Street-preacher training on the streets of Los Angeles.

I don’t know. Yeah. Welcome back, friends. To the evolution of Craig For those of you that enjoin us last time. No, we are not talking about some stuffed monkey in the Smithsonian. We’re talking about our friend Craig Hill from Scotland, who was on a journey to share the gospel with others. And we saw what Craig did at the beginning. And then how that transition and what ended up happening when he came out here to California to join us for the Ambassador’s Academy, through which we intensively trained people over the course of three days to share the gospel. And guys have to admit, I’m still buzzing from that last episode. Yeah, watching Craig actually transition that involve I think it’s applicable because fear makes you bend over and what you have to do is eventually stand up, man and walk and talk. So it’s applicable. But yeah, it’s very exciting. Yeah, and it’s encouraging at the same time. In fact, I I remember in the other episode during one of the videos, you said this is so inspiring. Right and Mark talked about the inspiration of the academy and actually being around other believers who are sharing the Gospel. I’m actually surprised by its success. I’ll just be honest with you because people show up to become equipped and then they go out and do it, but that it doesn’t end right there. We get the emails come flooding in and say, Hey, this is what’s happening now inside of my church. This is where I am now co labouring with my pastor. I’m not just sitting in the pews. No, I’m a labour, and this is what the pastors want all along. Bring evangelism back to the local church. And that’s encouraging. Yeah, and that’s the exciting thing is hearing those stories. I mean, you think of how many people ended up starting evangelism, outreaches through their churches, people that have started actual groups and from those groups, groups have started. That’s the inspiration, as I think of Eddie Roman, right? The man who is producing this video now friends that you’re watching TV show a number of our movies. Uh, he heard about the academy and didn’t know anything about the ministry ended up coming, and not only does he lead teams through his church and teach people how to evangelise, but he’s producing this programme that’s now impacting others. So that’s encouraging. Now real quick. The two of you. Little highlights from the first time you open their preached. We talked another programme about the fear involved with that. But But what did you say? Do you remember a What were some of the things you said the first time you got up on the box? Well, I talked about Jesus and God no. Yes, I did. I I have no friends. No, it’s just a blur. Seriously, it’s plotted out. It’s like thousands of times and I haven’t got a clue. You wish you had it recorded, right? I do wish you had around. It will be interesting to hear myself stumbled through, uh, but the thing is, it’s tremendously satisfying to overcome your fears. I mean, that’s that’s it’s something about the human psyche when we it achieves something, accomplished something when a marathon or something like that or just finished a marathon is tremendously accomplishing. And that’s how it feels when you preach the gospel thought. Wow, this is the highest calling. Any human being can be. You always say Go out dragging your feet, come back clicking your heels it’s like that, not just open your preach, but with one on one evangelism. You know, I tell people all the time. Listen, you don’t have to say a thing. Come alongside and just watch how I do it. But I know the people that I take out and I say that that’s a good question. Hey, what do you think? Do you have anything for that? And away he goes, he gets provoked, The gospel gets provoked inside of us. When questions are asked when we have the opportunity to talk about our guard, it really is sink or swim. But we’ve got to remember that Jesus holds us by a hand. You know, the Peter walking on water is a picture of evangelism. You want to follow the Lord? You’re gonna think that you’ve got Jesus to take you by the hand must never forget The Holy Spirit is given to him Paris to be witnessing men. And speaking of that inspiration, you know, I remember taking our kids from the time they were young out with us on the streets to share the gospel. I remember one day Julia saying, You know, Dad, I want to do this. I want to try this on my own and we would go walking through our neighbourhood. Her and I. We did that regularly and she she would practise like let me try it, Let me try. And finally, the day came when she did it and she was over the moon. She’s like, I love this And from there she ended up starting to lead other young ladies as well. Well, friends, I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath. We’ve seen our friend. Craig’s journey started in Scotland, where he talked about how he had just started handing out tracts and he’d give him and run away. We transition to him coming out here to California and sitting under instruction. Then we went with him on the street, as he shared for the first time. Now we’re actually going to watch Craig stand up on a soapbox on Hollywood Boulevard and actually preached the gospel in the open air. You’re going to love this so Hollywood Boulevard. I know you’ve probably seen it on TV, and you think movie stars and stuff, but in reality, a lot of homeless people, a lot of gang members, it’s it’s kind of a shady spot. So yesterday was kind of beach. People hanging out. Just relax. Today, it’s going to, you know, it could be a little more intense as far as the kind of people you’re going to