something missing in Steve's compilation?
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_SoaringEagle
- Posts: 285
- Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2005 10:40 pm
- Location: Louisville, KY
something missing in Steve's compilation?
After looking over all of steve's topical lectures, I couldn't find anything that was directed to unbelievers where the gospel would be preached to them, or anything directed towards believers that explain what the gospel is explaining them how to present it. Is there something, but I have just missed it?
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
SE- i asked the same question quite some time ago- i was wondering whether there was a recording of steve preaching the gospel message (specifically) and i dont believe that there is. there is an evangelism series in the digitialministries site, which addresses the second part of your query.
TK
TK
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
"Were not our hearts burning within us? (Lk 24:32)
When I am being recorded, my audiences are usually gatherings of Christians. More often than not, they have been students in a Bible school. I do not generally "preach to the choir." Since I am a teacher, rather than an evangelist, I am seldom invited to come preach to unbelievers, though I really get excited when a chance like that comes up. But this is not that often, and it is not usually recorded. The closest thing to my sharing the gospel to unbelievers on record, would be those occasions when self-professed non-Christians have called the show.
Last edited by FAST WebCrawler [Crawler] on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
In Jesus,
Steve
Steve
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_SoaringEagle
- Posts: 285
- Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2005 10:40 pm
- Location: Louisville, KY
Yeah, that makes sense. Have you ever thought about writing an article or paper on the gospel where the reader in mind would be an unbeliever? Then you could teach, and other believers such as myself could evangelize using your article/paper as a tool. What do you think about that? 
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
Back in 1999, I wrote the following gospel presentation, which was published and distributed to tens of thousands of people. It is pretty standard for the time. I still agree with what I said in it, so I would still be comfortable presenting it to an unbeliever. However, its content does not reflect the results of my more-recent studies in the gospel as presented in the book of Acts. As far as I know, this presentation leaves nothing out that was included in the gospel as preached by the apostles, but it includes some things that they, apparently, did not think it necessary to mention. Anyway, the following is probably a good example of the kind of presentation I would still give, in many cases:
**********************************
Do you know that you are on good terms with your Creator? On the day when He calls the whole of His Creation into account, do you have any basis for believing that He will welcome you into an eternal state of peace and fulfillment, rather than consigning you to an state of regret and grief? Do you doubt that there will be such a day?
Is there never to be a just disposition of the many unredressed injustices of history? Will there be no difference beyond the grave between Adolph Hitler and Mother Theresa? Do we live in a purposeless universe, where complex, interdependent biological systems that make the high-tech creations of man seem as simplistic as an Indian arrowhead, simply arose through a "fortuitous concurrence of accidental circumstances"? You may choose to believe such lunacy, but you must do so against the protestations of your own better judgment.
Such a philosophy has rightly been rejected by clear-thinking men and women since the beginning of time. "The fool has said in his heart that there is no God." If you are among those thus described, there is little else that I can hope to say to help you.
On the other hand, if we acknowedge that there is a God, how can we know what He is like, and what He requires of us? Unless God were to initiate communication with us, how could we ever hope to answer these questions with certainty?
There are many religions and religious books that claim to communicate what we must know about God. However, only one book gives indisputable evidence of being the very Word of God, and that book is, of course, the Bible. What is this indisputable evidence? It is the phenomenon of accurate prediction of future events. Of the many thousands of phrophetic predictions contained in the Scriptures, the vast majority have already come to complete fulfillment in precisely the manner that the writers predicted.
Only those who have never examined this evidence, or those who examine it with a resolute bigotry against the plain facts, could retain doubts as to the inspiration of the Scriptures. It is in the Scriptures that we discover God's self-disclosure to us.
In addition to this, there is one Man whose credentials place Him far above all others who have sought to speak authoritatively about the relationship between God and mankind. The Man Jesus of Nazareth (also known as the Christ) is not just another founder of a world religion, to be ranged among the other great spiritual leaders of history. Which of them ever claimed to be the Son of God and to be equal with God? If they had made such claims, how would they have validated them? Apart from Christ, which great religious leader healed lepers with a touch, restored sight to the blind with a word, raised the dead, or gave commands to the wind and the sea and was obeyed? If you haven't done the research, I'll save you time. . . the answer is: None but Jesus Christ ever made such claims and then backed them up with "many infallible proofs."
