3
03
2016
Some people falsely believe that only those who are called by God to be an evangelist have an obligation to evangelize the lost. But Matthew 28:29 gives a clear command to all Christians: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Each of us has an obligation to give the gospel to a lost and dying world; and when we don’t, we’re disobeying God.
Some of the most evangelistic people I know are people who came to a point in their life where they understood their need to just obey God in this area. Like all of us, they had used numerous excuses but realized that their excuses were not legitimate ones to use to disobey God.
Approximately two years ago, God really began to work on my heart regarding my responsibility to witness for Christ. I would give the gospel when the opportunity came to me, but my life was not marked by intentional attempts to make opportunities to witness. As I began to warm to the place of making a decision to be a witness for Christ, I found myself making a mental checklist of all the things I had to prepare or learn to do to be more intentional in witness. It was not long into that checklist that I realized I had completely overlooked the first thing I needed to do in regards to being an intentional witness—to first repent of my lack of obedience to the Great Commission. I have certainly not arrived to a place of perfection regarding witnessing for Christ, but there have been marked demonstrations of improvement over the last two years. The improvement began at that point of repentance.
Here is a thought for you to consider today. Have you considered your lack of fulfilling the command of the Great Commission to be an area of disobedience? If you have been disobeying God, then let’s start with repentance.
Categories : Congregational Helps
3
03
2016
It is easy for us to look at our unsaved co-workers, neighbors, and family members and just assume they are all defiant towards the gospel. But not everyone is defiant. Some may carry a surface persona of disinterest and antagonism but are really just quietly searching for answers. One time I heard a preacher describe the Samaritan woman in John 4 as a seductively dressed woman who practiced the behavior of the Proverbs 7 woman, but I’m not convinced that she was truly that way. It is true that she had been married a number of times and was currently living with a man who was not her husband, but those things do not mean she was a harlot living a hard-hearted defiant life toward God. Could it be that she was simply a woman who was extremely hungry for a relationship that fully satisfied and was looking for that relationship in all of the wrong places?
A lot of our evangelism efforts never begin because we have just assumed that a person will not want the gospel if we gave it to them. The Great Commission is not a command to discern who is receptive and who is not. The Great Commission is a command to go into all the world and preach to every creature. Let’s not be guilty of an unhealthy form of evangelistic discrimination.
Keep your eyes out for divine appointments this week. Take advantage of opportunities to give the gospel. Walk into your day armed with a few gospel tracts and a heart that is walking in the Spirit. God may have a “thirsty person” like the woman at the well who simply needs to know the truth that they can have a satisfying relationship with Jesus Christ through faith. You might be able to lead a soul to Christ!
Categories : Congregational Helps
3
03
2016
Bad news is what makes good news so good. Presenting the bad news that we are all sinners and deserving of eternal death in hell is hard to communicate. Left to our natural inclinations, we would simply present the love, mercy, and grace of God. But the depth of God’s love, the need for mercy, and the marvel of grace is best understood with the knowledge of our sinful condition.
Gospel presentations like the Roman’s Road, Evangelism Explosion, Netcasters, or the Exchange help us give a balanced presentation of both the bad news and the good news of the gospel. Don’t be afraid of using gospel presentation systems for the sake of insuring that you don’t become guilty of just giving “gospel goulash.” A gospel presentation system helps us insure that we have included all the right elements of the gospel.
Don’t forget, though, that the power of the gospel is in the gospel, not in the presentation system. Don’t become distracted or encumbered with a preference of one particular system that you fail to just give the gospel on a regular basis.
Take what you have been taught and the system you know and give the gospel. Prayerfully present the bad news that makes the good news good and see what God does. I am praying that we see a rich harvest of souls saved at FBC this year.
Categories : Congregational Helps
3
03
2016
One of the most damaging notions to a real understanding of God and His relationship with man is the concept that God is simply a force or energy source. Whereas God is indeed a force with which to be reckoned and the greatest power in the universe, He is so much more than that. He is a person! When we remove the concept of His personhood from our thinking, we take away the fact that He has likes and dislikes. We damage our ability to understand the whole concept of morality. We are left to define all the great questions of life by our own experience and intellect.
