Even now begin to call God is able God, begin to declare that He’s able in my life, Father You are the able God, You said You can do what You promise to do, You will never fail me, You will never forsake me. Begin to declare that the able God will begin to work in your life this morning; call Him able God, He’s able, I can do all things; He said I’m with you to the end of the world, just declare His ability in your life this morning, His ability in that situation, that circumstance, that thing that has proved to be hard, speak to that thing and say my God is able, begin to declare He’s Able, He’s able to overcome that fear, to overcome that failure, to overcome that marital issue, that child issue, He’s Able, the Lord is able.
Begin to declare His ability into your life this morning; He says I am your God, I will not leave you, I will not forsake you. Father we thank You because You are the able God, You are able to do what You promise to do, You will never fail us, You will never forsake us; this morning as a church we say You are able, Father You are able to do all things that You have promised, You are a faithful God, You are an awesome God, You are beautiful in all situations, be glorified, be exalted, in Jesus name we have worshipped.
And Father we indeed have declared that You are able, indeed we are blessed already because the able God is with us. This morning we have come to Your throne of grace, we obtain mercy and we find help even this time, Father please have mercy upon us; if there’s anyone amongst us who have sinned, Father have mercy; if there’s anything, any impediment before us this morning, please take it away, we plead the blood of Jesus, we ask, You said we should come boldly to Your throne of grace to obtain mercy in the times of need, Father we have come, we all have needs – spiritual needs, physical needs, emotional needs, every one of them because You are able, Father please send us help.
As the word comes forth, empower Your word, let deliverance come, let salvation come; Father, elevate every one of us from a level of mediocrity to heights beyond our imagination, in Jesus name we have prayed, amen. God bless you!
I want to thank our father in the Lord for this opportunity; I also thank our local Pastor here and the pastorate for asking me to share the word of God. This is the final day of the evangelism weekend, I think because we’ve been enjoying the Summit we did not spend too much time on evangelism weekend, but truth be told it should be a way of life, praise the Lord!
Today our topic is ‘Evangelism is a Powerful Spiritual Weapon’; we’ll read a few scriptures, Ephesians 6: 17, “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”. 2nd Corinthians 10: 4-6, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. 5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. 6And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled”, praise the Lord!
These two passages speak to the fact that is the spiritual nature of the believer’s life, basically everything we do is first spiritual before it becomes physical; children of God are engaged in the spiritual warfare whether you like it or not, if you don’t fight it you are beaten blue and black, or there’s a covering that makes you believe there’s no war but there’s a war going on.
This warfare requires the use of spiritual armor as we will see in Ephesians 6 and the weapons to combat the forces that are against God’s kingdom, against your family, against your spiritual well-being, against your physical wellbeing, there are forces against you, if you like it or not the forces are there, we should establish that.
Now let’s go back, evangelism, what is it and how is it a weapon? Evangelism as a weapon transcends traditional definition, talk about just going out and sharing tracts; it focuses on the rescue and reconciliation of the souls of man through the gospel, that’s the purpose Christ came, to reconcile man with God and this is the one tool that He has given us to continue that work because He says the way I am, so are you in this world, we are extensions of Christ as believers, praise the Lord!
So evangelism is the act of rescuing souls through the proclamation of the gospel, liberating them from spiritual bondage. So every soul that is not in Christ is in bondage because it’s subject to the enemy of the Kingdom, the devil, these are established truths.
Evangelism involves shining God’s light to dispel darkness: making God’s power prevail over the forces of the devil. Bible says you are the light of the world, and because you are the light of the world you are supposed to shine and dispel darkness, that process of shining is evangelism, you might not call it that but that is what it is.
Christ first said I am the light of the world, then He went and said ye are the light of the world, so you are supposed to be like Christ and dispel darkness, and when you are dispelling darkness, darkness cannot exist with you because you are light already, praise the Lord! We are light in Jesus name, and if there’s any darkness around us they don’t have a choice, they are dispelled now in Jesus name.
So evangelism is the fulfillment of the great commission, calling all believers to preach the gospel to every creature as stated in Mark 16:15 where it says go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, praise the Lord!
So then what is a weapon? We said evangelism is a powerful spiritual weapon, so what is a weapon? Is an instrument of attack which is offensive or defense which is preventive. It means to fight and prevail over an opponent. So evangelism in itself, you must look at it in a different light from today, as you engage in it you have a weapon with you, praise the Lord!
In a nutshell, evangelism is to take the word of God to the world and let the word change lives, bring souls to the Kingdom. The Bible says in John 1:1, in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, that is Jesus Christ, so when you bring the word you’re bringing Jesus, there is no evangelism without Jesus, that’s just an exercise in futility, so when you bring the word you are bring bringing Jesus and when Jesus comes in darkness is dispelled, praise the Lord!