Of course, the most significant credential that sets Christ above all others is that He is the only one who arose from the dead by His own power and was thus vindicated as the true Representative of God among men. If you doubt these facts of history, then you are apparently unaware of the historical evidences, too numerous to catalog here, or else have viewed such data with a degree of a priori skepticism that you could never consistently apply in assessing other events supported by such a weight of eye-witness testimony.
The Bible indicates that all people have violated God's laws, and stand in need of God's forgiveness. Are you an exception? What are God's laws? "You must love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul and with all of your strength; and you must love your neighbor as you love yourself." If you have ever made a life choice without concern for God's will in the matter, then you have not loved God with all of your heart. If you have ever gossiped, cheated, coveted what was not yours, lusted for another's wife (or husband), been angry without a cause, engaged in sexual relations outside of marriage, etc., then you have not loved your neighbor as you love yourself. This is what Jesus taught. But Jesus didn't come to condemn the world (He said the world was already condemned before He got here!), but He came to save the world. From what? From the condemnation that is the result of our alienation from God.
Do you know how Jesus did this? The Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death and that the soul that sins must die. If you have sinned (broken God's law) then this judgment applies to you. In fact, it applies to everybody, "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." But now I must tell you something that none of us can fully understand: God placed the guilt for our sins upon an innocent sacrificial victim, and accepted His death in place of ours. That sacrificial victim was Jesus Christ, whom God set forth as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. But because Christ pleased His Father,it was granted to Him to rise from the dead, and subsequently to ascend into heaven (as many witnesses watched!), where He now sits as King and Judge at the right hand of God the Father.
If you believe this, then your sins can be forgiven and you can face any future contingencies with confidence that, whatever may happen, God forgives and accepts you, that He is watching over you for your good and will receive you for eternity after you die. What must you do? First, you must repent (meaning to change your mind and to turn from your life of sin). You must put your confidence in Jesus Christ and trust that God forgives you on His behalf. Further, you must surrender to the Lordship (ownership and leadership) of Jesus Christ in your life, seeking to obey and follow Him until the day you die. If this is what you want to do, begin reading the Gospels in the Bible, and write to me and request "The Growthbook for Fledgeling Disciples." This manual will be of great use to you in beginning your walk with God.
**********************************
Do you know that you are on good terms with your Creator? On the day when He calls the whole of His Creation into account, do you have any basis for believing that He will welcome you into an eternal state of peace and fulfillment, rather than consigning you to an state of regret and grief? Do you doubt that there will be such a day?
Is there never to be a just disposition of the many unredressed injustices of history? Will there be no difference beyond the grave between Adolph Hitler and Mother Theresa? Do we live in a purposeless universe, where complex, interdependent biological systems that make the high-tech creations of man seem as simplistic as an Indian arrowhead, simply arose through a "fortuitous concurrence of accidental circumstances"? You may choose to believe such lunacy, but you must do so against the protestations of your own better judgment.
Such a philosophy has rightly been rejected by clear-thinking men and women since the beginning of time. "The fool has said in his heart that there is no God." If you are among those thus described, there is little else that I can hope to say to help you.
On the other hand, if we acknowedge that there is a God, how can we know what He is like, and what He requires of us? Unless God were to initiate communication with us, how could we ever hope to answer these questions with certainty?
There are many religions and religious books that claim to communicate what we must know about God. However, only one book gives indisputable evidence of being the very Word of God, and that book is, of course, the Bible. What is this indisputable evidence? It is the phenomenon of accurate prediction of future events. Of the many thousands of phrophetic predictions contained in the Scriptures, the vast majority have already come to complete fulfillment in precisely the manner that the writers predicted.
Only those who have never examined this evidence, or those who examine it with a resolute bigotry against the plain facts, could retain doubts as to the inspiration of the Scriptures. It is in the Scriptures that we discover God's self-disclosure to us.
