EVANGELISM-OUR ULTIMATE GOAL
BY REV. CHARLES R. GRISHAM
Matthew 9:37-38: “Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”
How do you feel about the harvest? Do you share the heartbeat of God concerning the unreached souls of our world? Questions such as these must be answered. The very thought of 5 billion people on planet earth is indeed staggering.
A number of years ago while doing research of the Evangelicals world-wide, I became overwhelmed by the thoughts of how to reach our world. I found myself weeping and crying out to God that He might awaken the slumbering church to the need.
There seems to be so few who truly feel the need of considering the harvest that must be reaped. Souls are dying while workers are busy with other things in our affluent society How long must this harvest wait?
We often read of farmers who are desperate for workers while striking workers block the fields demanding more pay. This reminds me of how Jesus our Lord promised to pay well for those laborers who are willing to work. As the darkness of this age approaches, we must remember that ‘night cometh when no man can work.. (John 9:4)
Souls and the harvest are serious business. If there was any other alternative it would be different. But according to the Bible there is but one gospel. You and I happen to be some of the workers that have been commissioned to go.
CONSIDER CAREFULLY
As you and I make our way to church next Sunday the world’s population will have increased by more than one million people since last Sunday. Our world’s population increases by some 200,000 people every day. This means the equivalent of a large city springs up every four days and a new USA every four years.
This is mind boggling to consider!
Does it trouble you to think that some one billion souls have passed into eternity within the last 16 years? Estimates reveal that
perhaps half of these souls never one time heard the name of Jesus, not to mention the message of Acts 2:38. For this reason I am praying that God will stir us to the need for Evangelism.
It is said that 90% of all Christians are converted before they reach the age of 18. We are told that the greatest number of people are saved between the ages of 1216. This points out the need of reaching the young of our generation.
WHAT ARE THE CHANCES OF BEING SAVED?
These are your chances of being saved:
1 chance in 1,000 of being saved after age 25
1 chance in 50,000 of being saved after age 35
1 chance in 200,000 of being saved after age 45
1 chance in 300 000 of being saved after age 55
1 chance in 700 000 of being saved after age 75
The need is before us and yet the world is growing in populating every day.
Even as we think upon these statistics it might be well to remind you that every day there is approximately 339,560 people born and some 139,560 people who die. This simply means that earth’s population is growing by 200,000 each day and the church is apparently falling farther and farther behind.
This is obviously due to the lack of workers! Where are they?
We are told that ninety-seven people go out into eternity every minute, yet many more are born and soon the church will be engulfed by multitudes of godless heathen.
We have so little time to make our move. God’s people are going to be overwhelmingly outnumbered within a few short years.
What chance would your next door neighbor have of being saved if it depended upon you?
What chance of being saved does your city have if it is depending on your church?
What chance does the world have of hearing the gospel if it should depend upon we of our fellowship?
PLEASE GOD. . .STIR US!!
When we were born again according to Acts 2:38 we were supposed to pick up where He left off and take this gospel to the ends of the earth. He gave us power to evangelize. Power to become witnesses to the uttermost parts of this world.
The church belongs to God’ The church is the only thing that God ever bought; He made everything else. He purchased it with His own blood – the precious blood of Jesus our Saviour.
The church must be stirred again end beyond that moved with compassion toward the lost and dying that yet await our message.
Read again out loud on your knees with me:
Matthew 28:18-20: “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”
Mark 16:15-17: “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;”
We as individuals and the church collectively must experience spiritual renewal. The resulting effect will then be personal and
numerical growth. Then and then only will we be able to effectively evangelize our world.
Inasmuch as evangelism can only reproduce itself, without spiritual renewal we would only perpetuate weakness.
While those with false doctrine and lesser truth are marshalling their forces for a world-wide thrust, can we with the full truth be
less committed?
The heart-cry of every true saint of God should be that God will stir and awaken us to the need and send workers to the field.
LET US LOOK AT OUR MANDATE
Before Jesus went away, He told His disciples to teach, and preach. He made it clear that their part was to baptize and make disciples.
The gospel must be preached and believed unto salvation. The doctrine must be taught and therefore learned. The mandate was clear, concise and to the point. There was plenty of work for everyone and great rewards were promised for their faithful service.
We all know that after the day of Pentecost they took Him seriously. They went about their work with great purpose. The book of
Acts records their activities to include “house to house and daily in the temple.. This Holy Ghost fervor was to include the Jews, Gentiles and ultimately everyone. They were busy reaching their world. All people was their objective.
The Apostle Paul picked up the torch and cried out “by all means.. The bright fire of Pentecost kept pushing back darkness and
dispelling fear. In its place was the true light of God that should light every man.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
But let me ask you what has happened in our day? Does it bother you that Coca-Cola plants their flag upon the soil of darkened
continents before the banner of truth and holiness have arrived? Something must be wrong!
He didn’t say go into every church and preach the gospel. His mandate was to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every
creature.”
His command was for us to evangelize! He said He would build the church. It appears that we want to build the church and depend upon Him to evangelize.
Oh, God shake us!
Perhaps we have for too long preached our sermons to each other until we have to mark them or re-name them so they will sound new to the well-trained ear.
Could it be that we have performed our songs so long to each other until the freshness of our experience and revelation has lost its
freshness?
Please God, we need you!
Oh, how challenged the unsaved persons would be if they could only hear our sermons. I’m sure they would also be stirred and
challenged if they could only hear our songs that would minister to their souls.
THERE HAS TO BE A CHANGE
As long as we are content to preach the gospel by selection and hide the truth behind closed doors, we can expect things to
deteriorate. Without a global plan of action we will consign whole countries to false doctrine, error and witchcraft.
During the valuable years already past the doors to many countries have slowly closed while others have been slammed in our
face.
It’s as though Satan is laughing and saying, “Ha, ha, you’ve come too late..
Then here more close to home we see how the enemy has bought the controlling interest in most every living room of every home. He owns them! He has a base of operation to pump the mind full of sin, filth, sex, humanism, despair and ungodliness.
He is smart enough to intermix his own brand of religion, theology and entertainment. The Kingdom of Satan is so far sweeping and all pervasive and most of his efforts are left with little resistance. Yes, they are left unchallenged by a too busy, too proud, too lazy uncaring church that “wists not. that the Spirit is dangerously near to departing from them.
MY GOD, SHAKE US!! PLEASE!!
The true church cannot succumb to a position of detente. Never can we agree to a position of peaceful coexistence with the arch rival of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
SOME INTERESTING OBSERVATIONS
Matthew 21:28-32: “But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, 8ø work to day in my vineyard.
He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not.
Whether of them twain did the will of his father? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.
For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not: but the publicans and the harlots believed him: and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.”
As we consider this parable could it be that we are at a graphic picture of the present church world? Or to it more personal, we may be looking at ourselves.
In this story the Master is enlisting the cooperation of his two sons to work with him in the vineyard. The response of these sons
mirrors the condition of the vast majority of church folk.
One son quickly stated that he would go but somehow never did. The other son said he wouldn’t go, but apparently got to feeling bad about it and later went. I think you will agree that neither of these sons and their responses is commendable in God’s eyes.
It does appear that a God who gave His all would be worthy of a better response.
We must recognize that we as His people will do very little for God until we mature beyond these two points. We are either too quick to respond and do nothing; or we have to experience a degree of guilt before making a token of commitment.
Many will remember our beloved Billy Cole’s message of a few years ago titled “The Dimension of A Burden-. He reminded us that
forceful conviction preaching can move our thoughts from the head down into our hearts. It is in these moments that we make our promises and commitments.
However, we are so prone to let those feelings get away once the anointing has lifted. Those good intentions go back once again and lodge there in our heads. They will remain so until moved once again into our hearts, when God wants to move them into our hands and feet and ultimately out to the world.
Please allow me to tell you this will always be the cycle until we are challenged beyond feelings and adopt a plan for Global Conquest – a well devised scriptural plan that is saturated with anointing. The gospel must be preached whether we feel like it or not. The world must be reached, no matter the cost Somehow we must mature beyond just camp meetings and conferences. Somehow we must perceive time and money as something more than servants of our uncontrolled appetites for pleasures. God will hold us accountable for our resources. He will judge us for our selfishness.
There is an obvious lack of concern amongst us. There is a gross disinterest in the souls of men.
WHERE ARE THE TEARS?
