Zeal for the lost

by: Cate Hall on: Sunday, 18th December 2011

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 5:11;5:14-20; Luke 16:19-31

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Application questions

• How is God preparing you for this season of His rain?
• Which of the series spoke to you most, what is God teaching you right now?
• What did God say to you on Sunday?
• How are you compelled to reach the lost?
• Who are your '5 brothers'?
• Did you respond to one of the things Cate spoke of at the end for prayer: Impartation of God's heart for the lost; Salvation; Perseverance; Rekindling of the fire? Pray for one another, ask God to give you his heart for the lost.
• Study and discuss the main scriptures together.

Message Overview

End of the series. We started with 'Preparing for rain' back in September. We are in a season where God is preparing us for a mighty outpouring of his Spirit and we need to be prepared or we will miss it.

We've looked at God's character, creation, Sin, Jesus, his death, resurrection and imminent return, and faith.

Jesus said that he will return when the gospel of the kingdom has been preached to every nation tribe and tongue. Jesus' return is dependant on the church! We are God's plan to let the world know about him.

World Evangelism Statistics –

• The world's population hit seven billion on 31st October this year.
• Christians in the world around 2 billion, 20% of the worlds population.
• In AD 100 there was one Christian to every 360, now it is almost 1 Christian to every 5 non-Christians.
• Every minute 15 previously unevangelised people receive a tract, 27 receive a portion of the Bible and 163 hear the Gospel in an understandable form. Of these,114 become Christians.
• Around 70% of evangelicals live in third world countries. However The EU-funded European Social Survey published in April 2009 found that only 12% of British people feel they belong to a church. According to a Tearfund survey (Churchgoing in the UK, 2007), there are approximately 2 million evangelical Christians in the UK. That's 2 million out 62 million people, just over 3%! That means there are a lot of people in our nation who are going to hell unless we tell them.

Is your heart caught up in an encounter with Jesus that compels you to tell others?

God wants to impart to us his heart for the lost.

Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men. 2 Cor 5:11

As Paul says in 2 Cor 5:14 "For the love of Christ compels us..."

The apostle Paul's greatest passion, his longing was simply for the salvation of the lost. His evangelistic zeal was so great that he said he would give up his relationship with Jesus Christ if it would mean that his brothers would be saved, Romans 9:1-3.

Charles Spurgeon said, "Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you are not saved yourself. Be sure of that." He continued, "If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for."

Ray Comfort Article: "Hell should be so real to us that its flames burn away apathy and motivate us to warn the lost. Do we see the unsaved as hell's future fuel? Do we understand that sinful humanity is the anvil of the justice of God? Have we ever been horrified or wept because we fear their fate? The depth of our evangelistic zeal will be in direct proportion to the love we have. If you are not concerned about your neighbor's salvation, then I am concerned for yours."

Luke 16:19-31 - The rich man and Lazarus:

1. There is a heaven and a hell, they are real places
2. There is a great gulf between the 2 and once there you cannot cross it – the only time we have to choose where we go is now, once we die it is too late.
3. You can't leave once you're there. The dead cannot warn the living.
4. Tell your brothers NOW while you still can.

Our heart and motivation should be that of Oswald Chambers, "So long as there is a human being who does not know Jesus Christ, I am his debtor to serve him until he does."

Unless we tell them, they won't hear. Is 6:8 I heard the voice of the Lord 'Whom shall I send and who will go for us?' and I said 'Here I am, send me!'