Imagine that you are walking down the street one day and you see a small child wander out into the street. The child clearly is too young to be in the street and someone needs to get this child back to the sidewalk and safety. As you walk towards the child, you realize that it isn’t just any child; it’s actually the child of one of your close friends – someone whom you have known for years.
As soon as you make that realization, you realize something else too…THERE’S A CAR COMING! The car is coming down the road fast and it doesn’t see the child. You are standing on the side of the road – there’s still time to do something if you choose to, but you need to hurry. You could run out and grab the child. You could yell at the child to get back to safety. You could try to get the driver’s attention and tell him to stop. YOU MUST DO SOMETHING!!!!
But instead, you sit idly by. You choose not to take any action. You turn your head so you don’t have to see what’s coming but you know what happens next. The driver tries to slam on the brakes at the last second, but by then it’s too late. The child suffers fatal injuries and doesn’t make it through the night.
You were there. You could have done something. You could have at least tried. But you chose not to. You stood by idly and took no action when you had the chance to save your best friend’s child.
Now fast forward to the next day, at the home of your friend who just lost his child. You are coming to offer your condolences and express your love. You walk in with flowers and tell your friend some very nice words about how you’re always there for him and if there’s anything he needs, he should feel free to let you know. You hold his hand and pray for him and tell him you will keep on praying for him and that you love him so dearly.
DO YOU THINK YOUR FRIEND WOULD BELIEVE THAT YOU LOVE HIM? How could anyone in their right mind watch my child get hit by a car and do nothing about it and then claim to genuinely love me? That's insane!
But I have news for you – that’s what we do. Forgive me for a being a little tough here today, but I feel very passionately about this topic and it has the tendency to get me going. I am not talking about watching kids get hit by cars in the street. I am talking about how many of us – Christians, sons of God, disciples of Jesus, people who tell God every day how much we love Him – how many of us sit idly by and do nothing as we see God’s children on the road to destruction every single day?
I am not trying to get preachy. I am just speaking the truth. Nothing breaks God’s heart more than when His children are away from Him. And even more painful is when they die and it’s too late for them to come back. As excruciatingly painful as it is must be for the father whose child got hit by the car in the example above, I can only imagine that God’s pain over the death of a sinner would be even worse. Since God’s love for us is greater than any human’s love for his child, so too is God’s pain greater over the loss of any child…especially when the loss is eternal.
How can we honestly look Him in the eye and say we love Him when we sit back and do nothing as His children are perishing?
We can’t! If you truly love me and you see my son in danger, you have to do something. You can’t just watch. You have to take whatever action you can to save him – even if you aren’t successful; you have to at least try.
How about God’s children who are perishing around you? Don’t you love their Father? If so, what are you going to do about it?
I am going to dedicate this entire week on my blog to speaking about the subject of evangelism and what our role in it should be. I’ll talk about specifics later on in the week, but for now, don’t get bogged down with details. The details are easy to figure out. The harder part is the desire.
Do you care? Do you care enough to do something? God cares. God cares a lot. That is why one of our core values at STSA is about evangelism and our role in it.
PERSONAL CALL TO EVANGELISM. We believe that call to evangelism/witnessing applies to us just as much as it did to Apostles in the early church. God will hold me accountable to its completion.
We’ll talk details throughout this week, but for today focus on desire. DO YOU CARE?
For discussion: what do you think your role in evangelism should be?