Posted on Wed, May 20, 2009
Reaching Out
Speaker - Elder Ayodeji Adesina (Lay Pastor, BHSDAC, London)(Message summarised by Sis. Ayobola Akwarandu)
Key Text: Psalms 126: 5 & 6
The purpose of this message is to challenge us that the Church is not a club but a Movement to tell others about Jesus. A man once prayed, “Lord bless me and my wife, my son and his wife, us four and no more!” Another preacher read a will to an anticipating audience, and they were all disappointed when the will read “Being of sound mind, I spent all my money on myself.” How many more selfish concepts plague our society today? Most of us are only concerned about our needs, wants and desires even over that of God and we have become very selfish and self-centered in our doings. We have few good days when we think of others but generally we are very self-centered. However, Jesus’ whole life was spent ministering to people around him. He had come so that captives can be set free. Matt 20: 28. Today, let us think about others and minister to them. The greatest gift that we can give to others is the gift of eternal life. Day after day, we look at people around us who are dying in their sin and not born again, and yet we act as if we do not care! Psalm 126 talks about:
- The going of the servant
- The flowing of the tears
- The sowing of the seed
- The mowing of harvest
The going of the servant: Passages like Matthew 28: 19, Mark 16:15 and Luke 19: 10 show us that the ‘seeking’ has to happen before the ‘sowing’. Often, we complain that people are not getting saved but are we seeking? Do we remember to pray for people we know who are not born again daily? John Wesley said “the Church must go to the lost or go to oblivion”. The Church that is not growing is a dying Church! Any Church that is satisfied with holding their own is on its way to the cemetery! We’ve got to go if we want to grow. This is a serious matter; having a burden for those who are lost. God has placed us here so that through us others may see and experience the glory of God. Going could involve making phone calls to encourage others, forming friendships, writing encouraging letters, distributing tracts, holding Bible studies, ministering in different ways, or preaching to someone, etc. But there has to be a ‘going’!
An old man of 75 years once visited a Church and requested for bible study, to his amazement, he was visited by the Church Pastor and an Elder, and as a result got baptized. After the second visit, the old man was in tears because he had lived for over 45 years just 8 buildings away from the Church but nobody had ever reached out to him or visited him. Are we going to be satisfied just keeping the number of our congregation, or are we going to go out and preach to folks waiting to be told the good news? Sinners have not been commanded to go to Church on Sabbath but the Church have been commanded to go to the sinners!
The flowing of the tears: A woman once wept over a story in a soap she was watching, and her husband then asked why she would cry over a thing that is as unreal as that, the woman answered that she cries for the same reason that makes him excited and shout and jump when a football player scores a goal. Most of us have cried over somebody or something whether real or unreal. We have cried over the loss of money, friends etc. but have we cried over a lost soul? Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Many of us are not compassionate, we do not care whether sinners die in their sins or not. We possess piety without pity and passion without compassion. Jesus had compassion over the hurting and offered to help them.
When you look at people what do you feel? We need to start getting really serious about winning souls for Jesus. Have you wept over any lost soul lately, or ever? On Dec 10, 1982 at 9pm, a mother called her son and said Dad was dying of a heart attack, but the son didn’t leave that night because he lived about 200 miles away. Around 5am the next morning, the phone rang, him mother called again and all she said was ‘dad’s gone’. During the funeral service, the son wept loud and long and more than any other person there because he realised that his dad died without accepting Jesus as his Lord and Saviour and he never preached to him! We always make excuses, “I’m too shy”, “can’t talk to people”, but if you knew a car was coming to crush someone, would you keep quiet and not shout out?
The sowing of the seed: - A farmer who does not sow any seed will not get any harvest. Matt 10: 7 and Acts 8:4 show us that everywhere the disciples went, they sowed the gospel seed - on the golf course, in the supermarkets, at swimming pools, at work etc. When was the last time you shared a Christian tract or literature? (Romans 10: 17) We cannot blame others who don’t know Christ if we don’t tell them about the love of Jesus. Pray to God to give you an opportunity to tell someone about Jesus. God will surely answer that prayer.
A man once invited his friend for golf but his friend said he had to go to Church that Sunday and will not be able to go for the game. His golf friend said to him, “keep your Church to yourself after all I have invited you for golf a dozen times but you have never for once invited me to Church” Even in today’s society, many people are just waiting for someone compassionate enough to share the gospel with them. Romans 1: 16 – are you ashamed of the gospel of Christ?
The mowing of the harvest: - If we have gone to sow with compassionate hearts, then there will be a harvest of souls! As a Church, if we fail to tell people about Christ, then we have failed in all. Jesus Himself said the harvest is plentiful, so wherever you are on earth the harvest is plentiful but the workers quite few. How many of us are willing to do our best for the Master? There are many people around us who don’t have a ray of hope, people deep in sorrow, tired with life etc. would you be a ray of hope to them? When we love others, we will go, shed the tears, sow the seed and then mow the harvest. Many times our harvest might not be immediate but surely there will be harvest. The harvest might take a season but it will surely happen.
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