 Okay. Good morning everyone. Welcome to another class. Okay, before we go ahead, let's just begin with the word of prayer. So can anyone just lead us in prayer please? Any one of us please lead us in prayer? Go ahead. Anybody? Father we pray that the time we spend in your presence will be a blessing and we'll be able to learn from your word. Help each one of us to abide in you and to understand what you're trying to teach us Lord. Help us to follow your footsteps Lord. We pray for possible even as he's unfolding the word with you. We pray that we will all be able to grasp it in its fullest level Lord. Thank you Lord. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you John. Okay. So before we begin today's class, just look at a quick recap of what we did over the last weeks. We looked at the urgency, the necessity of sharing the gospel. We looked at why everyone in this world, everyone needs a Saviour, whether they're rich, poor, whether they have everything in life, things of this world, yet everyone needs a Saviour. So we looked at that at chapter one. Chapter two, we looked at the sufficiency of the gospel of Jesus Christ. All we need to do is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we looked at many chapters and one important one, first Corinthians where Paul is writing to the Corinthian church and these are Gentiles who we looked at a little bit of the history of the Corinthian church as well with this goddess Aphrodite with 1000 male prostitutes, 1000 female prostitutes and this in between this place of sexual immorality and idolatry and all the sinful things that are happening. Paul was able to go in their midst and all he did was he said, I shared the gospel, the message of the cross. That's why he writes the message of the cross is both the power of God unto salvation. So what you and I need is just the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yes, God has given us many other options as well where we can share our testimonies. There are a lot of times people get saved just by maybe listening to a song, a gospel song. Sometimes people get saved just by hearing the word of God. So all of this is true and it does work, but we need to have our foundations strong. That, hey, the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ is more than enough to bring salvation to others. One of the things that I struggled with initially was just giving this message, Jesus was born and he lived a holy life. He died on the cross for us. He rose, he took up our sins on the cross. He rose again from the dead. It sounds too simple. How can it touch a person's life in such a drastic way that they will be willing to give their lives for this person, Jesus. But we need to be assured. That's where we looked a little bit about our identity in Christ as well, that if we know who we are and who we belong to, and when we begin to share the message of Jesus Christ, the gospel, that's where we will see the power of God. We also looked at how the word sozo in the Hebrew word sozo, which is a power packed word being delivered, preserved, rescued, saved from the works of the devil, and all of this is available to each and every believer. Then we also looked at the spiritual laws, the four spiritual laws. Now we did talk about it that even while we are sharing to people around us, people in our workplace or friends, we don't have to remember, okay, I need to know the points of the four spiritual laws, but you can be very open and use these things as guidelines to help you to present the gospel to others. And then we looked at the two-minute testimony as well, you know, if somebody is sick and they say, hey, you know what? I was sick many years ago, and I prayed to Jesus, and this is what Jesus did to me. He brought healing upon my body, or I was going through emotional sicknesses and emotional pain, and I prayed to Jesus, and this is what he did. He rid me of all my fear, and he set me free. Just a two-minute testimony, and when we share that, it's able to impact other people's lives as well. And then we looked at the third chapter of power and love. Now, just because, you know, we have the gospel and we have, you know, experienced the love of Christ, it's very important to remember not to mock other religions or not to mock people who are of other faiths. Why? Because Jesus himself set an example for us in the scriptures, and we looked at it. Jesus ministered out of compassion, out of love, and in power. Right? So when we look at the ministry of Jesus, yes, he walked in power, right, where demons and, you know, people who are sick were just healed. But he also walked in compassion, meaning he was able to, you know, have compassion on them. He said, even though these people don't believe, you know, he was the Messiah, even though these people were just following him because of, you know, healing or whatever, but he was compassionate. He did not say, look, you are not a Jew, so I will not pray for you or not bring healing on you. He didn't do that, right? He brought healing to many people out of compassion, and this is very important. As we all, you know, start off in ministry and, you know, already part of ministry, it's very important to have a foundation of our ministry out