Topic: The Gospel Rock (I Peter 3:15)
This past Sunday I gave a challenge that came from Josh Lamb’s sermon where we used the idea of putting a small rock in a shoe as an example of sharing the gospel and letting the gospel do the work of salvation. The challenge is to have a gospel conversation by putting a rock in someone’s shoe.
Imagine that you have somehow come into possession of an important piece of information that affects every single person you know. Everyone in your neighborhood. Everyone in your family. Everyone you work with. Everyone you meet at the bank, or the grocery store or the mall as you go through the day. What would you do? What if this were good news, very good news, the best news you had ever heard in your life? Not something that you could make money from, but something that would change people’s lives for the better. What would you do? You would start telling people, right? Of course you would! You wouldn’t want to keep it to yourself. You couldn’t keep it to yourself.
Here’s the question: Is the gospel of Jesus Christ good news or bad news? It’s good news, of course. It’s the best news of all! Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has risen from the dead, and so can we. We can live forever. We can be forgiven of our sins, our slate wiped completely clean! We can have a relationship with the living God! All we have to do is place our trust in Jesus Christ. What amazing news!
All too often we are reluctant to tell people. Why do we behave as if the Good News were bad news? There are lots of reasons. The one I hear the most is, I feel awkward and don’t know what to say. We’re afraid of making a mistake, of not being able to answer a question, of saying something foolish. The neat aspect of the gospel is that it only calls me to share the good news that I know. What does that look like? Sharing in 2-3 minutes how you came to faith in Christ. If there was a clear point at which you made the decision to follow Christ, then mention that. Talk about what your life was before your conversion, and how it has been different since then. If your conversion was more of a process, then talk about the process. Don’t try to make it more dramatic than it was. Just be genuine. End the conversation with a bible verse about salvation. That is one way to put a gospel rock in someone’s shoe.
I look forward to hearing about the rock you put in someone’s shoe.
See you Sunday!
Dr. Scott Kallem