#69 The Evangelism Imperative: A Conversation with Bobby McCreery
In this compelling discourse, we engage with Bobby McCreery, the esteemed founder of To the End of the Earth Ministries, who elucidates the paramount significance of evangelism within the Christian faith. Addressing the pervasive reluctance surrounding this sacred duty, McCreery articulates that the act of reaching the lost is not merely an option but an imperative woven into the very fabric of our ecclesiastical commission. He recounts his own transformative journey, marked by a profound awakening to the Gospel's truth, which ultimately propelled him into a life dedicated to sharing this message with others. With a keen focus on the critical need for believers to actively participate in evangelism, McCreery emphasizes that the joy of salvation must compel us to articulate our faith with fervor and sincerity. The episode serves as both a clarion call and an exhortation for Christians to embrace their role as witnesses, nurturing a culture of bold proclamation in an increasingly indifferent world.
Takeaways:
- Evangelism is an essential aspect of the Christian faith, and believers are called to actively engage in reaching the lost.
- Bobby McCreery's journey to faith illustrates the transformative power of God's grace in a person's life.
- The ministry To the End of the Earth emphasizes the importance of sharing the Gospel with others, following the Great Commission.
- Believers should examine their own lives to ensure they are faithfully living out their calling as witnesses for Christ.
- The significance of nurturing children in the faith cannot be overstated, as they are the future of the church.
- Joy in evangelism is crucial; Christians should reflect the joy of their salvation in their interactions with others.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Living Waters
- Soul Fishing Ministries
- To the End of the Earth Ministries
Transcript
Evangelism, a word that many Christians hear and it kind of seems like the word bath for a child.
Speaker A:They just don't want anything to do with it.
Speaker A:We're going out to reach the lost.
Speaker A:It's part of our commission.
Speaker A:Jesus didn't leave the church on the earth, you know, to just go around and collect shells on the beach and just sit back, consume and enjoy life.
Speaker A:He gave us a mission to do.
Speaker A:Hello?
Speaker A:Hello?
Speaker A:Anybody home?
Speaker A:Think, McFly, think.
Speaker B:I'm thinking.
Speaker B:I'm thinking.
Speaker B:What were you thinking?
Speaker A:I'm trying to think, but nothing happens.
Speaker C:Don't say anything now.
Speaker B:Just think about it.
Speaker B:You're listening to Stop and Think About It, a podcast for the Christian thinker.
Speaker B:In a day when sound biblical preaching has been replaced by man centered entertainment and the church has become increasingly anti intellectual, this podcast will encourage believers to think biblically and theologically.
Speaker B:So please join me as we get ready to stop and think about it.
Speaker A:Greetings, friends and foes, saints and sinners.
Speaker A:Welcome to another episode of the Stop and Think about it podcast.
Speaker A:Have my dear friend Bobby McCreary all.
Speaker C:The way from Douglasville, Georgia.
Speaker A:Douglasville, Georgia, which we are in Georgia at this time at the G3 conference in Atlanta, Georgia.
Speaker A:So I'm not sure where Douglas.
Speaker A:How far are you?
Speaker C:About 30 minutes west.
Speaker A:About 30 minutes.
Speaker A:All right, so we're from New York City.
Speaker A:A little bit further than you.
Speaker A:I think so.
Speaker A:No, Bobby, is.
Speaker A:You look up evangelism in the Bible.
Speaker A:Not in the Bible.
Speaker A:I'm sorry, in the dictionary.
Speaker A:You might just see Bobby's face there.
Speaker A:And so we have just a kindred spirit.
Speaker C:Like the Urban Dictionary.
Speaker A:The Urban Dictionary, yeah, could be.
Speaker A:So, Bobby, how did God save you?
Speaker A:Because, I mean, you're out being used to save souls now by God's providence.
Speaker A:But how did it start with you?
Speaker C:Well, thanks for having me, brother, first of all.
Speaker C:Yeah, well, I'll try to give you the short version.
Speaker C:I grew up raised by my grandparents.
