Core Values That Count 2/8/98

Romans 1:14-17
Page 1645 Come Alive Bible

JESUS CHRIST touches and transforms lives. He did so for the most unlikely candidate. A brilliant though belligerent young attorney who was the apple of the judiciary eye in Jerusalem was assigned the role of special prosecutor to investigate rumors of the resurrection of Christ. His evidence turned on him and convinced him of the reality of the resurrection. He who gathered more facts about the resurrection was a skeptic. His material evidence and the collaborated testimony of eye witnesses changed his life. Thereafter, the life of Paul, filling it with joy so that it overflowed. That elation over salvation thrilled him so that he wanted to happily share it with others. The natural result of the in filling is the outpouring. What happened in the life of Paul was revolutionary. Ambitiously he wanted this spiritual revolution to sweep the known world. He had a sense of obligation to be an agent of achieving this end.

He had – – –

I. A SENSE OF RESPONSIBILITY “I AM DEBTOR” (VS. 14)
As a result of his redemption, he was completely owned by Christ. This gave him a sense of being completely obligated to Christ. Since Christ died for his sins and rose for his salvation Paul desired to do what Christ wanted and not what he wanted.

We are morally obligated to others as a result of being trustees or stewards of the Gospel.

When we receive something nice from friend, we feel a bit of indebtedness until we can do something nice for them. That wasn’t how Paul felt. He was not indebted to the people because he had not received something from them but something for them.

When Moses received the Ten Commandments from God, he became a debtor to Israel not because he received something from them but for them.

This indebtedness is to all persons. Greek culture permeated the known world. Therefore they were included. The term “barbarians” was a term used by the Greeks for anyone that did not speak their language. Other languages sounded to them like “bar bar” so they combined those words with “os” to make the word “barbaros,” meaning anyone not speaking Greek.

The words, “wise and unwise,” refer to cultured and uncultured. Thus, everyone is included. This is amplified in Colossians 1:28, “Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”

About 500 B.C. “The Greek Miracle” emerged. In the lovely city of Athens the Greek culture was born. Their striking architecture was revolutionary. They raised knowledge of math to a new height. They became the first civilization to write history as such. They developed a new system of thought called logic.

Our American culture is indebted to Greek thought. They impacted the entire world.

The Greeks were the first to make their gods in their own image. God’s devised by other civilizations were ghoulish. Most were hybrids of lions/men or bulls/women, etc. Greek gods were like human beings. They said beauty is truth and truth is beauty. Their gods looked like Olympic champions or perfect females. Romans 1:23 describes this process: “and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man; and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”

Man was made the center of the universe. Humanism was given a major boost. Our society is currently following their trend.

Societies that do this should expect the result. Romans 1:24 reveals the result: “Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves…”

The term “God gave them up” means God took off all restraints. It was a term used for removing the mooring lines from a boat and setting it adrift. God gave them up to depravity. Verse 18 notes the “wrath of God is revealed” against such persons.

An overlooked aspect of the wrath of God is that God often punishes sin “in kind.”

In the Old Testament era the people of God rebelled during the wilderness wanderings when God was feeding them with “manna” a perfect food substance. What they wanted was not the perfect food God wanted them to have. They complained and demanded meat. God gave them what they wanted. Numbers 11:18ff tells of the result. God said “…you shall eat flesh…until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome.”

God often judges us by giving us more and more of what we want until we become sick of it. In the process we often call it progress.

As a child I loved pickles. Note, I said, past tense, “I loved” pickles. One Sunday afternoon while my parents were hosting relatives on the front porch of our house I got my opportunity. Mom had just made a vat of my favorite home made pickles. I had some with lunch and mother said, “Son, don’t eat any more.”

While they were busy on the front porch I seized the moment to enjoy more pickles. I was just wafting down my third one when I felt the hot laser beam of mom’s eyes on my back. Moms, even on the porch, knew what was going on in the kitchen.

“Enjoying the pickles I told you not to eat?” “Yes, mam!” “Well have another.” What has come over mom? She is rewarding me for misbehaving. What a wonderful way to get another pickle. Down went another large one. Yummy!

With a warm smile mom offered another. Well, that was OK but not quite as good. Slowly I finished it only to be offered another. By now pickles were becoming a punishment.

Believe me, pickles taste a lot better going down than they do coming up.

God gave them up. Romans 1: 21-23 chronicles the behavior resulting in being given up.

IMPUDENT – “They did not glorify God…”

INGRATES – “Neither were they thankful…”

IMPOSING – “They become futile in their thoughts…”

IRRATIONAL – “professing themselves to be wise…”

IDOLATERS – “They changed the glory of the incorruptible.”

God gave them up to “vile passions” (Vs. 26). That is, passions of dishonor.

Our president is alleged to have participated in conduct that would come under this classification. I want to repeat “alleged to have.” My point is not to hint that he is or is not guilty. Mark that.

The point is that in public opinion polls 72% of the people say it doesn’t matter if he did it.

Though I am not passing judgement on the president I am critically judging the attitude that says it doesn’t matter. It does matter to God. Other societies that have become hardened in this attitude have experienced the “wrath of God.”

It is said God gave such persons “over to a debased mind.” That means a person is incapable of making a correct moral judgement.

Verse 22 says, “Professing themselves to be wise they become fools.”

We have the most learned society in history. We have more brilliant people today than ever. We are brilliant about many things. Ask about space exploration, lasers, the Internet, modern medicine and we are capable of giving brilliant answers. Ask about a moral issue and we fail the test. Listen to the average TV talk show and you will hear the wisdom of fools.

As verse 18 says we have “suppressed the truth with unrighteousness.” The truth has now become so popular in certain instances that it is thought to be wrong.

A second characteristic emerges in verse 32. It shows people seek agreement on sin. “You approve of my sin and I will applaud yours.” The ploy is not only to cover sin but to get society to applaud it.

II. A STATE OF READINESS “I AM READY” (VS. 15)
We, like Paul, can never repay our Lord for what He has done for us; but we, like him, should be willing to pay a little interest on the debt by faithfulness. The expression “ready” actually means “eager.”

“So” expresses the same intensity as the same word in John 3:16, “For God so loved…”

Paul was fervently eager to preach the Gospel.

He was mocked for preaching the Gospel in Athens.

He was mobbed for preaching it in Jerusalem.

It looks like he would have learned, but now he was ready to be martyred for preaching it in Rome.

Abraham Lincoln said he liked to see a man preach like he was fighting a swarm a bees.

Some preachers preach like they have just swallowed an egg and they are afraid that if they move, it will break; and if they don’t it will hatch.

What Paul was to preach was “the Gospel,” the good news not man’s views.

It takes time to get ready. Paul had to spend time alone in the Arabian desert with the Lord to get “ready.” No Christian should be reluctant to be trained to share the good news.

III. A SPIRIT OF RESOLUTENESS “I AM NOT ASHAMED” (VSS. 16,17)
It took bold faith not to be ashamed of the Gospel in Imperial Rome.

Paul had previously faced the wicked city of Corinth “in fear, and in much trembling” (I Cor. 2:3). There he saw what the power of the Gospel could achieve. Now with eager boldness he was ready to face Rome, a city that worshiped power, with a greater power, the power of the Gospel.

The Greek word translated “power” is DUNAMIS meaning “God’s power.” DUNAMIS gives us our English words dynamo, dynamic, and dynamite.

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Cor 6: 9 – 11).

The expression “The just shall live by faith” (vs. 17) was the theme that started the Reformation. It was a revolutionary thought in that era. Man through creedal religion was trying to earn, merit, and deserve God’s favor. Despair and futility resulted.

There is all the difference in the world in man’s self-sought righteousness and God’s righteousness.

READ: Titus 3:5; Eph. 2: 8,9; Romans 4:5.

