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0:31Because I go out to the campuses often enough to kind of feel the vibe of what's going on out there. And I would say probably 15, maybe 20 years ago when I started doing this, it was pretty different. It was easy for the most part to do evangelism on the campus. Went through a season where it became far more edgy and confrontational, and open-air preaching could get really snarky, and the kids were being quite aggressive. I don't know what's happened out there to the kids, but I know what's happened to me. I go to the campuses differently than I once did. I would consider it an irksome task to go someplace to say something to someone that they don't want to hear and that you don't really want to say is hard. But the Lord has changed my heart on this, and I think back to maybe 15, 20 years ago, we were talking. Talking about one of the conferences, Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron and Emiles Wayne, we did these conferences a number of years ago called Transformed, and I think I didn't realize we did. Hey, everybody, I guess I'll just start again. So, the pajama thing won't make any sense. When we were doing evangelism training years ago, they were called Transformed. We did about three dozen of these all over the country, and they were magnificent. Really, the content was spectacular because it was about based really on Ray Comfort's Hell's Best Kept Secret: the use of the law in evangelism to bring about the knowledge of sin. It's a schoolmaster, silences the mouth, brings the whole world guilty, it kills that the gospel makes alive. It's brilliant, and these conferences were magnificent. But if I could go back and do it again, I would add the element that I'd like to talk to you about tonight, and that is not seeing these students on university campuses and not seeing the world and not seeing your family as a task or the enemy or snowflakes, that pejorative term that I think is not all that helpful when it comes to talking to a generation. Because we historically tend to see evangelism like, okay, I've got to get really equipped for this thing. I've got to know my story, and I've got a WDJD, if you're familiar with that acronym, or I've got to get my My bit down because I got to get through the whole thing. And so I used to be like that, and I'd go to the campuses, and each kid, it was like, okay, kid, you're going to get this whole shebang, man, and you're just going to, and you're going to, I'm going to get there, and you're not going to talk. I'm just going to tell you what you've got to hear. And the Lord has just changed me over the years because I continue to see how lost these kids are, and more than that, how desperate they are for an adult to talk to them.

3:33And so now, when I go to university campuses, I still get in my stomach over the whole thing because it can always be a little bit iffy what's going to happen. But since I've started going to the campuses not to confront them with the gospel, but to do ministry, it has changed everything. If you would go back 10 years ago and listen to me evangelize to somebody on a university campus and listen to what's been going on these days, I hope you would notice a difference. And I'm not here tonight to tell you, well, do evangelism like I am. I'm here tonight to encourage you. If you can have your heart aligned to see these people in our world, not as political enemies, not as these ill-informed liberals, and just, you know, how we get so whipped up, the Fox News, you know, they just, they're like a bellow. And they just get us all just mad at everybody. These people are, they're just lost, lost, lost. And I have noticed on university campuses, I keep referring to university campuses because that's my fishing hole. We're going to talk about that tomorrow, by the way. But nevertheless, these kids, when I sit down with them to talk to them, how long the average witness encounter that I've been going these last, however long we've been doing this now, for the last couple of years, it's no less than 20 minutes. It's sometimes 40 minutes. And when I'm done, they look at me like, do you have to go? Because they are aching for somebody to care about them, to ask them questions, and not just sit there. I used to, you know, when they're talking, it's like, I used to be that guy. Uh-uh, uh-uh, uh-huh, uh-uh. And then I jump in so I can get them with my apologetics and teach them. And I've stopped doing that. And it's maybe not as compelling radio, but it's better evangelism. It's better ministry. And it's better gospel sharing to actually just ask questions and listen to kids and just let the conversations happen. It doesn't have to be bang, bang, and I got to get this. Okay, now you said that, so I got to deal with that so that I can get back to my WDJD. No, you get equipped, learn your apologetics. Learn how to evangelize, use the law, use the gospel, preach on repentance and faith, but just let it happen. And I'm telling you, the kids will listen to you. They drink it in. I can't tell you how many times I'll finish and I'll go, look, I've kept you long enough. It's hard. I already missed class.

6:20They just miss class because I sit down next to them on a bench and say, hey, can I talk to you? And they'll say, what about? And I say, you. I want to talk about you. Okay. And 40 minutes go by. And when it's done, they'd like more. My encouragement to you tonight is to get equipped. Let's learn how to do evangelism. Let's learn how to present the gospel. But let's have an approach to this that is not about winning a conversation as if we're cable news hosts, that we've got to get in the last word. We've got to trump them. We can't let them beat us. We have to have the answer to everything. We don't. And you can even see kind of their schemes to try to get around things. But when you look into their eyes and just talk to them, going to a university campus right now, it's like this.

7:16Oh, look at that every time. Yep, every time. There are very few times when the conversation has stopped. Two weeks ago, no, this was last week, on Wednesday, the young lady told me immediately she had autism. And she's a lesbian. Well, there you go. There's a combination for you. And we sat and we talked for at least 20 minutes. And when we were done, she said, so is that it? Is that it? She'd been on the campus and she had been assaulted by these open-air preachers that inform her that homosexuals are all going to hell. That's kind of their message. And women need to be at home. and ask their husbands for a vacuum cleaner. These are some of the open-air preachers that I've heard on these campuses. And she's heard these things. And that's her take on Christianity. So listening to this woman, and then she regularly brought up the homosexual issue. And by the way, do you know how often I talked about homosexuality with her? Nothing. Said zero because it's not the only sin in her world. And I don't need to enter into the hot button subject to talk about her other sins. And so this young lady, after 20 minutes, said to me, You know what? I just really needed this because I've been really judging Christianity based on just some of these people out here. And I really just need to be thinking about Jesus. Thank you.

8:42And I am not the sharpest bulb in the drawer. I'm telling you, you just care about them and they feel it. They sense it. And we don't need to rush and get to 10 witness encounters before we go home. If we can find one kid and invest in the kids, In their lives, which is why one of the things that I'd like to challenge everybody to consider: what's the name? There's a big school here in town. What's that called?

