Ok, so I listened to this 10 minute, amazing, segment of a sermon by Mark Driscoll the other day. He is the preaching and speaking pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle. He spoke of how religion leaves you with the feelings of pride or despair, depending on how you are doing within the guidelines of that religion. I got to thinking and came up with that's how I feel sometimes when I do or don't share my faith. I can easily get puffed up or deflated. Not all the time, but enough for that sermon to strike a chord in me. It's easy when so few within the church are being obedient to the Great Commission to feel abundantly prideful when you are witnessing on a regular basis. Of course there's the flipside to this right? The side where you feel useless, disobedient, and unworthy when you don't share your faith. That's because you know that when you don't witness, you are not following God's commands and the bible says, "If you love Me you will obey My commands." Tough spot to be in, I know. So I want to just talk with our fellow evangelists out there and encourage you guys not to get puffed up and prideful. All you are doing is being obedient to the Lord. Being obedient is a no brainer and not something that should inflate your ego in the slightest or you are doing it for the wrong reasons. On the other hand, if you let someone slip by you without sharing don't let it ruin your day. That's a joy stealer and Jesus wants us to have joy in our hearts because of Him. Pastor Mark mentioned in that sermon that there's no joy in religion. It's true. Don't let evangelism become it's own monster of religion. Redemption and a relationship with Christ offers you true joy. Joy to be obedient. Joy to share your faith. You don't share because of the chains of a requirement or religious duty. You do it in joyful, loving obedience. You don't share to put a notch in your evangelistic belt. You do it because you have the cure for death and you want every lost person to know what that cure is.
Amen Virgil, its so true, we have to mind ourselves and our actions and make certain we are aiming to reach an audience of One, God. Thanks for the reminder!
ReplyDeleteVirgil, I thought this post was right on! Thanks for embedding that exerpt from the Mark Driscoll sermon. Good way to spend 10 minutes.
ReplyDeleteIronically, the last few people I talked to about Christ at my place of work all say they "hate" religion. You know what my favorite part of that is? I get to tell them Jesus also hated religion and was actually the most stern and reprimanding of the "religous" people. I love it! God bless man.