Often our evangelistic “training” is really just a lot of “how to” talk. How can we turn talk into actual action?

<p>Often our evangelistic “training” is really just a lot of “how to” talk. How can we turn talk into actual action?</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Adventist Frontier Missions

GoTential

B. Parks

The Heart Mouth Connection

God in Shoes

Stirred but Not Shaken

Big Blue Sky

Growing as a Disciple

Producing a Reproducer

The Tentmakers Tactical Advantage

Who May Live on Your Holy Hill

Die and Multiply

How many of you are inspired by mediocrity?

You know, mediocrity doesn't inspire really any of us, and we want to do that which is excellent, right?

In fact, 1 of the things that's always a haunt of us as Seventh-day Adventists is this prophecy that the last state church would be a Laodicean lukewarm church because mediocrity isn't worth much, is it?

We want to think of ourself in a hot condition.

Or as Pastor Rich Carlson, when he came to visit us in Turkey and we visited Laodicea, and I described to him how The mountains of Colossia are right there behind Laodicea, and the cold waters would come down the mountain and then come to Laodicea.

And then over on the other side is the city of Hierapolis.

We see these mentioned, actually, in the Book of Colossians.

And so you have, within about a 10-mile radius, these cities of Laodicea, Hierapolis, and Colossia.

And Hierapolis is a place where they had hot baths.

And the Romans would go there to bathe in the hot springs.

And so the waters of Hierapolis and the cold waters of Colossia met at Laodicea.

And as Rich Carlson thought about this, he said, you know, really, it's not cold water is bad.

We use it for hydrotherapy for certain purposes.

We use it to drink in, and on a hot day, we're glad for cold water.

Jesus says, I'd rather you be hot or cold, to be able to do some ministry, to have some function, rather than the form.

What's the difference between trying and training?

We try to do something, We give it our best effort, right?

You've heard people say things like, I'm going to try to lose weight this year.

Or I'm going to try to get a garden planted.

Or I'm going to try to see if I could possibly, what?

We try to I'm gonna try to overcome that habit I'm gonna try to give up smoking or I'm gonna try to visit my neighbors in my area There's a big difference between trying and training.

Well, I looked up, I thought about this training for a marathon.

Because 1 of the things you don't hear is people say, I'm going to try to do a marathon.

And so I typed into Google, marathon training, thinking I would get a picture that I could put up here that would show people sweating, running, exercising, jogging.

I typed in marathon train and you know what came up for pictures?

Now this shows the difference between trying and training.

These are charts of weeks of time and what you've got to do in order 16 weeks before a marathon or 20 weeks before a marathon to be ready.

If I'm training for a marathon this week, start out resting.

Now that's not, I don't like that Tuesday too well.

Wednesday 3 miles, Thursday 3 miles, Friday you get a rest, Saturday they want you to run 6 miles.

So you notice it works its way all the way up before the marathon.

3 weeks before the marathon you're running 20 miles.

You think maybe a Sunday worshiper put that on their cross you know?

It means you have to focus on a goal and you are moving systematically towards that goal.

And you have, this was prepared actually by a man named Higgs who has prepared over 500, 000 people for marathons, he claims, through his network and his system.

He said on that website that in the Chicago Marathon, over 40% of the people who run the Chicago Marathon are running for the very first time.

Because people have this vision, they want to be able to complete a marathon and they start in on a system of training.

It's something that you can't just do by a notion that you get on Friday and say I'm going to get up on Sunday and let me get get out there and do that thing because what is it going to it's going to create injury to your yourself and you might even be dangerous to other people.

This is what Merriam-Webster's has as a definition for the verb to train.

To teach so as to make fit, qualified, or proficient.

To form by instruction, discipline, or drill.

To form means to take shape or to become, right?

It's going to become something it wasn't by instruction, discipline, or drill, and to make prepared as by exercise for a test of skill to direct the growth of a plant, usually by bending, pruning, or tying, and to aim at an object or objective.

So this is what we're focused on, is what is it in church, what is it as a body of believers that we are training for?

Is there some sort of goal, some sort of something that we are to be other than few sitters?

He was probably 1 of the greatest basketball players of all time.

Michael Jordan was known for really being able to outscore about anybody and on every game.

When you think that an average NBA game is about 90 points, he scored about half of the team's points per game.

1 of the things Michael Jordan was especially good at was in the last minutes of a game, in the last seconds of a game, if the game was tied, he could, you know, there's like 8 seconds left, there's timeout, Bulls have the ball, and who are they going to give the ball to?

So all the opposing players knew that the ball is going to this 1 man.

Nobody else was going to be given that ball.

So you have all the opposing team focused to try to defend against Michael Jordan and he could pull it out.

We're 7, 6, 5 and he would just pull around, pull a move and he could put up points.

Now in his interviews they ask him how is it that you can so consistently outmaneuver the top players in the world.

Series

GoTential

Growing as a Disciple

Transcript

Description

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Endurance of the Saints

28m

Simple Christianity

What Will We Do

57m

God as our Shepherd

48m

Jesus On Prophecy

Babylon the Fall and the Call

1h 7m

Encounters With Jesus

Jesus’ Encounter with the First Disciples

43m

Plenary

Different or the Same - Christian Standards in the 21st Century

1h 7m

Admonitions for the Last Days

1. Admonitions for the Last Days

46m

Can You Keep Up

48m

Transformed

Conformation or Transformation?

1h 17m

A Dollar Each Way

33m

Plenary Sessions

Abundant Abiding: From Fruitless Anxiety to Fruitful Peace in Residency

54m

Evangelism by Dee Casper

02 The Greatest Commission

48m

Sound Doctrine