4 Different Participants For Gospel Penetration

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

When a person comes to faith in Christ and receives the forgiveness of sin that comes from God it is because 4 different Persons have been working their roles.  Each of these persons are important and so is the roles that each of them play.  As you will see both you and I, as a Follower of Christ, play an important role!  So, who are these persons and what roles do they play?

ROLE #1:  God The Father As The Drawer

"No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:44 (NIV)

Before any person can come to faith in Jesus Christ and received the forgiveness of sin they so desperately need, they first must be drawn by God the Father. It is the work of the Father to create a hunger and thirst in peoples heart to have what Christ has to offer them.

Why do people when they come to faith in Christ seem so ready and prepared to receive Christ? Why is that they are like ripe fruit just waiting to be picked? It is because God the Father has already been at work in their life preparing the soil of their life to be good soil ready to receive the seed of the gospel and bring about a desire, hungering and thirsting for this wonderful Good News. And it is good news to them because it is offering what their hearts are longing for and their hearts are longing for it because the Father has created that desire for it.

ROLE #2:  The Holy Spirit As The One Who Convicts

"And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;” John 16:8 (NAS)

It is the role of the Holy Spirit to convict people. Specifically the Holy Spirit convicts people of the sin in their lives, the righteousness life they are lacking and need to have, and that because of their sinfulness and lack of righteousness that they will be caught up in the coming judgement of God when Christ returns.

No one fills bad about their sinful life unless the Holy Spirit first convicts them of it and thereby keeps them from sensing the need for experiencing a changed life. No one will want to have a changed life if they are not convinced that their life isn’t good enough to stand before a Holy God. And no one will fear punishment if they are not convinced that this Holy God will hold the accountable, in Judgement, for the sins they have committed. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to give people this conviction of heart that will prepare them to receive the wonderful gift of life through faith in Christ.

ROLE #3: God's People As The Proclaimer

“We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.” 2 Cor 5:20 (NIV)

Every person who comes to faith in Christ, the Bible tells us, becomes a new creation in Christ. The old things have passed away and all things have become new. One of those new things that we have is a new identity with a new job.

The Bible tells us that in 2 Cor. 5:20 that all of us who have received Christ and His forgiveness have become His Ambassadors to our part of this spiritually dark world. As His ambassadors we are to declare His message of being reconciled with God. We are to proclaim His Gospel message. We are to share the Good News of Jesus Christ to those who still need to hear.

The Bible tells us in Romans 10:17 that faith comes from hearing the message of Christ, the Gospel. Without the Gospel being shared it can not be heard; and if the Gospel isn’t heard, faith cannot be generated to believe it; and if one does not believe it, they cannot receive it.

So, the gospel has to be shared in order for a person to be saved. IT IS ESSENTIAL! And it is the job of all Christians to share this amazing Gospel message to all who live in their part of this dark world.

ROLE #4:  Jesus As The Receiver 

“And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day.” John 6:39 (NIV)

It is the job of Jesus Christ to receive all that the Father draws to Him and to lose none of them but to raise them all up on the last day.

When the Father does His job of drawing a person to His Son (Jesus) and when the Holy Spirit does His job of convicting that person of His sin and when Christians do their job of proclaiming the Gospel to those people who are drawn and convicted something very amazing happens! Jesus receives all of them, loses none of them and raises them all up on the last day at the resurrection.

In other words Jesus gathers them all up and none are lost!

Evangelism Implications:

1. Everybody Has To Do Their Work For People To Be Saved! Each Person of the Trinity needs to do their job so that people can come to salvation. We don’t have to worry about that! God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are perfect and will always do their job and do it very well. The issue of not doing their job isn’t with God but with us who are Christians. Christians have the honor and the responsibility to be the delivery boy of the God’s Good News, but how good of a job are we doing?

2. Prayers For Specific Peoples To Be Saved Is Powerful! Christians should be steadfast and intentional in their prayers for specific people coming to faith in Christ and for God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to do their job in the lives of those specific people. God loves to hear the prayers of His saints as they cry out for salvation to come to their family and friends and for God to prepare them for that salvation. We should pray for specific people we know that the Father would create a hunger and thirst in their lives for Jesus; that the Holy Spirit would convict them of their sinfulness and created a fearfulness of the coming judgement, so that when the gospel is shared with them they will believe.

