Evangelistic Responsibility Of The Church： Go!

to pursue lost souls more than you do right now and i'm not saying that nobody here does i'm just saying that i'm made of the same stuff you are and and i know i i can tell when i'm around all of god's people i know that there there are some of you that are you you're more outgoing your your personalities are different i i can you know this if you've been around me any amount of time i tend to be socially awkward by nature i am not a public speaker i'm not comfortable with that i'm not comfortable violating people's personal space with the gospel i i can tell you that ruby and i we we had brother sam patrone come over there to manchester and he left me left me a couple 25 amp speakers to go out and and there have been times standing out there in the middle of manchester city center where i just feel paralyzed inside but then i start speaking to the people and there's great liberty whether it's it's speaking to somebody in a restaurant speaking to family members uh if if god would help me to do anything today it's that you might pursue one more soul you might be more evangelistic i want you to turn in your bibles to luke chapter 14 sometimes we can get going in this christian life and and you know we can get to the place oh what can be done for an old heart like mine soften it up with oil and wine last night our brother our brother had tears as he was speaking about the tears but you know my eyes are dry isn't that what keith green sang my eyes are dry my faith is old you have to get to the place where a heart is hard my prayers are cold we can see lost people like this and we don't weep we can be pretty distant we can be separated we live in our place it's fairly comfortable here luke chapter 14 i want i want us to look at what is probably very well known to many of you verse 16 a man who once gave a great banquet and invited many now the thing that i want you to capture as i read this is there are two imperatives in the verse you know what i mean there are two commandments there are two verbs that are telling people to do something and just keep your eyes open for those a man once gave a great banquet and invited many and at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited come there's an imperative people are told people are commanded they're invited they're beseeched even pleaded with come let us reason together this is this is an imperative everything is ready come but they all alike began to make excuses the first said to him i bought a field i must go out and see it please have me excused another said i have bought five yoke of oxen and i go to examine them please have me excused another said i've married a wife and therefore i cannot come so the servant came and reported these things to his master then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant go and you'll see it again but that that is the next imperative here go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame and the servant said sir what you commanded has been done still there is room and the master said to the servant go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled for i tell you none of those men who are invited shall taste my banquet allow me to do something here we recognize it's very clear if you study the passage we recognize that in verse 18 they is speaking to the people who've been invited but allow me to do something allow me to put a twist on the passage they is the servants not those invited it's the servants read it that way a man once gave a great banquet invited many at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited come for everything is now ready but they the servants all alike began to make excuses the first said i bought a field i must go out and see it please have me excused not from the feast but from going out and compelling the people to have me excused i i have this field the other said i have bought five oxen i go to examine them please have me excused you know when spurgeon preached on this passage 1858 royal surrey gardens he specifically said this i feel in such a haste to go out and obey the commandment this morning and i asked myself huh he saw a commandment in here for himself not the commandment for the people that he was going to press to the feast he saw a commandment for himself i wonder do we feel that you see what's said here the servant said in verse 22 sir what if what you have commanded has been done but i want to ask honestly go out into the hedges and highways what you commanded has been done and you know we can read this oftentimes and you can just read right over that you can read right over that and not feel personal responsibility with regards to that unlike what spurgeon felt spurgeon felt this this need this necessity for himself to do something let's pray father i pray that as i as i seek to speak on this lord i want to be able to just reach out and and grab hold of hearts my own included lord help i pray in christ's name amen i just wonder can we listen here's here's my question sir what you have commanded has been done that's what the servant here says and i just want us to self-reflect ask yourself christian this this is messages to the christians in this place i want you to ask yourself this with all you have going on in your life the trials the difficulties the the busyness of life the need to support your family to raise your children to live out your singleness whatever it is wherever you find yourself in life if you self-reflect if you ask yourself can you say to the lord what the servant here said that everything that he's commanded what he's commanded has been done based on your own involvement in this my question to you christian that you recognize what this message has to do with it has to do with the evangelistic responsibility of the church and just us self-reflecting how involved are we actually in this that's the question are can we honestly say that we have been quick quickly quickly going out to the highways and hedges whether they're a far away place like that or they're up and down your own neighborhood within the context of your own family your own workplace your own college your own high school wherever wherever it is that you find yourself are you seeking to win souls that's the question that i have on the table right now do we actually spurgeon's message was called compel them to come in and i want to compel you to compel them to come in i my task