DO YOU SEE THE SIGNS? (John 3:22-36)

I am just going to say this, I am terrible at reading the signs that people give off about how they are feeling about something. Whether it is that they are hurt by what I have said or done, or I am not picking up some cue that that they are giving off. They think it ought to be obvious, but it just isn’t to me. If you want me to know something, you are going to have to tell me.

Now, to be honest, this is a fairly common difference between men and women. Men are more direct about communicating what they want you to know, and women are less so. I see this difference at work, at church, and at home. I am missing signs everywhere I go, and it gets me in trouble. There are times that I wish that robot from the science fiction show would be around to say “Danger Will Rogers.” I am better now than I used to be, but I am still not very good at it.

This concept can apply in our daily Christian walk as well. The truth is that most of us are not evangelists. We don’t spend a lot of time out walking up and down the sidewalk telling the gospel story to every person we see. Some of you might, and if you do, more power to you, I think that is great. But for a good share of us, we share what Christ has done for us by how we live our lives. How we handle our emotions, our language, our daily activities, and most of all, how we handle tragedy.

That is ok, up to a point. To be an effective witness for Christ, you have to watching for, and recognizing when the Holy Spirit is working on someone and it is time to vocalize your witness more directly. There will be a hesitation in how they are speaking about their problems, or there will be indirect questions about how you would handle a problem. The sadness on their face when the problems of the world just seem to be overwhelming them.

It will rarely be a direct question about God, or how to become a Christian. Don’t get me wrong, that certainly occurs, but I am willing to bet that you could count the times it has happened to you on one hand and still have fingers left over. If that is what you are waiting on before you witness to somebody, then you are missing the signs that God is putting before you in the people He brings you in contact with, and you are failing to fulfill the task that God has put you here to do.

You need to be watching for the signs. It will most likely be subtle things. Sometimes it is just curiosity, but other times it is something more. As a Christian, whose main assignment from God is to share the gospel of Jesus, you have to be watching for the signs that God is giving you.

Click on the link below to hear a message on the signs that our Lord Jesus Christ gave to those that He came in contact with. He told them that He was the Promised Messiah, that He was the Son of God, that He would die and then rise from the grave in three days, and He spoke with the full measure of the Holy Spirit. Jesus spoke directly to man, yet man rejected His words, they ignored the signs that Jesus gave them.

Amen.