Taking the Initiative, a Key to Engaging Evangelism
In September 2020 on a Saturday, I had decided to catch up with a long-time friend from a few years back in college; His name is Brian. Brian has been laid on my heart for a while to witness to. I wanted him to know about Jesus and what He has done for us.
I had heard Brian state many times that he does not believe in the one true God. When I had called him, I wanted to make sure he understood the Gospel, what sin was, the wages of sin, and what had been done for us through Jesus. I guided the conversation we were having towards the Gospel by asking him, “Where will you go when you die?”
He had uncertainty in his reply and could only come up with ideas of what he thinks could happen. I had told him, though, that he could know for sure where he would be going, and it was going to be either Heaven or Hell. To help him understand how to know which it would be, it asked him if he had ever heard of the Ten Commandments. He said he had, so I told him I wanted to ask him a few questions about it. I told him I was only going to use a few of them as an example and started going through them to help understand some ways in which we have sinned. I asked him whether he had lied, stolen anything, used God’s name as a curse word, lusted after a woman, and so on. He had said he has done each of these things before but doesn’t do them as often. I explained how these acts are sinful according to God and condemnable to eternity in hell, whether done once or multiple times.
In the third week of October, I had been at my apartment one evening messing around on one of my roommate’s consoles. I was getting paired up with random people in this game and ended up having a very in-depth conversation with one of the people I met; his name was Nick. Through a small chat, I had told Nick that I was in Memphis at Mid-America studying biblical counseling. He thought that was interesting and said that he, too, was from Memphis. As soon as I heard him become curious about the type of schooling I am currently doing, I knew he would be receptive to me sharing the Gospel with him. I immediately jumped right into it and asked him if he were to stand before God and be judged, would he be going to Heaven or Hell. He said Heaven, but when he said why, he based it on the thought that he had been trying to be a good person. I let him know that we can have certainty of where we are going and that it is not by anything that we do, but by Jesus and what He has done for us on the Cross.
Next, since I had begun to understand where he stood on his relationship with the Lord, I decided to go through the process of explaining the fact of sin, the need for a Savior, how salvation is provided, and how to accept it. Nick was very polite and listened to what I had to say. I shared verses such as Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, John 3:16, and Romans 10:9. I also talked about how Jesus said there is none good but the Father and that we cannot earn our way into Heaven. Salvation is a gift given to us even though it is undeserved. I emphasized that for a while because Nick awkwardly played along with it like he already knew that, even though he didn’t have a testimony to give and his previous statement seemed to show he believed being a good person would get him into Heaven. I told him how it must be through Jesus and that he must decide soon since we are not guaranteed another moment. He never did choose to accept Jesus as Savior right then and there, but he did come to church after I sent him an invite. I have not seen or heard from him in a while, but I plan to talk with him again soon since we exchanged friend requests. He knows he needs to change due to his rough past life he spoke of, and I have faith the Lord will grab ahold of his heart if Nick truly wants it.