Is it possible to be a successful evangelist without ever leading someone in “the prayer” to receive Christ? Can you be an effective ambassador for Christ without “closing the deal?” Greg encourages Christians not to underestimate the importance of sowing seeds of truth in a person’s life.

Transcript

Now I’m going to tell you something that’s gonna really shock you. I have not prayed with someone to receive Christ in over 30 years. What a loser. What have I been doing for all that time? I’ve been—what? Gardening, and I want to tell you something, by the way.

You ever hear of a guy named J. Warner Wallace? Cold-case detective? Torrance P.D.? Never lost a case? Atheist? Hardcore atheist? Never lost a case that went to trial. He was a great detective. Four of his cases were on TV. He was that good. And then he started using his detective skills to examine the Gospels as eyewitness testimonies, and he was so compelled by what he found, he left his atheism behind and became a follower of Christ, and then he wrote a book called Cold Case Christianity, which is a best-selling apologetics book. And then he wrote another one called God’s Crime Scene, which is a best-selling book. And then he wrote another one called Forensic Faith, also doing really well. Jim Wallace was in my garden. He was listening to my show when he was still an atheist.

You ever hear of a guy named Abdu Murray? Former Muslim, now Christian? Became a speaker with Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, and now he’s the executive vice president? Abdu Murray was in my garden. He was listening to my show when he was still a Muslim.

Now, I’m not trying to draw attention to me. I’m trying to help you to see a dynamic. Because I’m gardening, I didn’t pray with these guys to receive Christ. You know what happened? Somebody went into my garden. And they harvested my fruit. Get out of my garden! Is that my attitude? No. Do I care? No. Jesus says in John chapter 4, “So that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together.”

We’re all on the same team. We do different things. I think, frankly, that there are probably a whole lot more gardeners on the team than there are harvesters because the harvesting is easy when the gardening is done properly. And most of our gardeners are sitting on the bench because all they have at their disposal is a harvesting tool. And consequently, if we don’t garden properly, the harvest is not going to be as good.