is different i'm aiming at the servant right now i'm wanting to compel the ones that are supposed to be in the highways and hedges so if i'm going to compel you i have to find you out because i know what can happen you know we heard our brother last night and he mentioned whitfield and we say well we're not whitfield we're not called to do what we feel you know gets up here and tells us all about not and you can you know we we can dodge this we can imagine that we are not actually the people who are the servants who have a responsibility here and and that's one of the ways that we can excuse ourselves we can make the excuse we can excuse it please have me excused why well because i'm not a pastor i'm not a missionary i'm not a church planter i'm not one of those people that are expected to go out and do this kind of thing and i can see you out there you you you dodge this because this is somebody else's response to you you're not an evangelist you're not a you're not a deacon you're not an elder and so what if i told you that evangelizing and proclaiming the gospel proclaiming the cross proclaiming christ what if i told you that this is for everyone who desires to save his own life you know one of the things that happens we often can't hear jesus because we kind of have our our pauline doctrine of justification by faith so perfectly worked out in our mind that when jesus comes along and he talks the way he talks it just sometimes it it goes right over us listen to this you've read this before you've heard this mark chapter 8 verse 35 whoever would save his life will lose it whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's sake will save it have you thought about that verse before you see we don't like to think that way if i want to save my life my spiritual life if i want to save my spiritual life then then i'm going to lose my life for the gospel's sake and i just ask you this christian have you lost your life for the gospel's sake has that happened have have you found something in this message there's a glory there's a beauty there's there's a motivation in the gospel that makes you view everything it makes you view life and comfort and security and safety and retirement and and money and your plans and your dreams and your vacations and and all of that does have you found something in the gospel that makes you consider this life altogether differently has some glory jumped out at you and grabbed hold of you to where it constrains you now there is a glory in this message there is something marvelous there is something in this christ revealed in this message and what he's done by the shedding of his blood has something happened where now you look at the rest of your life and you say you know what i i i'm going to die to that i'm going to live for this because jesus says that if you live for those things for the money and the retirement and the vacations then you lose your soul so that's the question has the gospel given you reason to lose your life can you can can't you say absolutely this is the most glorious thing i've ever come across into epic illusion absolutely changes everything or there's this took us to revelation 12 yesterday you know this verse they the christians have conquered him you remember who the him when there he was talking about in revelation 12 yesterday who's the him who have we conquered the dragon satan the devil we who are we those who keep the commandments of god right what else we keep the commandments of god the testimony of jesus is that what it says listen to this we conquer him they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb and you know what we we get that and we often think of that and that blood is precious but you know what goes on to say this it says and by the word of their testimony for they love not their lives even unto death isn't that what jesus just got done telling us in mark's gospel that if you lose your life for the gospel's sake and you see it's the word of their testimony you know what we fight fallen angels that's who we're doing battle with and how do we conquer the word that's got to do with speech that's got to do with a message testimony that means that we testify and you know it's right there in the context of the blood do you not have something to say to the world about what the blood of christ has done for you that and that's how they're victorious that's how they they win this battle there's there's a there is definitely a conquering aspect to to our evangelism i mean there's something about the blood of christ that constrains us it kind of it hems us in it leaves us we're no choice but to speak and then you get this we we also heard about this this was brought up ephesians chapter 6 verse 12 where it says you know we wrestle not against flesh and blood we wrestle against rulers authorities cosmic powers spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places therefore take up the whole armor of god do all to stand firm put on you know what it says put on your feet put on and shoes for your feet the readiness given by the gospel of peace now feet what does that denote that denotes mobility that denotes motion that that's the idea that there is some kind of advancement there is there is movement here and there's a readiness that you notice what it says the gospel of peace i mean the good news of the life and the death and the resurrection of jesus christ and the fact that it brings peace between god and man we brethren you know what this is saying you need to be so convicted about the truth of this message this this message of salvation that that you're ready there's a readiness as you go through life you come across the waitress you come across the the family member you come across these things you're you're passing by somebody on the street you can stop because why you have a message that they don't know that they don't have that lead them to life lead them to christ and you know the thing about this you think about the very context in which this is found it's found in ephesians 6 you say we uh we recommend no think this chapter starts by talking about children and parents and servants and masters and you go right before that and it's husbands and wives you say okay the significance is this this is ordinary people folks this isn't the super saints just ordinary christians we stand we conquer oh and what happens well the devil will tell you you're not you're not gifted like that i mean