So in summary, whatever you do, even coming to the church, hearing the word, whatever you do as a believer it must culminate in first of all saving your own soul, you want to strengthen your faith so the devil doesn’t steal that which you have, very important, but then it’s not enough, you then need to go and bring more souls because that is at the heartbeat of God.
So when we do things to others, we must consider it in this light, how does this action, this word, this thought, how does it bring this one to the Kingdom, because remember you are the light of the world, is what I am doing reflective of the light that I carry? Simple questions, but if only we can make that our standard of measure we will draw closer to God by the day, because sometimes we walk in the flesh because we’ve grown up in the flesh but the Bible says you should walk in the Spirit so you don’t fulfill the desires of the flesh, because the flesh takes its source from the enemy of the Kingdom, the devil, but remember we grew up in the flesh for a long time, if you are born again late; if you’re born again early and you grew up in the Spirit, praise the Lord! Good for you, but many of us were formed according to the dictates of the world, so many of us need to be transformed, praise the Lord!
So how does the evangelism function as a spiritual weapon? It reconciles sinners to God first of all, because there is a battle in the spirit for the soul of every man, so this weapon of evangelism is pulling souls away from the devil, it is the sword of the spiritual sending forth and is pulling souls from the devil, so there is a war going on, and as you do evangelism you are winning more to God’s side, so you are an active soldier in this battle of the Lord, praise the Lord!
2nd Corinthians 5:17 -;20, this is exactly what evangelism does, therefore If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. They might not act it, they might not live it out and that’s why they need to keep refreshing and get encouraged, iron sharpeneth iron, but when you win one to Christ this is what happens; 18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given unto you and I the ministry of reconciliation. 19To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
In a nutshell, you are ambassadors of Christ, you are representing Christ and that’s why the question is, in all that we do, how am I representing Christ? It is not old time religion to say what will Jesus do? It is something you must ask yourself with everything that you do because you are the light of the world, you are an ambassador for Christ, as a believer that is who you are, you might not like it but by coming to Christ you are an ambassador, may we declare this morning, I’m an ambassador for Christ and all that I do will be according to what God determines of me, so shall it be in Jesus name.
How does evangelism function as a spiritual weapon? Number two, it triumphs over opposition to God’s kingdom as demonstrated in Paul’s ministry, so let’s see what Paul says in 1st Corinthians 16:9, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.
In your own area that God has assigned to you, because every one of us has a gift to be part of this body, to bless the body by but there are many adversaries. When you go out to evangelize the power of God, He says I’m with you to the end of the world, that power comes into effect and the adversaries cannot stop you, praise the Lord!
You remember when the multitude, the enemies wanted to kill Christ and it wasn’t His time, He basically just walked away, like He just turned and walked away, but when the time came, He gave Himself. When you are doing God’s work, you’re evangelizing, the adversaries, no matter how many they are they can’t stop you and they will not stop you in Jesus name.
Three, evangelism is accompanied by miraculous signs, fulfilling God’s promises that His power will confirm the preaching of His word. He says His power will confirm the preaching of His word, so when you preach the word there is automatically a power that supports you in that work, you are calling on the power of God to back you up, you don’t do this in the flesh. Mark 16: 15-18, and he said unto them, go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. 16He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And 17, very important, and these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover, praise the Lord!
Every one of us has the ability and the power to do this; when you preach the gospel these signs will follow you, you don’t have to pray for it, it follows you according to the word of God, signs and wonders follow believers. For instance, in Acts 19: 11, it says and God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul, why, he was preaching the word, he was evangelizing, just by doing it; and Acts 19:20, it says, so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed; the word of God that you preach is a weapon, it prevails, in that environment where there were special miracles, the word of God was prevailing, so I pray for you that in your lives, in your families, the word of God will prevail in Jesus name, and these signs and wonders will follow you, your children, your spouses, in Jesus name.
We can see also, talking about the fulfillment of God’s promises when we evangelize, Romans 10:15B, it says how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. Your feet is not just physical feet, we know that, your goings, your comings, what you do, you ask for favor you don’t need to pray too much because you have become a weapon in the hand of God; it says how beautiful, when things are happening to you the world is beginning to wonder because you have given yourself to do that which are the heart of God, how beautiful are the feet of them that evangelize, praise the Lord!
And then Proverbs 11:30, you want wisdom, it says he that winneth souls is wise; you want wisdom, just start winning souls, start evangelizing, you don’t need to pray too much; He said if you lack wisdom ask of Me, you don’t have to ask because God gives you wisdom in the process of evangelizing; you want to be wise, start winning souls, praise the Lord!
