Living and Sharing the Gospel

‘go and make disciples of all nations’ (Matthew 28:19 NIV)

Probably the most difficult part of sharing the Gospel is getting started. The Gospel is all about Jesus and it has the power to change lives, bring true joy and happiness, enabling people to find purpose for living. But how do we begin to share this good news?

Let me suggest that it begins with how we live and how we relate to others as a faithful friend and servant.

1. Be a Friend

That means taking the effort to perform acts of kindness to others, even for people who irritate us and get under our skin. It means surrendering what we want to do for the benefit of another. It means continuing those acts of kindness even when our efforts go unnoticed and unappreciated. Being a friend means that no one can stop me from being friendly. People may never accept me as their friend but they can’t stop me from being a friend to them.

2. Be a Servant

This is more than just performing lowly acts of service, like cleaning toilets, (although it may include this). It means getting underneath the heavy load that others are bearing and easing the burden. Are we willing to be the servant of others by leaving what we are doing to help someone with a greater need? Being a servant means that there are always a lot of emergencies that we must answer.

3. Be Faithful

This is important in our relationship with God and our service to others. When we say to someone, ‘I will pray for you’, can they depend on us to do it? When we say ‘I will do it’, can they rest assured that they don’t have to call to remind us? Can we work at our job without supervision knowing our heavenly Father is watching? Are we faithful in what we look at, what we hear, how we respond to temptation? Being faithful applies in so many ways.

Look for opportunities to be a faithful friend, with a servant heart, and as we show a genuine concern for others we will be demonstrating the gospel in action because the gospel is about relationships and sharing the gospel is primarily relational.

This is the example of Jesus:

• Jesus was a friend of sinners (Matthew 11:19)
• Jesus came as servant (Philippians 2:7) and
• Jesus is faithful (Revelation 1:5)

As we make friends with those who are not yet Christians, they will eventually begin to wonder why we are so different, and with that comes the opportunity to share our faith. Pray for God to provide these opportunities for us to talk about Jesus, then be patient for His timing and rely on him to provide the right words to say. In this way we will be living and sharing the Gospel.

Have a good week living and sharing the gospel.

Pastor Barry