May God anoint our eyes with eye salve and unstop our tear ducts. May He give us a wholesale return to the altars of renewal and
sacrifice. How long has it been since you have seen the swollen eyes of a tearful sackcloth saint? Have they been replaced by castle saints who feel they are the “cream of the earth? Our Lord said we are to be the “salt of the dearth”.
It has been said that if most of us are~lost it will not be for lying, cheating, stealing or social sins, but because of our great failure to obey the commission.
There are approximately nine times as many people that have never heard the gospel than was the total population when Jesus was here. Yet, His last command was that they be reached with the gospel. “Go ye into all the world.
Oh, that we could weep over their souls as He did. As one writer so clearly stated, “That our heart could be broken by the things that break the heart of God..
Souls are the nearest thing to the heart of God. But far to many of us withdraw from the burden when we realize that evangelism requires sacrifice.
We cannot reach the world with penny marches!
It might surprise you that Hollywood spends millions of dollars on one scene for some T.V. programs. They sometimes practice one scene for up to six weeks. Yet, when it comes to God’s work His most important business, evangelizing, we want to put as little into it as possible, simply because we are too lazy.
LET’S FACE THE FACTS
Remember the work of God is work. Nothing just happens. It’s sad to say but thousands of Christians will die with their testimony in them, their song in them and their sermon in them. Tragic indeed!
We must come to realize that we are the ones who should feel very keenly about the task that must be accomplished.
It becomes more apparent each day that we must see time as slipping through our finger tips and with each passing moment goes
opportunities that can never be re-captured. By year 2000 the estimated population of the world will be 6.26 billion people. This is staggering when our theology makes us to believe that the coming of the Lord will happen before then.
Does it stir you to know that other groups are gearing up to accelerate their thrust into all the world? Many of them already have
thousands of missionaries and witnesses throughout the world.
Can you imagine the patience of a Jehovah’s Witness who buys his own literature and is reported to knock on an average of 1800 doors before converting one person to their erroneous belief?
Oh, they aggravate us so much when they knock on our door. But isn’t it a tragic thing to admit that we have many amongst us who haven’t knocked on one door with this glorious message that truly saves?
But without a global plan for evangelism we will flounder and be annoyed by the other groups with more zeal. We will find ourselves striking out against the cults, false religions, charismatics and everyone without doing anything with the message we have and hold dear. He wants us to lift Him up!
In other words, without a plan, we find ourselves reacting instead of acting.
It’s time to accept the challenge!
God is continually looking for people that He can show himself strong and mighty through. I believe He has always had a true light upon the earth somewhere since the day of Pentecost.
It has been obvious to Bible scholars that God has been “with” certain people while not being “in” them. This is the way that greater revelation has come to many.
But one thing is extremely clear. Wherever the church has maintained an evangelistic missionary zeal and soul-winning fervor, God has given blessings. Also we can see that whenever the church has lost it’s zeal and soul-winning fervor. . . GOD HAS MOVED ON!
Let us reflect upon history for a picture of recorded Christianity to learn a lesson. While the total truth as we know it may
be somewhat obscure from time to time, we can nevertheless see what kills revival. We can learn from it.
In the first half of the first century, the Christian. enterprise was in Jerusalem. We see how Judaizers (certain Christian Jews) didn’t want the Gentiles unless they became Jewish proselytes. Thus, their evangelistic zeal was chilled and their soul-winning fervor was killed and God moved on!
The center of Christian enterprise in the second half of the first century was Antioch in Syria. Paul, Barnabus, Silas and others
were sent forth from there. Then worldliness, sensuality and ungodliness seeped into the church from their sordid environment. It poisoned the life of the churches and thus, their evangelistic zeal was chilled and their soulwinning fervor was killed and. . .God moved on.
Strong centers of Christian enterprise were established during the second and third centuries in Ephesus and Alexandria. The gospel was preached throughout the Roman Empire, but the Gnostic theory crept in and they began to deny the deity. Thus, their evangelistic zeal was chilled and their soul-winning fervor was killed and God moved on!
Until the 6th century the strong center of Christian enterprise was Constantinople. Look what happened! Constantine united the church and state the doctrine of the trinity was introduced and liturgy replaced spirituality.
Mohamedism killed the already waning power of Christianity. Thus, when evangelistic zeal was chilled and soul-winning fervor was killed, God moved on.
