16. A key to knowing if you are talking to a lost person
When people start telling you all the ways they are working on becoming a good person, ---you will immediately feel like a Catholic Priest. A yYou will sense how powerless you feel. Good! You will notice being good without a “new heart” is hard work and positive results are impossible. It is a challenge even with a new heart. See what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 7:21-25 NIV, 21 “So I find this being I delight in God’s law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature[d] a slave to the law of sin.”
When someone does this…you should open your eyes and realize this is the perfect opportunity to share the Gospel! Why do you think they are trying to be good? Ask them? Why does it even matter? It is , because the Lord put a conscience in each one of us. This usually will lead to a wonderful sharing opportunity.
Here is an example! Enter Steven, the Confessor. I was Walking walking my dog at a park nearby and I met a young man named Steven. The minute he heard me mention Jesus, he said, “I’ve been free of the alcohol for 2 weeks…the longest time since becoming an alcoholic.” As we shared, he said, “this This meeting is not by accident did, is it?!” What a nice young man, just out doing the frisbee course at the park. As l I took him through Way of the Master method of asking about his ability to keep the 10 Commandments, he kept saying, “I am working hard on all these things!” I kept saying, “Repentance is the key, Steven.” If you are a liar, repent. If you are gay, draw close to God and you will learn that the God who can get you from this world to heaven can help you with your sexuality. I have friends who are free from same sex attraction, and now they have wonderful families and full lives. If you disobeyed your parents, ask them to forgive you. If you are a thiefve, God can redeem you. He kept going and I kept going.
Finally, I told Steven, I think you are trying to push a huge rock up the mountain, and the rock is getting bigger, and you are getting older. When you give your heart to Jesus, you will be “Born Again.” You will still stumble, but the sweet Holy Spirit will put His arms around you and say, “That’s not who you are anymore, Steven.” Being “Born Again” is how Christianity is different from all other religions who teach that a person wins God’s favor with his or her good deeds. The deeds don’t measure up when compared to God having His Son, Jesus, die in our place on the Cross. Isaiah 64:6 NLT, “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.” Steven let me pray with him, and we both hope see each other again. How many rocks are you trying to push up the mountain? It’s Time time to capitulate unconditionally and trust Jesus!
Proverbs 20:27 ESV “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts.”