The good news is revealed “from faith to faith,” EK PISTEOS EIS PISTIN, literally, “out of faith and into faith.” In other words, God does not speak to us directly; but faith comes from out of the heart and life of one believer who shares that faith and into the heart of one who by faith receives it.

The word “revealed” means “to take off the veil.” That is what sharing the goods news is. It is an unveiling.

In the Convent Library at Erfurt is a renown painting. It depicts Martin Luther as a young monk of 24 years of age reading a portion of Scripture in the early morning light. On the page he is reading can be seen the words, “The just shall live by faith.” Centuries before the prophet Habakkuk had penned these words and later the Apostle Paul repeated them. This painting depicts the renewal of humanity.

In the Library of Rudolstadt is a handwritten letter penned by Paul Luther the son of Martin. In it he relates a family insight as follows, “In the year 1544, my late dearest father, in the presence of us all, narrated the whole story of his journey to Rome. He acknowledged with great joy that, in that city, through the Spirit of Jesus Christ, he had come to the knowledge of the truth of the everlasting Gospel.”

Let me share a summary of that moment of enlightenment in the life of Martin Luther.

Still today in Rome you will find the Cathedral Church of St. John of Lateran. There are three parallel staircases in it. People walk up the stairs on the left and right, but the center one is considered special. On some of the steps of the center case there are coverings of plate glass through which red stains can be seen on the stairs. These steps are still climbed by anguishing would-be worshipers who stoop to kiss the glass covered stains. A late tradition says these were the stairs in Pilate’s Hall in Jerusalem, and these are the blood stains from Christ’s wounds.

As the devout young monk, Luther climbed these steps on his knees seeking thereby to gain the favor of God, the text which he had read in that early morning light came to his mind: “The just shall live by faith.” He jumped to his feet and went on his way rejoicing.

Now back to the Library of Rudolstadt and the handwritten letter by the son of Martin Luther: “Thereupon, he ceased his prayers, returned to Wittenberg, and took this as the chief foundation of his doctrine.”

It is the foundation of Christianity.

A Call to Renewal: Part Three

II Chronicles 7:14

On three occasions before America has been lulled into the sleep of a spiritual slumber.

In the early 1790’s, as this young nation was emerging, a poll was taken at Harvard and could not find a single believer.

At Princeton they found only two. There they found only five who were not members of the “Filthy Speech Movement.” 

The Chaplain of Yale opened his Bible and a deck of cards planted there by students fell out in the chapel.

At Dartmouth, students conducted a mock communion service.

With a national population of only 5,000,000 there were over 300,000 alcoholics. The Whiskey Rebellion was so destructive that President Washington had to call out the national guard.

The churches were so decadent that Chief Justice John Marshall wrote to Bishop Madison of Virginia: “The churches are too far gone to be redeemed.”

In 1797, a godly Baptist named Isaac Baccus called upon America to wake up. God’s people practiced II Chronicles 7:14 and a great spiritual awakening resulted.

WHAT ARE WE TO DO?

A few believers, there need not be many, need to get themselves right with the Lord.

If you are a parent of a young child and are a nominal Christian, only casually active in the practice of your faith, now is the time to reassess your values and commit yourself and your family to the Lord as never before. That includes getting actively involved in the local church.

My dear young friends, if you are fighting against the tenants of loving Christian parents and inclined toward rebellion, now is the time for your own sake to change. Involvement in the rebellious segment of the youthful society has proven over and over to be self-destructive.  That means something beautiful is destroyed. From the vantage point of admirable youth it is impossible to imagine what a beautiful life that destroys. Those of us who have lived it and enjoyed it appeal to you for your own sake “don’t blow it.”

Let them bind themselves together to pray for spiritual awakening. Here is the dangerous step.

Let them put themselves at the disposal of God to be used in turning others to Him.

Part of this involves working to elect responsible people who hold the view of George Washington as expressed in his Farewell Address: “Virtue and morality is a necessary spring of popular government.”

