Burbank Media Center Follow-up 10-20-12

 We had an AMAZING night in Burbank the past Saturday. Its funny because sometimes when you think "well its kind of rainy out, I'm tired..."

or whatever excuse you might have for thinking nothing will happen

the Lord draws many to hear the words of eternal life.

Mark started off the night doing a great job preaching. He only managed to offend one lady who walked by and cursed Mark under her breath asking "Is this legal?"  Also a street performer who was a talented violinist and upset that we didn't let him know we were going to start preaching. We graciously let him know thats the way it is ON THE STREET!

 Elder Bob always does a great job explaining the gospel.

 I had a LONG conversation with Dustin, who was following the teachings of a swami from India. He denied almost every doctrine of scripture while claiming he was a Christian. He also lead worship in a church for 15 years. I shared the gospel and gently confronted him on the fact that he has created a "Jesus in his own mind."

Want to hear something WEIRD? The next day my son and I went on a hike to a place we have never been before and as we were walking up the trail guess who was walking down it? You got it... DUSTIN! Even he was shocked. Whats also weird is that he had never been there as well! Its as if a sovereign God is controlling all things for His good pleasure and our good. I gave Dustin my contact info and invited him to church. 

 Sharon faithfully pleading with someone.

 While I started to preach a young guy named Jack came up to the heckler mic. He was a new Christian and thought that "Jesus would have never used this approach." Also that Jesus didn't talk about judgment and hell that much.

 I tried to explain to him that when you go to a jewelry store, the jeweler puts down piece of black velvet before displaying the brilliance of the diamond. Until men understand their own BLACK HEART they will never appreciate the DIAMOND of the person of JESUS CHRIST!

 James was walking by and I pointed to him and said that he needs to be born again. Which started great interaction which lead to him coming up to the heckler mic. He was a sceptic with many miss understandings about why we need a Savior, Hell and the judgment of God.

 After about 15 minutes the crowd started getting bigger.

 There was a point while we debated that I was getting sidetracked and I heard Steve yell "PREACH THE WORD BROTHER!" This is something we all agreed upon as a team. If we hear someone on the box start "wrangling" and NOT getting the gospel out we'll yell something like Steve did to keep the focus on GOSPEL PROCLAMATION.

James didn't understand why hell was forever because "we send people to jail to punish them and REHABILITATE them." 

In hindsight what came to my mind is that the legal system should be designed to REFLECT the holiness and justice of God. Prison shouldn't be designed to rehabilitate criminals but to PUNISH criminals. Because we think we can rehabilitate unregenerate hearts we prefer criminals over law abiding citizens and thus we send a perverted message to the culture about GOD's justice and punishments. This is why the Lord would rebuke unjust judges in the Old Testament. INJUSTICE or NON-JUSTICE perverts our perception of God. We think we can sin and get away with it or that God is being "harsh" by damning men.

No wonder James doesn't understand why hell is forever or why wee need a Savior.

What I've learned through many conversations with people is that ultimately we have a LOW view of God and a HIGH view of ourselves. This is corrected with scripture.

 It ended well; he heard the good news and shook my hand.

Steve got up right after me and LAID DOWN the gospel with clarity. Several people stayed through his whole presentation. We left rejoicing in the opportunity the Lord presented!!