The historical center of the Christian enterprise from 600 A.D. to 1050 A.D. in the west and beyond was Rome. There was much
evangelistic activity at first and missionary objectives. Then Bible theology decayed, preaching was neglected and much doctrinal error was introduced. When doctrine is neglected or changed, the “go ye” is gone. Thus the evangelistic zeal is chilled and soul-winning fervor is killed and God moves on.
The so-called Christian enterprise seemed to flourish in France during the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries. The passion for souls led to the Crusades. This led to war and bloodshed. During this time period the power of the Pope was greatly strengthened. Internal stagnation was the order of the day. Thus God in His attempts to build His true church moved on.
The center of Evangelistic and Evangelical Christianity during the 16th century was Germany. Luther’s revelation began in 1517.
Fervent preaching began to replace ceremony. Then the controversy arose between Reform and Theological interpretations.
(Notice that even these who had lesser truth then we were devastated by many of the same types of things.)
They forgot souls while on the growing edge of truth. Thus, their evangelistic zeal was chilled and their soulwinning fervor was killed and God moved on.
Notice the strange monotony of these remarks. God continuously looks throughout the earth for those He can show Himself strong and mighty through.
The Center of Evangelism during the exploration of the Western world was Spain and Portugal. Missionaries with what measure of truth they knew went to Central America, South America, the Philippines and southern parts c’ North America. But the gold they found ushered in materialism. Their greed for gold supplanted their passion for the souls they purposed to reach.
Thus, their evangelistic zeal was chilled and their soul winning fervor was killed and God moved on.
Time marches on and the Center of Christian enterprise during the Colonization and development of Western civilization was England.
Missionaries were sent into Canada, Australia, New Zealand and India.
Bloody religious wars were fought. The age of skepticism was ushered in and religion was paralyzed. Thus, evangelistic zeal was
chilled and soul-winning fervor was killed and God moved on.
The center of Christian enterprise during the first half of the 19th century was the New England states. The revival of 1800 actually began in 1785. This spiritual awakening continued until 1812. Crime was virtually wiped out, liquor was brought into disrepute and home life was saved.
Believers were strengthened immeasurably, holiness was practiced and God’s spirit was moving in a great way. Foreign missionary movements were born admidst the fires of revival.
But prosperity was ushered in. Then came Unitarianism and like the Gnostic theory of earlier years, denying the deity of Jesus. All
this took away their faith. Doubting and denying the scripture killed the move of God and as always materialism absorbed all the interests.
Obviously in this atmosphere God cannot move and has to set up His base of operation elsewhere. When evangelistic zeal is chilled and soul-winning fervor is killed, God moves on.
However, during that time period many different kinds of religious expressions were involved. I still cling to the truth that
God has always had a Jesus Name Apostolic witness.
Satan has always had a plan. The focus of his efforts is designed to thwart the work of God on all levels. He accomplishes this in three ways:
1) He works on the unbeliever to make him doubt the word
2) He works on the believer to make him doubt the man of God.
3) He works on the man of God to make him doubt the call of God.
It is upon this system of lies and confusion that Satan attempts to keep the church confused and always caught up in a swirl of other things. He knows in doing so a world of lost souls will never be reached.
Therefore, a quick glance backward in summary to this present time would make us see that everything from each time period of the past is with us today in full force. We have today the equal of the Judaziers who always seem to raise the requirements to salvation to accommodate their theories.
Who would question the fact that sensuality and worldliness are encroaching upon the present day church? And although not directly within the church, there are those around us who are much like the Gnostics of old who doubt almost everything.
Then we seem to always be plagued by those who destroy the effects of clear theology. It sounds like an old record that Satan
himself has produced for us to play. What is the New Birth? it says. . .and on we go.
Then we further see the conflict that occurs when reform seems to encroach on theology. There are those who would for the sake of reform forsake theology while others will not reform anything for the sake of theology.
This brought to mind several conclusions made at the Westminster Confession of many years ago amongst people of far less truth than we. It might be worthy of consideration.
1) Nothing contrary to scripture can be true.
2) Nothing in addition to scripture can be binding.
3) Everything preached must be measured by the word of God.