encounter. What’s going through you guys head right now, Some of you guys are going to be open air preaching for the very first time. You know what happens when you get a heckler? You know what is your first time on the box and all of a sudden, some guy gunning for you, What am I going to do? I don’t know. Whatever the case is, you know the goal is just to stay on track, get the gospel preached and, you know, let the Holy Spirit is job. One thing about preaching on the street it’s a lot quicker. So where if someone is used to doing Bible studies like in a home fellowship or even at a church there used to just going long and explaining things. But on the street people are just gonna give you their attention for a very short amount of time. They’re going to kind of size you up in 10 seconds and figure out whether there were you’re worth their time or not. If I can do it here, I think I’ve got more chance of doing that back home. Yeah, so that’s the goal. I’m glad it’s a place where there’s loads of people. So we’re here. We’re going to do that. When you get on that box. It is the last thing that I do. Yeah. Lord God, we just thank you so much for this opportunity to serve you. We thank you for the people here. We ask that you would just give our voice clarity and help us just to say the truth about your gospel Lord, we ask you these things in Jesus’ name. Amen. Alright, so here’s what’s gonna happen. OK, I’m gonna get up and preach, And then then you guys be ready because I’m basically gonna call you up next. All right? Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to welcome you here to Hollywood Boulevard. This is the home of the stars. Keep your cameras ready. This is a place where actors do their 9 to 5 job. Now. I spent most of my life as a professional photographer, professional videographer and one of the things you’ll notice about photography is that most of the time the person taking the picture isn’t seen within the picture. Unless it’s a selfie or something like that. You see, in the Art of Motion Picture. The one who’s making the movie isn’t in the movie now. So many people think you know what? I can’t see God. So I don’t believe in God. And that’s crazy. That’s just like saying, I’m watching a movie. But since I don’t see the director, I don’t believe anyone made this movie. Let me ask you something, my friend. What’s your name? Yeah. Yes. Your name is Gus. Gus. All right, Gus, what’s going to happen to you after you die? Where are you going to go? You’re going to heaven. If God was to judge you based on his commandments, would he find you innocent or guilty of breaking his lots? Why do you want punishment? I don’t want punishment. He doesn’t accept me. That’s all right. Yeah. OK. All right. Okay. The bible is clear enough to where you know that you need to turn from your sin. Put your faith in Jesus Christ, and then you’ll be saved from the punishment you deserve. Yeah. Mhm. Mhm. All right, man. You ready to do this? I’m going to do it anyway. Okay. Well, I’m just gonna do it. Alright, man. Just go for it. Yep. There it is. Right. Mhm. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Craig Hill and have flown all the way from Bonnie Scotland to share a quick message with you. I come from a country called Scotland. We have a national soccer team that are not very good. In fact, they’re extremely bad. We scored three goals in one game and realised it was going into her own net in the sporting arena. If you’re having a really bad game, then the manager has to make a decision. And the decision that he makes is called a substitution. And it’s like that in life. My life was like that. Also, I was doing life really badly. I had broken pretty much all of God’s commandments. The moral law. You may have heard of them. The 10 Commandments had broken pretty much all of them. And then someone taught me about someone who was the perfect substitute, someone who was willing to take my place whose name was Jesus Christ. And I flew all the way from Scotland to tell you this that if you do what the Bible tells you to do, which is repent and believe, submit yourself done to God. Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and enjoy your time. You will exalt you. And that’s the message of the free gift of salvation Today. Jesus Christ died on a bloody cross. He was in a real tomb and three days later he really was raised from the dead. Yeah, So what just happened? I don’t know. What happened had this real sense of I was looking at individuals. There’s something we learned in the academy. I wasn’t looking at a mass of people. I could look into the eyes of people who were stopping and listening, and it’s heartbreaking. Just doing that for the first time was the most frightening thing I’ve ever done in my life, I think, and when you do it again, it didn’t show it all. Didn’t you? Were you were great. I’ve heard that the first time isn’t the hardest time. It’s the second time because now that you’ve done it, yeah, and it’s That’s out of the way, you know? Now the issue is What? Will you do it again? Yeah. And when you go home and do it again and we will you will you keep doing it? Just something to think about? Absolutely. Man. Uh, no one would have guessed. That was your first time. You did? Very, very good. Thank you. Thank you so much. And Yeah, Thanks, man. Wow, I’m tearing up. I mean, how how beautiful was that? To hear him say that was the most frightening thing I’ve ever done. I’m going to do it again. I’m gonna do it again, right? I mean, come on. This is the fulfilment of your lifelong dream. Since you started this ministry, what were you thinking? As you saw