of love and out of compassion. Right? Now, if we start a ministry or we are in the ministry and we're doing it just because people should know us or we should become famous, now that is the wrong reasons to be in ministry. And we need to go back to God and say, God, help me, help me to get back to what you want me to do. Help me to minister out of love, out of compassion. The real reason for starting ministry is to have, is not that, okay, people may call us pastor or, you know, evangelist or whatever, or to be on the states, that's not the real reason. That is part of the calling that we have. But the real reason for ministry is because you have compassion and love for the people, right? And we also looked at when we have compassion, we flow out of that compassion and love, the love of Christ, we will see that signs, miracles and wonders will be a common thing. Right? And we also saw that, you know, nowadays in the church, it's gone the other way around. People are behind signs, wonders and miracles, forgotten to minister out of compassion and love. And so we as believers, and even as we serve in the church, very, very important, remember that when we flow out of compassion, out of the love of Christ, automatically we will see miracles happening in people's lives. We will see lives being impacted, lives being touched. We don't have to do anything, right? Because we are ministering out of the love of Christ. In last week, we looked at overcoming inhibitions, right? All of us also shared, a couple of us shared a few inhibitions. Some of it was not knowing what to say or feeling that nobody's interested in this gospel. Everyone are busy, right? They have work Monday to Friday, and then Saturday, Sunday, they want to rest. So everyone are busy, they want to disturb them. And then the fear of rejection, or ridicule, what if people make fun of me? What if people reject me in the workplace, in my college, or being ashamed of the gospel? And then we also look at other kinds of excuses of, you know, it's not my personality, it's not my responsibility, or I'm afraid if people ask me difficult questions. So all these inhibitions will be there, right? Now, I'm not saying that these inhibitions will go in just, you know, a day or so. There are certain things that will take time, right? And so we have to look to God. We have to ask the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, give me the strength. Give me the ability, you know, to help me overcome this. If it is fear, ask the Holy Spirit. Say, declare the verses of the Bible or declare scriptures over yourself. Say, God, you have not given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love and sound mind. And if it's maybe sometimes you may feel ashamed to say that we are Christians. So pray, ask God to break off all those chains. And then God will slowly, you know, the Holy Spirit will begin to liberate us. And we'll see that we'll be able to share the gospel and power in authority without any fear, knowing that Jesus is with us. So even as we go ahead from here, chapter five, what we will do is, you know, towards the end of a few classes, we will leave it open for discussions. We'll take probably time to hear from each other, you know, places where we have tried and we have, you know, and I will share times when I have tried sharing the gospel in a field and also times that I, you know, try to work on it and improve and try to know where I was able to share the gospel. So we will also take some time to share on that as well. Right. Is that okay? Any questions before we go to chapter five? Any thoughts, any questions? Shall we go ahead? Everything's okay? All right. Okay, let's get into chapter five. So now we look at all these inhibitions and all of that. Now, let's look at how do we get started? Right. We look at it's important to share the gospel. We look at what the gospel is. We looked at the inhibitions and all of that. But how do we get started? How do I step out of my comfort zone to begin to share the gospel? Right. Now, let's look at a few points. Now, again, these are just guidelines that can help us in sharing the gospel. First one, ask leading questions, which means what? Ask questions that will lead you to an opportunity to share the gospel. Right. Remember this. Jesus, he said great stories, but he also asked great questions, great questions. Remember the time when, you know, they tried to trap Jesus and they said, okay, Jesus, should we pay taxes? So what a wonderful answer, full of wisdom. Jesus said, whose face do you see on the coin? He says, Caesar. So give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Give to God, what belongs to God? He tipped it off with a question. Whose face do you see on the coin? So they had to answer their own question. They said, Caesar. So give to Caesar, what belongs to Caesar? Give to God, what belongs to God? Now, if I was a person, if I was there, I would have asked, what belongs to God? And Jesus would have, I'm sure Jesus would have said, you belong to God. Amen. Very important. Ask leading questions, questions that will open up, you know, an opportunity for you to share the gospel. Now, here's the thing, learn to ask good questions. Now, if we go about asking questions