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Pastor Aaron Shamp preaches about the Gospel and facets of Christianity at Redeemer City Church. These podcasts are his sermons.
Aaron Shamp (00:00.33)
the verse that we're gonna look at today. We'll open and close with it as we get going. So our verse is gonna be Romans chapter 10, and really just kind of this verse is to kind of set the tone of the direction I want to go today. And like, I'm gonna be talking about evangelism. And listen, now most times when you hear evangelism sermons or evangelism message when I was a younger man, it was always like...
pastor would preach real hard and you always felt like you weren't doing enough evangelism. Like I would always leave beat up like I gotta go out there and do it harder and so that's not my goal today. But my goal today is to encourage you. My goal today is to tell some stories, share some passages and
get us to think objectively about how we approach evangelism and maybe what style might fit us, maybe what style might not fit us from success and unsuccessful that I've had in the process of like practicing evangelism. So I'm going to pray and then I'm going to read this passage. Lord, just thank you, God. Opportunity to share your word. Now pray as we dig into your word, God, that we just.
stop all the noise that's going on in our head and heart, all the stuff that's going on at home and our jobs and family dynamics, God, and just spend some time digging in your word, God, and just remembering who you are and how you've called us out.
purpose that you've given us. God, help us just really hone in on it today through the scriptures. We love you in Jesus Christ, we pray, amen. So, this is one of my favorite passages. I've been, as a college pastor, I've been thinking about this passage for years. How then can they call on the one who have they not believed in? And how can they believe in the one who have they not heard? And how can they hear without somebody preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sinned?
Aaron Shamp (01:56.37)
sent as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. And so what I wanted to do today is to remind you that we are called to bring the good news. And so the, I think that's something that sometimes we forget that we have good news to take to the world. Because sometimes our life is a mess. And we have so many responsibilities and so many things we were trying to get done, we forget that this is.
news of reconciliation and redemption and that God has purpose for our lives and purpose for the person next to us at work and the person at school and the next-door neighbor that he wants to call him out. And so we need to be bringing the good news. And so, you know, you all guys driving Lafayette traffic, I definitely spend probably an hour to an hour and a half every Monday through Friday in my truck.
because of different kids at different schools and like just different things that are going on in my life. And so I tend to listen to books and podcasts. And so eight days ago, I was listening to a podcast that really stood out to me. It was Andrew Humerman. And I don't know if any of you guys listened to him. It's a very nerdy podcast. He's a scientist, a biologist, and he does research. And it was very interesting. He had this, because he's a scientist, but he had this guy that's this formal Navy SEAL. He's kind of crazy.
And he's a little too extreme for me, but they were on the same podcast. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. I'll listen to it. And David Goggins is the guy that he's on the podcast with them. And he's this ultra marathon runner and like he's just super intense and like, you know, he's like, go to work hard. There's no shortcuts, you know, run, you know, and he just he runs these ultra marathons. And anyway, man, I really.
It's hard to watch the guy. It's cool to get little clips of him, like, oh, that's motivational. But when I listen to long podcasts with him, I'm like, ah, you're kind of like a caveman. I need some more substance. But you had this doctor on the show, and this doctor was talking about new research that's come out. And I can't even pronounce it, because I went to speech therapy until I was in all the way at my senior year in high school. And there's some words I can't catch. But there's a part of your brain.
Aaron Shamp (04:14.214)
I have it written down if you're dying to know afterwards, that actually can grow when it's put into practice. And basically what they figured out is it's kind of like the source of willpower and inner strength. And what's interesting is that people who work hard and do things, and that are able to do consistently things they don't like to do, this willpower, this part of the brain actually gets more dense and grows bigger.
And it's also interesting that these people live longer. These people live more dynamic lives. And so it's very interesting that when you do things that make you uncomfortable that you don't wanna do, it literally makes your brain bigger, in a sense. You know what I'm saying? Like very small and bigger, but more dense. To me, I'm like, hey, I'm doing things all the time I don't wanna do, you know what I'm saying? My brain should be huge, but the...
But it was a really fun article, because willpower and grit are probably the foundation of being a good evangelist. And so, here's why. I asked Eli when we were sitting in office, I was like, Aaron wants me to preach on evangelism, and we both started laughing, and I was like, I wonder why he picked me, and he goes, because you do it? And I'm like, oh yeah, I do, yeah, you're right. I would not...
consider myself an evangelist. And I bet no one in this room considers themselves a evangelist. You know, when I was growing up, we had these evangelists that would come to our little church out in the middle of nowhere and they would just preach fire and brimstone. And like the first church, we had like a portable baptistry and usually when they came, they'd bunch people in the community would get baptized and they would be a part of our church. And we wouldn't see them again for a year. And so,
my concept of evangelist or person that does evangelism, this person. But over the years, I realized that's not me. I'm just kind of a day-to-day evangelist, a day-to-day like sharer of the gospel or the good news. And that's in all of us. It's there in all of us that are followers of Christ, and the question is, have you honed that skill? And one of the things that I
Aaron Shamp (06:40.374)
I'm gonna share how that skill got honed in me unintentionally. I didn't know it was happening. I was doing things I didn't wanna do and getting better at it and stronger at it and having more like willpower at it. And so I'm gonna share some stories through college and what I've seen with college students that have helped me grow as a person that is more comfortable sharing the gospel. Do I still get nervous when I share the gospel? Yes, sometimes it's the situation
When you're sharing a gospel, sometimes you don't know how it's going to play out. I love sharing a gospel because it's kind of like almost like a frontier experience because it's just you're sharing your heart with this person, sharing the greatest news there's ever been, and you don't know how they're going to react. There's no like perfect format for it. And so one of my first jobs in college, and I was thinking about this podcast, was I couldn't find a job.
on my campus, I'm a freshman, I'm not from that area. I go to, they're supposed to give you a job if you qualify for Pell Grant. So I go in there, they're like, we don't have no jobs to give you. And I was hungry, and so I just didn't listen to that lady, and I went to different department heads and asked them, hey, do you need an employee? Eventually I ended up at the Rec Center, and multiple people pointed me to the Rec Center, the fitness center.
And I was talking to the guys like, hey, I want a job. He goes, oh, everybody wants a job here. I was like, well, what is a job in here that nobody wants to do? He goes, open the gym at 5 o'clock AM. I'm like, I will do it. I think I need a job now. And we all have been in them situations, right? I'll do whatever it takes. And I remember the first time that I woke up at 4.30 AM, the willpower was low. You know what I'm saying?
because I hadn't made any adjustments in my life. I was just a free spirit, still hanging out playing ping pong, right? You know what I mean? We had GoldenEye, that was a Nintendo 64 video game. But I wasn't ready to be disciplined, right? But I needed money, so I woke up at 4.50, you know, after 4.30, alarm went off, and sprinted to the gym. Like, I went on a walk casual. I was sprinting because...
Aaron Shamp (09:03.338)
He told me he was going to be there the first day. And if I wasn't there, I was fired. So I was like, man, I don't even got the job yet. I sprinted there. He got cracked up because he saw me running. I get there, and he's laughing. And he goes, this is not going to be easy for you. I was like, no, sir. This is totally not going to be easy for me. And so we unlocked the building. He goes, if you can learn to do this, you will have an easy job all the way through college. And I was like, oh, yeah, sure.
This is not easy. But every day, it was a struggle, a struggle, a struggle, a struggle, a struggle to get there. I mean, it was always sprinting. I was always a hot mess. I mean, I would show up there, you know, my hair smashed on one side. You've seen that college person or that high school kid, right? I literally had a college kid come in the building, his hair was smashed. I was like, hey, you didn't wake up on time, did you? He's like, how'd you know? You didn't brush your hair, son.
