← Rick Renner Podcast (Audio)
Rick Renner Podcast (Audio)
Home Group - Are You Caring For Lost Souls?
00:25:26
How important is the Great Commission? Can it really strengthen your church? Rick, Denise, and Joel discuss the answers in this Home Group.
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- [00:00]
A
I want to welcome you. My name is Rick Renner. And today we're going to be talking to you about what elements are required to make a church strong. How about you? What elements do you think are really required to make a church strong? Do you wish that your church was stronger? What does your church need in order to really bolster it and make it the church that God wants it to be? And I've analyzed this, and I've come up with 10 points that are essential for every church to be strong and. And to be strong for generations. But we don't have time to do all of that just in one session. So today we're going to talk about point number one that you have to have. You have to have in order for a church to be strong. You say, well, what is it? It's very simple. It is fundamental to everything we do, everything we are as the church. It's the Great Commission. For a church to be strong, it has to have a passion for souls. A passion for souls. So many times today, we kind of act like people are just going to automatically become Christians if they come to church. We don't even give an invitation for people to get saved anymore. People still need to repent. People still need to be saved. And we still need to take the gospel to people that are in need. And in fact, if we are not involved in the Great Commission, if we don't have a passion for souls, there's no guarantee the power of God will be in our churches. Even if you're baptized in the Holy Spirit, even if you speak in tongues, there's no guarantee you will have sustained power in your church if you don't reach souls. You say, well, give me a scripture for that. Okay, I'm going to give you a scripture. The Great Commission, Matthew, chapter 28, verse 19 and 20. And I'm going to read to you what it says. Jesus. Jesus is speaking. And he says to the disciples. And it was the last words that Jesus spoke before he left the earth. His very last words to us, go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the ends of the world. But Jesus began here by saying, go ye therefore. The word go in Greek means go and keep going, go and be going. This was not something you're just supposed to do when the church begins or something we were to do just at the beginning of the Church age or what you're to do occasionally on a mission trip. But it describes a lifestyle of going, not just of us individually, but as a corporate church. Jesus said we were to go and keep going, and. And our job was to take the gospel to the ends of the earth. And if we do this, if we obey the words of Jesus, if we're a church that goes, what do I mean by go? We're sharing Christ with the lost. We're making opportunities for the lost to be saved. We're reaching our neighborhood. We're sending mission dollars around the world to fund the gospel. Our heart is beating for souls, and we live like we believe. People are going to go to hell if we don't reach them. If we go like that, if we're really concerned about souls. Jesus promises in verse 20, and lo, I will be with you always, even until the end of the world. That word lo is a Greek word which we better translated. And wow, wow. In fact, what Jesus was saying, he was so impressed with himself that this was his own exclamation mark. Jesus said, if you go, if you preach, if you teach, if you baptize, if you go to the ends of the earth, if you go, keep going and habitually go, lo. Or Jesus says, wow, this is so amazing. Lo, wow, I will be with you always, even into the ends of the world. A better translation would be and wow, will I ever be with you even unto the ends of the world. And it is the promise of Jesus that the church that goes, the church that has a passion for souls and will continually have the strong presence of God in its midst. The lo, I am with you always, always. This is the supernatural element which comes to the church that has a passion for souls. Now, when I first met Denise, we were college students in the university, and we attended a church that was very involved in evangelism. It was a smaller church, it was a college church filled with college students. All of us were pretty young, but we had a heart for souls. We had evangelism on Saturday. We had a Friday night coffeehouse. We were constantly reaching out to people, bringing them to Christ. And the power of God was explosive in that church. Denise can tell you, we never knew what was going to happen in services because there was so much power. We all showed up with great expectation for people to be healed, for tongues, prophecy, interpretation, divine revelation, the power of the Spirit was just in that church. But then the leadership of the church made a fatal mistake, a fatal decision, they said, and it sounds smart, but it's not right. They said, well, we're all young. We need to be more mature. So rather than reach a bunch of new people and have more immature people, we're going to stop reaching the lost, and we're going to focus on each other, and we're going to disciple one another. We're going to really become mature. And then when we reach a state of mature hood, then God will give us the big harvest of souls. Well, Denise and I watched. And as we stopped reaching out to the lost, the gifts of the Spirit disappeared from the church. The joy disappeared from the church. The power of God disappeared from the church. Everything that made that church what it was began to slowly evaporate, and people began to leave the church. And. And as we were trying to mature each other, the church got smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller until it became totally irrelevant. No one even knew it was there. When we turned off evangelism, when we turned off a desire for souls, we didn't know it, but we were also turning off the power of God in the church.
