“Moreover He said to me: “Son of man, receive into your heart all My words that I speak to you, and hear with your ears.”
(Ezekiel 3:10)
We’re been praying in our prayer group three times a week about many things, but one thing that keeps coming up is praying for opportunity to witness to family, friends, prodigals. Co-workers, neighbors, strangers. There are times as I hear the requests, I can faintly heat the discouragement that the people we’re sharing with just don’t appear to be listening.
I have to say one thing, don’t give up. I remember a friend once shared with me that they had been praying, sharing with me for 10 years , and when the times were right, (God’s time) I surrendered my life and exchanged it for a new everlasting life in Christ Jesus. So keep on sharing, keep on praying, in due time you shall reap. “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” (Galatians 6:9
I was reading a recent study that reported nearly “half of all self-professed Christian millennials believe it’s wrong to share their faith with close friends and family members of different beliefs.”
The. report went on to say that on average, these millennials had “four close, non-believing loved ones, that would not hear the gospel from them.”
What a shock this opening passage was, as I remembered the passage, “How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard?” (Romans 10:14).
I got to thinking 
, what about the rest of us? How many people in and around our lives, if they stood before God tonight could ask us the same question?
I don’t know about you, I’ve had numerous conversations with them, spent countless hours in their presence, laughed, smiled, and cried with them, allowed them to call me,”friend”, and yet , I haven’t come around to risking the relationship on topics like sin, eternity, Christ, and hell…
The saddest thing for me is what I know for fact is true that, according to my Bible, they lie dead in their trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1–3)…… I know that their good deeds toward me cannot save them (Romans 3:20). I know they are wandering down the “broad path” and, if not interrupted, they will plunge headlong into hell (Matthew 25:46) and I know that this is a real place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. A place of outer darkness, a place where the smoke of their anguish will rise forever in the presence of the almighty Lamb (Revelation 14:10–11). “And they will not escape” (1 Thessalonians 5:3). What grieves me is I know these things to be true, and they don’t.
We’ve all heard the illustrations about if you were walking by a burning building and heard a cry of help, how we would run in and help them get out. Or if you’re walking with someone across a street and suddenly there appears a car, coming right at us how we’ll do whatever is necessary to prevent the two of us from getting run over. But what about the soul, that we know? Why are we reserved from taking the risk of losing a friendship by sharing with them the reasons why they should consider knowing Jesus Christ?
What if we Say Nothing?
More than this ,much more than this , I know who can save them. I know the only “Name given among men by which they must be saved “. (Acts 4:12).
I know the only “Way, the Truth, the Life” (John 14:6).
I know there is only “one mediator between God and men” (1 Timothy 2:5).
I know the “Lamb of God who takes away sins.”
I know the “power of the gospel for salvation.”
I know that it is God’s heart that He “delights to save, and takes no pleasure I I know the “death of the wicked.” (Ezekiel 33:11).
I know that Jesus’s atoning death made a way of reconciliation, that He can righteously forgive even the vilest sinner.
I know God sends His Spirit to give new life, new joy, new purpose.
I know the meaning of life is reconciliation to God.
I know these things……..
God has fully equipped me, given me the manual, the facts, His Spirit that He would be able to accomplish what I cannot do. Salvation is of God and He uses us as messengers.
Maybe we just don’t like the role of just being a messenger for God, just showing up bearing the facts, fearful that we might lose our relationship with them.
But why, then, do we merely “smile and wave”at them our loved ones, family, friends, co-workers, and strangers, as they prepare to stand unshielded before God’s fury?
What do we say of their danger, of their God, or of their opportunity to become his children as they float lifelessly down the river towards judgment? Too often, we say nothing…..
Maybe we need to be like the messenger, Paul Revere and ride like there’s no tomorrow and tell them that God is coming. And when the time comes for us to open our mouths to speak, tell them they stand under righteous judgment. Tell them they must repent and believe. Tell them that Jesus already came once. Tell them He bore God’s wrath for sinners like us. Tell them Jesus rose from the dead. Tell them that Jesus reigns over the nations at the Father’s right hand. Tell them that, by faith, they may live. Tell them that they can become children of God….. but utmost, keep on telling them, not once not ever, enough.
Look, if you believe we, a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His people” left here after conversion to “proclaim His excellencies” (1 Peter 2:9).
If this does not wake them from their fatal dream, who will? God, save us from hearing those agonizing words, “You knew?” Ask God to anoint you, ask God to give you courage, ask Him and He will come because He wishes that “none would perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
Walking the Berean Road 