Post by Jeffrey Olver on Mar 21, 2009 11:33:32 GMT -5
Here's my update for the outreach we just recently did in Tyler, Texas.
*** *** ***
Matthew 23:37
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered they children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”
They city of Tyler is located about two hours east of Dallas in east Texas. Tyler is home to over 350 Christian churches. Smith County, where Tyler is located, has over 600 churches.
Somehow, there are a handful of bars, clubs, strip joints and a pornography shop that have managed to take root in Tyler. One of these clubs is the Electric Cowboy, located about a five minute walk away from the largest church in Tyler which has been there for 50 years. The Electric Cowboy is not just a dance hall. They play host to the pornography producers Playboy and Girls Gone Wild which hold lascivious parties for the public. The Electric Cowboy also host events specifically catering to lust and promiscuity. Particularly this night: college night with the main attraction being a “wet t-shirt contest!”
Last night, my friends Joel, Caleb and I unfurled our Gospel banners and made a stand against sin and for our King Jesus Christ outside of this club. Despite the amount of Churches and Christians in Tyler, I have never run into anyone else doing public ministry, so for the residents and revelers of Tyler to witness such a display of the Gospel is strange and shocking.
I have previously been thrown out of the parking lot of the plaza where the Electric Cowboy is situated. This time we decided to start at a median in the parking lot that was some distance away from the club, in front of some of the other closed shops. We grabbed attention instantly without preaching a word and were able to begin some probing conversations with clubbers. Our distance from the entrance of the club helped us avoid attention from the staff, so this was the longest time I had been in the parking lot – about 15 minutes. The owner, Tim LeGrand, claimed to own the entire plaza (I am looking into the legitimacy of this claim) and summarily threw us out again.
Nearby a Bennigan’s restaurant closed down and is abandoned, bordering the parking lot for the Electric Cowboy. Standing on a big, brick planter for elevation, I held my banner and occasionally preached to people meandering through the lot towards the club. Joel stood nearby with his banner and Caleb paced the curb wearing a sandwich board.
Some people approached us throughout the night to discuss what was going on, a few were enraged, a few were trying to justify their actions calmly, some tried to appease their conscience by professing their respect for what we were doing.
I would just quote scripture like, “God demonstrated His love towards us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” To which people would respond “STOP JUDGING!” Sometimes it seems like a reflex response against preaching. One individual, David, gave the typical “stop judging response” and claimed to know God. The more I challenged him on that point, the more irate he became, the more he used extreme combinations of curse words. He finally approached us spewing hate and cursing in defense of his sin and selfishness. “A soft answer turns away wrath” Proverbs says, so I spoke to Him about the true grace of God and God’s broken heart over his sin, while he was no longer threatening, he cursed all the more. Throughout this whole exchange, a woman I assume to be his wife was continually tugging on him, begging him to calm down and just leave. Within a few minutes of David’s profanity and heated defense of selfishness, his wife said to him, “David, you are getting ugly.” And finally drug him away.
It’s amazing the reaction you will see from people as you simply dig deeper into their motivation for their activities. Seemingly rational, calm, normal people will erupt. Soft spoken, quiet individuals will spew profanity, blasphemy and violence. As the Bible asks, “Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?”
J.W. Jepson put it very well in his book It All Adds Up To Love:
The more you stand in the way of someone’s selfish pursuit, the more agitated and upset they become. Many people witnessing this reaction may say that the preacher must be doing something wrong. The preacher must be insulting the sinner deliberately, or at the least is not being relative to the hearers. Let me tell you; it doesn’t matter if you are sitting in a coffee shop, having purchased the sinner coffee after washing his car having a quiet conversation – if the Christian Witness steps in the way of his indulgence, his pursuit of self, you can expect resistance, frustration and eventually anger and God forbid, violence.
Later in the night, a man named Daniel approached us to shake all of our hands and laud our efforts, while telling us he was still going to go in the club. Joel did not let him get away with this.
