<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hymn: Must I go \u2013 And Empty Handed?<\/p>\n
Text: Luke 2:49, 10:11-11; John 9:4; Mark 16:15-18<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cHow is it that you sought me? Wist you not that I must be about my Father\u2019s business?\u201d, Luke 2:49. From the Scriptures, these are the first recorded words spoken by the Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 From the onset, He made it abundantly clear that He was here on a mission \u2013 to do His Father\u2019s business.\u00a0 From the first opportunity that presented itself, He launched Himself into this task.\u00a0 One may be tempted to ask, what is this business of the Father that was such a consuming passion in His life?\u00a0 It was to bring the message of the gospel to the world; the good news of God reconciling the world to Himself by the sacrificial and substitution death of His Son; to enlist men and women into this business and leave it as a perpetual commission to all who come to believe the message of the gospel.\u00a0 Therefore, as those who have come to embrace the love of God demonstrated in the gospel, we need to see the task of reaching others to God not only as our duty but see it as the Lord Jesus did \u2013 it is our Father\u2019s business.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Father\u2019s business is the business of evangelizing the world; it is a world alienated from God by sin \u2013 the original sin and the present continuing acts of men which offend God. It is the task of making men understand that as Romans 3:23 says, none is exempted, \u201cFor all have sinned and come short of the glory of God\u201d.\u00a0 All have sinned and so all have need of God\u2019s forgiveness.\u00a0 The good news is that by Christ\u2019s death, pardon for sin has been purchased.\u00a0 All who repent and believe in this finished word of grace have their sins remitted and are reconciled to God.\u00a0 Having accomplished salvation by His death, the Lord Jesus has left us the business of telling others, so that being reconciled they may escape eternal judgment and damnation awaiting all those who spurn at God\u2019s offer.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
From the Lord\u2019s handling of this matter, it was obvious that it was a very urgent business. In John 4:34 He said to the disciples, \u201cMy meat is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work\u201d.\u00a0 To the Lord, nothing else mattered.\u00a0 The first reason for this passionate disposition was that \u201cthe harvest\u201d was already ripe and plenteous, Matthew 9:36-37; John 4:35-38.\u00a0 The harvest was already ripe and therefore must be brought in to avoid waste and loss.\u00a0 Just as God is interested in the souls of men for salvation, so also is the devil but with the aim of bringing them to destruction.\u00a0 That is why we must get them to obtain abundant life in Christ, John 10:10. Secondly, the harvest is plenteous.\u00a0 There is much to be done and so there is no time to waste.\u00a0 If as on the day of Pentecost we can win 3000 souls per day, reckon how long it will take to reach the current estimated population of 3 billion that inhabit the world today.\u00a0 Think of all the barriers the devil has put in the way to prevent men from being saved.\u00a0 The matter is indeed very urgent, knowing also that there is very little time left to accomplish this task, John 9:4, 1 Corinthians 7:29-31<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
-Romans 3:23: All have sinned and have need of salvation.<\/p>\n
-1 Corinthians 15:3: Christ died for our sins. He gave His life as a ransom for us, 1 Timothy 2:5-6.<\/p>\n
-1 Corinthians 15:4: He was buried and He rose on the third day for our justification, 1 Corinthians 15:17.<\/p>\n
-Acts 16:31: All who repent of their sins and place their faith on the sacrificial death of Christ are pardoned and saved.<\/p>\n
-John 1:12: They are given the authority to become the sons of God<\/p>\n
-John 14:1-3: The saved will spend eternity with Christ in heaven while the unsaved will languish in the torments of hell.<\/p>\n
Reflect on John 3:16: God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The consequences of not evangelizing cannot be accurately estimated. Suffice to say that in so doing, we fail to raise more laborers for this enterprise.\u00a0 Who knows whether your convert could turn out to be a Paul, the man who wrote more than half of the New Testament; a Hudson Taylor, the great missionary to China; a Smith Wigglesworth, the great Apostle of faith; Kathryn Kuhlman, the daughter of destiny or a Benson Idahosa, the man with \u201cfire in his bones\u201d.\u00a0 The list is endless.\u00a0 Every opportunity not utilized to win souls robs us of men and women like these.<\/p>\n
Any unsaved soul that slips into eternity is lost forever and is condemned to the torments of hell eternally. If we could, but failed to tell them of the fate that awaits them, God will hold us guilty of their blood, Ezekiel 3:18.\u00a0 It is not the wish of God that any soul should perish.\u00a0 He wills that all men should be saved, 1 Timothy 2:4. \u00a0It is therefore imperative that we take this business more seriously than we have previously done.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
That we are saved and are Christians today is the fruit of someone\u2019s evangelistic effort. Such obeyed the injunction of Christ and preached to us, presenting us with the opportunity to be saved.\u00a0 Our membership of the body of Christ or more particularly a local church assembly is not just for us to sit down and warm benches.\u00a0 It is our enlistment in the army of men and women busy with our Father\u2019s business.\u00a0 We must endeavor to utilize the opportunities that present themselves daily at work, in our neighborhood and in the various places where we traffic, to tell someone of the love of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 We must realize that failure to do so carries grave consequences which we cannot change when a soul dies without salvation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Luke 10:2 \u2013 \u201cTherefore said He unto them, the harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few: Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth laborers into His harvest.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Being About My Father\u2019s Business Central Thought: Soul winning is the Father\u2019s business in which all believers have a share. Hymn: Must I go \u2013 And Empty Handed? Text: Luke 2:49, 10:11-11; John 9:4; Mark 16:15-18 \u201cHow is it that you sought me? Wist you not that I must be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sundayschool"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1061"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1062,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1061\/revisions\/1062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mzgtiglobal.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}