Speaker C:My grandmother was a Christian, the only Christian I think that I know of in my family.
Speaker C:So she took me to church, sent me to a private Christian school, kindergarten through sixth grade, and then went into the public school system, seventh grade, and went wild and rejected the church, rejected everything about God and lived that way until I was 34 years old.
Speaker C:And I actually had a customer of mine at my job that started inviting me to church.
Speaker C:And I was like, I don't want to go to church.
Speaker C:I turned him down like three times.
Speaker C:And finally, like the fourth time, really more because I thought it might Create a problem for me at work.
Speaker C:I just said, okay, we'll come back.
Speaker C:And what happened was the first time we went to this brother's church, the Lord saved my wife.
Speaker A:Really?
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:And I was like, oh, no, I'm.
Speaker A:Living with one of these.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:I had this zealots invite me to church all the time.
Speaker C:Now my wife's going to become like this guy.
Speaker C:And, you know, I was in that church playing church for the next 18 months before the Lord dealt with me.
Speaker C:I signed up.
Speaker C:We were waiting for the.
Speaker C:I don't know if I call it the church service anymore.
Speaker C:It's a seeker sensitive church.
Speaker C:I said we were waiting for the rock concert to start one day.
Speaker C:And I felt like the Lord was dealing with me.
Speaker C:There was an announcement about a mission trip to Bolivia in the program.
Speaker C:And I just felt like the Lord was pressing on me to go on that and I was making every excuse.
Speaker C:And maybe for the first time in my life I ever felt the fear of the Lord.
Speaker C:I felt like the Lord was telling me to go to Bolivia on that trip or he'd deal with me in some way I didn't like.
Speaker C:So I just kind of said, okay, I'll go.
Speaker C:And I think I said that out loud because my wife said, what?
Speaker C:And I said, you see this Bolivia trip, I'm going on that.
Speaker C:And she was like, what?
Speaker C:She knew my life, my life was full of sin.
Speaker C:She's living a holy life.
Speaker C:She's reading the Word, she's praying.
Speaker C:And so the brother that was leading that trip wanted to train us using this thing called the Way of the Master.
Speaker C:And so we went through this basic training, Way of the Master, and I still wasn't saved.
Speaker C:I just thought, okay, how do you tell somebody about Jesus?
Speaker C:I'd never done that my whole life.
Speaker C:So I went through the basic training.
Speaker C:I said, okay, I guess I could do that.
Speaker C:You do the law, the gospel.
Speaker C:So while we were waiting for the trip, we still had a few months to go.
Speaker C:I ordered some tracts.
Speaker C:And in the box of tracts, the Living Water sent me a.
Speaker C:It was a lot of guys that know evangelists have been familiar with this.
Speaker C:It's a two message cd.
Speaker C:One is Hell's best kept secret.
Speaker C:The other one's true and false conversion.
Speaker A:Life changing messages in my life.
Speaker C:Yeah, I mean, Hell's Best, that's kept secret.
Speaker C:Didn't deal with me at all because I wasn't a Christian.
Speaker C:That message is more for Christians like, hey, Christian, why aren't you witnessing?
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker C:But true and false conversion cut me to the heart.
Speaker C:Boom.
Speaker C:And the Lord was just dealing with me.
Speaker C:He was grinding me into powder when I was standing in church that day.
Speaker C:And I said, okay, Lord, I'll go on this trip.
Speaker C:And I committed to him.
Speaker C:I prayed some prayer, like, I don't feel like I should go on a foreign mission trip the way that I am.
Speaker C:So I need you to deal with me in some way.
Speaker C:So, like, through true and false conversion, through also another brother giving me what's known around the world as a shocking youth message around the same time, I was listening to these messages over and over and over again while I was driving around for my work responsibilities.
Speaker C:And the Lord was just grinding me down.
Speaker C:And, you know, you think about the sovereignty of God, right?
Speaker C:That's the theme of the conference this year.
Speaker C:I see it in my own life because I'd heard the gospel many times in my life.
Speaker C:But one day I was driving my work truck, probably maybe the 20th or 25th time I'd listened to true and false conversion in a two or three week period.
