I had intended today to write about “The Gospel According to John” chapter 4:23-42, God willing I will do so at a later date. I guess I still am in away because that entire text is about sharing Jesus, and that is what has occupied my thoughts today. Do you ever sit in church and just think something is wrong, I mean really wrong. My pastor, I love him and by no means wish to degrade his work nor my church, but sometimes I hear a sermon and just think, that could only be preached here; in the richest country the world has ever known, in one of the safest most prosperous communities in our state. We sing songs in church and do you ever listen to the words of the songs we sing? One of the songs we sang in worship today was, “I surrender all to you”, and here are the Lyrics to that song:
I'm giving you my heart, and all that is within
I lay it all down for the sake of you my King
I'm giving you my dreams, I'm laying down my rights
I'm giving up my pride for the promise of new life
And I surrender all to you, all to you
And I surrender all to you, all to you
I'm singing You this song, I'm waiting at the cross
And all the world holds dear, I count it all as loss
For the sake of knowing You for the glory of Your name
To know the lasting joy, even sharing in Your pain
I don’t know about you, but when I was singing that song I wanted to ask; do we really? I mean really read those words, they’re graphic and here we are singing them as if we are surrendering all. The last few weeks I have listened to a sermon series on fear and every week I have left church thinking, something is wrong, this just does not seem right. Before leaving for church this morning I read a facebook post by Shawn Hole, he is an evangelist and missionary. He and a team had gone on a mission trip to Nepal to evangelize the gospel. While preaching they were attacked; stoned, beaten with boards and fists, narrowly escaping. They feared that they would be hunted down and worried about the pictures that had been taken at the scene and questioned wether or not they should leave the country and return home. So what did they do? They did what Peter and John did in Acts chapter 4 after being captured and beaten in the temple. They prayed to God for boldness and went out and continued to preach the gospel and have been doing so for one week now since they were stoned. Reading this you would think that this was something that happened in the book of Acts but it is not; it occurred this past week.
So we sit in our churches singing “I Surrender all to you” while others really are surrendering all to Him; preaching the gospel, getting stoned, then praying for more boldness, then going out doing it again. Something is just not right with this. We listen to a sermon series on fear in which the true context of scripture was written to people going through what these men in Nepal were going through just last week. So what am I saying? I’m saying that I’m growing weary of this. I’m saying I am sick of church, I love the church (the believers in Jesus Christ) but I’m sick of doing church instead of doing what Jesus told us to do. Jesus said: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). So why isn’t anyone going? We sing “I surrender all to you” and can’t even do what He says, most of us don’t even share the gospel with our neighbors, most of us have lost people right in our neighborhood and we don’t talk to them. That is the real fear we need to deal with, not all of these life fears. A question popped into my mind while showering this morning after having read this man’s facebook post. Do you fear death, and if so do you have faith if you fear death? Why is the answer important? Because we are not saved by keeping the law, we are not saved by good works, we are not saved by walking down a church aisle, and we are not saved by saying a prayer asking Jesus into your heart; I find no example of anyone being saved by any of these in scripture. But what I do find, repeatedly, is that we are saved by one Way, faith in Jesus “by His blood, through faith” (Romans 3:25). It is not a onetime thing you do; faith is for a lifetime and yes whoever God has saved, is saved for life, they are eternal. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Jesus said “Go” so let’s “Go”! Going out in obedience to our Lord spreading His gospel to a lost and dying world does not earn righteousness, only faith in Jesus Christ does that. So why do men like these risk life and limb to spread the gospel? Why did the early believers in Acts risk life and limb to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ?
1. Faith: every one of these people know that their life is not their own, their lives belong to Jesus Christ. These men know that they had a debt they couldn’t pay, they were slaves to sin, and Jesus bought them out of slavery to sin and paid their debt with His own blood. They owe Him everything, He gave His life for them; He is their Lord and savior.
2. Hope: Their hope is in the fact that they have been given eternal life. “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” (Psalm 118:6)
3. Love: they know that every single person that dies without coming to faith in Jesus Christ will be in Hell and that it is through believers in Jesus that God has chosen to deliver His good news to the world of salvation in Jesus Christ.
I have grown weary with church as usual, I don’t even know what this is going to look like but I can tell you one thing; I will be praying to my Lord for boldness, praying for direction and seeking direction, I will be praying for opportunities and seeking opportunities; I will be following Him in obedience and I will be sharing the gospel with a lost and dying world; wether that means preaching, handing out gospel tracts, one-on-one witnessing, or even reading the Word of God to people. I welcome any and all that are willing to join me, especially my church family at Central Baptist Tyler, TX. This world as we know it is passing away right before our eyes, 153,000 people die every day, the majority of which do not know the Lord and will spend eternity in Hell.
If you will join me comment on this post or email me at peekmikeb@aol.com let’s join hands and share the gospel with our Tyler TX community, our state, our country, and the world. I am calling for anyone willing to surrender all. If you know of a group of people already doing this please let me know, I would love to get in contact with them.
“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven” (Romans 4:7)
Mike Peek a slave of Jesus Christ
peekmikeb@aol.com
