Matthew 28:19 "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. v20 Teaching them to observe all things which I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
2 Timothy 2:15 "...a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."
1 Timothy 2:1 "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercession, and giving of thanks be made for all men,"
Philippians 4:6 "Be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and supplication..."
I am convinced that by drinking half of my body weight in water each day I drastically enhance my bodies ability to function at an optimal level. Sure, sometimes I have to use the "head" at inopportune times but it is worth it for me being a professional athlete. I also believe that exercise is a great way to raise your self esteem and fight off common depression. I have knowledge and actions to back this up. I would have no problem going to bat in a conversation with anyone about this in order to sell them the benefits. Likewise I would also argue that as a kid eating peanut butter and jelly sando's with a large glass of milk before you go to bed will make you jacked, since my brother did this and was super buff and I didn't and I was a stick figure. But that is another story...
Point is we are salesman of Jesus Christ, constantly selling His truth and the worth of a relationship with Him. Hawk said "be ready for opportunities because people are watching", Waino said "onlookers should know exactly who we worship and why", and everybody has been saying "we need to spread the word and share the good news of the Gospel". This all makes sense but now we are sitting at our computers saying "wow... I'm no salesman, matter of fact I hate sales." This is how I felt when I got hit with this idea but it is easy so please plug in and listen carefully. We need to take action!
1: Surrender the idea that you do anything for God, He does it through you, all you do is be and listen to the Holy Spirit.
2: Know your ministry. Is it your best friend, parents, co-worker, in-law, etc...
3: Put them on your prayer list (be intentional). Pray for them to desire the truth and for God to intervene in their life so they may have salvation. Pray for an opportunity to share Jesus with them.
4A: Have intentional conversations with them where you ask a lot of questions and constantly gain information for which you can pray about, this will show them you genuinely care about them.
4B: Don't spill your candy in the lobby. Don't try to share the gospel with them before you know they want it, this usually is our flesh acting trying to notch a save. Wait for God to deliver the conversation to you, you will know.
5: Keep praying, pray without ceasing, multiple times a day. This stuff matters more than your paycheck this is eternity we're talking about.
6: When necessary use words to share the Gospel. Our actions should be doing most of the talking.
7: Be prepared. We labor in vain if we try to do it on our own or on our time, the flesh is constantly trying to take credit for anything and everything, keep that dude at arms length (not to close, not to far).
We're salesman whether you like it or not so embrace your role and get those prayer lists going, this can be a powerful life changing thing if we actually take action. If we don't it will go in the box with all the other great ideas that never impacted our lives. Remember God does the work we just have to be obedient to be used as a vessel.
5 comments:
I have to admit that the title "Salesman selling Jesus" made me a little uneasy at first and to be honest I can even give a good reason why but this post was solid. The Super Seven that you listed in the heart of the post on how to share the Gospel is very insightful and practical. That is a solid approach that I know I can definitely learn from and apply into my own interactions with those around me. This one is definitely a keeper. Good work as usual.
-TEvans
I kinda agree with Terry's initial reaction to the title of this post...but I thought it was a good post as well.
There is somthing that I wanted to address. Point 6 in this post is something that I've wanted to address for a while (not with this group, but generally). Obvioulsy, Jules wasn't the one who coined that idea nor was he the one responsible for abusing it. However, I do believe that it has been misunderstood and misused for a while. So I'd kinda like to elaborate on that point and give a little clarification as to what that really means for those folks reading this site who may not understand what that's all about.
I want to address the common evangelical idea that the Gospel is best communicated through our actions and not by words. The saying "Preach the Gospel at all times and if necessary use words, our actions should be doing most of the talking" is a popular idea, but is it biblical?
Throughout whole bible it commands us to teach, preach, proclaim, tell, etc. The old testament is full of prophets and people selected by God to verbally communicate His will. Could God have communicated his will to each and everyone of us without using these prophets??? Yes. Did he?? Not really. There is something powerful about God's procalimed word. God has chosen the medium of speach as the means by which his Gospel has been communicated thoughout history.
Many times in the new testament Jesus, Paul, James, and John talk about good deeds. These however are ALWAYS in the context of instruction to belivers to carry out and actually do what they have been talking about and saying. (See the book of James, 1 John, and Matthew 5:16)
In the context of evangelism and proclimation of the Gospel...there is NO better way to communicate God's Truth than with the spoken word. The Bible is written in a language that is communicable.
I believe the idea of letting our actions do most of the talking has been abused by people who don't put in the study time to be able to know God deeply and to communicate his Gospel verbally. I know that sounds harsh, but you must be able to communicate. I know this isn't the truth for everyone, but it is easier for me to live a good life than it is to communicate the Gospel clearly. It's easy for me to feed people, but harder to tell them why I'm doing it. If that were the case with everyone...we would have alot of people doing "christian" things and no one communicating the Gospel...DANGEROUS. If you have good deeds without the right communication of the Gospel you get the American Red Cross.
It may be better to change the idea to, humbly, clearly, and rightly communicate the Gospel at all times and actually practice what you preach. I don't believe it's a matter of doing one thing more than the other, rather doing both with humility and excellence.
Nolan, Good point, you're absolutely right. You should make that a post. Cut and paste if you want, I think that point needs to be made clear for everyone. Thanks for speaking out.
Great point Nolan. It is so extremely easy to use the phrase "actions speak louder than words" as an excuse to not engage in controversial conversation. I can talk myself into this with a bit of ease all the time. Actions are important but they are important in that they back up what we are preaching. We have to walk our talk. We have to pick up what we put down. We have to munch on what we're cooking. You get the point. Good work Nolan and I agree that this might need to be transfered to the main page.
-Terry
I wanted to have yall look at 4a and 4b. There is a tough balance there that is key to any conversation of value, whether it be business or salvation. 4a talks about asking many questions and 4b talks about not throwing up the gospel all over them. People's favorite subject is to talk about themselves or their kids or their careers. It is the easiest way to get someone talking. The tough part after asking a question is to shut up and listen. Many times when someone that we have been working on starts asking questions about the gospel we get so excited to we blow out way to fast. We aren't really listening to their questions, but rather just waiting to talk again and not soaking anything up. Silence makes people uncomfortable in a conversation, so if you stay quiet the other person will start to spill just to keep things going.
So the balance of asking the questions and then taking it in is key. Delivering one or two nuggets to get them coming back for another conversation instead of trying to go from Genesis to Revelations with them in one sitting is how we have to do it. Great stuff Jules, Nolan, and Tuurrence.
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