Sharing is caring, if you had the cure for a condition wouldn’t you want to tell everyone? What if it was a deal at Costco and it was just unbelievable? Wouldn’t you want to tell everyone?
Why are we so compelled to tell people about the good in our lives? Maybe it’s because we want others to experience that good. It’s a joyful moment when you get to help people like that. Sharing the goodness of God and the love of Jesus should be the same thing.
In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about some easy strategies that you can use to tell everyone around you about the good news of Jesus.
When we have the peace that only comes from Jesus. We want everyone else to experience that, especially when we run into people that are struggling with things in their life and they don’t know Jesus. But it can be hard to share Jesus. Not everyone we encounter wants to hear it.
And let’s be honest. Sometimes we can feel the fear of being rejected or judged by someone because of our faith. The world has changed from a very Christian perspective and value system to a very non-Christian system. I know our God is bigger than any fears that I might have. I don’t need to stand on a huge platform and talk about Jesus.
When I can have one-on-one conversations with someone. God can use either situation to reach people. He just asked that I participate. Sharing the good news of Jesus can happen in many ways, but Jesus made it very clear that he wants us to do this. We are called to make disciples followers.
Matthew 28:19 says “…go therefore and make disciples of all nations. Baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. “
As you grow and learn during your faith journey, your belief will increase and your relationship with Jesus will go stronger and you will want to start telling others about your experience. God wants you to use your personal gifts, your talents, your unique placement in the community to reach others. When you have relationships with the people around you, opportunities to share the specifics about Jesus will happen. When people share their life together, and one person is a Christian… Those stories will naturally happen. When you don’t have a relationship with someone, you may start just by showing the love of Jesus and start building a relationship with them. To hit them with the story of Jesus’ death out of the gate might not be the right time. That certainly is an important moment in Christianity, but you may want to start with, have you ever been to church or where did you grow up and over time look for opportunities to share more details about Jesus. Your role in sharing is to love first, pray for everyone and then let God open up those doors with the conversations as he sees fit.
There was a new girl at work. And I started working with her more and more on some projects. We developed a pretty friendly relationship, a very friendly acquaintance. We started going to lunch together and talking and learning more about each other. And part of my story was that I went to church and that I believed in Jesus. And over the course of about a year, out of the blue one day she started asking me questions about Jesus. It was about a 20 minute conversation in my office and I literally shared the whole story of Jesus with her. It was amazing. She had questions and she listened. And it was very positive conversation because we were friends and she was comfortable with me. And more importantly, it was a conversation. It wasn’t a sermon. It wasn’t my job to convert her in that moment. But God used me. He used my story to reach her.
I just needed to be there to answer questions and encourage her. We’re still friends. I invite her to church events. I’m praying that she’ll open up her heart to Jesus. And if I’m blessed to have the privilege to lead her to Jesus, then it would be amazing. If I’m just the the seeds that God is using to grow her to get to a place to accept Jesus, then I’m going to be there and cheer her on. Having the opportunity to share the whole story of Jesus from birth to resurrection is extraordinary, but sometimes we just need to show the love of Jesus and put a little crumb out there to see if people are ready to take a bite and learn more. Here’s some ideas on how you can start sharing, showing the love of Jesus, or just start inserting Jesus moments into your day-to-day conversation.
Have an answer to “how was your weekend?” “What did you do this weekend?” So many times I’m able to say… I went to church this weekend, or I went to a concert for one of the music performers that we go to. I attended a church conference. I had a devotional this weekend or my life group did an activity. These are things that are just part of my life. When somebody asks about my weekend, it is an opportunity for me to just have a little Jesus moment with them and see if they ask any more questions and if not, no problem. We’ll just keep being friends and keep building our relationships. Maybe we can have a deeper conversation in the future.
Another way you can do that is just start serving in non-Christian environments. We talked a lot in previous videos about serving in the church, being a part of a Christian community. But you can serve in non-Christian environments as well, such as work or school or public areas like a grocery store or something. These are chances, especially at work you can go above and beyond, do work that would benefit someone else.
You can listen and meet the needs of what people are talking about around you. My dad had a situation where he had someone that he worked with, that he had been building a relationship with, that was talking about a need that they had in their home for bunk beds, that they were taking in additional child into their home. And that if they had a set of bunk beds, they wouldn’t have to get a different apartment or a different house to live in. And sure enough, just through the course of normal interactions. My dad actually found bunk beds and was able to put the person that had the bunk bed and touch with the person that needed the bunk bed and met that need.
If you’re at a grocery store you can offer to carry someone’s heavy bags, take their cart back to the front, or just hold a door open.
You can tell someone how God used them in your life. Like maybe they were an answer to prayer and let people know that they don’t even know that’s even in the realm of possibility sometimes. But wow! What a great way to introduce that concept. You can invite people to church festivals, concerts, comedy shows even Christmas services.
Write a note on a receipt, like at a restaurant, when you have to sign something and give it back. You can write, God bless you, or Jesus loves you. And while some of those things sound kind of cheesy and feel like movie moments where somebody says something on on an receipt. But… You never know how God’s going to use that in someone’s life. You can be intentional with your language. Say God bless you when somebody sneezes, that sounds so trivial, but again, it could be just a Jesus moment. Say Merry Christmas, not to offend anyone, but just to see, are they going to say Merry Christmas back? Could start a conversation. You can ask someone if there’s something that you can be praying for them.
My husband does this all the time. When we go out to dinner. He’ll talk to our server, he’s an extreme extrovert, so he gets to know them over the course of the meal. But he always asked them at the end of the service. Is there anything we can be praying for you about. They may not even be a believer, but almost nine out of 10 times, someone has told us something very specific.
Tell someone how you’ve been praying for them. Maybe it’s somebody you encounter on a daily basis at work. And you know that they’re struggling with something and they’ve been on your prayer list. Go ahead and tell him. Let them know that you care and that you’re someone that you’re safe to talk to and that you are praying for them.
You can write notes of thanks or appreciation and mention that you have thanked God for that person. Now be sure to you have thank God for that person, but just a handwritten note. It can make a huge difference on someone’s life.
You can also just pay attention to how you display your Jesus fandom. What’s on your clothing. What’s on your jewelry, bumper stickers on your computer at work, scriptures in your office. Create subtle and easy ways for people to see that you are a believer. And be intentional with your actions. Set a good example of character and integrity in your workplace or any other environments. Be kind generous, be slow to anger and if you encounter conflict at work, that’s okay. It happens. You still need to hold people accountable, give feedback or address some serious issues. But what a difference when you have a loving attitude. It can speak such a volumes about your faith to others. Do, what you say you’re going to do. Have the integrity that you would want other Christians to display to people.
Sharing Jesus isn’t an exact science and every person is different. Some people are going to be so much more receptive than others, but no matter how the conversation goes, it’s a chance for God to use us as a witness and a demonstrator for his love. The more you tell your story, the more people will listen and the less likely they are to dispute what they’re hearing.
This isn’t always a chance for you to do a Jesus PowerPoint presentation. But it is a chance for you to make a first impression and hopefully be invited to have more conversations about Jesus in the future. It’s time to get out there and make some disciples.