Continuing on in our reflections, we recall the bloody religious wars of the past. While the same kinds of wars are not fought today, yet the battle goes on. Had we spent as much time lifting up Jesus since our forefathers received the great revelation of the Mighty God in Christ as we have fighting others of lesser revelation, there is no telling how far we might have propelled this truth.
Who could question as we look back and compare it to today that materialism and prosperity has taken its toll. We have grown soft on basically everything. We are more interested in satisfying our flesh than reaching our world. Idolatry in a New Testament sense is simply “thing worship”. More things, luxuries, rental properties, money markets, world tours, houses, lands, many changes of clothes and expensive adornments, etc. All these many weights have resulted in our growing “soft on sin”, soft on souls and generally indifferent to our Commission.
It seems that we have God on hold while we go through our agenda of preoccupation with other things. But it could be that He has us on hold as He scans the horizons for others who have hands that are less full of things. This seems to be happening right before our eyes. Oh, God help us!
And in our final analysis of the past as it relates to the present, we can certainly see what the effects were as a result of
Skepticism and Unitarianism upon developing truth. It scissors away all the real, the miraculous, and dynamic. In its place comes a snobbish elitism that places man and his clever humanistic mind at the helm.
It leaves little or no space for God to move. The very flame of God’s Holy Spirit slowly dies for lack of oxygen that can only come
with the fresh air from His throne. Oh, God breathe upon us again!
There are far too many among us who seem to be prone to “out smart” themselves. We need to get back to the basics and have another Pentecost.
Like Isaiah of old we need another upward look when he saw the Lord high and lifted up. This was followed by an inward look as he cried out “woe is me”. He saw himself as unclean and unworthy.
After he saw how great the Lord was and how imperfect was, something could happen. When things were made right, he was prepared for the outward look and he said “here am I, send me”.
Dear brother and sister, fellow laborers in God’s great vineyard, we have need of a total overhaul. Yes, we’ve had our “Azusa Street., and we’ve had our Topeka, Kansas visitation of God’s Holy Spirit but that will not be enough. Present day conditions are on the one hand worse than ever before. But on the other hand this is the greatest opportunity we have ever been afforded.
We keep referring back to Jerusalem and Azusa for our inspiration and I suppose that is to be expected. But if you were to go there today, you would be hard pressed to find any obvious sign of what we use as our reference points. It simply isn’t there.
In my own experience the place where I received my “Pentecost” has been torn down long ago. We have no building, temple or place to point to. The reason, of course, is obvious. The church is you and II Paul said “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God. and not of us.. (II Cor. 4:7)
WHAT ARE THE ALTERNATIVES?
If our theology is right, and we believe it is, time is running out! If we truly feel that we have the only message that will save; and
we are convinced that it is, we must do something about it.
The battle of the ages is now being readied. Present day conditions demand Spiritual Renewal, dramatic Church Growth, and real
Apostolic Evangelism. We must begin to think in terms of all men and by all means. It must become the heart-throb of every born again believer.
We must face the bare facts that we have come to the Kingdom at a time like this! We are here and we would not like to think of God turning to any other people to work His will if it had to be done by turning away from us.
While we do not feel that our movement is the total of the body of Christ in the earth, we nevertheless must see that we are uniquely situated to impact our world with truth. In the final analysis we must be willing to face the challenge or pray that God will find someone who will.
NOW LET’S CONSIDER THIS!
Please join with me as we honestly and openly make the following appraisal. Let us carefully consider each question.
I. HOW DEEPLY DO WE CARE?
Once again let us consider what we say, what we preach and what we propose to do about those who will be lost if they are not reached. Remember, everyone is either saved or lost. There can be no in between.
When I think of such an awesome reality, it makes me weep and cry. Really, I have never met a person who I would like to see go to Hell.
When we think in these terms, we should rejoice if a person is reached – no matter who it might be that reaches them. It has yet to be seen what God might be able to do if we weren’t so concerned about who would get the credit for it.
We recall several instances where Jesus said “beware”. He said beware of the leaven of the Pharisees because of their spiritual pride. He also said beware of the leaven of the Saducees because of their desire for control. He gave a strong signal to beware of the leaven of Herod. because he would be willing to kill anyone who threatened his throne.
If we really care for souls, we must be willing to get rid of all our spiritual pride and become more accessible to the lost and dying sinner. That is if we really “care”.
