“And Saul approved of their
killing him. On that day a great persecution
broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were
scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Godly
men buried Stephen and mourned deeply for him.
However, Saul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off
both men and women and put them in prison.
Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went.” Acts 8:1-4, NIV
Eddie Rickenbacker was a famous
military pilot who earned the nickname of “The American Ace” during the First
World War. He was awarded the Congressional
Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross by the United States Government
for his notable service. By the time of
World War II, he served as a confidential adviser to the Secretary of War
concerning aircraft. While on an
inspection tour in the South Pacific in October 1942, his plane was forced down. He and his crew spent 24 days floating on a
raft in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean.
They almost died for lack of food and water, but miraculously a sea gull
landed on their raft one day. They
captured the bird and ate it. It gave
them enough nourishment to last a little while longer, long enough in fact to
be rescued.
1.6 billion
People in the world have never even heard the name “Jesus.” The church of Jesus Christ has politely
ignored these faceless people afloat in the sea of lost souls. Six out of 10 people living in North Carolina
have no connection with a church. Of the
people who do, 52% say that they have never had a born-again experience with
Jesus Christ. To the 220 million unchurched
and the 94 million unsaved church members in America, I sadly say, “the sea
gull of hope is not coming.” Data shows
that only 40 million Americans say they have been born again, of them only 10
million feel any responsibility to help share the gospel at all, and only 2
million have ever led another person to Christ. I am left to conclude that for 314 million Americans and the
1.6 billion people worldwide, only 2 million of us are trying to get the gospel
of Jesus to you. Therefore, I must sadly
say the sea gull is not coming - you have no hope.
God does
not have grandchildren! He owns the
cattle on a thousand hills! He created
the universe! Everything that exists
ultimately belongs to Him, but God does not have grandchildren. You and I do not gain eternal life by our
genealogy, only through our birth into God's family. Salvation is a birthing process. It is not genealogically inherited. You are not saved because your parents are
saved; like Nicodemus, you must be born again.
God must become our Father; He can never be our grandfather.
I want to
share with you an acrostic for the word "gospel." If the lost are to be saved, Christians must “go openly sharing
and preaching
to everybody
the love
of God = gospel.” Before I share this acrostic; notice our
Scripture. Verse 4 tells us "Those
who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went." Now lest you think these were the apostles
whom Jesus had spent three years training, let us move back up to verse one;
notice that it states," and all except the apostles were
scattered..."
Here, the
author makes it clear that, the Christians of the early church proclaimed the
gospel wherever they were scattered. The
notion that only preachers, pastors, and evangelist are to share the gospel is
unbiblical. The fact is that the Bible
clearly teaches that you are to be a witness for Christ - no if, ands, or
buts. If you are not sharing Jesus, you
are being disobedient to the teaching of God's Word!
So what do
you do if you realize that you are not sharing the gospel? Repent for your failure of being a
soul-winner and of missed opportunity. Does
God really expect you and me to be a soul-winner? Yes!
“Lord, help me to share the gospel of Jesus with the
people I come in to contact with today.
Teach me to be brave and unafraid in sharing Jesus with others. Lord, help me to be a soul-winner for
you. Amen.”
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