Have you ever been to a restaurant at which the waiter or waitress has offered you dessert? Were you offended? Of course, you were not! Why not? You were not offended because it is their job to offer it to you. You already expected it to happen. Either you wanted dessert, or you did not. Maybe the offer made you at least think about it.
Did you know that a waitress does not pick and choose to whom she offers dessert? She is not interested in your race, your religion, your physical appearance, or your political associations. She merely offers dessert to everyone.
Let us say the waitress offered you dessert, but you told the waitress no. Do you think she was offended? Of course, she was not! Why not? She was not offended because her job is only to offer you dessert. She is not responsible for your response. If you want it, great; but if not, there are no hurt feelings. She does not go in the back room and cry, nor does she stop offering it to other customers.
God has commanded us to go and tell a lost world about what His Son did on the old, rugged cross—that through His shed blood, they can have remission of their sins and an eternal home in Heaven. Whether or not they receive Christ as their Saviour is out of our job description. We must simply offer them “dessert.”
Like a waitress, we must get in the habit of offering everyone dessert. As soulwinners, we must not allow ourselves to pick and choose who we think is worthy of the Gospel or who we think will be receptive to it. Everyone is worthy of the offer. Not everyone will be receptive to it, but we are not to worry about that. We just need to offer it to them.
If people decide to reject the salvation that we offer them, we must not allow ourselves to be offended. When people reject an offer for dessert, they are not rejecting the waitress offering the dessert but the dessert itself. When people reject salvation, they are not rejecting us but the salvation we are offering. Like a waitress, we should not be offended by the rejection, nor should we allow it to keep us from offering it to others.
On the flip side, people would be less likely to be offended by us offering them salvation if they expected that we were going to offer it to them. People should expect that if they meet a Christian, that Christian is going to offer them salvation. There are so few Christians who actually offer salvation that the majority of people are offended when we offer it. They do not expect it, so they see us as being fanatical and intrusive.
It is so sad and convicting to me that waitresses are more faithful to offer dessert than Christians are to offer salvation. If we would just get in the mindset that soulwinning is merely offering someone dessert, then I believe we would be more faithful to it and more successful at it. If we would just bear in mind that we are not responsible for the reception or rejection of it, perhaps we would be just as faithful as the waitress. From now on, I hope each of us will take every opportunity to just offer them dessert.
by Crystal Collingsworth
