Personal evangelism requires active involvement, deep biblical knowledge, and reliance on the Holy Spirit. The sermon uses the example of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch to illustrate how to engage with individuals, build rapport, and share the gospel from scripture. It emphasizes the importance of spending time with people, understanding their needs, and being prepared to explain Jesus through diligent study of the Bible. Ultimately, true effectiveness in soul-winning comes not just from effort, but from the anointing power of the Holy Spirit.
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that I did not take the time to make it clear as I should have last night, I think. And as our brother prayed, one of the expressions that he used brought this to my attention. That is that in praying, and of course we know that many times God does not answer our prayers. That's what we were talking about last night. We must remember that God's ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts, and that He knows what's best, and that He has plans that we don't know a thing about.
And there will be many times when it is clearly not God's will for a prayer to be answered, and we will never on this earth be able to explain it. So I think it's good to bear this in mind and to just remember that as for God, His way is perfect. And I think if we can keep this in focus, that it will save a lot of frustration and anxiety on the part of people who just cannot understand why their prayers will not answer it. Now I don't want to minimize the fact that there are many prayers that would be answered were it not for the failure in these realms that we were mentioning last night.
Now I might mention that I noticed a number of areas that I didn't even get to touch on, but I did promise to have these for you. So if you have a pen and a piece of paper, I'll read them out to you very quickly. Once again, if you have a wonderful Thompson Bible, Mr. Thompson, during his lifetime, spent a lifetime getting all these references together by subject, you could take these down. Now, there are about three of these that I mentioned last night, and there are eleven of them in all. That means there are eight of them here that I'm going to give you today that were not even mentioned last night.
The first one is disobedience. And the reference is Deuteronomy one and verse forty-five. Disobedience. Another one is secret sin that we mentioned this one. And I see my attention must have been distracted. I came reading my own writing on the second one.
So I'll have to give you that one tonight. Oh, I beg your pardon. This is another reference for disobedience. I beg your pardon. It's First Samuel, fourteen thirty-seven. This is another reference for disobedience. And still another reference for disobedience. It's First Samuel twenty-eight-six. And I'm sure that many of us are familiar with what this story is and what the setup is here. Disobedience, then you have three references, the one in Deuteronomy, and first Samuel, fourteen, thirty-seven, first Samuel twenty-eight, six. Now, the next one, which is one that we went into last night, is secret sin. Psalm sixty-six, eighteen. Now, here's a new one that I did not get to last night.
Indifference. Indifference. Proverbs one, twenty-eight. Proverbs one twenty eight. All right, here's another one that we did not get to last night. Neglect of mercy. Proverbs twenty one thirteen. Now I think if you will remember this portion that has to do with those who could have mercy on someone, help them, be gracious to them, be merciful, and we do not. God will not hear our prayers if this be the case.
Another one that we didn't get through last night is despising the law of God. Despising the law of God. That's Proverbs twenty eight nine. Another one is blood guiltness. Isaiah chapter one verse fifteen. You notice that most of these are in the Old Testament. Another one is iniquity also in the book of Isaiah chapter twenty nine and two.
Iniquity chapter Isaiah twenty nine and two another reference that backs up this is Micah three four another one is stubbornness Zachariah seven thirteen and when you are looking up these references you want of course to look at the context I don't believe it is fair to just pick up a verse anywhere out of the Bible and and uses a proof text and just use that one little verse and not be aware of the fact of what has been said before. Because after all, to get the full meaning, we have to know what has been said before.
You pick up a verse here and a verse there and a word here, you can prove anything. I'm sure you've heard that many times. And Judas went and hung himself and go and do thy likewise. And what thou doest do thou quickly. So you can prove anything you want to, but you're taking a little verse here and then yonder. But you look up Zechariah seven thirteen. You'll have to go back several verses. to find out exactly what he's talking about, about stubbornness. Then one that we did use last night is instability. James chapter one and verse six and seven. And then another one that we did use last night is self-indulgence. Also in James chapter four and verse three.