- [06:24]
B
I think that's a very important point. Very important, because you said when we turned off evangelism, that means you can turn on evangelism. It's a decision. You can choose to evangelize, to tell others about Christ. And just like you said, that church made a fatal decision to stop evangelizing. I think it's important to note that we can just turn it on. You can decide to share people, the precious word of God, the news about Jesus Christ.
- [06:52]
C
It is a choice. It's always a choice. You know, our grandson, he did something really amazing one time. He was so perfect with us. We took him out. He was so perfect with us, obedient to every word we said. And I said to him, william, what. What was different about today? You were so, so obedient. It was just so great. He goes, well, I decided that I had two buttons. I had a disobedient button and an obedient button. And my obedient button was right here, and my disobedient button was right back here. So I decided to push my obedient button, and I was obedient.
- [07:34]
A
What does that have the power of choice? The power.
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C
Power of choice. We make the choice whether or not we are going to care for other people and care about their eternity.
- [07:47]
A
Okay, well, that was interesting. So we need to make the right choice, and we need to make a choice that brings us the power of God. Now, what I really believe, and I don't want to offend anybody, but what I really believe is most Christians truly don't believe in hell. They believe in it doctrinally. If I were to ask you, you would say, of course I believe in hell. The Bible teaches there is a real literal hell. But in practice, most people show they don't really believe their theology. In theology, yes. On paper, yes. In doctrine, yes. In theory, yes, they believe in hell. But their practice shows they really don't believe in hell because they don't really do much to tell other people about Christ. They live among lost people and let them be lost, let them pass into eternity without ever telling them about Jesus. Well, if we really believe that hell is a reality, it's hard to live with ourselves because we have family and friends that are going to hell. And when you have a revelation of hell, you don't want people to go there. Now, Jesus talked about hell a lot. In fact, Jesus talked about hell three times more than he talked about heaven three times more. And Jesus was concerned about the eternal condition of people. In Matthew 7, 14, 15, he said, narrow is the way that leads to life, but wide is the road that leads to destruction. Jesus knew that most people were on the road that goes to destruction. And therefore Jesus was all the time talking about hell, hell, fire, judgment in hell, damnation in hell, weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus talked about it continually because he was trying to wake people up and alert them to the fact that eternity was in front of them. The disciples were there. The disciples were with Jesus everywhere he went. They heard what he taught. And that teaching of Jesus got into the apostles. And certainly this was a part of their foundation. As they were going to tell other the good news of Jesus, they understood part of their task was to rescue the perishing and to care for the dying. I want you to think for a moment where you would be today if somebody hadn't told you about Christ. You would still be lost in your sin. And please think longer than that. You wouldn't just be lost in your sin, you would be lost for all of eternity. You know, a lot of our teaching and preaching today is about how you can be blessed and how you can have prosperity. That's good, how you can be healed, how your family can be better. A lot of teaching to improve our current life. But we're missing the big point, and that is eternal life. We're all eternal creatures going somewhere after death. Everyone's going somewhere and you're only going to heaven or you're going to hell. If you die in Christ, then you will be in Christ. For all of eternity. If you die out of Christ, then you're without Christ, you're lost, and you're in hell for the rest of eternity from which there is no escape. We know that from Luke chapter 16, where the Bible clearly says those that are in hell cannot pass out of hell. They're trapped there for all of eternity. So in addition to wanting to improve people's life with the good news of the gospel, we need to understand what is most basic of all. We're saving them from an eternity of punishment in hell. This is the most critical aspect of the gospel. And we have to remember that, right, Denise?
- [11:30]
C
You have to remember it because. And we have to remind ourselves and. But the Bible says in Second Peter that we are to remember that we were forgiven of our old sins. And when you remember about your own salvation. I was thinking today, God, you saved me from hell. I really was. I was thinking about that. I thought, this is the biggest thing I've ever been given is my salvation. And when we're. Our thoughts are like that, then we want to communicate that to somebody else. I started to think, when I started thinking like that, I started thinking about somebody else. I know somebody very close to me, and I don't really know if they know Jesus. And I started thinking they could go to hell. They really could. And I thought to myself, I don't want them to burn in hell forever. It's a serious thought now.
