Evangelism needs to be de-mystified… Taylor Tsantles does just that by explaining how simple it can be especially when it is part of the natural life of hospitality that God calls Christians to live. In this session you will see picture of a natural, simple, relational and genuine personal evangelism can be - around the family table.

It's a blessing to be here with you, and I really wish my dad could be here too. God has worked an amazing transformation in the lives of our family. They're first generation Christians, saved a little bit later in life, and as many of you know, it's a slow and long process of sanctification, but God is merciful and we've seen his kind hand change so many things in the lives of our family. The area I want to speak to tonight is specifically in regard to evangelism and this is something at the heartbeat of my father that I witnessed for years and he passed on to my family now. I've got two little ones and my wife is back home, unfortunately.

But to witness my father live this out and now to see the Lord establishing this in our own home, This is what I want to talk about tonight. Evangelism and the power of the family table. My dad and I had an opportunity to speak on this together and it was much better with him in there. So anyway, you'll have to get the shortened version and it's just me. But the reformation we've been talking about here, the Reformation of the family really reaches so many different areas of our lives.

It's not isolated, it's not just education, it's not economics, any of these things we've talked about, it affects every area of our life. And one area that we've seen the effects of this pulling apart of the family is in evangelism, in admissions. We have men going forth, the one-man evangelist, forsaking his family often to fulfill his ministry. This is not the life that my father lived, And I'm grateful for that. We as a family were folded into the ministry of evangelism and that's what I want to talk to you about tonight.

I'm the oldest of nine in our family, seven of which are adopted. There's so many stories there, but we're a multiracial, colorful family and definitely didn't go unnoticed in public so it provided many opportunities for people to ask questions I'm sure many of you have just been asked questions by people because they see the size of your family or they see the children they wonder what's going on and My dad was always prepared to speak of the gospel because it was so dear to his heart I want you to turn if you have your Bibles turn to 1st Kings chapter 10 1st Kings chapter 10 and this really became our rallying cry This is the story that ignited our heart as a family, pulled it together around the idea of hospitality and evangelism, using the family table as a tool to reach the lost. That's what I pray God would give you in a short time, a vision for what he's ignited in our hearts through this text. Let's read 1 Kings 10 1 through 9. Now when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions.

She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels that bore spices, very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. So Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing so difficult for the king that he could not explain it to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord.

There was no more spirit in her. Then she said to the king, It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. However, I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes, and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard. Happy are your men, and happy are these your servants, who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom.

Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord has loved Israel forever, therefore He made you king to do justice in righteousness." So we're going to move through this very very quickly, but I encourage you go back with your families, read through this text, and really think through the implications of what God is trying to teach us here. This is probably the most vivid picture of hospitality in the Bible, one of the most vivid pictures of hospitality. The Queen comes with a large retinue, a large caravan from a faraway land. She's coming because she's heard of the famous Solomon concerning the Lord, and she's wondering what is this?

What is this? She comes with many questions. I want to focus first on the first three verses. The verses that address her coming, and Solomon answering her questions. What can we learn?

First thing, do people see and experience something different about our families that leaves them seeking answers. The Queen of Sheba, from however far away she was, heard something about Solomon's kingdom. Something went out from his home. It wasn't just what was in his home, it was what was coming out from his home that she heard and caused her to say, you know what, I need to go visit Solomon. I need to go see this kingdom.

I want to see if this is real. I have questions for him. So the first question I want to ask us is as we think about our families, are we training, discipling, cultivating love in our family in such a way that it would be heard of outside of our homes? It would be seen clearly and the lost would desire to come to us and ask questions. If we never receive that, we should ask ourselves, are we cultivating the kind of life that would cause the unbeliever to say, what is that?

I want to know about that. Secondly, this is the element of what I'm talking about tonight. Does the person seeking receive an invitation to your home? Are they welcome there? Are they welcome in your home?

Solomon welcomed the Queen of Sheba. She's not an Israelite. She's not a part of this kingdom but he welcomed her in and what did he do he answered all of her questions all of them are we making ourselves available are we opening up our homes and our resources to minister to those who do have questions. Secondly, this element of the wisdom that Solomon had in answering her questions. Wisdom we know is a gift from God.