Many times sinners will congratulate the public Witness for Christ, because in their mind it balances out their selfish scale of good deeds versus bad deeds. Because they said a kind word to the preacher, while others are reviling the preacher, he is now justified in entering his venue of choice to indulge himself in pleasure seeking. Sometimes the sinner will approach the witness after a night of scorning him and his message and apologize for his actions, his speech dripping with words like, “I really respect you,” “It takes guts to what you do,” “You’re a better person than I am.” But when confronted with the choice – Jesus or Self, Life or Death, they begin to get agitated all over again. The only reason they were trying to give an encouraging word was because their conscience was bothering them, and they’d do anything just to make themselves feel better.
Joel told Daniel, “You’re not going to be getting brownie-points with God because you told us we’re doing a good thing.” He continued witnessed to the man talking about his decisions. Towards the end of their conversation, Daniel was still determined to go into the club. Joel, handing him a handful of tracts, challenged Daniel using his own profession of being a good person, to place the tracts in a bathroom stall or on tables for others to read. Daniel took them, promising he would, and entered the club.
Later, a man named Brandon approached and encouraged us, professing to be a born again Christian. Joel spoke to Brandon, who had been saved out of a life of violence and drugs a year ago and now wrote music, and exhorted him in holiness and pursuing Jesus Christ, which Brandon agreed with and received cheerfully. He admitted he had come to attend the club, and Joel spoke to him regarding his motives and deciding which master he was going to serve, encouraging him to not go in, but make the right decision. Brandon walked across the parking lot and sat in his car for quite a while. When he got out sometime later, he bumped into David, the first man who had reviled us so vehemently. They ended up getting into the same car – as the night went on the parking lot was crowded with cars, so we never saw them leave, or go into the club. I pray Brandon made the right decision and that he even was a witness of Christ to David that night.
Sometime after midnight, a young man in a blue shirt stood in the parking lot and hollered us to go home. I replied, “I’m here because I love you, sir! What are you doing here?” “To have a good time!” He responded.
In the Bible belt, it is sadly very common to run into people who believe they can do anything they want because God’s grace will cover all of their sins. This is a LIE and is sadly propagated in many churches. Sound the alarm! This is sin excusing humanism, NOT the Gospel. No matter how many times you say “Lord, I’m so sorry.” God values His Son’s sacrifice on the cross so much, that he cannot wisely and justly heed a prayer for forgiveness without a true heart of repentance! The price that God had to pay so that he could forgive us our rebellion was so great, and the horror and destructiveness of sin so awful that to dismiss transgressions based on the “bad feelings” of someone who is finding less and less fulfillment in their pet sins, would make God unjust, unmerciful and unfit to rule His Universe and the hearts He put in it. He would be a slovenly King, who did not truly care for His subjects, but is content to sit on his throne, relishing his title, while sin spreads like a vile plague.
I asked the man in the blue shirt, “Are you a Christian?” He said yes and continued, “So going in the club is wrong?”
Entering a building is not morally right or wrong. It is the motivation that is right or wrong.
“You know what’s going on in there?” I asked him. To which he responded with “Why are you judging?” and followed that with a bizarre combination of cursing, insults and blasphemy. A Christian? When he vented enough, he stormed into the club. Some time later he stood in the parking lot again, screaming for us to go home and continuing his verbal assault. A friend tried to restrain him, as I quoted scriptures against sin, lifting up God’s grace and Jesus Christ crucified. Eventually the man was content to stand in the parking lot talking with his friends, visibly very agitated, he soon left.
Later on, David returned, continuing his own tirade of worsening insults and profanity. I asked him what excuse he was going to have for God for his actions. He replied that is what God’s grace is for. “That’s why God has grace, so I can do whatever I want and He will still forgive me!” and punctuated his doctrinal statement with more profanity and foul insults. He then left. Please pray that David would realize the ugliness of his rebellious heart and the true work of the cross. That David would understand what true repentance is and would be marvelously saved to the glory of God!