9:12Yeah, that one. What is it called? Texas AM. I understand Tom had just mentioned briefly there's a group who maybe wants to go to a downtown thing. Is that right? Y'all, get a fishing hole and start casting. And I would just push, go to downtown, go do some reconnaissance, figure it out, go to a university campus and set up shop week after week after week after week, and they will come and they will return to you with a regular presence. It will not be an irksome task. It will be the highlight of your week to go to a university campus. I just, when I left this last time, I have to confess to you, my heart has been really burdened about local churches when they've got a university sitting really close to them. I did a little Google for churches five miles within Kennesaw State University. It came up with 25, the list, or 25 churches. I've never seen one out there except an old Roman Catholic guy who's given away rosary beads. Seen him once or twice. There isn't a Protestant church to be found on the university campus, and it's just sitting there. And I would actually suggest to you, we're in TV, we do radio, we use all these. Media platforms, and I hope we get to use them for years. If that's going to shrink, and it might, one of the last places we've got are university campuses for any sort of free exchange of ideas, and it does not have to be combative when you care. You don't have to water down anything, it does not need to become mushy, it just needs to be tender and loving, and you will delight in going out. So, here's, for instance, what a church could consider, and I know we've got a bunch of different churches here. This might be something for you to take back to your church. And would encourage you, the whole church can get involved with evangelism. I believe that everybody needs to be evangelizing. We all have that assignment to go and make disciples. But if you can find a like-minded group of folks in your body, or even if you have to, because some of you maybe are like a Lone Ranger in your church, you have to find some other believers. I think it's better done in the context of your local church with their authority supervising it to make sure that it's good. But to go out, do some reconnaissance, take a look at the campus, study it. What's the traffic flow? When are the kids here? I can tell you Mondays and Fridays are bad. I can tell you between 10:30 and 3:30, the places tend to be swarming. If you find the right spot, you work with an on-campus ministry, you get permission to be there, you work with them. I would encourage you to find their attention through their stomachs. Bake things for them, bring them treats. And it could be something as simple as this: you put a chocolate chip cookie inside of a baggie because we want to make sure they're safe.

12:13We all have to be safe these days. You put a cookie on top of the man who split time, 22 proofs Jesus is God. Here, enjoy. And you hand it to them. And congratulations, you become a fisher of men. It's that challenging. It's not hard at all. There's nothing to it. And here's what I've seen happen: when I go back to the same university campus week after week, guess what starts to happen? I see the same kids. And guess what has started to happen? Now we've been going to Kennesaw State more. They're approaching us. The fish are jumping into the boat. We don't even cast. Sometimes they stand around, and now kids are standing around and they're watching me talk to somebody because of a regular ongoing presence can have a powerful effect. And one of the joys of this is you'll be preaching the gospel to kids over and over again just when they see you. I noticed this at Georgia Tech. Georgia Tech was not a fun place to evangelize. Nothing personal if you're an engineer.

13:21One of those brains, but it was tricky. It was really hard. I remember. Because you go to the same place regularly. We used to go there every single week when I was at InTouch, and a kid would come walking that I'd witnessed to who knows how long ago, and he'd just be tripping through, and he'd look up and he'd see me. And I went, It's okay, I just preached the gospel to him again because he just remembered the conversation. Other people will go, Hey, you're back, like they're glad to see you. I'm here tonight to encourage you to find a thing. It doesn't need to be my thing, it needs to be your thing, it needs to be your church's thing. If it's a downtown thing, rock and roll, but go joyfully, filled with great good news, making the most of every opportunity, which I think is exactly what Paul was on about in Colossians 4. He said early in Colossians 4, Paul said, Pray for me that a door of ministry might open to me. And so often I hear evangelicals say, Well, Lord, open up a door for me that I can witness to somebody today. That's not what the context is calling out to us. Paul is asking the Colossians to pray for him that he might be able to go someplace, that it would become easy for him to get there, that there would be an open door for ministry, not one-on-one evangelism. And I know that because later in the text, getting closer down to verse 6 in chapter 4, Paul says, make the most of every opportunity. And multiple times, Paul talks about an open door of ministry. So, for instance, Paul's request that the church would pray for an open door for ministry wasn't that he would have an opportunity to bump into somebody today. It's not the way he operated. He was praying that he would be able to go somewhere and do something for a long period of time without being beaten or stoned or thrown in jail. It would be as if, let's just say, your church was trying to go to downtown and there were permits and there were councilmen that are getting involved and they're trying to shut it down, praying that the Lord would open that door so that you can go and do ministry. That's what Paul was praying for. Not, Lord, please give me somebody to witness to today. Because the only thing that you need to have that prayer answered is to walk out of your house. And there are people, I think, we have a tendency to just hope that they're going to bump into us or they're going to see a look on our face that causes them to go, Could you tell me about the hope that lies within you?

16:11It doesn't actually remember. Sorry, I'm having a memory. Kirk Cameron, years ago, when we worked together, he talked about he was doing a movie or something, and they were on a bus, and he was with the co-star, and they were driving to the location. And he wanted to have an opportunity to witness, and he wanted her to ask about the hope that lied within him. So he tried to kind of put this look on his face. We'll just make him look so nice. And she looked at him and said, Are you okay?

16:50We don't need to wait for people or to pray to God, frankly, for the opportunity to open a door. I think, down in verse 6, when Paul commands us, make the most of every opportunity, we just need to be obedient to it. So, my question for you tonight and tomorrow, in part, would be: what's your thing? What's your thing? How are you intentionally going about the business of finding somebody to evangelize? I've got my thing, okay? And that doesn't have to be. Ray Comfort has his thing.

17:24Do some reconnaissance on you. What can you handle? And by the way, if you're just getting started with all of this, and the whole idea of sitting down and talking to somebody just gives you the shakes, I get that. As T mentioned, all you need to do is just leave this someplace. You don't even need to tell them. Just leave it. And that's a start. And at least your participants, put it in a, I was going to say phone booth. Do they even have phone booths anymore? Okay, so leave it by somebody's cell phone. Or just.

17:57Okay, this is called 13 Reasons Why You Should Not Committee. Suicide. Do you think the kids might be interested in talking about this? It's as simple as this. Hey, I wanted to share this with you. Do you know anybody who's ever thought about taking their own life? Have you? And you're going to be shocked at the number of kids who go, Yeah, actually, I have. And your door is kicked wide open because you took the most of every opportunity. If you go to a university camp, it's funny because sometimes a church will invite me to go, and then they just want to go do some open-air preaching or something. And it's like, I, I've got to go check the place out. I've got to see it. I've got to know where the kids are. What are they doing? How busy are they? Open-air preaching, by the way, has gotten harder. Do you know why? Earbuds. Now they just walk by, even with a crowd gathered. They just kind of walk past and don't even notice. But I like to go figure out: okay, where do I feel comfortable? Where can I handle this? Where can I actually not be, you know, the police might be coming or I might get shut down. Do reconnaissance and figure out what works for you. Is it a neighbor? Is it a loved one? By the way, if you've been trying to evangelize a family member and it's not been going great, because perhaps you're still in cage stage, you all know what cage stage is, correct? Yes, you know. It's when you should be locked in a cage because now you understand theology better and everybody's going to understand it better. Like you do, or else, and you should be put in a cage until you calm down, and you can be let out again. Otherwise, you're going to wreck every relationship in your life. No more family Thanksgivings. You don't have to worry about it because you don't get invited anymore. So, if those conversations have been this, I would just encourage you to not perhaps be so anxious about them. And while there should be an urgency with evangelism, at the same time, it might not even be possible that you get through the entire gospel presentation in one sitting. It's okay. It's okay. It's good if you can. It just, you don't have to. We'll just pick it up another time. Two weeks later, do you remember when we were talking about calm down about the irksome task? See them as lost people who would actually love to have somebody care about them and start the conversation. It's the hardest part of the whole shebang: starting the conversation. Use what you've got, use what you have in common, use what's in the news. You want to know what I think is one of the best? You want to get conversation going? I just read one from a guy who's working in the UAB.

