Evangelizing!

Can I have a moment of your time to tell you about Jesus!?!?!?!?

So evangelizing was a topic not often discussed in my every day life. I rarely (never) heard anyone say, “Hey guys, lets go evangelize and tell people about Jesus today, yeah!!!” I thought I was exempt from this part of Christianity, to say the least (funny, I thought I was exempt from a lot of Christianity).

So what is evangelizing, really? Jesus said in the Bible in Matthew 28:19 (some may know this as the great commission) Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the son and of the Holy Spirit. 

This is not just for pastors, this is for all Christians! We are supposed to go and tell people the good news and not just tell them, but make them DISCIPLES. So many people tell someone the good news then leave them after they have been saved. What is that person going to do? How are they going to act? Do they even know what to do? No! So that is why it says make nations DISCIPLES of Christ. A disciple is literally a person who is adherent to the doctrines of Jesus, not just during his time here on Earth... but even now! If you consider yourself to be a Christian, that is an incredibly fancy word for being a DISCIPLE of Jesus. (We are literally like Paul and Peter! That’s tough, right!?!?!)

Now some of you might be familiar with the people who stand outside with their picket signs telling people to repent before God strikes them down with fireballs and lightning bolts and hurricanes and snowstorms for their homosexuality, lying, cheating, abortion, murder, nose-picking, and unhygienic ways. Wow, they are scary aren’t they? (Praise God for their lives) They make us wonder if WE are even good enough for the kingdom of Heaven! 

1 Corinthians 5:18  says that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation. Reconciliation, of course, means that we are supposed to bring God and the person back into HARMONY, AGREEMENT... To make them compatible with one another again. So no, we don’t need to pick up our anti-sin picket signs and spread messages about how much God hates people. THIS METHOD IS ACTUALLY MAGNIFYING THE PEOPLE'S SINS! They are not bringing reconciliation, but they are showing how different their nature is from who God is and what he wants. This causes the people to feel that there is actually no way they can live the way God wants them to live. They feel like there is no way to receive his love! This is the ministry of division. I am not saying that God does not hate all of the sins that people commit. He hates them soooooo much!! But GOD LOVES THOSE PEOPLE. He loves them when they are in their sin, he loves them when they are dead, he loves them when they are alive, he loves them when they are drinking coffee, he loves them constantly and consistently with a love that is absolutely unfathomable (Romans 8:38). Just like he loves you. 

Remember that none of us can live a life pleasing to Christ on our own. If we could, Jesus wouldn’t have come down and did all that wonderful stuff for us. We are just called to believe in Christ! The Holy Spirit’s ENTIRE JOB is to make us more and more like the Father. He is the one who is doing the good works in us and producing his FRUIT! We CANNOT do this on our own. They cannot do that on their own. Don’t try and put laws on top of these people, when they don’t even understand who Holy Spirit is and what He does! How are they supposed to do it without Holy Spirit’s help??

What did Jesus do when he was confronted with a situation in which a woman was absolutely wrong for her sins? She was caught in the act of adultery! Jesus said Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.... Everyone else left... and He, the only one who was without sin, did not condemn her. WOW!! Jesus did not even cast her sins before her face!! He knew every single sin she had ever committed and he was PERFECT. Yet, he did not condemn her. What makes us think we have the right to condemn ANYONE??? (I suggest you read this story because I paraphrased.... John 8:1-11) 

The teachers of the law were very similar to those anti-sin picket signers... Jesus said in Luke 11:46 And woe to you experts in the law because you load people down with burdens they can hardly bear and you won’t lift one finger to help them. So basically they were saying things like, “Oh, you have to stop sinning, sacrifice a lamb, a goat, and a dove at the same time while in a handstand, balancing a tiger on your left foot.. yep, thats what it says in our law. No, I won’t help you because I am perfect and I am an expert in the law.” In our terms, it would be like, “Oh you need to repent, stop your sin, pray 6 times a day, go to church AND sunday school every sunday, go to bible study on wednesday, and take communion... Ok BYE!!” The brand new Christian will be like huh? And the person who still doesn’t believe will be like, “Why should I be a Christian again”? That is why DISCIPLESHIP is so important! Most of those things don’t get people into heaven!! The only thing that God said you must do to be saved is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus was raised from the dead (Romans 10:9)! If those other things got us to heaven, Jesus would not have had to come down to save us!!  So instead tell them about the story of Jesus. Tell them what they must do to be saved. Don’t tell them that they must be absolutely sinless before God even wants to save them, because that is not true. Jesus is the one who cleanses us from our sins, not us.  

