All to Him I Owe

When I was growing up and my mom told me to relay a command to my younger brother Rick, our conversation would go something like this: “You need to clean up your room!” “Says who?” It was always gratifying and comforting to reply with, “Mom says so!” I had no personal authority in my brother’s life, but my parents did.

As adult Christians, I am afraid we have a subtle version of “says who?” that we use when someone tells us that we need to witness for Christ. Our frustration with having our personal priorities re-ordered or a convicting pressure placed upon us reveals that nature of our heart to resist the authority behind the command. Don’t resist the authority of Christ that prefaces His Great Commission to us. This authority that drives us to obey is the same authority that gives us confidence as we go. Matthew 28:18-19 says that all power is His–both the power to give us a command and the power to make our way prosperous. It is no surprise that we doubt the success of our mission when we regularly doubt the authority behind His command.

John Stott said, “The fundamental basis of all Christian missionary enterprise is the universal authority of Jesus Christ, ‘in heaven and in earth.’ If the authority of Jesus were circumscribed on earth, if He were but one of many religious teachers, one of many Jewish prophets, one of many divine incarnations, we would have no mandate to present Him to the nations as the Lord and the Savior of the world. If the authority of Jesus were limited in heaven, if He has not decisively overthrown the principalities and powers, we might still proclaim Him to the nations, but we would never be able to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Only because all authority on earth belongs to Christ dare we go to all nations. And only because all authority in heaven as well is His have we any hope of success.”

My travels over the last month have allowed me to cross paths with a number of pastors in the Rocky Mountain area that are consistently serving God but seeing minimal fruit. In fact, some of them can only number the salvations they have seen in their small towns with single digits. These men have not demonstrated sorrow or depression over the single digits, because they know the value of the one. Mark 16:26 reminds us of the great value of a soul. “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” The few souls that some are seeing saved are more valuable than this whole world combined. A life spent ministering for the sake of one is not a wasted life. Take heart, even if your harvest numbers is in the single digits.

This is important, because our view of the one may be a determining factor in our faithfulness to that Great Commission command. Former President George H. Bush was rescued at sea during WWII. Time magazine carried an article a number of years ago that shared the following: Bush met a former Japanese soldier who claimed he actually saw the rescue of Bush when the submarine Finback surfaced and plucked him off his tiny dinghy. The old man related that one of his friends had remarked as they watched the swift rescue, “Surely America will win the war if they care so much for the life of one pilot.” Serve your Lord today with a sense of the value of one!

The authority behind the commission gives us great assurance to our mission’s success. Don’t be discouraged by single digits in your harvest field. Stay faithful!