The Delivery Driver

The Delivery Driver

Joe showed up in the building where I work during a hot day in the summer. Those Fed Ex and UPS trucks don’t have AC. After Joe made his delivery here about noon he had the idea of eating his sack lunch in our building. No one said he couldn’t and the lunch room was vacant.

He started making a habit of arranging his route so that he could have lunch in our building. After I became aware of that, I introduced myself to him and we became acquaintances.

One day I felt the urge to talk to him about the Lord. He seemed open to that so I asked him if he knew that God loved him and had a plan for his life. As many people, he appeared to think well of that so I proceeded to determine whether he was saved by using a variety of what are called “diagnostic questions.”

Since he was not sure if he died that he would go to heaven, I went over the plan of salvation with him. People usually will go ahead and pray with you if you get this far in your presentation, but he would not. I did not pressure him about it and let it go for the time.

That was the last time I saw Joe here at the building and I figured that at least he had heard the message. Maybe I had scared him away, though, I thought.

Not everyone who hears the message will receive it, maybe ever. This has nothing to do with the person delivering the message or the quality of delivery. Our job as soulwinners is to deliver the message that we have been prepared to deliver. What you find out is the most obvious thing: the Holy Spirit is working through you and in the heart of everyone who hears the message. That is no small thing.

After about six months I finally saw Joe again making a delivery in our building. I went up to him and said hi and asked him how he was. Small talk ensued.

Then I asked him, “Joe, do you remember what we talked about the last time you were here?”

With a pained expression on his face and in a desperate sounding voice he blurted out. “I can’t stop thinking about it!”

“Well, would you like to go over it again now,” I asked him.

“Yes,” he said expecting some relief.

For six long months the Holy Spirit had been after him day after day giving him no rest. The upshot was that now finally he was ready to accept Christ as his savior. I went over the gospel message again and this time he prayed to receive Christ as his Savior.

What you can learn from this is that arriving at the point of salvation is a process that the Holy Spirit is always working in human lives. It is called “conviction.”

From time to time we are allowed to participate in the process. It may be sowing; it may be reaping. Jesus said that some sow and others reap what was sown. The saving is done by the Lord.

The Holy Spirit had been working on Joe before he set foot in this building the first time and through those awful six months until he finally showed up in a desperate state ready to obey the gospel.