How Do I Share God?... (Part 3)

How do I share God?
How do I save someone?

These things were NEVER taught to me.
I grew up with lots of church.
My grandfather was a pastor and so was my dad.
How can I NOT know, right?

Before we get into that,
Let's remember what's REALLY important.

If you take away all religion,
If you take away all denominations,
If you take away all the puffery...

God only asked us to do 3 things:
1) Love God
2) Love Others
3) Make Disciples (Share God w/the intent to spread Him to all nations, aka The Great Commission)

The Great Commission:
"Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

The SHARING part the best version of "Pay it Forward".
In this case, you're paying forward God.
You're paying forward supernatural happiness and joy.
You're paying forward eternal life.

As I grew in my relationship with Jesus...
I went from "help me, give me"...
To praying to "help others".
Then it grew to "how can I help You, Lord? How can I make YOU happy?".
Because God is SO good to me, I wanted to give back.

Law of reciprocity.
God was so good to me first it made me want to give back.

What makes God happy?

Simply put, there's 3 things he asked us to.
1) Love God
2) Love Other
3) Share God / Make Disciiples

I had the LEAST confidence in#3.

How do I even begin to "Share God" much less make disciples?

Do you just go up to people?
What do you say?
How do you start?
There's gotta be some process, right?

Till recently, this was a big mystery, so I never touched it.

Let's get real...
Talking about Jesus feels awkward enough..
To do it without a strategy or process deters ALOT of people.

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
People are not saved because of lack of knowledge.
People wander in darkness because of lack of knowledge.
People are in PAIN because of lack of knowledge.

So let's fix that NOW, shall we?

The best way I can show you is by giving you 2 real-life examples.

This past week, I was on an airplane and for the FIRST time in my entire life...
I spoke to strangers with the intent of leading them to Christ.

Here's how it happened.

Example 1:

I'm on a puddle hopper and this big black guy sits down and takes up his seat and half my own.
At first I'm irritated at my luck and tried to isolate myself even more.
Then the Holy Spirit tickled my brain and I thought "Wait, I'm on my way to an event with the desire to share God and bring people closer to Him. Shouldn't I start that now instead of waiting till I arrive?" I realize that I felt hypocritical by turn "on" my love for Jesus at the event and turning it "off" during the plane ride.
I had no idea what I was doing but I thought "YOLO! Here we goooo!!"
I tapped the big guy on his shoulder. "Tap, tap, tap." Little ol' me was tapping this big dude and the shoulder and it felt like his head and body turn in slow motion.
He looked over at me with an expression that said "What do you want little girl?"
"Hi, I'm Christine what's your name?" He answered with a perplexed look on his face, "Julio."
"Hi Julio, where are you from, do you live in Texas?" I proceeded to ask. It turned out he lived in New Orleans and worked in Texas. He had a work schedule that was 10 days on 7 days off so he travelled alot. After a few surface level questions, I asked... "So what's your story Julio? Where did you grow up, what was life like and how did you get to where you're at now?"
I didn't know what to expect, but he was open to sharing his story and I engaged in what's called "Active Listening". This means I am listening and asking questions because I truly care to know and understand his journey.
At one point he said "You ask a lot of questions."
"Yes, a lot of people say that to me. So tell me more about your work..." I continued to ask questions to get to know more about him. After he finished sharing, I then asked another key question...
"Just out of curiosity what is your story when it comes to faith or spirituality?
What did you grow up with? What was your experience and where are you at now?"
He proceeded to tell me he didn't believe in anything. Then in an other sentence, he said he knows there's something out. I got a little confused so I asked him "So do you believe there is a God or no?"
Then he said "Well, I pray for my mother and my family everyday."
This was getting interesting. His story kept on changing. In my heart I was praying "Holy Spirit, what do you want me to say? Where do you want me to go with this?" I kept on asking the Holy Spirit at every turn uncertain of what to do. I did not expect the conversation to turn out this way.
This was my first real conversation like this and I was leaning in hard to the Holy Spirit for guidance. Each step was uncertain. Each response was a small clue to the next question to ask.

Example 2:

I sat in the window isle of my last connecting flight from Texas to Florida. A thin black girl sat next to me. She had a thin frame and long eyelashes that caught my attention every time she blinked.
She was engrossed on her phone and didn't look particularly friendly. She had a cooler, standoff-ish feel to her. She never made eye contact or even said hello. "I'll eventually talk to her." I thought. I knew I should be connecting with her on this flight to see if I can share Jesus with her, but I was really looking forward to finishing a movie on the plane that I had started on a previous leg of the trip.
I turned to my phone on and quickly typed in the web page to access the movie. The internet connection was bad and it wasn't connecting. Disappointed and tired, I leaned my head against the window to try again in a couple minutes.
"There's time." I said to myself. "After the movie, I'll talk to her..."
I'm woken up by a sudden jerk of my head as I apparently nodded off to sleep. I looked over and the girl next to me was also sleeping. "Crap!" I didn't know how far we were into the flight but I felt a panick of guilt and shame. "I missed it! I missed my opportunity to talk to her! Over a movie! Stupid, stupid, stupid! I'm such a turd!"
My heart sank deep into my chest as I felt the need to ask for forgiveness and repent. I prayed so hard to be used for God's work on this trip and I sold out to a Disney movie and fell asleep. I felt like such a hypocrite. After I prayed silently for forgiveness, I had to go to the bathroom. I tapped the sleeping neighbor gently and signaled that I had to get out. She moved out of the way and I made my way to the back of the airplane, to the small closet they call a bathroom.
In the bathroom, I was praying desparately again. "Sorry, God. I missed my mark. Please forgive me. Give me another chance. I'll do it right this time. Just one more chance, just one more chance. Please, God, please. I'm so sorry. I'm a fool. I'm an idiot. I need your help and forgiveness. Thank you, God. Amen."
I took a deep breath and walked back to my seat. By the time I sat down, I realized that the girl was awake now because I went to the bathroom. Perfect!
I sat down and looked over to her. She was on her phone again, but that didn't stop me. I gently tapped her on the shoulder and said "Hi, I'm Christine, what's you're name?"..."Do you live in Jacksonville? How long have you lived there?... I live in Mandarin. So I was just curious, what's your story? Where did you grow up? What was life like and how did you get to where you're at now?"
She proceeded to tell me that she was a military kid and move around a lot. She had siblings and she worked on the Northside of town as a bartender. I asked questions in between her answers to get more details and she shared for a few minutes about her life, her parents and life.
"Awesome, thanks so much for sharing. That's really cool. So I have a different type of question. What's the story on your faith or spiritual journey? What faith or belief system did you grow up with, how did you get to where you are at now?"
She grew up moving around so she did not have any roots in a particular church. Her mom was Pentacostal and her sister and brother go to church regularly. She said she "doesn't go as much as she should". That caught my attention. "What do you mean by not as much as you should?" I asked. She explained how her mom and siblings regularly go to church but she doesn't. You could tell there was some guilt around that.
I couldn't tell if she had been saved (aka accepted Jesus into her heart) so I asked. "Does your church have a baptism or a process of being saved?" She replied with guilt, "I haven't done it because I don't have everything together yet."
That immediately caught my attention. It sounded like she thought she had to "do" things right to get saved. "What do you mean by that?" She explained that because she works at a bar, the hours don't line up with church. She also expressed some shame about working there too long as she has 2 boys she is caring for. She felt like she should have been out of there by now. By this explanation I felt like she didn't realize that salvation was not by works but by faith. She didn't have to wait on being perfect to get saved.
"Do you understand the background on being saved?" I asked.
"No." she replied. "Would it be ok if I shared?" I asked. "Sure." she replied as a matter of fact. So I started to explain... "So you know the story from the beginning with God and Satan and the first rebellion, right?" Surprisingly, she said "No." So I offered "Would it be ok to share?" Again she replied "Sure."
So I briefly explained the fall of Lucifer, Adam and Eve and how they sinned. "Sin caused them to go from perfect and everlasting life to a life with pain and death. The only way God could get us back and pay for sin was for Jesus to come and die for us. He paid the price of every human being EVER. He would have come and died for just you if you were the only person. Jesus saved theives, prostitutes and murderers."
"You haven't kill anyone, have you?" She chuckled and shook her head. "Great. Well you're ahead of the curve. You don't have to DO anything to be saved. It's a free gift that you can accept with a quick prayer. Would it be ok if I shared?" She replied again "Sure."
"Ok, just repeat after me. Here give me your hands." She opened up her hands and I held them for prayer. "Bowing our heads in prayer. Dear Jesus, I invite you into my heart, as lord and savior. You died for my sins, so I can have everlasting life. Forgive me of my sins. Come into my heart and transform it. Use me boldly and beautifully. I pray in Jesus name Amen."

There's a common thread in these 2 examples. I didn't know what I was doing, but after reflecting, I broke this down into 3 easy steps.

1) Build a Relationship (Part 1): Life Story
- Get to know them, their life story.
"Hi, my name is ___. What's your name?
Where are you from? Just out of curiosity, what's your story? Where did you grow up, what was life like and how did you get to where you're at now?"

2) Build a Relationship (Part 2): Faith/Spiritual Story
Ask about their Faith/Spiritual journey.
- "Just out of curiosity what is your story or journey when it comes to faith or spirituality?
What did you grow up with? What was your experience and where are you at now?"

3) Offer the Invitation
- Can I share with you
- Salvation or being saved is the easiest, simple thing. It's just your choice to accept Jesus as lord and savior and invite Him into your heart. I can share a quick prayer if you'd like. Just repeat after me.

PRAYER:
"Dear Jesus, I am a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness. I accept you as lord and savior who came down and died for my sins and rose from the dead. I accept this gift of salvation and invite you into my heart. I ask you to transform me and use me. I thank you for your sacrifice to give me everlasting life. In Jesus name I pray, Amen."

- Congratulate them! "Congrats, you're saved! You accepted Jesus into your heart and by faith you accepted the gift of salvation. That's it. It's that simple. And Christianity is about 3 simple things. Love God, Love Others and Share Him / Make Disciples. So just like I'm sharing with you that God loves you and wants to be with you. You have the same Great Commission to do so. Share the truth about how easy salvation is. It's a gift. Just invite Jesus into your heart and ask Him to transform you from the inside out. He will. He never fails. I love you sister/brother! I'm so proud of you. God is so proud of you."

This was SOOOO much easier than I thought.

"The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few."

God will put ripe harvest in front of you.
It won't always be 100% yes, but that's be cause you may be used for planting the seed, or watering it

"open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest."