Read Mark 6:7-13
I’ll Take The Risk If It Means Reaching People For Jesus.
Jesus called the 12 disciples together and sent them out in pairs. He gave them authority over unclean spirits. He instructed them not to take anything with them but to TRUST God to provide for them. They were to go from house to house and preach repentance, heal the sick, and cast out demons. If a person received them they were to stay with them and invest into their lives. If they were rejected they were to give them a sign that they want nothing to do with their faithless hearts. It was a way of declaring your words are truth and they should accept it.
Here’s what I found interesting In this passage of scripture:
1. They had no problems finding people in need and being able to invest into their lives.
2. They preached repentance of sins and also invested in helping the needs of others.
3. To just “PREACH” at someone can be unattractive to a listener. If they see your preaching done with compassion and love and that love is invested also in meeting a need they have, then how much more powerful and effective the preaching becomes. The validity of what we say becomes much more real when they see it real in how we live our lives around them.
5. If we prayed more often for opportunities to share God’s message of salvation, and for more opportunities to help others in need, we’d find out we are SURROUNDED with opportunities.
I remember taking our youth group into a city and broke up into groups of three or four. The goal was to go to peoples’ homes and share the Gospel, give them a FREE FLASHLIGHT, and PRAY for any particular needs.
It was amazing how many people were open to hear what we had to say. How many people found it hard to believe that we would give them a free flashlight. We explained that the flashlight represents that Jesus is the light of the world. Even if they didn’t agree with our message, they were amazed that we were giving them a free flashlight. It was also amazing to see how many people let us pray with them.
Much time was spent in prayer as we prepared for this Outreach. We went through training to help the teens know what to say. And each person had to take their turn and see God work. Did we have any that rejected what we were doing? Yes. But it was VERY FEW. Almost everyone was receptive to what we were doing.
CHALLENGE:
May we pray God helps us take the risk of reaching out to people in our everyday lives. I truly believe that we’ll see so many people are actually hurting and looking for Hope in life.
May we pray God will challenge the church to send out groups of people to go door to door and share the love of Jesus, meet needs, and pray for them. I believe we would see the work of God in people’s lives.
