Nobody's Listening

Often people criticize open air preaching, saying that it's not effective. At first glance, sometimes it does seem that way.

Last night I was preaching to a crowd of people as they passed by at a huge car show in San Bernardino. It was a rough crowd, tattoos and gang members everywhere, one guy even had 666 tattooed on his neck. He flicked a cigarette at me but I didn't notice (a friend later told me). At one point I heard a young woman yell out, "Nobody's listening to you!"

But she was wrong. Last night after one of my preaching episodes (what should I call them? Messages? Sermons? haha) I was approached by a woman who had a question. She was confused about purgatory. I told her that purgatory is not in the bible, in fact the bible teaches that after death, people are judged:

It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgement. Hebrews 9:27

She thanked me and when on her way.

Later in the evening I was preaching through Romans chapter one and I noticed a woman staring at me in awe, eyes wide open, as if she had never heard anything like this before. As the crowd walked by, passing between her and I, I looked into her eyes and told her about God's law, God's wrath, about her sin being an offense to God, about her need for forgiveness, her need for a savior. Then I told her about Jesus Christ, the only one who can save her from the punishment she deserves. She stood and listened to the whole message, and when I was finished, she stayed and spoke at length with one of the female Christians who was part of our group. Here's a woman who was not planning to hear the gospel when she left her home that night, and now she knows the truth. I didn't stick around to find out what the woman ended up doing, but I do know that she heard the gospel.

People are listening.