WAKE UP AMERICA. There is a great civil war of values being waged and we dare not sleep through it. If we attempt to, we will die in our sleep.

A Call to Renewal: Part Two

II Chronicles 7:14

We are rapidly letting our religious freedom erode. John Quincy Adams said, “The highest glory of the American Revolution was this, that it connected in one indissolvable bond the principles of civil government and Christianity, never to be separated.”

By twisting a statement from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson ten years after the Constitution was written, proponents of separation of church and state demanded a great wall of separation. Jefferson wasn’t even a member of the Constitutional Convention. His letter was written to a group of Baptists who were fearful the government was going to make the Presbyterian church the official national church. He was writing to assure them the government was prohibited from interfering with religion. This statement has now even been stretched to imply separation of Christianity from society.

B.  The minds of our youth are being stolen. The “dumbing down” of American students is now an established fact. There are many conscientious educators who are doing all they can within the system to further academics and truly educate children. There are many outstanding students who are excelling. There is much that is good. However, upper level bureaucrats are moving the educational system toward cognitive education in which students are to become PC. This rootless relativism is producing a generation among which many are morally confused.

Edmund Burke noted: “Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains on their own appetites.”  This we are not doing.

A moral catalyst is addressed to a people “called by my name.”

A feature editorial in the “Wall Street Journal” (3\6\96 P. A20) might well serve as our text for what to do. It opens:

“A growing body of social science evidence shows that one of society’s most effective weapons against social ills is an old-fashioned one, namely religion. You don’t need a computer printout to figure out that kids who do God are less likely to do drugs, or turn to crime or get pregnant…churches are often the only institutions that still work.”

Writing about the army of drug-crazed youthful predators now headed for our streets in a few years, Princeton’s Dr. John DiIulio offered a prescription in the “Weekly Standard” saying, “My one big idea is borrowed from … well known child-development experts — Moses and Jesus Christ …”

The Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University found in a survey that one of the best predictors of whether a child will stay free of drugs is whether he or she practices a religion.

A moral problem demands a moral solution. Jesus Christ is the embodiment and primary advocate of the standard which it is getting late to apply. It is not too late for people of faith to pray.

A Call to Renewal: Part One

II Chronicles 7:14

Jesus scoped out the scenic city of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives and wept. It was not the structure he saw but the soul of the city. As a result He lamented:

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!”  (Matthew 23:37).

Had Jesus such a vantage point of America, He would feel such a separation and be grieved similarly.

There is a strong viable faith community in America, the core of which loves the Lord dearly and seeks with diligence to serve him. The moral and spiritual contaminants that eat at the very soul of our society virtually engulf the faith community.

WHEN A DECADENT NATION TURNS ITS BACK ON GOD IT TURNS BACK TO THE GODS OF DECADENCE.

The spiritual, moral, social, and ethical decay in America indicates we are a nation suffering from internal decay.

The death of virtually every former great society has begun from within before external forces could overcome it.

Long before Alaric’s Goths poured over the walls of ancient Rome, the empire had decayed from within.

WAKE UP AMERICA!   The Goths are at our door.

America, a sick land, needs healing. The land must be healed as a body is healed — one member at a time. Therefore as we talk about our society, apply it to your life personally.

Our carnal condition is called “wicked ways.”

Our “offend nobody,” “tolerate anything,” and “stand for nothing” philosophy has caused us to unbutton our brains and expose them to playwrights or “play wrongs with themes belched from a Hellywood sewer.

Secular songwriters are all flats and no sharps. 

Our musicians have found the lost chord, but lost the message.

Our movies are a witch’s brew of sensuality and brutality.

As a nation we are a living demonstration that self-government without self-discipline won’t work. 

Our nation is in a perilous position like an elephant hanging over a cliff clinging to a twig by its trunk.

Without a spiritual awakening, America has no more chance of continuing to enjoy the blessings of God than a bat has in a radar room.

Wake up America!

