World Evangelism Podcast

From Hesitation to Action: Embrace Your Evangelistic Duty

• W. Austin Gardner • Episode 33

Share episode

Send us a text

What if spreading the gospel to nations like Iraq could change lives in ways you never imagined? Join me, Austin Gardner, as I passionately explore the biblical foundation for global evangelism and break down misconceptions about who is called to spread God's message. By drawing on scriptures like 1 Thessalonians 1:8, 1 Timothy 2:3-4, and John 3:16, we uncover God's desire for all people to be saved and challenge the idea that only special individuals are meant for missionary work. Through compelling personal anecdotes, I reflect on the resistance and excuses many believers have towards this divine responsibility, urging listeners to embrace their role in spreading the gospel.

In a world fraught with fears and uncertainties, what holds you back from sharing the message of God's love? This episode confronts the common concerns that deter us from evangelizing—whether it's personal safety, family, finances, or cultural differences. Through anecdotes from my own missionary journey, I aim to show that God provides for those committed to His mission. I invite you to reframe your mindset, prioritize evangelism, and consider how you can make a significant impact in places like Iraq and beyond. Embark on this exhilarating journey with me and be inspired to fulfill your role in global evangelism.

Thanks for listening. Find us on YouTube, Substack, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.

W. Austin Gardner:

Hello, this is Austin Gardner, welcoming you to the World Evangelism Podcast. So excited to have the opportunity to talk to you. It is my heart's desire to inspire missions and to empower people to do what God's called them to do in getting the gospel message of Jesus Christ around the world. I'm excited that I have the opportunity to share with you lessons that might help us as we consider getting the gospel out. I want to thank you for those of you that take the time to say something about the podcast and send some messages and some likes, and I really appreciate that. What a privilege to be with you.

W. Austin Gardner:

Iraq is our country. What a great need of the gospel, and these countries are consumed with Islam. They've never heard the truth. They don't know that God loves them so much that God took on human flesh and came down to earth and God lived as a human among us, 100% human and 100% God at the same time, and he knows us and loves us, and he came to help us know our father and have a relationship with God. So I call on you to help us get the gospel message there. Pray for Iraq if you will, as always, go to Operation World, learn all you can about Iraq and pray for them.

W. Austin Gardner:

I'd like to take you in the Bible today to 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 8. I'd like to talk to you about mistakes that hinder all from hearing. Does it ever bother you that 65% of the world has never heard the gospel message? Does that ever weigh you down and burden you? It burdens me. It burdens me when I think that only one out of three people on the planet would consider themselves to be Christians, to be believers in the God of the Bible, and not all of those are saved, but two-thirds definitely are not, and our God loves them and he wants them all to be saved. So I would take you to 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 8, where the Bible says For from you there it is From you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith to Godward is spread abroad, so that we need not speak anything.

W. Austin Gardner:

Paul's talking to the Thessalonican church and he says boy, you guys have been doing your job and your faith, people are hearing about it and the gospel is getting around the world. Isn't that the key, when you love God enough and you believe the Bible enough that you want to spread it to the whole world as a church and as a people. Now we know, if we're Bible students. We know that God wants the gospel to get to the whole world. We aren't just talking about the apostles, or a select few, or the righteous rambos or the great ones or the called ones. God called the early church and our church to carry the gospel to the world, but so much of us we're not sure who he's talking about. It's gotta be those special people. It's gotta be those righteous rambos. It's gotta be anybody but me. But's got to be those righteous rambos. It's got to be anybody but me.

W. Austin Gardner:

But you can't ignore the number of times the Lord gave the Great Commission. There are too many verses that make it clear that he wants all to be saved and all to come to the knowledge of the truth. In 1 Timothy 2, 3, he said for this is good and acceptable. In Verse 4, here, for there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time, whereunto I am ordained a preacher, an apostle I speak the truth in Christ and lie not. A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. He wants all men to be saved. He wants all men to come to the knowledge of the truth. And let's get something clear there's only one mediator between God and man. It can't be Muhammad, confucius and Jesus. It can only be one, and that one is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the one who died. It can't be a saint in the church. It is Jesus who died and gave himself a ransom. And Paul said that's why I'm a preacher, because I understand that Jesus paid the price and every man needs to hear it. I love 1 John, 2, and I'm sure you do. He is the propitiation, the payment for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. God wants the whole world to hear the gospel message of Jesus Christ. He wants the whole world to hear the truth. Not only did he pay my sin debt, but he paid for everyone. In Hebrews 2 and verse 9, the Bible says he tasted death for every man. In 2 Peter two and verse nine, the Bible says he tasted death for every man. In second Peter, chapter three and verse nine. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And then John 3, 16,. God so loved the world and so I just want you to know that, as you look at your Bible, that God wants the whole world to hear the gospel message of Jesus Christ. He has done everything so that all can be saved.

W. Austin Gardner:

We figure that, since we're not called ourselves, that we're not the ones he wanted to evangelize the world Somehow. In fact, this is when God called me to be a missionary and I knew God was dealing with my heart. I was speaking with one of my friends called me to be a missionary and I knew God was dealing with my heart. I was speaking with one of my friends and he said if an angel knocked on my door and told me that God wanted me to go as a missionary, I'd tell him he had the wrong door. I'd tell him he knocked on the wrong door, he made a mistake. I had people say also don't do anything drastic, don't go to the mission field, I can help you get a better church. That all happened Because, see, we want an out, we want a way that we're not responsible for carrying the gospel message to the world. We figure, since we're not called that, we're not the ones that he wants to evangelize the world.

