Where should we focus our evangelizing efforts?
Kevin Swanson explains in this video that each person is called to disciple the nations. The word “nations” also includes families or communities. Accordingly, everyone is called to evangelism in some form. We are to evangelize to individuals within our homes and those outside the home as well.
Some people are called to preach Scripture out on the streets. Others are called to preach within the Church. There are those who are called to preach on the radio, television, and in public forums. Other people are called to disciple believers on an ongoing basis. No matter where we are, we are called to be faithful to preach the Word of God. To our spouses, to our children, within our congregations, and to the world.
Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJV) – “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.”
Our Lord's last command is our first priority. In the church, in the family, in the city, to the ends of the earth. Join us in October for White Under Harvest. Well, everybody's called to disciple the nations. The nations means families.
Okay? We have the idea that nations are modern nation-states and they're populated by 300 million people. No, the nations are little ethnoses everywhere. They're just little cultural bases, whether they be families, neighborhoods, communities, or what have you. Everybody's called to disciple the nations.
Everybody's called to some form of evangelizing in the sense that we're taking 66 books of the Bible, which constitute the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we work this into the minds and hearts and lives of those that are in our households or those who come into our wake. Some people are called to get it out into the streets. Some people are called to preaching the Word of God in the public forum. Personally, I think every church ought to have somewhat of that gift. There has to be somebody, some group of people who are able to bring the word out into the public forum and call men and women to repentance.
That means they're on the radio, they're on television, they're in the public forums, they're wherever the gospel has ready access. They need to be out there evangelizing. Not everybody is called to that form of work. Now, there's another distinction between the evangelist who who's bringing folks up to the boat and then those that are bringing into the boat. Personally, I think everybody's called to both aspects.
In other words, they're all supposed to be drawing folks towards the boat, drawing the nets, but there are some who are probably more gifted towards getting out there and getting them up to the boat. Now, I think everybody, including that evangelist who is out on the streets, needs to be doing some discipleship in his home at the same time. In other words, you can't just do evangelism. You ought to be just doing discipleship as well. But there are some who are called to focus perhaps a little more in the drawing the nets versus bringing the fish into the boat by means of ongoing discipleship.
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