that? Well, for years I have obeyed the command where Jesus had prayed to the Lord of the Harvest that could raise up labourers. And I’ve almost daily cried out to God raise up labor’s raise up labour. So it’s it’s tremendously fulfilling And to know that God is faithful to do that. I was not any amazed at Craig, but I was amazed at the production. Did you know that Eddie pulled out the background noise when he was preaching, so that was like a sense of intensity. You can almost feel his heart beat. I was I was empathising with him, and, uh and, uh, if I can say this, I just so so proud of him. Mark, I couldn’t believe that was his first time. I mean, he was so composed up their humour. He’s using humour. He’s, you know, listen, what you need to do is you need to become confident in the message because it’s not about you. God has used all types of vessels all throughout the history of the church, and you’d be confident with the message. You you make sure you know the life, death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ. That’s what you’re testing. Every testimony is going to include that. It’s not about what a terrible person I was and all these things that I did notice that the focus is Christ when you give your testimony. And he went up there and he highlighted, he shined a spotlight upon Jesus Christ, and that’s where our confidence comes from. He willfully and joyfully shared that, and people came within earshot to hear a message that could transform their hearts and minds. And then, you know, Ray, I often think of what Paul said about preaching, and this has always amazed me that he would use that kind of language. He talked about how God, through the foolishness of preaching, saves those who believe. Why would he use that kind of language? Foolishness of preaching? I mean, that almost sounds like a derogatory dig at preaching. But why? Why would he call it foolishness of preaching? Well, it’s very lowly. It’s very basic at someone standing up and preaching to crowds. But it’s what we’re saying that sounds foolish in the side of the world. We’re talking about Christ dying on the cross, which makes no sense until your understanding. Well, you have understanding. You violated God’s law. Someone paying a fine for me makes no sense. Unless I understood I transgressed the law just thinking about the pair of faith. We often forget that what he did was put faith in God in action. I tell you, something is going to make you smile because it’s so sort of silly sounding. But when I first met my wife, Sue were sitting having lunch. I didn’t even know if she liked me and she had agree. She’s she’s she’s a evolution of soon. But she had a minor health problems, very minor. And I said, You should eat oranges. It could help. That’s got vitamin C Next day in her lunch, there was an orange and that blew me away. I thought, She cares about me. She cares what I think. She trusts what I say. She has faith in me, and so love and faith go hand in hand. So when you get up and preach in the open air, what you’re doing is exercising trust in God. And the Bible says without faith is impossible to please him, which insinuates that with faith it is possible to please him. And I know that gave me pleasure to think someone had faith in me. And if I may say it makes God smiled. When we step out in faith, horrified that we are and trust him in this preaching. Amen. And you know, one of the things I loved about what Craig said was when he looked at that group of people, he didn’t see them as a group that’s one of the things I talk about my session compelled by compassion. When we’re looking at people realising they’re not a mass, we don’t just see people as a big blob. These are individuals who were created in the image of God and who are image bearers, you know. So that’s really important. OK, now we want to show you another clip. This is of Craig actually talking with Ray about his fear. And then there’s footage of me speaking at the graduation. Once it’s all over, you hear my words of encouragement to the group. Yeah, All right, so nice to meet you. Greetings from Scotland. And what’s your name? Craig Craig. Much, much experience sharing your faith. Well, before I came here, it was mainly just giving out tracts trying to engage in conversation. But I found that quite daunting. So why did you find a daughter? Fear of rejection, complete and utter fear. What if I don’t have the right thing to say? Came to the academy just to sort of try and get more confidence to help alleviate the fear. So we always have fear, but you learn to control the fear. Could you imagine if you went up to someone And they said to you I wanted to approach you with a gospel tract. But I was scared of you. Yeah. And you’d say quite a monster or something. What are you scared of? I’m not going to kill you. Yeah. And so when you tell someone that you’re able to give them a track, that would be mystified as to why? So we wrestle not against flesh and blood against spiritual. Just gotta resisted. Yeah. So did you preach up in here for the first time in my life today? This morning on a scale of fear. Where was that 1 to 10. 