ASI Scandinavia 2019: Follow the Lamb

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ASI Scandinavia

Daily Life

Kasper Struksnes

Everyday Witnessing Simplified

This workshop is entitled Everyday Witnessing Simplified, and then at 4.30, Alex will have the other workshop about reaching out to Muslims.

Okay, so My name is Kasper Struksnes, and I'm from Denmark, currently living in Odense, where I'm studying medicine, and I've done that for almost a year now.

And in this workshop, we're going to look at how we can witness for Christ in our everyday life.

So now we are here at ASI and we are doing outreach and we are doing mission, but then what about when we go home?

Is mission just an activity that we are doing for certain events or is it more than that?

So I will talk about personal evangelism, and it's not that this is the only way to witness for Christ, but we need very much public evangelism, We need evangelistic series and more institutional evangelism.

But what I will share is about in our everyday life, how can we in our conversations witness for Christ, both to our friends and our classmates and colleagues, and also to strangers that we'll meet.

So, I will begin by having a word of prayer and then we will dive into the subject.

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, you have called us to be your witnesses, and it is a privilege and a responsibility that you have given us.

And I pray that you will help us now to understand a little bit more of how we can witness for you in our lives.

Okay, so I will begin with a little exercise or I will read some verses from the Bible and then you should pay attention and see if you can find the similarity between all the verses that I read.

So I will just read through them, I will not comment on them, and then you should try to listen and find the similarity.

Okay, so that's also a good exercise for listening, because actually witnessing is even, I think even more about listening than speaking.

Okay, so the first verse is from Matthew chapter 8 and verse 16.

Okay, and it says, When the even was come, they brought unto him, that is Jesus, many that were possessed with devils, And he cast out the spirits with his word and healed all that were sick.

And behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed.

And Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.

Okay, in the same chapter I'm reading verse 32.

As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.

Matthew 12, 22, Then was brought unto him 1 possessed with a devil, blind and dumb, and he healed him in so much that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.

I don't know if you are catching the similarity, but I will read a few verses from Mark as well.

Knew him, and ran through that whole region round about, and began to carry about in beds those that were sick, where they heard he was.

And whithersoever he entered into villages or cities or country, They laid the sick in the streets and besought him that they might touch, if it were, but the border of his garment, and as many as touched him were made whole.

Okay, I think I will skip the last verses.

What was the similarity between all these verses?

So in all these verses, it says, it has the phrase they brought someone to him.

So in all these stories, it is someone that brings someone to Jesus.

And I've tried to look actually at all the miracles of Jesus, and in most of them, it is not people coming to Jesus by themselves, but it is someone that brings them to Jesus.

And I just want to make this point that most people, they will not come to Jesus just by themselves.

Of course, it is always the Holy Spirit drawing people.

However, Most people come to Christ because someone brings them to Christ.

Few people do it without any interactions with other people.

So why did these people bring people to Christ?

So it was because they wanted the best for these people and they knew they were not able to help themselves but Jesus could help them so they did what they could, bringing them to Jesus and then they would be healed.

Okay, so I've sometimes been thinking, I wish that I was living at this time, because then it was easy to bring people to Jesus, right?

You just had to take them and you will drag them to Christ, and then job's done.

But we're going to speak about today, how can we then bring people to Christ today in our lives.

But I will start with making a few points from the passages that we have read about how we can bring people to Christ.

So 1 point I thought about was these people that brought people to Christ, It would maybe have been easier for them just to not do it.

They had to also prioritize the well-being of these people in order to actually mind doing it.

But do you think that the people that brought other people to Christ, were they also happy as they saw them being healed?

And I'll read a quote here from Great Controversy that I think is important to be reminded of.

And it speaks about the joy that we will see in heaven.

So it says, with unutterable love, Jesus welcomes his faithful ones to the joy of their Lord that is in heaven.

The Savior's joy is in seeing in the kingdom of glory the souls that have been saved by his agony and humiliation.

Okay, so Jesus he will be happy when he sees all the ones that have been saved because of his sacrifice.

And then it says, And the redeemed will be sharers in his joy, as they behold among the blessed those who have been won to Christ through their prayers, their labors, and their loving sacrifice.

As they gather about the great white throne, gladness unspeakable will fill their hearts when they behold those whom they have won for Christ and see that 1 has gained others and these still others, all brought into the haven of rest, there to lay their crowns at Jesus' feet and praise Him through the endless cycles of eternity." So think about it.

If you are there in heaven and someone would come up to you and say, Casper, I am here because of your labors, your sacrifice, your prayers.

I think as we are also sharing the work of Christ, that is what will bring true joy to us.

And what I think is really interesting was this word.

They have been won through their prayers.

There might be people in heaven because of my prayers.

And that made me think, okay, if my prayers can actually be influential in people getting there, I really need to pray for the people that are around me.

And of course also combined with labor and sacrifice.

Okay, so I think it's just good to be reminded of this, of how meaningful it is in the eternal perspective to work on witnessing for Christ.

And I feel also, as Herb was talking about yesterday, it's not just a reward in heaven, it's also here.

At least if you have experienced it in bringing someone to Christ, or just maybe someone bringing 1 step closer to Christ, that is very meaningful.

For me myself, When I was a Bible worker and I had Bible studies with people, I went there every week, it was always a good experience, and there were some times where I could just see that the Lord was working with the 1 I was studying with.

That I was sharing these things, and this person was touched to tears and the person just understood more of the plan of salvation and understood her need of Christ.

When I went away from there, I just felt so happy that it doesn't compare with anything else.

So that is, I think, important to remind ourselves of how meaningful it is, even though it might be a sacrifice for us.

Okay, so maybe another point here from the passages that we read is in order to bring someone to Christ you must also know where he is to be found.

And there is this quote from the Minister of Healing saying, the gospel we present for the saving of souls must be the gospel by which our own souls are saved.

And I also come back to that, about sharing not just theory, but about sharing what the grace of God has done in our lives.

Sometimes I've been thinking, okay, so this thing about witnessing for Christ in our lives, can we just get a, like, from an experienced evangelist, like, a to-do list, very precise, this is what you are going to do, say this, doom, doom, doom, doom, doom, and everything will be fine.

I don't think so, because it's not only about certain strategies and so on.

There are things that we can learn that can be very helpful, but I want to bring up this point about our own personal preparation.

So this is a well-known quote, I think, from Steps to Christ, saying, Consecrate yourself to God in the morning.

Let your prayer be, Take me, O Lord, as wholly thine.

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Series

Daily Life

Everyday Witnessing Simplified

Transcript

Parent Series

Parent Conference

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