I want to encourage each of us to be an evangelistic witness for Christ this year. As we witness, seek to emphasize the person of Jesus Christ. People are not saved merely by what they believe but in whom they believe.
Ephesians 1:13 states, “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth…” It is our job to share the word of truth in a manner that presents the person of Jesus Christ.
Would you stop and pray that God would give you an opportunity this week to introduce a lost sinner to the person of Jesus Christ?
Categories : Congregational Helps
1
03
2016
Writing out thoughts is a therapeutic way for me to “talk sense” to myself. The discipline of putting thoughts on paper in a logical way is a way that God has often renewed my mind. Yesterday was a really full and wonderful day for us here at Faith Baptist. The evidences of God’s grace were numerous and slightly overwhelming. In addition to the evidences of grace, God sovereignly sprinkled a few reminders of the spiritual battle that rages in ministry. That mixture left me a little “foggy-brained” and dependent upon God for sleep and a restful heart. I’m not sure what your weekend looked like, but perhaps these five thoughts can be a help to you as they have been for me today.
1. God works through His Word. His Word works slowly, methodically, and often-undetected for long periods of time. However, the result is a work that outlasts us here on earth. Some of the greatest attacks on our schedule will be the attacks made on our time preparing to preach the Word. Satan attacks that which he believes is the most powerful opponent to his agenda. Guard your study time and keep preaching the Word. Your ministry in the Word (even yesterday) has eternal impact!
2. Ministry opportunities will always outnumber the laborers to do the ministry. The overwhelming amount of work to do in the ministry should not surprise us. A part of us wants to just do it all and try to be the super-laborer that makes up for the lack of laborers. God’s solution to lack of laborers has always remained the same: we should train and equip believers (II Timothy 2:2; Ephesians 4) and pray for more laborers (Luke 10:2). Who are you intentionally training and when is the last time you spent a significant amount of time praying for laborers?
3. Clearly stated invitations to accept Christ coupled with a heart-felt plea still work! Many young men in the ministry are passionately defiant to a public invitation for people to accept Christ or make a decision because they have seen distasteful invitations used by preachers. Though many have abused the public invitation, we shouldn’t cast the concept aside completely. Christ regularly invited people to respond to His preaching and to act upon the truths He shared. Rather than laying the practice aside, let’s diligently seek to preach and conduct invitations that are absent of coercion and emotional manipulation. Preach the Word and give people an opportunity to respond. You may have people sitting in front of you who want to respond to God’s work in their heart but just don’t know how. A public invitation is not a method to generate numbers but a method in which we can help people become doers of the Word and not just hearers (James 1).
4. Some of our greatest hurt in ministry will come from those closest to us. People we lead to the Lord, disciple, and invest in can often be the ones who seem to cause our deepest pain. They make decisions and say things that cut to the very quick of our heart and leave us breathless in pain. Our flesh walks away from those situations with a desire to build up walls of protection that prevent us from ever being hurt again. Those walls often take the form of isolation and distance from people. The problem with that response is that the farther we are removed from people, the less ministry we are able to have. I pray regularly that God would protect our hearts from responding the wrong way to the hurts in the ministry. Though every fiber of our being wants to curl up in our offices and lick our wounds, we must continue forward in ministry with a focus on God’s unchanging faithfulness.
5. A ministry-servant’s generosity and sacrifice is not overlooked by God. The most giving people I know are on the front lines of ministry. They regularly see and hear of needs in people’s lives and give countless hours of energy and money to help. Few people will ever know what you have given and done, but God does (Hebrews 6:10). I’m often tempted to think, “Who is thinking of and trying to provide for my needs that are being created by my meeting the needs of others?” I want to know that there is a group of people who know all my needs and stand with outstretched arms ready to meet any need that I face. Though God may use people to meet our needs, He always has been and always will be the benevolent Giver who knows and cares for us. Though you may not see countless people waiting in the wings to meet your needs, there is a God in Heaven who knows all you are doing and will always provide exactly what you need when you need it. Keep giving and sacrificing, and watch God meet your needs.
You are not alone in this wonderful endeavor called ministry. Your harvest field may seem a long way from the harvest field of Folsom, but our God is with each of us. We each have the same commission and with that commission comes the same promise, “Lo, I am with you alway.”
Categories : Ministry Helps