Aaron Shamp (10:03.784)
Anyway, so he, I run, I get this job, but as the years went on, I end up becoming a morning person, right? I end up having to be disciplined with my nightlife, which also I'm sitting there for three hours at this gym, so I was like, I might as well start lifting weights and exercising and talking to meatheads about weight fitness and exercising, and I learned through hanging out with them.
sort of reading books. And guess what? Then I had two hours after the hour of fitness to do homework and study flashcards. And it changed and affected my life because of discipline and structure. And I needed a paycheck, right? And here's what I want to challenge you today is when you think about evangelism, when you think about outreach, if there's no discipline and structure or a plan, it's not going to happen. Does it make sense? You won't have it in.
product. And so a lot of us, evangelism is not happening because it's not built into our everyday life. And man, that's a hard thing to look because there's seasons where evangelism is very focused for me and there's seasons when it's not and I have to realign my heart. Now what's just cool about me and the campus minister is my life is seasonal, fall, spring, summer. And so I know I got to get ready for evangelism again. We got to do outreach.
But there are seasons where it spills over into my summer where I still just want to share the gospel. Now, what I've learned in my life working with college students and dealing with every type of college students, musicians to engineers, and they're very drastically different people, right? You're like your artists and you just deal with all these college students. There's two categories I would put people in evangelism. And it's very simple. One, evangelism happens out of outflow. It's an overflow.
It's what God's doing in their life. They're a passionate person. They love Jesus. This is more of my musical people, like my artists, and it's just going to bubble to the surface. And they just share naturally. And listen, when they share, it's messy, because it's just from the heart. It's just this raw, hey, Jesus, change my life. I love you. It's just rawness to it. And then there's my other students, and that another category is they're just mentally disciplined.
Aaron Shamp (12:27.35)
They just, they like, they're focused, they make a willing choice to engage people with the gospel. Isn't that interesting? But I really break down people in those two categories, and I'm sure we can break down subcategories of those, but those are just two big idea concepts. I'm more of a disciplined person. Because the older I've gotten, the less emotional and feely I am. I'm still emotional, but like, I'm just more practical.
And so I have to be laser beam focused. It has to be a part of my daily, like when I pray and read and think about who I want to share the gospel, I ask God to give me the wisdom and like look to like this creative juice to look for where I can share the gospel that day, have open eyes. And so one of the things I wanted you all to think about is where do you align these two categories? How do you need to make some adjustment? If you're an artist and it's overflow.
How do you make it overflow? And if you're a focused person in your discipline, how do I make it part of my daily regimen? I'm a daily regimen guy. I'm going to wake up early because of that college life it has hung up, stayed with me. I'm going to drink coffee. I'm going to read and pray and fitness, right? It's every day, coffee. But in my devotion, I always ask God to help me be bold with the gospel.
when I have the opportunity, help my eyes be fresh to it. And when I have that stuff written in part of my prayer language, it's part of my thought process, it's easy to share the gospel. But when it's not in that area of my thought process, it just doesn't happen because I get caught up in what's going on around me. So here's the first thing that I wanted to talk about.
Aaron Shamp (14:12.734)
I would say sharing the gospel is a practice. It's like a doctor practice in medicine, right? Sometimes they just don't have concrete and they're just like, they're just trying things. Oh, here, try this, I'll do this. You know what I mean? Like, it's just a practice. And sometimes, if you're like me, I've been duck hunting for years and if you ask me, I'm not a very good duck hunter.