this isn't for you but somebody else is more qualified what's the use who are you but think with me think with me you know this the man who had the demoniac you remember him well he did what any of us would have wanted to do he wanted to go with jesus wouldn't you have wanted that you would want to get in the boat and go with the rest of the disciples and jesus what did jesus tell him you remember what jesus told him what do you tell him yeah go back i heard that go go wait wait wait the guy hasn't been to seminary yet i mean you don't take a guy that was just full of demons in the morning and send him to go well jesus did and folks that what's you see what jesus expectation is this this is this is a common guy this is a newly saved guy doesn't he need training first i mean lord he's not ready or how about this how about a woman the woman at the well i mean you know what happened she is lost in the morning gets saved at the well in the middle of the day heads back to her countrymen and they said it was by the testimony of the many of the samaritans from that town believed in christ because of the woman's testimony like you remember what we read out of revelation the word of their testimony that's how they conquered the word of their testimony this woman she's a woman so this isn't even specific to gender here you can't ladies you can't dodge this they what do you have here you have a woman who if you go compare her testimony to what's happening in revelation chapter 12 this woman's a dragon slayer i mean she do you realize what she just did by her testimony is a bunch of her countrymen were set free from the bondage of the devil and there was conquering there the blood of christ conquering cosmic powers this woman by her testimony in the morning she's lost in the afternoon that's what she's doing and jesus didn't say well you should not have been doing that too newly saved don't you know women aren't supposed to preach none of that brother the question we have to ask is what has the lord done for you has he has he given you something to say i mean we need to remember who are we who are we well christian what we're told is that we're a chosen race we're told that we're a royal priesthood and if you know the passage you know exactly where i'm going why has jesus chosen us why has he what has he done for us we're to be a people of his own possession where christ private property and peter specifically tells us that we might may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness the the excellencies i just ask you all excellencies proclaim the excellencies are there none to proclaim i mean when you start thinking oh you start thinking about the song of solomon and you start thinking as we heard you start thinking about brethren all you have to do is is begin to just see christ see him i mean really see him wail over jerusalem see his heart if you will you can make me clean i mean see him really the first miracle he turned water into wine what's that saying to us what's he doing at a way why is he at a weighing you see he's showing his god didn't god isn't just about putting us down i mean water into wine good wine what does it say to us what does it say to us when he wails over jerusalem and then he he tells us i want you i want you to follow me i want you to put your footsteps in my footsteps i want you to go where i go i want you to say what i say folks we can get to the place where we get going in our christian life and we get in our christian subculture and we get we get we can just get ice you know what we can become too withdrawn from the world and i'm look i'm like i say i'm made of the same stuff you are i'm confronted by the same kinds of things but this is this is what we've been called to the excellencies the excellencies you think of christ there's no average person i mean the spirit of god comes upon mary here this virgin gives birth you have you had this christ come forth a baby can you imagine if you saw this baby who who is the mighty god and the governments are going to be placed upon his shoulder and and he he's come to bear the sins and drink the wrath of god is there no is there nothing is there no excellency to be found emmanuel he's god with us he laid aside that eternal glory that he had with his father he left it behind he came from the halls of heaven think about it he came down here the fragrance of heaven upon him and he stood among us and his own didn't receive him and you know what scripture says the gentiles all the gentiles they're just flowing in to this mountain they're being grafted in we live in such a blessed time to be a gentile but isn't there isn't there excellency pure blameless lamb of god always about his father's business and folks do we have nothing to say listen listen to something oftentimes we just kind of go over this acts chapter 8 just consider this a great persecution against the church in jerusalem right you you remember that acts 8 this great persecution saul wasn't saved yet persecution what happens and they were all scattered men women they were all scattered throughout the regions of judea and samaria except the apostles now i like that they were all scattered except the apostles now you know you could look at that and you could think well why didn't the apostles get scared yeah but just don't don't don't let that carry you away right those who were scattered went about preaching the word that doesn't mean they stood in the pulpit they went out heralding proclaiming there's not a pulpit ministry but you know what i like about it specifically not the apostles the ordinaries the ordinaries got scattered now see if if for it's been a trial to us just to uproot and go to another country but i mean we weren't driven out we didn't lose our possessions you see sometimes what happens we go on in the christian life and the trials come in and we can get to where we're licking the wounds and we forget on our worst day we're heaven bound and those people out there where are they headed i mean right out there in those neighborhoods jeff spoke the other night are there going to be many are there going to be few well however it looks in the end what we know right now is this if you went around and you went looking for the true christians in denton texas there aren't a whole lot not the true ones and they sit out there in the darkness and we can come and we can have you know all of our glorious time of feeding in the word and we we edify one another and build up one another which we should be doing but you know we can get so going with our lives and we just ride drive right down that back that road and you know what happens the people that drive by us on the highway they're just kind of these ambiguous things and we we can get right back out there and praise god we had this time of feeding and we were together and it's a fellowship conference and we had good fellowship and we were talking all the brethren and what an encouragement it is and it is there's no question about it it is but what i want you to see is these people were scattered and it specifically says not the apostles not it's it's the ordinary believers who are not apostles you see a lot we often get to the place well of course the apostles are supposed to be doing of course they're supposed to be doing that of course these other people are supposed to be doing that no no no that's not what happened the early church gets scattered and then what happens it seems that the expansion of christianity in those very early days in the church was was not primarily carried about who made it their profession to be in the ministry you see that and despite the trials that they were enduring it's interesting that the scripture doesn't come right out and tell us well they went in search of food and they went in search of jobs and they went in search of housing oftentimes we hear about the ukrainian refugees and they're coming out and that's what we hear well they went looking for this and we went have you heard that the ukrainian christians were coming out and the primary thing that's being said about them is they went about everywhere and they proclaiming the gospel well that's how the bible talks just the ordinary people that get scattered there they are now listen listen to this church historian you know this name eusebius of caesarea now he wrote about the early church now he he was alive 300 year 300 a.d. and he wrote about the church in the early second century so it was right after john died listen what he says many christians felt their souls inspired by the holy word with a passionate desire for perfection imagine that jesus said in the sermon on the mount we ought to strive for that imagine people that actually take that serious and strive after that and their first action in obedience to the instructions of the savior was to sell their goods and distribute them to the poor it seems like jesus said something about that as well i mean you see what's happening the people were actually they were getting saved and they were actually being compelled by this love of christ they were being constrained to actually do the things that jesus said strive for perfection be perfect as your father is perfect jesus said in luke 12 that we should indeed sell and distribute to the poor and then leaving their home they set out to fill fulfill the work of the evangelist making it their ambition to preach the word of the faith to those who has yet had heard nothing of it that's what they did in the early church and all i'm asking i mean i say i have to stand in front of the mirror of the word of god and ask myself though there's trials though we advance in age though there's health issues what is it that christ wants us to do i'll tell you this he wants us to live all out he wants us to live while we have life whoever believes in me as the scripture has said out of his heart will flow rivers of living water now you know you can look at that and you say well well we know that that says that that's speaking about the spirit of god but have you ever recognize what it's saying happens the spirit of god had not yet been given because christ had not yet gone to the father but now he has gone to the father now the spirit has been given and something this is interesting it doesn't say that something will flow into us you might almost think that if we were going to portray well god is going to give the spirit and something will come into us there will be an effusion that will be directed towards us but isn't it interesting that what jesus actually describes is for everyone who believes rivers of living water flow out do you believe that do you believe what henry said do you believe that that's a reality i believe that i believe that when the spirit of god was given to the early church first thing they did was busted out on the streets and they began telling everybody in their own language what was happening and the gospel went out from there something flows out of us i mean you just think of the imagery here when you come to jesus christ to drink that's what he says come to me and drink when we actually go to him we tap into a spring we tap into to a fountain you get the spirit of christ and rivers of living water flow out why does that happen but folks you've come to the river maker and this is you just behold the imagery here whoever loves his life for my sake and the gospel sake whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel sake will save it now you know what can happen and and like i was saying i've stood out on the streets before before i'm going to preach and i don't know if it's just i think it's a spiritual thing where i've just felt everything in me saying go home and that's what i went up here trying to convince everybody to do is get out on the streets and preach open air i'm just i we're we're to be salt and light and to be salt light we've got it we've got if you're gonna salt only impacts anything if it touches it you've got to you we've got to be in contact with the world and one of the things you see the excuses can be land it can be oxen it can be a wife but you know what sometimes the excuse is you know why we don't talk to people about christ this fearful insecurity that type of thing of the unknown we fear men we don't like the truth is we don't like to be disliked we tend to god has made us social creatures we like to be loved we like to be liked we don't like rejection and one of the things that you find out about luke chapter 14 is you got a lot of people making excuses that don't want to come so when you go out there's there's a lot of resistance to the message and we know it any anytime you try to try i you know when i first got saved i thought this was so new this was marvelous like i was this nominal catholic and this broke in on me and i thought this this is unbelievable i can't even believe i walked for 25 years of my life and there were actually people around me that were born again and how did i not know that i mean this is this is fantastic i thought oh how my friends all my family they're they're gonna want this they're gonna all line up for this the only reason that they don't have this is because they were just like me they were in the darkness and i began to tell them all and you know what happened i'm hoping my dad i'm hoping my dad was saved three of my children have come to know the lord but we it's amazing it's amazing you know i think i can see the faces of people in my mind right now standing on the streets of manchester and you know sam gave me these speakers so i'm i'm mobile and i can walk along and i can track the people and i'm looking at their face and i began to talk to them about christ and you know they smirk at each other they roll their eyes and i say this is an amazing thing that we would come down here and offer you paradise we offer you eternal life and you roll your eyes and you mock this there will come a day when this will be the most important thing you could imagine and but but what happens people laugh they sneer they swear they shout they spit and brethren hear me i i right now i'm not pleasing any blame or pointing any fingers but if i'm honest i mean i i can fall prey to just selfishly grasping and not wanting to be in uncomfortable situations grasping for security grasping for comfort and brethren well you know what can happen we can just become soft and we can become fearful you know what happened in the early church listen that that desire for boldness what happened you know what happened look lord look upon their threats it can be a this world can be a threatening place there's no question about look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue continue to speak the word with all boldness and when they had prayed two verses later the place in which they were gathered together was shaken and they were all filled all all the ordinary christians with the holy spirit and they all continue to speak the word of god with boldness brethren we live in a threatening world but listen you have been called out of the darkness to be the proclaimers of the excellencies of christ and so we need to make this a priority this can't this can't be secondary this ordinary christians listen to this i came across this some years ago when i was doing a some a series on hyper calvinism but ian murray said in many churches there has been a real increase in knowledge and a resurgence of calvinistic belief has occurred across the world but revival of doctrine has scarcely been matched by a revival of evangelism so all the books on calvinism are selling but people are not more aggressively pursuing souls as they come to the greater light that's ian murray's perspective i grabbed a copy old used copy of john stott's book on evangelism called our guilty silence listen to what he says in a day when the church's evangelistic mission was never more urgent it would seem that the church's evangelistic enterprise was never more lacking or ineffective one might almost say that the contemporary church is better equipped for every other task than for its primary responsibility and what can happen is we just what one of the excuses one of the reasons that we can ask to be excused is because we actually convince ourselves that it's not the primary task of the church to carry out the great commission the primary responsibility of making known the gospel of christ and winning others to him the church when it is true to its calling cannot be a silent church now you know when it gets scary is when you start quoting jim elliot or ct stud now we've got you've probably all looked at that that's tame that's that's that's as that's the refined element of ct stud stud and elliot and and others had very little use for a contented sleepy apathetic church and if you read anything of them you know our ears are almost too delicate to hear stud but i'll give you a dose we shout onward christian soldiers marching on to war and then and then we whisper i pray thee have me excused and you know when i came across that i thought ah he's put the same bent on luke 14 that i have it's the servants asking to be excused christ this is back to stud christ call is to feed the hungry save the lost call sinners to repentance not to build and furnish comfortable chapels churches cathedrals at home in which to rock christian professors to sleep but we are to capture men from the devil's clutches and snatch them from the very jaws of hell and make them into an almighty army of god too long have we been waiting for one another to begin and sometimes that's the excuse well i'm waiting for them to start i'm waiting for our pastors to lead us i'm waiting for this the time for waiting is past the hour of god is struck in god's holy name let us arise and build we will dare to trust our god we will venture our all for him we will live and we will die for him and we will do it with his joy unspeakable singing aloud in our hearts and some of you know the story of hudson taylor you remember when he visited brighton england down on the south coast and he sat in a church gathering that was basically the size of this it says that there were there were maybe a thousand christians there here's taylor with a burden for souls just pulsing through his veins he looked around at the christians what did he see in that day they seemed to him self-satisfied it was intolerable to him pew upon pew of prosperous merchant shopkeeper bonneted wife neatly dressed children content smugged he seized his hat and you know what he did he went out and walked the beach he left unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more christian people rejoicing in their own security while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge brethren we don't want to be the smug ones we want to be able to come together but brethren there is a reason to come together there's a reason to sit under preachers to be equipped for the work of ministry brethren these times should be times of refueling when we go out we draw lines in the sand and it's just like it was at the alamo whether that really happened or not i know not but it was supposed travis drew a line in the sand brethren what we want to do is we want to live while we have life he seized his hat out he went we don't want to be the smug ones they were all filled with the holy spirit and continued to speak the word of god with boldness that's what happened in the new testament it's stud right it's i just asked this is stud right listen i can tell you this that i i mean i know i feel it you can feel the awkward situation you can feel at times the conflict but have we asked to be excused is it not often the servants that are the ones saying that i have an ox i have land i have a wife please have me excused or even worse brethren i'm just afraid that's worse than than the ox and land and wife brethren you know what i the old testament we get all these things in the old testament we're specifically told that these things these these stories that the narratives were preserved for our instruction so let me give you one you remember what it was like on the battlefields of ancient israel you you remember what happened it's you kind of when you go and you look in deuteronomy 20 there's this process and you see first off as as the the soldiers were there ready to go to war we're christian soldiers our warfare is of is of a not the weapons of our warfare are different but we know that we conquer him through the word of our testimony but here we are we're going out on the battlefield as christians well we can go back to the book of deuteronomy and we can look at it and we can we can learn from it and here's what happened that they the soldiers are standing there they're ready to go out and then and then here we'd come the priest and the priest said this he says hero israel today you are drawing near for battle against your enemies but not your heart faint don't fear or panic or be in dread of them for the lord your god is he who goes with you and then it says that one of the officers would say this can you imagine it you're on the battlefield the priest said this trust your god we have the god of scripture brethren we have the god of we have the god of david when he went out against goliath we have the god of the early church where the place shook and where three thousand souls came that's our god we have the god of scripture and so you've got the priest he's trying to encourage everybody like aragorn looking in their eyes men may fail but it's not going to be this day not when we have a god like this not for whatever reason he gave we have a god and he bids us onward and he's the son of god says i'll be with you to the end this is that's a good thing but then god says okay now have the commander go out there and say this is there any man who's fearful and faint-hearted let him go back to his house lest he make the heart of his fellows melt like his own and you know we actually have an example in judges you know the account where basically gideon it says 22,000 people after this was said to them 22,000 people returned 10,000 remained okay christian think about this think about the 22,000 guys as they're walking home what do you think they talked about you think they felt good i don't know what they felt they're we're going home to our places of safety to our beds to the soft to our wives to a hot meal now 10,000 of our brethren are back there and you see we can be like that well it's back there whitfield was back there and and we go home oh the real life scene of cowardice in ancient israel and sometimes i mean if i'm honest sometimes i want to be excused from proclaiming the excellencies of christ not because of oxen not because of wife but i lack boldness right i don't you feel it wretched wretched wretched cowardice oh that when we don't trust the lord our god you just think about it and our brethren in days past what did they have to fear the stake in england bloody mary get a hold of them the coliseum if you go back further the lions i mean these are the things that our brethren had what do we have to fear i mean yeah it's true things may be getting worse in this country but what honestly what do you have to fear men whose hearts melt have a tendency to melt others and you think about it i there's two examples of the extreme opposites here on the one hand you just think cowardice cowardice is contagious when i melt what happens i have a tendency to melt others you know my doubtful questions my my fears my hesitations what do they do they cause other people to hesitate christ calls us to lose our lives for the gospel sake and we have to ask ourselves this or do we count our lives more valuable than our king's purposes we you know we can talk about we can sing the songs and brethren again i'm saying this just i made it the same stuff i want to finish well i want to be a soul winner i want christ to make me a fisher of men i want that and i don't want my hesitations to ever be responsible for causing somebody else to hesitate because you know we have a tendency it tends to be contagious you be reluctant you be scared you be fearful what happened there's 10 spies they came back out of the the promised land and they caused the whole nation to melt there was a couple lion hearts among them but remember what happened when paul paul stood up for the gospel and they threw him in prison you remember how he wrote in chapter one to the philippians he got thrown in prison and he said that that very fact has now made the brethren bold isn't that amazing how that works you say well that should have made them all afraid but that's not how it works when there's boldness in the church when there's lion-hearted men in the church you know what it tends to be contagious when there's cowardice in the ranks that tends to be contagious that's brethren that's just biblical we know that the wicked we expect that they should flee when nobody pursues but oh we want to be we want to be like david and his mighty men do we not in a spiritual sense brethren let's let's just think about this being hated jesus says if the world hates you know that it's hated me before it hated you if you were of the world the world would love you as its own but because you're not of the world but i chose you out of the world therefore the world hates you and brethren that's how the lord accomplishes his evangelistic cause i mean do we not need the church of jesus christ to arise and embrace this call to be hated for the sake of his glory and for the sake of loving each other's listen if your driving motive in life is to be liked then you're going to find this impossible but brethren what we want to do is not it's this isn't about being liked this is about the fact that we have a message that can save people from wreck and ruin and perdition