3. Lots Of Gospel Seeds Need To Be Sown! Christians daily should be sharing their story of faith to Christ and Christ’s story of salvation to those they know, love and long to be saved. They should share this same message with those they have just met to see if God has prepared them for salvation. Christians need to become competent and confident in share the Good News of Christ.

How To Have God Guide You!

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your path straight." 

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NAS)

In this short but powerful verse we are given specific instructions on how to allow God to guide our lives!  The Bible tells us: What To Do; What Not To Do; and To Claim A Promise!  In other words there are three conditions (what to do and what not to do) that when fulfilled, God will keep His promise. 

FIRST CONDITION: What To Do!

TRUST IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART!

In other words, we are to have faith in God.  Trust is just another way of saying Faith! Throughout scripture, expressing faith in God is always essential to seeing God work in and through our lives. The Bible even says that faith is essential in pleasing God.

"Without faith it is impossible to please God" Hebrews 11:6

You have to have faith in God!  You have to be trusting in God to work in you, through you and in the circumstances you find yourself in.  ARE YOU TRUSTING GOD?

But we're not only to trust Him!  We are to trust Him with all our hearts.  Not some of our heart, not part of our heart but ALL of our heart.  When it comes to trusting in God there should be absolutely no doubt or concern whatsoever.  Our full trust and confidence in Him is what God expects of us, if we are expecting him to keep His promise!

SECOND CONDITIONS: What Not To Do!

DON'T RELY ON YOUR OWN UNDERSTANDING!

This verse is very clear that we are not to lean or stand ourselves up on our own abilities to reason things out.  Often, when God tells us what to do, it won't make a bit of sense.  

I don't think it made much sense to Moses when the Children of Israel needed water and God told him to hit the rock with his staff!  And then on a different occasion God tells him to speak to the rock to get water.  Are you serious?  Hit and speak to a rock! That doesn't make sense. 

I don't think it made a bit of sense to Jesus' disciples when Jesus told them to feed 5,000 men plus women and children with only 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes!  And if I was Peter it would have made no sense to me at all for Jesus to tell me to go out to a lake, grab a fish, open its mouth and there inside find money and then go pay the temple tax.  Really! Feeding a large group of people with just a little bit of fun and finding money in the mouth of a fish to pay my taxes, just doesn't make sense!

But for God it isn't a requirement for it to make sense to us on how these crazy things that He tell us to do work out!  We Don't Need To Understand!

The only requirement that God expects is obedience.  Obedience is Jesus' LOVE LANGUAGE.  

Jesus speaking, "If you love me keep my commandments." John 15:10

THIRD CONDITION: What To Do!

IN ALL YOUR LIFE MAKE GOD KNOWN!

Throughout you entire life there is always one common denominator!  What is it?

GOD!

It was God who fashioned you, formed you, saved you and maintains you.  Without God and Christ we would be helplessly and hopelessly drowning in our sea of sin!  God has loved us with an everlasting love. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God! NOTHING! 

So, why shouldn't we in all our ways acknowledge God?  Why shouldn't we make Him known to the whole world?  How can we help but speak of the great and mighty things that God has done in the past and in our own lives.  

When we are acknowledging God in all our ways, we are shining the Light of Christ brightly in our part of this dark world!  We are making this world a brighter place to live. 

THE ONE PROMISE: What God Will Do For Us!

HE WILL GUIDE US AND DIRECT US!

After all, why wouldn't God direct us and lead us if we are putting our faith in him, making Him known to all the world and not leaning on our own understanding?  Of course He will!  

You fulfill those conditions and you can take this promise that God has made to you, to the bank and cash it in. 

THAT'S PROMISE THAT GOD WILL HONOR AND KEEP!

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Missional Living Is Having A Faith In God That Encourages Others!

Through an event in the life of Paul we are going to learn that part of a powerful Missional Life is having the kind of faith in God that can encourage others! When people look at us, hear us speak and listen to what we say about Jesus Christ do they find encouragement?

Remember your faith in Christ might be the only source of faith for someone else!

Please take a few moments and share this video blog with your Christian family and friends on Facebook & Twitter.  