Speaker C:And it was like I heard the gospel for the first time ever.
Speaker C:Boom.
Speaker C:And I just began to tremble, man, and call out to the Lord.
Speaker C:I got so upset, I had to pull the side of the road.
Speaker C:And I just kind of maybe like the man In Luke 18, I kind of beat my chest and said, God, I mean, I believe what Jesus did, he did for me from Christian school.
Speaker C:I had enough to be dangerous to myself and others.
Speaker C:So I was saying stuff to God like, if I'm not one of these elect, just kill me now.
Speaker C:If I can't have Jesus, I don't want to go on.
Speaker C:And I was just pleading and pleading and weeping.
Speaker C:And, you know, I mean, God's merciful, you know, so he saved me.
Speaker C:And that was nine days before I left to go on that trip to Bolivia.
Speaker C:And my life was changed forever, brother.
Speaker C:And, you know, so coming into it all that way, open air preaching, you know, you.
Speaker C:You get saved.
Speaker C:Listen to a message by Ray Comfort.
Speaker C:It doesn't seem weird to you like it does to a lot of people.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:You know, like, this is what Christians do, Normal Christianity.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know, here, the.
Speaker A:The Christian Kiwi of the world.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker A:And yeah.
Speaker A:So when I was in Bible college, I was very frustrated.
Speaker A:I was in a Pentecostal Bible college, seeing that Christians are being saved and lost, saved and lost.
Speaker A:And I said, when does it stick?
Speaker A:I asked my theology professor, when, when does it stay?
Speaker A:Like, I can't imagine walking away from Christ, getting lost and coming back again.
Speaker A:And this can happen like a yo yo time and time again.
Speaker A:And I can't remember how he answered me, but I can remember it was not settled.
Speaker A:I wasn't at peace with that answer.
Speaker A:And he was a very bright guy.
Speaker A:But I listened to Hell's Best Kept Secret, True and False Conversion on the audio cassettes, all 16 messages.
Speaker A:A kid I was discipling had gotten a hold of these, and then I borrowed them for spring break, and I listened to all 16 messages.
Speaker A:Militant evangelism.
Speaker A:Personal, Personal evangelism.
Speaker A:Woman at the well.
Speaker A:And I mean, it just blew me away.
Speaker A:And so things began to really make sense.
Speaker A:I'm in Bible college at the time studying for the ministry, albeit in Pentecostal school.
Speaker A:There were some good things.
Speaker A:The hermeneutics were correct, you know, just.
Speaker A:They didn't always use them when they preach, actually, but the mechanics are right.
Speaker A:And so, yeah.
Speaker A:And then Ray Comfort's ministry gave birth to, I believe, our ministry, Soul Fishing Ministries.
Speaker A:And evangelism began to be.
Speaker A:Which I think it is for you, just.
Speaker A:Just normal, just natural.
Speaker A:Like, I love Christ and I want to talk to others about the Christ that I love.
Speaker A:And so how did that.
Speaker A:So start off with you?
Speaker A:Because you have an evangelistic ministry which.
Speaker C:Is called to the End of the Earth Ministries.
Speaker A:Yeah, so, yeah.
Speaker A:So, I mean, and that's where God has called us to go to the end of the earth.
Speaker A:And so when.
Speaker A:When's the first time you started to go out?
Speaker A:Or did you do it with a family member?
Speaker A:How did it begin?
Speaker C:Yeah, so when I got back from that mission to Bolivia, I just knew that I had to be out sharing the gospel.
Speaker C:So I had tracts, and I started giving out tracts.
Speaker C:Everywhere I went, I was giving out tracts.
Speaker C:And I was a little bit nervous about preaching.
Speaker C:Not that I thought it was weird, but I was scared.
Speaker C:And so I was a brother of a dear friend of mine, Tony Miano.
Speaker C: He, In April of: Speaker C:You probably remember this.
Speaker C:It was go out and read in the open air in Matthew from the betrayal and arrest through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.