The Great Commission 5/3/98

Matthew 28:18-20
Page 1460 Come Alive Bible

Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lord, made numerous appearances to His beloved followers in the forty days following His miraculous bodily resurrection. As He does for us through His word He encouraged them. Promises were made to them and to us. It was a time of equipping and motivating.

The fact of the resurrection itself is reassuring to all believers. Thereby followers of Christ are given assurance of life beyond the grave, an eternal home, and the gilded edge promise of His abiding presence with us daily. The consolations consequenting from the resurrection are numerous. As He gave the Eleven the gift of His presence so He has bequeathed to us the promise of presence and power to work in us and for us. If you are a believer in Christ you are a benefactor of the resurrection.

We like these facts of “What’s in it for me?” That is our modern mentality. What is in it for us is incomprehensible. However, let’s not let our absorption with our benefits crowd out our awareness of our responsibility.

It was the resurrected Christ who met with the Eleven on a mountain in Galilee and spoke in their hearing a commission applicable to each of us. To us He said, “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen” (Matthew 28:18 – 20).

That is the Magna Charta of the church. It is an imperative for every believer.

The Eleven obediently believed Him so fully they zealously responded in such as to be referred to as “these who have turned the world upside down.” They evangelized with such passion that they revolutionized their world. Their society was more corrupt and perverted than ours. They were hopelessly outnumbered and without resources. Their one asset was obedience. With abandonment, they went out as men whose lives were immortal to share the good news resulting from the resurrection. Happily they obeyed their Master. Hear the roll call of faith:

MATTHEW, the author of the first gospel, was slain by the sword in Ethiopia.

PETER was crucified upside down, unworthy of being crucified like His Lord.

JAMES, the oldest son of Zebedee, was beheaded in Jerusalem.

JAMES THE LESSER was thrown from the pinnacle of the Temple and then clubbed to death.

ANDREW was crucified in the Greek city of Patrae, and SIMON THE ZEALOT in Persia.

JUDAS, not Iscariot, died of an arrow wound.

PHILIP was hanged in Asia Minor.

THOMAS was run through with a lance while praying in India.

NATHANIEL was flayed alive in Armenia.

Only one, JOHN, died a natural death.

Yet, in their brief lives they spread the gospel from Spain to India.

They were compliant with the Commission of our Lord.

Biographers are waiting to write of the response of this present generation. Our Lord has put at our disposal the personnel and financial resources to reach our generation for Him. Technology makes it possible to fulfill the commission in our time. Consider:

I. THE SPHERE “ALL THE WORLD”
We are assigned the task of calling people from one sphere into another: from death to live, from darkness to light, out of the world into the church. If you are a Christian that is your responsibility.

Only when the enthusiasm inside the church exceeds the indifference outside the church are those outside the church going to want to come into the church.

The joy of the Lord was their strength. How strong are you? Is Jesus simply your ticket to heaven, a rabbits foot to be used when luck is needed, a spare tire for breakdowns, or a parachute when you need to bail out of difficulty? OR, is He your Master?

Is He your Commander in Chief? If your answer is “Yes,” then obey Him.

John Roberts, the Scotsman, told of a time in primitive Scotland when there was a village in which there was no fire. Fire was found in one small home. It was distributed from house to house until shortly every home in the town had fire. Is there spiritual fire in your home? If so share it with a spiritually cold culture.

There are over 250,000,000 Americans, one-third of them are non church members. One half have not been to church this year. Many are waiting for a warm hearted personal invitation to come to Christ. Will you dare be their personal living invitation?

A satisfied customer always makes the best salesperson. Are you satisfied with Christ?

In a quaint small town lived two mischievous brothers, Billy and Tommy. The two were blamed for almost everything that went wrong and were responsible for most of it. Their mother, very concerned wanted to correct this. She made an appointment for the boys to visit with the pastor who was known as a good counselor.

