Evangelism

This is the Truth Network. Welcome to If Not Forgot. Stories of hopelessness that turn to hope. Here is your host, Mike Zwick.

Alright, this is If Not For God with Mike's Wick, and I've got my good friend Fred Hagee here. And I love Fred because Fred is an evangelist. And one of the things that the Bible says, one of the things that Jesus said, he said, preach the gospel to all creation. Another verse in Matthew 28, he said, go throughout the whole world, making disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. And we do this until we're here until the end.

The question I've got for you today, listener: are you doing it?

Well, Fred, you grew up in the church, is that right? I did. I did. I was in church every Sunday, Mike. I grew up in a bull denominational church, but one thing we didn't do any of is evangelism.

We would give a couple hundred dollars here and there for an evangelic cause and wrench our shoulder out of joint and pat ourselves on the back, you know. But as far as going out and sharing the gospel, that was just something we didn't do.

So consequently, I used every excuse in the world. And my favorite excuse was let somebody else do it. They can do it better than I can anyway. If not, let the pastor do it. After all, he gets paid.

Mm.

So why should I? That was the mentality that I grew up and kind of got trained under, but I was in church every Sunday. And so, you know, a lot of people think, well, you know, this guy was, he was on drugs and he was doing this and he was doing that. I mean, you weren't in the streets. You weren't homeless.

You weren't killing people. You weren't robbing people. I mean, you know, by most standards of what most people considered to be a good life, you were living a good life. Is that right? I grew up on the farm, Mike.

And we didn't have much, but we had all we needed. We were poor, we just didn't know it. We loved Jesus and we had plenty to eat and that was about it.

So, did you ever have a falling away where you kind of walked away from God? Or was it, did you always kind of walk with God? I never really got out of fellowship with God, but I never was walking as close with God as I should have been. I remember that night in my dorm room over there at Wake Forest, kitchen house dorm 309D. And uh, the guys from Piedmont Bible College came in there, and they came in.

My buddies were so rude to those guys. I mean, they were incredibly rude to them. And I was in the back room, I was studying, I was also working quite a bit back in that day, and uh. They asked if anybody was in the back room, and they said, Yeah, Hage's back there. Go back there.

He'd be a good work in progress for you. They came back there, asked me about my salvation. I told them I was saved, and they asked me how I knew, and I couldn't give them the right answer, Mike. And that day left an indelible amount of guilt on my heart that I just quite never could shake off. Mm-mm, and so what happened after that?

Well, uh, they proceeded to try to uh that they asked me why, and and uh. How I knew I was saved, and I said, I'm a good person. And they proceeded to, and I knew that Jesus died on that cross, Mike, but I didn't articulate that. I didn't share my faith. That was just how I was trained.

That was just. I was just a lukewarm Christian. Yeah. Yeah. And so When you realized that you were a lukewarm Christian, did God start to work on your heart at that point?

Well, Mike, I was 48 years old. And I got up one morning and I'd been praying. I'm a reader of the Word of God. I pray. And on that particular morning, I was just struggling with some issues.

God had put some people in my life for the express person to share the gospel with. And I had led God down and I had led God down. And on that particular morning in September of 2002, I had gone to the end of the road. I just couldn't handle that guilt anymore.

So on that particular morning, about 10 o'clock, I walked out of my office, I got in my car, drove to Piedmont Bible College, and I went up there and I enrolled in personal witnessing and evangelism. I was not going to struggle with that guilt any longer.

Okay, so you weren't going to struggle with the guilt any longer, and what did you do? After that. Uh I had to meet some class requirements and part of my class requirements were going out on the street and sharing the gospel. And you were excited to do that, right? Not at all.

I was scared to death. I was literally scared to death. In fact, I was so scared that I used to go down to the old marketplace mall down there. And I knew in the back there was a smoking section back there. And I didn't know anybody that smoked, so I knew that I wouldn't see anybody that I knew.

So I thought, I'll go down there and share the gospel with those old heathen cigarette smokers, you know? And it was encapsulated back there with. a cud suit.