If you ask me, I've been fishing since I've been a little kid pretty consistently. I'm not a very good fisherman. Like honestly, some days I'm like, man, I'm not a very good dad right now. Like these kids are wild. You know what I mean? Kind of embarrassing. Like sometimes I look, my wife's like, you're not doing a very good job at being a husband. I'm like 100% correct on that. I'm just, I'm a hot mess. I'll just get frazzled and like discombobulated at times. And it-
happens to all of us and when evangelists share who Jesus is with others, we're going to get discombobulated. It's not a perfect practice, but I want to be engaged in it because it's part of being a follower of Christ. And what I would challenge you is you don't have to be perfect at it, but I believe the attempt to share Jesus is what Jesus works with. For some reason, he wants to use us.
as frail human beings, right, these carbon beings, he wants to use us to share the good news of what he's done and who he is and how wonderful he is and how he's brought salvation and grace to this world and love and forgiveness. And so we have to be willing to engage. And so I'm going to give you a couple of different strategies that I've tried in doing evangelism and just bear with me.
because I'm going to share some strategies that are pretty crazy, and I want to laugh about it, but I tried it because I was just a young man in college. And so one of them was street evangelism. I heard about this at a camp, youth camp, oh, you do street evangelism. I want to be a street evangelist. You know what I'm saying? It's like when I was in college, I would walk around with my friend, and we would just randomly catch people and share the gospel. And like, talk about awkward moments. And Troy's been in here, he used to do it.
Aaron Shamp (16:40.706)
So I know, I like the, but we would pray and go out with the purpose of sharing the gospel, one-on-one or two-on-one, and I'll never forget, we thought it was kind of effective, like it was kind of hit and miss with people when we met them, and so we decided when I was at college, me and a couple of guys, is that we were going, if we shared, went down one hallway of a dorm every Tuesday night in the...
full year of school, we would get to share the gospel with every residential male on campus. And so every Tuesday night we would eat at the cafeteria on campus, pray, and then go to a hallway. We had a, like, well there's a nerd with us that spread sheeted it and knew which hallway we were going to. I wasn't that guy. I was like, alright, just tell me which hallway we're going to tonight. And we were like, literally go down the hallway and knock on doors and.
the gospel, we all had these different styles. Let me tell you something, it was a hot mess every Tuesday night. It was like this adrenaline emotional ride of like, you don't know who's gonna open that door. It could be a music nerd, or a six foot five defensive lineman football player. It was just crazy, and it didn't matter the type of human being, all like.
big, small, a variety of emotional responses, a variety of comments and navigating. And like, it was scary, absolutely scary and exciting. And I seen people trust Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. I was in some of their weddings, and some of them guys were in my weddings, that we led to Christ at a doorway in the dorm. Now some people are like,
That totally makes you feel uncomfortable, right? Hey, made me feel uncomfortable my whole college experience. And I don't know if it's for everybody, but here's what I wanna tell you, is I learned to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. I learned to make peace with it. And I learned to just trust the Lord. And I think a lot of times when we think about sharing the gospel with somebody, we're like, all these variables and so many questions.
Aaron Shamp (19:04.97)
Listen, I just jumped in feet first every Tuesday night and presented the gospel and following the humor man concept, right? Doing hard things makes you stronger. And it just became something of like, it was stressful, but it was a growing thing for me. And it was really crazy because like, I didn't really have a lot of expectations. I wasn't like, oh, I'm going to lead my whole
maybe I'll lead somebody to Christ. It's not going to hurt anything, because sometimes we would just shut the door, and I would feel relieved. We got done with it. Because some nights, we'd get done in like 15 minutes. You know what I mean? Because nobody was interested in what we were selling. It was just a very humble experience. And we're like, hey, man, let's go play some Goldeneye. It's just how young bucks we recover quick.
But like, some nights I would be at somebody's door or bite it into the room and be there for an hour and a half and never make it to the other rooms. But it's taking a step of faith, but sometimes we have to take a step of faith to get to that step of faith so we can share that gospel. Acts chapter 17, this is what's cool, is that Paul just was going out in the marketplace. The dorms in college is the marketplace.
to me. Like, you know, you go to a bar in college, it's hard, you know, people there to party. They're not interested, but like the dorm room, you can catch them when they're the most relaxed. Acts 17 verse 16 through 17 says, Paul was waiting in Athens and he was greatly distressed to see the city was full of idols. So he's responded in the synagogues. Oh, sorry, verse 17, he reasoned in the synagogues with both Jews and God-fearing Greeks.