Upon arrival at the pastor’s office Billy was asked to wait in the outer office as the pastor visited with Tommy. Using his best pastoral skills the pastor sat across the desk from Tommy and sought to build conversational rapport by asking a simple question with a given answer. “Tommy, tell me, where is God?” No response.

After a moment of warm friendly remarks the pastor asked again, “Tommy, come on, tell me, where is God?” Still no answer.

With a broad friendly smile the pastor persisted, “Come on Tommy, you can tell me, where is God?” Operation Deep Freeze was in full operation. No reply.

Several such probes resulted in silence. Finally, the pastor blew his cool and pounded the desk demanding, “Tommy, where is God?”

Tommy jumped from his chair, bolted out the door, and ran toward home with brother Billy in hot pursuit. They ran in the house, up the stairs, into their room, and Tommy ran in the closet and held the door closed tightly.

Billy stood outside pounding on the door pleading, “Tommy. Tommy, what’s the matter?”

“Run Billy, run and hide. God’s missing and they are trying to pin it on us.”

Look around. God’s missing. He is missing from the media, from public education, from government, and from many churches. God’s missing and they are trying to pin it on us. Is that proper? If not, why not? Could it be our failure to comply with the commission of the resurrected Christ that caused this crisis?

The sphere includes the whole wide world, but it also encompasses the lovely community in which we live. In our local county 67% of the population is unchurched. The only solution rests in the hands of the 33% under the mandate of Christ to share His love with others.

To think of changing the world one person at a time may be a great act of faith, but to think of changing it any other way is a greater act of lunacy. Share His love!

II. STRATEGY “MAKE DISCIPLES … TEACH THEM”
You are at this moment in a discipleship class.

We call it “church” or “a worship celebration,” but when God’s Word is taught it is above all else a discipleship class. You are being taught to disciple others.

The Sunday School is the church organized for evangelism. If there is a breakdown in making disciples it is at this point. Every Bible study unit must be mobilized to reach out to others. If not the church merely “good times” itself to death.

Those of you who work with children and youth have a weighty responsibility.

At about the age of 12 or 13 a change occurs in the way children think. About that age they begin to think abstractly. Up until then everything is either black or white. At this stage they begin to say, yes, but there is some grey in between there. Thought patterns change.

Of those children not reached for Christ by the time they leave high school 66% will never be reached. God has given youth workers a golden window of opportunity.

The strategy is simply illustrated by a seminary class on preaching. The homiletics professor assigned a young minister to preach before the class. Privately he begged not to have to but the professor insisted.

As he stood before the class he said in halting words, “You all know what I am going to say.” They shook their heads negatively. He said, “Neither do I,” and sat down.

The professor insisted that he come back the next week and preach. He demurred but the professor insisted.

The next week as he stood before the class he said, “You all know what I am going to say.” Classmates all nodded their heads yes. He said, “Then there is no need to say it,” and sat down.

Not to be outdone the professor insisted that he come back the next week and preach. The student begged but the professor demanded.

The next week he stood before the class and said, “You all know what I am going to say.” Half shook their heads yes and half no. He said, “Very well, let those who know tell those who don’t know and let’s stand for the benediction.”

Evangelism is simply those who know telling those who don’t know.

Many conscientious people say I am reluctant to share because I am afraid I will fail. You might. However, if you don’t try you have failed. Don’t fear failure. One on my former friends in ministry used to say, “Where are you going to scare them into hell #2?”

Each of us is mandated to share the gospel. It must however be run through the final filter of our own personality and unique temperament. Doubtless you will find a Biblical model suited to your style.

A. PETER’S CONFRONTATIONAL APPROACH
Peter was a straight shooter. He had no problem with confrontational evangelism. He was bold and aggressive. He even tried to correct Christ on occasion. It is little wonder that our Lord chose Peter on Pentecost to tell the people they had crucified the Son of God and needed to repent.

