Over the past few weeks the Lord has really begun convicting me for my lack of concern for the lost. I have been so selfish in my faith. And if I am being honest, evangelism intimidates me. I keep coming up with excuses of why I cannot spread God’s Word. Thoughts of inadequacy, fear of confrontation, fear of rejection and so much more inhibit me from telling everyone I meet about our Heavenly Father. But while these things continue to reside in my mind, I know that the Lord has power over my life.
This past week Matt Chandler came up and spoke at the Institute. Goodness, the Lord blessed that man with a serious gift of teaching! He touched on so many different aspects of Christianity and evangelism it is hard to decide where to even start.
One of the things that Matt really helped me to better understand was legalism. As I stated before, much of my life my faith has been focused on myself. My idea of living for the Lord was living by a check list. As a ‘good Christian’ I had my list of wake up read the Bible, pray ‘x’ amount of hours a day, read Christian books, spread God’s Word, etc. While these acts are good and important, I was doing them not out of love, but out of necessity. Matthew 6:1 says,
“Be careful not to do your
‘acts of righteousness’
before men, to be seen by them.
If you do, you will have no
reward from your Father in
heaven.”
Looking back, my intentions were not pure.
Matt also talked about the anti-gospel. This I found to be really intriguing. As humans, many of us dream about our future. Our future lives, what we will do, and most important- who we will be. The anti-gospel is believing that Jesus will delight in a future version of ourselves, but He will not delight in who we are now. So often we believe that the Gospel is just for the lost, but it is important to understand that we still need it daily. Matt said “the gospel saves us and the gospel sustains us.”
When thinking about forgiveness and grace I always think about it in the present tense. I hardly look back to far into at my own past, let alone all the way back to the Old Testament. But Matt made the point that the grace that saves us today is the same grace that saved the prophets and men of the Old Testament. Grace goes both forward and backward. In Isaiah 53 Isaiah speaks of a future event as though it will benefit the listeners that day and throughout the days of their lives. As Christians we have heard that the Lord is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. But how incredible is it that we are saved by the same grace?! That literally just blows my mind!
Matt also pointed out something that is so very simple, yet is hardly ever put into words. He stated that ‘it is not blatantly sinful things that draw you away from the Lord, but rather it is the neutral things that draw you away.” Having been raised in the church we all know we are to protect the words that come from our mouth, be sober minded, save sex for marriage, etc. Those are easy to understand. But it is the little neutral sins that seem so insignificant that slowly draw us away from the Lord. I was heard that there is no complacency- you are always either drawing nearer to or further from the Lord. And I think this statement that Matt made explains why.
Matt also points out that we must be ‘dialed’ in to what draws our affections for the Lord. He also says that we must simultaneously know what robs us of our affections for the Lord. It is also important to realize that my list of what draws my affections to the Lord may be made up of the very things that rob another’s affections for the Lord. There are no right or wrong answers, as long as they do not go against what the Word says.
We have lost of lack of urgency to spread the Gospel. We have lost our anticipation of His return. Matthew 24:44 says “So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.” So what are we waiting for? We have made life all about us and not about God’s return. We are called to push back on the dark things of this world. It is time that we , I, stop being scared to share Jesus.
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