TOPIC: DON’T CLOSE YOUR MOUTH II
Memorise: Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that
ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain:
that whatsoever ye shall ask of the father in my name, he may give it you. John
15:16
Read: Matthew 28:18-20, Bible in one year: 1st Kings 5-6, Luke
2:1-21
In addition to opening our mouth in prayer, opening our mouth as
witnesses of Jesus is another obligation we must perform. Evangelistic outreach
is for all children of God; not for God’s ministers alone. We must all bear
fruit of souls into God’s kingdom as commanded by our Lord in today’s memory
verse. To back us up in this obligation, our Lord Jesus Christ assures us that
all power in heaven and on earth belongs to Him. It is therefore a settled
matter that no power on earth or in the spiritual world can stop us from
carrying out His instructions. We are therefore inexcusable if we fail to win
souls. He instructed us to go and teach all nations, baptising them in the Name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. The Great Commission
therefore involves teaching. Let us pause and think about what this assignment
of teaching means.
To teach is to expound truth that will bring about change in the
taught. We are faced with a two-pronged problem in the area of fulfilling this
assignment today. One aspect of this problem is that the teacher who is
supposed to expound the truth is often afraid of what the reaction of the
student would be to a demand for change; hence, he shuts his mouth. But the
Bible in 2nd Timothy 4:2 says:
“Preach the word; be instant in season, out of
season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.”
The other aspect of this problem is that the people to be taught are
not comfortable with the cry for “change”. They do not want to be “intimidated”
by the “dos and don’ts” of their new found faith in Christ. Such people are
deceiving themselves because the Bible does not say we called into lawlessness.
As a matter of fact and whether we believe it or not, a yoke of “learning and
change” is attached to our calling into the faith. Jesus in Matthew 11:29a
said:
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;”
It is our duty as children of God to open our mouths wide to this
perverted generation and teach them the counsel of God without fear or favour.
I was in a church sometime last year and I heard a sister teaching on tithes.
In order to make people accept the doctrine of tithing, she said they could
start by giving 5% of their income and gradually increase it! What an erroneous
teaching! We must not hold back the truth from those we are sent to. This is
the only way our fruit can endure, and then our prayers will be answered.
Action Point: Determine to properly disciple your converts through sound teaching of
the Bible from today.
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