Chapter four and verse three. Now, up in Columbia, South Carolina, where my family are today, my sweet wife, Dottie, is right in the middle of a woman-to-woman coffee hour, and they're having their study right now, and I wonder if we just couldn't have a word of prayer and remember them in prayer. Probably six, five, seven, the women, see you there, listen to the word of God, and let's pray that God will bless them. Our Father, we thank thee because we know you and love you and you love us. And because you're concerned about the souls of men and women, that we can beseech you to bless this woman-to-woman sharing Bible study coffee hour in Columbia right now.
We pray that as Dottie arrives tomorrow, Lord Willem, that she'll be able to tell us of your blessing and your presence. Well, we pray for this. We pray for every place where the Word of God goes out in Bible studies and coffees and evangelistic meetings and gospel meetings and Bible conferences. We think of other conferences right here in this state, right now, with the one down in Bible town. We pray that you'd bless whoever is speaking right now. Wherever your word goes out today, may it be a day of harvest and a day of edification and a day of blessing. In Jesus' name, amen. Now, for those of you that read not only the eighth chapter of Acts, but the hundred and twenty-six psalm, we will not be getting to the hundred and twenty-six psalm today because we don't have time, but we will be looking at this portion in Acts chapter eight.
So if you want to turn to Acts chapter eight, we'll try to get over to the hundred and twenty-six psalm tonight. Now, one of the best ways to find out whether something works or not is to find out what happened when somebody did something that worked. In other words, what principles did he use? There are a lot of examples in the Bible of how not to do something. But there are a lot of examples in the Bible of how to do something.
And we have here an example of a wonderful man, a wonderful servant of the Lord by the name of Philip. He was obedient to God. He learned to hear the voice of God, and when God spoke, he listened, and then he obeyed. And because he listened and obeyed, even though obeying might mean breaking some of the patterns and the customs of his day. He went ahead and he obeyed and God honored his obedience. And we're not going to read all the eighth chapter of Acts. Naturally, we don't have time, but you can begin reading with me. As I read, beginning in verse twenty-six of Acts chapter eight.
And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise. and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from jerusalem unto jesus which is desert and he arose and went and behold a man of ethiopia a unit of great authority under candace let me say something right here i'm afraid i'll forget it you know too many times when those of us who would love to see people come to know the lord jesus We just kind of take it for granted that it's a waste of our time to try to reach people that are high up in government and in business and in the world.
Did you know that some of the most open people to the gospel in the world are the people that are reached the top? I'll tell you what. They found out that being at the top doesn't satisfy. They found out that being at the top doesn't satisfy the longing of their heart, that it doesn't give happiness and joy and peace. And there is end of the rope. So when you start praying for people that you might be a witness to, don't start at the bottom of the totem pole. You might as well start at the top. I'm not active in the Christian Businessmen's Committee in Columbia now for several reasons.
One is I'm full-time in the Lord's work and you can't be a member. Another one is they have their meetings Monday mornings, regular meetings, and I'm away two weekends out of every month and many times I'm not back home yet. But I try to go to that special events. You know, like when they have an outreach luncheon or a dinner, and they bring in a businessman to give his testimony to try to reach unsaved people. So they're going to have what they call a sweetheart banquet a week from Friday night. And I plan to go and take Dottie. And, of course, I want to take somebody else.
So there's a big department store practically touching our Christian bookstore. In fact, that parking garage. You can walk out of our front door and make a turn to the right and you're in it. So I thought of somebody that I would take to the sweetheart banquet with us so that they could hear the gospel. And so, you know who I decided I'd take? Who I would invite to go? I thought I'd take maybe the janitor of Davidson's. No, I didn't. You know who I've invited? The president. Now, I haven't gotten his answer yet because I had to invite him by mail because I didn't get it done before I left.
But you pray that when I get back Tuesday to Columbia that the answer will be in the affirmative. His name is Mr. Mills. Very, very nice fellow, but he doesn't know the Lord. Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could write back down you and tell you that Mr. Mills and his wife have found the Lord at the CBMC sweetheart banquet. Oh, I'll tell you, beloved, you know, the Lord delights in saving rich people. He really does. And higher up people. And I know the Lord's interested in anyone's soul. But I'll tell you, many times when you win someone like that, think of the influence they can have for winning many other people.
