Preparation: First Things First

First things first. We have to each take a personal inventory. What are our motivations for sharing about the Lord Jesus and making followers? I always like to journey from dark to light, so bear with me as I write about the dark things first, then hopefully turn on the lights.

Let's start with some of the ones we might need to avoid: duty, fear, anger, ethnocentrism, and pride are a few motivations that are pretty common. Duty and guilt appear very spiritual, but they are not. They are drawing on this notion that God will accept us when we have done everything right. This is how some people enter into sharing their faith because many ministers have pressured people to do so. Fear and anger are deeper expressions of that insecure relationship with God, fearing that he will punish those who do not "evangelize". Ethnocentrism is an expression of pride. It means thinking that your culture is better than others and expressing that in thought and deed. I can resonate with this one, having gone on a few missions trips with the idea that my way of life needed to be taught to others because they were from "backwards" cultures.

How do we approach these problems? These are mainly religion-problems. What I mean by that is that they are based on a system that believes you have to be good enough to reach God. (As in, you have to do what He says to be accepted.) We really have to dig deep into our spirits to understand our motivation, because this is the wrong place to start, and it isn't the good news of Jesus. 

The good news of Jesus is that, yeah, we are messed up and we can't measure up, but that Jesus not only paid the price of our mistakes, but He also raised us to new life to be able to please God. This means that duty and guilt are dead. Our lives are simply gratitude to God for saving us from ourselves when we didn't measure up. This speaks to the fact that obedience is not a burden, but a joy. Obedience, then, is a joyous participation and adventure in gratitude, not a bitter duty to be done like a chore.

Matthew 28:18-20 shows us one of the amazing ways we can participate in the Kingdom of God. "Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All authority on heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'"

John 3:16 sums the proper motivation up nicely, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life." Our reason for sharing is love. We have been loved so much. Have you experienced that love? If not, know deeply and accept that the Lord indeed loves you. He truly does. Ask the Lord to show you His love and kindness. He will. Accept Him as the King of your life, and walk into the amazing purpose He has for you (His purpose in you is not just to convert people, by the way). 

It is a hard road, because there is a lot of evil in the world that tries to prevent you from understanding this deeply and accepting Jesus as the King of your life. But Jesus summed it up nicely, "Then he said to them all: 'Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?' "

Before we can spread the good news of Jesus, we actually have to accept it. We also can't act out of religious motivations of duty, fear, and pride. It just doesn't make sense. We share about Jesus because we ourselves have experienced His great love, we know the amazing worth of obeying this great King, and we see this as an adventure in participating with the Lord in His quest to save the world.

Does that make sense?