Daily Devotional for Monday September 1, 2014
The Difference between Preaching to the Choir and Reaching the Lost Masses Outside the Church
(John 7:37; Matthew 22:9; 1 Timothy 2:4)
***ASK BILL: Pastor Bill, do you feel the U.S. should be the "police of the world" getting involved in numerous wars in other countries?
ANSWER: While these are issues our government makes decisions about in regard to our own national interests, my goal is that we should be the "evangelists of the world" and take the Gospel to every corner of the globe. The government will do what they do for political reasons, we as followers of Christ need to do what our job is!
The difference between preaching to the choir and reaching the lost masses outside the four walls of the church. I spent the first 3 years of my ministry preaching in over 500 churches all over the country. It was a wonderful time in my life, but deep inside I knew something was missing.
I'll never forget laying in a hotel bed in Peoria, Illinois after a great service that evening in a large Assemblies of God Church. Many people came forward at the invitation that evening and accepted Christ into their heart and life by faith, but the Holy Spirit opened my spiritual eyes and told me that the masses who needed to hear about the hope we have in Jesus the most weren't sitting in the pews of that church. They were the ones living outside those four walls!
Let me share a question with you I get all the time during the many media interviews I do. It is a GREAT QUESTION that comes from reporters who aren't Believers. They ask me why are there more churches, more ministries, more Christian resources, more Christian media, than ever before in the history of Christendom, yet at the same time our culture and the world around us is in a spiritual freefall, the better percentage of two full generations don't even go to church, and Christianity has very little impact in the daily lives of the vast majority of people. It seems to be quite a paradox doesn't it? With all the churches and Christian influence that exists today, this should be a far better world.
I respond to their question by telling them the answer is quite simple. The above phenomena exists because we preach to the choir instead of reaching out to those who need the message the most. We have retreated into this incestuous place I call the "Christian trough" where the churches and most all Christian ministries live and operate.
It is this Christian subculture that has evolved over the past 40 years that consists of the church, Christian TV and radio, Christian publishing, Christian music, and all of the various para-chruch ministries. It targets Believers with their message, not those outside the four walls of the church, since people who are already Christians will be friendly to the message, buy what they sell, go to events, and donate their money.
Make no mistake about it, it is business, and BIG business. Billions of dollars a year! Everyone talks about "reaching the lost," but the reality is they all end up simply preaching to the choir because that is where the money is at! Let me give you a great example. A little over a year ago, I was in the office of a gentleman who God has richly blessed financially. Money is relevant and this is a man ho could write a check for $100,000 without blinking an eye.
After sharing with him what God was doing at Liveprayer and asking for him to help us financially, he told me that he couldn't help me right now because he had just agreed to head up the finance team to bring a well-known evangelist to Tampa. He shared that he was responsible for raising $2.3 million dollars for this 2-day event and that the evangelist would only agree to come after the money was in the bank. (Who needs faith to follow this plan?)
Knowing others who were involved in the organization of this event, they spent over a year getting hundreds of the area churches to get their people to come to the event. So ultimately it was a couple of services with apx 100,000 people from area churches. Listen, I pray that many hearts and lives were touched and impacted during those two days.
I have no doubt there were souls saved, and praise God for that. But the point I want to make is that this is how it works in the world of Christian business. Big names who won't even come until they are guaranteed to make so much money. Big events that are called "evangelistic," but are full of people who have been recruited to come from the area churches.
Do you want the perfect contrast? Liveprayer.com operates each month on $40,000 for our internet operations and $25,000 for our TV program. With those funds, we are able to minister to over 2.5 million souls worldwide each day, respond to apx. 40,000 emails daily, reach a nightly TV audience of apx. 300,000 people around the nation (200,000 of that audience in the Chicagoland market), and lead apx 80,000 souls during the year to faith in Jesus Christ!
We do all of that for under $800,000 which is 1/4 of what was raised for the "weekend church meeting" in Tampa and about what Hinn, Copeland, TBN, and a host of other "Christian stars" pay each year for gas in their private jets!!!
THAT IS WHAT THE DIFFERENCE IS BETWEEN PREACHING TO THE CHOIR AND REACHING OUT TO THE LOST MASSES OUTSIDE THE FOUR WALLS OF THE CHURCH!
I love you and care about you so much. I told you last November 2014 was THE CRITICAL YEAR to begin to see a real revival in this nation. If we are going to truly impact lives, make a real difference in our culture so God is honored and Biblical Truth becomes the standard once again in this nation, then the followers of Jesus Christ have got to leave the "Christian trough" and quit simply preaching to the choir and start making a serious attempt to reach the lost and hurting masses outside the four walls of the church!
We've got to quit worrying about how much money we can make, and start focusing instead on how many souls we can lead to faith in Christ! We have got to quit wasting our time and effort reaching people who are already saved, and start reaching out to those who are clearly lost!
A true evangelist is better off preaching to 20 outside the doors of a nightclub than a stadium full of people from the local churches. Of course, the 20 people outside the nightclub aren't going to buy your products or give you any money, they probably won't applaud your message, as a matter of fact they may even physically attack you because of your message. But at some point what do we do this for? For fame? For fortune? Or do we do this because God has called us to reach the lost with the Gospel?
If you have been called to serve the Lord, now is the time to start serving Him. There is a lost and dying world outside the four walls of the church that desperately needs God's Truth and the hope we have in Jesus Christ. God needs men and women to rise up in these last days who will take His message of hope to these lost and hurting souls.
Paul could have had a nice life simply preaching to those Believers in the churches of his day. But he understood that it was the lost who needed to hear the Gospel, since without Jesus they were going to die and spend eternity in hell. He literally put his life on the line each day to bring the Good News to the lost and hurting even though most didn't want to hear it!
The cold hard reality is that a person who dies without Jesus is going to spend eternity in hell. People are dying and going to hell every second. We, who possess the words of everlasting life have a responsibility to bring that message of salvation through faith in Christ to these dying souls. Why do we spend all of our time, energy, and resources telling the saved how to be saved, when it is the lost who need to hear those words of everlasting life?
I pray that God will stir your heart today and that you will be motivated to remember that Jesus commanded us to bring the Gospel to those who are living without the hope of Christ in their life. God has raised up pastors to shepherd their flocks. True evangelists aren't called to preach to the choir, but to bring the Gospel to the lost and hurting OUTSIDE the four walls of the church!
In His love and service, Your friend and brother in Christ,
Bill Keller