from being utterly destroyed brethren have we forgot god's method of salvation the master said to his servant go out quickly to the streets and the lanes of the city go out to the highways and hedges and compel the people to come in go go go out go quickly go what what's what's that all about go to where the red-blooded sinners are go to where they live go to where they breathe god doesn't expect that they're going to come in here you know that doesn't happen oh yes i know you you may have invited some lost neighbor and they came maybe you've invited somebody to church and they've come before but you know that the vast majority of people they don't come into our meeting places they don't come to our churches that isn't what happens god knows they won't i mean god knew that we were man is it like man in his depravity doesn't go looking man in his depravity doesn't go seeking for god what did god do god sent his son here and then god sent his spirit here and then god sends his church full of the spirit out there isn't that what he did god comes to us and god would send us to them just in the same way the church is us how are we going to influence the world the only way we're going to influence the world is by communicating to them it's by getting this message where they are it's by doing the same thing that jesus did and you and i know what he did he did not stay up there having made purification well no before that fact is before he was seated there after having made purification for sin there there he was eternally the word with god there the glory that he had with his father before the world began and he didn't just stay there he didn't just sit there he didn't you know he didn't send us an email he came he came bodily he came the man of sorrows he came to suffer he emptied himself that's what he did his brother he has said he didn't just loft down a bunch of tracts from heaven he actually came you know what he did he got into the holes in the dark place he came what was he scandalized the whole religious world why because he was a friend of tax collectors and sinners brethren we can become overly isolated prostitutes lepers the tax collectors we can get to the place where we forget the most basic truth that you're not going to have people calling upon a christ in whom they don't believe and they're not going to believe in this christ unless somebody is telling them exactly about this christ if there's anything that we we have come to somewhat recognize and i think we can say this in humility but god has shown us things about christ he's shown us things about the gospel he's shown us things about the truth i mean we you think about the collective knowledge of what we have in this room and then the collective knowledge increasingly right this country is is pagan you more and more come to places where you can talk to people about about simply the doctrine of justification they have no idea about it you talk to them about the very core things of the gospel i remember a guy and a girl in san antonio and have you ever heard anything like that no we never heard anything like this i might expect that over in manchester but we're we're basically kind of hanging off the bottom of the bible belt here and to have that happening we have a knowledge of the way to life we have that we possess that we know the reality here that the word became flesh that's what he did now he tells he handed the baton off to us and now i send you my father sent me and the word came into this world and what did he do he went out from glory quickly he emptied himself he came into the womb of the virgin and he came here that's what he did he laid aside the glory and you know that's exactly he says follow me and he's basically saying the same thing lay aside the glory you don't brethren don't live for the houses don't live for the retirement don't leave live for the softness don't live for all that jesus came down and he got right out amidst sinners he was in there with the tax collectors he was in there with the dirty and the filthy and the lepers and and the demonized and he got right out into the filth and the stench of men and that's what he calls us to do and our time is short it's short what is the gospel well we know it's this good news from god it's about christ it's a message to men to be reconciled and how how is anybody going to hear it and see that ct is right we often are waiting for somebody else to do it well somebody else will do it or we just we fall into this pitiful hyper calvinism well god's god is elect and so basically it's going to happen and brethren do you realize what paul is saying he says how beautiful are the feet of them who proclaim glad tidings wait why didn't he say lips why didn't he say tongue why would it be the feet because it's the feet that takes the message where it needs to be spoken from the lip that's the issue why why you know what it says in in luke 14 why because our master's table has vacancies there's empty places that's what it says brethren just i want you to think here at the end of this conference have we disengaged from the world too much have have we brethren it is important to have strong families is important to figure out how we're going to educate our children it's important to have strong churches deal with sin within our walls but i'll tell you this i remember my pastor pat horner i asked him one time brother what's what's the hardest thing about pastoring he said keeping the vision outward while dealing with what's inward and that's i i believe brethren that that that is spot on brethren listen to this in the hand of the lord there is a cup with foaming wine well mixed and he pours out from it in all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs do you think often about the fate of the damned do you look at people in the supermarket that way these people i mean when you're i i'm on the plane i'm in different places you look at the people do you see people through that lens and brethren we can't soften this we cannot soften damnation this this is this is a bitter bitter end they must drink from the dregs of damnation for on and on and on and yes weep for your children and preach the truth to them but don't forget the guy down the street look at him he has a soul see yourself you were there before and god came to you he came where you are somebody came to you somehow but think of this separate the chaff from the wheat the angel binds them hand