Well, that wasn't in my notes, but it won't cost anything extra. I just thought I'd share that with you because this is so true of many people. They just don't realize that God is interested in saving people no matter who they are. Now, this man here, riding in this chariot across this desert, he was a big boy. He probably had servants sitting back there fanning him. Then there's somebody up there driving the horses. He was a big man, but he had a hungry heart. And that he come to Jerusalem for to worship. He was returning and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet.
Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I? Except some man should guide me. And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this. He was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And like a lamb done before his sheriff, so openeth he not his mouth. In his humiliation his judgment was taken away, and who shall declare his generation for his life is taken from the earth?
And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself, of some other men. Then Philip opened his mouth, and began it the same scripture, and I love it, and preached unto him Jesus. And he went on his way, and as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What does it hinder me to be baptized? Oh, Philip had really done some good teaching. You know it? Doesn't say how long he talked with him. This could have been a couple of days.
See, he had time to instruct the man and teach him what's right when you trust the Lord. And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now that's a good testimony right there. And he commanded the chariots to stand still. And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they would come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip that the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing. Now there are four very simple principles there that I believe are very, very helpful and practical for the Christian who would desire to be used of the Lord to multiply himself in that he would be used of the Lord to bring others to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I have borrowed four points and two illustrations from a dear brother in Christ I've never met. I've read him and I've heard him speak by page and in person, but I've never met this man, Howard Hendricks, but I have four points and two illustrations, and I put my meat on his points. But they're all actually right here in the Scriptures. The first point is found here in verse twenty-nine. I'll give you my outline, and you'll know. The second one is found in verse thirty. The next one is found in thirty-five. And the next one is found near the end of the potion that we read.
Mr. Hendrick says there are four things that you need if you're going to be a successful soul winner and bring another to Christ. You need glue. You need kitchen powder. You need a bucket with a long rope. And you need a magnet. All right. You say, where in the world are you seeing a glue there? All right, I'll show it to you. It's in verse twenty-nine. Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join thyself to his chariot. I'll do this chariot.
Go near and join yourself to that man's chariot. What do I see in this? I see the absolute necessity. Now there may be a few exceptions, but if you are seeking to win people to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, let's make up our minds and get our thinking straight. It's going to involve involvement on your part with another individual. It takes time. It takes thought. It takes planning. It takes prayer.
and it takes work. There's no easy shortcut to being used as an instrument of God to bring others to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as I've already said, I'm sure there are exceptions. One day on the street corner in York, Pennsylvania, I handed a man a tract. And a few months later, his wife wrote me to thank him for handing him the track. The Lord had used it. The man had been the object of prayer for many years, and he couldn't know the sake. But that was an isolated case. As a rule, when your friends and my friends come into the Lord Jesus Christ, it's because we've become sufficiently involved and concerned and burdened about their soul's salvation that we spend time with them and more time and more time and more time.
Look at Matthew chapter nine. Verse ten. And it came to pass as Jesus sat at me in the house, which is Matthew's house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the disciples saw it, they said unto his disciples, when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, why eat ye of your master with publicans and sinners?
And when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. Go ye and learn what that means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Beloved friends, brother and sister, if you're going to be used of the Lord to bring others to the Lord Jesus, you're going to have to ask the Lord to give you some sanctified common sense wisdom. as to how you can go about spending time with the people who need to know your Lord.
Now there are various and Sunday meetings, there are various type meetings, there are various type activities, but the point is, this very simple point is, go near to them and get where they are some way and spend time with them. It may mean that you'll have to take up a new hobby. It may mean that you may have to learn to make something you've never made. So in a number of ways, but you ask the Lord about it and he'll lead you. Go near and join yourself to this charity.