as well in the marketplace day by day, what was happening to be there. When I was in college, the marketplace was the place to be, the dorm, sharing the gospel. I felt like that was the best place. We saw the most results. We tried a whole bunch of different things all throughout college. We tried walking on campus, but it was the most pragmatic way to share the gospel. We shared and led more people to Christ than when we played intramural sports, like with a Christian team, like just them conversations. And so what I wanna challenge you to is to think,
Aaron Shamp (21:29.078)
is where is your marketplace? Where is your marketplace? A couple of weeks ago, we had my neighbor's son came back from the Marine Corps, and it was in the summertime, I was like, hey man, you wanna go bow fishing? And I have a fishing boat when we shoot fish with arrows. That's the simplification of it. And it's late at night, and he's a Marine, he likes doing adventurous stuff, and he said yes. And so,
Comes with us, I brought Johnny Riley and some pretty solid Christian guys. We interacted with them all night. And we talked about fitness, Marine Corps and fitness and Jesus and man now, every time I see him, he loves coming to talk to me. He walks over and talks to me. And then what's crazy is then God put two UL alumni, single guys across the street from me and they become friends and I've become friends with all these three guys. And like now, anytime I walk out the front door, my wife's afraid that I won't be back for 30 minutes.
Because of the bros, you know what I mean? Like my neighbor bros. And so, but I had to take a step of faith. I don't know if this guy is a crazy Marine, I don't know what he's been through. I'm gonna just invest in him and love on him and encourage him. You gotta be out in the marketplace, you gotta be where people are. And where's your marketplace? Where can you grow that part of your brain? Where can you grow your grit? Where can you make yourself get uncomfortable? The second thing I tried, I saw in the Bible.
Acts chapter 2 verse 37 through 41. I'm just gonna use it as a reference as Paul like preached to the Jews at Pentecost right and 3000 get saved and basically he tells them like you killed Jesus repent and they did like yeah we did and they repented and like the church started and it was crazy and I remember me and my roommates we were doing this doing we're like let's preach on campus yeah that's
Listen, we have these guys that come preach at UO every year on campus. Y'all know I'm talking about if you've been on your campus, they're crazy. They're crazy. I tried it. It's me and honest with you, because I was just young and on fire for the Lord. I'm just going to try open air evangelism. But me and my friends decided that we weren't going to like yell at them like these other groups. We were just going to talk about grace and how Jesus changed. So we just like open air told our testimonies of how we met Jesus. And we had a different.
Aaron Shamp (23:54.078)
And here's what's interesting about open-air evangelism. This is what's mind-blowing, is people can't look away. That's what I noticed. That was my takeaway from it. When you're open-air evangelism or preaching in public spaces, it's like people looking at a car wreck. You ever looked at a car wreck? I look at every single car wreck that a drive by. I cannot control myself. My kids will be
out of their seat belt, and I can yell at them, they don't care, they wanna see a car wreck. It also, when you see two human beings fighting when you're in junior high and high school, people assemble, I mean out of nowhere. It could be two people fighting in the hallway and then kids show up to watch it. Preaching in open air has the same effect. Right or wrong, it just has the same effect. It's how you present yourself. Now, there's a lot of open air preaching that's
crazy and I don't think it's helping the kingdom but here's what's interesting. It makes Christians talk. Every time those guys come to our campus they talk about who they don't want to be. Doesn't make sense and how it should be done different. It makes people think and so one of them things is like used to I don't I don't I'm not mad at the open air guys I understand that how it works and how it draws people.
you know, wish they would do it different. But here's a question is, what would you do if God gave you an open-air opportunity at work or at school or at a family event? You know people are not gonna look away. It's a crazy concept and you know, what I'm talking about sounds pretty charismatic, but I think sometimes we need to think about all types of evangelism that we see in the New Testament and this is an example. Other than that, I don't feel very comfortable with it
47, right? I don't want to do that style of gospel preaching, but my students talked me into doing it a couple years ago. We did a event, we had worship on campus, and I shared the gospel. I just shared a gospel, and people got saved. I'm like, oh man, I guess we'll have to do that again. You know what I mean? It's like, man, I really didn't want that to happen. Oh, you know, it's just like, but I have to grow that muscle. Anyway, I just want you to think.
