Leadership
GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS
This past week as I visited my dental hygienist I discovered a new approach to sharing the gospel with others. As is usually the case in the dental office, it is usually the hygienist that does most of the talking and our response is to be a good listener as they speak to us. She talked to me about a lot of subjects but one of interest was that of a pastor who had visited her many times trying to pressure her to come to his church. As I thought about her responses to him and her own thoughts regarding religion, I knew my only response at that time was to listen. It took me a few days to think about it and here about a week later, some thoughts came to me that I would like to share with you. As I study the Scriptures, especially the lives of great prophets, who spoke God's word boldly to men, I realize the importance of the need for confrontation to properly share the gospel (A good example of confrontation was Nathan the prophet when he was sent by God to talk to David about his sin. He was very careful in his approach but effective at the same time to the point that it brought David to conviction and repentance.
One of the weaknesses in our ability to share the gospel with others is lack of confrontation about their need for the gospel. How can they repent of their sin when they don't even know what sin of which they are guilty? The common response I hear from most people is that they know that they are sinners but that knowledge does not produce conviction or conversion into their life. So how do we ask the question that causes men to think about the seriousness of the reality of their sin? Let me share with you a thought that may help you to communicate the gospel to others. I am always praying that God will help me to develop new ways to share that will produce the genuine conversion.
It is Saturday morning, five days after I visited the dentist and as I was about to attend to another project, this one came to mind and I thought that it was necessary to write it down and share it with others. One of the most important elements in conversion is guilt. I don't know if you ever thought of guilt as a blessing. It certainly is not, if you are carrying that baggage around all the time without finding relief. So maybe a good approach to talking to people who realize that they are sinners is to ask them if they ever experienced guilt over their sin; that's a good question, the next question is, so how did you get rid of that guilt?
Now we get down to the place where the rubber begins to hit the road. Another thing we need to do is not to deal with sins in general but sins more specific. Those who recognize that they are sinners cannot always put their finger on any specific one and if they can, they don't want to talk about it. There is a sin, a specific sin of which we are all guilty, that is the sin that manifests itself in selfish deeds. Most people cannot deny the fact of selfishness but they never acquaint that with sin. But selfishness is always a manifestation of sin, or sin nature that only God can deal with. Selfishness is where the rubber hits the road and when we say, ‘all are guilty’, this is one of the sins that no one can escape. When I have been selfish toward my brother, I can relieve the guilt by going to him and acknowledge my wrong and ask for his forgiveness. That's a proper first step. However, human pride and the lack of honesty often keeps us from taking that step. But what about the act of selfishness toward God? It is that selfishness toward God that caused Him to send His perfect son to die in my place, so I will not have to be banished from heaven forever because of my sin. How do we deal with this problem of guilt toward God? We merely must look at Adam and Eve in the garden to realize what their natural response was. They made fig leaves as the covering for their guilt, but fig leaves could not hide their guilt and their sin because God still knew about it. They tried to cover the sin, they made excuses for it and even blamed each other for the fact that they themselves were guilty. Although it is not mentioned, we can be certain that after a while Adam ran out excuses, and had to face the fact of guilt. When he did, God provided a better covering than he himself could make. Adam used fig leaves, but that could not remove the guilt. It wasn't until God took the matter into hand and provided a complete cover for his sin by giving them coats of skin.
Now the fig leaves are somewhat symbolic because they represent the things that we do to cover our guilt, but no matter how hard we try, guilt remains. Only when we come to God and face up to the fact that we are wrong, can God forgive us. So, in this matter of forgiveness of sin there must be the confrontation, then there must be confession, like David said, “I have sinned” and until these two steps take place, the final step of forgiveness is impossible. Only God can remove the guilt of sin and He removes it perfectly. In Psalm 103 we are told He remembers them no more, He puts them behind His back, He covers them, as far as the east is from the west He has removed our sin and remembers them no more. That is great and wonderful news.
As we talk to people about God, we talk to them about the joys of forgiveness of their sin and a new relationship to God, which is called the new birth. So, as we confront our unsaved friends about the gospel, we need not be offensive or argumentative. We merely need to ask them a simple question; have you ever experienced guilt in your life? If so, I would like to know what you did to remove it? Perhaps from there, the discussion will become interesting, and the opportunity will exist to share the good news of the forgiveness that God gives. Our responsibility is to help them remove the cover for them to see.
How exciting fishing for men becomes when that happens.
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