About 10 years ago, my wife and I had dinner with a friend of mine. She was going through some transitions in her life and was taking some classes. One of the men in her class got to know her fairly well and he told her that it was his mission to convince her to trust Christ before the end of the semester.
Throughout the semester he kept continually presenting the Gospel in different ways and pressing her for a decision. Well, many of you can imagine the result of that relationship.
When the topic of what the future held for us came up and I told my friend that I was going into vocational ministry, she told me not to try to convince her about Christ and then launched into the above story.
After listening to the full account of what had happened, I assured her that I didn’t personally possess the power to convince people that the Gospel is true, only the Holy Spirit does, “because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction .…” (1 Thessalonians 1:5 ESV)
I explained to her that God’s people are God’s mailmen. We just deliver the news. We are not responsible people opening it up, nor are we responsible for convincing them that the message we are delivering is true.
Ezekiel fleshes this point out by saying that God will “give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:22 ESV)
It is God through his spirit that convinces people that the Gospel is true. Not us.
That’s not to say that we do not play a critical role in the process -- we do. But presenting the Gospel is not like sitting across the table from a potential client and trying to convince them that your product is what they need and not taking “no” for an answer. Neither is it using a lawyer’s persuasiveness to convince a jury. The Gospel doesn’t need to be sold, it needs to be shared.
Knowing this ought to give you great joy and take a burden off of your shoulders. It’s one less thing that we have to do. God is a big God who has power that is too great to imagine. Nothing is too difficult for him; not even convincing someone that the Gospel is true.
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About Evangelism 
