At the age of 100, Abraham was enabled to become a father for the first time. Can you imagine? Now you talk about miracles, there is a big one. He was 100 years old. His wife Sarah couldn’t have children. She was through. She was 90 herself. Yet, God said, “You shall have a child,” and by faith Abraham believed.

Abraham didn’t have blind faith, though. He had faith in God and in God’s Word. Romans 4:17 says Abraham believed in “the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.” Because of that, the impossible became possible at God’s word.

Is there an impossible situation you’re facing when it comes to evangelism? Is there a loved one who seems so far away from God that you wonder if she’ll ever come to Christ? God simply asks us to obey Him and believe, in faith, that He has the power to do what He promises. And what does He promise? That he will bring life to the dead, and call things that are not as though they were.

So don’t give up hope. Keep praying. Keep talking wisely. Keep believing that your loved one will some day come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. Because the God who worked miracles for Abraham is the same God today! Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

You know the most amazing thing to me is how many people seem to be afraid of the idea of success or prosperity. Now, yes, exaggerations have taken place in certain circles and so we shy away from the idea of prosperity and success.

But, do you remember what Psalm 1 says? “Blessed is the person whose delight is in the law of the Lord and on His law he meditates day and night. He’s like a tree planted by streams of water. Whatever he does prospers.” God wants each one of us to prosper spiritually and, frankly, in every other way. Now to prosper, what is that?

Henrietta Mears was a great Bible teacher who’s now with Jesus Christ. She used to say to her students, “Success, you know what success is? Success is anything that is pleasing to God.” That’s why the Psalm says that you’ll become like a tree planted by streams of water and whatever you do prospers when you delight yourself in the Word of the Lord.

Therefore, the more you can point your friends to read passages of Scripture, the Gospel of John, in particular, the more they’re going to open their eyes and see the truth and they will prosper spiritually. So, point your finger at the Bible when you help your friends. They will forever be grateful to you.

In America, and all of the Western Nations, there are thousands of people like my friend whom we call, Junior. He lives in Florida. He’s a businessman. And one day, not long ago, he surrendered to Jesus Christ.

We put him up to tell his story and he began with, “I used to have a relationship with the church but no relationship with Jesus Christ.” You know, that’s the story of millions of people in the West.

So many people have a relationship with the church - 80% of Americans say they belong to a church… New Zealand, Australia, England, Germany, Latin America - many nations, they will all say, “Yes, I believe in the church,” but they have no experience of Jesus Christ.

The Scripture tells us very clearly that when a person opens their heart to Jesus Christ they begin a real relationship, a personal relationship, with Him. It’s not “religion.” This is the mistake so many people make. We’re not talking about religion, we’re talking about a personal relationship with the living God.

The Bible says that “to know God is to know eternal life” and, therefore, when you introduce your friend to believe in Jesus Christ, to give their heart to Him, to obey Him and follow Him, you are helping your friend to change from a relationship with the church to a relationship with Jesus Christ, and that is what eternal life is all about.

One of my best friends in the whole world is David Hall from Arizona. He’s the Chairman of our Board of Directors, at this time, and has been for years.

Many years ago, when he was a successful young businessman he came to Jesus Christ. His wife brought him to a campaign we were having in a local church north of downtown Chicago. The thing that opened David Hall’s heart was this: apparently in my message I said, “There are some people smiling on the outside but crying on the inside.”

David Hall said to himself, “That’s me. He’s found me out. I’m putting on an act on the outside but inside I’m dying.” You know, the Bible says, “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can understand it?” The Lord answers His own question by saying, “I, the Lord, know the heart.”

Only God knows the heart. That’s why the Bible says, “Judge not that ye be not judged.” We don’t know what goes on inside a person. We may think we do, based on outward appearances, but most of the time only the person and the Lord know.

But the Bible also says, and this is the verse that led me to Jesus Christ… “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved.”

David Hall believed in his heart and his life was revolutionized. It’s a good way to approach a conversation.