When the Lord lays somebody on your heart, you better not abandon them. You better spend some time with them. I think perhaps when I was here in November of seventy-two, I might have given you this illustration. You see, beloved, whenever the Lord puts you in touch with an individual that doesn't know your Savior, you have a golden opportunity to be an instrument in the hands of God, perhaps of leading that person, Christ would, and maybe of leading him to Christ. Now, up in Columbia, the Lord blessed our assembly and grew, and it grew, and we needed more space.
So we had to build another building. And so there had to be some goat that'd be foolish enough to undertake being like the contractor, and that was me. See, I didn't know any better. So I said, okay, I'll kind of take the time out. I'll have the time, and I'll... contact the contractor and I'll contract the plumber and the electrician and so forth and so on. Now one of the young men that I contacted was a fellow with the name of Francis Burris, a very, very fine young man who's kind of the vice president of the company that we contracted to put up the shell of this new building. And the Lord lay him on the heart.
And so I called his secretary one morning at eight o'clock, and I said, it's Francis there. She said, no, he's out somewhere, but he has his radio on. I tried to contact him by radio. I said, would you tell Francis, I'd like for him to be my guest today for lunch at the market restaurant at twelve forty-five. I said, there's a luncheon there that I usually go to about once a month, and I'd like for him to go. Well, she called me back at nine-thirty, said, Mr. Few, I hadn't been able to contact him, but I'll keep trying. I said, well, you keep trying. I'm going to the luncheon anyway, and if he can go with me, I'd like him to meet me at the market restaurant at twelve-forty-five. She called back at eleven-fifteen, said, I just contacted Mr.
Burrus. He's out so-and-so, twenty miles away, but he said he'd be there at twelve-forty-five. And so I called Dottie, and I called Gill, and I called two of the other people, and I called some Christian friends, and I said, Francis Burrus. above construction is going to see the MC luncheon with me at twelve forty five will you be praying well you know what happened I wouldn't be telling you I had a young man out from Charlotte or Greenville or somewhere standing up and give his testimony I didn't think of anything too terrific is very simple and sweet and true you know it wasn't dynamic at all but he just told him how the Lord had saved him and how happy he was and what a joy it was to know the Lord and to share his faith with somebody else.
It wasn't about eighteen people there, you know. I was kind of embarrassed about that because the room was big enough to hold thirty-five floor, you know. And when he finished giving his testimony, he said, there may be some of you thought of here and you might really want the Lord Jesus to come into your heart and we're going to bow our heads and close our eyes. If you'd like to have us pray for you that the Lord would come into your heart, would you slip your hand up and Francis Burroughs lifted his hand up, and when the meeting was over, he went up, and the man talked to him and laid him to the Lord. When we got in his car, I had walked down to the restaurant since it was only three blocks in the bookstore. We rode in his little car. When we got in the car, he said, Mr. Few, I want you to know that I'll never forget this day.
I so much appreciate you bringing me to this luncheon. When we got out of the store three blocks away, He put his hand out again and shook hands with me the second time and looked me in the eye with tears in his eyes and said, Mr. View, thank you for taking me to that luncheon. And the irony of it is I have other friends and some of them are wealthy, if you know what I mean. They really are wealthy. One of them is one of my best friends in the Lord. And I said, say, man, why don't you go to these lunches and take friends with you? I said, it's really wonderful. He said, well, you know, be quite frank, chocolate. Time you pay three dollars for your lunch and three dollars for somebody else's lunch. That's six dollars, man, that's a lot of money.
And yet his business didn't do with two million last year. Well, you pray for me because it's hard for me to understand that. It really is. You know what I've always found out about investing money for the Lord? God's shovel is always bigger than mine. You cannot give God. All right, that's point number one, and half the time's going, now how are we going to get the other three? I don't know, but we'll start. All right, the next one is in verse thirty and thirty-one. Understandest thou what thou readest. All right, understandest thou what thou readest. All right, he went to where the man was.
