Please Tell Me About the Jesus You Don't Believe In

Please tell me about the Jesus you don’t believe in.

…why soul winning should be our main focus as Christians.

 

The greatest sin that a Christian can commit is not the failure to tithe, the failure of going to church, sitting up all night to watch TV, etc. The greatest sin of the Christian is a refusal to win precious souls to our Father in heaven.

The following is a list of seven sins that we commit by not taking our call seriously.

• ·         The sin of disobedience to the main command of the Savior. Matthew 28:19-20
• ·         The sin of lack of love for Christ. John 14:21,23
• ·         The sin of not following Jesus. Matthew 4:19
• ·         The sin of not abiding in Christ. I John 3:6, Romans 8:1-2
• ·         The sin of dishonesty in a sacred trust. Romans 1:14-15
• ·         The sin and folly of a shortsighted fool. Proverbs 11:30
• ·         The sin of spiritual manslaughter, soul murder. Ezekiel 3:17-18

Why should soul winning be our main business?

• ·         We have a debt of obligation to get out the Gospel. Romans 1:14
• ·         We are Ambassadors. II Corinthians 5:18-20
• ·         We have been divinely chosen for the task. Matthew 28:19
• ·         Somewhere there are souls longing for someone to tell them.
• ·         No other business is so important. Mark 8:38
• ·         Because of gratitude for what our Savior did for us on the cross.
• ·         Nothing gives such deep satisfaction as winning a soul. John 4:32
• ·         Opportunities will be gone forever, never to be regained. Esphesians5:16
• ·         Because of the fear of the Lord. II Corinthians 5:11
• ·         Because success is promised. Psalms 126:6, John 15:5

The Call. Jesus said in Matthew 4:19, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” The call from Jesus includes two parts: following and being a fisher of men. Following meaning to have a relationship with him. Fishers of men; if believers truly believed they had the words of life they would passionately (desperately, urgently) do everything in their power to share the gospel with people.

How to share your story. Always be prepared and keep it simple. Prepare a two-to-three-minute Gospel-centered testimony that is understandable to a non-Christian that will present them with the opportunity to choose to also follow Jesus.

Using your own story/words, make it a four-part salvation story that contains the following words.

·      God: God loves you and has created you to know him personally. He has a wonderful plan for your life (John 3:16-17

·      Sin: People are sinful and separated from God, so we cannot know him personally or experience his love and plan. (Romans 3:23, 6:23)

·     Jesus: Jesus Crist is God’s only provision for our sin. Through him alone, we can know God personally and experience God’s love and his plan. John 14:6

·   Individual: We must individually receive Jesus Christ as Savor and Lord: then we can know God personally and experience his love and plan. John 1:12, Ephesians 2:8,9

These four words make up the core of our salvation story and are combined with our personal narrative to create a testimony that is clean and to the point. The person we are sharing with should be able to figure out why we came to salvation and how they can do the same.

One of the sentences that I use in my testimony is, I wasn’t always like this. People who know me today would never believe the messy life that I had created for myself back in the day. And even more unbelievable is the story of how I was pulled out of the muck and mire by Jesus.

I have a short version of my testimony and a long version for public speaking gigs that I have prepared so that I am ready for any opportunity.

It’s so easy to let obstacles get in our way of sharing. Here is a list of eight helpers.

·   Be ready. Test the waters by asking simple questions and reading their body language. Always be watchful for what might turn out to be a divine appointment.

·       Keep it simple. Don’t complicate things with controversial issues unrelated to salvation.

·   Avoid religious language and spiritual pretense. I call it Christianese. Don’t do it. They won’t understand what you are saying, and you will lose them.

·      Focus on the truth of Christianity, not merely its personal benefits. Focus on the truth claims of Jesus and give your message a solid foundation.

·         Give reasons. People care about reasons. Make assertions with evidence.

·    Stay calm. Don’t get mad, show frustration, look annoyed. Keep your cool. You will appear more confident and be more persuasive.

·         If they want to go, let them leave the conversation.

·     Don’t let them leave empty handed. Give them a tangible way to follow up on what you challenged them to consider.  Tracts, booklets, a Christian website, or something to read. Offer as a gift suggesting that it might be best to let Jesus speak for himself.

How to start the conversation. First, put your ‘on-task agenda’ away. You need to be a great listener and have empathy. No way around it. Come from a point of understanding. Some people are bad at reading the temperature of a room. Pay attention, get good at it, and avoid doing harm! Sometimes these conversations will need to take place over many meetings and time, so build relationships first, never argue their feelings or the Bible.

Once I get to a certain point in the conversation, after surveying their interest and comprehending where they stand, I can either move forward or offer some space to take up the conversation at a later date. If they say that they know about Jesus, but don’t believe, then I ask them to tell me about the Jesus they don’t believe in.

This is a great opener for further discussions, and it will allow you to listen, assess and understand what has happened in their past to get them where they are at. You will hear about their hurts, where their anger comes from, what turned them from the Church, from Christ, and much more. Maybe they have major guilt and feel that a sin is so horrible that they could never be accepted by God and into heaven.

Once you have learned from their sharing, you have a place to begin addressing issues, clear up their misunderstanding of Christ and the gospel, and help them to start thinking in a new way, in a new direction, about a hope that is offered to all who simply believe.

Catch the Passion! God’s grace and love is so powerful. His promise is always. Take your Christian call seriously. There are lots of people out there who are hurting so badly and need the love of Jesus. Answer the call, move when you are nudged. Your task might be the seed planter, getting some of their questions answered, their curiosity going. Or you might be the one assigned to bring it on home and lead them in a believer’s prayer of repentance and restoration in Christ.

Your sharing of the Gospel does not have to be perfect, nor do you have to have all the answers. It’s okay to say that you don’t know something and let them know you will find out and get back with them. The main thing is to move when the Holy Spirit is prompting you so that you don’t end up kicking yourself over missed opportunities.

Winning souls should be our main focus as Christians.

 

Sources: “Tactics” by Gregory Koukl, “This is my story” by Fred Leonard, “Seven-fold sin of not winning souls” by Rev. Carl Hatch

Debra Lee | Author | Keynote Speaker | Biz Coach | Life Coach | Blogger