So I felt like I was in the weeds, if you know what I'm saying. Yeah. Just to get away and make sure I wouldn't see anybody that I know. And I went down there and started to share sharing the gospel with them. And uh proceeded from there.

You know, one of the things that I've that I've seen and one of the things that I've heard And I was watching an evangelist, Todd White. I don't know if you know him or not, but he went out and he takes videos of him going out and sharing the gospel. And he showed how he did it, and he makes it look so easy. But one of the things that he says. Is the hardest part that initial part before you actually go up to that person?

Every time that I go out and do this, Fred, there is always that voice in my head thinking about a hundred other things that I could be doing, that I need to be doing, that I should be doing at that time because. There is this fear. I mean, do you still deal with that before you go out or when you go out or? Do I still deal with that? Yes, I do.

And it takes me about five seconds or ten seconds to get over it. But I do have that initial. Emotion. Of course, I think it's normal. And the best way to overcome it, and this is what this guy said, is by action.

The best thing to overcome it is just walking up to that person. And saying hello, my name is Fred, or what you do. You got one with you. What's the first thing you do when you walk up to somebody?

Well, I know I pray about, I get prayed up before I go, obviously.

Okay, that's a given, that's understood. But the next thing I'll see, a lot of people don't understand that.

Well, they should.

Okay, so tell me, tell me about what do you mean exactly.

Well, uh d I just get in uh in uh prayer mode. That morning, I get in prayer mode. I stay in prayer mode.

Some of that's subliminal, of course, you know, but I make sure that I'm prepared. I know where I'm going to be or where I'm going. I know halfway what to expect, you know, and I will get my engagement question ingrained in my mind.

So I know what I'm going to do. I know how I'm going to engage at Lost Center before I get out of my car. And then, of course, I have my own Give Them Jesus scriptures that I use. And you can use whatever you feel comfortable with, you know. And Uh uh what I come to realize, Mike, is this.

The power is not in Fred, and the power is not in Mike. It never has been, and it never will be. The power's in the Word of God. Right here's where the power is. And as soon as we come to the realization that when we get to the Word of God, that's where it's going to happen, God takes over.

My works, for all intent and purpose, done. When I get that person stopped and engaged and get the Word of God in their hand, I like to mark the scriptures with my pen. I want them to know exactly where I want them to read. I don't want them misdirected because they don't see the exact verse I'm pointing to.

So Uh what I'm saying is this. Preparation, intentionality, and passion, Mike. That's what it's all about, brother.

Well, you know, and people, Fred, I think sometimes what people think. Is they think that, well, people don't want to talk about this. You know, I'm bothering them. I mean, we've always been told not to talk about religion or politics or whatever. And then I read a Bible verse years ago, Fred.

And it's Ecclesiastes chapter 3. And it's verse 11. And what I love that you're doing right now, Fred, is that you're actually writing this down, which tells me that, yes, you're out there, you're doing the work of an evangelist, but at the same time, You have a teachable spirit. And I think that's important. But it says, He hath made everything beautiful in his time.

Also, he hath set the world in their heart.

So that no one can find out the work of God that maketh from the beginning of end. In another version, and I believe it's the NASB, it says that he has made everything appropriate in his time. He has also set eternity in their heart. And so, what it tells me is that people may have a good life, they may have a bad life. I don't know what's going on with their life.

We all have problems. But no matter what, we think about. What's gonna happen with me after I die? Do you agree? Absolutely, Mike.

God has put in every man an eternal perspective. I ask a lot of people, not all of them, do you ever think about dying? And some of them will tell me, no. And I say, you never think about that. Never crossed your mind.

No.

Well, that's a lie because the word of God tells us contrary to that. That's right. That's right. So we know they're not clean with us right there. Yeah.

And I think people, what they do is maybe they even lie to themselves. Because if you think about it, if people don't know where they're going when they die, I probably wouldn't want to think about it either. You know, I mean, there's people who believe, Fred. I mean, there's people who believe that, oh, when I die, that's just it.

Now, I don't care how many golf games I could go to. I don't care how many basketball games, Wake Forest basketball games I could go to. I don't care how much money I had. If I thought that this was it, I would be extremely depressed. And by the way, I've been there when I went to college.