Proverbs talks about the fear of the Lord being the beginning of wisdom. We've talked about that a lot today. And so I want to just drive that home in application again. Are we preparing our families? Are we filling our children, filling our own hearts with the Word of God and the wisdom that's necessary to answer the questions that the loss would bring to us?

If not, we're not fulfilling what the Word of God has called us to do, which is to be ready in season and out of season to give a defense for the hope that lies within us. Here's the manifestation of this. I'm sure you all have received these questions. We often get, you know, from the loss, you're out in public talking, maybe they get your child aside for just a second, you're over here, the child's over there, and they're saying, do your girls ever wear pants? What are you gonna wear for Halloween?

What college do you want to attend? What do you want to be when you grow up? Are you guys Mormon or Catholic having that many kids? These are the kind of questions that the lost will ask. And not to us Often, to our children.

Here's a question. All of these things that we're embracing, are you training your children in a way that they could give an answer to the lost? Not the blank stare. Mom, Dad, help. No, our children, we pray our children can testify to the work of God in our homes and that they would be prepared.

Are you filling them with the wisdom they need? Answer those difficult questions. Does your daughter know that answer to that question? What am I doing when I grow up? Does your son know how to answer what are you gonna be for Halloween?

These are the kind of things we can teach and prepare for beforehand to equip our family to be a blessing to the lost. It is powerful when the lost have an opportunity to see a child give this kind of answer from the Word of God. Equip your family. Equip your children to answer these difficult questions. Verse 4, and when the Queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his servants, the service of his waiters and their apparel, his cupbearers and his entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord, there was no spirit in her." It took her breath away.

It took her breath away to see, not Solomon, not just Solomon, this wasn't the one-man show, going back to our one-man evangelism. Nothing against going out and evangelizing like that, but this is not the picture we see here. What is she witnessing? There's the list. The food on his table.

The seating of his servants. The service of his waiters. The cupbearers. Entryway by which he went up to the house of the Lord. All of these things contributed to the picture that took her breath away.

So it's not just you, dads. It's not just us. It's not just you, mom. It's our homes as a whole. Our children.

Our service. Our dress. The way we carry ourselves. All of these things build and create a picture that either speak to the glory of the Gospel in our homes or detract from that? We must pray that God would help us in our weakness not to detract from the testimony of the Gospel.

Let me ask you this question. If someone were to come into your home, Would they see that kind of orderliness? Would they see the happiness? Would they find children and servants, the servants in the household working together? Would they find that?

Or would they see something completely different that would steal and take away from the potential to reach them with the Gospel, to communicate the Gospel. Verse 6, Then she said to the king, It was a true report which I heard in my own land about your words and your wisdom. However, I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes, and indeed the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity exceed the fame of which I heard. Happy are your men, and happy are these your servants who stand continually before you and hear your wisdom.

That's one of my favorite verses we'll get to in a second. But this betrays a little bit about her heart. She was doubting whether this was real or not. We talked about this earlier. And she came with hard questions to test Him.

She came with doubts. If you have the lost in your home, if you interact with the lost, you will experience this. People have doubts. You can go and you can preach the Gospel to somebody on the street, and you don't know the Word of God is powerful. The Word of God will not return void.

But you don't know what they're thinking in their mind. Do they want to see that validated? Have they seen that validated in your life? They don't know you. God uses that, but imagine the power of God using your home to testify that this is not just what we believe and speak of, this is what we're living out in our home.

Come see the testimony of that. Inviting the lost into our home allows them to witness the power and changing effect of the Gospel in our lives. She says, I did not believe the words until I came and saw with my own eyes. Think about that. Think about what that means for your home.

Think about what that means about opening our doors. God desires that we would open our doors and that people would be able to see and behold what they have just heard, only heard. Happy are your men and happy are these your servants. Living in Christian circles, operating together, coming to events like this, we all experience a lot of joy. There's a lot of joy in walking with brothers and sisters.

And we forget, we can often forget if we haven't come either from a difficult past or it's been a long time since the Lord redeemed us, what the life without Christ is like. We have happiness. I pray you have happiness if you have Christ. But the lost don't walk in this way. Sin leads to death and the road to death is marked with a lot of sadness.