Speaker C:So I was like, okay, Lord, I'm praying.
Speaker C:I feel like I got to take up the sword and get out there.
Speaker C:And so that's how I got started.
Speaker C:It was.
Speaker C:What would I say?
Speaker C: Good Friday,: Speaker C:I was in downtown Athens, Georgia.
Speaker C:I went out all by myself, and I did Mission Good Friday.
Speaker C:I preached the law and the gospel, it was a horrific experience.
Speaker C:I got flashed by a woman.
Speaker C:I mean, she stood there for about 15 minutes.
Speaker C:The Lord was kind and delivered me and kept me turning away and everything.
Speaker C:But I told the Lord on my way back to the car, through many groanings and moanings, that I would never do something that crazy again.
Speaker C:I must be out of my mind.
Speaker C:And as I was sitting in my car complaining to the Lord, as all good Christians, we know the texts do all things without grumbling and complaining.
Speaker C:But how often do we still do these things?
Speaker C:Sadly, the flesh remains right.
Speaker C:So I'm just, lord, I must be crazy.
Speaker C:I'm never doing this again.
Speaker C:There's a little knock on my window and it was a homeless guy.
Speaker C:And I rolled down the window.
Speaker C:I said, how's it going?
Speaker C:He said, I'm doing good, brother.
Speaker C:He said, hey, I wanted to tell you I saw you out there preaching, and I was so encouraged.
Speaker C:And he said, look, I'm on the street.
Speaker C:I know people think things.
Speaker C:He said, I want you to know, like, my life hasn't always been this way.
Speaker C:He took out his Bible out of his bag and it was all marked up with notes and highlights and all this stuff.
Speaker C:And he said, man, I made mistakes in my life and I'm responsible.
Speaker C:I lost my family.
Speaker C:He said, but I still read the Word every day and I'm praying the Lord to restore my family.
Speaker C:And he said this.
Speaker C:It was kind of interesting.
Speaker C:He said, I saw that woman, what she was doing to you.
Speaker C:And he said, I was going to rebuke her.
Speaker C:And he said, but then I just felt like the Lord had you.
Speaker C:And I just said, okay, you got it, Lord.
Speaker C:And he kept you preaching and everything.
Speaker C:So I chatted with this brother for a minute, and I think it was really late at night.
Speaker C:I had been out there, it was about 2:45 in the morning.
Speaker C:This big bar district In Athens, Georgia, four blocks by four blocks.
Speaker C:We ministered there 10 years.
Speaker C:Myself, some other brothers still there, 50 bars in a four block by four block radius.
Speaker C:And yeah, I mean, just going into the middle of that, because that's a place a lot of Christians won't go.
Speaker C:You know, sometimes people would say, you're gonna beat up the drunks?
Speaker C:I say, no, I used to be a drunk.
Speaker C:I come to tell the drunks they could be saved, right?
Speaker C:You know, but so I'm there with this homeless bro, and I think I was kind of fading out.
Speaker C:I had my arm resting on the windowsill of my car, and all of a sudden this brother Just he grabbed me like that.
Speaker C:And it wasn't hard enough to, like, hurt me, but it was enough to, like, make me kind of jump like this.
Speaker C:And I don't know how to say it, brother.
Speaker C:Then, you know, you got a Pentecostal background.
Speaker C:I'm kind of surprised I didn't end up in that sort of.
Speaker C:Sort of vein because I had some really wild things happen early in my Christian life.
Speaker C:But this guy was like.
Speaker C:He was looking into my soul, and he looked right at me and he said, you gotta keep doing this is what the Lord wants you to do.
Speaker C:You have to keep going.
Speaker C:I hadn't said anything to this guy about what had happened or I was discouraged or any of that.
Speaker C:But you remember I told you I was complaining.
Speaker C:Lord, I'm never doing this again.
Speaker C:I can't believe you let somebody flash me my first time preaching and do all this stuff.
Speaker C:And this guy is looking in my eyes and saying, you've got to keep going.
Speaker C:This is what the Lord wants.
Speaker C:And I was like, okay.
