verse after verse nothing you just go over him or he will not be interested at all. This one time I called him for a worship evening I said hey this is coming we need to go and we will finish the worship and then we will go somewhere. So he came Now during some song he began to cry. Right? After crying he accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? Now what has happened? For 2 years the seed has been in his heart. Now he may not have accepted it but the seed was sown years later during the worship there was some I forget what but 2 lines of the song minister did it just touched him said yeah this is what God did for me and so I am living a sinful life there was a conviction there was a change it didn't happen immediately after many years. So our responsibility is to put the seed of God's power. Right? Now third one field of rejection and ridicule Yes Yes Any of this people Yes There are a lot of responses right? There will be atheists, there will be people who are from Islam, Hinduism, Jainism Buddhism and a lot of them So to look at each one we will look in the coming chapters how we should share the gospel with somebody who doesn't believe in God There are people who believe in God we can start off you know God with this What about people who don't believe in God So that we will see in the coming chapters Okay And we will also learn, we will do some more plays Okay Fear of rejection or ridicule Yes He actually he asked me a question about why is it so basic I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't I didn't Yeah, thank you So Sean was saying that he has a friend who is an atheist and he was able to just share the simple gospel and just present it to them but not force it on them So let's go to comment here from Krisha who says she tried to share the gospel to underprivileged kids and distributed some sweets to get their attention and told them that Jesus loves them but one of the mothers came and said Jesus loves them Why doesn't he get them admission in a good school? How to handle such criticism So Krisha These kind of things will come Jesus is not somebody who we choose, we pick up from a prophet who can you know just give us whatever we need Now we'll talk more about this but just to answer your question like this for now, when we accept the gospel, when we accept the Lord Jesus does not mean that everything will go our way Now when we look at the scriptures the Apostle Paul and the other disciples accepted Jesus but what happened after that? Did they say oh very good believers please stand we clap for you They were persecuted they were beaten things will go the way we want What we present to them is not a Jesus who you believe in me and everything will happen for you What we present to them is you believe in Jesus and your life will be changed your sins are forgiven Now whether you go to a government school whether you go to a private school no school can wash away our sins What Prashat No school can wash away our sins So we are not presenting a Jesus who can meet all our nerves Jesus I believe you then you give me a good school or you give me a good car or give me a good house It is an overflow when we believe in him and we trust in him and his blessings follow us So please move with the other way When you are sharing the gospel this is what Jesus did for us It is more about our soul, salvation experience than meeting needs Yes he will meet our other needs but it is more about the soul the spirit what God does for us Thank you Fear of rejection and ridicule People will make fun of you We are living one young Christian that is the Christian of where he is going to be Why can't you believe us Yes All those things are there People say why are you sharing the gospel You just leave it You don't have to force that But if they are open to it please share If they feel you are coming on to us Don't share with me Don't leave it If there is already opposition You can't do much You can't say you are useless Just move on When he went into certain towns He told his disciples You go in there If they accept you, sit with them Drink, eat and be happy But if they don't Shake the dust off your feet So we just move on We can't hold on to Things like that That's the perspective we have Especially now in Christianity They say You get money from different countries You come, you build one school Then you will build one hospital Then the poor people will come You will give free education Free hospital care And then you will say become a believer That's far from the truth Right In Christianity We have people who serve But I don't think we have come to a place Where you say you do this Then you will get admission And then you can get into the hospital For your medical bills It serves the community But people have taken it the wrong way Which we cannot control They have to get treated Yes So So here's the thing As a believer That's why the first In chapter 1 As a believer You and I Should know our authority Right We may see things But what does the Bible say The Bible says greater is he that is In you Than he that is in the world So that would not affect you Of course You're not agreeing to it You look away It's up to you You see it also It's not going to affect your life Because you know who you are You know who's inside of you You know who's Working inside of you After this class I'll share a couple of instances Where It's quite scary But God is able to do that God is able to make us understand That who's in us is greater Than he that is in the world So knowing your identity It's important there So now they say Why don't you come here And meet me You can avoid those This is just for learning But it's not going to affect you Because you're bigger and greater Right There will be times People will ridicule you and reject you But we need to learn How to respond with grace Respond graciously People will say I don't like Jesus I don't want Jesus I don't want to be a Christian I don't want to hear anything about Jesus I can be your friend But if you keep talking about Jesus I will not come near you What will you say at that time? There are only people who will say that What do we have to say at that time? Respond graciously We don't say Okay You don't want Jesus I'll see you and your friend We don't do that We don't do that Respond graciously All I did was I shared What happened to me in my life How God changed my life If you're not interested, it's alright Just respond graciously Now the wrong way to respond is who are you to tell me Why India is a free nation Getting agitated, getting angry These are the wrong ways Of doing the ministry Let me tell you this One thing that happened It was a simple problem There was a prayer meeting There's a church There was a prayer meeting happening In a residential area So every three days of the They would meet And they are playing the tambourine And what do you call it The Congo thing Congo or Congo or whatever And they were playing the tambourine And they were having 30 minutes of worship And then how prayer and everything Is it good Is it good, worship, prayer and everything For us it's good What about the other people Right So what happened These people came and requested The family They came and said see you are too long Either reduce the volume And it's three days a week They requested But they didn't listen They said no this is God's world God has given us this entire world We have to make