By Ronald E. George Jr. at the Fayetteville
Baptist Church
Strategic Evangelism: Reaching out through Strategic Evangelism.
Encouraging and challenging the church to be engaged in evangelism in a
strategic plan: go out and get
them, storm the gates of hell.
Have you seen the movie clip from Titanic where the
watchman is searching the sea full of dead bodies for some sign of life?
He yelled, is they're anyone out there.
We have waited too late. They're
all dead. But then he hears a whistle…
Scripture
Text: Luke
19:10 For the Son of man is come
to seek and to save that which was lost.
John 20:20
And when he had so said, he shewed unto them [his] hands and his side.
Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord. 21 Then said Jesus to
them again, Peace [be] unto you: as [my] Father hath sent me, even so send I
you.
22 And when he had said this, he breathed on [them], and saith unto them,
Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 22 And
when he had said this, he breathed on [them], and saith unto them, Receive ye
the Holy Ghost: 23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them;
[and] whose soever [sins] ye retain, they are retained.
If I
straighten the pictures on the walls of your home, I am committing no sin, am
I? But suppose that your house
were afire, and I still went calmly about straightening pictures, what would
you say? Would you think me merely stupid or very wicked?
The world today is on fire. What
are you doing to extinguish the fire. n
Corrie ten Boom, Amazing Love, 101
Now let me tell you what some
dust did some time back. . . . .
. . . . . .The man's name is Paul Partridge.
He lives in suburban Chicago. In
a land mine in Vietnam in 1966, he lost both legs. He lived across the street
from a woman who screamed one day at the top of her voice: "My baby! My
baby!" Sensing there was something seriously wrong, this veteran and his
wife left their house -- he in his wheelchair, his wife running.
After 60 bumpy yards, the wheelchair stopped. He dragged himself out of
that wheelchair. . . and pulled himself 60 feet up steps to the deck around
the swimming pool. There was a little girl. Her mother had pulled her from the
pool where she had found her apparently dead.
Her little heart stopped. Partridge
gave the child CPR and talked aloud to her. "Little girl, you're going to
live. You're going to make it.
I know you're going to make it." Suddenly the child started
breathing, and he screamed for medics to be called.
That's the nobility the Lord has planted in all this dust.
That's why he has made us just a little lower than the angels, with the
potential to risk our lives for other people - as this hero did for his
country, and who with great anguish and agony dragged himself 60 feet up steps
to save that little girl.
These are the
representative characters in the story…
The sinking ship: represents
everyone who is drowning in the sea of life.
The lifeboat is Christ.
He is the ark of safety. Come
in before it is too late. We are
those in the boat seeking to pull in those who are dying.
The
Life Savior is Jesus. He
came to seek and to save that which was lost.
He came for the lost the lonely and the least.
To the lost He is the way. To
the lonely He is a friend that sticks closer than a bother.
To the least He is the one makes you the most.
To those who are trapped in the middle of a world that is dark, cold,
and hopeless he gives the hope you have needed. To those who have no one to look to he the one who says
follow me.
1.
The Lost, the Lonely, and the
Least: These are the people who need to be saved from certain death of
sin. They are drowning.
These are your friends, family, and neighbors who are going down.
Can you see them? Can you
see yourself without Christ who is the lifeboat?
It may be too late for some, but it will be too late for all if they
aren’t reached. Are
you in the boat? Will you come in
from the spiritual cold that will eventually take your life?
Come into the boat before it is too late.
2.
The Lifesavers: The
lifesavers are the disciples who want to follow in the footsteps of the Lord.
These are those who hear the call of the Lord to pick up their cross
and follow Him. These are the folks that are in the lifeboats.
These are the saved people. Spend
their time making sure that the boat looking good and neglect the main thing.
They are like the firefighters who enter a burning house to straighten
up the crooked pictures on the walls. You
have the power to forgive the sins through the Spirit that lives within you.
Will you use it?
3.
The Rescuers: Are those who are willing to take a risk to save the
lost and dying people in the world. These
are the saved and safe people who take a risk to reach out to those in the
waters of life to pick up their dying friends.
They have heard Jesus' command to go out to seek and to save the lost.
The cults aren't the only ones who should be going out to bring them
in. The rescuers reach out to
bring in the dying. Will you
reach out to the lost in your world?
Why did Jesus
come? He came to seek and to
save that which was lost. Jesus
sends us out as he was sent. He
gives us the power and the keys to the kingdom of God.
He is the lifesaver. Have
you taken hold of him? If he has
saved you, will you reach out to someone else to bring them before it is
eternally too late? These
veterans here today have given of their life to continue to give the gift of
freedom and life to all who take hold of the lifeboat.
You have the power to seek and to save the lost.
Don't miss the boat. Will
you row out into the waters of life and save someone today.
You have the power. Have
you taken hold of the life saver/savior.
The life savior is Jesus. Now
the little lifesavers go out to seek and to save the lost.
Have you gone? Will you go?