He engaged him in conversation. He began to communicate with him. He built up a rapport with this man. The man found out something about him, and he found out something about the man. And they became so familiar with each other that this man felt at ease in asking him a question. and Philip felt at ease in asking him a question. They were on a man-to-man first-name basis, and it was much easier to communicate after you reached this point in your relationship with the person that you're trying to point to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, as I suggested a few moments ago, in order to win some people to Christ, you might have to learn how to start fishing. See, you may not like to fish, but the person that you want to win to the Lord may be an avid fisherman. I have a friend and no, the friend actually is there in heaven. He died about six, seven years ago. But a friend of mine led him to the Lord after he went fishing with him approximately every week when you could go fishing for about five years. Of course, I always think about going fishing because, as some of you know, that was the way I found the Lord.
Dear man of God, became interested in my soul, began to pray for me and witness to me, and he took me fishing. I couldn't tell you now whether we caught a fish or not, but he caught a fish for the Lord, and it was me. So ask the Lord to give you sanctified wisdom as to how you'll go about getting to spend time with this woman or this man or this boy or this girl, as the case may be. It could be your neighbor. It could be the girl that checks you out down at the grocery store. It could be the man that pumps that gas into the tank down at the Chevron station. It could be in a number of people.
But ask the Lord to help you find some common interest. so that you can let them learn that you have flesh and bones, you know, just like they do, and that you breathe just like they do, and that you get up and you get hungry just like they do, and that you get tired just like they do, that you're just a normal individual, and that there's something different about you, they don't know what it is. But when the right time comes, you'll be able to introduce them to your Savior. I was going to give you another illustration, but I won't because we don't have time. And then, too, it was about something that had happened to us right in Columbia.
And I don't want to use too many illustrations from my own experience because some people say, well, why don't you use some ideas as well? I'll tell you something. When you've had it happen in your own life, I think it means a lot more to you rather than something you read in the book. Now, the hearts of men and women today are failing for fear. And they're not finding the answers on TV. They're not finding the answers in a newspaper. They're not finding the answers in the magazines they're reading. Now, what we need to do is to get them to realize that they can find the answers to life's problems in God's Word, the Bible. Incidentally, that's one of the best, most practical ways to win somebody to the Lord. You can win them to the Lord in.
It's to get them into the Word. Get them reading the Bible. Give them a Bible. I had a wonderful testimony last night of this brother in the home where we're having, you know, at the park of the palms, you eat four times a day. Do you know that? You eat breakfast and you eat lunch and you eat dinner at five-thirty and then you eat again about nine o'clock. So if you come here and don't put on weight, it's not the folks' faults around here. But anyway, this man told about how he went into a Catholic bookstore. And he went there with one specific purpose, to buy some Catholic Bibles, because when people who were Catholics came to his house, he would offer them a Bible to read. And sometimes they don't even have a Bible.
And so he'd give them a Bible. I know of numbers of people who have been saved just by reading their own Bible. In this case, it happened to be a Catholic Bible. All right, spend time with them. Get them into the Word of God. Don't be afraid if they ask you questions. Incidentally, there's a book out there in the bookstore, and if you ever have occasion to deal with people that are rather skeptical, or they think they are rather intellectual, you know, there's a book out there that just about answer any question they'll ever bring up. It's written by Josh McDowell, and it's published by Campus Crusade.
And I would think that up in Columbia, we're probably selling three or four of those every week because we have a lot of college students that come into the store. And this book will take just about any question or problem that a so-called intellectual would have about the authenticity and the trustworthiness of the Bible and tell you how to answer it, not only from science, but most of all from the Bible, the Word of God. All right. Now we come back. into Acts eight and we look down here in the thirty-fifth verse and we read where Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture you see how adept he was see how gifted he was see how educated he was in one sense he went to the very scripture where he was read and from that scripture he preached under him Jesus Now, beloved brother and sister, there's not but one way to be able to do that.
And that's to take that bucket with a long rope and dig down deep into the word. And then you'll be able to preach to them, Jesus, when you have opportunities. And now I'd like to use the first of two illustrations that I got from Mr. Henry. I didn't know why he went to school and I checked out and found out that this that he talked about happened when he was a student of Wheaton College. But Mr. Hendricks was an orphan and one of his relatives raised him, I think perhaps is either his grandmother or an aunt. And he had to work his way through Wheaton and he worked in the dining room.