14, 14 off their arm. It was absolutely petrifying. I’ve had guys that have skydived, and they said it was easy to skydive. It wants to get up and you don’t pray for less fear. Pray for more love because love is So you’re going to do this again? Yeah, definitely. When you go back home. Well, that was the intention. I thought if I can do it here, if I can break the ice here and just got on that box, Stephen once, then I can do it at home. It’s going to have to be mechanical. You’re going to be resolute. You’re going to see your faces. Yeah, I’m gonna do this. Nothing is gonna stop me and you’ll never regret it. When you lay your head on your pillow at night I preach the everlasting gospel I had the choice. Even my feet are beautiful According to Scripture, I can’t even begin to put into words how overjoyed I am By what I know the Lord is going to do in and through your lives. You’re going to have a decision to make. I love what Ray always says. Courage is not the absence of fear. It’s the conquering of it. Maybe you’re like me. You’re doing life. You’ve done life really badly. You’ve been sending. You’ve been breaking all the commandments of the Bible, says it’s not works of righteousness. But it’s according to his mercy that you saved us because sometimes we think that we have to be fearless in order to preach the gospel. It’s not what it’s about, Guys, listen, it’s about determining to press on because we have fears. But the thing that’s going to cause you to step over the line is something that’s greater than that fear. And it’s that desperation, desperation for what? Desperation to see lost soul. Save desperation, to see God glorified desperation, to see people who are blind given site. And you can fill that space in with any word when compassion exceeds our fears. When love exceeds our fears, progress begins. Evangelism should be an outflow from a heart that is in love with the Saviour. If your prayer is simply, God help me to want to proclaim the Gospel, strengthen me, stir my soul, then that’s great Every time you fall, every time you’re discouraged, every time you feel like you blew it, get back up and keep going. Let us not grow weary while doing good for in due season. We shall reap if we do not lose heart, and your success is not based on how people respond. It’s not based on how you feel. It’s not based on the outcome. It’s based on obeying the Lord. I thank God for every one of you here, and I’m just so grateful for the time and the resources that you have sacrifice in order to be with us, and we want you to know that at living waters. This isn’t the end of the journey. Yeah, my heart is smiling right now. You know, I’m overjoyed by seeing where Craig started and where it ended up, at least on this part of the journey when he was here with us. So a big part of what we heard in this episode, and that we often repeat to people, is that it’s not the first time, right? It’s the second time of getting up on the box. How would you encourage others to do that? To press through, to to not deal with that first talk about the dynamics of the second time, What we mean by that? And then how do you get past it? Well, the greatest expression of love that you and I can show for another human being is to share the gospel with them. There’s no greater expression of love, and so the motive, the preaching, the gospel is for the good of humanity. And it doesn’t stop with you just because you’ve appeased your conscience. I can go home now and speak. I don’t feel guilty anymore. That’s not the issue. The issue is that people are going to hell and we care about them. We love them, and love will continue to provoke and take opportunity whenever it comes or make opportunity whenever it comes. Uh, you know, I think of the second time that I opened her preached. It actually was easier for me. Now bear in mind. Some time had gone by. It was during that same year, but we were at the third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, and Ray had to leave early on that Friday night because he had a speaking engagement on that Saturday morning. Maybe it was a men’s per breakfast or something, but he had gathered a huge crowd. And then there was an individual that stood up to start to answer questions and engage. And I’m thinking I can give a better answer than that. I look, if this person can do it, I can do it. And I was provoked because I saw somebody else doing it. And then I got up there and I just started to preach. What I what? I knew the little knowledge that I had, and that was boy a long time ago that was 1990 for the second time that I had opened her preached same years, the first year, and a lot of time has gone by since then. You know, Mark, I think of the evolution in your life, right? I mean, that’s where you started. You talked about some of the things there, but then to think of you at Berkeley, I remember seeing you at Berkeley, right, One of the most liberal, godless universities on the planet. And I remember watching you interact with people, and I couldn’t help but think, man, how Mark has grown. We grow right. As we continue, we get sharpened more and more. And and that’s the important thing to keep in mind that we can’t quit. But that’s such a good point. When you think of how we grow physically, we grow through bruising, right? You know, you get up, you crawl and then you fall over and you learn what to do and what not to do. And the bruising can be a teacher, so expect to be bruised every now and then because it’s going to cause you a great men perseverance. And speaking of perseverance, friends, now we want to see Did Craig continued to press on when he got back home to Scotland. He didn’t just come out here to do some kind of recreational activity, have some fun, let a little guilt off his chest. He came to become equipped so that he can continue to proclaim the Gospel. So let’s see what happened when he went back to Scotland. I’ve returned from the academy. That was that in June, which was a tremendous time. And it’s now time to bring it back home to my hometown, which is a Saturday afternoon in every in Scotland, an absolute miracle of miracles. The sun is shining