At Appalachian State, Fred, the professors told us this Christianity thing is like a fairy tale. I mean, you got to be silly and stupid to believe in it. And until I had a young lady, my senior year in college, who actively witnessed to me and actively went through the scriptures and actively showed me everything that she could show that God was real. And I realized that he was real.

Well, I wanted to tell somebody about that. And I love what Stu Epperson says. He says, if you had the cure for cancer, he said, if you knew what would cure cancer and you didn't tell anybody, he said, how selfish would you have to be? If we've got the key, Fred, to eternal life, and if we want to keep that thing to ourselves and we don't want to share that with people, to me, it seems a little selfish. How much would you have to hate somebody to withhold that information?

How much would you have to hate somebody to withhold that cure for cancer? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And it's even much more important with this, is that right? It is, it is.

Yeah. This is eternity we're talking about. And you wrote a book about this. I did. Give them Jesus.

Give them Jesus. What inspired you to write this book, friend? Uh Mike, what inspired me to write that book is this. Uh I have people tell me That you uh Uh Can't be trained, that you can't follow a pattern, that every situation is different. that you shouldn't get molded into a narrow framework.

Mike, I can't tell you how much I disagree with that.

Now, I do believe that the framework we adapt our personal witnessing skill set from has to have flexibility built into it because everybody is different in every situation. Is a little bit different, you know. But I believe that people who don't have some methodology behind them. Most of them that I've ever seen are unprepared, at least ill-prepared. Yes, yeah, yeah.

So I think that we've got to be prepared. And once you get prepared, in fact, what my book will do is walk you through step by step. How to develop your own personal witnessing skill set that you tailor to fit your personality type. We're all different. And one size don't fit all, but we can mold our skill set around a framework and get prepared.

And when that occasion creeps up on us, We're there. We've got a comfort level with our skill set. And when you get that comfort level, then you start to become very, very effective because you don't think about what do I do now? What do I say now? You just get them engaged and open up the word of God.

That's why I like these little testaments with the plan of salvation on the back cover. I can do that quickly, quite frequently. I won't have but four or five minutes. I can go through four or five scriptures there that are extremely powerful and will change their life, brother. And you're a Gideon, is that right?

I am. Has that helped you with this? Yes, it has in a number of ways in providing opportunities and that type thing, venues. But more importantly, I like the resource that I have the privilege to buy through them. And this Old Testament right here is the best evangelism tool I've ever seen.

Now, you don't have to use this. You can take the scriptures in any form you want to. It can be your Bible. It can be your phone. You can write them on the back of a napkin or a scrap piece of paper.

You know, the power is in the word of God. I just like it here because it's concise, easy, explicit. And I want them in my pocket. I want them in my car, my work truck. I want them at every door in my house.

I want them on my desk in my office. I want them at arm's length at all occasions because I never know exactly when that. golden opportunity is going to surface. and the opportunities do surface. I think a lot of times what we have to do, Fred, is we have to realize the opportunity is there.

And then, number two, we have to act on those opportunities because God will give us opportunities. There will be people who will walk in front of us, or they'll like a few, when I met you, maybe a year ago, whenever it was, and there was somebody like a Fred Hagee who came there, I had the opportunity to be able to meet Fred and to talk to Fred. And to see what you were doing, Fred, and I could have done one of two things with it. I could have said, oh, that's interesting, and gone back to what I was doing. Or I could do what I do.

I said, look. Fred is on to something here. People are dying and going to hell. And by the way, there's been this whole thing recently about how people don't believe in hell or they believe it ends after a certain time or whatever. There's nothing in the Bible that tells us that at all.

In Matthew chapter 25, when it talks about the people receiving eternal life, the people who have trusted in Jesus Christ as their savior going to heaven, it says that's eternal. The same word that is used for eternity in heaven in that same passage where he's talking about the sheep and the goats, is it's aeonios, is the same word that is used for hell. And so, you know, I wouldn't want Fred, my worst enemy to go to that place. I wouldn't want my worst enemy. And when I think about it, and I think about what Jesus said, he said, Blessed are you when you love your enemies.

