The Gospel Is a Call to Serve

 April 28, 2024

Sunday

It appears that many Christians do not understand the gospel at all. They believe that the gospel is an invitation to privilege. Surely, there is privilege in knowing Christ. There will no longer be any condemnation. There will be One who will walk with you through whatever you face. There will be a place prepared for you in heaven. That's when the gospel ends for many Christians. They are just waiting to die so that they can experience the fulness of their privilege.

However, the gospel is a call to serve. Walking with the Lord means that we accomplish His will on this earth. He seeks to bring others to Christ. Yet, only five percent of Christians have ever led someone to the Lord. In a group of twenty Christians, only one is typically a soul winner. Surely, this is one of the reasons that only 63% of Americans identified as Christian when 75% did so a decade before.

The reason most Christians say they do not share the gospel is because they feel inadequate. This indicates that these Christians have not been discipled. Discipleship that doesn't include sharing the gospel with others is not Jesus' type of discipleship.

Non-serving Christians tend to demand their privileges rather than their service. The number of Christians doing the work of the church is typically 20% or lower. The others either attend occasionally or they see church as there for them. They, thus, will complain about new people sitting in what they have designated as their seats. They will gripe about the music that they don't like. They will gossip about those who are working. They will try and make their complaints into a righteous indignation rather than the tantrums of children. They will claim that going back to the way things used to be is the answer to the church's woes.

On the other hand, those who share the gospel and make disciples for Christ are willing to give up their "privileges" so that people will come to Christ. They will participate in music that they don't especially like. They will sit next to the people who have sit where they normally sit in order to make a connection with them. They will praise the Lord and compliment those others who are doing the work of the Lord. They adapt to what it takes to win others to Christ so that they can become fellow partakers of the gospel with those they have won to the Lord.

It is human nature to demand privileges that you expect because you believe you have earned them. The greatest privilege often goes unnoticed in the church. It is the privilege of being a slave of Christ. It is the privilege of seeing others come to know Christ. It is the privilege of serving Christ and His church.

The key to winning people to Christ is adapting so that you can understand and become understandable to those who need Christ. It will never be demanding your privileges. Maybe we need to recognize that it isn't all about us. Maybe we need to know that the songs we are singing aren't sung because of us. Maybe we need to realize that all that is done is done for the Lord.

Wouldn't that cause a major change in the church? Do you think more people would come to church if this would happen?

1 Corinthians 9:19–23 (NASB 2020) ¹⁹ For though I am free from all people, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may gain more. ²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might gain Jews; to those who are under the Law, I became as one under the Law, though not being under the Law myself, so that I might gain those who are under the Law; ²¹ to those who are without the Law, I became as one without the Law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might gain those who are without the Law. ²² To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; I have become all things to all people, so that I may by all means save some. ²³ I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.