“Then the spirit said unto Philip, go near, and join thyself to this chariot’’ – ACTS 8:29(KJV).
We cannot reach a world we avoid. We must recognize that though we are not of this world, we are in the world for mission. In a bid to separate ourselves from the world to avoid negative influence we may forget that God has given us the mandate to reach the sinners with the gospel which is the power of God unto salvation.
In order to reach sinners with the saving grace of God, we must make contact with them without contamination with their sinful lifestyle. There is the need to properly integrate into the society. We should go out there in the market places where sinners are. If we resort only to holding programs and inviting them to the church or programme venue then the great commission will suffer because sinners do not always go to church. We should be prepared to go out of our way, leave our comfort zones to meet the sinners out there on the streets, in the offices, in the schools, business centre, the prisons, hospitals, hotels, motor parks and other market places where sinners are.
Everybody must get involved in the great commission. It may not always be the conventional way of general evangelism programme but we should see every contact we have with sinners as God- given opportunity to preach the gospel. This could be done at break times in the office, at eateries or in our business centre.
Like Paul,(1Corinthians 9:19-23), we should reach sinners at their level. We should see ourselves as servants unto all men and become all things to all men so as to win them to Christ. Worldliness is not necessarily mixing up or making contact with the world but envying or copying the worldly lifestyle. If we must impact and influence the world for Christ, we cannot avoid contact with the people. We must integrate with a sense of mission.
In this context, the Holy Spirit said to Philip, “go near and join thyself to this chariot’’. I am afraid; we have gone so far away from sinners in our society, that we have become ineffective in soul winning and irrelevant to the kingdom in terms of soul harvest. Some Christians claim to be so heavenly conscious as to have nothing to do with sinners. The truth is that we have so much to do with them because they are our mission field and our assignment. We have no business remaining here after new birth except to reach the sinners for Christ. The earlier we change our wrong mindset and embrace this kingdom mindset, the more relevant to God and his kingdom we will become. The Ethiopian turned to Christ because Philip obeyed. We too will have the glorious privilege of turning many to Christ if we get involved. The harvest is ripe but laborers are few, the crowd in our churches notwithstanding.
PRAYER: Oh God, restore my passion for the lost souls in Jesus name.
Rev. Vincent Diolu