Welcome to the Servants of Grace podcast hosted by Dave Jenkins. Our podcast exists to provide trustworthy, expository messages through the Bible and faithful answers to your theology questions. Now, for today's episode, let's join our host, Dave Jenkins. Well, welcome back to the Servants of Grace podcast. My name is Dave, and I'm the host for this show. And on today's episode of Listener Rights Center, they have a great question. And the question is this, how do I evangelize my unsaved family members and friends? Well, at some point, every Christian has had a family member, a friend, a co-worker, an acquaintance who is not a Christian. Sharing the gospel with others can be difficult, and it can even become even more difficult when it involves someone with whom we have close emotional ties. The Bible tells us that some people will be offended at the gospel in Luke 12. However, we are commanded to share the gospel, and there is no excuse for not doing it, as we see in Matthew 28, Acts 1-8, and 1 Peter 3-15. So how can we even evangelize our family members, our friends, our co-workers, our acquaintances? The most important thing we can do is to pray for them. Pray that God would change their hearts and open their eyes to the truth of the gospel as we see in 2 Corinthians 4, 4. Pray that God would convince them of his love for them and their need for salvation through Jesus Christ alone. Pray for wisdom as to how to best minister to them as we see in James 1, 5. We must be willing to be bold in our actual sharing of the gospel. Proclaim the message of salvation through Jesus Christ alone to your friends and family as Romans 10 9-10 says. Always be prepared to speak of your faith as 1 Peter 3 15 says. Doing so with gentleness and respect. There's no substitute for personally sharing the gospel. Romans 10 17 says faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word about Christ. In addition to praying and sharing about our faith, we must also live godly Christian lives in front of our friends and family members so they can see the change that God has made in us, according to 1 Peter 3, 1-2. Ultimately, we must leave the salvation of our loved ones up to God. It is God's power and grace that saves people, not our efforts. The best way we can do this is to pray for them, witness to them, and live the Christian life in front of them. It is God who gives the increase. So when you wrestle with the persistent unbelief of family, friends, and others, Satan will ask you, did God really say there is such a thing as hell? Don't tolerate that line of thinking. The doctrine of hell is tempting to abandon, and yet it's crucial to embrace. God uses this doctrine to help us understand the need to preach the truth of Christ alone. Now, remember, we're not to fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, we're to fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell, according to Jesus in Matthew 10.28. Matthew 18.9 says, And if your eye causes you sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the fire of hell. Matthew 25, 41 says, Then he will say to those on his left, Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. So we need to understand that hell is a place of unending, unrelenting, conscious punishment. Now avoid leaning into the ethical teaching of Jesus while dismissing his teaching on eternal punishment. Christ is not just the Savior, He is the Judge. Please don't abandon good theology because you don't like the implications. We are either a people of the book or a people of our own inclinations. There's no go between. Now, if Jesus could weep over the physical and even temporary death of Lazarus, how much more should we mourn over those who don't love Jesus? Paul grieved that so many of his Jewish brothers and sisters rejected Christ. They claimed to love the law and the prophets, but they hated the one who both the law and the prophets predicted. It tore Paul up inside. Romans 9, 2-3 says, I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Paul rightly grieved the unbelief of his Jewish family. See, today our theology is useless if it leaves us unfazed by the unbelief of those that we love. Don't stop crying over your lost family and friends. Don't stop praying for them to be safe. The absence of grief is not the presence of maturity. Jesus and Paul shed tears. but maybe you do not mourn over your loved ones the way you should. If that's the case, what should you do? Pray more. Pray for your lost friends and family by name. Plead with God to give them eternal life. Ask your Father to do whatever it takes to bring them to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ himself. ponder eternity. There is nothing more sobering than the reality of life without the Lord. To be cut off from Christ is to be without hope. Proper meditation on hell will soften our hearts to those who have yet to bow the knee to Christ alone. If you're confident you share the gospel clearly with your family and friends, feel freedom to back off. They know where you stand. They know where you think they stand. It's time to be quiet and pray. Does this mean you'll never bring up their spiritual state? Of course not! There may be times when it's appropriate to say, Mom, it's been a while since we talked about Christ. I know what you believe. I just want to remind you, if you ever want to talk more about the Lord Jesus, I'm always available. Backing off your family member doesn't mean ignoring or cutting them out of your life. Rather, it means spending time with them without constantly discussing their spiritual state. What does that look like practically? Four things. Pray for them regularly. Where there is life, there is hope. Second, be yourself. Don't hide your faith. Continue to talk about things that you value. This will undoubtedly mean talking about your relationship with Christ and your local church. Three, express affection. Let them know that you love and care for them. Remember birthdays and even their anniversaries. Make it obvious they matter to you, not because they may one day be saved, but simply because you love them. Fourth, give them space. This may mean you no longer forward them spiritual emails or invite them to church. Think twice before getting them another Christian book for Christmas. If you have made the gospel clear, you are free to back off. Now, one of the hardest sermons to hear is one by Jonathan Edwards. He took Romans 3.19 as a text that every mouth may be stopped. The doctrine of this verse, Edwards argued, is simple. He says it is just with God eternally to cast off and destroy sinners. In other words, who are we to talk back to the Lord? He is a just God. Number, the punishment is what you and I deserved. I and you have rebelled against God. I and you have sought to be our own personal king. Had not the grace of God broken into our lives and replaced our heart of stone with a heart of flesh, I would be facing an awful eternity, according to Ezekiel 36.26. When it comes to sin in my own heart, the sin in the world around me, and even the sin in those closest to me, I must always take God's side. Those who are sinful, and that's all of us, deserve eternal punishment. It's not easy to make this statement, but it's true. All this leaves us with a simple question. Will you take God's side against sin, even when that sin is found in those we love? By God's grace, I want to. If I'm going to follow Him faithfully, I have to trust not only that He is in control, but that He's also good. When I'm faced with the possibility of those I love never submitting to Christ, I must believe with Moses that my God is the rock. His way is perfect, for all His ways are justice, according to Deuteronomy 32.4. all of the ways of the Lord. And when it comes to your unbelieving family and friends, will you trust the Lord? Ultimately, the only way to have peace in the face of loved ones who reject Christ is to marvel at the grace of God who in Christ accepts us. God saved us when we were dead in our sins, and He can surely save our loved ones with the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. It would be no less a miracle for Him to save them than it was for Him to save us. Well, I want to thank you for listening or watching today's episode of the Servants of Grace podcast. Until next time, may God bless you and keep you. Thank you for listening to the Servants of Grace podcast today. If you enjoyed the show, please subscribe, leave a rating on the app, and share our episode with your friends and family. If you'd like to, you can follow us on Instagram at Servants of Grace, on Twitter at Servants of Grace, or by searching Servants of Grace on Facebook. You can also find this podcast on the front page of our website at servantsofgrace.org.