telling others about jesus is one of the most important and yet downright daunting things
that we're called to do i want to talk with you about how to get prepared to share your faith
seven ways to be evangelism ready we'll dive right in number one grasp the gospel
grasp the gospel the reason this is first on the list is because without it there is no list
you can't do evangelism if you don't understand the evangel the good news of christianity
and in order to grasp it you have to understand the significance of this little word news this is
one of the things that separates christianity from every other major religion because christianity is
not fundamentally an ethical code good advice no it's first and foremost an announcement of good
news you don't need to go to seminary to grasp it you don't need to be in ministry to grasp it you
don't even need to have been a christian for five minutes in order to grasp the gospel well enough
to convey it to someone else all you need to understand is that two thousand years ago
an invasion took place heaven came to earth in the person of king jesus and the future broke into the
present in the kingdom that he inaugurated and for 33 years jesus walked the earth and lived in
perfect obedience to his father in other words he lived the life that we have all failed to
live and then he went to the cross and he died the death that we deserved to die on the cross he was
treated as if he had lived our sinful life so that through faith we could be treated as if we had
lived his perfect life after dying as a substitute in the place of sinners three days later he got
up from the dead he rose in triumph so that everyone who turns from their rebellion and trusts
and treasures him will one day rise along with him rise up in newness of resurrection life on
a resurrected earth enjoying him forever as kings and queens of the universe of course there's more
we could say about the gospel it's going to take us all of eternity to plumb its depths
and riches but you can be ready to share your faith when you grasp the beautiful simplicity of
this great news of what god has accomplished for sinners like us in jesus christ grasp the gospel
number two check your context check your context in order to share your faith effectively
you've got to know your audience now on one level we should be careful not to over emphasize our
differences because the common denominator that unites us all regardless of culture or language or
background is that of being made in the image of god and having turned away from him in rebellion
and needing a rescue but we also shouldn't under emphasize our differences our cultural differences
as if they have no bearing on how people hear and understand the message we proclaim in the modern
west just a few decades ago you could pretty much assume that the person you were talking
to was coming into the conversation furnished they had a category for a creator god for for sin as as
rebellion against that god for life after death in heaven and so on but increasingly today in a
secular post-christian age we cannot assume such basic knowledge and those we're trying to reach so
we need to take care to to listen well and to lean in to climb into the other person's experience and
their their view of the world the way they inhabit it so that we don't waste our time throwing out
terms even biblical terms that they're just going to misunderstand unless we define them
god loves you is great news but it's meaningless if you don't understand who god is you are a
sinner is true but it won't make sense if you don't have any understanding of what sin is
you need a savior is the greatest news of all not just that you need one but that there is one
offered to you but that's not going to resonate if you don't understand what you need to be saved
from and we also need to be prepared not just to answer people's questions but also to question
people's answers everyone you encounter has some vision of the good life and how
to achieve it it's been said that people are not so much on truth quests as they are on
happiness quests but as christians we know that happiness is only and ultimately found
in the one who said i am the way the truth and the life so the goal in studying a given culture's
values and hopes and fears and idols is not to be hip it's not to make the message cool
it is to make the message clear check your context number three love the lost love the lost
writing to the thessalonians the apostle paul said we loved you so much we were delighted to share
with you not only the gospel but our lives as well loving a lost person makes practical sense because
they're not going to trust you enough to really hear you unless they sense that you care otherwise
there will just be static in your effort to communicate to establish a connection
it can be dangerously easy if we're honest to treat gospel conversations and the topic
of evangelism in general is just a a box to check at worst a bullet point to put on our
spiritual resume in order to be impressive to god or to others but that's just relationally foolish
and likely counterproductive and yet loving the lost is far more than just a practical strategy
it is a litmus test of whether you know the god you profess at the outset of one
of the most famous chapters in the bible first corinthians 13 paul could not have been clearer
if i speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love i am a noisy gong or a
clinging symbol and if i have prophetic powers in other words if i'm the greatest preacher around
and if i understand all mysteries and all knowledge if i'm the brightest theologian and
