Barry Meguiar 00:00
You see somebody in there struggling with something? Stop. That’s your opportunity. God has given you this wonderful opportunity to come say, Hey, can I help you with that? And then they find out you’re a Christian and saying, why you’re so helpful? Do you follow what I’m saying? Please never be rushed. I know you’re in a tight time schedule. We all are, but when those moments happen, stop, God will take care of the rest right now, your focus on God’s giving you this moment. It may just be a minute, but you want to move in closer to God. Welcome to the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast, where Barry’s book and passion for spreading God’s love are guaranteed to ignite your life. Now listen in and prepare to have your life ignited.
Hi everybody. Welcome back to ignite. I want to talk about the biggest impediment to sharing your faith successfully, and it’s really because of what we’ve been taught in all our lives. Those of us who’ve been at church hour all of our lives, we we have been brainwashed.
We’ve been taught that we have to memorize a script. So we have to memorize facts and statistics and get the scriptures down, and get your sales pitch down. That’s what it is. It’s a sales pitch. I love this one. Get your life story down. Memorize your story. Be ready to tell people your story. Well, I don’t know you, but I have 100 stories.
I go 100 different directions in telling my story after 80 years of being on this earth. So Which story do I pick? And do any of my stories match the person’s need? It doesn’t you have to establish credibility first and the Holy Spirit. It’s a spiritual experience. Understand that every time you enter into a conversation, every conversation, he’s there in every conversation. Do you know that? Do you know that he knows your thoughts, He knows your words before you say them, as well as those that he’s leading into your path? And he’s in the middle of all that. And so when you enter in, you’re really entering into a sacred moment where you’re coming into partnership with God. And so it’s not just you and somebody you don’t know in a freshly secular conversation. That’s not what is it? Maybe what it appears, but it’s a holy moment. It’s a God inspired moment, and the Holy Spirit is working. And when you love on people, and that’s the key, he says, they’ll know you’re my disciple by your love, not by your Bible memorization or your ability to quote Scripture. He didn’t say any of that. He says they’ll know you’re my disciple by your love. People are starving for love, and when you love on people, just don’t think about their salvation being secondary. Do not have that on your mind. I got to get these people saved. Just love on them. Have no other agenda, and you’ll be amazed that every time you do that, I mean every time you do that, within a few moments, I’ve clocked it through the years, and usually within five minutes, they become relaxed, and the Holy Spirit is confirming to them that your love is real. And they want to tell somebody their needs they really do. And all sudden, you, you, you, God confirms to them that you really love them, that you’re a real person. And often, as I say, within five minutes, they start telling you things that they wouldn’t tell their best friend, they tell you their need.
So then you know how to direct your conversation only. You probably don’t have anything quick on mine, or certainly anything that you prepared for that, for that need. That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. I’m going to get to that in a minute, for the Holy Spirit to give you guidance to that. This is where it really gets excited. This is an adventure. Do I never adventure every day. This is how you live your life. And I don’t care where you are. These opportunities outright all the time. I sometimes feel like a like a pinball machine.
Go to another sometimes three of these conversations will happen in the in the course of a morning. It’s just, it’s just amazing. You never know, but you want to always be ready. It’s interesting. Even people who have read our book, ignite your life seem to have this knee jerk reaction to where there’s they’re doing it 100% exclusively with with waiters. Okay, now in the book, I said something like this is face sharing 101, this is where you start, because it’s the easiest, and yes, it does tend to fall into a pattern, because you’re having a meal and and if you haven’t read the book and to go something like this, you’re you’re all Christians, and you banter. You develop a relationship. You have to develop a relationship before you have any influence on anybody, but you can quickly develop that relationship. And you get her name or his name, and you banter and have fun. And after they’ve taken all of yours, you say, Oh, by the way, well, just one more quick question. They say, Yes, or a bunch of crazy Christians. And we always pray before our meal, and we found now that we always ask our servers if they have anything they want.
Us to pray for about, for them. And we’re finding out almost everybody has a as a need going on. It’s a crazy world and and we like to pray for those needs and see God answer them. So is there anything we can pray for you about? And most of the time, they’ll say yes, and oftentimes emotionally, that’s all great, but, but the book wasn’t igniting your life by talking to waiters.