just to trap another person, how to find out how much they know about their religion or to ridicule them. Now, these are wrong intentions to ask questions. That's what the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the other, the High Priest, asked what they wanted to do. Remember Pilate, he says, are you the Son of God? What did Jesus say? He could have just said yes. But he says, why are you asking me this? Is it because you want to know or others have been telling you this? So he knew that Pilate is just trying to trap him. So very important, ask good questions. Now, when we ask these good questions, we will open up the person to their own assumptions. Right? When we ask good questions. So, for example, somebody asks you, hey, how do you know that Jesus is the only way? So we need to ask a good question. Of course, we have to answer that, but you can always ask a question back. Now, when we see in Jesus's ministry, he asked many questions, many, many, many questions. Very rarely, Jesus answered a question with an answer. He always, most of the time, nine out of 10 times, he answered a question with a question. Remember, even to his disciples when they were in the boat, aren't you afraid we are going to die? And what did Jesus say? No, why are you afraid? You know, the number of miracles I've done. You know, I'm able to stop the storms. Jesus asked them, where is your faith? So, good questions will open up the person's perspective as to why he's asking that question. Now, even as we begin to evangelize, maybe some of us have already been doing that for many years, but these are pointers that we can use. We must understand that when we begin to ask the right questions, we open up that person's reasons for asking that question. And this is a very powerful way that we can impact people's lives. I remember this young man, and this was a couple of years back, maybe about three, four years back, and he was an atheist. And so he would ask me, why do you believe he's a good friend of mine? Why do you believe in this Jesus? And so I said, why should I not? So I was always asking him questions. Why should I not? He's done so much for me. He's changed my life, and I'm happy of who I am. And so it was only questions. So I began to understand that the only reason he was asking me this was because he wanted that relationship that we have with Jesus, but he's not able to find it. And so he came up to the conclusion that there is no God. So eventually I had to tell him it's not an emotional feeling or it's not a physical feeling of accepting the Lord Jesus. It is about faith in Jesus Christ. And faith is not always a feeling. It is annoying within. So asking important questions will get you to make that person open up to her own assumptions. Now, another important way of asking questions is to find out if they have any knowledge about Jesus, about the church, do they have any church background? What do they think about Jesus? So for example, you're talking to a person from another faith, maybe Islam or a Hindu. A good way is to ask them. One of the things I realized is now if you're ministering to a Muslim, I would say 10 out of 10 will know about Jesus. They know about church. They know about it. We don't have to tell them who Jesus is. They know. Now, if you're talking to a Hindu, they may not know who Jesus is. They may have heard of church, but they may not know what Jesus did or who is this man named Jesus. So find out what knowledge they have about Jesus or about the church, about what's happening in Christendom. So find out, you know, you can ask them many questions. Hey, have you been at church any time? Or have you heard about Jesus? Or what do you think about this cross that you see outside the church? Now, I asked a person who was a Jain, I asked him what is the cross and he gave me a wonderful response. He said the cross means that the Christian should be there in that place. So I realized that, hey, sometimes we feel that they know, but they don't. So it's very important to ask questions. Find out what is it that they are believing in, what is their belief system and all of that. Now, there are different levels of questions we can ask. One, we can ask, okay, Robert has raised his hand. Let's go ahead, Robert. Professor, can I ask something? Go ahead. Professor, whenever I'm talking to any of the Hindus, like what they mean above church, they suddenly in their mind a Catholic kind of building comes, like white building with big, big cross and with idols. And then if I am approaching them to take to a protestant place, they might be thinking that it's another home, they are not able to accept it. So how we can deal with that? Yeah, that's a good question. So here's the important thing. Now, you don't need to worry about which church you're taking them to first. So you may be in any church. That's all right. First, what's important is you present the gospel to that person. Present it. You tell him or her what the gospel is. Because if we try to begin to explain to them about the denominations, now they're going to get completely confused because there are so many denominations. Now, what's important is you present the gospel. You say, this is what Jesus did. So you just present