Matthew 7:6 NIV
“Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."
Matthew 10:14 NIV
"If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet."
I need to clarify at the onset that I am not saying, 'don't spend time with people.' I am specifically saying not to WASTE time with people.
I begin with a story.
There was a youth pastor at a church I attended many years ago who was very popular with the kids. He was very high energy, enthusiastic about his passion for the Lord, and the kids really related to him very well. Some time down the road he was replaced by another pastor and there wasn't much expalnation as to where he had gone.
I learned later the account of what happened to that young pastor after he shared his story with a friend. He said he knew full well that many of the teenagers who showed up on Wednesday night were just there because their friends were there, not because they had any real interest in the things of the Lord. While he was glad they were there he didn't waste his time with them. He devoted his time to the young people who needed to talk to him and receive counsel.
The leadership didn't like his approach and told him he needed to reach those kids sitting in the back playing on their cellphones because they were the ones that really neede to be saved. He explained his position and even went as far as saying that it wasn't his job to get them saved, but to disciple those who were actually being saved.
They ended up firing him.
The Great Commission
Matthew 28:19-20;
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Jesus commanded us to preach the gospel, baptize and disciple people. But often in our zeal we think it is our job to do something he did not tell us to do.
It is NOT our job to get people saved!
That is the job that can only be accomplished by God alone through the rebirth.
Often we make the mistake of thinking it is our job to get people saved and if we are unsuccessful that it is somehow our fault. The fact is that unless God is saving someone they are going to reject the gospel. Romans 8:7 explains:
The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
That is the state of every single man, woman , and child until God regenerates them by his Holy Spirit and changes their nature. It doesn't matter how well you present the gospel or how often you present it; If God isn't saving that person you are speaking to a dead person. And that is exactly how Paul explains it in Ephesians 2:1 and 5.
[1] As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins,
[5] made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
The word for dead is the Greek word necros and it means 'dead.' Before we were saved we were literally spiritually dead. Dead people cannot hear. Spiritually dead people cannot respond to the gospel call. As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:18:
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
Conversion is a miracle as great as physically raising a dead person to life. It can only be accomplished by God himself.
So Why do we preach and disciple?
Simply because God chose to do it that way. But we must remember 2 things:
1. We cannot get people saved
2. You cannot disciple a goat into a sheep.
So don't waste time with people.
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