After I finished teaching a seminar one night, a gentleman came over to thank me for the evening.
I asked him, “Do you know Christ yet?”
Glen said, “I'm still trying to find him.”
“Tell me about yourself,” I said.
“I'm an engineer, and my marriage is on the rocks.” He sighed. “I have a lot of questions about faith.”
I said, “Let's do a spiritual check and see where you are stuck. Are you a sinner?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want forgiveness of your sins?”
“Yes.”
“Do you believe Jesus died on the cross and rose again?”
He shook his head. “I don't know.”
“Glen, if you could be sure that Jesus died and rose again, would you want your sins forgiven?”
He nodded solemnly.
“Let's talk about the Resurrection. God made sure that in history there was evidence to the reality of Jesus Christ. Glen, would you be willing to ask God to help you in your unbelief?”
“Yes, I am willing.”
I put my hand on his shoulder. “God is about to listen to your heart. Let's try a simple prayer and see God move.”
We bowed our heads, and Glen repeated after me, “I am a sinner. I want forgiveness of all my sins. I want to believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. Help me in my unbelief. Father, if this is true, help me in my marriage. I want to give Jesus my life.”
Glen looked up from his prayer. His eyes glistened with joy. “It's all true,” he confessed for the first time. “I believe!”
I asked, “Glen, where's Jesus?”
He grinned. “In my heart.”
“Is your wife here?”
“Yes, I'll go get her.”
When Renee came, we found out she had just given her heart to Christ in the prayer room. Then we found their twelve-year-old daughter, Theresa, who was all teary-eyed.
“What's going on?” I asked.
Theresa started to cry. “I don't know if I should live with my dad in Oklahoma or my mom and stepdad here.”
I asked, “Theresa, can you see tomorrow?”
“No,” she whispered.
“I know one who can. Who do you think that is?”
She looked up. “Jesus?”
“Have you ever known Jesus?”
“No, but I heard the gospel tonight. How do you receive Jesus?”
I joyfully took her over to her mom and dad, who were talking to the pastor, and said, “Your daughter is ready to join you in a relationship with Jesus Christ.” Soon after, Theresa prayed to receive Jesus as her Lord.
When you are in the business of sharing your faith, it's not just one life that will be made whole; it may be a family, village, state, or nation. The question is, do you want the privilege?
This family followed me out of the church, thanking me. But I am the one who is thankful to God. It is such a privilege to be used by him in this way.
The Choice
Obviously, we look for the opportunity to present the gospel to people. Yet we would be remiss if we did not give people a choice, the choice to receive life or death. My cowriter, Linda, found this concept to be true on a busy beach in Galveston, Texas, when she was a teen. She says,
I was sixteen years old and was at the sea wall with my youth group to share our faith. I was nervous, but my anxiety was soon lulled by the waves rolling onto the beach below and by the blue sky stretching above. As I handed out printed gospel tracts, I walked by a seashell shop. My partner, Stephanie, and I discovered two hiding coworkers. “What's the matter?” I asked them.
Carol held back tears. “We were handing out tracts when we ran into a man who asked a question we couldn't answer.”
“What did he ask?” I demanded.
“He wanted to know if God was so great, could he make a wall so strong, even he couldn't break it? Then he wanted to know if God was so great, why couldn't he break the wall?”
“Oh!” I responded, deflating like a punctured balloon. I turned to face a salty breeze, wondering if the question was a trick or if my faith was flawed.
A Scripture from Psalm 69:32 drifted into my thoughts: “And your heart shall live that seek God” (KJV).
“I know the answer!” I exclaimed. “God has already created a wall like that. It's the human heart.” Although God's mighty enough, he'll never break through the wall. He will enter only if invited in.
God is a gentleman; he never forces us to love or to serve him. Joshua made this same discovery. About fourteen hundred years before the birth of Christ, he was called to lead the tribes of Israel across the Jordan River into the land God was about to give them. Later, as he assembled all the tribes before God, he reminded the people how God had brought their forefathers from Egypt and had delivered them from warring nations. Joshua told them, “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness…. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve…. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD” (Josh. 24:14–15).
Just as in the days of Joshua, God still offers his love and the opportunity to serve him, but he will not force it on anyone. You may recall God once before offered the tribes of Israel the land across the Jordan. They refused this blessing out of fear of the people who lived there. Because they refused this blessing, they were left to wander in the desert for forty years until Joshua finally led them to victory. It is clear. It is our choice to receive God's blessing and to serve him, or not.
