Winning Ways Witness 7- Handling Objections

**Fenny West** Sat 24 May 2008, 10:46 pm

You will meet with many objections as you witness and you need to know how to handle them wisely, sensitively and skilfully. It is written:

15Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2Tim. 2:15)

Note how the following objections can be handled using the scripture. How would you handle them? Can you learn from them? I hasten to add that there are different ways of handling any objections and we depend on the Holy Spirit to fill our mouths as we open them. However the Holy Spirit will only remind us what we have studied.

I am not a bad person

All our righteousness is as filthy rags before God. if you compare yourself with people, you can claim to be better in certain respects. But God’s standards are different. If you miss the mark in one respect you miss the mark totally. That is why He says, we are saved by grace through faith, and that not by yourself. It is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ.

There is none righteous, not even one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. If we say we have not sinned or have no sin, we are calling God a liar and the truth is not in us.

“ There is none righteous, no, not one;

Rom.3:10

I am too young

Young people can know the Lord in a personal way, so long as you are old enough to know right from wrong and know what you’re doing you can surrender to Christ.

There are many children who know the Lord in a personal way and are on fire for Him.

Samuel came to know the Lord at an early age. Timothy was a young man who was taught the ways of the Lord by his mother and grand mother. He then became Paul’s son and protege in Christ. Paul mentored, followed him up and nurtured him.

Joseph, Daniel and friends were young when they became intimate with God and started making a difference to those who came in contact with them. They refuse to compromise their standard or be shaped in to the mould of the world around them.

⁷ But the LORD said to me:

Do not say, ‘I am a youth,

For you shall go to all to whom I send you,

And whatever I command you, you shall speak

Do not be afraid of their faces,

For I am with you to deliver you,” says the LORD.

Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me

Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.

¹⁰ See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,

To root out and to pull down,

To destroy and to throw down,

To build and to plant.” Jer .1:7-10

I am too old

No one is too old. If God has spared your life and has given you an opportunity to know him, grab it as fast as you can and thank Him. Don’t delay another day. No one knows tomorrow.
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. ²⁶It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord's Christ. ²⁷Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, ²⁸Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
⁹"Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you now dismiss your servant in peace.
³⁰For my eyes have seen your salvation,
³¹which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
³²a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel."
³³The child's father and mother marveled at what was said about him. ³⁴Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother: "This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, ³⁵so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your own soul too."

.⁶There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, ³⁷and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. ³⁸Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. Luke 2:

I am weary of religion

Coming to know God in a personal way is not religion but a relationship. Religion is man-made. Yes people class Christianity as one of the religions of the world, but God did not originate the word Christian. ‘Christians’ is a world coined by unbelievers to describe followers of Christ. The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch. Act 26:13. All roads may lead to Rome, but all roads do not lead to the true Living God. Jesus said, ‘I am the Way..’, not ‘I am a way.’

I am too bad. God will not forgive me.

God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son… no one is too bad. If you were the only sinner God would still have sent Jesus to come and die for you. you are valuable to God. You are precious to Him and that was why ‘it pleased Him to bruise His Son to redeem, buy you back from the slave market of sin.

He says come as you are , no matter how far you are.

“Come all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

“Come let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow. And though they be red as crimson, they shall be as wool.

“Come all you who are thirsty. Come to the water. Come buy and eat. Come buy milk and honey, without money. Why waste your money on what does not satisfy?”

There are different ways to God.

No man can come to the Father except through Me, Jesus said. I am the way the truth and the life, He said. John14:6

He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son, does not have life. 1John5:12

I am the door He said. Those who try to come in through another door are robbers, He said. John 10

If there is a God what of…

God gets accused of anything that goes wrong in the world, but He is never given credit for good things that happens that we know could not have been the work of man.

First of all he has laid down the rules for living a good life in the Bible and if we don’t follow them, there are consequences. The law of gravity exist whether or not we like it. We decide to flout it what happens? We meet with concrete justice. We cannot blame God for not suspending that law, can we? The same applies to spiritual laws. If we defy, and disobey them we get broken, clobbered. What we sow we reap.

Why are there different Christian groups who never agree?

Denomination is man made. God is not interested in denominations.

Someone had a vision when he was taken to heaven. He wanted to know who was there and he asked the Lord : are there any Pentecostals there?

And the Lord sad, “No!”

Are there any Catholics?

No

Are any Anglicans?

No

Any Presbyterians?

No! came the reply.

He became very worried and asked, “Who is there then?”

And the Lord replied: “Only Christians.”

I have met many Christian hypocrites and they put me off.

You will give an account of your life to God in the end and that excuse will hold no water.

So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. Rom.14:12

God is too good to condemn people to hell.

I am my own God.

How do we know there is a God?

I have no time.

The Christian life is too hard to live up to.

I want to enjoy my life for a while before I think of that.

You don’t have to go to Church to be a Christian.

There will be more fun in hell.

But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matt8:12, -22:13, -25:30; Luke 13:28

I don’t care.

You may not care now, but one day you will.

God understands.

God will ask you what you did with what you heard concerning His Son.

I have always been a Christian. I was born a Christian. ( see myths)

I go to Church (see myths)

I have been baptized (see myths)

My religion is a private matter.

It is a matter of life and death and needs serious attention.

Scriptures for various topical issues

Ro 1:26 -27-30Homosexuality, lesbianism, alternative lifestyles 1Pet.2:16, Gal5:1,9
Mark7:6Religion This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me, Mark 7:13 ¹³Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."

Idolatry 1Pet.4:3 (abominable) enslaving (Gal4:8-9) defiling(2Cor.6:15-18) domonaical (2Cor. 10:20,21) degrading (Ro.1:22,23), irrational ( Acts 17:29)

Occult, mediums, astrology Deut.18:9-14

Libertarians1Pet.2:16, Gal5:1,9,13

Environmentalists Ro.1:25

Adultery Matt.5:28, Gal 5:19

Feminist movement John 8:32

Slavery John8:32, Philemon

Christianity –a white man’s religion?

One of the disciples of Jesus was black. Simeon Acts 13:1-2, the Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8:26-40

Jesus was a Jews and Jews are not white.

Trust in Government and society at large- the government is a reflection of society. They are limited in what they can do. We cannot put our trust in them. The US failed its citizens in New Orleans , and Louisiana. Even in the Uk the Government has failed regarding Education, the NHS, pension