Navagation
The Most Important Thing the Church Isn't Doing...
DECEMBER 17th, 2004
SOUL WINNING
The Bible says in Proverbs 11:30
"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise."
The number one duty of the body of believers, the great commission of the church AND the very reason the church exists, IS THE ONE THING WE AREN'T DOING. Jesus gave a very specific commandment concerning this duty in Matthew 28:19-20...
[19] Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
[20] 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. Amen.Jesus also said in Luke 24:46-47...
[46] And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day:
[47] And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.Finally, Jesus also said in Mark 16:15-16...
[15] And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
[16] He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
The two major things to notice here are, "Go ye" ('ye' being the 2nd person plural, aka 'you all') and "preach the gospel to every creature". What is the gospel? The Gospel of John chapter 3 sums it up very well, we'll look at three verses here. John 3:15-17...
[15] That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
[16] For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
[17] For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.The "Good News" is that while "all have sinned"; Jesus paid the price on our sin that we could NEVER PAY in our own efforts. He paid that price so we do not have to! Therefore, it is our job to let everyone know about this Good News (the Gospel) because God "will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:4). Also God says through the Prophet Ezekiel, "Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live:" (Ezekiel 33:11). Since the desire of God is that all men should be saved; should not this be our desire as well? After all, we are His servants, not the other way around.
The Dilemma ROMANS 10:14
Here is the missing link. God desires that ALL men be saved; however, He will not make men to be saved. (He gave us a choice, because the power to say 'yes' means nothing if you have no ability to say 'no'.) Yet at the same time, how can people know what salvation is unless someone tells them? Romans 10:13-15...
[13] For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
[14] How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
[15] And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!Here it is again: God wants all to be saved and whosoever can be saved BUT only if obedient servants carry that message to the "whosoevers". And this of course is where we are missing it. WE WILL NOT CARRY THE MESSAGE.
What did the Apostles do?
The Apostles went around doing what their Lord did. Matthew 4:23, 9:35, Mark 1:14, Luke 8:1 and many other scriptures tell us that Jesus went EVERYWHERE preaching. He also commissioned the 12 and other of his followers out 2 by 2 to preach (Luke 10). His first statement to them in this commission, "The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few" (Luke 10:2). Sadly, this is still true today. In Acts, we see the Apostles obeying their LORDS command...
Acts 5:42
And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
Acts 8:4
Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word.
These are just 2 verses out of many that tell us what the Apostles did. Seems VERY FAR from what we call Christianity today.
So what should I be doing about it?
The first thing I would tell any Christian is to do the will of God for their life; however, we should not be seeking God and asking for His blessings when we aren't doing the simple and FIRST things he requires of us! God's NUMBER ONE desire is that all should be saved. Now our part is to tell others how to be saved and trust that the Holy Spirit will convict the person's heart of the need to be saved. Many people pray, study, give and will do anything and everything EXCEPT tell others how to be saved. Let us not fool ourselves into thinking that God will be pleased with our lives when we aren't doing what pleases Him. Jesus summed it up best in Luke 6:46...
[46] And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
Putting legs to your Prayers
So how do I get started? Find a church that is actively putting out the gospel in the community and get involved.
Methods
What methods should we use? What should we do? How can we do it? Do what Jesus did! There are many observations we can make about Jesus' ministry and the subsequent ministry of the Apostles. First, they didn't wait for people to come to them; they went to the people. There is something popular today called, "lifestyle evangelism". The idea is that you make friends, get to know someone and after you have gained thier confidence... then witness to them. There is one major problem with this... it is not Biblical! You will not find one single example of this in the New Testament. In some cases it is necessary that ongoing relationships be maintained in order to be there when a good oppurtunity arises; however, these cases should not be the whole of our Christian witness.
Second, they simply preached. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 1:20-21...
[20] Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
[21] For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.Preaching indeed seems foolish to this world, but it is THE method God chose to bring His message to the world. If we seek to use our methods to preach the gospel, the "cross of Christ" is "made of none effect" (1 Corinthians 1:17). Unfortunately today, the church as a whole is using "worldly" and "fleshly" methods in an attempt to share the gospel. Some examples: Taking worldly styles of music and putting gospel lyrics on it; using plays and movies to replace preaching; using entertainment to attract large crowds, and the list goes on. All of these methods and the others not mentioned have one thing in common: they seek to use man's methods to make the gospel acceptable to the world. My friends, a gospel acceptable to the world IS NOT THE GOSPEL.
Thirdly, just read Acts! If you want to know what the Apostles did and the ways God would have us to do things, READ IT FOR YOURSELF. Peter didn't have a band that traveled with him, he didn't have a praise and worship team; he PREACHED THE GOSPEL.
Finally, just trust God! If God's method will not work, nothing will. We will only succeed in making false converts when we use our methods instead of God's!