B. PAUL’S INTELLECTUAL APPROACH
As a thinker and analyzer Paul used reason and well-structured logic to share profound truths. In Athens he started with an unknown Greek idol and quoted their poets to reveal Christ as the resurrected Messiah. (Acts 17)

C. THE BLIND MAN’S TESTIMONY
An unidentified blind man was given his sight by Jesus (John 9). When taunted by persons who wanted to engage him in a theological quarrel he did not use the confrontational approach of Peter or the intellectual approach of Paul, but used his testimonial method: “One thing I know. I was blind but now I see.”

D. MATTHEW’S INTERPERSONAL APPROACH
Matthew the tax collector used his business contacts. He threw parties for them and in the social setting shared (Luke 5: 29). Compassion and empathy were his strong points.

E. THE SAMARITAN WOMAN’S INVITATIONAL APPROACH
This woman was a most unlikely but willing witness. In her culture she had three strikes against her. She was a woman, she was a Samaritan, and she was living in adultery. When she met Christ at the well in a life-changing experience she simply went and extended invitations to others to “Come and see.”

A number of townspeople came and heard Jesus. At their invitation He spent two days in their town. Upon leaving the people said, “Now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world (John 4: 42).

F. DORCAS’ SERVICE APPROACH
The Bible describes Dorcas as a woman who was “always doing good and helping the poor” (Acts 9:36). She loved others and provided for their needs according to her ability. She made clothes for the needy and shared Christ as she shared clothing.

Neither of these is better than the other. Each has its strength. Unfortunately the only one related most often is the confrontational approach. It is good but it alone is not good. As there are different styles of sharing so there are different needs on behalf of hearers.

Stylize your method of sharing. Let Christ empower your strong points. Personalize your witnessing style.

III. STRENGTH “ALL POWER —- ALL AUTHORITY”
Christ said, “All authority is given unto Me, in heaven and on earth.”

He is the one through Whom the mediating power of God is manifested. He is our Mediator King.

One of our sons-in-love had an old pick-up truck with a straight shift. While visiting with them he offered to let me drive it. Not having driven a straight shift for some time my reflexes were rusty. I put my feet on the clutch and brakes, fired it up, and shifted into reverse. Looking over my shoulder I took my foot off the brake and depressed the accelerator. The motor raced but there was no response. I shifted again to be sure it was in gear. It was but as I pressed the accelerator again there was no response.

Then it dawned on me my other foot was still depressing the clutch. Only when I took my foot off the clutch did the accelerator and gears work and the truck respond.

Our Lord has “all power” and the only way for it not to be released is for the church to be sitting with one foot on the spiritual clutch. We alone can keep the power from being released.

The “spiritual clutch” is prayer. We are instructed, “Pray you the Lord of harvest that He will send forth laborers into the harvest.”

That is a dangerous prayer because the first laborer He is likely to send is the prayer. Who is better prepared. Let’s join in praying for Him to manifest His power.

IV. THE STIMULUS “I AM WITH YOU”
This is the near equivalent of “Immanuel,” God with us.

The focus of the commission is not the lost world, BUT Christ. Evangelism must be subordinate to preoccupation with Christ. When it is it becomes spontaneous.

When you love people and you have had a pleasant experience with Christ you want to share the Christ of that experience so others can have a good experience with Him.

He is with us when we go for Him. You don’t go in your strength, but His.

A reporter for the New York Tribune sat on a ridge overlooking what was the battlefield at Cedar Creek. The Confederate forces were on the verge of annihilating the Union forces.

He wrote: “I am witnessing the awful destruction of the United States of America.”

General Phil Sheridan was some distance away in Winchester when informed the battle had been enjoined. He rode at full speed to join his forces. As his horse charged onto the battlefield with him carrying his banner he shouted: “Come on! Here is Sheridan. Sheridan is with you. Follow me and we will save the Union.”

They did —- and they did!

Jesus Christ has said, “Follow Me….” If we do great spiritual victories are to be won. He who said, “All power is given unto Me….” Also said, “You shall receive power…” And of the gospel He said, “It is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe.”

Let’s remove our feet from the clutches and let the power move us.