When we look at Jesus' ministry on earth, we see he always gave people a choice. For example, Jesus asked the invalid at the pool of Bethesda if he wanted to be healed. Imagine, this man had been crippled for thirty-eight years. He sat on his mat by the pool at the Sheep Gate, surrounded by the sick and lame. Each hoped to be first in the pool if the Lord sent an angel to stir the waters with healing. Yet Jesus made no assumptions.
He asked the lame man, “‘Do you want to get well?’
“‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.’
“Then Jesus said to him, ‘Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.’ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked” (John 5:6–9).
Isn't it interesting that Jesus didn't force the crippled man to receive restoration? As a matter of fact, Jesus never forced his healing or love on anyone. So it takes more than hearing the gospel to become born again. It comes down to making a choice about what you have heard.
Wouldn't it be awful if you showed someone God's love but did not give him the choice to receive it? That's what D. L. Moody once did, and it haunted him the rest of his life.
“He did not ask an audience to receive Christ as Savior on April 8, 1871, the night of the Chicago fire. That night Moody spoke to his largest audience ever in Chicago. His topic was ‘What Then Shall I Do with Jesus Who Is Called the Christ?’ At the conclusion, he asked the listeners to consider the question and respond the next Sunday, when they returned. But they did not return. Fire bells rang even as they rose, and the building burned, and the congregation scattered.”1
Moody always wondered how many of his audience came to faith before they slipped into eternity.
We need to offer others a choice. You will be surprised how easy it will be to share your faith, to say, “By the way, if what you are believing is not true, would you want to know it?” When you receive a yes to this question, you can move on to direct your friend to read Scripture aloud and ask, “What does it say to you?”
Let's pretend your friend has read the seven “Share Jesus Scriptures” and has now responded to the last verse, Revelation 3:20: “‘Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.’”
When this last Scripture has been read aloud, it's time to ask five more questions. If you are not using a Share Jesus without Fear New Testament, you may want to copy these “Commitment Questions” on the fly leaf of your Bible:
The following is a discussion of these questions:
1. Are you a sinner?
This first question is based on the first read-aloud Scripture, Romans 3:23: “All have sinned.” The “Share Jesus Scriptures” prepare the listeners' hearts for the “Commitment Questions” you are now asking.
Next ask:
2. Do you want forgiveness of sins?
We've already pointed out, in Romans 6:23, the wages of sin is death. So by now your friend should know why he needs forgiveness. It is his choice. It is up to him to receive it or not.
3. Do you believe Jesus died on the cross for you and rose again?
This is a key element in anyone's decision because the cross is central to the gospel. For as your friend read in Romans 10:9–11, it is with the heart man believes and with the heart a man is justified and with the mouth a man confesses.
4. Are you willing to surrender your life to Jesus Christ?
This is a very important question. I'm always concerned about the possibility I might lead someone to make a decision before he or she understands the need to count the cost. Jesus always encouraged people to count the cost. He said in Luke 14:27–28, “And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?” Then again, Matthew 19 tells the story of the rich young man:
“Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.”
“Which ones?” the man inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. (Matt. 19:16–22)
Upon witnessing this event, Jesus' disciples were discouraged and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
Jesus reminded them, “What is impossible with men is possible with God” (Luke 18:27).
Thank goodness it is possible with God, or we would all be lost. Thank goodness Jesus forgives us through his perfection, not ours. Even so, we need to be sure our friends and family members know they choose to receive God's love, and they must choose to serve him willingly. We must not lead our friends into an easy faith that does not change their hearts or their lives.
5. Are you ready to invite Jesus into your life and into your heart?
Scripture says in John 1:12, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
We need to invite, to receive, to accept Jesus into our hearts.
Quiet Please
I am going to give you a couple of key principles. Notice question 5: “Are you ready to invite Jesus into your life and into your heart?”
When you think of question 5, I want you to think of the words silence and pray. Now as gently as I can, I want to encourage you to change the word silence to shut up. Shut up is really kind of a nasty, tacky phrase that makes a tremendous point. Whenever you ask question 5, I would ask you, in love, to please shut up!
