In his book Led by the Carpenter, D. James Kennedy writes:
A man walked into a little mom-and-pop grocery store and asked, “Do you sell salt?”
“Ha!” said Pop the proprietor. “Do we sell salt! Just look!” And Pop showed the customer one entire wall of shelves stocked with nothing but salt: Morton salt, iodized salt, kosher salt, sea salt, rock salt, garlic salt, seasoning salt, Epsom salts—every kind of salt imaginable.
“Wow!” said the customer.
“You think that's something?” said Pop with a wave of his hand. “That's nothing! Come look.” And Pop led the customer to a back room filled with shelves and bins and cartons and barrels and boxes of salt. “Do we sell salt!” he said.
“Unbelievable!” said the customer.
“You think that's something?” said Pop. “Come! I'll show you salt!” And Pop led the customer down some steps into a huge basement, five times as large as the previous room, filled wall, floor, to ceiling, with every imaginable form and size and shape of salt, even huge ten-pound salt licks for the cow pasture.
“Incredible!” said the customer. “You really do sell salt!”
“No!” said Pop. “That's just the problem! We never sell salt! But that salt salesman—Hoo-boy! Does he sell salt!” (D. James Kennedy, Led by the Carpenter, Thomas Nelson, 1999, p. 46; www.PreachingToday.com).
Jesus calls every believer to be salt in a decaying world (Matthew 5:13). Tell me. How are you doing in selling that salt? How are you doing in getting it off the shelf and into the world? How are you doing in persuading others to “buy” that salt, so to speak?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Corinthians 5, where the Apostle Paul shows us how to sell salt effectively.
2 Corinthians 5:11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others (ESV).
Since Christ will one day evaluate the effectiveness of Paul’s ministry (verse 10), Paul works hard to be effective, to persuade others to receive Christ, to convince people to believe in Christ. And that’s what you must do if you want to serve the Lord effectively.
CONVINCE OTHERS POWERFULLY.
Compellingly persuade people to follow Jesus. Give people a reason to believe in Jesus that they cannot refuse. So, how do you do that? Look again at verse 11.
2 Corinthians 5:11-13 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you (ESV).
If you want to compellingly persuade people to follow Jesus, then, like Paul, live what you preach. Convince people not on the basis of outward appearance, but with the demonstration of a changed life within.
Dear believer, God knows who you are (vs.11). He knows the goodness He has put inside you. Just let others see that goodness. Let people see your changed life. Let who you are on the inside shine on the outside.
Some will think you’re crazy, that you’re beside yourself (verse.13), but others will be convinced by your changed life. It’s the strongest argument you have!
In an article for Leadership journal, Gordon MacDonald shares the story of a time he went to the wrong airport. He thought he was scheduled to fly from Boston's Logan Airport to Chicago, but the boarding-pass attendant told him he was scheduled to fly not out of Boston, but Manchester, New Hampshire. MacDonald asked whether she could solve the problem for him. She could—but for an extra $360.
MacDonald was shocked. “I'm a 100k customer on your airline. I give you guys a lot of my business. Can't you just get me on the flight for free as a courtesy?” But the boarding-pass attendant said her hands were tied. MacDonald would have to pay the $360.
McDonald says, “The ungodly part of me wanted to say something sarcastic (about friendly skies, for example) that would hurt the other person as I felt hurt. But then he remembered the advice from a friend, who had recently resolved a nasty church fight. He said, “Someone has to show a little dignity in this thing. It really should start with you.” MacDonald swallowed his pride and applied the advice to the situation at hand.
He said to the boarding-pass lady, “Before I pay you the $360, let me say one more thing. Six weeks ago, I came here to take a flight to the West Coast and discovered that the airline had cancelled the flight and hadn't told me. They said they were sorry, and I forgave them.
“Then two weeks later, on a flight to Europe, the airline lost my luggage (for two days). They said they were really, really sorry. And, again, I forgave them.
“Last week, on a third flight, they got me to my destination two hours late. Your people fell all over themselves saying how sorry they were about the delays. And you know what? I forgave them again. Now here I am—fourth time in six weeks—wanting to fly with you again. See how forgiving I am?
“But this morning the problem's mine. I forgot that I scheduled myself out of the other airport. And I am really, really sorry that I made this terrible mistake.
“You guys have said 'sorry' to me three times in the last six weeks, and each time I have forgiven you. Now I would like to say 'sorry' to you and ask you to forgive me and put me on that flight without charging me the $360. You have three 'sorries,' and now I'm asking for one. Does that make any sense to you?”
The boarding-pass lady took her own time-out and considered McDonald’s idea and then said, "It really does make sense to me. Let me see what I can do."
She typed and typed and typed into her computer—as if she was writing a novella—and then looked up with a smile. "We can do this," she said. Two minutes later Gordon McDonald was off to the gate with his boarding pass.
