DAY 5 OF WEEK 3
SOWING SEEDS OF THE GOSPEL: ARE YOU AN AMBASSADOR FOR CHRIST? Pt. 2
2 Timothy 1:6; Jeremiah 14:14; 20:9; 1 Corinthians 2:1-2,5
Called to Serve
(Continued From Day 4) Third, we are under authority in our service. It is God who has called us to serve. We are not free to choose the place or the manner in which we will serve Him. I am always amazed at the variety of gifts that God has given to the church. Every person has been given a gift from God. You may be a farmer, or a laborer, or a doctor, or a professor, but you have been given a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Paul says, “Stir up the gift of God which is in you” (2 Timothy 1:6, NKJV). What is your gift?
Jonah tried to flee from God’s authority in his ministry, but God had a fish to stop him and bring him back.
Jeremiah tried to flee from the authority of God’s Word for his ministry, but he could not. “Then I said, ‘I will not make mention of Him, nor speak anymore in His name” (Jeremiah 20:9, NKJV). That is, “I’m sick and tired of talking about God and warning these people to repent because judgment is going to come.” Then he said, “But His Word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, and I could not” (Jeremiah 20:9, NKJV). “I had to tell the people the message of God.”
I know for many of us there are times of discouragement, times when we wish we did not have the responsibility of being an ambassador for Christ. But we’re under orders. It is God who has called us; we are under His authority.
Our Message
Fourth, we are under the authority of God’s Word for a message. Our message is not our own. It is God’s. That is why our witnessing and our preaching must be biblical. If it is not founded on the Word of God, it becomes our ideas and our opinions, and we would be like the prophets of Jeremiah’s day. God said, “The prophet’s prophesy lies in my name. I have not sent them, … nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart” (Jeremiah 14:14, NKJV).
Instead we should be like the Apostle Paul, seeking only to proclaim the Word of God. He said, “And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
That your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2,5, NKJV). I have had the privilege of preaching this Gospel on every continent in most of the countries of the world. And I have found that when I present the simple message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with authority and simplicity, quoting the Word of God, He takes that message and drives it supernaturally into the human heart.
Adapted From: https://billygraham.org/story/sowing-seeds-of-the-gospel-are-you-an-ambassador-for-christ/