We must be willing to allow God to be the reigning sovereign. We cannot allow ourselves to become so power oriented that we try to control what He will do or won’t do world-wide. That is if we really care.
The scripture said that we are “workers together with God.
If we really care, we will not think that every baby that is born must be born in our crib. God will never allow that. He said “beware of the leaven of Herod”.
He reminded that Herod was willing to kill all the babies because there was one who he felt might be a threat to his throne.
If we really care, we won’t feel threatened if God saves thousands of souls who may never be a part of our movement. If we really care we will rejoice instead of trying to “kill” before they grow up to threaten. We will not be judged according to how big we have built our movement, but rather if we have worked untiringly to reach every soul.
Do we really care? Will our neighbors say “You never mentioned Jesus to me..
II. HOW SINCERE IS OUR PRAYER?
Our initial scripture in this presentation was concerning our Lord’s words “Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. (Matt. 9:37-38)
Perhaps the most neglected part of our responsibility is that of prayer. It seems we have time and energy for almost every imaginable thing but prayer – time for travel, leisure and many activities but not enough time for sincere prayer.
This has perpetuated and compounded a basic weakness in all of us. For this reason we have tried to remain Apostolic by name and doctrine while operating on the premise of the other denominations.
With little or no sincere prayer, we are forced in many areas to refer our children to the stories of the past when miracles took place.
Some of our own have witnessed far too few miracles to truly appreciate the necessary distinction between us and those of lesser truth and experience.
It is through sincere prayer that we are able to bind the strong man (Matt. 12:28-29) and then ultimately spoil the work of our adversary (Luke 11:21-22).
In sincere prayer we can pray down revival on cities, countries, continents. We can pray gleaners into the field. Through prayer we can pray reapers to bring in a harvest.
The devil really isn’t afraid of powerless preaching, but he trembles at the sight of a kneeling saint of God. We must care enough to put every potential aspect of our prayer life at a high priority. Sincere prayer will open new vistas of experience and potential. We must learn to adore Him, to thank and praise Him!
There has to be an openess to our Lord and confess our sins to Him, petition Him for all our needs and the needs of others. Then after learning the vast resources that are available we can experience real intercessory prayer. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds”. (II Cor. 10:4)
A number of years ago I heard of a man who upon reaching the age of retirement made a commitment to God to pray the “night shift” for the rest of his life. Little did he realize that he would live 30 plus years. He reportedly prayed the night shift (10:00 P.M. – 6:00 A.M.) that God would send laborers, workers into unreached areas. He prayed that God’s Spirit would be poured out upon all flesh. He reportedly didn’t even leave his home for the last 12 years of his life but he kept his vow to pray.
While many of us were leisurely going about our activities he was praying. Think about it!
He stated that God gave him a vision of a one billion soul revival world-wide. He said that God showed him it would be so big that no denomination could lay claim to it.
Oh, God help us to hit our knees and learn to pray. Help us to persist until we come to know Jesus so well that we can sincerely pray.
Really, how sincere is our prayer. Can’t we agree that if we really knew how to pray as we should, there would be more happening?
But let’s hasten on for there is yet another question that we must answer.
HOW MUCH OF CHRIST DO WE HAVE TO SHARE?
As a movement we claim to have the greatest revelation of God that is possible to man. We fully understand that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. We clearly see that full salvation can only be experienced through obedience to Acts 2:38 as preached by the Apostle Peter at the beginning of the New Testament church.
Yes, we have something to share!
We have an understanding of what joy really means. After being born again we have entered a realm that is unexcelled by any other experience afforded to man liberty, joy and happiness through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Just to be in one of our glorious services where God is blessing us in a great way is an experience that is saturated with fulfillment. Oh, if only the whole world could experience this feeling! Yes, we have something to share.
Yes, we could tell the world of this Jesus who is our healer, counselor, comforter and Prince of Peace. You could go on and on and
never exhaust the descriptive adjectives of what He is. Yes, He is our everything, we do have a lot to share.
And the beautiful thing about it all is the fact that we can go to Him and He will always have something for others. We can ask. .
.seek…knock and we can always depend on receiving something for hungry souls (Luke 11:5-9).
But in a more personal vein may I remind you that all of have three things that God can use.
All of us have (1) Time (2) Talent (3) Treasure. All of us have the same amount of time, 24 hours a day. None of us have the same amount of talent and treasure, but we are assured that we will reap great rewards if we will only share what we know and what we have for the purpose of God.