and as a blue sky So we’re going to do what we can while the sun’s out. Guns. We’ve got some questionnaires. We’ve got a good person test, and we’re hopefully going to get up on the step and do some open air preaching and see what what God wants to do. Yeah, so let’s see if you can pack up somebody with the good person test. Are you a good person? You pointing? Oh, that came up. That came up? No, there. No, you’re not. Okay. Well, let’s try the girlfriend, then. Uh, so obviously you’re not like if I took you through some of the commandments. Would you be honest enough to give me? Give me your answer on that. Have you ever told a lie? So based on the commandments, Not in my opinion, but just based on that. What does that make you correct? You ever stolen in? Yes. Okay. So what does that make you? That means we are OK and normal court of law. You would be guilty, would be punished. You’ve admitted your son. You’ve admitted you’ve broken God’s law. As have I. But that’s what God did for you, Michael. God sent his son in your place. You need to turn around. You need to put your faith in Christ. You need to say God, be merciful. Forgive me. Okay? It’s time for the optical illusion. Which one’s the biggest? Look at that. We wish was the largest one. Which one? That one. Okay. Which one’s the biggest? Is that it? Which one’s the biggest now? Why don’t I put them together about the same size? Why should we’ll show you what? It’s an optical illusion. Okay, so don’t always trust everything that you see in here. All right, There’s card one and card to Would you do me a favour and read this? When you get a chance, you can keep them throughout the day today we have been engaged in 1 to 1, which has been great. We’ve spoken to atheists we’ve spoken to probably agnostics. We’ve spoken to people who said they were believers. That turned out they weren’t so It’s been good. Um, and we’re going to finish today by getting up on the box. Only it won’t be a box. That will be a step over there. So this is something that fills me with utter dread, fear and trembling. I’m going to be obedient to God’s word, and I’m going to proclaim God’s word publicly. So here we go. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Craig. I just want to share a couple of minutes message with you. Somebody once said, and they said it well, that there’s only two things that are sure in life. Death and taxes. 100% of people die, which asked a big question. And I asked us when I was 20 years old. What happens when the lights go out? I think once I got started, it was almost like the momentum began and you just kept going. I got hair colour on the way by some chap walked past and shouted something at me. You know what kind of threw me for a couple of seconds? But you just keep going. We walk through life and we play the game pretty badly. We live for ourselves. The Bible says that he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ. Jesus, maybe, I don’t know. 30 40 50 people walked past there, and that’s maybe more than some churches getting a year. So we’ve just got to be aware of that. People are not coming into church of their own accord. We’ve got to go out to where they are and then pray that God saves them and brings them in. So it’s a privilege and an honour. Um, to do this. It’s the Lord’s work. It’s nerve racking. The fear doesn’t go away, contrary to some beliefs, but just you just gotta do it. It’s that old adage. Let compassion swallow your fear and go and preach the gospel to every creature. Thanks for listening and thanks for not throwing things at me. Thanks for not throwing things at. You know, if if I could title this episode with with one specific title would be You’ve just got to do it. Those were some of the last words of Craig on there. You’ve just got to do it. Do it. Yeah. And Ray, how beautiful was that to see that evolution, like I mentioned at the beginning of the programme from beginning to end. Well, you can see his confidence building talking to complete strangers shaking the hand. No problem using the tracks, etcetera. So you do grow and you you do overcome your fears. Yeah, and that seed that was planted here in him is now sprouting in Scotland. You heard him say about 50 people walk by. They got the gospel. Well, you got about the same size crowd that I got when I preached in Glasgow. It was kind of hard, but God bless him for his persistence. But it could have been that that Spurgeon walking by could have been that John Knox walking Mark spent for that money. And of course I mean, God can do it, and this is it’s just excites us you know, I mean, because we’ve been on the back end now for years as a part of this ministry building this vision and to see it bearing fruit like that to think Eddie came, he was trained, and now he trained him. And now he’s there. And that’s the multiplication process. So, France, we hope you see our joint excitement. We want you to share in it, check out the academy, go to our website and see what it’s all about. We would love you to join us for one of those, because then you can experience the joy of being an instrument in the hand of God is the greatest thing in the world. Thanks for joining us the way the master, we look forward to seeing you next time. We hope this episode of Wave the Master has inspired you to share the message of eternal life. You can watch our award winning movies such as the Atheist Delusion freely on our website, where you’ll also find articles, videos and audio messages, as well as books, DVDs, gospel tracts and other resources to help you share your faith biblically and effectively. Make sure to visit living waters dot com today