And he said he had one professor I don't know the professor's name. It's not important. But he had one professor at Wheaton that he said that he was such a wonderful teacher that he would rather hear that man teach when he wasn't prepared to teach than anybody else when they were prepared. That's how good he was. And he said, when he was coming from his dormitory early in the morning to go into the kitchen to work, that professor was always in his office. Steady. And then he said when he'd be studying late at night, he'd be on the way from the library back to the dormitory, and he'd go by that same professor's office, and he'd still be in his study, studying late at night.
So one day this professor invited him to his house. And he said, Prof, what keeps you staying? He said, man, and he told him, every morning, every night, I come by your office. And you're in that stadium. What keeps you studying so? He said, Howie, it's very simple. He said, I'd rather my students drink from a fresh running stream than a stagnant pond. And if there are any people here today that aspire to stand in the pulpit and preach, Oh, beloved, may God deliver the people that have to hear you unless you're willing to study and study and study and study and read and study and read and study and read and keep yourself abreast of what's happening today, not only in the book but out in life.
I may be mentioning this a little later, but I was reading, preparing a message that I might use once tomorrow sometime about David's mighty men. And man, this hit me like a ton of bricks. I got the first Chronicles, chapter twelve, and the thirty-second verse, and don't turn to it. We don't have time now. If you have a living Bible, look it up in your living Bible, and it says about these men that David's mighty men had an understanding of the times. You know, it helps to have an understanding of the times in which we're living. In order to understand teenagers today, it helps tremendously if you're aware of how fastly things are changing today.
So, beloved, if you want to be able to reach that neighbor or that brother or that sister or that friend that's without Christ, It'll be very, very necessary for you to make up your mind. You're going to have to spend time in the book. Now there are wonderful, there's a lot of wonderful help. There's a lot of them out in the bookstore that will help you to know what verses you can use to help them with certain problems and so forth and so on and how to meet the excuses and how to meet the objections and how to meet this question and this question. There are a lot of wonderful helps and I'm a strong believer in health. But it's going to take study. in the word. And one of the reasons why a number of the Lord's people have never won many others to Christ is because they tried once or twice, they got a question or two, they got an objection or two, they got an excuse or two, they didn't know how to meet them, and frankly, they got discouraged, and they gave up.
When if they had spent a few hours on their knees and in study, using some of the booklets that are available very inexpensively on how to meet the objections that people have for not believing in the Lord and so forth, memorizing a few verses of Scripture and being able to answer these objections in a normal, practical, business-like, Christ-like way, they could have become effective witnesses for the Lord Jesus Christ. But a lot of people, years ago, they got discouraged because they didn't know how to meet an objection or a question or a problem that a person had.
And it never occurred to them that if they go back and do a little homework in the Word of God and get some help from others who've been successful soul winners, that they could have themselves become... Because, you see, every Christian has a gift. Now, praise the Lord, they're not all the saints. We don't have time to go into that. But there are people that you can win to the Lord that nobody else can win because of your personality and your background and your makeup and your characteristics and your ways. There are people that you can reach that no one else can reach. But you can't do it without getting into the book.
You just can't do it without getting into the book. There are a lot of helps. Sometimes you can go to a conference that will be a real help to you on how to win your friends to Christ. Now this is my second illustration that I borrowed from Mr. Hendricks. This happened to him in Chicago at Moody Church some number of years ago. This illustration illustrates how a person that has their heart set on doing a job for the Lord will go to any extreme almost if it can help them just a little bit to win somebody to Christ.
And I also use this illustration for another purpose. I use it because there are a number of us here, of course, none of us old here. I found out when I was here before we're just older, see, than we used to be. But... Mr. Hendricks was at a Sunday school convention, and he goes to a lot of these. He's in charge of the Christian education department at Dallas Seminary, and he's known as an authority on Christian ed. And he was at this Christian education convention, Sunday school convention, and it was being held at Moody Church in Chicago. And they had a break between sessions, and they dashed across the street to a place to get a hamburger. And because everybody had badges on and so forth and so on, they were having a little difficulty finding a table.