That’s fine, but the fact the matter is, it’s moving everybody. The waiters in your life represent a small portion of the people you talk to every day. Think of all the people you talk to all day long, waiters are just a small portion of that. I often hear people say, well, then with our families? Well, families represent even a smaller part. In the meantime, 80% of the people around you every day are lost, and your role, your job, your directive, your command, is to move everybody, every day closer to Jesus. You see the moment you say the same thing twice. It becomes a sales pitch.
Now, maybe that worked decades ago, but I can tell you at this point, people are onto a sales pitch, and when, when you do a sales pitch, you can’t prevent yourself from not rushing and being less sympathetic and trying to get words out that’ll have a desired response from them. It’s very transparent. It doesn’t work. It’s plastic. And that’s not the way you want to go. And even if you did that and you did it successfully, you’d walk away saying how proud you were that you did it so well. That’s kind of bringing glory to yourself and not to God, and God’s not really happy with that. So if you want to be ignited, really, I got to tell you, go to Amazon and pull up our book and look at the reviews way more poignantly than anything I can say. Go to the reviews for our book, ignite your life. There’s about, I don’t know about, like, 300 reviews there, and I cry when I read them, and they’re saying things I wouldn’t think of saying you’re hearing first up to first thing, I didn’t ever share my faith. I never share I thought it was for somebody else, and now I’m sharing my faith every day, everywhere I can. I’m having so much fun. Really read the reviews on amazon.com and if nothing else, they will ignite your life.
So back to Conversations. Just, how do you start this conversation? That’s the big part. I got to tell you. It starts with eye contact and a smile. I’m amazed how I watched Christians walk around and until they’re engaged in conversations like they’re carrying the weight of the whole world. I mean, they have a scowl on their face. They’re not smiling, they’re not looking, they’re not expecting. They all don’t want a conversation. They’re not sharing their faith terribly often.
I just read a study actually that said that your eyes communicate more than your mouth, that your eyes say it all. You can look at somebody. You can see if they’re sad or happy or engaging or or loving on you your eyes. So when you walk through life, you’re in the game. You’re you’re in full time ministry. Do you understand this? You’re in full time ministry. And I don’t care if you’re walking through your living room or you’re walking into the into Walmart or into the boardroom, people are judging you. They’re looking at you. They’re making life decisions based on you. You the Christian, you represent the Lord. So walk in and when you wherever you go, look at people. Expect them to look back. You expect them to speak to you. You can invite conversations just by looking at people, and you have big smile, and they break into a smile, and they say, Hi, how you doing? It starts a conversation. And then you can just say something simple, like, you know, I’m doing well, God’s been so good. He’s giving me a really good day today. And then go on, don’t preach it. Just mention something about God and go, Why are you loving me? Oh, God just loves me so much. He likes to love people through me. Then you change the conversation. Don’t preach at them.
Just just touch on God and go on. Let them know you have a God conscious so they see when you’re when you’re a nice person doing good things, it’s not because you’re a nice person, it’s because you’re a god person, because you’re connected with God. That’s God speaking and using you to minister to them. So just basic things obvious, you always smile. Always smile. I don’t care if you’re having a really bad day. Smile. God loves you always respond. And I mean the non verbal response. I mean somebody waves.
Say hi, respond back. Be happy. Always be happy. Always have fun. People like to be around fun people. If you’re not fun people are gonna be around you and you’re not gonna have much opportunity to share your faith. Always be helpful. When you see somebody and they’re struggling with something, stop. That’s your opportunity. God has given you this wonderful opportunity to come and say, Hey, can I help you with that? It starts a conversation. People loved being helped by other people, and then they find out you’re a Christian, and said, why you’re so helpful? Do you follow what I’m saying and never be rushed. Please, never be rushed. I know you’re in a tight time schedule. We all are, but when those moments happen, stop. God will take care of the rest. Right now you’re focused on God’s giving you this moment. It may just be a minute, but you want to move them closer to God, closer to Jesus. So to just it’s just amazing. You’re in full time ministry. Do you understand that we say it all the time, but it’s so true. Everything you say and do all day long, is moving the people who are watching you closer or further away from God. That’s just the way you can’t escape that.