the gospel and then you invite them to your church, whichever church that you're going to. You don't have to go and tell them, okay, so this is a Catholic church. This is a Protestant church. You don't have to do that. You present the gospel, invite them to your church. And remember, it is the Holy Spirit who brings conviction into the person's heart. The most we can do is present the gospel, invite them to church. And then when the Holy Spirit convicts them, they will come at time. Eventually they will grow in the Lord. They won't be in the same level as they grow in the Lord. They will begin to understand, okay, this is a denomination of Christianity and this is another denomination. Now, the wrong thing to do is, I remember this one person asked me this. And the wrong thing I did was I said, even Hindus have so many denominations. Immediately I answered that way. And I just lost that person. I could not evangelize him because I said the wrong thing. I said, even Hindus have so many denominations, so it's okay. But I realized that, hey, I should not have gone that way. So my responsibility is to present the gospel. The Holy Spirit will bring conviction. And then you just invite them to your church. Now, there are different cultures. Like in North India, they have different cultures. South India, the church have different cultures. A lot of people ask, why is it that you're not removing your shoe here in South? But you remove the shoe when you go into church. North India women cover their hair. So all these are the practices. Now, the practices are different, but the gospel is one. The same. So what we have to do is, you present the gospel and leave the conviction to the Holy Spirit. And then later on, as they grow in the Lord, I would say give them a year or so. Give them time to grow. But if they come with questions like, okay, what is this? What is this denomination? Go ahead and give them simple answers. Try not to confuse them. But don't start off with the denominations. If you start that, because sometimes we don't know ourselves, you know, unless we've done a deep study of how these denominations come into being. So just give the gospel, make it precise. And that should be enough. Hope that answers your question. Thank you, Pastor. Yeah. All right. So what's this? I have a friend. He's a believer, but he has a liberal view on some homosexuality. So how do I reach out to him more effectively and some practical tips and script references? Okay, that's a good question. What's up? So, yeah, now with this, what is happening around us, it is sad to see that even, you know, this whole thing of homosexuality has gone to an extent where it's come into the church and the church has, you know, agreed with some of its teachings and some of the things that are happening. And it's a sad thing. Now, here's the thing. As a believer, we are not to live a homosexual life. Now, Paul writes the Romans, right? The Romans were involved in Romans chapter one. He says they were having men were having relationships with men. They were living in sexual immorality and it was all right during that time. But later on in Romans chapter three, he goes on to talk about God's judgment and how through this God brought his son Jesus into the world to find forgiveness of sins. Now, the best way what's to reach this kind of person is now he is a believer, but he's got this liberal view. So it is the work of the enemy, right? That's all it is the work of the enemy. But it does not mean that he has lost his salvation. The enemy brings temptations, brings wrong ideas, wrong thoughts, right? So our background while you're sharing with this person is, okay, he knows Christ. It's just that he's lost his way along the road. And so we need to help him get back on track. And so one of the things you can tell him is you bring verses where it talks about holiness, right? Romans chapter 12 says, you know, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you can give verses on Rome. If you read Romans chapter one, there are plenty of verses which talk against homosexuality. Then you can tell, you know, how God has called us our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. And so when God made us and when we become believers, we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. We don't need to go to a place, but the Holy Spirit resides in us. So that is a powerful verse that you can share. And you accept Christ, the Holy Spirit resides in us. He's inside us. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit. So when we do these things, when we continue on in homosexuality, Corinthians, Paul writes to the Corinthians and he says, do not grieve the Holy Spirit who you have been sealed with. So these are some of the verses that you can give a word, sir. Practically, you know, with the things that are happening around, you can go ahead and, you know, just try to find some time to sit and to talk with this person. Tell them that, you know, this is what it is. This is how God is. God is able to deliver you from this. Now, there will be times when they feel it's not wrong. It's not wrong to be in a gay relationship or homosexual relationship, but you hold on and you begin to tell them the effects that happens in the mind, in the body, in the soul when we continue these relationships. And then you can just bring out scripture saying God has created us as man and woman, and that's what he wants. That's his design. This is not God's design. And so we have to avoid it. Practically, it may take time, but don't stand back or don't take a step back thinking, okay, since it's going to take time. But remember, the gospel is the power of God. So practically, you can just, you know, go ahead and send some verses. You can send them songs. Maybe you can pray, prayerfully send them verses. Send them some songs that and pray that God will minister to them through those verses and through the song. So, yes, I hope that helps. What's up? Thank you. Okay. That's good questions. Right. So, again, while we ask questions, you know, the level of conversation, make sure it's appropriate, you know, getting to know the person is very important now. For example, you have a friend in college or in your workplace and they are an unbeliever. Don't go directly to them and say, you know what, let me share about Jesus. Don't make that mistake because I've made that mistake. I was so filled with zeal, but I did not act in wisdom. Don't make that mistake. Get to know the person. Get to know about their life, about their family, about their background. Where did they study? Where did they live? How many people in their family? Just get to know them. Develop good friendships. Now, you and I can speak into a person's life only if we have developed a good friendship with them. So, for example, I don't know a person very well and he tells me, you know what, Paul, you should not preach this way. You should preach that way or this way. I'm not going to take what he says because I haven't developed a relationship with that person. But if I've got a friend or I've developed a relationship with a person over like four or five years and he or she knows me very well, and when they speak into my life, I'm going to take it. And when I speak into their life, most probably they're going to take it because we have built a relationship. So remember to ask questions that build relationships. Remember this. I love this in Matthew 4. Just picture this. Jesus has just began his ministry. Now, here comes Andrew. Andrew is the disciple of John the Baptist. And all of a sudden John the Baptist says, hey, I'm not the Messiah. He is. Go after him. Now, I love that verse. Matthew 4. Andrew goes up to Jesus. What does he ask Jesus? He doesn't ask Jesus, are you the Messiah? Are you the one who Moses wrote about and David wrote about? Are you the one who's come? Are you the Lamb? Are you the king of the Jews? Nothing. He goes up to Jesus and asks Jesus, where do you live? Out of all the questions, where do you live? I love Jesus's response. Jesus says, come, I'll show you where I live. Jesus didn't say, I live down the road. Take a right. That's where I live. I'll see you later. No. He said, it's where I live. Come, I'll show you. And the Bible goes on to say that they spent the whole day there. Jesus began to talk to them and talk to Andrew. And then towards the end of that chapter, Andrew runs searching for Peter. His brother, hey, Peter, come, we have found the one who the scriptures have been written about. The Messiah, we found him. So in that one day of discussion with Jesus, Andrew was convinced that he is the Messiah. Now, it does not mean that in one day we can share the gospel to somebody and by evening they will accept the gospel. It does not mean that way. But what I'm trying to get at is Jesus took that opportunity of that question, where do you live? But he took that and he said, let me explain, let me build a relationship with this person. And he did so. And, you know, he was able to speak into that person's life. What about John chapter four? Samaritan woman, right? We know that Jesus asked a question. He says, can you give me a drink? And it all started off from there and then God, the Lord Jesus was able to minister and speak into that person's life. So asking the right questions is very critical in ministry. One of the things you can also ask is what do you do in your spare time? What do you do in your hobbies? What are your interests? Now, don't keep everything God related. And remember this, especially when you're ministering to people, don't keep everything God related. Just be normal. Don't act as if we are the ones who have just come down from heaven. Sometimes we may make that mistake, but don't do that. Just be normal. If your friends are watching Netflix and other programs, don't go and tell them, you know, if you're watching this, you'll go straight to hell. That's the wrong thing. You can always open up a conversation through that Netflix. Okay, I'm not really, I don't know what's, I don't follow Netflix and all of that, but questions you can ask. Okay, so your hobby is watching TV. What are the other hobbies you have? And then you're opening up that person to conversation. And then you can tell them, hey, I remember this, a young man, he was, he's always, you know, on his phone. So I used to ask him, what do you do on your phone? So he said, I play games and I watch Netflix. And I thought, okay, I was really upset because