20:49He evangelizes to people over at the United Arab Emirates. And he said, What did I call it? UAB, what did I call it? UAE. Yeah. And he said, His question is: Hey, do you know what evangelicals believe? I went, I'm taking that on a plane. Hey, I'm curious. Do you ever hear about evangelicals? Do you know what they believe? You're there. Right there. Think of ways to just start the conversation. Hey, do you know what Easter is about? And by the way, it can be at Christmas time. It doesn't matter. Do you know what Easter is about? And you are in the heart of the gospel with somebody. Push through the fear, but be encouraged that it doesn't have to be a battle anymore. It doesn't have to be a cage match. Make the most of every opportunity and get started. What I'd like to do now is to show you. Let's show Joe.

21:54I'll tell you the backstory to Joe before you see the ending. Now, this, by the way, was edited. This was about 30 minutes edited down to about 12 or 15, something like that. How long is it? It's 20 minutes long. You know what? Jump about 10 minutes ahead. Go to the middle of this. Because you'll just have to trust me. We're talking. And I think I asked Joe, what are you studying? Why do you want to do that? And the next thing you know, we're into the gospel.

22:27This was edited to boot. And Joe then. Later told me, he said, by the way, I've got to tell you about Joe. Joe was kind of a big, he was kind of a scrappin' boy. And when he came walking, I think it was Jack Carlson said, Jim, go witness to him. You know, it's easy for the camera guys, go witness to him. So I looked at the kid and I went, oh, he looks mad. He just looks like something bad as he just broke up with his girlfriend. But I did. And when it was done, he said, I don't know what's going on. He said, because yesterday I was invited to a Bible study and I said, no. This morning, my roommate said, hey, will you come with me to a Bible study later this week? And I said, no. And he goes, then I ran into you.

23:13And this is about 10 minutes in. This is Joe. You'll pick up on the conversation. All the evidence is in. And the judge says, but you know what? I'm merciful and I'm really nice, so I'm just going to let you go. You wouldn't like that, would you? Well, I guess not. Especially if he wasn't sorry for what he had done. Even if he were, let's just say, the guy said, look, Judge, I'm really, really sorry. And the judge said, okay, you're sorry. I'll let you go. That wouldn't be right either, would it?

23:58Yeah, I guess not. There has to be a lot of people. To be some form of punishment if what he did was really bad, and you know, yeah. Well, the punishment should match the crime for sure, but if he's a lawbreaker, there must be some sort of fine, some sort of penalty, some sort of payment that is due for the law-breaking, regardless of the level, correct? Yeah, I would agree with that, yeah. Might I suggest to you, Joe, that reminds us again that God exists, because the reason that you and I think that way about things like justice and righteousness and what is good and bad reminds us again, we have court systems because there's a heavenly court system, there's a judge on earth because there's a judge in heaven. It's kind of where we get our thinking on all of these issues. It just reminds us that God exists. So, if God is a judge and he opens up the books, let's just say on you for a moment, he takes your life, calls you up, he opens them up, and he knows everything about Joe. Everything. Okay, not just the stuff that he got busted for, but the stuff you don't want your parents or anybody on campus to know about. He knows it all, all right? And he is just, and he is holy, and he is righteous, and you deserve his punishment for breaking his laws. All right, you got the scene, God's about to slam the gavel and sentence you, a guilty criminal, to hell because you've broken his laws. Joe.

25:32What would you say to God in that moment? Well, I would say, I guess I'm sorry. Too late. Yeah. Thanks, I guess. Thanks for watching what I'd say. All right, so here's what we've got: God is holy, He's righteous, He's just. He must punish lawbreakers. You and I are lawbreakers, so He will punish us. But God is rich in mercy, and He delights in forgiving sinners. But here's the tension in our scenario: if a judge just forgives the criminal, He's not just, so He would be violating what it is that He has sworn to uphold. If God just let guilty criminals go, He would be actually violating His own nature. He can't do that because He's righteous and He's holy. So He must punish lawbreakers, but He's rich in mercy. So we feel some tension here. He wants to forgive the guilty criminal, but something has to happen. Justice has to be satisfied.

26:43God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to take on human flesh to live a perfect life. He never sass-mouthed His parents. He never stole anything, never lied, never looked at porn, never looked with lust, lived a righteous life. Died, was executed by the very people he had created, died a brutal death on a cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven because he was doing something. He was satisfying justice. God, Jesus Christ, satisfies justice on your behalf. And now you can be set free because of what Christ has done. That is how God can be just and the justifier of those who believe in him. So now he satisfied justice, and now he can grant forgiveness because of what Jesus Christ did on your behalf. That is the good news of the gospel. That Joe the criminal can be adopted into God's family because of Jesus Christ the Son. That's the good news of Christianity. Do you agree with that? I would agree with that, yes.

27:52So now my question is: Joe, this is important. You're a thoughtful guy. Think this through carefully. The devils believe that. They know he did that, right? But they're still devils. So we can, but we can get it. Oh, yeah, okay. Jesus did that. The Bible says that you must repent, knowing that God sent his Son to die for you, demonstrating his kindness. It should cause you to turn from your sins, not in perfection, but it's like, man, I don't want to keep doing those things anymore. I want to put my trust in Jesus Christ because he's the best thing in the universe. He died for me while I was an enemy. Well, I was sinning. He died for me. I want to put my trust in him. The Bible calls it being born again. Jesus said it. A man must be born again to inherit eternal life. It means a man must come to the end of himself and realizing I'm not a good man, I'm an evil man, I'm a bad man, I deserve God's wrath, but he sent his son to die for me. And you turn from your sins and you put your trust in Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be born again, to go from spiritual death to spiritual life.

29:00Joe, have you done that? Have you been born again? No, I don't think so. I don't think I've been, I haven't felt like I've been born again, you know. I think I've been basically the same my whole life. So, you know, yeah, I haven't had that feeling, but hopefully I do one day, you know. So, why one day? Because I feel like I probably need it. I probably, I mean, I haven't fulfilled it, I haven't done, you know, what I feel like I've been what I need to do, you know, for God and for Christianity. I haven't done my part. I feel like, um, yeah, but.

