David J. Decker on Spreading the Gospel

SPEAKER 01 : 0:00

Well, hey, it’s Mike Trim with Crawford Media Group. Today we’re joined by David J. Decker. David is the author of a book, author of several books, in fact, and one is How to Go to the Super Bowl for Free and Other Success Secrets from the Victory Playbook. Dave, thanks for taking the time with us.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:17

Yes, Mike, it’s so good to be back again. I sure enjoyed our conversation last time.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:22

We did as well. And we loved, you know, the fact that while the book has some critical concepts and secrets and a lot they’re going to share with us today, it’s really about your faith in Jesus that is kind of the end result. Tell us about that.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:38

Oh, yes. You know, the whole point of the book, Mike, is to really have a way to get to and then give the gospel. As you can imagine, lost folks are just not giving thought to spiritual matters or they wouldn’t be lost. And so we need to gain the attention of someone who doesn’t give thought to spiritual matters and gain their attention and gain their trust and then get to the gospel. And so that’s what this book is really attempting to do. And Mike, you know, we were talking last time and we talked about how this is the era of the everyday believer. We need to have folks like you and me and our listeners going out and sharing the gospel, because look what’s happening to our churches. Church attendance is down, and our mainstream denominations are suffering. And, you know, when we were talking last, Mike, maybe it was all kind of theoretical. But since you and I talked just a few weeks ago, look what’s happened. Charlie Kirk has been assassinated. Even Votie Bauckham has passed away before that. John MacArthur has passed away. And so what we’re seeing is we’re losing generational voices that are just irreplaceable. And so what do we do in the face of this loss? It is just increasingly incumbent for the everyday believer to to step up and with boldness and courage, share their faith with their friends, their family, their coworker, the neighbor, whoever it is that the Lord has put on your heart. We need to share like never before. So that’s what I really wanted to address today. How can we take our listeners and Mike, I’ve had over a hundred classroom sessions and how to share the gospel. And as much as that was a blessing, I need for our listeners to be ready to share their faith at the end of this broadcast. So not next month or next week or when we finish a training class, but in about 20 minutes from now. So boy, we’ve got a hill to climb here. So I just want to dive in and start talking about some of the particulars. As I said, I’ve had 100 classroom sessions in How to Share the Gospel, and yet there were two topics that I never heard mentioned that I think are so important And the first one is, what do I do about my nerves? And the second one is, what do I do about satanic opposition? And boy, if we start to think about that Satan might be opposed to what we’re doing, well, that makes me more nervous. So I want to direct our attention to Joshua 1.9. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go. What a powerful verse. And I want to say and just point out and remind our listeners that while the Lord was with Joshua, the Lord is in you and I. If we’re a believer, we have the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit of God. And Mike, I can’t hold my arms far enough apart, nor are there words in human language to describe the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And I think the reason why I need to emphasize this is we don’t get to see the Spirit in full force until we’re in the center of God’s will. And we’ve never been more in the center of God’s will when we’re sharing our faith. Because what did God say to us? Did he leave it a mystery as to what his will was? No. He says it’s his will that none should perish. And so he’s equipped us. the indwelling power of the holy spirit of god and then he’s commanded us to go into all the world and preach the gospel so we can go forward with boldness but here’s the practical reality mike you know here i’ve got this verse in joshua that says have i not commanded you be strong and courageous and i hear that and i want to be strong and courageous but the fact is i still have these butterflies so what do we do with this mike i want to compare just for a second the difference between the hero and the coward because they both are afraid, Mike, but it’s the hero that moves forward anyway. And how many times, Mike, how many times has it been that you had to count me as a coward because I didn’t open my mouth when I should have. Mike, I’m just the guy with the log in his eye. How many times did I allow the cares of the day, I was laser-like focused on the cares of the day, and I missed an opportunity and I didn’t even realize The opportunity was missed until after it was gone. So, Mike, all I can say is that aren’t you glad that God’s mercies are new every morning? And whether yesterday was a day of victory or if it was something less, God’s mercies are new every morning. And all that was covered at the cross. But we want to move forward with boldness. So what do I do about these butterflies that I’m having? Well, I have a remedy for that. that I want to share with our listeners. And I think it’s just a little unusual. So I want to caution everyone. There’s nothing wrong with your technology. The signal isn’t breaking up. But I want to say to you, if you’re a little nervous, here’s what I think you should do. Pray and thank God that you’re nervous. Now, let me just say that again, because it might sound confusing. Like, what did he say? No, pray and thank God that you’re nervous, because here’s why. Let’s look at characteristics of the nervous evangelist. The nervous evangelist will rely on the Holy Spirit because he thinks he has no power. And the nervous evangelist will rely on the scriptures because he thinks his own words have no authority. And the nervous evangelist will listen to instruction and he will fervently pray. And so in other words, God is using your nerves to maneuver you into a place where he can finally use you. And Mike, last time when we were talking, We talked about the bold and the brave and the beautiful. There’s those folks out there that they’ve got the charisma and the charm and boy, Mike, that’s not me. And I don’t think that’s probably most of our listeners and those folks, they have the charisma and the car and the charm, and they can be very direct without being confrontational and they have special gifting and praise the Lord for that. But I want to caution you before we’re envious of anyone that has these attributes. I’ve also seen the dark side of the bold and the brave and the beautiful, because sometimes these folks are so overconfident that they’re relying on their own human strength now instead of the Holy Spirit. They’re relying on their own intellectual arguments instead of the Scriptures. And I don’t know if they’re praying, but they’re almost impossible to teach. So these folks are sometimes ineffective because of their