Fears about Sharing Your Faith
All of us have friends, neighbors, relatives, people we work with who need God. Our hearts desire is that they would come to faith in Christ. The question is, what if your friends want to know how to become a Christian, could you lead them to Christ?
1. How do you get started?
a. You are not on your own. God is always at work in the lives of those around you.
b. Jesus himself said, when sharing your faith,
“…do not worry about how or…what you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” Luke 12:11-12.
c. Witnessing is simply sharing Jesus Christ, relying the Spirit,
and leaving the results with God.
d. “The Lord opened Lydia’s heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.” Acts 16:14
e. Our part is to share with them how to receive Christ.
The spirits part is to convince them they need to receive Christ.
2. How do you begin talking about spiritual things?
a. Pray and ask God to help you.
b. When you want to get to know someone, you ask questions about their life and journey. Just include questions about their spiritual journey.
c. I usually ask, “What is your church background?” By asking this question, you are giving them the opportunity to tell their story, what they have experienced, their spiritual journey.
d. One of the challenges about talking to our friends about Christ is that we often do no know where they are spiritually—seeking, confused, empty or angry at God. When you ask this question, your goal is to draw them out and let them tell their story. This is a good way to find out if they are open and responsive spiritually.
3. How do you to explain the Gospel? (What if I say the wrong thing?)
a. Seekers usually do not understand how wonderful the good news really is. They often think that they have to be a good person or a church-goer to get to heaven. They have tried that and it doesn’t work. People usually do not understand that coming to Jesus is like taking a shower. You don’t clean your body to take a shower. You take a shower to clean your body. In the same way, you don’t clean up your life to come to Jesus. You are invited to come to Jesus just as you are and He will clean up your life. He will forgive all your sins and begin to make you a new person inside.
b. A gospel booklet is a simple way to communicate clearly the gift God is offering them. You can give them a Gospel track, (like “Would you like to Know God Personally?” by Campus Crusade). You can read it together if you have time. Or suggest that he reads it on his own and prays the prayer at the end if it makes sense. Or suggest that he reads it on his own and you can talk about it afterward.
4. If your friend is ready, how do you help him to cross the line of faith?
a. The bottom line is that your friend needs to pray and ask Christ to forgive him and come into his life. It is between him and God, his heart and God’s heart.
b. Here is a suggested prayer (a sample prayer is always included in the gospel booklets):
“Lord Jesus, I need you. Please forgive me for all I have done wrong. Please come into my life and begin to lead me.”
c. Don’t get hung up on the words of the prayer. God is looking at his heart. The Key term in the Bible is the word “believe.” It refers to the attitude and response of the heart to God.
5. What if your friend is not ready to receive Christ?
a. To pick an avocado off a tree, you attach a coffee can to a long pole and raise it up under the avocado and then you jiggle the fruit. If it is ripe it will come off the tree easily. If it is not yet ripe, don’t be rough with it because you don’t want to bruise the fruit. So also in sharing Christ, if the person is not ready, don’t bruise the fruit.
b. A person coming to Christ is like a chain with many links. Each link represents one of the many influences that precede a person’s decision to receive to Christ. Our goal is simply to be a link in the chain, a positive influence on others for Christ so that we point them toward Him.
6. What if your friend asks a question you can’t answer?
a. You have not been called to be a salesman. You have not been called to be a defense attorney. You have been called to be a witness; to share with others what God has done for you (Acts 1:8).
b. If someone asks you a question for which you do not have an answer, simply respond the way the blind man did in John 9: “That’s a good question. I do not know the answer. But what I do know is that Christ has changed my life.” Then tell how Christ has worked in your life.
7. What if you are still afraid?
a. When you are sharing Christ, you are out of your comfort zone. It is natural for you to experience some fear or anxiety.
b. “I was before you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. But it wasn’t my persuasive words that brought you to Christ. It was the power of the Holy Spirit.” 1 Cor. 2:3-6
c. The ultimate motivation to push past your fears and seek to encourage them to Christ is LOVE. Love means you want the best for them. Nothing in this life will fill the emptiness in someone’s heart. Only God can meet the deepest needs of someone’s soul.
d. And ultimately, when your friends close their eyes for the last time here on earth, where will they open their eyes? At a funeral, you usually hear that the deceased is in a better place now. Well, there are two places out there. One is better and one is not. It is what they do with Christ that will determine their eternal destiny. So we want to do all we can to point them to Christ.
If one of your friends died without Christ and you were allowed to visit him in hell…and he asked you, “Why didn’t you tell me?” …what would you say? “I didn’t want to offend you. I was afraid of what you’d think of me. I felt like a hypocrite.” Which answer would make sense or satisfy him in light of what he was experiencing now. I think he would say “why didn’t you hit me on the head with a 2 X 4? When we don’t share, it’s usually about us. It’s not about what is best for them. If you love people, then you want the best for them and you will seek to be a positive influence on them for Christ.
Applications:
1. Maintain an Impact List (bulletin insert) of people in your web of relationships you want to encourage to Christ. God is always at work in the lives of those around you. The question is who are the people in your web of relationships who are responding to God at this point of time? We want to be especially sensitive to them so we can be cooperating with God and what He is doing in their lives.
2. Be friendly. Invite your friends to activities they might be interested in. 70% of people who have come to Christ have said that they came because a friend invited them.