every time he's on the phone and he would be, you know, he was lagging behind in his classes. His parents would tell the pastor, please talk to him. He's not, you know, he's so addicted to his phone and all of that. But I remember praying and I said, God, how do I help this guy? You know, many people have, young people have lost that interest to study and have, you know, spoiled their lives with all these games and all these things that are around and, you know, on media. And I remember this thing, the chosen, I happened to watch a couple of episodes of chosen. I didn't really watch the whole thing, but I really liked it. So I said, hey, you know what you can, since you're always on Netflix, why don't you download this app called the chosen. And so he began to watch that and, you know, it really touched his life. So he's saying, he says, hey, Pastor, can you meet, can we meet? I want to discuss on this. These are questions that I have. Now it does not mean he's not, not watching Netflix. He may be watching that, but at least we brought the gospel in, into his heart, into his mind, right? And continue to pray that God will minister to him. So again, don't be legalistic while sharing the gospel. Give people time. Give people their space, right? Of course, we looked at urgency, but urgency does not mean like, okay, now we have to pray. You know, you have to accept now that it does not mean that and give people their time, right? Another thing that we can do is as we're asking question, get to know about their spiritual desires, right? Whether you would consider them spiritual or not. So for example, you're, you've got a friend, ask them if they're spiritual or look at them, you know? I had a friend, he wore rings in all five fingers on his left hand. So I obviously we know that he's, you know, religious. So he used to say, this is for good luck. This is for warding off demons. This is for, you know, no debt should not come near me. So one ring in each finger. And so I just knew, okay, this guy is religious. And so there will be people who will be religious, spiritual person. And there will be people who will not be spiritual, right? They don't really care about what's happening. So find out what they are. What are their belief systems? Find out have they been to church? You know, find out if they have heard of the gospel of Jesus Christ or find out what they think about God. Now different people have different perspectives, right? Even in Christianity, right? We get a lot of questions as fast as people ask us, you know? Why is the Old Testament God so angry every time? And then the New Testament God is so good, right? And so when we look at, I think you may be studying Old Testament survey this semester, when we look at the Old Testament and when we look at all the wonderful things that God has done, it looks like God is an angry God, but it is not. It is the mercy of God throughout the Old Testament. All through from Moses, from the time of captivity, from the Babylonian captivity, the Assyrian captivity. From the time God brings in these prophets, it is only God's mercy, right? And so when we look at it, it looks like it's, you know, God is an angry God, but it's not, it's the mercies of God that has saved his people. Imagine this, the Old Testament. The Israelites have come out of Egypt. What are you supposed to do? 400 years in bondage. They come out of Egypt. They're rejoicing, they're saying happy, thank God, God has brought us out. Just 15 days down the line. Not even 15, I think it was 9 or 10 days down the line. They are murmuring, oh, can we go back to Egypt? There was food there, there was this there, there was good food and... Now what would you and I do? I've brought you out of Egypt and I'm getting you into your own land and then you're murmuring, you know, God could have just wiped them off. He said, okay, you know, I'm done with you guys. But all through the Old Testament, it is God's mercy. Remember Jeremiah writes, Jeremiah 29, 11, the Jews are in captivity. They've been there for 45 years. They're living in sexual immorality and idolatry. They're living in complete sin. God could have given up on them, but it is God's mercy that he says, okay, listen Israel, I have a plan for you, a plan to prosper you, a plan to give you a good hope, to give you a good future. So let go of all the sin, let go of all the idolatry and all those things of the flesh and just follow me and I will give you a good future. It is all God's mercy and grace. Okay, so within Christianity, many people may have different ideas and thoughts of Christianity. Right, so ask good questions. A very important question to ask is, what do they think about after life? What do they think? Do they believe in heaven or hell? Some of them don't believe in heaven or hell, right? And it's interesting here, you know, some people say, why is there so much of preaching in hell? Yes, there is preaching in hell. It's interesting because Jesus, out of all the things that Jesus spoke about, Jesus spoke about hell the most. He said, we need to avoid it, right? So it doesn't mean that we all go ahead and only speak about hell. What I'm trying to say is there is heaven, there is hell, right? And so we need to ask