boldness and their overconfidence. They’re ineffective. Listener, if you’re feeling a little nervous, that’s completely normal. I thank God for you. Don’t be worried about your nervousness. There’s nothing wrong with you. I’m almost worried there’s something wrong with you if you’re not a little nervous. So you’re nervous, but you can go anyway, and I know you can because I have, and you will, and we’ll praise God for it. I just want to take a moment to manage our expectations here, Mike, because How did it go the first time you ever tried, say, cooking a meal or riding a bicycle or playing a new sport or playing a musical instrument for the first time? How did that go? How did that sound? See, it may not have come off all that smoothly. And Mike, you know, we have to talk about it. If we go out, nobody likes to have an awkward conversation. No one likes to appear foolish. And I just want to caution people, if you go out and you talk to someone, and that conversation doesn’t go well and it’s a little awkward and you even cross over to being appearing foolish. Well, that’s going to be on the six o’clock news. I mean, it is, it’s going to be on the six o’clock news. It’s going to be all over social media and it’s going to go viral and everybody’s going to know about it or maybe not. I mean, Mike, we just need to get over ourselves a little bit. You know, there are two liberating things that can happen to you in a lifetime. The first one is to be saved. The second one is to realize your life isn’t all that important. Really, my life isn’t so important, Mike. My wife’s life, my kids’ life, they’re important. Even my employees and the tenants in my apartments, Mike, their lives are important. But my life, not so much. So if I go to talk to somebody and I appear a little foolish, well, it was probably going to happen sooner or later anyway. So why not just get it over with? But that’s a little bit of insight, Mike. on how we might handle our nerves. So I want to set that aside for a moment and go on to talking about satanic opposition. And that’s real and is not talked about often enough. And when we’re involved in evangelism, Mike, that’s frontline combat duty. And it’s unfair to send people into the firing line without warning them that the enemy might shoot back. So I want to take a moment to just analyze this and look at this for a moment. And I’m going to direct our attention to Job 1.7. And in this passage, God’s inquiring of Satan, hey, you know, where’d you come from? Satan answered the Lord and said, from going to and fro on the earth and from walking up and down on it. So this is the picture of somebody who is combing through the earth and looking to do no good. But look carefully at the details. First, Satan was to, then he was fro, then he was up Then he was down. And when he was two, he wasn’t fro. And when he was up, he wasn’t down. In other words, God just tricked Satan into admitting that he’s not omnipresent. So we have an entity and Satan, Satan is a created being that for perhaps purposes that only God understands, he’s given limited dominion for a place in time in our lives at this point. Ultimately, he’s working in a world owned and controlled by God. And we should never lose sight of that. So let’s look at some additional scriptures. We have an enemy who is not omnipresent, but he is also described for us in 1 Peter 5.8. Let’s look at that for a second. Be sober-minded. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. So this is intimidating. Boy, this is concerning. You know, we’re comparing Satan to the most vicious land predator that we can practically think of. But again, I want to drill down into the details here for a minute, Mike. The roaring lion. You know, the lion isn’t as dangerous to us when he’s roaring. When he’s roaring, he’s trying to stake out his territory. He’s trying to announce to the other animals in the animal kingdom, this is my territory. This is my place. This is where I control. So that is what Satan wishes to do. He wishes to supplant God. He wants to be worshiped like God. He wants to be in control like God. And we have to admit that there are places geographically in our country and in our culture where Satan does seem to rule. But in the meantime, the heavens declare and the rocks cry out the glory of God. This is a world owned and controlled by God where Satan has limited authority and control that’s why i want us to embrace that and understand that it’s not when the lion is roaring that he’s dangerous the roar of the lion is the mocking and the accusing when like we’ve all we’ve all fallen again into that sin habit and then satan’s voice says see you’re no good god can’t use you and that is just a lie because we know david was a murderer paul was too Moses was a murderer and God used these wonderful men. So we know that we’re all that God has. You know, we’re not perfect. You don’t have to be perfect. No one is perfect. So do not be intimidated by the roar of the lion. But we need to talk for a minute about the lion when she’s hunting. And it is the female lion that does most of the hunting. So I’m going to use female pronouns here, Mike. so that we can accurately describe the condition. So when the lion is ready to hunt because she’s hungry, does she spy out the herd of antelope and then just take off running and expecting to get lunch? That’s not what she does because she lacks the power, the stamina, and the strength to take down her lunch that way. So instead, she will approach that herd by stealth and cunning, even staying downwind from the herd so her scent does not betray her. She will try to draw close. And then once she’s close, will she spot out the biggest, juiciest antelope in the middle of the herd? No, she’s going to go after the juvenile animal that has wandered off from at the perimeter, wandered off from the herd or the injured animal that’s more vulnerable. And so right away, Mike, now we’re starting to cross over into application. So one of the lessons here is don’t wander away from the herd. Now, who’s the herd? Well, the herd is the church. And we were meant to be in church, Mike. And I know that so long as people run churches, there’s going to be times when people get frustrated or burnt out or even hurt by the churches. And I know, Mike, because it’s happened to me too. But Mike, guess where I’m going to be this Sunday? I’m going to be back in church. And we need our listeners to be in church. As wonderful as a broadcast like this is, this is no substitute for being in church. That is our primary place for encouragement and protection. And so it’s important that we be in church. It’s important that we add to the ministry and to the mentoring and the example. It’s important that our voice be added to the chorus of prayers that are going out for the afflicted, knowing that one day you and I may be among the afflicted and the subject of those prayers. So we need to be back in church and where we can be protected. And now I want to call our attention to Ephesians chapter 6, where it talks about putting on the whole armor of God. And boy, Mike, if we had more time, we’d really dig into this and look at all the pieces of the armor and how they protect you. But my favorite part of the armor