“I believe the greatest need is for Christians once again to engage in the work Jesus left us to do—telling others the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Out of Commission – Paul Chappell
“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. Amen.” Matthew 28:18-20 KJV
“And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15 KJV
The one thing that we are individually and institutionally commanded to do is to GO and PREACH the Gospel.
The one thing that Christ commanded us should be the main thing in our lives. It should be the main thing in our churches.
Too often, we become busy with our families, our jobs and our hobbies that we don’t take time or even remember to be a witness. Individually, many of us fail to follow the command of going and preaching the Gospel (including myself). It takes a spirit of surrender and obedience to be a witness for Christ like we should. We can find boldness in Christ to be a witness. He tells us in Acts 1:8, that we shall receive power, the power of the Holy Spirit. You, as a Christian, have been equipped by God with Spirit to tell others the Gospel of Christ. What are you going to do about it?
Too often, we become busy serving in the church. We sing in the choir, teach in Sunday School, work on the bus, clean the church, help in the nursery and many other areas. We are busy greeting, running sound, doing security, accounting, secretarial duties and more. We have become so busy “serving the Lord” that opt out of the one thing He commanded us to do….go and preach the Gospel! He commanded the church to GO!
Individually, we schedule out witnessing because we have other things going on. We are too busy with family to tell someone about Jesus. We have to get our job done so we don’t have time to tell someone about Jesus. We have to participate in our hobbies so we can’t be bothered to tell someone about Jesus.
Institutionally, the soul winning programs are often the least attended church function. Church activities and banquets are well attended, special services and camp meetings are well attended. People even take time off of work and change their schedule around to make it to special events of the church, but they can’t be bothered to attend the church’s soulwinning time.
We are failing to fulfill the command of Jesus Christ. We say we love God, but we don’t love Him enough to tell someone about Jesus. We say we serve God, but our service is for men and not Christ.
The ONE THING isn’t the MAIN THING anymore and we are collectively failing at fulfilling God’s command.
As a Christian, I have to be a witness for Christ. Everywhere I go, there is someone that needs to hear about the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ!
As a church member, I have to be involved in my church’s soul winning programs. That is my primary ministry as a church member.
The church in the book of Acts was a soul winning church. They went out daily witnessing. They were able to see spiritual growth in themselves and the ones they witnessed to because they obeyed the command of God. They were in unity and in one accord because they practiced and obeyed the command Christ gave the church.
I wonder what would happen if we as the church, showed up to our church’s soul winning times and went out witnessing together? I believe we would see unity like we’ve never seen before. I believe we would see the Spirit of God work in our personal lives and throughout our church like we’ve never seen before. I believe something great could and would happen.
But let’s focus on singing or teaching Sunday school. Let’s attend banquets and activities. Let’s rearrange our schedules to attend camp meetings and revivals. Let’s do all the secondary things and keep doing church like it is.
Or, let’s obey Christ and go and preach the Gospel!
My plea to you today is obey God’s command.
Wherever you are, be a witness!
Wherever you are, be involved in your church’s soul winning program!
Let’s be obedient to the command of Christ and go!
Let’s keep the ONE THING the MAIN THING!!!
Counted Faithful 