It's marked with turmoil and pain. Galatians 6, 8, For he who sows to the flesh will reap corruption." And look at the contrast here. She witnesses the happiness. She sees the happiness of His men and His servants. Unbelievers should be perplexed by the joy that they find in our homes.

Is your home filled with not artificial joy, not artificial happiness, but only that which can come through the saving effect and the power of the Gospel? Is that what is communicated to the lost? Would they walk away saying, Happy are these children! Happy are these servants! This was a huge part of what affected the Queen of Sheba when she witnessed the work of God in the kingdom of Solomon.

Finally, the last verse, the result of all of this. She says, Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, setting you on the throne of Israel. Because the Lord has loved Israel, therefore He made you king to do justice and righteousness. All of these things, again, going back to this picture, these elements connecting together, the children, the service, the happiness, the men, the setting of the table, the entryway, all of these things, created a picture that took her breath away and ultimately ended in her exclaiming, Blessed be the Lord your God! Blessed be the Lord your God!

Oh, would God give us homes like this? The lost would come in. We would minister to them with such love, with such joy, that they could walk away seeing that and be dumbfounded, amazed, and say, blessed be the Lord your God who delighted in you. Finally, I want to close by bringing us to Matthew 12 39. Matthew 12 39 says, The queen of the south will rise up in judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.

Here's the reality. Christ is greater than Solomon. What does that mean for us? Colossians 1, 13 and 14. He has delivered us from the power, dominion of darkness, and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

Our homes, if they are filled with Christ, are a picture of this eternal Kingdom. It's greater than Solomon's physical Kingdom. It's greater than what Queen of Sheba saw with her eyes and witnessed. Now she received the wisdom of the Lord and she received things that God imparted to Solomon. But we, no matter how humble our homes are, no matter what we think we have and don't have, we have Christ.

And Christ is greater than Solomon. And He's conveyed us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love, and our homes ought to be pictures of this kingdom. Imagine the power of bringing a person like this, a lost person, into your home and having them experience a taste of the kingdom of light. A house filled with gladness, righteousness, peace, and joy. Romans 14-17, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

I don't have time to go into the stories of how God has done this in our lives, but I can tell you this. The Lord works in this way. We have welcomed so many unbelievers into our home as a family. And to see the effect of that has been astounding. It is so powerful because the testimony of our lives do speak loudly.

Christ came and is establishing a kingdom infinitely greater than Solomon's. Infinitely greater. Are you inviting people in your home to experience the beauty of Christ's kingdom? A few closing remarks. The lost are living in a world where they're filling their table with poison.

Proverbs talks about the lost. Their table is set with spoiled meats and poisoned water. God has set your table with something different. You have the bread and water of life. Invite the lost in your home to share with them the bread and water of life, to call them to partake of the bread and water of life.

This has been a rallying cry of our family for years now and as I said I've been so blessed to witness my dad's faithfulness in living this out and to see the effects that this has had on the loss. I wish I could share the stories with you. But I want you to just get this picture as I close. Imagine if the 30 or 50 families here would have 10 people in their homes this year. Do the math.

You know, we go out and we do this ministry and that ministry. Oftentimes, we forget and we neglect such basic things. Imagine the effect that that could have to invite ten people a year into the homes of all these families here. What could the Lord do through that? Go read 1 Kings 10 again with your family.

Pray that God would give you a vision. We called it Sheba time. That's what my dad called it. We had Sheba time. And before somebody came, we'd sit down, we'd have a pre-game analysis.

Let's talk about who's coming, how can we minister to them, what are the specific needs. Children, make sure you're serving, make sure you're asking what they need. And then we talk about it after. What a great way to integrate your family into evangelism. What a wonderful teaching opportunity.

They can see the effects of sin, they can see the loss, they can minister to them. You're discipling through this process. Restoring this family together in evangelism, like we talked about earlier. So would you join us, would you join just like Solomon in reforming your homes and our family tables into being a powerhouse tool for the spreading of the gospel. I pray God would accomplish that in our homes.

Thank you.