Aaron Shamp (26:20.862)
If we see it in the New Testament, when I look through the New Testament, I'm looking to see how those Christians did, how they shared the gospel, how they moved the gospel forward. Number three is track evangelism or survey evangelism. That was really big in the 90s and early 2000s. I don't think anybody passing out tracks, maybe in big cities, but anybody received a track lately from anybody? The people downtown, like they got little pamphlets and they...
I used to think that was really corny. And so in college, I'll never forget, we had this big Christmas festival in Natchitoches. I got these little Christmas tracks. I was like, ah, we'll just try some. Me and my same friends, we're all pastors now, but like we would go and pass out these tracks at Christmas and have a little baby Jesus. I mean, it's perfect. Like it's Christmas. And so, hey, do you know what Christmas is? And man, you'd be surprised.
What I've experienced with passing out tracts is that people are looking for hope. And they're looking to talk to somebody. Just because you might have Christian friends and community and healthy believers around you doesn't mean that random people on the street do. And that's what I experienced when I was passing out tracts and just being engaged and developing relationships and talking to people.
And what's interesting is I would take college students for years, we were going to Germany and doing ministry in Germany. And one of the things that we did at this University of Vienna was do surveys. And it was just 10 questions. And at the last question is like, hey, have you ever heard about Jesus? Do you have any more questions? And then we'd like, hey, we got a Bible study happening at this pub tonight, and we're going to go through the parables. And so we do these surveys and they worked. Not on everybody.
they would work. People would respond, like, yeah, man, I've been thinking about spiritual stuff, like, I don't go to church, I don't know anybody who goes to church, I'll come to y'all's Bible study tonight and hear it out. It works. And I asked my friend Tomas, because when I first did my surveys with him the first time I went to Germany, I surveyed 10 Germans in a row, which they're not the most exciting people to survey. They're very direct, yes, no. You know what I mean? It's like, all right, cool. No personality, right?
Aaron Shamp (28:39.642)
And I'm doing these surveys and I'm like, Tomas, I don't think these surveys work. I just went to him, man, because he's the German college pastor. I'm like, these don't work. And he goes, oh, they work. And he goes, this is what I want you to remember, Joe, something's better than nothing. And it just rung in my head, something is better than nothing.
And how many times when you're around friends, family, coworkers, your neighbors, how much more would something be better than nothing with the community that God's put you in? Does it make sense? And so we have to do something. We pass out popsicles a lot on campus when it's hot, or pop tarts when it's cold, or hot coffee. And some people will be like, ah, you're just wasting money. Something's better than nothing.
Because every time we go on campus, I usually have one amazing conversation with the college students. To me, it's worth it. And so, we, doing something is better than nothing.
Paul was always looking for opportunities to share the gospel when he was looking at the different idols and he was trying to communicate to these guys. The other one is that I've seen work over the years is meeting needs evangelism and meeting needs is pretty simple. People need clothing and food, you provide it or it's disaster relief. You help them clean up their house. One of my favorite ministries here in town is called the Hub and they just basically give people a hand up.
you know, help them like get some classes, help them get some education, help them with their food, help them learn how to have a check and account balance. So anyway, just amazing ministry, loving and helping our neighbors so that we can share the gospel with them. That's one of the easiest ones. And so I decided I wasn't going to camp out. The new form that's happened to me in the last 20 years in continuities to evolve is using social media. That's our new marketplace. And how do I share the gospel?
Aaron Shamp (30:43.674)
using social media and a lot of people do it good, a lot of Christians do it good and a lot of Christians do it bad. But that seems to be the general rule for Christianity like Christians is like there's some people who are like oh they're doing it good and there's always examples of like I don't know if it can get much worse than that you know and so like but that's part of it like you just alright I love you anyway like we keep pushing forward and so one of the things with using social media is I've seen my friend Eli
do a good job of using provoc- provoking conversations. People ask questions, he answers them, and he's always doing it with love and grace. And I think one of those things is that we have to be really careful. First Corinthians chapter 9 verses 19 through 22 says, Paul uses his freedom. And I love how it talks about, he says, therefore I came free and belong to no one, but I made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. The Jews, I became like a Jew.
to win Jews and to those under the law became one under the laws of that might myself not am not under the law so to win those under the law to those not having the law became one not having the law though i am free from god's law but i'm under christ's law so to win not to so to win those not having law
to the weak I become weak and to win the weak. And I have become all these things so that all these things are possible that I might save some. I do not forsake the gospel, but I share the gospel in these blessings. Sometimes we gotta remind ourselves is, and we gotta humble ourselves and go where people are and share the gospel. And...
I've been doing this for 20 years. When I first got started in campus ministry, it was easy to hang out with college students. At 47, it's a different animal, because I don't care about Pokemon. Just being honest with you. Like, I don't care, you know, I'm wearing Nike shoes, but I don't care about Nike shoes. I don't wanna talk about Air Force Ones for 30 minutes. Like, you know what I mean? Like, I don't, like, it's just, like, sometimes I'm okay. But one of the things I've learned in sharing the gospel with college students is a half.
Aaron Shamp (33:00.866)
know them and their story. And I have to be present. I have to be all there. I have to see them. But that's the truth with everybody. Everybody I've shared the gospel in my life, and this is what I think Paul is trying to convey is you have to be present. You have to know that person and know their, look at them and care about them.
And people see that, right? People see when you're genuine, and people see that you're trying. My college students see me trying to understand their conversations about tennis shoes, right? Oh, yeah, that's cool, man. And then they're like, hey, you need to watch this documentary. I'll watch a documentary about Air Force Ones. You know what I'm saying? On YouTube, there's some other college kid made. I'm like, all right. I know, like now, they're kind of cooler than they were to me.
It doesn't make sense. Like, I understand the mayhem and the excitement about them. Like Stanley Cups right now, don't get it, but they get it. You know what I'm saying? So I watched a YouTube video last night for 30 minutes about what's going on with the Stanley Cups. And so I'm like, oh, cool. And they love them, man. But understanding, I don't have a Stanley Cup. I don't need one, but I can.
ask them about their Stanley Cup. Like, why is that your favorite color? Like, where'd you get that one? Like, be excited about it with them. And then it's just a point of contact, a point of engagement, right? A point to build a relationship. And then the other form of evangelism I've seen that's the most effective in my life is spontaneousness. It just, it happens. It always happens when you don't want it to happen. If you're at the grocery store or...
You know, one of the craziest ones is we, my daughter read all the Harry Potter books. She's dyslexic, which it's impressive. She went to this reading program. She learned how to read all these books. And we said, if you can read all the books from start to finish, we'll take you to the Harry Potter world in Florida. I had low expectations and it was very expensive. So just be careful what you tell your kids. So listen, I didn't read none of the books. I made fun of the movies. We went to Harry Potter world, right?
Aaron Shamp (35:23.85)
My kids were excited. They bought Harry Potter sweatshirts and scarves, and they made me wear it. And I was like, wearing this stuff, all up in Harry Potter world. They're drinking this fake beer stuff, what's it called? Butter beer, yeah, butter beer. And they're like, we went to a wine store, they bought wines. I'm like, y'all, this is a fortune. Y'all just bought a stick. We got these in our backyard. I just kept my mouth shut. That beer would be sweat, literally sweating up in the Harry Potter world, right? And they just.
They love it. There's thousands of these potter nerds just everywhere. And I remember my daughter bought this cat that's Hermione, right? Hermione has a, was it Crookshanks? Is that the name of the cat? Y'all help me. Did I get it right? And I would carry the cat, but I would call it like Crooked Butts. Like while we were in Harry Potter lines, right, for the rides, it would upset and offend the Harry Potter people.
So I was doing just irritating people like on the low right just playing ignorant. One of my favorite things is I would go into the stores all the Harry Potter tours and I would talk British.
And then this guy started talking to me in British and asked me where I was from. And I'm like, from Louisiana, but in my British accent. And he says, I'm from England. And he meant it. And my daughter was like, why did your daughter get there? All horrified. I'm like, oh my lord, I just caused this international incident. Anyway, he laughed. We laughed.
We end up hugging and taking a picture. That was my favorite part of the whole Harry Potter experience. Now here's what's interesting. I never read a book or watched a movie, right? Next thing I know, when we get back, I'm like, I try to keep it on the down. I was like, hey, we got back. Well, maybe we should watch the movies, because I don't need to know what's going on. Like, you know what I mean? I didn't know. So I'll watch these horribly made movies, just be honest, from beginning to end.
Aaron Shamp (37:33.986)
They made me a fan, right? They made me a fan. When I was in Germany, people who follow Christ there, there's a phrase that they say in the local German church, people have to belong before they'll believe. Does it make sense? I had to experience Harry Potter to actually belong to the community. Does it make sense?
Evangelism to me is presenting the gospel but helping people go from not just hearing it to feel like they belong and when they feel like they belong they will believe. That's how we've been leading College Kids Christ for years is how do we get them from campus to get into a small group or come to a worship service.
and create Christian communities so they start understanding so they can believe and belong. So what I want to challenge you church is it's not just sharing the gospel. When I go on campus and I don't just share the gospel like a shotgun, I may share the gospel with as many people as I can. When we go to pass out popsicles I'm trying to have one solid conversation with somebody so we can connect.
I hear their story, they hear my story, I share the gospel with them. And then I'm like, Hey man, I teach a small group or this, this guy right here, Josh Wade teaches a small group and try to connect them to some Christians so they can see and then believe. Because it's real when you see it. Some of us haven't, we've been part of the Christian faith for so long. We forget how wonderful Christians are. We miss it because the world is cold and selfish.
And then when you come into that Christian community, it's like, whoa, Jesus is real. God is moving in these people and working with these people. And so here's the takeaways I wanted to give you is grow your grit, grow your grit in evangelism, be active, be sincere with your heart and the Holy Spirit, be present in the moment. How can you call on the one who they've not believed? How can people in our community call on the one who they not?
Aaron Shamp (39:55.63)
believed in? How can they believe in the one who they have not heard? They got to hear about Jesus. And how can they preach unless someone is sent? Redeemer City Church is sending you. Every Sunday morning when you come and you worship, it's sending you out to take the good news. How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the good news. Someone brought the good news to me. I didn't grow up in church.
My family wasn't a Christian family. A guy named Jeremy Higginbotham kept inviting me to go to church, just over and over and over and over. And Jeremy Higginbotham was different than any of my other friends. I could tell he loved Jesus. I made fun of him about it behind his back. But it was real. And then when I had my encounter with Jesus Christ, it changed my life forever. But it would not have happened if the church didn't come and find me. Let's pray.
Lord, I just thank you, God, for who you are. And that you would send people out to reach us. All of us are here because somebody reached out to us, or somebody has established a precedence of who you are. Now, I just pray, God, that you help us, God, take your good news to our workplace, to family events, to our family, God, to our friends, our neighbors. God, help us be bold with your gospel.
wherever you take us. Help us be laser focused, help us grow that grit of evangelism in our heart and our mind. Help us be purposeful with taking your good news out. We just thank you for who you are and we love you and Jesus Christ we pray, amen.