if i have mountain moving faith and give away all i have if i'm the most socially conscious
christian activist in a generation and if i deliver up my body to be burned even if an
anti-christian terrorist puts a knife to my throat and i don't flinch if i don't have
love i gain nothing i am nothing who in your life right now do you love enough to communicate
this news to to introduce this person jesus christ to the only news the only person that can
rescue them love the lost number four mind your manners mind your manners we live in an age of
outrage where the temperature it seems on every conversation and debate is set to blazing hot
and your gospel witness will be ineffective and counterproductive to the cause of christ
if you are conforming to the pattern of this world by feeding the perpetual outrage machine there's
a kind of approach to evangelism that effectively goes like this i'm right you're wrong and i would
love to tell you about it that might make you feel courageous but that is far from christian
well i'm just a truth teller i love people sure but the way i love them is by speaking the truth
friend scripture never says speaking the truth is love it says we must speak the truth in love
which means that your posture your your manner the way you communicate this news is deeply
important you will either adorn and beautify the gospel or you will
undermine it and make it a lot harder for the next christian who tries to share with that person
we need to speak to others as if we remember what it was like to be lost and hopeless too in
an age of outrage our counter-cultural message must be accompanied by a counter-cultural tone
mind your manners number five face your fear face your fear it's no secret that one of the main
reasons christians don't share their faith is that they're crippled by a fear sometimes it's the fear
of a painfully awkward encounter sometimes it's the fear of outright rejection or embarrassment
sometimes it's the fear of just feeling really unequipped not having a ready answer for a
skeptic's objection the list goes on but here's the deal if you wait for your fears to evaporate
before you share your faith you will never share your faith when the moment finally arrives and and
you see the the cracked door opportunity to to the gospel and you start to get that that pit in your
stomach and and your heart starts to race and you worry that your your voice is going to sound shaky
that is not the moment to escape it's not the moment to delay and kick the can down the
road and say not me not now maybe some other time maybe another christian can reach them
no it is the time to say fear you are real you are with me i haven't shaken you and you are powerful
but fear you are not omnipotent you are not my king
and it's time it's the time to lean in on the lord and to take a step of faith some of you
didn't grow up in christian homes imagine if the person who first shared the gospel with you
had that mentality where they were paralyzed by their fear and they said well i'm not equipped
enough i i can't do this i i maybe some other time maybe some other person where might you be today
you know what i've learned over the years honestly as i have
stumbled along as a inconsistent imperfect often lousy evangelist i've learned that almost always
it goes better than i feared almost always the conversation with the lost person whether it's
a friend or whether it's a stranger it goes better than i feared face your fear
number six pray for power pray for power evangelism is not converting someone
that's conflating evangelism with the results of evangelism no evangelism is simply
telling someone about jesus in the power of the holy spirit and leaving the results to god
this is actually quite liberating once you understand it and you internalize it
people are dead in sin they are spiritual corpses apart from christ and you and i do not have the
power to give spiritual corpses life it's like we are just speaking to caskets our job in
evangelism is to speak to the casket god's job is to crack it open so pray pray to him for boldness
for clarity for faith pray to him for fruit ask god to show off through your weakness
for the glory of his son in the eternal good of this person pray for power
and finally number seven start to speak
start to speak most non-christians you meet have never rejected the gospel
most non-christians that you meet have never rejected the gospel
that's because they haven't heard it yet now it's likely they've heard what they think is the gospel
perhaps a christian has tr has talked to them perhaps they've been in church
but oftentimes if you just ask the average person on the street what is the gospel they're not going
to tell you oh it's the good news of salvation by grace alone no they're going to respond with
some form of moralism which means they actually haven't rejected the gospel they have yet to hear
the real thing so the greatest obstacle to evangelism is not unbelievers
the greatest obstacle to evangelism is christians who don't share the gospel
my friend max styles who has written several good books on this topic says evangelism has
not been tried and found wanting so much as it has been found difficult and left untried
there comes a point when you need to just start talking you need to just take the step of faith
and trust the lord with the results friend do you want to be ready to share your faith
well then you need to grasp the gospel check your context love the lost
mind your manners face your fear pray for power and then start to speak you