Commentary: Share Jesus in your circle of influence

Steve Foster

This means that people in your circle of influence need to hear the good news.”

I was preaching a local church harvest event. The pastor and I went to play golf one morning. On our drive to the golf course, we suddenly came to a stop in stalled traffic.

It was a hilly area in Tennessee, and we wondered why traffic was so slow. We ultimately reached the top of the hill, and the flagman turned his sign to STOP. We saw a valley below us with trucks being filled with dirt and traffic stopped on both sides of the hill.

One of the truck drivers exited his truck and went to the passenger side. He pulled out a large brown paper sack folded halfway. He walked to every worker on the road and opened the sack and each man looked in and took something out.

The pastor and I talked about what he was offering. “Is it candy?" the pastor asked. I replied, “He probably has some type of alcohol in there.” He made his way up the long hill to the flagman who stood at the front of the pastor’s SUV. He opened the sack and the flagman looked cautiously in the sack. I said, “The flagman looks scared. He must have a snake in there.”

The flagman pulled out a blue Eternal Life gospel tract produced by the North American Mission Board. I shouted with excitement, “That’s an Eternal Life gospel tract! He’s sharing Jesus.”

That truck driver was using his circle of influence to tell people about Jesus. We all have a circle of influence. A circle of relationships composed of family members, coworkers, friends, people we see in our daily and weekly routines such as the cashier we pay when we order coffee, the people who belong to our gym, or our next-door neighbors.

The North American Mission Board estimates that 75% of people in North America have no relationship with Jesus. This means that people in your circle of influence need to hear the good news. The truck driver was prepared to share Jesus and below are some ways you can prepare yourself to share with those in your circle of influence.

1. Pray for God to prepare the hearts of those in your circle. Pray for them by name. Pray that you would be bold in sharing the gospel.
2. Develop evangelistic curiosity. Demonstrate your concern for others by asking how their day is going, remembering specific things about their family and life.
3. Keep gospel tracts with you and share as you have opportunities. This allows the person to both hear the gospel conversation and take the gospel with them.
4. The Big Ask! Remember to ask those who you share the complete gospel with if they would like to give their life to Jesus and follow Him as a disciple.

I will never forget that truck driver and his sack of Eternal Life tracts. I think he filled that sack up every week with gospel tracts and shared them at gas stations, restaurants, to coworkers, and with whoever he saw in his circle of influence.

He demonstrated compassion and preparedness. I pray we all have a compassion and urgency to share the gospel in our circle of influence.

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