Also, take a few moments and share a time when someone else's faith was the encouragement you needed.  Share as a comment below!

What Exactly Is Faith?

So what exactly is faith?  I mean we have all heard the Biblical definition of faith from Hebrews 11:1,
 

"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."  

And I would agree that this is by far the most meaningful and beneficial definition that any person can hold to.  But in order to help us begin to view Biblical faith in God differently but in total agreement with what Hebrews says I would like to offer the following:

It's Obeying What God Says Even When It Doesn't Make Sense!

"By faith, Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going."  Hebrews 11:8

Can you imagine that conversation between Abraham and God?  Think about it for a second and imagine with me if you would how that conversation went:

• God: 'Abraham.' 
• Abraham, 'Yes God I'm listening.'   
• God, 'Abraham I want to pack up your bags and get ready to move.'  
• Abraham, 'O.k. God, sure. When will I be leaving?'  
• God, 'I'll tell when it's time to leave but for now just make sure that you, your family and all your servants are packed and ready to go when I tell you.' 
• Abraham, 'Sure God if you say so. That's no problem.  So where exactly are we going?'
• God, 'That's not for you to know right now but once I tell you to leave I will also tell you what direction to go and when you get there.'  
• Abraham, 'Well I guess that's alright.  How long will it take for us to get there?'  
• God, 'Not for you to know.  You just keep on going until I tell you to stop.'  
• Abraham, 'Well if you say so I guess I can do that but let me make sure I understand you clearly. You want me, my family and all of my servants to pack up and get ready to relocate to a place that's an unknown destination, I'm not sure when we will be leaving exactly and I don't know how long it will take to get there.  Is that correct God?'  
• God, "Yes that's exactly correct. Do you have a problem with that?'  Abraham, 'No, not at all. I was just checking."

So let me ask you from our human perspective does it make a bit of sense to pack up for a journey that you are going to take at some unknown point in your life, to go on that journey without any idea how long it will take to get there and without any map or instructions on how to get there? 

NO!  IT MAKES NO BIT OF SENSE!

But that's faith in God.  He tells us to do something but it doesn't make a bit of sense to us but we do it anyhow!  Why? Because we trust God and we trust that he can do anything even if it doesn't make sense to us. 

I don't think that it made a bit of sense to Gideon to engage in a battle with his enemy numbering 10,000 soldiers when his army army had been downsized by God to only 300 men.

"So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the Lord told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues as a dog laps from those who kneel down to drink.” Three hundred of them drank from cupped hands, lapping like dogs. All the rest got down on their knees to drink. The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go home.” So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites home but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.Now the camp of Midian lay below him in the valley. During that night the Lord said to Gideon, “Get up, go down against the camp, because I am going to give it into your hands.If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp with your servant Purah and listen to what they are saying. Afterward, you will be encouraged to attack the camp.” So he and Purah his servant went down to the outposts of the camp. The Midianites, the Amalekites and all the other eastern peoples had settled in the valley, thick as locusts. Their camels could no more be counted than the sand on the seashore. Gideon arrived just as a man was telling a friend his dream. “I had a dream,” he was saying. “A round loaf of barley bread came tumbling into the Midianite camp. It struck the tent with such force that the tent overturned and collapsed.” His friend responded, “This can be nothing other than the sword of Gideon son of Joash,the Israelite. God has given the Midianites and the whole camp into his hands.” When Gideon heard the dream and its interpretation, he bowed down and worshiped. He returned to the camp of Israel and called out, “Get up! The Lord has given the Midianite camp into your hands.” Dividing the three hundred men into three companies, he placed trumpets and empty jars in the hands of all of them, with torches inside. “Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the Lord and for Gideon.’ Gideon and the hundred men with him reached the edge of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, just after they had changed the guard. They blew their trumpets and broke the jars that were in their hands. The three companies blew the trumpets and smashed the jars. Grasping the torches in their left hands and holding in their right hands the trumpets they were to blow, they shouted, “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!” While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled. When the three hundred trumpets sounded, the Lord caused the men throughout the camp to turn on each other with their swords. The army fled to Beth Shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel Meholah near Tabbath. Israelites from Naphtali, Asher and all Manasseh were called out, and they pursued the Midianites. Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah.”  Judges 7:5-24 (NIV)

Really does that make any human sense?  Does it make sense to downsize your army to 300 men and tell them to shout, blow horns and reveal some light from lamps that each man was holding and then as a result then enemy would run around and kill themselves.