A group of young women, under the age of 21 signified by the stamps on their hands, approached us to take pictures. I asked them why they would objectify themselves and dress in such a way that encouraged men to think perverse things about them. There was so much activity among them that it was difficult to get a clear response. One girl’s boyfriend pulled up and called her into the car. I asked him why he would take his girlfriend to an event like the one going on at the Electric Cowboy. He replied, “She’s a hooker, how else is she going to get paid?” Surprised at his brazenness, I asked his girlfriend, “You let him talk to you like that?” The girl shrugged and said snidely, “I need to make money somehow.” She got in the car and they drove off.
Daniel, the man whom Joel gave the tracts returned and said he did it. Joel thanked him and asked if it was worth it going in the club. Daniel replied, “No.” Joel asked, “How do you feel?” “Pretty bad.” They had a long discussion, which ended in Daniel wanting to give Joel a call when he felt times got rough. Before Daniel left, Joel warned him that God isn’t a vending machine – you can’t just pray when you feel bad and you need him, and then leave him at the door when you want to go clubbing.
Throughout the night we had many discussions with people driving up and stopping to read the banners, or ask what we were doing.
From about 9:30 to midnight we made a stand against sin, lifted up Jesus Christ, testified of His work on the cross, preached the Good News and rebuked sin.
With all the spirituality of Tyler accompanied by all the hypocrisy and the apathy towards public events of lewdness and the wholesale rejection of repentance and trust in Jesus, I am just beginning to understand the grief in Jesus’ heart when he lamented over Jerusalem. With all her religion, all her history, all her people, all of her bloodshed and tradition leading people ever away from God.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand fully the grief of an infinite heart over the tragedy of sin, but I thank God for sharing His heart with me and I pray that he will continually use me in this city to exhort the Body of Christ on evangelism, and to reach the lost.
Leonard Ravenhill said of Tyler, Texas in a prayer that was recorded; “Lord, don’t let Tyler die in her sins because we haven’t lifted up a standard in Your Holy Name against it…” I pray we all catch that vision for own towns and cities.
Thank you all for your prayers!
May God bless you in all your endeavors for the Kingdom of God!
*** *** ***
Matthew 23:37
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered they children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”
They city of Tyler is located about two hours east of Dallas in east Texas. Tyler is home to over 350 Christian churches. Smith County, where Tyler is located, has over 600 churches.
Somehow, there are a handful of bars, clubs, strip joints and a pornography shop that have managed to take root in Tyler. One of these clubs is the Electric Cowboy, located about a five minute walk away from the largest church in Tyler which has been there for 50 years. The Electric Cowboy is not just a dance hall. They play host to the pornography producers Playboy and Girls Gone Wild which hold lascivious parties for the public. The Electric Cowboy also host events specifically catering to lust and promiscuity. Particularly this night: college night with the main attraction being a “wet t-shirt contest!”
Last night, my friends Joel, Caleb and I unfurled our Gospel banners and made a stand against sin and for our King Jesus Christ outside of this club. Despite the amount of Churches and Christians in Tyler, I have never run into anyone else doing public ministry, so for the residents and revelers of Tyler to witness such a display of the Gospel is strange and shocking.
I have previously been thrown out of the parking lot of the plaza where the Electric Cowboy is situated. This time we decided to start at a median in the parking lot that was some distance away from the club, in front of some of the other closed shops. We grabbed attention instantly without preaching a word and were able to begin some probing conversations with clubbers. Our distance from the entrance of the club helped us avoid attention from the staff, so this was the longest time I had been in the parking lot – about 15 minutes. The owner, Tim LeGrand, claimed to own the entire plaza (I am looking into the legitimacy of this claim) and summarily threw us out again.
Nearby a Bennigan’s restaurant closed down and is abandoned, bordering the parking lot for the Electric Cowboy. Standing on a big, brick planter for elevation, I held my banner and occasionally preached to people meandering through the lot towards the club. Joel stood nearby with his banner and Caleb paced the curb wearing a sandwich board.
Some people approached us throughout the night to discuss what was going on, a few were enraged, a few were trying to justify their actions calmly, some tried to appease their conscience by professing their respect for what we were doing.
