REACHING THE LOST
Luke 14:23 And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.
Today for our text, we have the command from the Lord to GO and reach those who are lost in sin and darkness. The Lord just said to GO, we must leave the rest up to HIM! We never know who we can reach, we just have to be obedient and the Lord will honor HIS Word. I want to share with you today, a true story of a young man that just had a love for God and was willing to tell anyone who would listen that Jesus loves them. You may have heard this illustration, but if you have, it is definitely worth hearing again.
Every Sunday afternoon, after the morning service at the church, the Pastor and his eleven-year-old son would go out into their town and hand out Gospel Tracts. This particular Sunday afternoon, as it came time for the Pastor and his son to go to the streets with their tracts, it was very cold outside, as well as pouring down rain. The boy bundled up in his warmest clothes and said, ‘OK, dad, I’m ready! His dad asked, ‘ready for what?’ ‘Dad, it’s time to go out pass out our tracts.’ His dad responded, ‘Son, it’s very cold outside and it’s pouring down rain.’ The boy looked surprised at the dad and said, ‘But dad, aren’t people still going to Hell, even though it’s raining? The dad, still refusing to go due to the weather was finally persuaded by his son to allow him to go out on his own.
The young boy walked along the wet streets for over two hours until he was finally down to his last tract. He looked around and noticed that the streets were deserted. Determined not to return home until he had given out the very last one, he saw a house light on across the street and headed up the sidewalk to the front door. He reached up and rang the doorbell and waited, but nobody answered. He rang it again and again but still no one answered. Finally after several attempts the young boy turned to leave but something stopped him. Again he knocked but this time with urgency that seemed to have been placed there by the hand of God Himself. He began knocking even louder with his fist refusing to leave until someone came to the door.
Finally an elderly lady opened the door and softly asked, “Can I help you son?” with a look of excitement and a smile on his face he said, “Mam, I’m sorry if I disturbed you but I just wanted to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU and I came to give you my very last Gospel tract which will tell you all about Jesus.” With that he turned to leave. The following Sunday morning in church the Pastor asked if anyone there had a testimony they wanted to give. Slowly in the back of the church an elderly lady stood to her feet. As she stood to speak, with her face glowing she said, “no one knows me here”. Before last Sunday I was not a Christian. It was on that day, which was already gloomy enough that I decided to end my life. I had no reason to live any longer. I took a chair to the attic and tied a rope around the rafters of the beams and as I stood on the chair to place the rope around my neck, I was just about to leap from the chair when I heard someone at the door. I thought if I didn’t answer they would just leave but they continued.
Then the person began knocking and I thought to myself, no one comes to see me ever so maybe something is very wrong so I decided to climb down and go see what it was. When I opened the door the most radiant face met me and he told me that Jesus loved me. He even gave me a tract, which I took inside and took in every word written inside. It was as if they were written just for me. I gave my heart to Jesus that night all because of that little angel the Lord sent to my door. Your churches’ name was on the back of that tract and I came here today to say thank you for telling me about the love of Jesus and saving my soul from an eternity in hell.” My Christian friend, we can never get back wasted time or opportunities to share the Gospel to those who need to hear about how much Jesus loves them. Today, use every moment God gives you to reach someone who may be lost for God’s glory, make every minute count for eternity.
Bro. Lawrence Longworth
Isaiah 61:1 “the opening of the prison to them that are bound;”
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