Now let’s see some specific examples of how these things manifested: through evangelism, people of Samaria received the word, experienced deliverance from sorcery and were filled with great joy, Acts 8: (we’ll just pick a few verses) 5, then Phillip went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them; verse 8, and there was great joy in that city; you are a harbinger of joy, that is what we should do, like Philip did, he went to a city of Samaria, he preached the word, it brought great joy, do you bring joy where you go?
Do you bring joy in that circumstance? It goes back to the first question, in all that I do, am I a true ambassador of Christ? Praise the Lord!
There was a man in that circumstance, Simon, who used to extort money through sorcery; they were delivered from that sorcerer through the preaching of Phillip. So when you preach the word you deliver people from weapons of the enemy, witchcraft, imaginations, and the Bible says every high thing that exalts itself against the name of Christ, you are a source of deliverance, praise the Lord!
Evangelism also, if you look at the madman of Gadera in Mark 5, evangelism liberated the mad man from legions of demon, made him a testimony himself. Mark 5: 2, and when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit; I would like to just continue for a few verses further to understand the enormity of this possession; 6who had his dwelling among the tombs; (he couldn’t live with men, he lived with the dead people) and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 5and always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, cutting himself with stones.
People might not cut themselves with stones but the self-destruction that goes on every day in our society, Jesus brought the word to that situation; you also as ambassadors are meant to bring the word also, praise the Lord! Then what happened at the end? Let’s look at verse 15, and they came to Jesus, (who came to Jesus, people around came to Jesus) and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid; why were they afraid? There is miracle that happens that drives fear into people, you’ll think they will embrace Jesus, praise the Lord!
You know when you begin to walk in the supernatural because of evangelism, your enemies and those around you, who do you think allowed this man to continue in this state? Where did the demons come from? It’s from the environment, in fact they used to call him ‘mad man of Gadara, mad man of the tombs’, when change came they were afraid of the source of that power because they knew where it came from. All those unfriendly friends, those enemies that stay around you and it’s like they are praying and supporting you, as you begin to evangelize, as you begin to spread the word and deliverance comes through you, Christ will send power through you, they will be afraid of you henceforth, they will come and begin to say how do we go. But in this case they were so afraid, they said Christ leave us alone, may God deliver evil people and bring them to His kingdom in Jesus name.
For sake of time we’ll move on, there are many examples in the world where the word of God came and there was deliverance; Paul did the same thing with the Gentiles, he was sent to the Gentiles and everywhere he went he preached the gospel, there were signs, wonders, praise the Lord! But I want us to spend some time on personal evangelism, this has its peculiarities, subtleties, you have to infuse it with your day-to-day work and that’s the problem, many of us come to church, we are holy in church, we do good work in church, it’s a very safe environment, but when we leave the church we say I’m going to work.
During the week I was speaking to somebody in my office and he said, Oga, how do you balance work and life? I said I don’t know the difference right now because the truth be told, it’s intertwined for me because in the place of work you must remember who you are, you must be an ambassador. The Bible says you are the light of the world, not the light of the church because the church has light, Christ is the light of the church, so are you shining in your office? In that place of work, are you trying to outsmart them and use their strategies or are you being an ambassador even in your workplace? Matthew 5: 13 & 14, it says ye are the salt of the earth; but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is therefore good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men; it says ye, say I am the light of the world, a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Are you hiding your religion? Are you hiding your Christianity? Are you hiding your faith?
If you are the light of the world you will declare it in all places, how do you declare it? Is not to shout ‘I’m a Christian”, by their fruits you shall know them; what is your fruit saying about you? That is how you win more to Christ than going on the street and just giving tracts, it’s good to go on the street don’t get me wrong, but when people look at you and say I want to be like Joe, they will follow you, they will ask the question what do I do to be saved because they see in you a light that they don’t have.
Are you doing the ‘dog eat dog’ world in the office? These are questions you have to answer, I have to answer in our private places, but it says 16 remember, let your light so shine before men, not before Pastor, before men in your office, in your business center, when you are doing that transaction and checking the weights and putting your finger inside to reduce the quantity, let your light so shine before men that they see your good works and then glorify your Father which is in heaven. What do they see? Your good works!
You know some will say it’s not me now, it’s God that will do the conversion, no, they are looking at your good works, men see your good works first before they come to see Christ, that is personal evangelism, and we have to examine where we are, are you evangelizing, are you an ambassador for Christ? It’s easy and convenient to belong, when they are discussing high power finance to sit there and try to act as if you know; there are times you start praying in the spirit because truly you don’t know, and the discussions and conversations begin to go towards what you want.
There are times in the marketplace you don’t know what to do, you begin to go in the spirit and God will fight for you, but you must be light in that place for that to happen, if you are not light you want to be like them, you want to beat them at their game, praise the Lord!
