The Three Circles - Crowning Jesus As King

 

Hello my brother; hello my sister, my name is Dean Davis, and this is a word of encouragement for village church planters.

I wanted to be forgiven.  I really did.  I had heard that Jesus wanted to forgive me and that was good news.  I understood that Jesus had paid the penalty for my sins by his death on the cross.  I had come to believe that Jesus really did rise from the dead.  But I just wasn’t sure that I could trust him with my life.

The people who shared the Good News of Jesus with me said that I should make Jesus the Lord of my life.  When we share the Gospel using the three circles, we ask people to “crown Jesus as the king of their life.”  But regardless of the words people use, making Jesus your Lord or crowning Jesus as king of your life means you have to give up a whole lot of decision making power in your life.  And that is not easy!  At least it wasn’t easy for me.

I think many people wonder if Jesus is really trustworthy.  If I crown him king of my life, will he ask me to do things that I don’t want to do?  Will he make my life hard for me?  If I follow Jesus will people reject me or criticize me?  These are the questions that many people ask themselves when they hear the Good News.

Once we start asking these questions, a battle breaks out in our heart.  The Spirit of God is telling us that Jesus is good and he is God.  He can be trusted.  The world, the flesh and the devil are tempting us to reject Christ so we can maintain “our freedom” or “our dignity in the family and in the village.” 

Praise the Lord! In my life God’s Spirit gave me the victory.  And he gave you the victory as well.  Because the Spirit of God was at work, we were born again.  We did trust Christ and we were forgiven of our sins and given the gift of eternal life. 

You are a village church planter.  I know I have said it before, but let me say it again.  As a village church planter, you are a co-laborer with Christ.  As you share the Gospel using the three circles, the Holy Spirit is at work drawing your listener to Christ.  Your job and my job is to cooperate with the Spirit as our listener, or friend, struggles in his heart and mind with the world, the flesh and the devil. 

How do we cooperate with the Spirit as we invite people to crown Jesus the king of their lives? We certainly pray silently as we listen to our friend’s response.  We may share a brief testimony of how we trusted Christ or a word about how we have found that Jesus is good and trustworthy.  We may just wait patiently and silently while our friend struggles to decide if he or she wants to put their faith in Christ.  But that moment when we invite our friend to make Jesus the Lord of their life is a holy moment.  There is no rush.  There is no hurry.  We know the Spirit is working.  We know there is a spiritual battle underway. But we cannot make the decision for the one who is confronted with a life changing opportunity.  When we share the three circles, we are messengers, not decision makers.  We do our best to communicate the love of Christ and we wait for our friend’s response.  Will he or she crown Jesus the king of their life?

My word of encouragement for you today is to tell the Good News often.  Tell it well. Tell it with patience and love.  We never know who will respond to the Gospel.  I know my friends were surprised that I did.  Maybe your friends were surprised as well.  But what a wonderful surprise it is for us as evangelists and church planters when a friend does say “yes” to Jesus and is born again.  Seeing a life transformed is worth it all.

This has been a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.

 

If you have found this message to be helpful, please forward it to fellow church planters and disciple makers who may need encouragement.  Feel free to share it on What’s App, Facebook, and other platforms you use to connect with others.

Be encouraged, God is with us!

#EncouragementforVillageChurchPlanters #CrownJesusKing #ThreeCircles