You have to realize the dynamics that are taking place. The Holy Spirit is working in this one's heart. The angels are rooting for you. The Word of God is applying pressure to this one's very bone and marrow. You, my friend, need to sit in stark silence. Ten seconds of silence to someone under conviction of the power of the Holy Spirit feels like ten minutes. I have seen beads of sweat break out on foreheads as I've waited. But the battle is not with you or me. The battle is with God and his Word. My job, like yours, is to simply take the pages of Scripture, have someone read them out loud, and say, “What does this say to you?” Soon you will ask, “Are you ready to invite Jesus into your heart and into your life?”
When you ask this final question, be silent.
I cannot emphasize how important prayer is at this moment. This could be the height of spiritual warfare. Satan hates what is about to take place. Pray whatever you feel led to pray. Often I look at the person who is doing battle with God and pray in my mind that God will be merciful. I pray Satan will be bound. Yet I do not open my mouth until my lost friend breaks his silence.
Several years ago, I taught this principle to a group of young people. Later, I was enjoying a Broncos football game when one of them called me on the phone. Frank gushed, “Bill, I broke your record.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, my eyes still frozen on John Elway, who was driving toward the goal line.
“You said the longest you ever waited was ten minutes. I talked to this girl, went silent, and sat there for forty-five minutes. My feet got sweaty, and I began to run out of things to pray for.”
Now he had my attention. I turned my back to the TV. “What happened?”
“She accepted Christ, of course!”
How long are you willing to wait? When you ask question 5, there are only two possible answers you will hear: yes or no.
When the answer yes comes from a person's heart, this is the precise moment she becomes born again. It's not when she prays the sinner's prayer, walks down the aisle, or performs a ritual; it's the moment she places her faith and trust in the work and person of Jesus Christ. Of course, I'll lead her to pray the sinner's prayer. That's dessert!
You may have your friend or loved one pray a sinner's prayer something like: “Heavenly Father, I have sinned against you. I want forgiveness for all my sins. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me and rose again. Father, I give you my life to do with as you wish. I want Jesus Christ to come into my life and into my heart. This I ask in Jesus' name. Amen.”
What a moment! The joy is rushing, the angels are singing, and your heart is rejoicing in God's goodness. You feel like turning back flips and somersaults.
But what if this moment had turned out differently? What if your friend or loved one had said no? How in the world can you deal with that?
The Why Principle
Whenever I get a no to question 5, I ask, “Why?” The following chapter will again discuss the “Why Principle” as well as other ways to handle objections you might hear when you ask question 5—“Are you ready to invite Jesus into your life and into your heart?”—and receive a no.
Embrace the Unexpected
We mean well. We mean to stop and reach out to others, but we get caught up in life. We stumble over the very blessings God has given us. The blessings of family, hobbies, our job, and our church send us in a mad rush to the fast lane. We get so out of touch, we fail to notice when the Holy Spirit authors the unexpected.
Jesus is unimpressed when we do not take time to follow his leading. We need to pay attention to those people he has put into our path.
“But you don't understand,” you may say. “I'm so behind I don't have time to invest my life in sharing the gospel with anyone.”
I would argue that when it comes to God's work, you don't have interruptions. You have only divine opportunities. You don't need to worry about maintaining your fast pace. When God gives you the unexpected, he gives you all the time you need. Besides, sharing your faith does not have to be a longwinded affair. Did you know it is possible to share your faith in thirty seconds or less?
You can do it by simply asking the last five “Commitment Questions.” I practiced this the first time several years ago. Late one night, I was driving down a dark road. As I rounded a corner, I saw several squad cars with their dome lights blinking. Then I saw a small Volkswagen Beetle crushed against a tree. I could see the hydraulics of the “jaws of life” that had just been used to pull a nineteen-year-old boy out of the mangled car. He lay on a stretcher with IVs jammed into his arms, as the paramedics tried to save his young life.
I pulled over, got out of my car, and made my way to the boy. But I had a problem. A helicopter crew was ready to whisk the boy to the hospital. I had only thirty seconds to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. This was complicated by the fact this boy could not speak. All he could do was groan.
I knelt by his head and whispered, “Are you a sinner?”
“Uhhhh.”
“Do you want forgiveness of sins?”
“Uhhhh.”
“Do you believe Jesus Christ died on the cross for you and rose again?”
“Uhhhh.”
“Are you willing to surrender your life to Jesus Christ?”
“Uhhhh.”
“Are you ready to invite Jesus Christ into your life and into your heart?”
“Uhhhh.”
You see, if this groan came from the boy's heart, he was saved. The gospel is so simple, it only takes a few seconds to share.
The next day, I read in the paper that the boy died. Yet I know one thing: God loved him enough to give him an opportunity at the last moment to receive his Son Jesus Christ. If that boy did, he is walking the streets of gold saying, “Man, that was close!”
But that's not the end of the story. Seven years later, I conducted a seminar in a small church and told this story. Afterward, a grandmotherly woman approached me. She touched her throat as she softly asked, “Was it a green Volkswagen Beetle?”
Nobody knew that but the Lord and me. I said, “Yes, ma'am. How did you know?”
With tears in her eyes she whispered, “That was my grandson.”
God loved her enough to let her know that her grandson had one more opportunity to come to him. So when you look back at this story, was the car accident an interruption to my life or a God-given opportunity? Perhaps this will help you look at your own interruptions in a new light.
Keita Andrews is a man who allows life's interruptions to be used by God as opportunities. At 4:30 one morning, I stood in a Denny's restaurant and taught him and a bunch of other UPS drivers how to share their faith.
Keita called me a week later to tell me about all the people he had led to Christ. He was almost flying. He could hardly catch his breath as he told me story after story of how he had led people to the Lord in parks, stores, everywhere.
I said, “I've got to meet you.”
We met, I fell completely in love with him, and we became close friends. One day, Keita's life was interrupted. As he jumped out of his UPS truck, his knee collapsed under him. Later, after major surgery, he called me and asked, “Do you know any ministry that pays to share your faith?”
I laughed and said, “If I knew that, I would be in it myself, Keita.”
That evening, when my wife came home from her job as a nurse at an inner-city health clinic, she mentioned the clinic was looking for a chaplain.
I immediately called the board of directors and told them about Keita. He got the job.
At that time, this clinic saw more than fifteen thousand people a year. Many of those patients came through Keita's office and heard his questions and read the Scriptures. We have lost count of the number of people who have come to Jesus.
One day, after my wife finished her job at the clinic, she started to walk to her car. A man ran behind her and grabbed her purse. Her first reaction was shock, but her second reaction was to charge. So here's my fifty-plus-year-old wife running down the street, chasing a crack dealer. The mugger ran into a crack house, and my wife pounded on the door and shouted, “If you don't give me my purse, I am going to put Bill and Keita on you.”
Later, when she told me the story, I called Keita. He knew the mugger, so we went and sat outside his house. A man in a wheelchair showed up. Keita led him to Christ. Then the man who stole my wife's purse showed up, and Keita led him to Christ. A few days later, the mugger apologized to my wife and returned her purse. Only the money was missing.
Not that I recommend chasing crack dealers down the street, but I do recommend you pay close attention to all the interruptions that come into your life. Give each of them to God and allow him to react through you with his love and power. When you do, you will see God use all things for his good, even bum knees and stolen purses.
Be Thankful
Remember, as you watch for opportunities, God wants you to simply be thankful.
The Holy Spirit wants to use your faithfulness to bless two people, the person you are sharing with as well as yourself. He wants you to experience the joy of Philemon, verse 6, “I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.”
Coach Dave Nicholl said, “The summer I began to share my faith with the graduating seniors, I experienced that kind of joy in my heart. My relationship with Christ grew. I was more excited than when I saw the Broncos win the Super Bowl.”
The Holy Spirit wants you to experience this joy so you will have a full understanding of what you have in Christ. Through this process, you may be amazed at how God will use you.
Coach Dave adds, “Plug into where God is moving. Take advantage of every opportunity. One night, the phone rang. A phone solicitor from New Mexico was trying to sell me something. I listened to his pitch and told him, ‘I'm not interested.’ As he tried his pitch a second time, I said, ‘I have a question for you. Do you have any kind of spiritual belief?’ That's when I learned something. God is moving, not just in Windsor, Colorado, but all over the world. I was elated when the salesman gave his heart to Christ.”
Test every opportunity that comes your way. When you find God is moving, join him, and like Coach Dave, you will be thankful that your joy is complete.
Review
Commitment questions:
After you ask these questions, remember, be silent and pray! If your friend says yes to question 5, you may want to lead him through the following prayer: “Heavenly Father, I have sinned against you. I want forgiveness for all my sins. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me and rose again. Father, I give you my life to do with as you wish. I want Jesus Christ to come into my life and into my heart. This I ask in Jesus' name. Amen.”
Remember, you may want to write down these questions as well as this prayer in your Bible. The next chapter will show you how to support the person who has said yes to Jesus.