So imagine with me that you just won tickets to, uh, an event that you really wanted to
go to: a concert, a sporting event, or some other type of event.
Now, imagine that you didn't just win one or two tickets, but you won twenty or fifty
tickets.
Who would you invite to go with you?
Now, think about that; we're going to come back to it in a minute.
So I've found that with any life question that I might have, the best first step to
take is to dive into Scripture and see what it has to say about that question.
So we're going to start with an extremely rarely looked at verse.
I had to do a lot of digging to find this one.
It's John 3:16.
So John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world that He sent His one and only son, so that
whoever believes in Him shall not perish and have eternal life."
So you're looking at this and you're thinking, "Okay, God loves me like crazy, but what does
this have to do with evangelism?"
Well, I've found that when I usually hear a message at church or read something about
evangelism, I think about a specific group of people in my head that I should be evangelizing
to or that I could evangelize.
While this definitely isn't a bad thing, it might be ignoring the second half of John
3:16.
It doesn't say 'your closest friends who believe in Him' or 'your family who believes in Him'
or 'your clique who believes in Him,' it says 'whoever believes in Him shall not perish
and have eternal life.'
So when I'm thinking about that specific group of people, that's a great place to start and
that's a great way to start evangelizing to them because you might have a built trust
in that relationship already, and that's an awesome way to start talking about, um, spiritual
things, but it isn't the end all be all of evangelism.
There are other people in the world to take into account.
Jesus tells us later on in Matthew to go out and make disciples of all nations, not just
our clique or the people we feel comfortable around.
We can't discriminate when it comes to spreading God's love.
Great, so I'm pumped up, I'm ready to spread this radical love that God has for us, but
how do I do it?
I'm an introvert.
I, meeting people is a hard thing to do for me.
I, what if, what if the situation turns dangerous?
What if, um, an argument takes place that I'm not ready for?
These are all questions that have crossed my mind as I've gone into a situation like
this, and maybe they have for you, too.
I've found in my own reflecting time that these thoughts are a result of the wrong mindset.
I'm viewing the people that I'm going to talk to as the state that their soul is in right
now, when I should be viewing them as the state that their soul could be in when they
become a new creation in Christ that 2 Corinthians 5:17 talks about.
God's omnipresent nature means that He is present everywhere at the same time.
Sometimes I like to think about it as God keeps that moment that we become a new creation
right by His side and He replays it over and over and He views us as that new creation.
When I'm looking at these people as their, their old self or their current self, instead
I need to train myself to look at them as the new creation that they have potential
to be in Christ.
So when I adopt this mindset and view people as the new creation that they are or will
be in Christ, I'm able to approach any conversation with grace.
So we've talked a little bit about how we should approach evangelism and why we evangelize,
but how do we do it?
In Acts 1 after Jesus is resurrected, the disciples ask him if he will now restore the
kingdom to Israel, and Jesus responds to them by saying that we won't know the time or dates
that it will happen, but that we've been given the power of the Holy Spirit to witness to
the world.
So what Jesus is saying here is that when we're entering a situation where we might
need to be a witness to Him, if we simply pray for the Holy Spirit's power to come over
us, it'll help guide us through it.
So whether that's talking about your own spiritual experience or asking questions about their
own or simply being a good example to them, the Holy Spirit will give you a prompting
to the right thing to do in the situation if you let it.
I think sometimes we get too hung up on the how, when instead we should be focusing on
the why and letting God take over the how.
So when we let God take over the how of the situation, that kind of faith can bring a
miracle.
When it comes down to it, evangelism has really little to do with what you know factually,
and it has more to do with you having the faith to share your experience.
Now, think back to those tickets that we were talking about earlier.
How awesome would it be to go to an event with a huge group of your friends?
You're all there because you love the event and you love each other.
Well, God has an unlimited amount of tickets to be given away to the event of eternity.
Who you are going to invite?
Before you go, make sure you check out these videos.
Check back next week for another video, and if you have another question for us to answer,
hashtag it 'ask anima' on Twitter or Facebook or Instagram, or message us on Facebook, or
send us an email.
Hashtag's down below here, and comment below.
That was a weird ending.