W. Austin Gardner:

But in Romans, chapter 12, verse 1, a letter written to regular church people in the church in Rome he called everybody to give their bodies a living sacrifice and he said it was only a reasonable service. And he said, as you do, that you have no the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Uh, do you remember when we were kids and we played tag? I'm sure at least those of you my age played tag. If you got tagged, you were it. No one wanted to get tagged, so you ran and you hid. That's much like the call to world evangelism seems to work. I will go if I get tagged, but he hasn't tagged me yet. I'm good at running, I'm good at getting away, I'm good at hiding, not being where I might get tagged. I pray that's not your attitude. I pray that's not your heart. I pray that's not who you are.

W. Austin Gardner:

We have developed an us-them view of the Bible and gospel work and even world evangelism. We look and we think of the special few that take the gospel and we look at those that are lost and going to hell and we look at us and we don't find our place. But it is our job, everybody's job, to pray and to give, not just enjoy life, not count missionaries as heroes while we live a wonderful life like it was meant to be lived. There's more than that expected, more than that we're called to do. We, as laymen, want to be seen as important, but we don't ever want to pay the price. We figure they wanted to go overseas and they liked the adventure and that's why they went. We figure they wanted to go overseas and they liked the adventure and that's why they went. We never consider that God called them and they were taking the gospel message of Jesus Christ to the world.

W. Austin Gardner:

Sometimes we seem to feel like our church is about enjoyment, our enjoyment and our worship, and we misunderstand worship. Worship is not the good feeling you get when you sing. Worship is not the fun, the goosebumps, the Holy Spirit meetings that we've been to. Worship is sacrifice, remember a living sacrifice. It's getting off the throne of my life and allowing him to direct me. It's me not following my plans, but finding his plans for my life. It's not about getting, but giving and serving.

W. Austin Gardner:

We think a good church is supposed to help us. A good church ought to help us have a good family. A good church ought to keep our children protected and pure. A good church ought to help us keep our family and our marriage together. A good church ought to help us be successful financially and in every way. That's not what a church is about. A church is about getting motivated to do more for God than we've ever done in the past. In Hebrews 10, verse 24, he said let's consider one another to provoke, to motivate to love and good works. Don't quit going verse 25, but exhort one another, challenge one another and motivate one another to do more. And we do that more and more as we see the day approaching. Actually, if a church seems to push too hard, we'll get rid of the pastor who's pushing too hard or we'll change churches. We want a church that just lets things slide. As the church has progressed, we seem to need less and less of it. We've gone further and further with the gospel and now we've stopped. We do not see the church as a place where we go to figure out how to fit in God's plan for world evangelism and how God can get glory. That's not what church is about.

W. Austin Gardner:

Another way that we hinder people from hearing the gospel is that we believe that one's religious views are private. We think that they have a right to believe what they want to believe in private. We're not sure what the Bible says is really true for everybody, not absolute truth. Deep down inside, we do not believe that anyone would ever really go to hell, and we search at everything in every way to figure out how to know that he would never let anybody go to hell. We have developed a God in our own image that's too good to allow people to go to hell. We don't believe there really is a hell. We believe in heaven because that fits and that helps. We simply do not believe that there's a real eternal hell where people who reject Christ will spend eternity.

W. Austin Gardner:

Since we're embarrassed about our relationship with Christ, we teach our children the same attitude indirectly. We don't want our children wasting their lives in something that will keep them from the happiest and most productive ways of living a life. We believe that somehow everybody will get to heaven in the end. Not Bible, but what we believe. We believe that God's already predestined everything and so going or staying will not make a difference. We believe that bad people will just quit existing when it's over, and God will never make them suffer. We believe God didn't give any special gifts that would make us missionaries. We do not have what all those special people seem to have.

W. Austin Gardner:

And then the last thing I'll bring up is what keeps us from getting the gospel to everybody is fear. What will happen to my children? Will I ever get married? What kind of food will I have to eat? How will I get money? Will I ever get to see my parents again? I don't want to be a beggar. Bad things happen to make people in other parts of the world Bad things happen to people in other parts of the world. If you go there, it's bad. What will happen to you? Will I ever get to have fun? And mysteries are strange and they dress strange and they act strange, and I don't want to be strange. You see, there are things in our lives, in our churches, that are hindering the gospel from getting to the world.

W. Austin Gardner:

I say all that to say why don't we do something to twist that and turn that and say I want the gospel to go to the world? In Iraq they need the gospel. All around the world they need the gospel. And what are we going to do to get the gospel to the world? What are we going to do to help change things? I call on you to pray about and think about what God would have us to do to get the gospel to more people. I thank you for taking the time to listen to the World Evangelism Podcast. I thank you for sharing it. I hope that you will do what you can to help others have a desire to carry the gospel. I promise you I've lived the missionary life. I loved it. I loved it. God took care of me, god met every need and he will for you, and there's nothing more exciting, exhilarating, than being right in the middle of what God's doing around the world. I challenge you to pray about taking the gospel to the world.