I would just quote scripture like, “God demonstrated His love towards us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” To which people would respond “STOP JUDGING!” Sometimes it seems like a reflex response against preaching. One individual, David, gave the typical “stop judging response” and claimed to know God. The more I challenged him on that point, the more irate he became, the more he used extreme combinations of curse words. He finally approached us spewing hate and cursing in defense of his sin and selfishness. “A soft answer turns away wrath” Proverbs says, so I spoke to Him about the true grace of God and God’s broken heart over his sin, while he was no longer threatening, he cursed all the more. Throughout this whole exchange, a woman I assume to be his wife was continually tugging on him, begging him to calm down and just leave. Within a few minutes of David’s profanity and heated defense of selfishness, his wife said to him, “David, you are getting ugly.” And finally drug him away.
It’s amazing the reaction you will see from people as you simply dig deeper into their motivation for their activities. Seemingly rational, calm, normal people will erupt. Soft spoken, quiet individuals will spew profanity, blasphemy and violence. As the Bible asks, “Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?”
J.W. Jepson put it very well in his book It All Adds Up To Love:
[/b][/center][/blockquote]“Let the kingdom of God prosper. At first it will only annoy the sinner. Then, it begins to frustrate him, getting in his way and making him feel uncomfortable. Finally, if the interests of God and His kingdom prosper to the point that the sinner finds the road of selfishness blocked – watch out. Frustrated selfishness is a monster.”
The more you stand in the way of someone’s selfish pursuit, the more agitated and upset they become. Many people witnessing this reaction may say that the preacher must be doing something wrong. The preacher must be insulting the sinner deliberately, or at the least is not being relative to the hearers. Let me tell you; it doesn’t matter if you are sitting in a coffee shop, having purchased the sinner coffee after washing his car having a quiet conversation – if the Christian Witness steps in the way of his indulgence, his pursuit of self, you can expect resistance, frustration and eventually anger and God forbid, violence.
Later in the night, a man named Daniel approached us to shake all of our hands and laud our efforts, while telling us he was still going to go in the club. Joel did not let him get away with this.
Many times sinners will congratulate the public Witness for Christ, because in their mind it balances out their selfish scale of good deeds versus bad deeds. Because they said a kind word to the preacher, while others are reviling the preacher, he is now justified in entering his venue of choice to indulge himself in pleasure seeking. Sometimes the sinner will approach the witness after a night of scorning him and his message and apologize for his actions, his speech dripping with words like, “I really respect you,” “It takes guts to what you do,” “You’re a better person than I am.” But when confronted with the choice – Jesus or Self, Life or Death, they begin to get agitated all over again. The only reason they were trying to give an encouraging word was because their conscience was bothering them, and they’d do anything just to make themselves feel better.
Joel told Daniel, “You’re not going to be getting brownie-points with God because you told us we’re doing a good thing.” He continued witnessed to the man talking about his decisions. Towards the end of their conversation, Daniel was still determined to go into the club. Joel, handing him a handful of tracts, challenged Daniel using his own profession of being a good person, to place the tracts in a bathroom stall or on tables for others to read. Daniel took them, promising he would, and entered the club.
Later, a man named Brandon approached and encouraged us, professing to be a born again Christian. Joel spoke to Brandon, who had been saved out of a life of violence and drugs a year ago and now wrote music, and exhorted him in holiness and pursuing Jesus Christ, which Brandon agreed with and received cheerfully. He admitted he had come to attend the club, and Joel spoke to him regarding his motives and deciding which master he was going to serve, encouraging him to not go in, but make the right decision. Brandon walked across the parking lot and sat in his car for quite a while. When he got out sometime later, he bumped into David, the first man who had reviled us so vehemently. They ended up getting into the same car – as the night went on the parking lot was crowded with cars, so we never saw them leave, or go into the club. I pray Brandon made the right decision and that he even was a witness of Christ to David that night.
Sometime after midnight, a young man in a blue shirt stood in the parking lot and hollered us to go home. I replied, “I’m here because I love you, sir! What are you doing here?” “To have a good time!” He responded.
