Evangelism: What is at Stake?

Baptism by TheUsher at www.freeimages.com

Evangelism is not optional!  We as Christians focus on the reasons people are not responding.  We defeat ourselves before Satan even has to by our negative self-talk.  We come up with the reasons why we cannot evangelize.  But we must realize what is at stake with our choice to evangelize!

1. The Blood of Christ!  Jesus shed his blood for us.  The 4th of July is coming and we focus on how our soldiers have sacrificed their lives for our freedoms.  We must not let their sacrifice be in vain.  As Christians we must not let the sacrifice of Jesus be in vain for our friends and neighbors.  The blood of Christ was shed for them.  They must know of this gift.

2.  The Love of God – Paul says the love of Christ constrains him because he died for him.  God’s love calls us to be His ambassadors pleading on his behalf (2 Cor. 5:11-21).  People are desperately seeking and needing love.  It is up to Christians to let people know their heavenly Father loves them.

3.  A Faith-Filled Life – The life of a Christian is the best life possible.  Jesus came to provide us with a new and abundant life (2 Cor. 5:17, John 10:10).  The gospel of Christ offers us peace, hope. guidance, and love.  In a world that is growing increasingly dark, as we just saw last week with our nation legalizing same-sex marriage, the way to change hearts and lives is through the gospel.  Social and political reform will fall short.   We are called to share the gospel.  The power is in the gospel (Rom. 1:16).  God’s people need to regain this focus for the hope and souls of our nation

4.  The Church’s Future – The church is God’s body on earth.  We are saved to save others!  The church is dependent upon evangelism.  Evangelism should be the life-blood of the church.  The way to perpetuate the church and maintain its existence is evangelism.  Without evangelism the church will die!   We should be concerned about the future of the church!

5.  Eternity!  Most importantly, the eternal destination of the souls of men and women are at stake.  Heaven is a prepared place waiting the righteous who have obeyed Jesus.  Hell is a terrible place of punishment where those who do not know God are cast away from his presence for all eternity.  The Rich man begged Abraham to send someone to his brothers because he didn’t want them to come to the place of torment.  We are the ones that in essence the dead are begging!  Eternity hangs in the balance when it comes to our evangelism.

Evangelism is not optional!  It is our most important work!  Let’s remember our job!

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This post came from a sermon I preached which is available in the Audio Resources.

Scripture References:

1.  Ezekiel 33:1-9; Mat. 27:24-26; Heb. 10:26-31

2.  2 Cor. 5:13-6:2; Phil. 2:9-11

3.  2 Cor. 5:17; John 10:10; 1 Thess. 1:8-10

4.  2 tim. 2:2; 2 Cor. 11:1-4; 28

5.  Mat. 13:24-30; ch. 25; John 14:1-4; 2 Thess. 1:7-10; Luke 16:27-31