Speaker C:And so we talked for a couple more minutes, and I said, let me give you some cash to get something to eat.
Speaker C:And I reached in my center console.
Speaker C:He said, no, no, I'm not asking for anything.
Speaker C:I said, no, I want to.
Speaker C:So I reached in my center console.
Speaker C:I was digging around in there for, you know, 10 seconds, and I don't know, I pulled out whatever's in there, a couple bucks, and I turned around and give it to him, and dude was gone.
Speaker C:Gone to the point that, like, I got out of my car and looked all around.
Speaker C:I couldn't see him.
Speaker C:There's nobody else out on the street.
Speaker C:It's 2:45 in the morning.
Speaker C:It's done.
Speaker C:And.
Speaker C:And so he's, you know, I don't know.
Speaker C:A lot of people when I.
Speaker C:When I first tell that story, they'll say, oh, we angels on them.
Speaker C:I don't know what that was.
Speaker C:Could it have been maybe, you know, But I just know the Lord had someone there to speak a word that I needed to hear in that moment.
Speaker C:Because I really believe if that guy wasn't there, I may not have ever done it again.
Speaker C:Because I had worked myself up into thinking, obviously, God's sovereign, right?
Speaker C:I was gonna do it again.
Speaker C:But God uses means the same way in the Great Commission.
Speaker C:He's given us the humbling privilege to be part of his mission to save his people.
Speaker C:You know, we're part of the.
Speaker C:You know, he could have saved people any way he wanted, but he chose to give us a Lips and a mouth and tongue and to give us a message so that we could plant it and water it and that he would give the increase.
Speaker A:So I like how you said that.
Speaker A:You know, he gave us, he gave us the tools to use and he gave us the message to use with the tools.
Speaker A:And he hears a mouth and a tongue.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker A:If you, you have a mouth for a reason, you have a tongue for a reason.
Speaker A:And Jesus said that we'll spe.
Speaker A:The mouth speaks what the heart is full of.
Speaker A:If your heart is full of the gospel, what's gonna come out?
Speaker A:We can't help it.
Speaker C:We talk to people about everything else.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:You gotta raise at your job.
Speaker C:You run around, I gotta raise, I gotta raise, you know, your political candidate.
Speaker C:I'm voting for this guy.
Speaker C:Your team.
Speaker C:My team's better than your team.
Speaker C:And you don't care if anybody gets offended.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker C:But to me, in my view, biblically, being born again is the pinnacle of human experience.
Speaker A:Amen.
Speaker C:There's nothing we could experience in this life that greater than to be regenerated by the power of God and receive a new heart.
Speaker C:And so there's so many people walking around that say they've experienced that, but they're not telling anyone about it.
Speaker C:You know, it's like the Spurgeon quote.
Speaker C:If you have no wish for others to be saved, then assuredly you're not saved yourself.
Speaker C:I mean, it's true.
Speaker C:A lot of the guys, you know, even at this conference, maybe they love to quote Spurgeon, but they don't necessarily like that quote that much.
Speaker C:Right, right.
Speaker C:Because that steps on people's toes.
Speaker C:But how can we say we'll talk about politics and sports and all these other things so freely, so openly, without hesitation, without worry if someone gets offended.
Speaker C:But you've actually been born again, your sins have been forgiven and you're not telling anyone about that.
Speaker C:It seems preposterous.
Speaker C:There has to be, if we're in that place, there has to be self examination.
Speaker A:Well, God had one son, he made him a preacher and an evangelist.
Speaker A:And we're supposed to be conformed to Christ.
Speaker A:I mean, it doesn't need to be complicated right there in our Bibles, we need to do what he did.
Speaker C:And I think in addition to the Great Commission, I mean, if we look throughout the course the history of God's nation, Israel, I think he primarily, it's the same thing today in the church.
Speaker C:He gives us two primary commands that are part, really, I think that go hand in hand with the Great Commission.
Speaker C:Right.
Speaker C:Train Your children in the way they should go and be a light to the nations where I place you.
