By Jason Trapp
Most of us hate failure. We prefer to do things we are good at so we have a higher chance of success. We tend to avoid things we are bad at because there is a higher chance of failure. I think this is one reason why it is so hard to evangelize. We think we might fail so we avoid it. We fear that if we try to share the gospel with someone there is a good chance they will reject it and we will be a failure. Maybe this is based on past experiences when we have tried to evangelize but didn’t see fruit, so we assume we failed and will only fail again.
But what if there was a way to evangelize that could never fail?
There is.
We were created to glorify God (Isaiah 43:7
), and evangelism is one way we fulfill that purpose (Isaiah 43:21). What is sharing the gospel, but simply proclaiming the excellencies of God in Christ Jesus to another person (1 Peter 2:9)?! So if we look at it this way, evangelism is simply public worship, much like singing songs of praise to God on Sunday mornings. When we tell someone, “Jesus died on the cross for your sins and if you believe in Him, you will be saved from the coming judgement of God”, that is praise to God coming from our lips. When we proclaim His excellencies, He is glorified. Therefore, if we proclaim God’s greatness in the gospel, we have succeeded in evangelism! Success is not contingent upon how people respond, or on how well we explain the gospel, but rather on whether or not we worship– or glorify– Him. We do not have to be afraid of failure when we evangelize because when our aim in evangelism is worship, we cannot fail.
Most of us hate failure. We prefer to do things we are good at so we have a higher chance of success. We tend to avoid things we are bad at because there is a higher chance of failure. I think this is one reason why it is so hard to evangelize. We think we might fail so we avoid it. We fear that if we try to share the gospel with someone there is a good chance they will reject it and we will be a failure. Maybe this is based on past experiences when we have tried to evangelize but didn’t see fruit, so we assume we failed and will only fail again.
But what if there was a way to evangelize that could never fail?
There is.
We were created to glorify God (Isaiah 43:7
), and evangelism is one way we fulfill that purpose (Isaiah 43:21). What is sharing the gospel, but simply proclaiming the excellencies of God in Christ Jesus to another person (1 Peter 2:9)?! So if we look at it this way, evangelism is simply public worship, much like singing songs of praise to God on Sunday mornings. When we tell someone, “Jesus died on the cross for your sins and if you believe in Him, you will be saved from the coming judgement of God”, that is praise to God coming from our lips. When we proclaim His excellencies, He is glorified. Therefore, if we proclaim God’s greatness in the gospel, we have succeeded in evangelism! Success is not contingent upon how people respond, or on how well we explain the gospel, but rather on whether or not we worship– or glorify– Him. We do not have to be afraid of failure when we evangelize because when our aim in evangelism is worship, we cannot fail.Recent
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