Why Be Pushy?

As a child, I was not a fan of green veggies.  To be honest, I'm still not a fan of most of them, but I have made some progress.  I remember my Mom doing her best to force me to eat my broccoli with little success.  She would make me sit at the table with no dessert until I ate my broccoli.  And wait I did.  I once sat at that table from lunch until supper because I disliked broccoli that much.  Oh, Mom tried to make it more appealing by smothering it with cheese sauce, chopping it up very fine and sneaking it into a chicken pot pie.  I was just adamant about not eating broccoli!  My bride will tell you that I STILL don't like it and won't eat it.

Where am I going with this?  Well, it may be a bit of a stretch, but if you will allow me some license, you will see.  Believe it or not, there are people who want to hear the Gospel message about as much as I wanted to consume broccoli.  And there are also people who are so determined to get nonbelievers to believe that they will go about presenting the Gospel pretty much the same way my Mom tried to get me to eat broccoli.  This conflict gives believers a bad reputation, "Don't shove your religion down my throat!" "If I wanted to hear your judgmentalisms I'd join your church!" and other such expressions are what we hear.

Remember what Jesus said in the "Great Commission"?  Did Jesus say for us to force the message on others?  Did Jesus say to tell people "You're going to HELL unless you believe"?  No!  What Jesus said was "Go into all the World and make disciples!"  We are to share the message!  THAT is our responsibility!  Not force it on others....not judging others.....not condemning others. 

So how do we do that?  Simple: Let every person you meet be a NEW person in your mind.  You see, Jesus built relationships and in those relationships He shared the message of truth.  He didn't force it on anyone!  He shared through relationships  Also: We have got to resist the urge to "hammer it home."  When we are tempted to become aggressive with the message of salvation...the message is no longer the "Good News" rather it become the "Aggressive Argument."  Remember, what Paul said in Romans 14:4 - They are God’s servants, not yours. They are responsible to Him, not to you. Our job is not to try to BE God!  Our job is to present the information through building relationships!

One final point: In building relationships, we are to BE the example of Christ we want others to see.