Not unless it's God who is doing it.

You see Gideon had faith in God just like Abraham to believe that God would do exactly what he said he would do even when what it didn't make a bit of sense. 

So, how well are you following God's instructions?  Do you ever get a word from the Lord and then try to redefine it because what you understood from God doesn't make sense?  Why do you think that God gives us instruction that don't make sense and shouldn't work at all?  Why?

Because God is doing something that will prove that he really does exist and can do anything!  That's why!

5 Ways To Recognize When God Is Speaking To You

#1:  When God Speaks It Will Be Consistent With What The Bible Says!

"I the Lord do not change ..."  Malachi 3:6

"God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should change his mind. Doe he speak and then not act? Doe he promise and not fulfill?"  Numbers 23:19 (NIV)

Because God does not change he is not going to do things that are contrary to the prinicples that he has already established in the Bible.

There are only 3 things that remain forever: 1) God; 2) The Word of God; 3) and the souls of men. Notice the first two: God and the Word of God. Both of these last forever and will never change. 

If you are feeling guilty over a sin that you committed in the past and you've already sincerely asked forgiveness for it, but you still feel that God hasn't forgiven you that is not of God, it is of Satan, because God's word has already promised that if we confess our sins God will be faithful to forgive us of them (1 John 1:9).

So, if what you are hearing is not consistent with what God has already taught in the Bible it is not from God.

#2:  When God Speaks It Will Conflict With Human Wisdom!

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,' says the Lord. 'For as the heavens are hight than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts."  Is. 55:8

So, much of Jesus' teachings are contrary to everything we learn to be wisdom from the world. Jesus that if you lust in your heart you have already committed adultery.  

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not to your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths." Proverbs 3:5

Here God is telling us to trust in Him and in what He says how things should be done even when it doesn't make a bit of sense.  Our human tendencies are to go back to what we know best and the way the world has trained us to respond. But here God is telling us to fight off those urges to go back to the old ways of doing things and trust him in his way of doing things. God know it doesn't make sense to us but he implores us to still trust him and do it.

#3:  When God Speaks It Will Clash With Your Sinful Fleshly Desires!

"So, I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature ..." Galatians 5:16-17

Here are some things that I can wholeheartedly says and I know to be true. First, God is never going to tell you to have an affair with a married woman or man. Never! Second, God is never going to tell you to steal from your neighbor! Never! Third, God is never going to tell you to lust after your neighbors wife. He will never do it!  How do I know it? First because God tells us in the Bible not to do it but secondly because God is never going to "feed you sinful flesh"

God is always going to ask you to take the "Higher Road", which is also the "Harder Road".  He will always ask you to live to a "Higher Standard" not a "Lower Standard".

#4:  When God Speaks It Will Challenge Your Faith!

"And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who come to him must believer that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek him." Hebrews 11:6

LOOK AT:

• Noah:  He was asked to build a boat big enough save himself, his wife, his 3 sons and their wives along with all the animals from a world wide flood.  
• Moses:  He was asked to deliver his people, 2,000,000 of them, from years of slavery under the rule of the most powerful kingdom of that time.
• The 12 Disciples: They were asked to leave everything and follow Jesus.

Each of these times when God spoke the people who heard it experienced a moment when their faith in God was challenged. Would they, by faith, do what God said, even though it looked impossible or would they ignore God and His calling on their life.  YOUR FAITH WILL BE CHALLENGED!

#5:  When God Speaks You Will Need Courage!

"Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land ... Only be strong and very courageous ... Have I not commanded you" Be strong and courageous, do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:6,7,9

PLEASE UNDERSTAND THIS!  The things that God calls you to do will not go uncontested and unchallenged but will require you to have courage and trust God to defend you, provide for you and accomplish through you what He said He would do. 

We have an enemy and he is real! His name is Lucifer! He hates you, he hates God and he will do whatever God permits him to do to destroy you, your work and your faith.  But be of good courage! If God is for us - who can be against us. Greater is He that lives in you than he that lives in the world.

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear but a Spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline."  2 Timothy 1:7