He said, You should love your enemies. And I think about it like this: that this life is so temporal, Fred. I mean, you look at the book of James, it says, Don't you know that your life is like a vapor? You're here for a moment and then you're gone. I mean, we were talking about.

Health issues before the show and stuff like that. Fred, I can tell you what, we're promised a lot of things. One thing that we're not promised is tomorrow, and I don't know about you, but I want to do the most that I can for Jesus in the time that He's allotted me. How about you? I do, Mike, and that's part of what the book was about.

I just really enjoy seeing people catch a vision. Visions are caught, they're not taught, you know. And sometimes I'm able to take people out on the street and help them catch a vision. I have a lady that came up to me. Two or three months ago and whispered into my ear.

And said, since I took your class, I've witnessed over 400 decisions for Jesus. Goodness gracious.

So you have a class? I did some classes. Yeah. Tell me about that. I've done them several different ways, Mike.

I've done them in five sessions. I've done them in three sessions. I've done them in one session. And what I found is this: if I can get people to read the book, The book is not rocket science. It's kind of straight out of the Word of God, you know.

And what I found is if I can get them to read the book and watch the video, Mike. If I can get them to do that, We can spend one session. Establish a few groundwater rules and get a little common understanding. And if I can get them on the job, on the street, The rest is history. They catch a vision there.

Somebody who is lost. dying and going to hell. And you share the good news of Jesus and you see the joy on their face, man. I mean, there's nothing like it. You've just got to see it one more time, Mike.

Yeah. And so you may not know the exact number, but if you had to guess. Since you've been doing this, how many decisions for Jesus have you seen? Mike, this would be a very, very easy question for me, brother. Not near enough.

Okay. Not near enough, brother. What do you mean by that exactly? Uh what do I mean by that?

Well, Uh My work's never done. Your work's never done. It'll never be complete. And I've just got to be ready. And I hope that the last day I live, I'm able to lead somebody to Christ before that final moment, brother.

I can't think of a better way to go. I can't either. Yeah, yeah. And so, have you, you know, one of the things that I saw that you did, because, you know, we want to not only help them in the beginning, but we also want to, you know, encourage them to go to a church, that when you talk to some people, if they seem like they're with it or they're into it, you've got something in your. In your pocket.

What is this right here, Fred?

Well, Mike, it is the salvation scriptures.

Okay? And it has got the sinner's prayer. You can use a sinner's prayer. You can use a confession. The Bible talks more about a confession of faith than it does a sinner's prayer.

In fact, it doesn't use the term the sinner's prayer in the Word of God. It says, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus rose from the dead, it says you. Will be saved. You will be saved. Not maybe.

You will be saved. You will be saved. Yeah. Yeah. So, this is just an inexpensive.

This is an inexpensive version of that. This cost pennies. This costs a couple of bucks. Yeah, and so, and so, but when you do that, you invite people to church. Oh, yeah.

Some of the people that you've witnessed to, have you gotten to meet them a second and a third time and stuff like that? Or is it mainly just that first time and then you never see them again? No.

Well, first of all, Mike, when they profess their faith in Christ, the first thing I try to do is get them on a reading agenda in that little testament. That's the first thing. Because if they never see me again or they never go into a church ever. They got the word of God here, and if I can get them started reading, they're growing spiritually.

So, what do you say?

So, you give them this, you talk to them. How do you encourage them? Do you give them a plan, or what do you tell them? The first thing I do is get them to promise me they'll read those back two pages before they go to bed tonight. I want them a second dose of what I gave them on the street.

Because if you asked them to read 50 pages, they'd never do it. No, I ask them for that commitment tonight before they go to bed. The next thing I do is there's some. Help in time of crisis pages. There's about six of them in the front of this little testament I give them.

It tells them where to find help for every problem you can think of. There's six pages of them. The problems are alphabetic. Uh, the uh, those pages give them the page number and the scripture where they can find help for that problem they might be struggling with: addiction, fear, loneliness, whatever. Then, the next thing I try to do is I marked up page uh 428 back here.