and foot ties them they hang hang over that hell pit for just a moment all the screeches and screams come up from there like ravenhill said there's no exits my cousin a year older than i am we ran in the same sin i think about her all the time it's over you die without christ and it's over there's only one way of escape and the fact is we know it can we live as though we have no responsibility you know how spurgeon said it if they're gonna be damned let them leap over our dead bodies if they're gonna perish let it be with our arms wrapped around their their knees if hell must be filled let it be in the face of our exertions are we just gonna let him go unwarned that's brethren we know we know what it is they lack amy carmichael all for a passionate passion for souls oh for a pity that yearns oh for love that loves unto death for the fire that burns oh for the pure prayer power that prevails that pours itself out for the loss jim elliott said oh generation that hears but feels not listens but aches not damned be this tupidity show me the one burning heart and brethren we want to remember there's a feast here remember the feast the mountain of the lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food a feast of well-aged wine a rich food full of morrow of aged wine well refined i mean you think about the the paradise of god what's being offered this is like a multiple course feast you think christ christ is he's the feast but you pick up one platter and the promises of god and you've got the spirit of god and you've got just i mean through all the coming ages he's going to show this just lavish upon us this is grace exceeding grace kindness of god poured upon us will be the the bride of christ this is the most rich food the most soul satisfying food this is pardon for sin and clearness of conscience and and the power of god and and loving what god loves and being in the sweet accord and everything that feasting with god i mean this is the feast of paradise this day you will be with me in paradise and so what we should go out quickly why there's vacancies there brethren perhaps we hesitate for no other reason than this and possibly it's just it's the ephesian thing we lose our first love we get to the place where we've gotten to the place where the christian life has become tedious difficult long a subtle chill embraces us we lose our first love jim elliot oh the fullness pleasure sheer excitement of knowing god on earth it's like dan was talking yesterday wouldn't you rather be overwhelmed by that sense and be among the or the lebanese than to be here and be all apathetic and dry and safe no oh brethren you know how it was our first love what happened what happened with our first love oh this was so sweet it was so new christ was so precious we wanted to tell everybody didn't we want to didn't you want to this is this is amazing and then what can happen just a wretched apathy and we've got this guy keith you see his message to us but he felt it too my eyes are dry my faith is old my heart is hard my prayers are cold i know what i ought to be alive to god and dead to me oh dying to me dying to me god kill me kill the part that's too alive oh what can be done for an old heart like mine father if there's anybody here that that resonates with soften it up with oil and wine we can lose our first love and you know what jesus told that church at ephesus he didn't say wait for revival he said repent and go back and do the first works that's what he said jim elliot surely those who know the great passionate heart of jehovah must deny their own loves to share in the expression of his love consider the call from the throne above go ye and the call from round about come over and help us and even the call from the damn souls below send lazarus to my brothers that they may come not to this place impelled then by those voices i dare not stay home while kechi was parish so what if the well-fed church in the homeland needs stirring they have their scriptures moses the prophets the whole lot more brethren i would just leave you with this your goal in living should be to have the greatest possible impact that you can live to have the greatest possible impact upon this world that's what it means to be salt and light shine as bright as possible be as salty as possible oh god help us send your mighty spirit of god upon us make us a people collectively that will turn the world upside down that that will have the greatest possible impact brethren if all we do is come to conferences like this to gain knowledge get blessed it's no good we need god do something stir us change us we need permanent change let's not be like lot's wife we look back we want the comforts we want the stuff let us go on to glory and risk everything is he not worth it brethren oh jim elliott said wherever you are be all there live to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of god brethren has he brought you to his house of wine if he has bid others come bid others be with you let your arms be wrapped around their knees how be fills god help us that it be filled in the face of our exertions brethren our time is short i don't know if i'll stand here again we don't have many more rolling suns at most before we land on canaan's coast oh brethren when we stand there with the redeemed from the ages god help us to have a testimony we can share with those others that have gone before us and behind us and all around us we can all have testimonies of triumphant life that we lived while we had time to live and we basically you come face to face with jim elliott and it resonates yes we were there at that time and we tried to be all there just like you said and lived to the hilt in every situation see it's our responsibility father i pray that lord help help the brethren here lord you've been so kind to us you've showered with so many blessings lord it would be our honor and our privilege if before the end of our days here you would allow us to be more fruitful to win more souls lord we desire that you would make us collectively into a body of soul winners fishers of men lord help us to be bright light pungent salt especially as we see the world around us decay help us to be bold as lions give us the boldness of the early church where the spirit of god fell upon them and they were bold and they continued to speak the word help us to be the people that turn the world upside down in our generation we pray in christ's name amen