10 REASONS WE DO NOT SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH UNBELIEVERS
(adapted from my sermon on John 3:16)
1. We are afraid of what others think of us (people-pleasing, fear of man idolatry).
2. We are building a friendship and waiting for the right moment to share the gospel with others. The problem is most of the time we never actually do end up sharing the gospel.
3. We don’t have any real relationships with non-Christians.
4. We overlook the fact that evangelism is an act of obedience (Matt 28:18-20)
5. We fall into a hyper-Calvinistic error—God will save those whom He will save—overlooking the fact that he uses the gospel proclamation to sovereignly bring people to Himself. The William Carey account is a good example of this. When he tried to encourage others to go and evangelize the people of India, he was told sit down and that ‘If God wants to save those people, He can do so without your help.’ Sadly, many fall into this error and we who espouse a reformed theology often have a reputation of not evangelizing.
6. We miss out on the fact that we do evangelism primarily for the motivation of love for God (for His glory). This should drive us forward.
7. We don’t feel capable or equipped.
8. We’ve bought into the cultural myth that religion is reserved for the private realm and it is impolite to speak about it with others.
9. Our love for God has grown cold and we are lukewarm.
10. We forget about the true terror of hell
What stops you from sharing the gospel with others?