- [12:29]
A
Most people don't share the gospel with others for some practical reasons. Number one, they're afraid they're going to be rejected. And you know what? You may be, that's okay, you'll get over that. Or they're afraid that they'll be misunderstood. Or maybe they're too proud to tell somebody else that they're a Christian. There's all kinds of reasons why people don't share the Gospel. Sometimes people don't feel equipped. They're afraid that they don't have enough theological knowledge to share Christ with someone else. Or what if someone asks a theological question and I can't answer it, therefore, I just won't talk. But you are not required to be a theologian to share the Gospel. All that's required of you is that you be a witness. In Acts, chapter one and verse eight, it says, you'll receive power after the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be witnesses about me. Jesus didn't say, you'll be a theologian about me. He said, you'll be a witness. Anybody can be a witness. Anybody can be a witness. Everybody has A testimony of what God has done in their life. And I'll give you an example. When I travel on planes, very often, I see this as a divine opportunity to share Christ with a person that I'm seated next to. Now, I've learned that if I tell them I'm a pastor or I'm a Bible teacher, they'll usually cut me off, and they won't talk to me because they think I'm a nut. However, I am an author, and I'm also a TV broadcaster. So if somebody says to me, what do you do? I say, I'm a writer, I'm an author, and I'm a broadcaster. That's like a hook. They're suddenly very interested. Wow. They want to hear about that. Well, tell me, what kind of books do you write? Rather than say, I write religious literature, I say, well, I write about history. Really? What kind of history? Well, my specialty is first century Jerusalem. Wow. First century Jerusalem. Of course, the subject is Jesus and the Church. Well, what do you broadcast? Rather than say, I broadcast religious programs, I say educational, because our programs are educational. Well, people are interested to speak to an author and a broadcaster. And as we talk, they open their heart, begin to tell me about their life. And it just leads to a point where eventually they say, well, what led you to Russia? And I'm able to say, you know, God led me. And I begin to give a personal testimony about the work of God in my life. And that by this time, that person's very interested. Now, I didn't tell them they need to repent. I didn't tell them what they've committed in their life, what kind of sin that was wrong. I just shared my testimony. And the Holy Spirit uses that to snag their hearts. And I have seen Denise do this with flight attendants over and over and over through the years. She's a master at sharing her witness. Her testimony. You can do that? I can do that. Joel can do that. We can all do that. Because a testimony is what we have. And you don't have to study to tell your testimony. You know, your testimony. It's your story. And Jesus says, if you receive the power of the Holy Spirit, then you will be a witness. You will be a testimony. In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and even to the uttermost parts of the earth, we all have a testimony.
- [15:45]
C
You know, sometimes I have the privilege of getting a facial. Well, I have a miracle story with my face because God healed me. And one night from terrible. From terrible cystic acne of 13 years, he healed Me in one night. And so these, you know, these cosmeticians, they're working on your face. They can see, they have that big light and all of that. So they see the scars and they see everything. And I said, you know, I want to tell you that you're not just working on a regular face. I said, this face has been touched by the power of God. This is a miracle face. And I tell them my story. It's just my story. And as I'm telling them, and this has happened more than once, as I'm telling them, the power of the Holy Spirit comes into that room and I start talking to them about them, and then I start telling them about Jesus. And then I say, you know that what I'm saying is true, don't you? And they said, yes, I do. And I pray with them to receive Jesus, but it comes through taking what I have. Everybody doesn't have that story, but you have another story taking my story, and I shared it with them. And you have a story you can share with somebody.
- [17:08]
A
Now. I really think the churches are the result of what's being preached. And today in the pulpit, there's not a lot of preaching about people going to hell. There's not a lot of preaching about eternity. There's a lot of preaching about. Now I'm talking general. I'm not talking about every church, but generally across the board, there's a lot of preaching about self improvement, self help, how to feel better, how to be happy, which is not even biblical. A lot of preaching about joy. A lot of preaching about being healed. A lot, A lot of things about our temporary status in life. If a pastor doesn't impart to his church that they have a responsibility before God to reach souls, then they won't. The church does what is preached to them. What is in front of a pastor is his harvest. And if a pastor has a church that just takes care of itself and doesn't really have a concern for souls and he needs to look and ask, what in the world have I been preaching? Because the harvest that is in front of me is not a good harvest. And I'm concerned that particularly in the last 30 years, there's been a big mistake made in the church. There's almost no preaching about hell. There's almost no preaching about believers standing before the judgment seat of Christ. There's almost no preaching about the fear of God and the absence of these subjects. Sin is visible in the church.
- [18:35]
C
Sin.