30:03Yeah, I hope. Yeah, I hope that. Yeah, I don't know. Can I just grab a little piece of something you just said? You hope to do your part for him someday. I just want to tweak that a bit. What I just said to you, Joe, is you don't play a part in it. Jesus does. He's the one who plays the part. He's the one who does everything to satisfy the wrath of God for you. You don't do anything but throw yourself at his mercy, and he forgives you totally. You don't do anything. You don't clean yourself up. You don't start doing good things, giving away your money to please God so that you can get his forgiveness. It's all been done. Remember when Jesus was on the cross, right before he died, he said, it is finished. It's done. The debt has been paid totally in full for you. The work is done. You just need to surrender to your king, put your trust in him, and now you live your life in service to him, not to appease him, not to make him love you. You're already loved in Christ, and that's why you go about serving him, because he's loved you first. That's Christianity. That's why it's called good news. We do works not to be forgiven. We do works because we've been forgiven.

31:30It's like somebody came and said, I've done all the studying for you. You're great. So you've got an A plus. Just trust it. Just rest. What would you think of me if I offered you A pluses because I did the work for you? You'd be pretty happy with me. All right, this is a little bit more than doing homework for you. This is God dying for you, taking the wrath that you and I deserve for being lawbreakers. We're the criminals. We're in the shackles, and Jesus Christ sets us free. That's the good news of the gospel. So, Joe, look, I just met you, but right now, salvation is standing in front of you in Jesus Christ. Today is the day of salvation, not next Thursday. Don't put it off. And it's not because you should just be worried about going to hell. That's a reasonable consideration that you would die and go to hell. That would be awful. But that's not what Christianity is primarily about. You shouldn't put your trust in Jesus simply because you're afraid of going to hell. You should put your trust in Him because He saved you from hell. It's the kindness of God that should lead you to repent, to turn from your sins, and put your trust in Him and be forgiven by Him. And then your whole life, look, you're going to still study what you're going to study to become a teacher in history. You're going to get married. God will give you kids. All sweet and cool. But you're going to be doing it for Him because He's the one who died for you, because He's the best thing in the universe. So, this is an offer. Not just a fire escape plan, but to be in a right relationship with your God.

33:07So now I'm walking away. I'm probably never going to see you again, most likely. But right now, you know the truth. And I would simply beg you, don't let the day pass. I wouldn't let the hour pass. Either throw yourself at his mercy, be forgiven, be adopted into God's family, or just reject him outright. But don't play around with it because he's not an option. He said, I am the way, the truth, the life. Nobody comes to the Father but through me. He's not just your life raft. He's the captain of your salvation. And he's good. And he's kind, and he's benevolent. He's been very kind to you in keeping you alive. He should have squashed you. He should have squashed me. I was a very bad man, but he's kept us alive. And now you know the words of life. And so it's sitting here for you today. Respond to it. Just call out to God. Talk to God. That's all. All right.

34:06Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I appreciate that. You tell me that. Yeah. Yeah, I need to. But, yeah, I appreciate that. Whew. Yeah. All right. Can I pray for you? Yes, yes, please. Dissect what I was saying to him. I mean, if we want to do like bad open-air preaching, you're on a highway to hell. You are going to bake like a cookie for the rest of eternity. That's what we were talking about. Didn't feel that way, did it?

34:54Didn't feel like this was bang, bang, bang evangelism. And I think the difference might just be twofold. One, the Lord has worked on my heart. And second of all, I think the current culture that we live in, people are needy, and they are happy to let you pour into them and ask them hard questions. So, my question again is: where's your fish and hole? Who are the ones that you want to reach? And I would like to share with you some of the blessings of doing something like this on a regular basis. I truly encourage you.

35:33There's been a great movement in evangelical Christianity, really, Ray Comfort, has almost single-handedly reignited biblical evangelism in this country, where we go out to find people, not to just invite them to church, which is swell, but technically that's not evangelism. That's inviting somebody to church. Evangelism is going and actually speaking to people about it, and there's been a lot of that. Unfortunately, a whole lot of lonely. Ranger Christians out there doing a whole lot of ministry without it being underneath the auspices of the church. We need that because it will keep you in line, it will make sure that you're not saying anything bad, it'll provide things for you: oversight, prayer support, resources if necessary. Try to work with your local pastor to see if you can do your thing, whether it's you by yourself or with other people, underneath the authority of your local church. Are you happy I said that, Tom?

36:35You better believe it. It's true. I don't know if you remember. Anyone see the video? A Lady Gaga was coming to do a concert, and there were some open-air preachers there to preach to the Lady Gaga attenders. And Lady Gaga herself drives in, rolls down the window to have a chat with them. She sticks her head out. Hi, boys. They berated her, calling her names and just informing her she's going to hell and she's taking all these people with her. We need to repent. And I went, oh, wow. I can tell you, they aren't a member of a local church.

37:16Because a good local church would not let shenanigans like that go on. We really need evangelism done in the context of the local church. And if you can with the local church, and this can take time, don't get frustrated. Let's take it, it takes all of us kind of a while. To get ignited to evangelism. So be patient, but if you can, I've actually listed 20 benefits for your consideration. If you are weary of the insanity that is going on in our country, and I suspect you just might be, evangelize somebody.

37:50We've got enough political pundits to deal with the issues. We need Christians preaching the gospel. No country will ever float without Christianity, and nobody, furthermore, is ever going to be saved without Christianity. So if the culture is making you a little crazy, take that energy and funnel it into evangelism and figure out a fishing hole. Find somebody to share your faith. Get started passing out a gospel booklet. You can put something like this in your bills when you send back the payment. Just get into the game because that is what a nation needs.

38:30We need a lot of things, but more than anything, the gospel. Number two, the liberals own universities. And we have a tendency to think about education and go, duh, the libs got it. Yeah, you're right, they did. And I don't know that we're going to be getting it back in the classroom anytime soon. But guess what? We can be on the sidewalks and we can be walking around and we can be talking to kids. I can't stress this enough. If there's anybody in here who is perhaps being stirred, you go to Texas AM next week, before finals hit, by the way. You don't want to be distracting the kids, they get a little busy. But you go to Texas AM and just walk around the place. Maybe have a booklet, something that you think resonates, a gospel, something, anything, don't bring anything. And you just, you'll see some kids sitting on a bench, sit next to them. Hey, how are you doing?

39:27I'm from the local church down the street, and I just came out to the campus because I just thought maybe the Lord would have me bump into somebody. How are you doing? And I'm telling you, you will be shocked at what happens. Maybe in part it's because the millennials are way polite and they don't want to offend. Find, use it to your advantage and talk to them. You'll be shocked. We can take back the university campuses, maybe not the classrooms, maybe not the curriculum, but the souls, the harvest is so white and it's just waiting for us.