questions, ask them, what do they believe? Some of them believe that, you know, the spirit will go and join with the souls in the heavenly realms. Some of them believe we'll just become karma, which is whatever good we have done. If you've born a Shudra or if you're born in the caste system, if you're born in any of the line Shatriya or any of those, when you die and you come back, the greatest aim is you should become a Brahmin, right? The highest form of Hinduism. And so if they don't become that, then the karma cycle goes on and on until you become that. So that's their belief system. So you ask them, why do they believe that, right? And then you can ask them questions like, what do you think? Why do you think there's evil in this world? Simple question. Why is there evil in this world? Why is there, why is there so much of, you know, innocent lives going? Why are people killing each other for no reason, right? I'm reminded of this story that I read. It's quite a gory scene, but it is said that this happened in 2005, 2006. I remember reading about this article where during those times in Saudi Arabia, there was a family that was caught with the scriptures and the Bible they were actually cut into two front of their children. And it became a whole new level of persecution started on from their own. And why is there such so much evil in this world? It's a question that we all think about and these are questions you can ask. Now, after asking these questions, you get an answer. We need to build on that, right? Now, everyone may say, okay, you've got your questions. Say, for example, somebody doesn't believe in heaven or hell. So you may not know what to say. Then be prepared. Prepare yourself. Go back. Read the word. Ask God for wisdom. So one of the things you can say is, you know, we are spiritual beings and you can build on that. You can say what the scripture says, right? That to be absent in the body is to be present with the Lord. And, you know, one of the things that we may feel is how will this person understand all these verses and all that? Don't feel that way. They may not understand. It's all right. Go ahead and give this gospel. Give the scriptures because God's word, He builds for a sharper than a two-edged sword. And it penetrates people's heart. So we should not worry. Okay, if I say all this, will it even make sense to them? It may not make sense, but God's word is able to. It's sharper than a two-edged sword. It penetrates their hearts, every joints, every marrow. It's able to change their lives. It's able to, you know, be a seed. We did a series in church, a couple of, I think it was early January, where it did the miracle seed. I forget when it was, but we did the miracle seed. How God's word is a miracle seed. And we share the gospel with somebody. It's like a miracle seed being put into their heart. And you build on that. You water it. Take care of it. You nurture it. And one day it will bear fruit. So you can begin to invite them. After you've asked all this, begin to invite them. Invite them to special occasions like, you know, Good Friday. Invite them. You can say, you know, this is what Jesus did. I remember about six years back, six, seven years back, I invited a Muslim friend of mine. I said, he intentionally wanted to invite him for Good Friday. So I waited, waited, been sharing the gospel with him, but nothing was going through. But I said, why don't you come to church on Good Friday? So I gave him the directions and I was waiting at the gate. I said, come, come to church. And then he came, right? He came to church and it was a powerful sermon. The worship was powerful, powerful sermon on the cross and what Jesus did on the cross. And I began, I went and I sat next to him. I was sitting next to him during the service and I began and sat next to him. And I saw that he was tearing up. He was crying. And I just let him be. I said, this is the work of the Holy Spirit. And I didn't do anything. All I did was six months of sharing the gospel. Didn't do anything. Maybe there were seeds in his heart. But that day on Good Friday service, he lifted up his hand and he gave his life to Christ in the church next to me. And it was such a powerful time. So inviting them to these special occasions, special services is very important. Preferably invite them. You can invite them for Easter. Has anyone told you about Easter? Or what do we do? Why do we celebrate Easter? There was only one person who died and rose again. And I remember sharing this with a friend of mine. I said, hey, you know what's interesting? You know, Gautama Buddha died. They found his hair. You know, Muhammad died. They found his teeth. When Jesus died, they just found an empty tomb. I just told him this. And he went home and he began to think of this a whole week. He said, what did you mean that they found an empty tomb? I said, they didn't find anything. Jesus, Jesus's hair or his teeth or his, you know, nothing. It was an empty tomb. Jesus rose again and, you know, was able to, you know, share the gospel. So there will be these wonderful opportunities that God can give us. Christmas again, wonderful time to, you know, bring the gospel to people. I think Christmas is the best time to share the gospel. The