I recently had a married Christian couple tell me, “Pastor, we made a big mistake!” I said, “What happened?” They began to tell me how they invited their new neighbors to dinner for the purpose of sharing the gospel. After they ordered their food the Christian couple began to share who they voted for in the recent election and talked about their opinion of the state of the country. The new neighbors had very strong differing political opinions of their own and were so offended that they did not want to hear another single word the Christians had to say. So when the topic finally got to the gospel, the neighbors did not want to hear a word of it. The politics of the Christians voided their witness with their new friends.
2 Timothy 2:22-26 states,
“So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.”
The devil wants every Christian to get so caught up in the current news and issues of the hour that we lose focus of our true calling as Christians. In Acts 1:8 Jesus calls His followers to be His witnesses and to share the gospel which is the power of God for salvation.
Because it is such a temptation for me to lose focus of our mission, my wife and I prayed 2 Timothy 2:22-26 over ourselves and our children this morning, that first and foremost we could be focused on our calling by Jesus and not get so caught up in issues of the world that we would allow our politics to hinder our witness.
Not a sermon, just a thought.
Charlie Colgan, Sr. Pastor
First Christian Church of Nacogdoches
“Who said church is boring?”
FCCnac.org
#Reminder #Gospel #GreatCommission #WitnessforJesus #Notofthisworld #StayFocused