40:03The door is open. You just have to do the paperwork on a university campus. This is kind of the beauty. If a church can get involved, if your church can figure this out, just think about all of the people who can get involved in evangelism. And please note, we're all responsible to do evangelism and share the gospel. Nobody gets off the hook for that. But when you do it as a church and when you do it as a group, let's say you do want to go to Texas AMM. You've got to get permission to be set up out there, to have a table, let's say, with stuff. Well, who's the one who's the smooth talker in your church who gets stuff like that done? They get to work on it. They come back, we got it, we've got permission. All right, who's the organizer? Who's the one who loves to put this together? Who's the baker? Who's the one who's going to make 200 cookies every week to pass out to the kids? Who is going to take care of the transportation? Who is going to be doing the praying for this endeavor? Look at the body, just suddenly, is functioning like crazy. And guess what? You're all doing evangelism together. It's not necessarily the one, it's not like, okay, I'm there, but there's other people involved in this. We are all doing it together. Somebody's got to go into the well, true, but somebody's got to hold the rope. And there are going to be a lot of people holding the rope. And if you're terrified at the thought of going to a university campus, then just go to give away cookies and booklets. That's all you're there for. That's it. That's our first goal for the first six months. We are just going to give away cookies and gospel booklets. But I'm telling you, I know that if you're just kind to them, they're going to stop and talk. Hey, you know what? This is the second time I've seen you. Is there anything that I could pray for you about? Do you want me to do that now, or do you want me to do it? Would that be weird for you? Because I can do it in other, you know, I'll do it without you. But just tell me what's on your heart. You're Going to be shocked at what can happen on a university campus. The whole body working together. Kids will get saved. There's a bonus. You'll be doing regular ministering. How far away is this church, Tom, from Texas AM? Like miles?

42:18About five miles. Would that be considered like a reasonable? Like, can kids go to church here? Okay. This is a church grower because kids should be not just going to university and campus ministries. They need to be in a local church. And let me tell you, that's a blessing that you could be mentoring somebody for the entire year. The entire church will be blessed. Fervency of prayer will increase. This is whether it's the church or just you. You want to know when I pray a lot on my way to a university campus because you need it. And you'll be praying more. And if you're doing it together as a church, boy, what if you're praying for these people? Hey, this week we met three people at Texas AM, and we want to be praying for these kids because we were able to share the gospel with them. So let's be praying for these kids. We're going to be going out again next week. Let's be praying for the team. And wow, you could just be kindling just a little bit of an evangelistic fervor right inside of your congregation. Your fervency of study will increase. You need to know what you know. You will know your gospel better. And by the way, the kids. Need to know the gospel. They don't have a clue what the gospel is, y'all. I mean, it is staggering.

43:37Even some of these kids, quite honestly, that you go, you know, I think they could be saved, you know, after you go through it, but you just have to keep, you know, okay, so you're standing before God. He's going to sentence you to hell. What might you say? Hey, wait, Jesus died on a cross, right? Yeah, yeah, that's what you are supposed to be believing in. And you just, you know, have to go in and drag it out of them because they don't know it. And they can't articulate it. And you need to know the gospel to be able to share it with them. I had a chance to talk about that. I think we talked about that this morning. Were you in the session this morning? No. Oh, you weren't? Oh, fine.

44:23It was really good. Just talking about making sure that we understand the distinction between the law and the gospel, that we don't become moralists and Pharisee preachers, but that we're gospel. We use the law lawfully, whether it's with our kids or in evangelism. We don't just use it as a moral standard. We don't do it so that we're behaved and we get better grades. No, the law rightly applied should grind your kids to powder. And then the gospel is what brings in the balm for them. So you'll know the gospel better because you have to explain it to them. Fervency of fellowship can increase. Your love for Jesus. Jesus will grow. Tom, I just, I'll tell you, I'm taking that back with me. What you started out by saying is you can't ask for more than a pastor who stands up in front of a room full of guests and says, Let me tell you about our church. We love Jesus here. That's really sweet. And you'll love Jesus more when you evangelize because you're going to be participating in his work. Imagine that you were a manager of a Chick-fil-A. Y'all have Chick-fil-A here, right? Of course, it's Texas. What am I? We're Christians here. Of course, there's a Chick-fil-A. It's like owning a gun and being born again. There's Chick-fil-A sandwiches. That's how this whole thing works.

45:44You're a manager of a Chick-fil-A, so you hire some teenager, and he's going to make the waffle fries. You instruct him on how to make the waffle fries so that he can do his job. You train him, and then you walk away, and you come back 30 minutes later, and you can't find the kid. You go looking, and he's out in the parking lot. He's not smoking a cigarette, not being lazy. He's washing the windows of patrons. Well, that's a nice thing to do. Kind of hard to get mad at the kid, but there's a problem. That's not the job. You see, Chick-fil-A, we're about chicken sandwiches. They're not as good as Zaxby's, but that aside, Chick-fil-A is about. That's right. I said it.

46:22Let's divide this church right now. What's that? You've got a manager of a Chick-fil-A. Really? Where is he? Her, her. I used to be when nothing more. No, is it you? Okay, so you want the kid to be making, and he's not there, but you'd be like, okay, dude, that's nice. But you've got to get back to your station because this is what Chick-fil-A is about. And we need you playing your role because Chick-fil-A is about selling food, not washing windows. You come back 30 minutes later, and now he's out washing the mirrors for people. And it's like, dude, nice. But really, you got to get on board with the program. So here's the question: What's God's program?

47:06What is he doing? What is the point of all of this? It's singular. It is so singular and so simple: to bring glory to himself through the redemptive work of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's it. Politics, nope. He's not building earthly kingdoms. He's building an eternal kingdom. And by the way, if I could, as an aside, hopefully, Tom, if we don't like the social justice conversation and the way that we are being divided, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that will unite us. That is what Galatians 3 is about. I think that's what Paul is on about in Galatians and Ephesians 2, starting at about verse 11 through the end of the chapter. He talks about grace alone, faith alone. We love those verses, Ephesians 2:8:9. But then he tells us what the effect of that gospel is in the rest of the chapter. And he uses courtyard illustration that in the courtyard, if you remember in the temple, There was the holy place and the holy of holies. There was the holy place where only the priests could go. High priests could go in here one day a year. Then the priests could only be doing their work out here with the bread and the tables and the labor. And then outside of it was another courtyard where the Jewish men could go outside of that courtyard. I think I might be missing one too, am I? Then it was the court of the women. And then guess what? And the Gentiles were even past the women in the courtyard. And Paul says, and you've been brought near. And he says that to the Jews, too, who were closer, but they had been brought near. And together, Jew and Gentile, the mystery revealed, coming together in one. If we hate this social justice conversation, and I, to my guts, hate this thing, the way that this thing is going, because it's so unhelpful and it's so divisive. It is the gospel that brings people together. That's the work that God is doing. And that is what you'll be participating in. And there is joy and blessing in this. The Ray Comfort will say, I always go dragging my feet. I come home clicking my heels. And it is true. You can go, and it can be scary. It can be heavy. You just don't know what's going to happen. But when you're done, I'm telling you the joy. And guess what? You're going to have something new to talk about at dinner tonight. You can talk about what happened on the campus. What was going on with the kids? You went to downtown. Who did you run into? You saw that businessman for the 15th time, and he finally stopped and talked to you. And you can hear. Share those stories because you're going to be participating in God's work, and there is such a blessing in that. Just a joy of obedience. And by the way, I will also add: you can correct me if I'm wrong on this, Tom. When Jesus said, I have food that you know not of, the ministerial food of just doing God's work, He sustains you. He really does.