is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. It’s the only part of the armor which is offensive in nature. And sometimes a good offense is a good defense, because when you’re sharing your faith, it’s like you’re swinging your sword around like Zorro. And who wants to take on an adversary like that? So I think that the devil will take out those Christians that are easy prey, just like we talked about. That’s the way the lion hunts. We’re vulnerable when we wander away from the church, when we wander off on our own. Church or ministry was not meant to be a lone ranger project. It is a team sport, Mike. So stay in church. Keep your armor on and be protected. We are engaged in a spiritual battle. And so I want our listeners to know their nervousness is normal, that they can go with courage anyway, and they can be protected from the wiles of the devil. So we have prepared our listeners, Mike, to be ready to go. And so now I want to start talking about the nuts and bolts of what do I do? I’m ready to go. What do I say? How do I do this? And Mike, I wrote an entire book to address this topic, you know, the how to go to the Super Bowl for free and all the success secrets from the Victory Playbook. Mike, I’m all in favor of people memorizing the scriptures. Thy word has I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you. But to be memorizing a scripture and being able to give it under pressure in a live circumstance can be hard. And so I have written this book. is a way of getting to and then giving the gospel. We’re trying to gain people’s attention by a subject that is interesting to people on a scale that is second only to Christmas. And so more people watch the Super Bowl than any other shared activity outside of Christmas. So we have a topic of wide interest to the population. So we can gain people’s attention, and then once we have it, All throughout the book, there is scripture shared there. So we can start to get people that perhaps don’t know the Lord used to the idea that scripture and the Bible is something that doesn’t apply just for an hour on Sunday, but it’s something that is 24 seven that applies to all our circumstances all the time. And then we get to the chapter called in the red zone where the gospel is presented with truth and power and clarity, but also in an entertaining, entertaining fashion. Because we want to hold the attention of our listeners and our readers in this microwave society where our attention spans are so short. So that was the reason why I wrote this book. But in fairness to our listeners, Mike, we want them to be equipped right now so they can go and get the book. It’s available wherever books are sold. It’s on my website at davidjdecker.com. But it’s going to take a few days for the book to get there. And remember, about five minutes from now, we need our listeners to turn off this broadcast and call that friend, visit that neighbor, go talk to that colleague or coworker about their faith. We want people to be equipped right now. So we’ve got to do that. We’ve got to embark on that. And so here’s my idea that I want to share with our listeners. Go to church. get some of those Bible tracks that you have in the track rack. And I’m going to start calling them Bible tracks because that’s Christian lingo, and we’re going to call them information pamphlets from now on. So you get some of those pamphlets, and you get acquainted with them. I remember, Mike, I was in a training class, and there was a woman there who, and this training class is heavy on memorization and is very challenging. there was a woman there who was trying her best and she was very bright but she was also a brain cancer survivor and so she her brain had just been damaged to a point where she was having trouble with the memorization so we came up with a solution for her and that was to let her drop out of the class i thought this is terrible this is not the solution all she needed to do was to get a handful of tracks and if she needed to she could go through those tracks and i’m violating my own principles here. We’re going to call them pamphlets. She can go through those pamphlets and highlight if she needs to or underline and she can do that with a stack of them. So she’s ready to go. And if you do that, if you’ve got a stack of those tracks, whether you’ve highlighted them or just become acquainted with them, you’ve got the pamphlets that you need and you can go and share right now and you keep a supply of those with you so that you’re ready to go. Let me give you an example. of what this might look like. Mike, you can start at my house. You can start walking in any direction you want to and within a reasonable walking distance. I have shared one of those information pamphlets with every house within a reasonable walking distance. So how did I do that? Did I just go and stuff those pamphlets in people’s newspaper boxes? I mean, do people even have newspaper boxes anymore? Let me tell you, You can’t put the pamphlets in the mailbox because that’s actually property of the U.S. Postal Service and you can’t put anything in there that doesn’t have a stamp on it. So be careful. But what I did, Mike, is I went to the door. I rang the bell. I said, excuse me, sir. Pardon me, ma’am. But here’s an important piece of information about where you might spend eternity. And that’s a conversation, Mike, that went so well. that when it was over, I had my kids with me, and all these people gave my kids a piece of candy. And so I’m like, I don’t know if you’re connecting the dots, but I did this on Halloween. And right away, now we’re skating out onto some thin ice because not all believers, a lot of people do not appreciate Halloween at all. And so I want to say, first of all, my apologies if I have offended any of our listeners. I do not want to do that. But at the same time, I’m going to say that if there’s one day that’s set aside for pagan practices, well, then I say we take our gospel stick and we poke Satan in the eye with that gospel stick and we take that day back. And so I went on Halloween. And now, Mike, you know, it was a couple of years there that I went. And now my kids are a little bit too old for Halloween anymore, for trick or treat anymore. So instead, we have the house lit up. We have the lights on and we have the decorations out and there’s nothing creepy or weird music playing or, you know, junk hanging from the trees. No, it’s a warm, inviting environment. We want people to, those kids to know we’re open for business. Everyone who comes by gets a wonderful treat and one of those information pamphlets. So we’re still participating in Halloween, Mike, because it’s an opportunity to get the gospel out. But I want to say, If I have offended the listener, I’m not telling you you have to participate in Halloween, but I am telling you, God has you in your neighborhood for a reason. So you need to find a way. So you can order my book, or you can get a hold of some of those tracks. But our time is growing short, Mike. And it’s time for people to listen to the end of this broadcast and then turn it off and pick up the phone or go walk over to that colleague. or to check in with a neighbor, whoever it is that the Lord has placed on your heart, it’s time. It’s time to go now.