In addition to this, there is one Man whose credentials place Him far above all others who have sought to speak authoritatively about the relationship between God and mankind. The Man Jesus of Nazareth (also known as the Christ) is not just another founder of a world religion, to be ranged among the other great spiritual leaders of history. Which of them ever claimed to be the Son of God and to be equal with God? If they had made such claims, how would they have validated them? Apart from Christ, which great religious leader healed lepers with a touch, restored sight to the blind with a word, raised the dead, or gave commands to the wind and the sea and was obeyed? If you haven't done the research, I'll save you time. . . the answer is: None but Jesus Christ ever made such claims and then backed them up with "many infallible proofs."
Of course, the most significant credential that sets Christ above all others is that He is the only one who arose from the dead by His own power and was thus vindicated as the true Representative of God among men. If you doubt these facts of history, then you are apparently unaware of the historical evidences, too numerous to catalog here, or else have viewed such data with a degree of a priori skepticism that you could never consistently apply in assessing other events supported by such a weight of eye-witness testimony.
The Bible indicates that all people have violated God's laws, and stand in need of God's forgiveness. Are you an exception? What are God's laws? "You must love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul and with all of your strength; and you must love your neighbor as you love yourself." If you have ever made a life choice without concern for God's will in the matter, then you have not loved God with all of your heart. If you have ever gossiped, cheated, coveted what was not yours, lusted for another's wife (or husband), been angry without a cause, engaged in sexual relations outside of marriage, etc., then you have not loved your neighbor as you love yourself. This is what Jesus taught. But Jesus didn't come to condemn the world (He said the world was already condemned before He got here!), but He came to save the world. From what? From the condemnation that is the result of our alienation from God.
Do you know how Jesus did this? The Bible teaches that the wages of sin is death and that the soul that sins must die. If you have sinned (broken God's law) then this judgment applies to you. In fact, it applies to everybody, "for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." But now I must tell you something that none of us can fully understand: God placed the guilt for our sins upon an innocent sacrificial victim, and accepted His death in place of ours. That sacrificial victim was Jesus Christ, whom God set forth as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. But because Christ pleased His Father,it was granted to Him to rise from the dead, and subsequently to ascend into heaven (as many witnesses watched!), where He now sits as King and Judge at the right hand of God the Father.
If you believe this, then your sins can be forgiven and you can face any future contingencies with confidence that, whatever may happen, God forgives and accepts you, that He is watching over you for your good and will receive you for eternity after you die. What must you do? First, you must repent (meaning to change your mind and to turn from your life of sin). You must put your confidence in Jesus Christ and trust that God forgives you on His behalf. Further, you must surrender to the Lordship (ownership and leadership) of Jesus Christ in your life, seeking to obey and follow Him until the day you die. If this is what you want to do, begin reading the Gospels in the Bible, and write to me and request "The Growthbook for Fledgeling Disciples." This manual will be of great use to you in beginning your walk with God.
Last edited by FAST WebCrawler [Crawler] on Sat Dec 15, 2007 6:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:
Reason:
In Jesus,
Steve
Steve
Well said, Steve. May I copy it?
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
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_SoaringEagle
- Posts: 285
- Joined: Sat Nov 19, 2005 10:40 pm
- Location: Louisville, KY
Yeah, it's very concise for its short length.
I'd like to copy and print it. I think I'd send it to many friends, family, and maybe even strangers on a rainy day. Who knows.
Let me know if you ever revise it to reflect the results of your more recent studies.However, its content does not reflect the results of my more-recent studies in the gospel as presented in the book of Acts.
I'd like to copy and print it. I think I'd send it to many friends, family, and maybe even strangers on a rainy day. Who knows.
Last edited by Guest on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
Of course, anyone who wishes may copy and distribute it. If it is the true gospel, it isn't mine to copyright. If it isn't then it should not be in print at all.
Last edited by FAST WebCrawler [Crawler] on Wed Dec 31, 1969 7:00 pm, edited 0 times in total.
Reason:
Reason:
In Jesus,
Steve
Steve