Monday, May 13, 2013

May 14, 2013

"Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” 5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they re born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. 10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.” 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."  John 3:1-16
 
If FredWes is going to reach our goal of 25 conversions for 2013-14 each of us must know how to share our faith. Who better to learn from than Jesus? Where better to learn than John 3.
 
Over the next several days I want to unpack this portion of Scripture and demonstrate how Jesus steered Nicodemus to a saving faith.
 
The first, and perhaps the most important tip is: GET TO THE POINT!
 
I have found in my soul-winning encounters, the sooner I can get the conversation turned in a spiritual direction the better it goes.
 
In the case of Nicodemus that was not hard because he was already a spiritually-minded guy and he was on a spiritual search. But you will see that every soul-winning encounter He had was the same, he got the conversation turned to spiritual issues. With the person you are trying to reach it may not be quite that easy but it always needs to be your goal.

One reason it didn't take Jesus long to turn conversations to spiritual topics is because He often talked about spiritual topics!

What are you talking about?

Do you ever mention on Mondays how much you enjoyed your church on Sunday?

Do you ever mention an event that is planned for your church?

Do you ever mention how God answered a prayer for you?

Do you ever celebrate how the many blessings you have been given?

For people today, time is in short supply and no one has time they can afford to wait. You can't waste your time and they won't let you waste theirs. Their eternity is long. Don't let them waste that, either.

Get to the point as soon as you can. The point is the Gospel of Jesus. You have it, they need it!