When? Where? How?
Let me say that I am not against churches having plays and such things. What I am saying is that these things ARE NOT to replace preaching the gospel. When? Anytime you can. Any opportunity you get, share Jesus. Where? Anywhere you can. Our mandate of share the gospel should range from street preaching to door to door sharing of the gospel and these activities ARE NOT to be replaced with other things. Remember, the Apostles went to the people, not the other way around. How? Learn how to share your faith, there are many great resources on this.
Door to Door
The most effective and consistant way to spread the Good News in your community is door to door evangelism. There is no play, musical, concert or event that can replace the personal door to door sharing of the gospel. It is Biblical, it is commanded and it is God's method: yet it is the one thing 99% of Christians REFUSE to do.
"That's not for me..."
This is the excuse that I hear the most. When confronted with their duty to take the gospel to every creature, people all of a sudden have a plethora of excuses to justify their lack of obedience. I have heard them all: "I am not good at that", "That's not my job in the body", "I get nervous talking to people", "I just give money to missions"; and again, the list goes on and on and on. There seems to be no shortage of excuses to support our disobedience. It would seem that the Holy Spirit has neglected to assign people to do the most important duty of the church... OR are we just too lazy and self-centered to obey? The later is most obviously true.
Recommendations
I don't know whom you are reading this. Maybe you are a Pastor and your church doesn't do this. Perhaps you are a pue member and others are going and you aren't. Perhaps no one in your church is going. Regardless of your situation, you know what you should be doing if you call yourself a Christian. First, get some resources (some are listed in this Newsletter) that will teach you how to effectively share your faith. Second, while you are learning them as fast as you can, be finding a church that goes Soul Winning on a weekly basis and start going!
The Real Battle
The real battle will come when you decide to obey. I have to say that my flesh (and no doubtly the devil as well) fights me tooth and nail to not go. When soul winning time comes around, my flesh starts coming up with all sorts of excuses. All of a sudden I get strange desires to do housework instead! Funny how I don't get those compulsions when watching TV!!! More times than not you probably won't feel like going BUT go anyway. We are not supposed to follow feelings, we are to obey God.
Finally
I remember one day sitting on a porch and asking a young woman if she knew how to get to heaven. She then admitted that while she had gone to church her whole life, she couldn't tell me how. Her mother, sitting nearby nearly fell out of her chair. She had taken her daughter to church since she was a little girl. How could this happen? I will not speculate here but my point is that we make think people know how to be saved... but they make not. I here things like, "there are churches on every street corner, if they wanted to be saved they would". This is simply trying to justify to ourselves why we aren't doing our job and living in disobedience. Unfortunately what most people THINK they know about Chritianity was learned by watching the Simpsons and South Park. More people than not nowadays have NEVER heard a clear presentation of the gospel. So how could they get saved? Let's repent and do our jobs!!!
My Personal Recommendations
Some of my personal recommendations based on what Jesus did, the Disciples did and my own experiences (and they will not be politically correct). Jesus sent out the Disciples, which were MEN, two by two. I don't recommend women going to strange doorsteps; however, I am not against the ladies being involved in protected enviroments. Also, as mentioned above, go in "groups" of two. Firstly, because this is the way Jesus did it. Secondly, I have been in a group of three before and it feels a bit odd and may seem imitimadating (not to mention three can't fit onto most doorsteps). Finally, don't go without the Holy Spirit as your guide. Please pray, fast and study so that you will be "ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear". (1 Peter 3:15b)
MORE TO COME...
A newsletter (of course) has a limited amount of space in which to share the many things that could also be said about this subject. Therefore, we will also be releasing a complete and much more in depth teaching on this that will be available in the VERY near future. Please let us know if you want a copy! This will be available free of charge.
Some Good Resources...
Please check out these resources, they will be very helpful in teaching you how to share your faith effectively so that you will be "ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear". (1 Peter 3:15b)
Some good stuff to help learn to to share your faith...
"Soul Winning or Soul Losing?" (tape set)
www.owenspublications.com"Let's go Soul Winning" (Book / Jack Hyles)
www.hylespublications.comWay fo the Master Foundation Course (season 1 / DVD)
www.wayofthemaster.comSome resources that will help you live 1 Peter 3:15...
"An Urgent Call to a serious Faith" (Book / Dave Hunt)
"In Defense of the Faith" (Book / Dave Hunt)
Both of these are available at www.thebereancall.org
Check These Out...
One of our favorite websites:
www.streetpreaching.comOne of our favorite books:
"Seduction of Christianity" - Hunt & McMahonOne of our favorite videos:
Signs and Wonders Movement: EXPOSED
FINALLY...
Thank you so much for taking the time to read our Newsletter! We really appreciate it. If you have ANY questions pertaining to this newsletter or any of the information contained therein, please write us at:
THANKS!!!