So, like I tell you guys all the time, don’t try and “save” anyone or “get anyone saved”. That is not your job... You now know your job. It is to reconcile, to bring them back to the Father. He will take care of the rest and he will take care of the sanctification process. 

Some tips when you are sharing your faith:

1. Don’t judge them!! Do not condemn them, because God took you when you were acting all crazy! God loves them too and wants them like he wanted you. Treat them as such and see them as God sees them!
2. Be gentle in what you say. In everything, ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING, make sure you are led by Holy Spirit. This doesn’t mean wait till he smacks you in the head before you say something about your faith to someone, it means allow him to lead you in what you say. If he stops you, praise God, listen. 
3. What’s the best way to evangelize? Tell YOUR STORY! You have a very specific testimony that God has given you to relate to people. For instance, I can relate really well to lukewarm Christians, because I was one! Think of how God has captured your heart and what he did to get you, share how he talks to you and how you feel about him. People are really captivated by the idea of having a PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP with the God of this universe!! It’s amazing!! It is very rare that people will talk about God as a personal friend, and everyone, deep down, wants that same relationship with God. We were created for it! 
4. Take them under your wing. They are interested in becoming a committed Christian, but they feel like it will be boring? Bring them to bible study, bring them to church, bring them to sunday school, take them with you to Starbucks outings... take and bring them everywhere with you so they can not only hear about God, but they can experience him personally! Show them how much fun you have as a Christian (and still living by the word of God)! Don’t just send them off to find a church on their own, bring them with you!******** This is how our ministry will continue to grow!
5. Whether you like it or not, you are evangelizing. You are showing something about yourself whether you are aware of it or not. Remember that people watch you, especially if they know you are a Christian. They want to see what you do, how you act, what is different about your life because of Christ, they want to see it all!! So if you are at a party, drunk, carrying on, whatever... then the next day you try to evangelize to someone who is in your English class... There is a great chance that they saw you (or heard about you) the night before and don’t really take you seriously when you tell them about Jesus. *Shrugs* It is what it is. Be very careful about who you are portraying in your every day life. (I say this from experience) 
6. If it does not work, DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED!! You have planted a seed. That is all that matters. Someone else will water it, some one else will fertilize it, someone else will pull up the weeds, etc. God knows what he is doing, and believe me, that person, when they are going through some things, they will think of Jesus. Then they will think of how you told them about this personal relationship with God that makes life worth living, and they will hit you up to at least pray for them!! (Oh yeahhhh, progress!!) God put you there to plant that seed for a reason!
7. Do NOT beat anyone over the head with the Bible. Share, then see their reaction. Don’t tell them things like, “Oooh, before you become a Christian, you need to give up having sex, God don’t like that.” God will fix those things!! Right now, in the beginning, just share the LOVE of God!!! Show them the Love of God!!! His love is amazing and transformative. As their relationship gets closer to him, they will actually be convicted BY GOD about the things they need to let go in their lives. They will be CHANGED by God. (This is also from personal experience) 
8. Don’t assume. Don’t assume someone is a Christian and don’t assume someone isn’t saved. Most of the time, you can tell by their lifestyle. However, the person might be a Christian and has just gotten off track. Don’t just “Oh you need Jesus” them. It can ruin a relationship. If you aren’t sure, you can invite them to “hang out” with you and bring them to bible study. You can bring them to one of our starbucks hang outs and basically say “oh I’m meeting up with some friends at starbucks in a bit, wanna come?” There are WAYS. See their reaction, go from there. 

Holy Spirit led me to finally say something about this because we are growing as a ministry. It is absolutely necessary for us to share the good news with people!! We cannot sit in our church and grow in our faith and sit here all happy and saved when there are people right outside our doors that are going to Hell for eternity because they don’t know about the Love of God! There is someone who God put in your class, at your job, in your LIFE just so they could be introduced to HIM!! He is pursuing them just as he pursued you. Make sure you plant a seed! I know you guys have been hearing from God about SOMEONE who needs to be discipled, someone who needs to be shown the Love of God, someone! You know what to do now, share the good news!! If you need a track (those little papers that have all kinds of creative ways to share the gospel) great! If you don’t, great! I personally suggest that you just share your story, people are really interested in what is real, in what they can see. They can see you and your life. Be very attentive to how the Holy Spirit wants you to say things. Be attentive about how he wants you to do things, if he leads you to do something unconventional, praise God. (Remember what I said about hearing from God, if it does not line up with the Bible, it probably isn't from God.) 

I love you guys so much!

Spread the word!!

- Lise, A4C