best time. Unfortunately, as a church, we have commercialized Christmas. We've commercialized it where it's only about jingle bells and the Christmas tree. And we've forgotten all about Christ. Remember this one time in Mangalore, we've been doing concerts or not concerts, but Christmas carols in maybe about four or five malls here in the city. And so we went and spoke to the manager of the mall and he said, oh, yes, yes, please come. He was not a believer, but he said, yes, yes, please come. You can sing your jingle bells and all that. I thought to myself, that's not what we're coming for. But anyways, he gave me for a second. Then I said, see, I want 10 minutes to share about Christianity, about what Jesus did. He said, no, no, you can't share about all that. I said, then we're not coming. The point is not for all of them to look at us and clap and say good and go. That's not the point. The point is the gospel, the message needs to be shared. And he said, no, no, you come. You sing the songs. We'll put a Christmas tree. You stand in front of the Christmas tree and all that. I said, without sharing the Christmas message, we will not be coming to do the carols. And then he was not too keen. He said he needs to ask. But eventually he gave us permission between the carols, 10 minutes, presenting the gospel. And it was a good time where people were listening. There was this one boy who came to church. We had book tables where they could take books and reading materials. So this one boy came. He came after the concert, after the whole thing. He came to me and he said, I really enjoyed this. I really enjoyed the way and that message that you shared touched me. I was so happy. Even if it was one person, it's all right. Sometimes you think you're doing all this effort and only one person, that's all right. There's rejoicing in heaven for that one person. So take efforts. And now that everything's online, you have some of us may look at it as a disadvantage, but I looked at it as an advantage. Initially it was like, what's happening? We need to get back to church. But then you look at it as an advantage. I began to send all kinds of links to people. Listen to this sermon, listen to this. And many of them have responded with a lot of questions. So that's the part where we have to spend time with them as well. So get to know their belief system. Robert says, many of my friends ask me, you drink wine. I say no. And they say, what kind of question are you? All the Christians drink wine during the supper. Okay. So you say I don't drink wine. Just tell them I'm a good Christian. Don't worry. Don't have to explain. Remember, I said that there are times you'll have to answer people. There are times you don't have to answer them. There are times you just have to let go. You know, if you look at history, Paul says to, he said to, I think it was Timothy, he said, drink, drink little wine. Now history says that wine, little wine and a lot of water was mixed. And he was with Luke and Luke was a physician. So they said that, you know, the physicians would give them this portion of the little wine and extra water. It was not to intoxicate them, but it was only to bring strength to the bones and strength to the organs in the body. Right. So it was as a medicine. Now it's not like now, right? If you, if you got headache, you don't have to drink wine. You have to just go and get a tablet and pray and drink it and be happy. So yes. So as I said, Rob said, you know, that people will ask questions to trap you. You don't have to answer all questions. Be wise, right? Be wise. Don't, don't, don't answer all questions. Tell them, Hey, this is my belief system. This is what I believe in. If others are drinking, that's up to them. Right. This is what I believe in. So you hold your stand. You don't have to explain everything to everyone. Right. Okay. So I think we've passed time. We will pick up this from next week. I was wanting to complete this chapter, but it's all right. It was good that we could spend some time with questions. Any other question? Any other question? Any other thoughts that we, that you want to share and we can close in prayer. Right. Okay. Can one of us please close, close in prayer? Jafina, if you're there, can you please close in prayer? Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. Father God, we come to the throne of grace. Whatever we have learned today, we thank you pastor. We thank you pastor Paul Emmanuel. Pastor, whatever you, pastor, we pray that whatever we have learned today, let it be in our heart and we should be put it into practice. Lord, we thank you for this session. We thank you for this interesting session, Lord. Whatever we have learned, Lord, whatever we have seen and we thank you for this session, Lord. We pray that whatever you have put in our heart and whatever the questions answer we got, we thank you for this session. We thank you for the Bible call us Lord today. If we have completed our one month's Lord, thank you for everything you have done to us Lord and all the people and all the classmates of Lord, in Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone. Have a wonderful week ahead. We will catch up next week. Thank you pastor. God bless, God bless.