I have to say, people are everybody is a witness, but some of us are witnesses for the prosecution. Don’t be used for that side of the equation. Move everybody, every day, closer to Jesus. Allow God to love everybody through you. To salvation everybody through you.
Oh, that’s when life gets exciting. Look for ways to compliment people. What a beautiful dress you have. I, I was on a plane last week, and this lady, she was in pink she she was in a wheelchair, and they put in the seat right across to me. She had a big smile, she had a pink hat, she had a pink outfit, she had the most amazing colorful purse, and her person inside the purse was colorful.
I just said, I want to get to know you. She’s what I said, You must be a happy person, because then understand. She just got up a wheelchair, sitting her seat on the airplane, and she was, I said, you got the glory of the Lord all over you. You start conversation. It’s fun when you expect to do it, just expect to do it. Don’t miss an opportunity. The point is, you want to build a relationship, and you can do that in a few moments. You know, you can do it with an operator on the phone. I mean, you may only have that operator for two or three minutes, but in that two or three minutes, you can actually develop a relationship and banter. At the end, say, thank you. I’m so glad I got you. You need to be the person that helps me as an operator. God bless you. Have a wonderful day, you know? Oh, wow, thank you. God bless you. Back, I just moved that person closer to Jesus. That’s a relationship, you know? That’s why I say to people when they ask, Oh, I just say, you know, I love I lead people to Jesus. I throw that in whatever I can it, just so it gives them expectation. What does that mean? Then everything I say after that’s going to follow that, and they’re going to judge me by that. And there better be proof of what I’m doing with my life to prove that I do lead people closer to Jesus. Just in closing, I’ll give you a couple great scriptures that relieves all the pressure. What am I going to say? I don’t want to say it. I went for years. I got to tell you. I went for decades, really,
sweating, nervous. I’m going to talk to so and so tomorrow. And I go, what he might ask this, he might ask that. And I’m digging through scripture, and most of the time, the conversation never went anywhere near those subjects. Tore off on another field. It’s just wasted effort.
What’s important to understand is you don’t have to repair. It’s freedom. It’s total freedom. You don’t you can’t prepare for the conversation you’re going to have. If you’re in the game, they’re going to have it throughout the day. You can’t prepare for those conversations. And Mark 1311 says, don’t prepare. It actually comes down. It doesn’t say it’s the opposite of what we’re told. We got to prepare, we got to organize. We got to get the points down, point 1.2, point 3.4, and hey, those work. And quite frankly, millions of people have been saved through evangelism programs. Please. I understand that. I have huge respect. I went through those evangelism programs. Okay? I have huge respects for them, but most of us, probably most of you, will not go through an evangelism program and then you use as an excuse, well, I don’t know all that stuff. You don’t need to know anything. Mark 1311 says, don’t prepare. Even better, Luke 1212. Says, The Holy Spirit will give you the words to say when you don’t have words to say. That is incredible. That is one of the most powerful scriptures in the entire in the entire Bible, I gotta tell you, because you experience it when you when you go into a conversation and you conversation, and you know, God has just orchestrated that conversation, and you’re talking to somebody spontaneously that you don’t know, that you didn’t plan to talk to God. Had a plan that he directs their steps and your steps together, and you’re in this conversation.
Bring up something, and their need is revealed, and then God, supernaturally, gives you a life experience or a story, or better yet, a scripture that you hadn’t heard of, hadn’t thought of for for years, and all sudden it’s there, and you’re quoting it verbatim.
It’s amazing how that works, and you realize that God is using you and speaking through you, and the life in front of you is being changed in front of I gotta tell you, that’s intimacy with God. There’s no other way to heaven. This is intimacy with God. See you next time. If you enjoyed today’s episode, let us know, and don’t forget to subscribe late and review to help us reach more listeners. Remember sharing your faith. Ignite your faith. See you next time on the Ignite with Barry McGuire podcast.
