Open Air Preaching

Those who are serious about effectively reaching the lost take to heart the Scripture "it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe" (1 Corinthians 1:21, italics added). When a love-motivated Christian has the courage to stand up and preach open air, he or she is imitating Jesus, whose ministry was mainly to the multitudes in the open air. This was also the way of Peter, of Paul, and Stephen and many others in history such as Spurgeon, Wesley and Whitefield, who cared enough about the lost to look foolish in the eyes of a proud and sinful world (see also Titus 1:3). Armchair critics, who say that it's not effective, denigrate the very means that God has chosen to save those who believe. The Christian who obeys the Great Commission--to "preach" the gospel to every creature, trusts God in both the means, and for the results of preaching the everlasting Gospel. God's Word cannot return void. Their labor is not in vain.

The Place of Repentance

Someone wrote to me deeply concerned that I had said that repentance can’t save us. It can’t. Moslems repent. That's the basis of their hope of salvation. It’s the same with many Catholics who have never been born again. They trust that their repentance is enough. But no good judge would let a devious criminal go simply because he said that he had turned from his crimes. The only thing that can save us is God's grace. Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus (see Ephesians 2:8-9). The way to partake of the grace of God is through repentance, but repentance doesn't save us. If it did, we wouldn't need a Savior. Think of it like this. A man is in a rowboat that’s about to go over Niagara Falls. Someone throws him a rope. He turns towards the rope, and then grabs it in faith. Will that save him? No. He turned. He took hold of the rope in faith. But if the person on the other end isn’t pulling on the rope, he’s still going over the falls.

God has thrown us a rope through the gospel. We turn in repentance and take hold of the Savior by faith. But it is the grace of God alone that saves us by drawing us to Himself (see Ephesians 2:8-9).

A Strange Experience

I was reminded recently about a strange experience I had when I was preaching at a church. For some unknown reason during the sermon, an entire congregation called out the word “iniquity!” I thought I had suddenly committed some horrible sin, and was quite taken back by it. It was only later that I realized what had happened. I had said, “Jesus said, ‘Depart from me, you that work ‘iniquity.’ That word ‘iniquity’ means ‘lawlessness.’ The book of Timothy says, ‘Let everyone that names the name of Christ depart from ‘iniquity.’ Same word.” The congregation misunderstood my “Same word.” They thought that I had said “Say the word.” So they did. Out loud.

Tips For Witnessing and Open Air Preaching

Here’s a couple of ways I have recently heard about to engage people when witnessing. Offer $10 to anyone who can name all ten of the Ten Commandments, in order (very few can). That will get groups of people quoting the Commandments and making it easy to ask who’s kept what. Or, when open air preaching and taking someone through the Good Person Test, appoint six people in the crowd to act as a jury. People are usually quick to judge other people’s sins. That will help engage the crowd, and take the heat off you. Or when asking trivia questions, give Million Dollar Bill tracts away as consolation prizes to those who get the answer wrong, and Giant Money tracts to those who get them right. That way you can get tracts into more hands.

Heart-breaker

There’s a website that’s recently been in the news. It’s called http://www.dogsindanger.com/ It shows pictures of cute and long-faced dogs who are soon to be put to death. It’s controversial because they have a clock ticking down to when each dog will be put to sleep. That pulls on the heart-strings. I would like to create a website called www.humansindanger.com with a clock ticking down to when human beings will be put to death. Every day 150,000 people die. The clock is ticking. Our hearts should more than break at the thought. We should be horrified that a single soul would end up in Hell, and let that horror energize us (with God’s help) to rescue them.

Bizarre Experience

Three of us were walking on a sidewalk in San Antonio, on our way to a restaurant when a man joined us. He acted as though he was best friends with Duane (our producer/director). Duane kept looking around at me as the guy chatted to him, with an expression of “What’s going on here?” When the three of us walked into a restaurant, the waiter asked “How many?” and we heard “Four.” It was the stranger that gave that number. He then sat down at our table and started yapping to us.

Then came a pitch for money. I told him he could have some if he would let me talk to him. I then went through the gospel, and gave him $5. He then wanted me to pay for a meal as well, and kept on talking about being a “workaholic.” He had the “aholic” part right. Each of us could feel a spirit of anger in his voice. It was very intimidating. I told him that he was only getting the $5. I took hold of his hand, prayed for him, and he left. It was a bazaar experience.

Open Air Preaching

Despite it being biblical, we sometimes get emails from people saying that open air preaching is a waste of time. Admittedly, there is a lot of “sowing in tears” but preaching the gospel to unsaved people is never a waste of time. I was greatly encouraged recently when I asked a man in the crowd if he thought he was a good person. He called back, “You asked me that a couple of months ago.” I answered, “Did I ask you if you had lied or stolen?” He said that I had. “Did I say that Jesus said that if you look at a woman and lust after her, you commit adultery with her in your heart?” He said, “You did. And I would have gone to Hell, but two weeks ago I gave my life to Christ!” I didn’t expect that answer. The crowd applauded . . . and so did I.

Husband's "Property"?

There are seven states in the U.S. that still have laws on their books that say that a wife is her husband’s “property,” and that he can sue for “stolen” love if another man takes his wife. The law also says that the husband is the wife’s property. That may upset today’s independent man or women, but its roots are probably from the Scriptures. Read 1 Corinthians chapter seven. The husband belongs to the wife and the wife to the husband. I like that, because I know that marriage is a type of Christ and the Church--we are the Bride of Christ, and we are no longer our own, we have be bought with a price.