Selling Jesus

Have you ever tried to sell a product you didn't believe in?  I have.  When I was going to University I tried to find jobs that would make me the most amount while requiring the least amount of effort.  Seemed logical to me.  The only problem was it never worked.  I would get all excited about these multilevel marketing schemes, after all I was great with people, had lots of friends.  Here's the thing your friends aren't interested in buying the stuff your selling if it doesn't work or it doesn't benefit their lives.  They aren't friends with you so you can sell them stuff, they are friends with you because they like you.  Evangelism has become a lot like this.  Selling a product that we know about but don't always believe in.  If we did believe it we wouldn't have to sell people on it.  No salesman in the world is going to have to sell me on a product that works and will improve my quality of life.  That product just sells itself.  What if we actually lived what we believed?  What if instead of emphasizing getting "the word" out we became the word known and read by all men?  What if the way we lived actually caused people to want what we have?

The great commission in Matthew 28 has been championed as our marching orders.  This commission was given to disciples that had walked in relationship with Jesus for 3 years.  He had been pouring His life in to them, investing in them, preparing them.  Am I saying we have to walk with God for a certain amount of years before we pursue this commission?  No, i'm saying that evangelism flows best through relationship.  Jesus said that the greatest commandments where to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  Then he taught us that eternal life was to know the Father and the One whom he sent in John 17:3.  These pivotal statements promote one very important thing; relationship.  The point of christianity, in my humble opinion, isn't evangelism it's relationship.  Christianity is defined by our love, which without God, is at best conditional.  Conditional love requires some selling; unconditional love sells itself.  God so loved the world that He gave His Son.  Why did he give his son? Because he so loved the world that he desired a relationship with His creation.  God, the creator of the universe and all supreme being, wanted to get to know you.  That's amazing!  That motivates me to tell other people the opportunity they have in front of them.  It works, it's changing my life and without a doubt it will change yours.  I don't have to sell things I believe in.  I talk about them all the time.  Leadership is influence and when we believe in what God has invested in us we will see the greatest evangelism the world has ever seen.  We'll see believing believers whose love for God compels the nations to follow suit.  They will know us by our love, not our ability to sell something that's free.