Hecklers, Encouragers and the Humble

Ministry Update October 25, 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aaron and I witnessed at MSU last Wednesday. A couple walked by while I was just starting my message and I was talking about CEO’s of large corporations. The young woman started dancing as she walked by singing “I’m going to Hell, I’m going to Hell.” I interrupted my message and told her that she is headed to Hell if she doesn’t repent and trust Jesus and it won’t be all dancing and fun and games in Hell. The young man with her was also dancing and he yelled back “God loves everyone.” I told him that he needs to read the Bible, especially Psalm 7:11 and Psalm 5:5 which say that God is angry with the wicked every day and that God hates all workers of iniquity.

Hecklers

It was mainly a time of hecklers at MSU that day. Another young man walked by me and said that Jesus would never stand out in the open and yell (I prefer to think of it as talking loudly) as people walk by. As he was walking away I shared with him that Jesus said what you hear whispered in the ear, proclaim from the roof tops (Matthew 10:27). I told him that if I was truly being obedient to Jesus that I would stand on top of the library and speak from there; but since I can’t get up there, the next best thing is to stand in the open and preach from there.

Encourager

A young lady walked up to me while I was still preaching and she asked if I needed a hug from Jesus because I sounded angry. I told that I didn’t need a hug and that I wasn’t angry. We are just warning people to flee from the wrath to come. After I finished with my message, a man named Dale who was sitting on a bench in front of us came over and thanked us for preaching the Gospel in the open-air. He encouraged us to keep preaching, even with the hecklers and non-believers trying to discourage us. It was a blessing to have him encourage us like that.

While Aaron preached, a young lady walked by and cussed at him so he mentioned that we aren’t to let any filthy communication come out of our mouths and she started cussing up a blue streak as she walked on by. Later on he had a heckler ride around him in circles on a bicycle several times and the young man kept asking goofy questions. After a while I encouraged Aaron to just keep preaching and he did.

The Humble

Also while he was preaching a student named Houston came up to me while I was handing out tracts. He wanted to know if you have to be baptized after you are saved in order to go to Heaven. I told him that we don’t have to be baptized in order to go to Heaven, that we have to repent and put our faith in Jesus. I explained that we should be baptized in order to be obedient to Jesus and walked him through the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). But I told him that I believe we will see the thief who was hanging on the cross who repented and put his trust in Jesus in Heaven and that the thief obviously didn’t get baptized after salvation. Houston said that he never thought of that example. Then he thanked me and headed off to class. He was the humble one at MSU that day.

Then on Friday night Aaron and I were joined by Erica, Diana and Elise from his church as we witnessed on the square downtown. The weather forecasters were predicting rain from 6 pm to midnight, but instead the Lord provided us with clear weather the whole time we were witnessing. Before we started singing hymns, a young man walked up to Aaron, Erica and I and he wanted to know if you could do anything that you wanted to after you were saved and still go to Heaven (in other words, once saved always saved and as long as you said a little one time prayer, it didn’t matter because you would go to Heaven anyway). Aaron very gently explained to him that when we are saved we are a new creature in Christ. That God takes away our old fleshly desires and gives us new desires – godly desires. He walked him through 2 Corinthians 5:17).

The young man thanked Aaron and said that he really appreciated it and that he was very sincere in his questions. We could tell that he was. He asked very humbly and seemed very sincere. Aaron asked him if we could pray for him about anything and the young man said no. I asked him if he has a Bible at home and he said yes. I encouraged him to read it. The most interesting thing is that Aaron, Erica and I all three believe this is the same young man that used to hold signs mocking us a couple of years ago. I believe this young man named Jared used to hold up a sign encouraging people to worship a fish god. Oh, may God save his soul. May God convict and convert Jared. We’d love to see him some day in Heaven when we get there.

Then a student from Evangel University wanted to interview Aaron about street preaching. He told her that we were going to sing a few hymns and that he would talk to her while I was preaching. So we sang some hymns, she stuck around and Aaron let her interview him while I preached. There started to be more people coming to the square and since Aaron was still answering the young lady’s questions, I kept preaching a little longer than normal. When I finished a family came up and encouraged me to keep preaching the Gospel. It turns out that I had met them at work a few weeks ago. They were heading to their car Friday night because they had just left a Christian comedy show a block away and one of their kids said “that’s the Gospel being preached.” They were intrigued so they walked to the square and they told me that they were pleasantly surprised to see that I was there preaching.

After they left, Harry came up and wanted to know if he could ask me some questions. I told him sure. He wanted to know how God talks to me and I explained that God mainly talks to me through the Bible. He wanted to know why we trust the Bible when men decided which books to put in and which to leave out. I told him that God is sovereign and that every book that God wants in there is in there. That God’s word is true and that I believe every word from Genesis through Revelation.

We talked for over a half an hour and when Aaron finished preaching he came over and tried to reason with Harry. The young man basically believes that God is in everything and that Jesus is not the only way to God. Aaron plainly explained that if that were true, then Jesus is a liar and we don’t believe that Jesus is a liar. Aaron reasoned with him about many things and they probably talked for a half an hour. When Harry said that God is in everything I asked him if God is in those ISIS thugs who rape women and then kill them afterwards and he said yes. I said God is not for that. One of the main things Harry wanted to know was how could God be all loving and allow evil at the same time. Aaron clearly explained to him that God is loving and just at the same time. People try to focus on one attribute of God, but He is all of His attributes. I think Harry really understood that his thinking had been incorrect on this point.

Toward the end of the conversation Harry said that he didn’t believe that there was a literal Hell. I grabbed my Bible and read him the parable in Matthew 13 about the Wheat and the Tares (weeds). When Jesus explained this parable to His disciples, He said that he would have the tares or those who commit iniquity and have the angels cast them into the fire where there is wailing and gnashing of teeth. I told Harry that’s why we come out and plead with people to get right with God because Hell is real and we don’t want to see anyone go to Hell.

I exhorted Harry to read his Bible and to do so humbly. I asked him to read the Bible and humbly ask God to reveal Himself to Harry through God’s word. I also suggested that he ask God if what we were telling him was right, that Jesus is the only way to God. Before he left, I asked Harry if we could pray for him and he said that we all would pray. He reached out his hands to us so we held hands and all three prayed. Of course Harry prayed to God in general and didn’t pray in the name of Jesus. I told him earlier that John 9:31 says that God does not hear sinners. But at this point, Harry doesn’t believe this and he doesn’t believe that Jesus is the only Savior. In fact, Harry really only likes the Old Testament. So earlier in our conversation I had encouraged him to read Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 as just a couple of examples where the Old Testament points to Jesus.

We had a great conversation with Harry and we pray that he will humbly cry out for God to reveal His truth to him.  While we were talking to Harry, Erica had conversations with at least two or three different people. I didn’t get a chance to ask her how those went, but I pray that God will save those people if they aren’t already saved and if they are, that God will encourage them to share their faith in Jesus with others. If you are a Christian who is reading this ministry update, we hope that God will convict you to share your faith in Jesus Christ with this lost and dying world. We live in an adulterous and sinful generation. The days are evil and the time is short. Please share the Gospel with any and everyone that you can.