What If They Don’t Want Jesus?
Hey, thanks again for sending in your questions regarding our sermons this last week. I spoke about the importance of sharing our faith with those around us. And I said we pointed out from our chapter in Acts that Paul would have considered him himself guilty of other people’s blood if he hadn’t shared his faith with them. Really? He’s pulling this from Ezekiel chapter 33, where God instructs Israel, if you do not speak out to dissuade other people from their wicked ways, I will hold you accountable for their blood.
That’s ezekiel 33 eight. And then God says, but if you do warn them and they do not listen, then they will die for their own sin, but you yourself will be saved. So Paul probably has Ezekiel in his mind as he is speaking in Acts chapter 20. The question is, what if the person doesn’t listen? We can’t make somebody else become a Christian and so aren’t we free?
We warn them one time, they say no, say, oh, well, how many times would we need to warn them? And I would just say this is an opportunity for us to check our hearts. If it’s somebody who you really love, maybe a child, maybe your parent, how many times are you going to tell them? You’re going to tell them for your entire life, right? It’s not every conversation you have, I’m sure, but you never give up.
You continue to say the beauty, the importance, the necessity of Jesus. You continue to speak about his relevance in our lives, how they need to get on board with Him, how there’s peril coming. You would continue to say that you’d never give up. You’d never say, oh, they’ve heard enough if we really loved the person. So I don’t think the issue is there’s a certain number of times that we need to say it before we’re off the hook.
I think the issue is how much do we really love the person? And I know there’s going to be what’s the best way to say this? What’s the best frequency to say this? How do I package this so they understand? What have I tried before?
What’s going on in their life that I can try to relate this to? There’s always going to be a dialogue in our head of how best to do this, but I think if that dialogue isn’t there in our head, it probably speaks to how much we love the person. And if what we’re really concerned about is, am I left off the hook? Can I get off the hook for this? Then that’s probably a check for us that maybe we don’t really love the person, how we say that we love the person.
So the answer is we really never quit. That doesn’t mean that it’s every conversation. That doesn’t mean it’s every minute of every day. But there should be a continuing effort effort. And if there’s not a continuing effort, what does that say about how we care about the person.
So thanks again for sending in your questions and we will see you next time.