That's the book of 1 John. That book was written to a church people whose church had been infiltrated by false teachers and false doctrine. And that book was intended to help God's people get their hands screwed. Back on straight. You know what I'm saying?

Sometimes I need my head screwed back on straight. I know what you're saying. That's where I get them. And then lastly, the book of John, that one's lengthy. That's going to take them a week or two.

So, if there's somebody listening today who's a new Christian, would you have them start in 1 John? That's what I would do. That's a short, direct book. John was an old fisherman. He writes in a very simple, straightforward style that speaks to my heart.

And consequently, I think it's going to speak to their heart.

Well, and I think, Fred, some people want to know what is the gospel. You know, you've heard so much about the gospel. What is the gospel? And, you know, I can tell you what the gospel is not, Fred, while you're looking that up. The gospel is not, I work really hard and I earn my salvation.

Because one of the biggest things that I see when I'm talking to people is, do you think you're going to get to heaven? And they go, yeah, I'm a pretty good person.

Now, sometimes you'll meet people and they say, no, I'm a terrible person. Actually, the people who say, no, I'm not good enough to get into heaven, they're closer to seeing it than the people who think they're good enough. Mike, you asked me for a definition of the gospel.

Well, I'll tell you this: Paul's definition's good enough for me, okay? That Corinthian church had its work cut out for us. But in 1 Corinthians 15, verses 3 through 6, I believe it is. Paul reminds the church at Corinth, the gospel that I preached to you, church, was fourfold. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again.

That's the gospel, and that's the gospel that I share. And I think sometimes, Fred, what people want to do. is they want to clean people up first. They want to fix them up first. They want to say, hey, you've got to change your life.

You've got to shave. You've got to shower. You've got to get a nice set of clothes. And then you can start following Jesus. But when I see Jesus in the New Testament, he talks to a lot of the people that you were talking to, the prostitutes, the sinners, the tax collectors, and even the people around Jesus' time.

They said, Jesus, why are you talking to these people? They said, if this guy was really the Son of God, they would know that they're sinners and that he wouldn't want to be talking to them. And Jesus said this. I love what he said. Do not think that I have come to call the righteous.

He said it, but I have come to call the sinners to repentance. And what I've seen, Fred, and I don't know if it's different with you. But the people who were really messed up They're the ones who tend to see The need for Jesus. The people, there's an exception to every rule, and I'll share Jesus with everybody, but, or with anybody I can, but the people who really see the need, who realize they don't have anything else. They're on the streets, they're on drugs, and they know that they have a need for something, God, and it's like they don't have anything else to distract them because they don't have anything else.

And a lot of times, when you go to the bus station, Fred, you said, these people, Mike, you said they don't have something that we have. Set keys. Yeah. They depended on public transportation to get anywhere. They've not been blessed like you and I have, Mike.

Mike, And you know what I say sometimes to myself? Maybe that's not a bad thing. Yeah. You know, it seems like sometimes the poor, the down, and the out, a lot of times those are the people who will surrender the need to Jesus. I heard Dr.

Tony Evans one time, he said, sometimes it's easier for a drug dealer or a drug addict to surrender their lives to Jesus because they know they're messed up than it is for the millionaire businessman. They're in pain. My pain. And they're looking for something to fill that void, to feel that pain. And we've got the answer for them, brother.

Mike, I want to respond to one thing you said a minute ago about Jesus. Jesus went to the weeds. Jesus went to the kudzu to share the gospel with people. He rarely went, less frequently went. To the synagogue to preach and teach, than he did on the lake bank or the river bank.

You know? And that's where God calls us. Isn't that funny? Isn't that funny, man? Yeah, it is.

And in the last few seconds that we've got, the last 15, 30 seconds, what's the final message that you want to share with people right now? Preparation. Passion and prayer. And prayer. Missiles.

And I want to tell you guys something. Fred. Give them Jesus. Give them Jesus. If not for God.

Thanks, Fred. All right, for my YouTube channel. If not for God with mighty wick. Just like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell. Yeah.

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