So I just listed a few principles to help us think through personal evangelism: the first one is to focus on relationship; you must love and respect people, treat everyone with genuine love and respect, recognizing their inherent worth. There is value in every man, even the mad man of Gadara, there was value, Christ only called it out, praise the Lord!
The woman at the well in Samaria, John 4, there was value, she was an evangelist but hidden in all that is history of five men, no husband, living with a boyfriend, at the end of the day there is value in every man, our job is to be light, to call out that value, is not to kill and destroy and pull down.
Under relationships, get to know people, let’s not be afraid because they will ask us for money, get to know people, build genuine relationships by listening and understanding their lives, experiences and perspectives. As I mentioned, John 4, Jesus sat down by the well, this woman came, talked about your husband, your history, water, it’s all about relationship building, are you building relationships? It’s through that that they will see the light that is in you.
I’ve talked about actions, actions speak louder, let your actions demonstrate the love and value that you profess. Jesus taught us through His action, let’s see James 2: 14-17, it says what does he profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, depart in peace, (God bless you, it is well with you), be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful to the body; what does it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone (let’s remember that).
Number two, share your testimony. For me, it took me about um 20 years to write down my testimony and it’s coming in a small book I’m writing; I used to scribble it when I used to travel in those days, and I told it to my sons using some acronym, they didn’t know it was me, I was a stubborn barracks boy, I shared with pastor yesterday but God delivered me, so I have a book coming out on ‘The Barracks Boy’, how God took this barrack boy and made him who he is today, but the same Christ that delivered me can deliver any man, praise the Lord!
So tell your personal stories, share how faith has impacted your life rather than focusing on lectures or debates. Remember the man that was blind from birth, John 9: 29, they asked him who is it, this man is a wicked man he’s a devil, he said listen, He said whether he be a sinner or not, I do not know, but one thing I know once I was blind now I see, that’s your testimony. People come out here they tell long stories, I was blind now I can see, glory be to God! People will come and say ah, I want to know this God. You must be a humble witness, you can’t force people to come to Christ, just share what God has done for you, one day, when the devil hits them they will remember your testimony, praise the Lord!
Listen more than to speak, be a good listener, allow others to share their thoughts and feelings. James 1:19 says wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, praise the Lord!
Two other principles, be authentic and humble, that requires integrity, humility and avoid religious jargon.
We should pray and seek God’s guidance even in our personal evangelism. Pray for opportunities, come for conferences like the Summit yesterday, people will come to you, they want business deals, yeah, tell them who you are and do business too, you see that they want to be like you when you are successful, may God help us in Jesus name. Pray for others, so many guys don’t deny prayers, pray for them, through prayers they will come to Christ.
Trust in God’s power, remember, we have said He’s the able God, Philippians 4:13 says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Finally, we must be patient and persistent. This conversion journey is a long-term journey, evangelism is not a onetime event, there are multiple dialogues, engage in ongoing conversations rather than trying to convert. You know on the streets, you want to convert them in 5 minutes, true evangelism requires that you will be patient, one soul is valuable to God, if that’s all you do in a span – one month, one week, as God leads, it is good, let’s not count the number of tracts we give out and say you have won souls, but it’s about the souls that truly come to Christ.
Finally, don’t give up. Hebrews 10:36, Bible says for ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, you might receive the promise, praise the Lord!
Now I talked about the fact that I was a barracks boy, you might be in this place and you are still like me in those days, you grew up in an environment that requires that you fight for yourself, some that come to adult literacy, they tell us my dad did not have money for Primary School, some get married out at 15 years, one got married at 15 got divorced at 22 because the man was beating her up, even demanded for the bride price to be returned after the fact, so there are foundational issues, no doubt, but remember we just sang ‘we have an able God’, the One that delivered me and said in 2nd Corinthians 5:17, if any man be in Christ he becomes a new creature: old things are passed away, I bring that Jesus to you this morning.
[Altar Call]
Let’s rise up even as we thank God for today, and I want us to just go to Him and ask for enablement to be ambassadors indeed. Say Father, just give me grace to be Your ambassador, to personally evangelize, to preach the word in season and out of season; Father enable me, please empower me, in every area of my life where I’ve been ashamed of the gospel, Father forgive me, from today give me power to preach the word, speak to my heart and guide me.
Pray to God, you know the areas where you need to strengthen yourself, ask for help, ask for help to be a personal evangelist for the King of kings that is able to set you free, able to lift you up, able to promote you, able to deliver to set free. Father empower me, Father enable me, enable Your children, every one of us, we have areas of weakness strengthen us; say when I am weak then I am strong because I take on the strength of Christ, let Your joy fill our hearts because Your joy gives us strength so that we go out boldly to declare Your goodness and Your faithfulness over our lives. As we do that Lord, let men lift Your name high up, let souls be won to You and let Your name be glorified, in Jesus name we have prayed.