In the Bible belt, it is sadly very common to run into people who believe they can do anything they want because God’s grace will cover all of their sins. This is a LIE and is sadly propagated in many churches. Sound the alarm! This is sin excusing humanism, NOT the Gospel. No matter how many times you say “Lord, I’m so sorry.” God values His Son’s sacrifice on the cross so much, that he cannot wisely and justly heed a prayer for forgiveness without a true heart of repentance! The price that God had to pay so that he could forgive us our rebellion was so great, and the horror and destructiveness of sin so awful that to dismiss transgressions based on the “bad feelings” of someone who is finding less and less fulfillment in their pet sins, would make God unjust, unmerciful and unfit to rule His Universe and the hearts He put in it. He would be a slovenly King, who did not truly care for His subjects, but is content to sit on his throne, relishing his title, while sin spreads like a vile plague.
I asked the man in the blue shirt, “Are you a Christian?” He said yes and continued, “So going in the club is wrong?”
Entering a building is not morally right or wrong. It is the motivation that is right or wrong.
“You know what’s going on in there?” I asked him. To which he responded with “Why are you judging?” and followed that with a bizarre combination of cursing, insults and blasphemy. A Christian? When he vented enough, he stormed into the club. Some time later he stood in the parking lot again, screaming for us to go home and continuing his verbal assault. A friend tried to restrain him, as I quoted scriptures against sin, lifting up God’s grace and Jesus Christ crucified. Eventually the man was content to stand in the parking lot talking with his friends, visibly very agitated, he soon left.
Later on, David returned, continuing his own tirade of worsening insults and profanity. I asked him what excuse he was going to have for God for his actions. He replied that is what God’s grace is for. “That’s why God has grace, so I can do whatever I want and He will still forgive me!” and punctuated his doctrinal statement with more profanity and foul insults. He then left. Please pray that David would realize the ugliness of his rebellious heart and the true work of the cross. That David would understand what true repentance is and would be marvelously saved to the glory of God!
A group of young women, under the age of 21 signified by the stamps on their hands, approached us to take pictures. I asked them why they would objectify themselves and dress in such a way that encouraged men to think perverse things about them. There was so much activity among them that it was difficult to get a clear response. One girl’s boyfriend pulled up and called her into the car. I asked him why he would take his girlfriend to an event like the one going on at the Electric Cowboy. He replied, “She’s a hooker, how else is she going to get paid?” Surprised at his brazenness, I asked his girlfriend, “You let him talk to you like that?” The girl shrugged and said snidely, “I need to make money somehow.” She got in the car and they drove off.
Daniel, the man whom Joel gave the tracts returned and said he did it. Joel thanked him and asked if it was worth it going in the club. Daniel replied, “No.” Joel asked, “How do you feel?” “Pretty bad.” They had a long discussion, which ended in Daniel wanting to give Joel a call when he felt times got rough. Before Daniel left, Joel warned him that God isn’t a vending machine – you can’t just pray when you feel bad and you need him, and then leave him at the door when you want to go clubbing.
Throughout the night we had many discussions with people driving up and stopping to read the banners, or ask what we were doing.
From about 9:30 to midnight we made a stand against sin, lifted up Jesus Christ, testified of His work on the cross, preached the Good News and rebuked sin.
With all the spirituality of Tyler accompanied by all the hypocrisy and the apathy towards public events of lewdness and the wholesale rejection of repentance and trust in Jesus, I am just beginning to understand the grief in Jesus’ heart when he lamented over Jerusalem. With all her religion, all her history, all her people, all of her bloodshed and tradition leading people ever away from God.
I don’t think I’ll ever understand fully the grief of an infinite heart over the tragedy of sin, but I thank God for sharing His heart with me and I pray that he will continually use me in this city to exhort the Body of Christ on evangelism, and to reach the lost.
Leonard Ravenhill said of Tyler, Texas in a prayer that was recorded; “Lord, don’t let Tyler die in her sins because we haven’t lifted up a standard in Your Holy Name against it…” I pray we all catch that vision for own towns and cities.
Thank you all for your prayers!
May God bless you in all your endeavors for the Kingdom of God!