49:56We'll be out there sometimes six, eight hours, and we'll be baked like potatoes, just red beets. And nobody's hungry. We're just not hungry. As soon as we're done, it's like, I could eat this church. I'm so hungry. But now, when you're doing the ministry of the Lord, there's just such a joy and such a blessing in doing that. Your love for the lost will grow. Whoa, isn't that a nice thought? You could actually learn to love a Democrat.

50:31Imagine that. Because, look, the politics thing, it has its place. But they're going to die and go to Nancy Pelosi, unless she repents, is going to hell. That changes my heart about Nancy Pelosi. You know what Nancy needs? She doesn't need to get her politics right nearly as much as she needs to be in a right relationship with the Lord. Imagine what would happen if Joe Biden got saved. Oh, well, that would change the whole abortion issue, wouldn't it? That would change so. Many things. The power is in the gospel because that's what God is doing. And there's blessing in it, and we will increasingly learn to love the lost. I don't see them as adversaries anymore on university campuses. They're just, they're just, hopefully, they're a sheep, but they're just goats. They're just wandering all over the place, and they could not possibly be more confused about life. That's what evangelism does for us. A church will think more outwardly than inwardly. That's a huge blessing because it's good that we're busy and we keep doing all the stuff that we're doing, but the church starts to look outside of its four walls to find those who are out there and bidding them to come in, not to church, into the kingdom. Then they come into church. Culture changes. I was thinking about this. Can you imagine? Let's just say in this country, what would be 200 churches? What if 200 churches every single week that school is open went to a university, same university campus, same station, same cookies, same book? 200 churches every week in this country. Do you think we might feel that? I do. I do, because you'd be reaching that many people. That's a nation changer in my estimation. People will be in heaven, and you'll get to see them there. We've been given a ministry of reconciliation. That's what we've been given. I Used to, you know, I've got to win. I've got to win the argument. I've got to win this thing. No, we've got this ministry of reconciliation. My friend, you can have this. This is yours. I'll start thinking in those terms. We get to be ambassadors for Christ. You can focus on the word ambassador, that you get to be an ambassador, but consider the prepositional phrase for Christ.

52:55For Christ is our master saying, go. We get to go for Him. And I believe when we do that, I think that God's hand of blessing would be on a family, on a church, when we are doing what God is doing, and that is going about the business of seeking and saving the lost, the manifold blessings of evangelism. All right, let's do the same thing with, you know what, I'm going to show you another video. This is Garrett. And Garrett, you can be the judge, I guess, of whether or not you think Garrett was saved. But again, how long is this one, James? 14 minutes. 14 minutes. Okay, let's watch this from the beginning.

53:44Because if you would, I can't remember what I maybe had in my mind that I wanted to talk to him about, but I just thought of a question. And this young man professed to be a Christian. Just watch where this got to go. Now, let's just say that he was saved. And I hope that he was. I had a chance to actually disciple the kid. That's what I got to do that day. And I would also say that just for whatever this is worth, and this is maybe a little bit insider, do you see the way that I'm sitting with him?

54:16I'm relaxed because I'm just sitting to talk to a kid. I'm not like getting ready to go with this kid. We're just chatting. And by the way, I think they sense that too. When we don't come on with the big push, but that we're showing we care, they come in with us. So this is Garrett. Garrett, I know you're studying marketing, but I want to talk to you about ethics. Have you taken an ethics class yet?

54:49I have not. Have you studied it in any regard? I have not. Then you're going to have to make this stuff up. You ready? Okay. What is your source for your ethical standards? What is my source? Can you go more into depth with that? What do you mean? Well, I trust that you believe certain things are good, certain things are bad, right, wrong, maybe evil, maybe nice. How do you define and determine what things are good, bad, right, and wrong?

55:18The outcomes of them. Yeah, the outcomes of them. So you would be a pragmatist. What does that mean? It means if the outcome is good, then it's good. Whatever it is that it takes to get there is fine because the outcome is good. Yeah, I agree with that. May I challenge your worldview? Yeah. I'll do an extreme one. Nazi Germany. Joseph Mengele was a doctor who did really wicked experiments on Jewish people in prison camps. I mean, you can't even imagine the evil things that this guy did. But because of it, he did make some medical discoveries. Therefore, what happened in concentration camps was good.

56:10No, because the outcome was not good. But we did make some scientific progress, so that's the good outcome. Yeah, but I guess you could get a good outcome out of it and bad outcome, but it's more bad than good, obviously. But with that scenario, even though it's flawed, wouldn't that challenge the idea that the ends justify the means? Yes, it would. So maybe operating under just because a good outcome happens, that doesn't justify the way that we behave or live. So maybe pragmatism doesn't stand up under its own weight.

56:44Yeah, that's true. I agree with that. All right, so let's say things that we all agree on, like murder is bad, beating up a little kid, bad. Rape, bad. All right. Why are those things bad, in your opinion, Garrett? Why is rape bad? All that stuff. It seems so easy to say, but like you have to really think about it. It's because it torments people. It affects their life after that negatively in a very bad way. And they don't forget about that kind of stuff. And it just torments them all around in their heads and whatever.

57:20Not trying to be silly, but why is that bad? I don't know. Maybe because just not how, like, what are right morals to, like, I guess people, like, if it depends on, I don't know. I really don't know. What do you think about it? Well, I think that if there's any sort of moral absolutes that you and I would agree on, and we do, like, all those things, we, just something inside of us knows those things are bad. But the only way that we can know something is objectively wrong, if there is only if there is an objective lawgiver or a higher moral standard, if there isn't a lawgiver, if there isn't somebody who has determined what is objectively right and wrong, everything else would merely be a preference. So, for instance, if you and I were driving down Highway 85 and there were no speeding signs, there were no speed limit signs, you can drive as fast as you want, and it's just your preference. But as soon as the authority puts up 55 or 65, all right, then the objective. Lawgiver said, This is how fast you'll drive, no further. The only way that there can be anything that is wrong is if an authority has determined that is always wrong. Otherwise, everything we see is mere preference.

