01. Are Your Ears Committed To Hear God's Call?

1 -- ARE YOUR EARS COMMITTED TO HEAR GOD’S CALL?

I wonder if you have given consideration to the need for a total commitment of your life to Christ? Have you thought much about the fact that the great commission will go on unfulfilled except as you yield yourself to such a complete commitment? Without it the lost heathen world will go on in their darkness with their souls unreached and their needs unmet. Our entire being must get involved in the work of world evangelism. Not only our hearts but our hands, our feet, our ears, and every other human faculty. Think with me of the total commitment that Christ gave to the task laid upon Him. The scriptures tell us that He gave His back to the smiters and they wounded His hands and His feet. Yes, Christ got totally involved in an effort to purchase man from the slavery of sin. I wonder just how much this has meant to you as an individual! What have you done to make Him known to others? Just how fully involved are you in the work of winning a lost world to Christ? Does God have complete charge of your human faculties -- your eyes, your voice, your hands, your ears? The question that comes to my mind just now is this, "Just what do you hear?" Do you hear things that remind you of your obligation to Jesus Christ? Do you hear things that help and bless and things that are of major importance in the promoting of the glorious Gospel of Christ? We need to hear God’s voice if a heathen world is ever to hear God’s message.

Certainly there are many voices. There is the voice of selfishness that beckons us to take care of our own interests to the exclusion of all other interests; there is the voice of worldliness that invites us to seek the joys and pleasures that it provides; there is the voice of carelessness and indifference. O! My friend, are you listening to these voices? Are you lending your ears to the voice that suggests that you make your own plans, and that you leave God out of them? I do not feel that I can overstress the need of proper hearing, for if you do not hear and heed God’s voice, the heathen will never hear that voice.

I believe there are many needs unmet and unfulfilled on the fields simply because we as individuals have failed to hear the voice of God speaking to us. We are not distressed over the situation simply because our ears that should be hearing the distress signals are not hearing them. We must become distressed; we must get involved in some capacity, in some way. I believe every true child of God will have a part in the fulfilling of the great commission of Christ. I believe also that our love for Christ will be measured by our obedience to His command.

I wonder if you have been too preoccupied with your own plans that you have not listened nor heard the voice of God? I would ask you to do no more than to be honest with yourself in this regard. How many would hear the Gospel if it were left up to you? How many would be brought under the influence of the message of salvation as a result of your sacrifice, your prayers, your concern? Are you satisfied to go on uncommitted and unconcerned?

I am not speaking to you about some small incidental situation. I’m speaking to you concerning the life or death of precious perishing souls. Multitudes are waiting to hear while you are ignoring the signals of distress. O! How I pray that God will help me to challenge your soul with this serious truth. Certainly it would not be my intention to overlook the tremendous sacrifices made by some of God’s children for I am well aware of the involvement that individuals have entered into in regard to the work of world evangelism. Yet there is so much more that needs to be done. Yes, some have gone, but more need to go; some have given, but more must be given; some have prayed, but there must be more earnest prayer.

Certainly our efforts will not be overlooked by the one who placed this tremendous responsibility upon our shoulders. If you will give your total being into His hands, I’m sure He will grant to each individual a full reward. The rewards may not come in the usual way that individuals look for rewards, but they will come in trophies of grace to lay at the Master’s feet.

I think of a young lady in the land of Ethiopia by the name of Jeanette. This young girl was taught by her grandfather. She had been trained to be rough and tough and unafraid, tier home had been broken up and her young heart torn apart by the tragic experience. She sought satisfaction by attending the Coptic church, but her heart need remained unmet. During her time of searching for something to satisfy, she was invited to one of our services and there she yielded her life to Jesus Christ. Her life took on new meaning and she began taking the message of salvation to the various villages. On Friday a group of women would come for prayer and she would witness to them of God’s great plan of salvation, and many of them were saved. The next time they met two more were converted and tracts were asked for. Yes, this young lady was able to hear of Christ because some of you heard the voice of God and did something about it.

I think also of a man from Guatemala by the name of Felix. He was not acquainted with the Gospel, but the missionaries took the message to his village. The missionaries held services and he would come and listen outside the building, but would not go inside. Sometime later he was converted and became a faithful child of God. In order to meet the needs of his family, he did farming and had a team of oxen and a couple of mules and other farm animals. During a time when the one mule was left out to pasture, it was stolen and Felix went in search of his lost possession. As he journeyed, he was met by a drunken individual who pulled a gun and leveled it right at Felix. Felix bowed his head in prayer as he sat in the saddle and told the Lord that he wanted His will. The drunken individual lowered his gun and went on his way and Felix was unharmed. He was not able to find his lost mule and some people told him to go to a spiritualist medium and she would know how to find it for him. This Felix refused to do. He resolved to trust the Lord for his animal and the brethren prayed with him for its safe return. One day Felix came with rejoicing telling them that the animal had been found and that the Lord, not the devil, had helped him to find it. Today, two of this man’s daughters are wives of preachers and the message of salvation is going forth. Here again are some of the results of someone hearing the voice of God. We need a complete commitment of our ears to hear if others, like Felix, are going to have an opportunity to hear.

If you will give your ears to hear the voice of God, I’m sure that voice will have something to say to you in regard to the work of reaching lost souls with the Gospel of Christ. There is so much that yet remains to be done. I trust that you will listen to God’s voice and act upon what that voice tells you to do in helping us reach a lost and perishing world with the Gospel.

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