He writes, “That morning dignity won. The airline forgave me. The skies were indeed friendly. I didn't have to pay an extra $360” (Gordon MacDonald, "Show a Little Dignity," Leadership, 11-23-09; www. Preachingtoday.com).
Dignity wins the argument more often than not. So if you want to compellingly persuade people to follow Jesus, just show a little dignity. Just let people see your changed life.
Then convince people with the compelling love of Christ. Persuade others with compassion, not arguments.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised (ESV).
Christ’s sacrificial love “controlled” Paul. Literally, it “pressed” Paul into action (cf. Luke 8:45). Love motivated Paul, and it must motivate you if you want to persuade others to follow Jesus.
On a Monday, several years ago (August 9, 1993), a 31-year-old woman, Sopehia White, burst into the hospital nursery at USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, wielding a .38 caliber handgun. She had come gunning for Elizabeth Staten, a nurse whom she accused of stealing her husband. White fired six shots, hitting Staten in the wrist and stomach. Staten fled, and White chased her into the emergency room, firing once more.
There, with blood on her clothes and a hot pistol in her hand, the attacker met another nurse, Joan Black, who did the unthinkable. Black walked calmly to the gun-toting woman—and hugged her. Black spoke comforting words. The assailant said she didn’t have anything to live for, that Staten had stolen her family. “You're in pain,” Black said. “I'm sorry, but everybody has pain in their life… I understand, and we can work it out.”
As they talked, the hospital invader kept her finger on the trigger. Once she began to lift the gun as though she would shoot herself. Nurse Black just pushed her arm down and continued to hold her. At last, Sopehia White gave the gun to the nurse, who disarmed her with a hug, with understanding, with compassion. Black later told an AP reporter, “I saw a sick person and had to take care of her” (Tom Tripp, Colusa, California. Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 1; www.PreachingToday.com).
In the same way, Jesus saw a sick humanity and had to take care of us. Hence, He died on the cross for our sins and rose again so that we could die to an old way of life and live for Him. He disarmed us with a hug, so to speak, and that’s how we “disarm” those who oppose. Let Christ’s sacrificial love press you into action, and demonstrate that love for others.
1st, Convince others powerfully with the demonstration of a changed life and the compelling love of Christ. Then 2nd, if you want to serve the Lord effectively…
CONSIDER OTHERS ACCORDING TO THEIR POTENTIAL.
Don’t look their outward appearance. Look at what God is doing for people on the inside. Regard people as God regards them. See them as God does.
2 Corinthians 5:16-17 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (ESV).
When a person puts their faith in Christ, God changes that person completely. So don’t look at people as the sinners they are. Look at people as God can recreate them to be in Christ.
A little more than 25 years ago (1999), 19-year-old Robert W. VanSumeren stood nervously in a Michigan courtroom as Judge Michael Smith sentenced him to six years in prison for a string of local robberies. Robert said, “I was terrified. I thought my life was finished. I felt really lost and wondered how I’d ever get through it.”
Then almost 20 years later, to the day, Robert, at 40 years of age, returned to that same courtroom and stood again in front of Judge Michael Smith. This time, Robert was asking the judge who had sentenced him as a teenager to swear him in as a new attorney. After finishing his prison sentence, he had attended college, then law school, hoping to give back to the community he had once stolen from. After passing the bar exam in July 2018, Robert underwent a lengthy investigation by the Michigan bar’s character and fitness committee, and they gave him approval to be sworn in.
Robert said, “I didn’t know if the judge would go for it, but I thought it was worth asking.” Judge Smith said he was astonished by the request. But he was also delighted. “I have to take my hat off to him — he has changed his life. It’s really quite remarkable and rare. Very seldom do you see such a successful turnaround.”
When he had finished, Judge Smith shook Robert’s hand, posed with him for pictures and tossed out the usual decorum he requires in his courtroom. He said, “I’d like everyone here to feel free to applaud this man. He should be commended for changing his life” (Cathy Free, “This former bank robber was just sworn in as a lawyer — by the same judge who once sent him to prison,” Washington Post, 12-10-19; www.PreachingToday.com).
Too often, Christians judge people for the sinners they are today. Please, don’t do that. Instead, see them for who they can become in Christ. To serve the Lord effectively, look at people as God can recreate them to be.
Then look at people as God can reconcile them to Himself. See them not as enemies, but potentially as friends with Jesus.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation (ESV).
God turns enemies into friends so that they in turn can be ministers of reconciliation with the message of reconciliation.
On January 26, 2001 Seiko Sakamoto, a plasterer working in a Tokyo subway station, fell into the path of an oncoming train. Lee Su Hyun, a Korean student in Japan for language studies, leaped down on the tracks to save Sakamoto. Both Hyun and Sakamoto were unable to exit the path of the oncoming train, which killed them.
