Reach out: The motivation

27 April 2008

2 Cor 5:11

This week’s study was prepared by Pastor Andrew Chin

There are four key motivators that should drive us to reach out to the lost.
Read 2 Cor 5:11; 14-19

The reality of being lost & of dying

When my father was in hospital the reality of him dying was so far removed there was no urgency to visit him… until it was too late.
We can often have that same attitude towards those who have not been reconciled with God in Christ.
Here are some words scripture uses to describe the reality of the life without Christ.
Imagine someone you know who does not know Jesus Christ as their saviour: I am… Lost, without hope, without God, separated and alienated from him, controlled by sin, living in darkness, perishing. A place of: eternal sadness and anguish, never-ending torment, continual death, and permanent separation…
This doesn’t paint a very good picture does it. But this is the reality.
For the people in the comfort of the boat, the reality of lost-ness…
It is the reality of lost-ness and death that must motivate us to reconcile people back to God. We must continue to remind ourselves of this reality.

The Fear of God

In the mind of Paul clear picture of the judgement seat of Christ.
One day, all humanity will stand before Him and those who have rejected Him will be forever condemned to eternity apart from Him.
Those who have received Him as Master, will need to give an account of how faithful they have been with what He has given them especially the gospel.
Can you imagine what it will be like?
This reverent fear of the judgement for Paul stirred him to share the gospel.
That’s why he says: “Because we know what it is to fear God, we try to persuade people”.
This fear is what motivates Paul, it stirs him, it fires him up, it drives him to persuade.
To persuade is to win someone’s favour, induce to believe, to befriend.
Everywhere Paul went he persuaded men!
Saying his last goodbye to the Ephesian Elders “I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole counsel of God- Acts 20:27.”
The NLT puts it this way…“I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault, for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know”- Acts 20:27 (NLT)
In the heart of Paul was this burning responsibility for people.
Same responsibility must stir us to sound a warning to people
Just if we see a child who is drowning we will save them
Reverent fear of the judgement seat of Christ serves as a strong reminder

Christ’s love!

Have you ever met a man who had just become father? Some can’t help but tell everyone of their newborn child!
In similar way, we are to be ‘compelled’ by the love of Christ to persuade others to know Him!
Bonnke once said: “The love of God in a man’s soul is 100% purer than any motive that has ever driven him”. Love must be our primary motive!
Paul said: “Christ’s love compels us!”. The word compelled is the same word used when the crowds were “crowding” around Jesus.
Some rely on human love alone, they will not get very far…Worse yet others…
Paul says: such people are like an empty gong, a clanging cymbal, it is just a show.
Our love alone is not sufficient.
It is not my love but the overflowing endless, limitless and boundless love of Jesus Christ that must constrain and compel and propel me from every side!
But it is impossible to love supernaturally without having experienced first hand, the love of Jesus Christ.
Reinhardt Bonnke once said: If we bring the gospel of love, then we must bring love… if we tell people Jesus loves…
Christ’s love must compel us to reconcile others to God.
If you have not experienced this “Ask” for it. Ask Him to pour his love into your heart.
Let love drive you to persuade them. Not a tick off the box, not guilt, not pressure from other people. Let Christ’s love compel you until there is nowhere else you could possibly go.

Living for His pleasure

In a car, the pistons, gears…end goal is the same, to reach the destination
What if we are heading to the wrong destination? All that energy and time is wasted.
Where is all the activity in your life taking you?
Paul says: “He died for all so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again!”
Unfortunately some people have such a self-centred view of Christianity
Jesus did not die for us so that we should live for ourselves, but so that we should no longer live for ourselves but for Him who died for us!
Simply put- “We no longer live to please ourselves”. There was a time when we did live but that time is now gone. We are living a new life.
Living for God is not a part-time position, or even a casual position.
Living in such a way is to take up the ministry of reconciliation.
People fail to realise when saved, God gave us something to do.
“Ok, now that you have been reconciled to me, I give you a job- reconcile as many other people as you can to me.
Living for the One who died for us; means that every piston, every valve, every bit of power from the battery is running through this engine mixing with the fuel of Christ’s love, and it is moving the vehicle in one direction- reconciling others back to Him.
We live to please God now not ourselves. What must change in our lifestyles?

Remember that short film. The reality is there are people drowning all around us and they need our help! And they are within our reach!
There are people who if you would only reach out your hand would grab a hold of it in a moment!

Who will you be?

I urge us in the presence of God stirred by the reality of their suffering, motivated by the fear of God and compelled by love of Christ to give ourselves for him in reconciling lost and dying people back to God!
May none of us be like those who were so engrossed in their own comfort that they did nothing to help! Far be it from us that we should even resemble them.

But may we be like that man in the last scene who leapt out of the life boat into the raging sea risking his life, that perhaps she might live.

The Church of Jesus Christ is not a pleasure boat
But a life boat… every hand is needed on deck…

And I can feel God changing the direction of this ocean liner to the sea of lost souls… to save as many as we can.

Christian Life