Yes, we have some of the best teachers and the greatest preachers that have ever lived. Sermons and anointing that could move the hearts of the lost if they could only have the chance to hear. Yes, we have something to share.
Let’s not forget that we have some of the greatest talent on the face of the earth. Singers, writers, musicians and laborers in all
categories. Yes, we have something to share.
Think of the great leaders at every level of our great movement. Think with me of our various areas of ministry from the national offices, district and section. Think of the various divisions – Church, ForeignMissions, Home Missions, Sunday School, Youth, Ladies Auxiliary, Radio, Literature and the list goes on and on. Yes, we have something to share.
We dare not forget the most important thing of all. We have some of the most wonderful saints of God in all the world at home and abroad that comprise our unique part of the body of Christ. It is through all of this network of potential that God’s glory is shared throughout the world.
Yes, we truly have a great deal to share!
And now we come to the moment of decision. Remember our questions were (1) HOW DEEPLY DO WE CARE? (2) HOW SINCERE IS OUR PRAYER? (3) HOW MUCH OF CHRIST DO WE HAVE TO SHARE? And now the final question that will determine our destiny and perhaps the destiny of billions of souls.
IV. HOW FAR WILL WE DARE?
We are down to the final ticks of God’s prophetic time clock. It is time that we become daring.
Like a runner who is finishing the last few feet of the race, we must lunge forward with every fiber of our being.
We are already living in year 2000 according to the Jewish calendar and the only reason I can see that we haven’t been raptured is that the church hasn’t been perfected and the world hasn’t been reached.
Just as certainly as the early church gave their all and laid it at the apostles feet, we must be willing to give our all to Jesus now. At the time of their commitment, they didn’t realize that 37 years later (70 A.D.) that the armies of Titus would surround Jerusalem and rape the women and kill the men and take their possessions. They could not take the Christian’s money for it had all been invested in evangelism.
Some are “copping out” and saying “it will take a sovereign move of God to reach the word.” In so many words they are implying that God is going to do it and we don’t need to worry about it.
That line of reasoning is not scriptural. An intelligent God would not tell us to “go and tell” if He knew all the time that He was going to do it any way.
We are at a unique point in history and we can as a people initiate one more great thrust as we combine our time, talent and treasure to reach our world and bring back our King.
We are the people of His precious Name! This places tremendous responsibility upon us. But we must be willing to recognize that a mediocre people will never impact our world. Therefore, we must be extraordinary in every way.
This requires that we be: (1) People of Vision. This will enable us to see above what others see as obstacles. (2) We must also be people of determination. We must be determined to stay at our work and not give up. (3) We must be people with priorities. We must “seek first the kingdom of God”, not allowing fortune, fame, pleasure or power to detract us from our goal. (4) Then we must remember we are people of accountability. We will most certainly be required to give account for what we have received. Let’s do our best for Jesus!
-Will we dare to pray one hour per day?
-Will we dare to teach Home Bible Studies?
-Will we dare to fast one day per week?
-Will we dare to visit the prisons?
-Will we dare to visit the prisons?
-Will we dare to visit the sick and shut-in?
-Will we dare to pass out tracts?
-Will we dare to make phone calls?
-Will we dare to start a sister church?
-Will we dare to plant a church?
-Will we dare to launch a literature campaign?
-Will we dare to send forth more missionaries?
(The list could go on and on.)
We must build up in every aspect of our work until we can reach out to the next house, next block, next town, next city, next state, next country…until we reach our whole world.
We must dare to extend ourselves as never before. We must dare to extend ourselves spiritually, financially, intellectually and
emotionally. It must be personalized. We must all say “IF IT IS TO BE, IT IS UP TO ME”.
As we do our part in evangelizing, He said that He would build the church. Let’s put our all into accomplishing this goal.
Remember the words of William Carey: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.”
IF NOT NOW WHEN?
IF NOT HERE WHERE?
IF NOT US WHO?
This is our day to march forward in Global conquest as Evangelism is our Ultimate Goal!
THE ABOVE MATERIAL WAS PUBLISHED BY GLOBAL CONQUEST, PAGES 1-17.
THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY BE USED FOR STUDY & RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.