This selfless act by the Korean student on behalf of the Japanese laborer caused many people in Japan to reconsider their long-held prejudices directed toward Koreans. Strong feelings of distrust between the two countries go back to World War II atrocities the Japanese inflicted upon Koreans. Many Japanese people, including the Prime Minister of Japan, openly expressed sorrow over their previously held stereotypes of Koreans and begun to talk about reconciliation. Nobuaki Fujioka, a 62- year-old Japanese said, "I felt a kind of shame. A young foreigner sacrificed his life for a Japanese. This is not an easy thing to do" (David A. Slagle, Lawrenceville, GA; www.PreachingToday.com).
In the same way, Christ’s sacrifice for sinners can heal their broken relationship with Him. So don’t see people as sinners and enemies. See them as potential saints and friends.
If you want to serve the Lord effectively, 1st, convince others powerfully; 2nd, consider others according to their potential; and 3rd…
CHARACTERIZE CHRIST PROPERLY.
Represent Jesus well. Stand in for the Lord in an appropriate way.
2 Corinthians 5:20-21 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (ESV).
God treated Jesus as a sinner so He could treat you and me as saints and commission us as His ambassadors, as His representatives in this world.
In Paul’s day, when the Roman army conquered a nation, the Roman senate decided whether that nation should become a Roman province. If so, the senate sent to the nation ten ambassadors or representatives from their own number. They, along with the victorious general, arranged the terms of peace with the conquered nation, determined the boundaries of the new province, drew up a constitution for its new administration, and then returned to submit what they had done for the senate to ratify.
Now, these ambassadors were responsible for bringing people who were once enemies into the family of the Roman Empire. In the same way, Paul sees himself as an ambassador for Christ, who urges God’s enemies to be at peace with God, so they can become citizens of his empire and members of his family (Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians, 3rd ed., pp.248-249).
My dear friends, if you want to serve the Lord effectively, see yourself in the same way. See yourself as Christ’s ambassador and represent Him well.
During the last days of the Third Reich, as Allied bombs rained down on Stuttgart, Germany, Helmut Thielicke continued to preach to his small congregation in that worn torn city. They were days of uncertainty and death. And on more than one occasion, the shriek of air raid sirens interrupted his sermon. Thielicke writes that during this period there were times when he felt utterly stricken: “My work in Stuttgart seemed to have gone to pieces; and my listeners were scattered to the four winds; the churches lay in rubble and ashes.”
Then Thielicke describes an encounter with a woman from his congregation. He was standing in the street looking down into the pit of a cellar—all that remained from a building that an Allied bomb had shattered. The woman approached him and declared, “My husband died down there. His place was right under the hole. The clean-up squad was unable to find a trace of him; all that was left was his cap.”
What does a pastor say in a moment like this? “I'm sorry” hardly seems adequate. But the woman had not come to Thielicke for sympathy. She wanted to express her gratitude. “We were there the last time you preached in the cathedral church, and here before this pit I want to thank you for preparing him for eternity” (John Koessler, “Helmut Thielicke: Preaching Amidst the Rubble,” A Stanger in the House of God blog, 6-24-10; www.PreachingToday.com).
Dear believing friend, that’s what God calls all of us to do as His ambassadors. He calls us to stand before the rubble of this ash-heap world and prepare people for eternity.
If you want to serve the Lord effectively, 1st, convince others powerfully; 2nd, consider others according to their potential; and 3rd, characterize Christ properly.
Chuck Broughton, an author and speaker with the Navigators, talks about riding a crowded subway in New York city.
Every 10 to 15 seconds or so, someone behind him shouted unintelligible words. The first time, he ignored them. After several outbursts, however, he turned around to see that they were coming from a disheveled man behind him.
Sitting fairly close to him was a woman reading a newspaper. As Chuck watched, the man reached out, touched her knee, and quickly brought his hand back. Not getting any response, he did it again a few seconds later. It seemed like a game a small child might play; each time, his face showed that he was pretending not to have touched her. No one said anything, but those sitting near him exchanged nervous glances and began to inch away.
Then the woman put down her paper and looked at the man. Chuck expected her to rebuke him. Instead, she politely engaged the man in conversation. “Do you know where your stop is?”
He nodded that he did.
“Do you need any help getting to where you need to go?”
He shook his head no.
Chuck says the way she asked these questions showed that she was genuinely concerned for the man’s welfare. She chose to respond to him as a real person with real needs, not just as an annoyance on her commute (Chuck Broughton, “Reflecting God's Nature,” Discipleship Journal, Jan/Feb 2003, pp. 35-36; www.PreachingToday.com).
Go and do thou likewise. If you want God to use you for His glory, don’t treat people as annoyances; treat them like Christ treated you—as real people with real needs.
