Sharing the Gospel is so…HARD!
I have spent my whole life in church and on missions across the world and one of the things that has always given me the most trouble is sharing the Gospel with others. It feels so intimidating. What do I say? How do I respond if they ask a question? What if I sound dumb? The questions and what if’s go on and on. I have always hated the prospect of doing it and would try and find ways to avoid being in situations where I had to do it. Now, as a youth pastor I have heard this same sentiment hundreds and thousands of times, “sharing the Gospel is so hard!”
Maybe we’re just scared?
The truth is, it really isn’t hard. It’s actually one of the easiest things you can do. According to a survey by Lifeway Research, “80 percent of those who attend church one or more times a month, believe they have a personal responsibility to share their faith. But 61 percent have not told another person about how to become a Christian in the previous six months.” This tells me that maybe we are just scared.
There are plenty of times where I am reminded how easy sharing your faith can be and why we need to put the fear of doing so, to bed. Here are three things to remember to help you:
1. Salvation isn’t on you:
We are just story tellers. It’s not our job to convert someone, that’s God’s thing. We aren’t trying to save them. We are just trying to tell them about something that is important to us. It’s human nature to try and change someone’s opinion or mind. And sometimes that leads to aggressive conversation. But remember, only God can change a man’s heart. Our job is to be faithful to preaching the gospel. That’s it! And there is so much freedom in that. You can’t mess it up because you are just telling them who Jesus is and what he has done for you, anything past that is up to God.
2. People will respond…to God:
I had the opportunity to preach my first message at a Youth Quake Live show recently. I was nervous I would be terrible, nervous I would freeze and most of all nerous that when I gave the alter call that NO ONE would respond. My fears were realized as I stumbled through my message, forgot what to say and got off-track.
Following the message, I stepped off stage to let the band play half a song and then prepared to come back out to invite people to give their heart to Jesus. I kept thinking about the botched message and thought my invitation to the alter wasn’t going to be any better. As I walked back on stage I prayed, “Jesus, please just let someone respond to my message. Let at least one person walk forward when I invite them.” I gave the invitation and to my surprise, people began flooding down the aisles. I couldn’t believe it!
As I knelt on stage and watched these young people give their lives to Christ, I thanked God for hearing my prayer and rejoiced that my message had been hear. I heard God speak to me and say, “They’re not responding to you, Gabe, they are responding to me.” Wow. I share this story because it is so important to remember, when you are sharing the Gospel, people will respond to God.
3. Just keep going:
Our students recently had a similar experience on the mission field in Uganda. During one of our ministry days we had the opportunity to be a part of a medical clinic where they got the chance to share the gospel with over 760 people. As they shared, people got angry and left. While this might have hampered any young Christian, this team continued to share. They let God do what only He could do. At the end of the day they celebrated because they saw 83 people give their hearts to Christ and planted over 700 other seeds.
What’s next?
When it isn’t about us, than it isn’t on us. That is good news. So, what’s next? Here are just a couple of quick tips to help you start sharing the Gospel.
- I usually start by asking if people have heard about Jesus.
- If they have I ask them what they have heard, what they think and if I can tell them what he did for me.
- If they haven’t I ask if I can tell them.
And no matter what they say from there it is not on me because it’s not about me! Well, who do you need to tell?
Mark 16:15 – “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation.”
Mathew 10:32-33 – “whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in Heaven. But whoever denies me before others I will deny before my Father in Heaven.”
