Opening
Spend a few moment in silence asking the Spirit to remind you who in your life is ready to hear and discuss the gospel. Pray for boldness and discernment and for God to bring opportunities for you to talk to those people.
Overview
In our eagerness to tell others about Jesus, we can be tempted to share the gospel with people who are not willing to listen. But debating Jesus to a hardened heart is triggering and proving Jesus to a closed mind loses influence. We cannot humanly convince closed and resistant people to worship King Jesus.
We do not want to use all of our effort on people unwilling to listen because there are also people who are willing to listen. God lights up His kingdom for people who are ready to receive his divine love and leadership. We need to be on the lookout for the people who are ready to hear about Jesus and then be ready to share.
Discussion Questions
- Have you ever attempted to continue talking to someone who did not want to hear about Jesus? Share about that conversation.
- Have you shared Jesus with someone who was receptive? Share about that as well.
Practice
1 Peter 3: 15 Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. 16 But do this in a gentle and respectful way. Keep your conscience clear. Then if people speak against you, they will be ashamed when they see what a good life you live because you belong to Christ.
Read this passage out loud and have group members take turns listing the commands in this passage. How do the different commands connect? What lifestyle does this lead us into? Have you met a person who lives this way? Where are you falling short of this witness to the gospel and how does Jesus meet you there?
Closing
Pray for the group members and the conversations that they will have. May they become people who are ready to share the gospel but who discern when hearts are ready and treat everyone with gentleness and respect.