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A
Sin is in the church. A lack of concern about souls, for example. If you really believe that people are going to hell. If you really believe that people are going to hell, but you never do anything to tell them, what does that say about you? I'm not trying to condemn you. I'm just trying to make you think if you know that your family members are going to hell. You see, coming to Christ is not just accepting a new philosophy that improves our life and makes our style of living better. It does that. It's good news. That's what the gospel is. It saves us from an eternity lost and separated from God. It is very significant. Once we pass the threshold of death, that's the end. And your neighbor is going to go to hell if somebody doesn't reach him. Your family member, your co worker, they are eternal creatures going somewhere. And how much time do we speak to them about the weather, politics, the president, this, that, that? Never touch the one subject that is the most serious subject of all. It is the most serious. And if we are really Christians that love God and love people, we will tell other people. If we know all of this and we never do anything to share the good news of the gospel, we are the most loveless, the most loveless of all people that we would know people are going to hell and say nothing to them. My goodness, what kind of person is that? And in fact, God himself was so strong on this that in Ezekiel 3:17, 18, 19, God said, if I warn the wicked, you're going to be punished. And you do nothing to tell him, you know that he's going to punish parish in his iniquity. And you never open your mouth to tell him. He will die in his iniquity. But I will hold you accountable for his penalty because you never opened your mouth, I will hold you accountable for his blood. But then God continues to say, if I warn the wicked, and you warn the wicked, if you repeat, if you tell them the truth, if you tell them the truth about eternity and the consequences of sin and he doesn't repent, then he'll die in his iniquity. But you will not be held accountable. Here's what we have to understand. We're going to be held accountable for not opening our mouth. We're not going to be held accountable for how people respond. If they don't respond, that's their business, that we did our part and therefore we're free before God. But if we say nothing, if we say nothing and we know that people are eternally headed in a wrong direction, God says in Ezekiel chapter three, he will hold us answerable for their blood. And when we stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We will answer to God for the souls of that we could have reached and we did not. Now, somebody says that's a hard thing to say. Well, some things are hard, but that's what the Bible says. And if we want to have the power of God in our life, we have to be concerned about souls. And let me tell you something you might be afraid to witness. Your church may be a little timid about going out and sharing Christ, but Jesus promises if we'll do this, we won't do it by ourself. He said, lo, I'll be with you. Wow, will I ever be with you. My power will show up in amazing ways. If you'll be a church that goes and keeps going and lives for this, you will experience my divine power. So you're not going to do this by yourself. You're going to do this with the power of God. Amen, Joel.
- [22:23]
B
Amen. I think about churches. I go to the States and I go to different churches. And at the end of service, I don't always hear a call for repentance for non believers to hear about Christ. And that kind of concerns me. Because you're in church, the pastor is supposed to be example. And I think what you're talking about is the congregants are the fruit of what's being preached. And the congregants need to have a desire to tell others about Christ and they have to see it from the pastor. I think it's very important because if the pastor doesn't do it, how will we know we need to do it? If we're not being taught, how do we know we are supposed to do it? And what you said about Ezekiel, that if we don't tell others about their eternity, where they're going to spend it, we'll be accountable for not sharing that information.
- [23:14]
A
Well, you know, along that same line, today in most churches, there is no invitation for the lost. Maybe somebody will say, if you have a spiritual need, come down to the front. There's people who will pray with you at the end of the service, but there's no presentation of today. If you want to give your life to Christ, if you want to repent, we're here, we're waiting for you. Now that has almost disappeared from the modern church. It really has almost disappeared. It's good for a church to see people get saved. It's good when people walk the aisle and publicly give their lives to Christ. It brings the joy of the Spirit into the church. It is so powerful in a church. And we need to make an opportunity for people to repent. People still need to repent, my friends. They're not just gonna be good enough to go to heaven by themselves. And when you open the door for people to be saved in church every week, you remind people in the church, wow, we need to reach people. That altar should be filled with people repenting and coming to Christ. Now, I think that many pastors no longer do it because they're afraid there won't be any response. And because they're afraid no one will respond, they don't open the altars for salvation call anymore. But if nobody's coming forward ever in your church, it's probably a spiritual indicator about your church. It may mean that your church is not reaching new people. Maybe you need to do that to see the real status of your church. It would be healthy for you. There's no condemnation in this. We're just looking at what's required for a church to be strong for generations. And point number one is that church has to have a passion for souls. So pray for your church that your church will be imbibed with a new desire to reach souls with the gospel. We're out of time, but we're glad you were with us today. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. If you enjoyed that teaching, please, like,
- [25:17]
B
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