Growing up in the church about the only sermons I remember hearing were evangelistic. Although the small churches I attended during my childhood seldom had anyone in attendance who were not saved, we were reminded again and again how to be saved. I remember very little teaching about how to live the Christian life, about how to grow as a Christian, or anything else that might help a person enjoy victory over the challenges that exist in this life. Nearly every message was more concerned with the life to come than how to live as a Christian in this life.
In more recent years the pendulum has swung to the other extreme. As I visit churches throughout my area of responsibility I seldom hear an evangelistic message. The vast majority of sermons I hear today are focused on the present times: How to Pray; How to Conquer Worry; How to Recover Hope When Life Has You Down; etc. Don't misunderstand me...I think these are messages people need to hear, and I do not think we need to return to a time when every sermon was a call for people to be saved. I just think that there needs to be a mixture of both types of messages, and I don't hear the one that calls people to salvation very often.
Yesterday was the exception. The pastor of the church I visited yesterday preached one of the best salvation messages I've heard in a long time. He talked about what it means to be redeemed and the kind of life a redeemed person should live. He challenged his listeners to examine whether their lives are really that much different than those of their unsaved friends, and if not to question themselves why that is the case. It was refreshing to me to hear a pastor present a clear explanation of how a person must come to God through Christ and how that decision should impact that person's life. No one who heard that message will be able to stand before God on Judgment Day and claim they didn't know what they needed to do.
One of the weights I felt as a pastor was that I was responsible for the people God had given me. I knew there will come a day when I would have to give an account for my ministry to that congregation. I was not responsible for the decisions they made or did not make, but I was responsible to make sure they were challenged to make a decision for Christ and I was responsible to explain clearly to them why they needed to make that decision, how to make that decision, and what their lives should look like once that decision had been made. I do not believe that anyone who sat under my ministry for any length of time will be able to honestly tell God they did not know what they needed to do to be saved.
I'm not sure why there is so little preaching today that points people to the cross of Christ. Perhaps that message seems to some to be not politically correct. John 14:6 is not a popular verse in our PC world. Our pluralistic society wants to make all religious beliefs equal, but in that verse Jesus makes the claim that He is the only way a person can come to God. It is not politically correct to make such a statement, but I would rather be biblical than politically correct so I make no apologies for repeating what Jesus said in that verse. The pastor yesterday also did not apologize for quoting that verse. As ministers of the Gospel we have an obligation to be clear in our thinking and our preaching, and Jesus was very clear when He said He was the only way to God.
When was the last time your congregation heard a message calling them to repentance and salvation? How long has it been since they were challenged to examine their lives to see if their lives reflected a life devoted to serving God? They don't need to hear such sermons every week, but there should be times throughout the year that they are challenged with such messages. As you prepare your preaching schedule for 2014 I pray you will include some messages that presents a clear salvation message. People still need to hear that kind of preaching from the pulpit.
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