58:44Yeah, I agree with that. But do you realize the implications of that? But rape is against the law, though. True, but I'm not talking about laws. I'm talking about you, Garrett, knowing that's not good. That's not good, yeah. Just how you're raised up morally and stuff like that, is that what you mean? Well, that's true. We could be persuaded that, but I still think when we look around the globe, I think every culture universally agrees those things are just wrong. And the implication of that, though, is if I'm going to use a little reason and logic, that would tell me if I observe that there are objective laws, some things that are immoral all the time in all places, I've just reasoned my way to God because the only way that we can know as people that those things are always wrong is if a supreme authority has determined those things are always wrong.

59:38Definitely. I definitely agree with that. So you believe that a God exists? Yes. Who do you think that God is? The Father of Jesus Christ. So you're a Christian. Mm-hmm. So wouldn't that be your standard for ethical decisions? Probably. Yeah. Okay. So I'm curious, Garrett, did you grow up in a Christian home? Yes. But we. But my family did not, they didn't practice church as much, so I went as much as I could. All right. If I sat down in this bench next to you and I said, Garrett, I would like to believe what you believe.

1:00:13Okay. All right. I'd like to become a Christian. Two parts. Why should I become a Christian? And how would you tell me to become a Christian? You got it? Why and how? Why first? Why should I become a Christian? Why? That's up to you. I mean, if you want to. I want you to sell me. Yeah, that's my major, so I should be able to do it. I just, I believe in God, Jesus Christ, all that stuff, like the Bible, all that. It's just I don't have too much knowledge about it. Like, I go to church, like, I listen to the testimonies the pastor has to say, but I don't know if I have enough information to sell it to you. That's what I mean.

1:00:51I would ask that, why do you believe it? Because it's just what I know. Like, it's just what I feel is correct for me. It's different for every person, but for me, I feel like it's correct. All right. Okay. So you didn't quite give me a reason to do it. All right. How would I become a Christian? Just attend church, read the Bible, talk to a pastor one-on-one about new coming into the faith, just that kind of stuff. Let me change the scenario.

1:01:30I don't sit down on the bench next to you and ask you that question politely. I come crawling up to you on my knees with a knife in the middle of my back. I can't get out. I'm bleeding out. I've got 30 seconds to live. Tell me, Garrett, what must I do to become a Christian? Go. You're going to die? No, in about 25. And there's just not. 25 seconds is way too short of a time to just become a Christian like that. It just can't. I mean, you, I don't know. So it's a process.

1:02:04Yes, definitely a process. All right. Okay. Can we roll reverse? Yeah. You've got the knife in your back. You come up to me and you say, I'm scared to die. I've got a bad feeling. Help me. What must I do? I would perhaps say something like this. Garrett, would you agree with me that you have done things that God does not approve of, like lying and stealing and cheating? Those things are called sins. And the just punishment for sin is death. So God's going to send you to hell. But he's rich in mercy and he wants to forgive you. So he sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross, taking the punishment that you deserve so your sins can be forgiven. Garrett, you've got 10 seconds. Repent. Put your trust in Jesus Christ like the thief on the cross. He'll forgive you of all of your sins and grant you everlasting life. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Then I go call 911.

1:02:57Yeah, it's a good argument. That's. Definitely. So here's my question for you, Garrett. Are you a Christian? Yes. How do you know that? Deep down inside, I know that. I'm a Christian. That's what I believe, and that's what I'm going to believe the rest of my life. Here's what Jesus said: Unless a man is born again, he will not see the kingdom of God. Okay? So we've got to figure out what that term means. Unless a man is born again, he will not see the kingdom of God. Are you born again?

1:03:34I don't know. Let's figure out what it means. I don't know, yeah. Well, if you're going to be born again, clearly you're not going back into your mother's womb and coming back out. That's ridiculous, so it doesn't mean delivery again. It's a spiritual rebirth. Here's what the Bible says: you and I are dead in our trespasses and sins. We are spiritually dead. God must make us alive and grant us faith and repentance in Jesus Christ. We become born again. It's the time when you realize, Garrett, you're not a good person like the rest of us. You've broken God's laws. You have lied. You dishonored your parents. You took God's name in vain. You've lusted. Perhaps you've done more than that that you don't want anybody to know about. Images you've looked at on the computer screen and you realize I am a bad person and God is not going to treat me in a way that I prefer.

1:04:31But God is rich in mercy, and He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for me, so I don't have to pay the punishment for my crimes against God. I can be totally forgiven. I want to trust Him. And you turn from your sins and you put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be born again. A recognition: I am a totally depraved sinner. I'm not a good guy. I look good. I act good for people. I pay my taxes, but I am in my heart a wicked man.

1:05:01But Jesus loved me and died for me anyway. And I can be forgiven and in a right relationship with God. And I'm putting my wholehearted trust in Him. That's what it means to be born again. Yeah, I agree. Are you born again? Yes, I'm born again. When did that happen? It's like a baptism kind of thing, you mean? Like a confession? Well, baptism is more of the external symbol of an internal work. So when I was 12, 13. What happened? I just went to my church and just basically said what you said. Like, I know I'm not perfect. I'm not exactly what. I'm not like a God. I'm not perfect. I make mistakes, and that's why, I mean, I'm a sinner, so I know that's what Jesus is here for. That's why God sent him for sins. So, I mean.

1:06:00So you're saved. Yeah. I say, yeah. So this building collapses, takes us both out. You stand before God, and he says to you, Garrett, why should I let you in to my kingdom? What would you say to him? So it's up to him. I mean, I don't really have any persuasion on his choice. If he's followed me, he knows how I've been throughout my whole life in supporting his spiritual belief, and I'm not going to try to persuade him. I mean, I don't know. In one sense, I would agree with you. You and I aren't going to persuade God. But here's what you could do: you could say, Lord, you shouldn't let me into your kingdom. But I am begging you on behalf of Jesus Christ, who promised me that I would inherit eternal life because he died to forgive me a sinner. So you shouldn't let me in. But because of Jesus, would you let me into your kingdom? So you can go to heaven for sure because of what Christ did for you. No merits of your own.

1:07:07Christ was the one who will take you there. Does that make sense? Garrett, do you have a Bible? Yes. How often do you read it? Like hours-wise, days away. We're about how to live as a Christian man, what this looks like in balance with getting married and having children. As I'm watching that. I was trying to imagine myself 10 years ago. As soon as I heard the pragmatism or the utilitarianism, oh, there we go. Now I got this one.

1:07:41He just doesn't know. Kid goes to church. He says he reads his Bible pretty regularly. He just doesn't know what. That's all. I don't need to get mad at him or just really jump in there. And then, when he has a bad answer and he can't quite understand these things, he just doesn't know. And we have the ministry of reconciliation as ambassadors for Christ. And if you can find a fishing hole, you will find yourself, Garrett's, you will find yourselves Joe's, and you will find yourselves having joy. You're going to be walking in obedience. You're going to be about the master's business. I think God's hand of blessing will be on you. And you will see some people in heaven that you'll get to talk to them about the time you spent sharing the good news with them.

