If you choose to be obedient to the commands of Jesus, one of the hardest things that you need to do as you walk through this life is to share the Gospel with people. In particular, people that you know and come into contact with often. This includes, family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors.
You know it is your job to share your faith with these people, but you get nervous because you don’t want to be thought of as a religious wacko or nut case. We have all seen way too many examples of morons out there acting like a bunch of bozo’s thinking that they are doing the Lord a favor by sacrificing themselves on the alter of persecution “for the Lord”. In reality most of them are driving people farther from the Savior than they were before they came across this “martyr in his own mind”. Let’s forget about those folks for a while, and focus on the real world. You have family members, friends, co-workers, and neighbors that do not know the Lord, and if they were to die today they would end up in hell. This is a terrible fate that we don’t want for anyone, much less a loved one. But yet we let time go by and death draw all the more near and never utter a word about the Savior they so desperately need. The purpose of this article is to motivate you to stand up boldly for your faith, and to share the gospel lovingly and honestly in a way that people will appreciate. We will focus on your neighbors, however the information presented can be used to share the gospel with anyone. When you share your faith with your neighbor you should always prepare for the encounter with prayer and Bible study. Then just go and talk to them like you normally would. You don’t just walk up to them and ask how much money they have in their bank account, or how much they weigh. Those questions are way to personal to start out a conversation with, and it is the same with sharing the Gospel. You don’t just start out by saying, “if you don’t trust Jesus as your Savior, you’ll go to hell for eternity”. Start the conversation with normal, everyday chitchat about the weather, the ball game, or how the kids are doing. Then take the leap to jump from natural things to spiritual things. Deliberately bring up your faith, or what you learned reading your Bible recently by interjecting it into the conversation. You will be able to tell by their reaction as to whether or not they are open to spiritual things. If they are open then ask them questions about their own faith. Let them talk. This is the key to having anyone like you; let them talk about themselves for a while. We will deal with those that are not open to spiritual things later. After they are talking for a while, and you are listening intently you will get a good impression as to whether or not this person has a Biblical understanding of salvation by grace through faith, not of works. Then you will know how to steer the conversation. If they don’t have a biblical understanding of salvation, you can chime in with some verses of scripture that will help to guide them. Use Bible verses that will straighten out the areas that are incorrect in there thinking. Let them go on for a while, but when it is your turn to talk take them straight to sin. Teach them in a conversational manner what sin is. Use the Ten Commandments as a mirror so they can see for themselves that they are sinners too. Explain to them how God is perfect and holy and just. How He must punish sin wherever it is found. Don’t be shy here. You must get them convinced that they are sinners and worthy of death and eternal punishment before the good news that Jesus died for them will make sense. If they do not show outward signs of sorrow over their sins go back and show them God’s commandments again, and help them see how horrible they really are in God’s sight. After they are convinced that they are sinners and how they deserve to be sent to hell, teach them that God doesn’t want to send people to hell so he made a way for them to be forgiven. Ask them if they know what God did for them. This is when you can sometimes see the light come on. Someone’s face will light up and say “hey! I knew that, Jesus died on the cross” and they will tell you that they just never heard the gospel put quite like that before. Share with them a few more scriptures about Jesus being the only way to God, how He was born of a virgin, then lived a sin free life then died on the cross to save them from the penalty that they owe by virtue of being a sinner. Then he rose again to give us everlasting life. Continue the conversation by asking them if they will make that commitment to trust Jesus as their Savior. Share with them how to pray for forgiveness of their sins by confessing them to God. Then encourage them to spend some time alone, talking to God and getting their heart right before Him. Share with them what David said in Psalm 51 so they can see what a sinful man says to a Holy God. Then you can thank them for being so kind as to let you share your faith with them. Make sure they know that you aren’t pressuring them to go to your church, but that they should try to find a Bible-believing church to be part of so they can grow in their faith. And of course, make sure they know that you are available to try to answer any questions they might have about spiritual things. But, if the person is not interested in spiritual things then you will need to be very courteous and to maintain the friendship and good standing between you. Consider the Parable of the sower; you have encountered someone with thorny ground. The ground is so thorny that the word can’t take root but gets choked out. You need to turn the thorny ground into good ground. You need to plow up the thorny ground and fertilize and water and plant fresh seed until his heart is fertile and ready to receive the word. Only then will the fruit spring up and increase. There are many ways to start the process of tilling this person’s soil. Obviously prayer is our best weapon, however it is not our only weapon. You should always be ready to help this neighbor with a chore, or have a kind word for them when needed. Showing them the example of a servant that Jesus left for us. Your life should be an example of Christ. And it should be obvious to your neighbors. If your neighbors have to guess whether you are a Christian or not, you need to do a better job. Another way I like to reach out to those people with thorny ground is to send them anonymous gospel mailers. Put a tract and/or a letter in the mail to them that explains the Gospel in a direct way. Anonymous gospel mailers should not be wishy-washy. They should be eye-catching, interesting, and to the point. After you have done these things for a while, go have another shot at it. Test the waters to see if they are now more open to the things of God. Don’t get so caught up in showing them your lifestyle, and ministering to his physical needs that you forget about his spiritual condition. If all his physical needs are met, yet his spiritual needs are not he will be in big trouble on the day he goes to stand before God. Don’t let this happen! Now you have a quick Biblical strategy for how to share the Gospel with a neighbor, now go find one and practice on them. |
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