Wednesday, January 25, 2006
It was enough to shut a girl up for years to come - when it comes to talking about her relationship with Jesus, that is. One day in high school, God laid it on my wife's heart - who, of course, wasn't my wife yet - to share Christ with one of her fellow band members. Roger was a drummer. In my experience, drummers are usually cut from a little different piece of cloth than everybody else, and Roger was no exception. He was a wild and crazy guy with a mouth to match. But one day my wife got up the courage to rise above her shyness and tell him about her Savior. Roger didn't exactly fall to his knees in the band room and repent. In fact, he said, "Well, if you're going to heaven, I want to go to the other place!"
Years later, my wife and I were visiting a church where the pastor introduced us during the service. Afterwards, the man who had been sitting behind us said to my honey, "I've been hoping for years that I'd get to see you and tell you what happened." It was Roger and his wife. He said, "I know I blew you off that day you tried to tell me about Jesus, but you were the first person who ever did that. Later a couple of others did the same thing, and I finally gave my heart to Christ." Needless to say, it was one of those spiritual "Kodak moments." Roger went on to tell about working on a Christian radio station and even pastoring a church. Today, Roger - the one who nuked a girl who tried to tell him about Jesus - is working on our staff, helping us tell the world about Jesus.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Your Position in the Big Game."
Roger's story is the story of so many who have changed their eternal address from hell to heaven. They didn't find Christ through one exposure to Him, but through a string of faithful witnesses who sowed the seed of the Gospel in their heart. One day, the harvest came because of those who sowed the Gospel, those who watered the Gospel, and then someone who recognized that it was time to harvest the Gospel.
God has placed you as His designated ambassador in the lives of the people in your personal world. Here's how the great rescue plan of God works, as revealed in 1 Corinthians 3, beginning with verse 5, our word for today from the Word of God. "What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe - as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow ... The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his labor. For we are God's fellow workers..."
Do you realize how important you are in the life-saving plan of God? He's invited you to work side by side with Him in His harvesting of lives for heaven! In one life, you may be the one who sows the first thoughts a person has about Jesus - as my wife did in Roger's life. For another person, you may be the one who unknowingly builds on seed someone else sowed to bring them closer to Jesus. For someone else, you'll be the one God puts there when the other seed sown in their life is ready to be harvested and they're ready for Jesus. As you ask the Holy Spirit to show you what part He wants you to play and where that person is in the process of coming to Him, He'll give you the opening, the courage, the approach, and the words if you ask Him to.
You can never judge the final result of your witness by the immediate response. It's God who provides the seed, it's God who miraculously grows that seed into a heart that's ready for Jesus. But He's counting on you to sow His seed, water His seed, harvest His seed.
There's only one way you can fail in sharing Christ and that's if you don't do it! Your mission is to leave each lost person God leads you to closer to Jesus than they were before; knowing more about what He did for them than they did before. God has an amazing plan for the spiritual rescue of every lost person you know and He's asking you to join Him in it. Don't miss the most important thing you will ever do in your life!