Last week I started a very important message and today I will give you the second part of it.
Today’s Word: You have a Great Task! Part 2
(if you didn’t watch or missed part 1 please watch it !)
Your great task on earth after loving the Lord with all your heart is to save those who are lost!
Last week we read John 4:6-38 on how Jesus evangelised, and by looking at Jesus we have learned some very important truths.
Jesus was willing, He was kind , He was Relatable, He was confrontational and He was contagious.
5th Jesus was contagious
Jesus was contagious – notice that after the woman had this experience, she runs back to her town telling everyone : Come and see ! what a powerful statement! She was so touched by her experience with the Lord and her newfound salvation that she ran and told everyone.
After Jesus won the woman over she went and told the whole town.
A true christian is contagious, meaning that he or she will inspire others to win their loved ones and friends to the Lord.
So , looking to Jesus we see five very important learning points: Jesus was willing, He was kind , He was Relatable, He was confrontational and He was contagious.
If we act like Jesus we will save the lost.
As I said in the last message, every Christian needs to have the experience and the joy of preaching the gospel, saving people and seeing these people in church serving the Lord.
Let’s see now five practical keys that if applied to your life, you will win your loved ones, your friends and coworkers to the Lord.
It’s important to remember that only the Holy Spirit can draw the sinner to repentance. I think the danger comes when we try play God. We take a friend to church and we start elbowing them for things we think they should respond to and we try to play the Holy Spirit.
You are not the Holy Spirit. We are not to pressure, we are to present! We are not to push, we are to present the Gospel.
You cannot produce salvation through your own efforts. Don’t become angry, don’t take it personally if people don’t respond to what you are saying.
We have to present the gospel in a nice way and then trust the Holy Spirit to take it from there.
1- Present the Truth
The Gospel is a declaration: a clear simple bold declaration about a truth that God wants to communicate, that salvation is found in Christ Jesus and if you turn from your sins and trust in the Lord to save, you will be saved. So we have to present the truth.
“I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners and need to repent.””
Luke 5:32 NLT
“Now repent of your sins and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped away.”
Acts of the Apostles 3:19 NLT
We must declare the truth. This responsibility lays on us!
“Yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News!”
1 Corinthians 9:16 NLT
Here we see that there actually has to be a presentation of the gospel. It’s good to invite people to your church, but inviting someone to your church is not the same as evangelising.
It’s good to do kind acts in the community, like: painting public places, giving out food, cleaning up the city etc; but community work is not the preaching of the Gospel.
It’s good to do charity work but charity is not preaching the gospel. It’s good to build friendships with people and be nice to them. But friendship alone is not the presentation of the gospel.
The model that was given in scripture is that of presentation. We should do charity, we should help people, but it is in the clear declaration of the message of salvation that we see results produced.
Because the Holy Spirit partners with our preaching to convict the heart of the sinner.
We have to preach the Gospel with love and preach a clear message so then the Holy Spirit will take it from there.
1- You have to present the truth, not live a quiet life and if somebody ever asks who do you serve, then you go and tell them. No! We have to present a clear gospel message at all times. (We are going to see more on it at the end of this message)
2- Practice Purity – This is a key !
““No one lights a lamp and then hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where its light can be seen by all who enter the house. “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is unhealthy, your body is filled with darkness. Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.”
Luke 11:33-36 NLT
The effectiveness of your evangelism increases as your purity increases. Of course God can use anyone He wishes. He once used a donkey to speak to a prophet so He can use anyone.
But when we live in purity, that purity is going to give you credibility when you start preaching the gospel.
I’m not talking about sins that we think are filthy like lust, and anger and greed. I’m talking about things like pride, the ability to admit when you’re wrong, the ability to apologise. Im talking about meekness, kindness and humility and grace and gentleness.
These things are very attractive to other people. If others know that you as someone who is proud, rude, with little patience and no self-control, or who’s always complaining, always lazy , always late for work , they are not going to take what you say seriously because you don’t have their respect.
In order to say certain things, your character must first be respectable. If you have a respectable character: You’re kind to people , you keep your word, if you say you’ll be somewhere at a certain time you’re there at that time. If you say that you can be counted on for support, then you show support.
Be the best worker (some people they get fired because they are bad workers they don’t obey authority) Be the best student, be the best manager , be the best in every field and this will give you credibility when you’re declaring the gospel.
Practice purity because people will then respect your character.
Do people like to be near you? Some people want to preach the gospel but they are boring, they have no patience and they are rude. You have to be friendly.
There is nothing worse than someone trying to tell others of a God who can save them from corrupt characters when they themselves have corrupt characters.
Make sure you are practicing what you preach. Make sure you are a prime example of Jesus.
How would Jesus be as a student? How would Jesus behave in a work place? How would Jesus participate? How would Jesus interact with others? Do people like to be close to you?
We must have the same humility! We cannot be these loud-mouthed, arrogant, proud people. We cannot be lazy people. We cannot be unreliable people and simply expect others will hear what we have to say. We cannot be annoying, we cannot be rude. There are people who don’t relate well with others and still expect people to respond to the message they are preaching.
I think Christians can sometimes be very awkward and unreliable and they become ineffective in their evangelism.
If you want to be an effective evangelist you must practice purity, you must have a good character and be respectable.
No one will accept anything from you if you have an annoying approach and are always criticising people. That is an immature approach.
You have to present the gospel in love and let the Holy Spirit work in their heart. If you are always bothering people and criticising them you will never win anyone for Jesus.
Just share the love of the Gospel and the Hope in Christ and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.
Judging people is a religious approach and it will make them despise you.
Don’t try to be the Holy Spirit.
3- Pray for the lost.
“Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved.”
Romans 10:1 NLT
Here we can see that prayer can be offered for the salvation.
Let me ask you: is it God’s will that the lost is saved?
Of course it is. For God is willing that none should perish but all come to everlasting life.
If it’s God’s will we can pray for the salvation of our loved ones.
If the gospel is a seed, then prayer is the water and the Holy Spirit is the life-giving light.
The Holy Spirit is the one who draws us through salvation. As you are praying for them, you’re partnering with the Holy Spirit in bringing them to the cross.
Evangelistic pressure tactics produce fake conversions. It has to be the Holy Spirit and we must leave that work to Him.
Pray for them. Write up a list of people and pray for them daily. When you pray you’re watering the seed of the gospel.
4- Present power
“And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit.”
1 Corinthians 2:4 NLT
It’s our responsibility to present the truth, to declare the gospel lovingly, to have a strong character, pray for them and demonstrate the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you’re preaching to someone who is sick, pray for a miracle. If you’re preaching to someone who is oppressed, depressed or possessed by demonic beings, tell them God can set them free, tell them God can break the addiction, tell them God can break that cycle in their life and liberate them.
That is a legitimate form of evangelism! Miracles are a magnet for the message but miracles are not the message itself. We can use the power to present the gospel but the power itself is not the gospel.
We must declare the message with spirit-filled power.
I have the joy to have many children in the faith, who are serving the Lord. Many of them received healing before receiving salvation! So always pray for a miracle!
How to simply explain the way of salvation?
I’m going to give you 3 simple Keys
Diagnoses, Cure and Response!
That’s the order you have to go in. If I try to give someone the cure before they have been diagnosed, they are going to resist that cure.
So, by presenting Jesus saying: You need to receive Jesus as Lord, He loves you , He wants to save you.
They are going to say: no I’m good. Especially, people who are healthy, especially people who are doing well by worldly standards. Especially people who are moral and have happy families. They have a good job, maybe they have a nice house, they have a wife who loves them, they have kids who obey for the most part and they are satisfied in life.
You present them the cure but they say : I’m fine, I don’t really need that, I don’t really need religion, the pride that sets in.
So you have to present a diagnosis before anyone takes the cure. After you present the cure you have to present the response.
How to present the response? Teach them how to respond to it.
If someone is diagnosed with cancer and the cure has been deemed that a surgery will work, then that person has to offer themselves on the operating table.
Now they can’t operate on themselves, of course. No one can operate on themselves.
But you have to go in and surrender yourself by getting on the table, so that the surgeon can do His job.
Jesus is the surgeon of the soul. That cancer is sin. Sin is that cancer that is eating away at the soul.
We are responsible for our sins! The Bible says that death came through sin, for all have sinned. Because everyone has sinned, that opens the door to death and destruction. Then sin is that cancer!
When you present the diagnosis some people are shocked, some people go in denial: no, I’m not a sinner! Other people are thankful: thank you for telling me. What’s the cure? And you present the cure as trust in Jesus.
How do I do that? You surrender yourself, you have to get on that operating table and give your life to him.
Diagnosis, cure and response!
1- Show that all have sinned / Romans 3:23 (All have sinned)
This is the diagnosis. The wealthy and the pour have sinned. People who are happy and miserable have sinned. Single and married people. No matter the country, no matter the culture, no matter the race, all have sinned. This is the diagnosis! God has a standard and we have all broken his law because and we all deserve the wrath of God.
2- Show that sin brings death / Romans 6:23 (The wages of sin is death)
Here the scripture tell us that when we sin, the payment for our sin, the penalty for our sin is spiritual death, it’s eternity without God. However you want define hell, however people want to debate it, there is a place where people go that is separate from God.
God is goodness, God is peace, God is love, so there is a place they’re going to go with no goodness, no peace, no love.
3- We must show that Jesus paid our debt – Romans 5:8 (Christ died for us)
There is the love part. First the truth that makes you miserable, and then it sets you free. The gospel is only good news when people know the reality first.
What’s the gospel? Jesus saves! Saves from what? He saves from sin and hell!
So if no one believes they have sinned, nobody believes in the judgment, How is the Gospel Good News?
The gospel is simply the salvation that is found in Christ Jesus!
Salvation from what? From sin and hell and the judgment to come. We all deserve it but God is so kind that he paid the price and took our place and debt.
4- We must explain that salvation is by Faith. Romans 10:9-10. (If you believe in your heart you will be saved)
Religious people say that you have to behave in order to be saved, but that’s not true. You have to believe in order to be saved.
If you truly believe you will truly be saved and if you’re truly saved, new desires will be produced in you so that you can behave.
First God transforms the heart, then He transforms the actions.
Some preachers teach that it is in changing your actions that you transform your heart, but that’s not the case.
You believe, you accept that offer and then you’re saved because you believed in what Jesus did.
It’s our faith in him that produces salvation. Salvation comes through faith and good works comes through salvation. We don’t do good works to be saved, we do good works because we are saved.
If you truly put your faith in Jesus and you bring yourself on to the operating table, Jesus the surgeon of the soul will make the transformation.
5- We have to tell them to call upon Him. Romans 10:13 (Whoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved)
They have to surrender their lives. After you have faith you have to do a public declaration.
- All have sinned
- Sin brings death
- Jesus paid our debt
- Salvation comes by Faith alone.
- They must call upon Him or respond Him.
You have a great task to do on earth, to preach the gospel, save the lost and make disciples!
May God helps you to receive these truths and make you a bold and effective soul winner.