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EPISODE NOTES
Hey there! On this episode of Transforming the Church, Dr. Derwin L. Gray shares some powerful insights on evangelism.
He draws from his personal experience of encountering a man he refers to as the “naked preacher” and the profound impact this had on his faith journey. Through this encounter, Dr. Derwin L. Gray learned valuable lessons about the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in evangelism. He emphasizes the need to break down barriers and reach people from all backgrounds with the message of the Gospel.
From highlighting the importance of sharing the love and truth of Jesus to addressing the decline in marriage and fatherhood in relation to faith and the church, Dr. Gray’s perspective offers a fresh and relevant take on evangelism today.
If you’re a pastor, ministry leader, or evangelist seeking to understand and harness the power of the Holy Spirit in your evangelistic efforts, this episode is a must-listen. Dr. Gray’s personal anecdotes and practical insights make this conversation both relatable and impactful, providing valuable guidance for anyone looking to transform hearts and bring people to faith through the work of the Holy Spirit.
So, grab your headphones and get ready to be inspired!
In this episode, you will be able to:
- Uncover the secrets to breaking down barriers in evangelism and reaching others with the Gospel.
- Explore the unconventional and powerful lessons from the naked preacher that can transform your approach to evangelism.
- Tap into the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit and learn how it can revolutionize the way you share the Gospel.
- Learn how to effectively transform the church and the world with powerful and practical strategies.
SHOW TRANSCRIPTION
00:00:00- A Word From Outreach- Dr. Ed Stetzer
You know, it’s a changing world. And one of the things that help us understand the changing world is research. And so as churches have been struggling and families may be disconnected and sometimes drifting away from the church, we’re kind of dealing with some of the questions of where do we go from here? And the Communio nationwide survey on faith and relationships really kind of points to the family decline and how it relates to faith decline in the United States. Actually, the survey uses three key issues that are impacting our society today. Go to communio.org/study to download the nationwide study on faith and relationships.
Introduction:
Welcome to the Transforming the Church podcast hosted by Dr. Derwin L. Gray. We pray that through this podcast, you will be empowered to live on mission with Jesus and lead courageously.
00:00:45
Here’s your host, Dr. Derwin L. Gray.
I want to tell you a story. Now, you’re probably not going to believe this is a true story, and to be honest with you, I wouldn’t believe it’s a true story either, except for I was right in the middle of the story.
00:01:00
I want to tell you a story about the naked preacher. And specifically, I want to tell you five things the naked preacher taught me about evangelism. So in 1993, a dream came true. I was drafted by the Indianapolis Colts. I was the 92nd selection in the 1993 NFL draft.
00:01:22
My whole life up to that point, I’d worked to get to the NFL and boom, I see my name on ESPN, I get drafted by the Colts, and I think everything’s going to be great. Now, keep in mind, from a spiritual perspective, football, in essence, was my God. A god is anything where you find ultimate affirmation and love. Where you find identity, where you find significance, where you find mission. And football gave me all of those things. And so I would say I was a full-fledged idol of football.
00:01:52
And it worked well for me up to that point. So in 1993, I got drafted. I’m not playing a whole bunch. It’s a tough year. But my third year, though, I was a team captain, I was playing really well, and had some key plays throughout the season to help us get to the AFC championship game.
00:02:10
However, at the end of that year, I knew something was wrong. Existentially it just didn’t make sense. It didn’t make sense for me to have a beautiful wife, for me to be an NFL team captain, for me to be living out a dream and still not be happy. But not only to not be happy, but to have anxiety.
00:02:28
Meaning, who would I be when I couldn’t play in the NFL anymore, because the NFL stands for not for long. I didn’t know how to love my wife the way she deserved. I didn’t know how to forgive my father for not being involved in my life. I didn’t know how to even forgive myself. So I find myself just this existential wreck.
00:02:49
But here comes the naked preacher. Let’s go back in time. Two years, rookie year 1993. I’m in a locker room with the Indianapolis Colts, and I notice a guy on the team. Every day after practice, he’d take a shower, dry off, and wrap a towel around his waist.
00:03:06
Then he’d get his Bible. And this is a true story. He would then walk to my teammates and say, do you know Jesus? And he would go with his teeth, do you know Jesus? And in my mind, I’m going, brother, do you know you’re half naked?
00:03:21
So I asked the veterans on the team, what’s up with the half-naked black man walking around talking about, do you know Jesus? They said, don’t pay no attention to him. That’s the naked preacher. His real name was Steve Grant, but his nickname was the naked preacher. One day, rookie year, I’m sitting in a locker room at my locker, and I see six foot-two, 240 pounds of dark chocolate nakedness coming towards me with his Bible.
00:03:45
My first thought was, oh, man, here’s one of these religious guys. Don’t have time for it. So I turned my back, hoping that he wouldn’t bother me, and he did. And by the way, I’m grateful that he did. He said to me, he said, rookie D. Gray, do you know Jesus?
00:04:00
And like most people who don’t know Jesus, I said to him, well, I’m a good person. And he said, good compared to who? And then he lovingly just walked me through that. Our comparison is with God, and God Himself came in the person of Jesus. And no one is good that we’re all sinners.
00:04:18
We’re all separated from God. But because God loved us, He sent Jesus to live a sinless life. We couldn’t live to die our death on the cross, to forgive us and to rise again on the third day to give us new life and a new hope and a new heart, a new future. And so I’m listening to it, and it takes several years for this to take root. On August 2, 1997, five years from that conversation, I did come to know Christ.
00:04:44
I started getting injuries. I realized that football stands for not for long. The NFL stands for not for long. And so eventually, I came to know Christ. It was on August 2, 1997.
00:04:57
I remember right after lunchtime in training camp with the Colts, fifth year in the NFL, Anderson Indiana. Anderson College. I’m walking in my dorm room, and I’m just broken. And I get to my dorm room, and I call my wife on the phone. I say, sweetheart, I want to be more committed to you, and I want to be more committed to Jesus.
00:05:15
That was my born-again moment. That’s when the Gospel that the naked preacher has shared with me for multiple years, that’s when it just coalesced in this beautiful mystery. It hit me that I was loved, that I was forgiven, that the living God of the universe treasured me, not because of my 40 time, not how good I played in football. He looked at my game film of life, and I wasn’t good enough. That’s why Jesus became my good enough.
00:05:41
I was forgiven. For three nights, I just wept and I cried, thinking, how could someone like Jesus love someone like me? The reality is, Jesus only has people like you and me to love. For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So that’s how I came to faith.
00:06:06
But what I want to do is I want to share with you five things the naked preacher taught me about evangelism. Now, if you’re a pastor, ministry leader, or a person in church that just wants to reach people, there are five critical things. Or five ways of being that the naked preacher lived on mission. His real name was Steve Grant, but his nickname was the naked preacher. So first he was Christ centered. If we want to have explosive evangelism, it has to be Christ centered.
00:06:47
The naked preacher was captivated by Jesus and His Gospel. The man knew Jesus, and Jesus knew him with every fiber of His being. He wanted others to know and love Jesus. That’s what worship is. Mission is simply the overflow of worship.
