My Opinion

Drives the devils away (2)

By brokencode ⋅ February 2, 2007 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

Brethren,
Sharing with you what i receive today from the pulpit, a clear understanding with wisdom on Scriptures in Mathew 24:14 which says;
” The Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the entire world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come”!

Now many in the church today try to determine the nearness of Christ’s return by reading the signs of the time. We see such signs in particular events - for example, the return of the Jews to Israel.Yet one of the clearest statements Jesus makes about His second coming is contained in this verse above: The end will come only after the gospel has been preached to all nations - as a testimony.
The word that Jesus uses for “witness” is this verse as the same Greek word used in “testimony”. It means, literally, “proof of the fact”. Christ is speaking here of not just preaching the Gospel, but presenting it as a testimony. In short, He says, the gospel we preach is effective only if it is backed up by a life that testifies to its reality. Praise the LORD.

You think that in America, a nation filled with thousands of evangelical churches, there would be a strong gospel witness? In one large southern city alone. there are over 2,000 evangelical churches, one with a membership upwards of 15,000 people. But many such churches have compromised the true gospel of Christ. Divorce is rampant in their congregations. And many of their young singles lead permissive sexually active lives. How could this be, you ask? The fact is, even with all the evangelical preaching in many of these mega-churches, there is very little testimony of Christ’s Lordship in the people’s lives to back it up.They are not a true witness to the city or the nation.

Of course there are exceptions. I know of a handful of young ministers who’ve begun spending much time on their faces before the Lord. Now, when they deliver God’s Word, they speak with power and authority. The gospel they preached is backed by a testimony of intimacy with Christ and a holy walk. And they’re beginning to see the difference in the congregants’ lives.

I read about a Baptist pastor here in the southern state who at one time planned to build a huge new building. His congregation was growing rapidly and he’d begun studying the church-growth movement. But when the pastor’s supportive wife began to pray to her husband’s new ideas, she was stirred up to pray unceasingly seeking the LORD for divine guidance. The pastor notice his wife zealousness and joined her doing the same in holding a prayer-chain. The pastor quickly gave up his dream of huge numbers and began to be a testimony of what he preaches.

For a recent sermon, the pastor set up a big screen at the front of the church. He told his congregation, “God’s spirit has been speaking to me about the sins of this church. and today we are going to see them in front of our very eyes!”

The pastor then flashed sin after sin on the screen - fornication, adultery, alcoholism, drug abuse, pornography. Then he began his sermon, “We are not about to start building a big church right now. We have got to get Christ’s living tabernacle in our life straightened out first, before we do any thing else. We have to live this gospel first”!

As the Spirit of God moves upon their repentance unto the Lord, people just flock to the Lord manifested in this church getting their lives straightened out - because they are hearing a gospel with a testimony behind it.

You will be amazed and perplexed by the scores of ministers, young and old, running all over the places, looking for strategies to produce growth in their churches. Many preaches would attend seminars, conventions and “think tank” where these ministry professionals using charts and polls to show them how to build a large church. Other pastors flock to “revivals” hoping to learn new methods of how to have the Holy Ghost fall on their congregation.

Dear beloved my dear brethren, it takes more than new ideas or strategies to touch nations for Christ. All our plans are in vain if JESUS isn’t enthroned in every area of our daily living, we we do not bear good testimonies for JESUS to HIS Honour and for HIS Glory, Amen.

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