Plan to Stop Not Evangelizing Part 9

Look. Have you ever prayed for something and then been surprised when it comes? I know I have. And I guess that means I really must not have been expecting God to answer that prayer request. It may be the same with my evangelism. Maybe I've prayed for opportunities but then not really looked for them. Perhaps I've careless when they've come.

The way I've been careless can vary. Sometimes I don't see the opportunities because I'm busy. Evangelism can, after all, be time consuming and inconvenient. Or maybe I'm too tired. Perhaps I've used up all my energy on entertaining myself, or working, or on everything other than this non-Christian whom I could talk to. And therefore I don't even notice the opportunity.

Maybe my neglect of opportunities is more habitual. Maybe I'm lazy, caring more that I not be hassled or hurried than that this person hears the gospel. Maybe, when it comes right down to it, I'm simply selfish. I don't see the opportunities because I'm willing to be inconvenienced. I guess that means that I am, finally, apathetic. My blindness to God's provision is voluntary. I don't consider the reality and finality of death, judgment, and hell. So I don't notice the reality of the person and their plight before me. We must not only close our eyes in prayer for opportunities, but we must then open our eyes to see them.
Mark Dever (The Gospel & Personal Evangelism)

Plan to Stop Not Evangelizing Part 8

Prepare. Sometimes we don't evangelize because we think we are unprepared or ill-equipped. Maybe we don't know how to transition the conversation. Or perhaps we think that in our ignorance we'll fail at this and actually do spiritual harm to the person by discrediting the gospel in their eyes. We fear our ignorance. We think that it's up to us to make the gospel seem sensible to them or to answer all their questions. And, so , having inflated these expectations, we decide we can't meet them and so neglect evangelism. Instead, we could prepare ourselves by knowing the gospel, working on our own humility, and studying more. Just as we might plan to have time, so we might prepare to be able to use the opportunity well when it comes.
-Mark Dever (The Gospel and Personal Evangelism)

Plan to Stop Not Evangelizing Part 7

Risk. Related to being faithful is being willing to risk. Let's obey, even when we are not exactly sure of the response. Maybe you don't evangelize sometimes because you're shy. You don't really enjoy talking to others that much, especially about things that may upset them. It seems tiring and dangerous. Maybe you would rather let someone else, someone who seems more comfortable, do the evangelizing. But could you invite unbelievers to a meeting where they will hear the gospel? Can you share with them a useful book or a story from your own life? Can you befriend them so that you may be able more naturally in the future to share the gospel with them? We must be willing to risk in order to evangelize. Mark Dever (The Gospel and Personal Evangelism)

Plan to Stop Not Evangelizing Part 6

Be Faithful. Perhaps we need to re-balance our allegiances. Maybe we are too polite to be faithful to God in this area. Maybe we are more concerned about people's response than God's glory. Maybe we are more concerned about their feelings than God's. God does not like having his truth suppressed, and that's what the non-Christian is doing.

Romans 1:18 "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth."

Good manners are no excuse for unfaithfulness to God, but we have, too often, used them so.
Mark Dever (The Gospel and Personal Evangelism)

Karma & Religion

These are helpful thoughts exposing the folly of Karma and Religion from a message on the Lord's Prayer by Mark Driscoll Pastor of Mars Hill Church

Imagine that every month God sent you a letter of your outstanding debt…

“Here’s all the sins you’ve ever committed…here’s how in debt you are…

Oh, and by the way, that thought you had at 3 am, I saw that…I’m up at 3…you don’t believe Me…there’s another one (not believing God)…”

You’d think…”I’ve got to do something about this debt!”

“I know…I’ll try Karma…”

Karma makes no sense at all…It says you did a bunch of bad things so come back (for another try in another life)…and do more bad things…that will fix it!?

You see if you sin, die, and come back and sin some more, that doesn’t pay off your debt…it adds to it. All you are going to do is add to your debt! Karma doesn’t make any sense, because if people were working off their Karma, there should be fewer and fewer people…but the population is growing! (Karma doesn't make any sense).

So then what if you try (being) religious…Some people think this way…

"I’m going to go to church… and become very religious… and I am going to stop sinning… I am never going to sin again.”

Then you realize…”Man, I can’t stop sinning. And even if I think I stop sinning, then I (discover that I) am being religious, and that too sin (self trust, self sufficiency, and self righteousness)! So how do I deal with my debt?”

Promise for God's Care for Us on the Mission

Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?
From Don Sharpe's message "A Closer Look at the Mission"

Plan to Stop Not Evangelizing Part 5

Understand. Part of our failure to evangelize comes from a lack of understanding. God uses not so much gifts for evangelism (though there is a biblical gift of evangelism) but the faithfulness of thousands and millions of Christians who would never say evangelism is their gift. Your conclusion that you are not gifted for a particular task does not absolve you of responsibility to obey. You may conclude that evangelism is not our gift, but it is still your duty. Not having the gift of mercy in no way excuses us from being merciful. All Christians are to exercise mercy; some will be particularly gifted to do this in special ways as certain times, but all are to be merciful. So with evangelism. God may unusually bless and own a Peter and a Philip, a Whitefield and a Spurgeon, a Judson Taylor and an Adoniram Judson, but he calls all of us to share the good news.
-Mark Dever (The Gospel and Personal Evangelism)