1:08:31So that's my encouragement to you today. Does anybody have any questions about any of this or comments about this? Oh, no, sorry. Anybody else? Anyone else have questions? By the way, I do have to tell you something about T. Sorry, because I won't do it in church tomorrow. He makes me sweat like nobody's business. He is actually, he's, what is your title? The financial treasurer. I should know that. That, shouldn't I? Look at the look he gives me.

1:09:04And we have to do audits and we have to do reports. And he reads numbers. You and I look at them like they're just like all over the place. He just looks at them and he just gets all giddy. And he goes through things and he finds the details of it. So when I have to give the report, my wife will testify. It's like, seriously, double deodorant because I'm dealing with tea today on finances. I'm sorry, what was your question?

1:09:30I was just going to ask if you've ever had any follow-up with Joe or Garrett. Yeah, I got their emails. Yeah, I get their emails. Here's what I would love to be able to say to them: we are in Alpharetta, Georgia. This is in Kennesaw. It is five miles in Atlanta is forget about it. It's like that crazy. This is more like, well, if you do the loop, it's almost 50 miles to get up to Kennesaw.

1:09:55It's too far. I would say, you got to come to my church. What do they say on the email? It depends on who it is. It depends. And sometimes they won't even respond at all. So it just kind of depends. Some of them will just keep sending stuff to because we can just give them resources. And ultimately, our encouragement to them is we always send them to a website to help them find a church and get plugged in. It would be so much better if we were close and could say, we've got this church and we've got this pastor and we've got these programs and you should come and you'll be safe and you're Going to grow and you're going to, oh, here's another benefit, by the way. And you're going to meet people who are going to love you, and you're going to be a part of a community. Oh, that just sings to their souls because they desire that so much, especially with the COVID business. So, ideally, T, we don't have a university campus near our church, and I wish we did, but we don't. So, all this stuff I'm saying, we're not doing it. Because we can't. But if you can, now this, our particular church, they have different fishing holes that work for them. Figure out your fishing hole.

1:11:06Anybody else? Yes, sir. I think there's like two things that I that I've thought about over the last probably like a year or so. Like, I got I was excited to short, I listened to a lecture by Gary Happermas about the resurrection a long time ago. And one thing that he had said, I think it was Derek Bonsai said to him, he said, or he, one of his kids, he said, at the end of every conversation that I have with somebody, he goes, I recognize one, the Holy Spirit is the one who makes he goes, but at the end of the day, he goes, I just leave a pebble in somebody's shoe. That's like the figure of, or a stone in somebody's shoe. Because at the end of the day, it's like, you know what? It's like if someone has a stone in your shoe and you're like walking, it's like, gosh, my, this is really irritating, and I gotta take this stone out and Yeah, that Greg Kochle at STR loves that phrase also. All you need to do is just put a pebble in their shoe. I have to admit, I'm not a fan of that, because all a pebble does is annoy, and it makes your foot sore. But I want, in fact, do I want the Holy Spirit to work in their conscience? Of course I do. But I do want to present the whole shebang. I really do. I want to get the whole thing out of there.

1:12:28Having said that, if that's all you can do, you can rest in that. The Lord breaks up your conversation. You just can't get to the end of the plain lands. You can't finish. So be it. Try to follow up. Try to reach out. But if that's all that happens, you can rest in God's sovereignty. But my encouragement is. Wow! Aren't there laws about those types of things that you're when you got 30 seconds, and I guess that's where I was going to.

1:13:15I've been encouraged, like, how do I just jam the gospel in 30 seconds? And that kind of summarizes the end of the day. You know what? You know what I mean? You know what? I'll let you study right now. I just don't think you really think about Christ rising from the dead. And then, boom, they've they're in a base day and now they're gone. I just pray, all right, Lord, just let that let that have done something. And I've learned to be okay with that. Because at first I was like, Okay, I gotta talk about the sin, and I gotta get the gospel in there, and the work of Christ, and then I started to complicate it a little bit sometimes.

1:13:45Yeah, and then I realized, like, yeah, you know what, sometimes God's gonna be like, Hey, you know what, that's one thing, all those, you know, waters and Peter plant, you know, 1 Corinthians, you know, talk about the planting and water, and the spreading of the Spirit makes it grow. And who knows, maybe in time somebody will follow up with that person, and I may never see it again. Yeah, no, I think that's that's beautiful if you can do that. Yeah, I agree. Um, to leave it at that and trust the Lord to use that. Yeah, certainly. I just, when I go, I do want to get the whole thing out, but I've also, at the same time, just learned to just let it happen. Um, because if you just think about, okay, first of all, it was I was like, oh, you're a Christian, because he wasn't explaining the basis for his worldview. But just consider what was being discussed there. We were discussing philosophy, we were discussing morality, we were talking about cosmic truths, and the kid isn't like, you know, is this going to be done because you're bugging me? They act, I mean, consider these conversations that are happening. They're quite amazing. So, you know, if they're ready to go out from the gas, different scenario. What I've discovered on the campus is. It's it's actually the opposite. You've got so much time with them. Anybody else got a thought or a comment? All right. Tom, is there anything you want to add to the oh, wait, hold it? Is that Effie back there? Hello, Effie.

1:15:20It d it depends on when I go. I used to go just with radio. And in fact, if I recall, we were doing that stuff live on the radio. I think we had about a three-second delay. The guy back at the studio would be just waiting for a word to come flying. But that's but now when we go out to the campus, we'll typically bring cameras with. Some people would say that makes it easier. Other people would say it makes it harder. So again, my challenge to you is figure out your thing.

1:15:55I was going to say, Todd was supposed to be here last year about I think it was about this time. And COVID kind of canceled that, but we were going to bring his family crew in and he was going to evangelize over on A and M's campus. Yeah. Maybe someday we make that happen again. I'd love to I'd I'd love to do that. I really. I just it's um the open air thing can always of course be tricky because you don't know about attendance and what have you. But as far as just going to a campus, I'll go wander a campus any time and sit down with kids to talk to them.

1:16:32And on that note, ladies and gentlemen, forget everything I said. If you get into Texas AM, you're going to heaven. So there you have it. All right. Tomorrow, for whatever this is worth, if you're going to be joining us, we're actually going to be talking about Acts chapter 17, 1 through 4. How to go about doing some of this really will be the thrust of it, reasoning with them from the Scriptures that the Christ had to suffer and die is our message. So that's tomorrow. Thank you for being here tonight. I do appreciate it. And whoever brought the pizza, thank you very much. It was really, really good. All right. We'll see you tomorrow.