SPEAKER 01 : 23:16

David J. Decker, if they want to contact you, Dave, is that doable? How do you like to route things if somebody says, man, I have a question, or I could just use a little encouragement?

SPEAKER 02 : 23:28

You know what you can do? You can reach me at saved at davidjdecker.com. I put an invitation in the book. that if somebody was saved from reading the book, please reach out. I want to pray for you. I want to encourage you. Whatever your needs are, we’ll keep that confidential. I will never embarrass you. Reach me at saved at davidjdecker.com.

SPEAKER 01 : 23:50

So good. And the book’s through davidjdecker.com. Do that and set Amazon. That’s what we want people to do, right?

SPEAKER 02 : 23:57

Right. Or, you know, Google search my name, Google search the book title, How to Go to the Super Bowl for Free. And other success secrets from the Victory Playbook, Google search my name, Google search the title. I’m not hard to find. Hey, the telemarketers are getting through, Mike. No one will have trouble finding me or reaching me.

SPEAKER 01 : 24:15

He’s very findable. Or they can contact us here at the station, too. We’re happy to help at any time, 303-481-1800. We’ll get you connected with David. So, David, you’re giving us practical ways to kind of fight back from the fear. and to reach out to others to share our faith in Christ. That stuff’s gold, and that’s what we’re commanded to do, right?

SPEAKER 02 : 24:38

Amen.

SPEAKER 01 : 24:40

Awesome having the time with you, David. It’s davidjdecker.com. David J. Decker. That’s why we’re giving you the full name and middle initial, davidjdecker.com. You can email Dave at saved at davidjdecker.com. And the book is How to Go to the Super Bowl for Free and Other Success Secrets from the Victory Playbook. And we mean victory in Christ. We don’t mean just victory as in winning the Super Bowl. Dave, thank you for taking the time with us. Thanks so much, Dave.

SPEAKER 02 : 25:07

Thank you so much, Mike.