I overheard a discussion between two people. Person 1: “You left the door unlocked.” Person 2: “No I didn’t.” Person 1: “Well the front door was unlocked when I got here and you were the last person here yesterday.” Person 2: “First, you don’t know that for sure. Second and more importantly, I used the back door and locked it when I left.” They then debated whether or not that was the truth. “Why did you use the back door? You always use the front door. So it’s coincidence that the front door was left unlocked after you had been in the building? I’ve never seen you use the back door.” … on and on.

With no evidence to the contrary all the accused could do was offer his word. That word was rejected, refuted and challenged. It occurred to me that Person 1 simply does not trust Person 2 or believe Person 2, and no amount of arguing or evidence was going to change that.

Have you ever seen the same problem when people are sharing the Gospel? The truth is spoken, every passage about Christ is given, somebody has testified to what they have seen and experienced, and in the end, the other person just wants to argue the point? The other person simply refuses to believe it. It made me think of how the Gospel does not need to be proven, validated, or the topic of verbal jousting to prove a point. We are not called to do that. We are called to share the Good News, to speak the truth. It is not up to us what somebody does with it or whether they receive it or not.

Matthew 13:3-9- “A farmer went out to sow seed. 4 While he was scattering the seed, some of it fell by the road. The birds came and ate all that seed. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where there was not enough dirt. It grew very fast there, because the soil was not deep. 6 But when the sun rose, it burned the plants. The plants died because they did not have deep roots. 7 Some other seed fell among thorny weeds. The weeds grew and stopped the good plants from growing. 8 But some of the seed fell on good ground. There it grew and made grain. Some plants made 100 times more grain, some 60 times more, and some 30 times more. 9 You people who hear me, listen!”

Our job is to sow the seed. To share it and to deliver it to others. Sometimes it will “take”; sometimes it will not. The one thing we cannot do is become so entrenched in trying to convince people of the Gospel truth that we lose sight of our role in this mission. Speak the truth. God will decide when it is heard, how it is received, who hears it and what they do with it.

REV. BARRY VASSAR is pastor at Fitzgerald Memorial Baptist. He can be reached at fitzgeraldmemorial@gmail.com.