On Sunday July 5th we wrapped up the series on Following Christ at BC with a message entitled “Help People Love God.” If we are really following Christ, our lives should be marked by a love for God, people, God’s people, and we should also be about helping others love God. The ultimate way that we help other people love God is by sharing the Gospel with them that they might truly know and be known by him. If we believe that sharing the Gospel with people really helps them love God, then there are three questions worth looking at:
1. Why should we share the Gospel with people?
- Jesus said to. (Matthew 28:18-20)
- Jesus said if we loved him we’d obey his commands (John 14:15, Luke 6:46)
- The Father is seeking worshipers and as his worshipers, we should want him to get the worship he deserves (John 4:23)
- We should be moved by a love for our fellow man and a fear of God. (2 Corinthians 5:10-11, 20)
“The Holy Spirit will move them by first moving you. If you can rest without their being saved, they will rest too. But if you are filled with an agony for them, if you cannot bear that they should be lost, you will soon find that they are uneasy too. I hope you will get into such a state that you will dream about your child or your hearer perishing for lack of Christ, and start up at once and begin to cry, ‘O God, give me converts or I die.’ Then you will have converts.”
-Charles Spurgeon
I know that the reason so few conversions are happening through my church is not because we lack a program or staff. It is because we do not love the lost and yearn for their salvation the way we should. And the reason we do not love them as we ought is because such love is a miracle that overcomes our selfish bent. It cannot be managed or maneuvered into existence. It is an astonishing miracle. Examine yourself: Does it lie within your power right now to weep over the spiritual destruction of the people on your street? Such tears come only through a profound work of God. If we want this work of God in our lives and in our churches, there will be agonizing prayer: ‘God, break my heart!’ I choose the word ‘agonize’ carefully. It is the word Paul used in Romans 15:30, ‘Now I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf.’ With such ‘agonizing together’ God may grant tears. And without those tears we may shuffle members from church to church, but few people will pass from darkness to light.”
-John Piper
2. What Gospel should we share with people?
- Not simply my personal testimony.
- Not simply “God loves you” or “Jesus died for you”.
- God, man, Christ, response.
3. How can we share the Gospel?
- Pray
“Those who are short of breath in soul winning will never be successful. If they are not saved after twenty years of prayer, follow them up to the gates of hell! If they once pass those gates, your prayers are unallowable and unavailing, but to the very verge of the infernal pit follow them with your prayers. If they will not hear you speak, they cannot prevent your praying. Do they jest at your exhortations? They cannot disturb you at your prayers. Are they far away so that you cannot reach them? Your prayers can reach them. Have they declared that they will never listen to you again, nor see your face? Never mind, God has a voice which they must hear. Speak to him, and he will make them feel. Though they now treat you despitefully, rendering evil for good, follow them with your prayers. Never let them perish for lack of your supplications.”
-Charles Spurgeon
- Plan
- Prepare
- Look for opportunities
- Take risks
- Use the church
“If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
-Charles Spurgeon
It should be our goal, both individually and as a church, to make it hard for people to go to hell from our city. As followers of Christ, we should help people love God by introducing them to Christ so they can follow him too.