And so there were two or three of the speakers there and a lady up in years, and she was kind of looking for a place to sit down to eat her lunch, so they invited her to share the little table with them. And she had a badge on, and it said she was from somewhere way up in northern Michigan, and they introduced themselves and so forth, and she was Mrs. So-and-so from this town way up in Michigan, and Yes, how far is that? Well, that's so many hundred miles. And how did you come? Well, to be quite frank, sir, I rode a Greyhound bus all night long. You did? Oh, yes.
I rode a bus all night long to be here. And you teach some school? Yes. I have a class of about ten boys, junior high boys, and a small church out in the country. And you rode a bus all night long. And you haven't had any sleep to speak of. And here you are at this eleven o'clock session at the Sun School Convention. Ma'am, why would you do that? She said, well, Mr. Hendricks, if I can come to this convention and get one thing that will make me a better teacher for those junior high boys, It'll be worth all the time and all the money that it'll take.
And he got her name and he got her address. And he knew a man that lived in that little town, a minister. And he wrote him a letter. And he said, listen, I met this dear lady, Mrs. So-and-so and so-and-so, that lives in that little town, that teach his son school in this little church out in the country. Would you find out something about her for me? I just like to know more about her. And he said he got a letter back that really thrilled him. He said, now you probably didn't know it. The man that wrote the letter, he said, that lady doesn't look it. Because she's been so active and happy in the Lord that she doesn't look it.
But that lady you met, you probably thought she's about sixty-five or seventy. That lady is eighty-three years of age. And she's had a class of junior high boys in that small little rural Sunday school for many, many years. He said, in fact, they're not the seventy-five or eighty pupils in that Sunday school. He said that, but from that class that that woman teaches, there are fifty-five men, either on the mission field, or in the Lord's Word full time.
Just a Sunday school class. But she's willing to ride a Greyhound bus all night long. If she can get one thing that'll help her be a better witness for Jesus Christ. I don't know what that does to you. That makes me feel mightily A bucket with a long rope. Take advantage of the opportunities you have to better equip yourselves to introduce that one to the Lord Jesus Christ. Glue, itching powder, getting next to people, getting involved with people, spending time with people.
The bucket with a long rope into the Word. But there's one other thing that you have to have, beloved. And none of the things that I've said before will mean the snap of your finger unless this last ingredient is right there. And that magnet is the power of the Holy Spirit of God. All your work, all your teaching, all your witnessing, all your praying, all your giving out tracks, all your letter writing will be of no avail. unless it's bathed in prayer,unless the power of the Holy Spirit anoint you in what you do.
So remember those four precious truths, getting involved with people, spending time with them, becoming so acquainted with them that they'll have confidence in you and be willing and ready to ask you questions very freely. getting into the book and preparing so that whatever they're talking about, whatever their subject, whatever their problem, you can preach unto them Jesus. And then last of all, remember that it's ineffective and without power unless it's anointed by God's Holy Spirit. Our Father and our God, we pray now that throughout the day that you'd help us to remember what we've heard today.
We pray that you'd prepare us for the continuation of these thoughts tonight as we come back at seven-thirty. Now, Father, we know that the people here at Park of the Palm, some of them are in an unusual situation so far as contact with the outside world is concerned, but Father, we know that whether the will does away, And if these be a thing for the Lord, want to have real contact with those who know you not, as a means of bringing them to know thyself, that there will be a way. Oh, Father, we know there are a lot of hungry souls in this part of North Florida.
People that have moved here just like they have in their retirement years. Many of them have amassed fortunes. Many of them have amassed enough to at least get by comfortably. They found a lot of things, but many of them have never found the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. They've never found Jesus Christ. May some of these dear people, in their sunset years of their lives, be graciously used of thee to point others, perhaps in similar circumstances, similar age brackets, to the saving knowledge of thy Son, Jesus Christ.