EVANGELISM.

 Today we will take a deep reflection on evangelism. My decision to focus our attention on evangelism comes from a growing and deepening desire to see God convert more unbelievers through our ministry.

Virtually Everyone Is Burdened in This Area

Virtually every earnest Christian is grieved by his weakness in this area. Did you know that? There is not a zealous Christian in this world who feels content with his effectiveness in personal evangelism. We feel guilt for our timidity and regret for missed opportunities, phony because of our lack of compassion for the lost and fear that some program of evangelism is going to be pushed on us against our wills.

One of the most freeing things is to simply get this out on the table and admit it. And then to notice that it is the universal experience even of the most devoted servants of Christ.

For example, James Ussher was an evangelical teacher and preacher in the early 1600s. Horatius Bonar says that he was busy continually redeeming the time for Christ. He was a painstaking, laborious preacher of the Word for 55 years. The very day that he took ill with his last sickness he got up from his writing and went out to visit a sick woman and spoke to her with great earnestness about heaven. But when Ussher came to his deathbed, the last words he was heard to utter at one o'clock in the afternoon, March 21, 1656, were these, "But, Lord, in special forgive me my sins of omission."

Here is a man that to everyone else was eminently useful in the ministry and blessed by God, and in his dying moment he was oppressed with a sense of his omissions! When I read stories like that, and when I look into my own heart, and when I talk to people like you, I conclude that virtually every earnest Christian is burdened by a sense of weakness or neglect or failure in this area of evangelism. We want to be used by God to win others from unbelief to belief, but have little success, and the result is often an oppressive feeling that seeks to avoid the issue and recoils in self-defense from sermons on evangelism.

Not a Rod but a Dream

Well if it helps any, I feel that way too. These messages are not easy for me to write and preach. I don't come with a rod. I come with a longing and with a dream. The longing is that I would be changed by these messages and become more fruitful in God's hands, and that whatever in my life may hinder the saving work of God would be removed. I want there to be a new touch of power not only on my preaching but also on my personal contact with unbelievers. I want fresh guidance from the Lord concerning the scope and focus of my pastoral labor to know if I am spending my time in a way that would maximize my life for Christ's glory. That's my longing.

My dream is that we as a church would be freed from the paralyzing effects of guilt in regard to personal evangelism. That all of us would find some natural outlet for love toward the lost people in this city. That there would develop an array of bridges into Bethlehem from many pockets of unbelief. That our personal sense of the reality of Christ would be so deep and confident and satisfying that we could scarcely keep from commending him to others. And that the power of Christ would rest upon us with unusual effectiveness.

So I don't come with a rod this morning; I come with a deep longing for myself and with a happy dream of what it might be like if God would make us a healthy, happy, free, authentic, loving, powerful, evangelistic, outreaching, soul-saving church. If you share this longing for me and perhaps for yourself, and if you have a similar dream for Bethlehem, would you devote regular, earnest time to prayer over the next four weeks that God would make this longing and this dream a reality? I believe he will do it if we seek it with all our hearts.

                  We will continue with this topic.

‘DecencyWrites’.