all questions We continued We continued again Next thing we knew The cops have come The police have come to the house Saying stop the whole thing Now is that persecution So on the video when we see it What do we feel That's not the pastor He told me the whole story So he said see they are doing this It's wrong God Has given us wisdom It's a residential area They have come and requested you You can tone it down Doesn't mean in prayer You have to keep screaming the whole time You can do soft prayers You can do soft worship nothing But he said no persecution Right So we need the wisdom People will reject People will ridicule us Know how to respond So I told this person Now if you had just lowered it You could have had your prayer Now not even one day in the week you can have You can't have it They won't let you Because when they asked you In a good way Your answer was not gracious As a believer The best thing to do Is to say okay we will Sorry to disturb you They are not at the church They are in a house The house is all next to each other So we must understand How to give Gracious responses to people Right Many people came And ridiculed Jesus What did Jesus do Some places he just talked to Let's read Matthew 10 Was 11 to 16 Matthew 10 11 to 16 Thank you So we see here Like the apostles Count it a joy When you are rejected And persecuted for the sake of Jesus The apostles Remember Peter and James They said count it a joy Right Paul is writing the letter Of the Philippians He is writing to the Philippian church And he is saying what Rejoice in the Lord Why are you so sad Why are you all moaning Why are you all weeping Rejoice in the Lord And where is Paul He is sitting in prison And he is writing So what do we see When people reject us Count it a joy that you have done God I have brought the gospel to them I have done my duty But I know that great is my reward In heaven Great is our reward in heaven Remember Each one of us Will stand before Christ one day To give an account of our lives Yes Nobody can escape that Paul writes with currency He says your works will be charged by fire And that which stands The test of fire You will be rewarded for that So if you have shared the gospel with somebody Maybe they have rejected you They have ridiculed you They have laughed at you You and I are so their joys Because great is our reward in heaven Imagine this Jesus saying You shared the gospel with this person They ridiculed you They laughed at you But you still continue to do it I am giving you a good reward for that Here is your reward Take it Christ himself Such a joy that is And people make fun of you And ridicule you Don't take it serious Don't say Oh really I am useless Better I go home People will laugh Imagine As you guys grow up Become pastors People make fun of you I leave the church and I go home I don't want to be a pastor You can't say that So it is part of the ministry Take it in a way That great is our reward in heaven Next one Being ashamed Sometimes we are ashamed And we deliberately hide the fact That we are Christians And we hide it from others This is your own Right We are ashamed to be a Christian How many of us are ashamed to pray With the restaurant when the food comes Yes I became a believer at all Everyone knew I am a believer But when you go to the restaurant The food is coming The praying for the food God I am praying Only thing my eyes are open But my heart Is for you Yeah Before you go to the restaurant Okay you It is a good dish But yes sometimes these small things Can You may be ashamed of it It is nothing exciting To front of people To pray about this Everyone are enjoying and drinking At a party And you are sitting at home Listening to worship songs Or spending time with your family Right People will say hey what We are not coming for the party No Oh Jesus will see you So people said I was working in IBM And I said This will also come We are going for a party Nothing to do Go drink I said no So why nothing will happen You at least drink water I don't know And now they made fun of me There were times Friends I want to go But I didn't like what they were doing So I had to make a choice They did make fun of me And there were times I felt oh I wish I had some friends And I was spending 9 hours in the office And nobody is your friend Because you have certain values But I stuck to it Right And I'm glad I did that Because it became a testimony later on But there will be times When people make you feel ashamed And sometimes we may feel ashamed But overcome it But overcome it by pray And saying Holy Spirit I know you are with me And the season of When I'm feeling ashamed You will help me to overcome it Maybe You are talking to your friends You go back and say what are you doing Don't say I went to Bangalore to look for a job Say you went to Bible college If you came here Bible college Don't be ashamed of Bible college I said yeah I'm God's kingdom I understand it should be so much bigger But they don't understand God has called you It's nothing to be ashamed of The Gospel Jesus is not ashamed of us So it's nothing to be ashamed of Right I don't want you any of you to be ashamed Of the Gospel People may find but you still stand firm With what you are With your beliefs Right We need to be bold We need to be unashamed We need to prove or brush Right We should learn to let people know That you have faith in Jesus You have certain principles And you stand by those principles Right Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you Thank you If they don't like it God will do it So we don't have to be a dude We don't say who you are to tell me I'm just saying But some of them in the group May come back and say who those go He has the opportunity So you don't always look at the negative things, but we look at what can happen through a situation also, right? Yeah, but I want to get this through, right? This is very important. Don't be ashamed of the gospel. Don't be ashamed of the gospel, because we can spend hours and hours in prayer and worship, which is very good. But ministry is not among believers only. It's to be a testimony to the people outside. And when we go outside, are we ashamed or are we able to stand for God and say, no, God, stand for you, stand for certain principles, right? So don't be ashamed of Jesus. Fear of mixing, okay, almost done. Fear of mixing with unsaved friends. Now there are times would be feel that, okay, I don't want to go with this person because they are not saved. That's very wrong, right? You can have friends who are from different faiths. Remember, light is more powerful than darkness. The light inside you is more powerful than the darkness outside, right? So picture that, have that in your heart and in whatever you do, do it in the right way. Light inside you is bigger than darkness. So it's okay to have unsaved friends, have friends who are from different faiths, people who don't believe in Jesus. It's okay to be friends with them, right? Nothing wrong. And when, even as you do that, remember, you must be willing to step into their life and minister to them. There will come seasons where you will get opportunities to share the gospel with them. So we do it with boldness, undershapen. Is that okay? So we'll stop here, we'll continue next week and hopefully we can cover good with our minds week as possible. Okay, thank you so much everyone for joining online. Have a great week ahead. See you next week.