Have We Been Trained NOT to Win Souls?
Acts 1:8 (KJV) (8) But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
The word of God says we have the power to be witnesses, amen? Then why aren’t we?
The “Church body” that has been created is a result of unintended consequences.
What I mean is…
We have trained up boy scouts and sent them to do an infantryman's job.
We have trained up supply clerks and have asked them to jump from airplanes with paratroopers.
It was never the intent for the body to become so use to the padded pews that they would shun the streets in search of souls.
Unfortunately, the outcome of our sermons, our exhortations, our admonitions and pastoral counseling sessions have equipped our people to sing in the choir, teach Sunday school children, read the Bible and live cleanly and righteously before God and the world!
It has not prepared them to tackle the real world of lost souls.
Instead, we have a generation of “Christians” where:
Insulation (church house) has turned into isolation (Outside the walls).
Separation has become segregation.
Outreach looks more like in-reach.
Preaching the word sounds like preaching to the choir.
Sharing the gospel consists of joining hands with another person from the body and singing Kumbaya.
Instead of winning the lost we are continually trying to keep the saved, saved.
Our beacon of light has been confined to the sanctuary rather than placed in lighthouses along the shore.
Our worship seeks for applause from the church when it should be looking for its effect on the un-churched.
WHY????
Is our relationship with Christ so fragile that we cannot interact with unbelievers for fear that they will influence us away from God instead of the other way around?
Are the church walls our only source of protection physical or spiritual?
Are we so fearful that we refuse to sound off? SPEAK OUT!!!!
Do we seek the shadows (to hide in) instead of the sunlight so we will avoid painful and embarrassing confrontations?
Who among us will break out of this bondage of fear?
Who among us will refuse to leave the witnessing to the door-knocking Jehovah's Witnesses, or the bicycle-riding missionaries of the Mormons?
I’m not saying that we need to go knocking from door to door telling everyone about Jesus!
But we should be proclaiming HIS GLORY everywhere we go! Amen?
Our dedication to holiness and righteousness is not so fragile that it cannot be put on display for the world. Amen?
We have a divine presence dwelling within our lives (Holy Ghost if your saved) that will always be greater than any external threat.
Witnessing, soul winning, outreach and evangelism are essential lifelines of the church!
We have no way to fulfill the vision of Christ for the church without a total commitment to reach the lost.
The Holy Spirit leads believers to the edge of fire to pull people out!
Do you know anyone in the fire?
If you know someone in the fire you have the power from the Holy Ghost to enter in that fire and pull that person from Satan!
Soul winners must depend on the Holy Ghost to protect them as they conduct search and rescue missions into hazardous situations.
Let us refocus. Let us abandon our sterile ways of non-soul winning and take up the messy mission of real-life outreach. Amen
Let us learn how to mingle with the sinner without being influenced by his sin.
Let us study how to kneel in the dust beside a beaten man whose blood oozes from open wounds instead of kneeling only in the air-conditioned comfort of a carpeted prayer room.
Let us practice our trust in the keeping power of the Holy Ghost instead of fearfully hiding out in a church sanctuary where nobody threatens us.
There are people out there walking around in that fire and you have been chosen to boldly walk into that fire and pull them from it! Are you ready?
We need to follow the example of our Chief Shepherd, who ate dinner in the house of sinners,
Who permitted a woman of ill repute to anoint his feet and wipe them with her hair,
And who hung between two thieves as he departed from this world.
We are not fishers of men until we CATCH THEM. AMEN???
Comments
Wow!!! This one is powerful and toe smashing. Hallelujah!
Amen