Speaker C:And I believe throughout human history, when God's people are faithful to those commands, he blesses, and when they're unfaithful to those commands, he judges.
Speaker C:And I think that we're seeing, at least in America, maybe over a century of, I would say, pretty unfaithful times in regards to God's church and those commands.
Speaker C:And so I think what we're seeing around our nation is some judgment which his word says begins in the household of God.
Speaker C:So I think we've got to clean up our own act, got to obey what God's saying, which is simply to be a light.
Speaker C:Not everyone's an open ear preacher, but everyone's called to be his witness.
Speaker C:Everyone can be salt and light in whatever place God has placed them and speak the truth in love, wherever he's put them.
Speaker A:Amen.
Speaker A:So believers have to get their house in order at home and nurture their children in the things of God.
Speaker A:And then you and I have done the same thing.
Speaker A:You take your children out with you.
Speaker A:Amen as well, to evangelize, because why not, right?
Speaker A:Why leave them at home when they could see the joy of the Lord as your strength to go out?
Speaker A:You will want to put yourself out there to tell sinners that they need the Savior, that you have the same Savior that you're telling your children they need to have its consistent message.
Speaker A:And you bring them to a church that's preaching about the Savior that you need to have and that you love.
Speaker C:Yeah.
Speaker C:A mutual friend of ours, Mike Stockwell, he reminds me often, you know, how we need to remember to have joy sometimes out there, there's so many hardened sinners and, you know, the abuse that you take and stuff, it can beat you down.
Speaker C:So sometimes we're out on the street, he'll say, hey, brother.
Speaker C:Yeah, man, Mike, what is it?
Speaker C:He said, is the joy of the Lord your strength?
Speaker C:I say, yeah, of course.
Speaker C:And he says, well, then let your face show it.
Speaker A:Yeah, you can't.
Speaker C:And it's important with the lost and with our children, too.
Speaker C:You know, we shouldn't be morose Christians, you know, our sins are forgiven.
Speaker C:My friend says we should be the most joyful people in the world.
Speaker C:I mean, that doesn't mean you're walking around, skipping all the time or whatever, but I mean, what greater thing could there be than to know my sins are forgiven?
Speaker A:You can't look like you were baptized in lemon juice, right?
Speaker A:No.
Speaker C:There you go.
Speaker A:Amen well, before we pray, tell us the name of your ministry one more time and the website of where people can go and check it out.
Speaker C:To the End of the Earth Ministries.
Speaker C:It's tothe End of the Earth all spelled out dot org.
Speaker C:That's where we're at.
Speaker C:In any way that I can, you know, ever help or serve, pray for any of the, you know, listeners of your ministry.
Speaker C:To me, one of the goals of our ministry is to be a prayer source and an encouragement equipping to other Christians to help them share their faith.
Speaker C:So I don't know it all, but I know in the last dozen years of doing evangelism I made a lot of mistakes.
Speaker C:So sometimes I say I can tell you the mistakes I made so you don't have to make all the same ones I did, you know.
Speaker C:So even if I could just be a help like that, you know, not much, but it's something them.
Speaker A:Let's pray.
Speaker A:Father, I thank you for my brother, Lord.
Speaker A:I pray that you would just continue to use him, Father, on the streets, continue to use him in the church, continue to bless his family, cause him to walk in the fear of the Lord.
Speaker A:Father, I pray that this message of the Gospel would just streamline through more lips of believers and may they know that we need not fear man but to fear the Lord and that our mouth will speak what our heart is full of.
Speaker A:If our heart is full of the Gospel, that our mouth will speak forth the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his glorious light.
Speaker A:Bless my brothers coming in and is going out in Jesus name.
Speaker C:Amen.
Speaker C:Amen.
Speaker A:Amen and thank you for taking this time to stop and think about it.
Speaker B:If you would like to contact us, please email us@stopandthinkcrewmail.com you could also visit our website at www.stopandthinkpodcast.com.
Speaker B:this podcast is listeners supported by generous people like you.
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Speaker B:Thank you for listening to Stop and Think about it.
