Last
Saturday evening I had the great pleasure of being with the international evangelist
Tony Anthony, who is the award winning author of the book “Taming The Tiger”. Our
church had invited him to share his amazing story of how God impacted his
life. People committed their lives to Jesus that evening – the power of his
testimony glorified God in a mighty way.
As Tony
came to the end of his story he asked a question. It was one of those “Wow”
questions. He simply asked the people listening to think of a moment or event
in their lives that had made such an impact on them that they just had to speak
to people about it every day. As I sat there I felt challenged by it, and I am
an evangelist! I often say when I preach or train people in evangelism that it
a good thing to be challenged, especially by the word of God. We just have to
make the choice to respond or ignore it.
“For we cannot help speaking about what
we have seen and heard." Acts 4: 20 NIV
“As
for us, there’s no question—we can’t keep quiet about what
we’ve seen and heard.” Acts 4: 20 The Message
We tell people how much money we saved when we went
shopping, on a holiday or the saving of our mobile phone that was almost left
on the train. But many of us fail to share the news about the one who truly
saves.
Having worked in sales and sales training for many
years, one of the most important points to learn to be effective in selling any
product or service was to state the benefits of it rather than its features. For
example, when selling cars a feature would be that there is a range of colours to
choose from, whereas a benefit would be that the car does 80 miles to the
gallon. I changed my car recently and told anyone who would listen about the
money I was saving on fuel costs!
We don’t need to procure the Gospel message,
because it doesn’t need selling and it doesn’t need exaggerating, sweetening,
altering or watering down. It’s the most life impacting message that anyone can
ever hear!
Key Point: There are more benefits
than we could ever count in this life and beyond because of what Jesus has
done!
If you just consider three benefits that making
Jesus Lord of your life has done for you.
·
Eternal life
·
The Holy Spirit dwelling in your
heart
·
Heaven
When we consider just those benefits, the
realisation of what they mean should compel us to share what Jesus has done for
us. It is better than anything I can think of. People need to hear the Gospel
and God has a plan to use you and me to tell them. Yes, imperfect me and
imperfect you. That is just incredible.
“Go
and preach the Gospel to all creation.” Mark 16: 15
We must remember that Jesus wasn’t just talking to
the disciples when He gave the commandment to go and preach the Gospel. He was
talking to you and me as well.
It is important to understand that when we do in
fact “Go” we never actually “Go” alone. We have the Holy Spirit who will always
accompany us whenever and wherever we share Jesus.
We must pray for opportunities to share the message
with people, asking God for the boldness you need to share it and then expect
something to happen. It is essential that people see the love of Jesus in what
we say and do most of all.
Some
simple suggestions:
- Read the word of God and let it fill your heart and mind. You simply can’t get enough of it. It will change you, guide you and equip you for the task.
- Mix with people who are soul winners and people who witness for Christ on a regular basis. It is better caught than taught as my old boss used to say. What they do and say will rub off on you. If you were a footballer and you had the chance to train with Lionel Messi of Barcelona, there is no doubt that you would become a better footballer. Being with him, watching him and playing in game in his team would rub off onto you. The example is the same for any activity.
- Learn how to witness by getting some evangelism training from a person or organisation that is a winner of souls for Christ. There is plenty of information available on the internet.
Let’s “Go” and witness for Christ!
