Lesson 8. Pray for the people of the Lord’s choice to come and pray for Him to keep the others away. Pray for the Lord to meet your needs without asking for money.
“When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest’” (Matthew 9:36-38).
The motivation for our evangelism is not to build a bigger and bigger church, to get more people to help pay the bills and the pastor’s salary, to have control over the lives of more and more people, to have the biggest and most impressive building (or campus) in town, or to feed our egos. From time to time, perhaps, we have suspected the motives of those who have been evangelistic in their efforts and who have attempted to start a church or increase the size of their church.
Jesus’ motivation for coming into our world, for doing the work of evangelism, for calling forth disciples to help Him spread the good news of His coming, was compassion. God the Father loves us. Jesus the Son of God loves us. Because God is love, the Father sent His only begotten Son into the world, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life” (John 3:16). Ultimately, God will indwell every true believer and will fill them with His love and presence, “So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them (1 John 4:16).
When Francis and Edith Schaeffer began their work in Switzerland, that became known as L’Abri, which means “The Shelter,” the love of God motivated them. They did not begin their work with the motivation to grow a great work. They began their work with the compassion of Jesus Christ, to speak the truth in love, to show the love of Christ by their example and lives, to lead others to know and love Christ too so they might be filled with the love of God and know Him for eternity. The love of Jesus Christ in them, their love for people and their love for the truth, motivated them to do what they did as they did it with the Holy Spirit’s leading.
As they began their work and it grew, they prayed for the people of the Lord’s choice to come to their home or to their meetings when they went forth from their home to reach out to others (in churches or in restaurants or in college lecture halls, for example, wherever the Lord called them to go). They prayed for the people of the Lord’s choice for them to meet and talk to. They prayed for the questions that would be asked and for the right answers to be given and given in the right way. They prayed for the Holy Spirit to do His work as they did the work the Holy Spirit led them to do. They also prayed that the Lord would keep all others away. These “others” might just be looking for free hospitality and lodging instead of coming to them for the services that the Lord had prepared them to render. These “others” might be disruptive people or “tares” that Satan might sow to disrupt their service to others as they gave honest answers to honest questions.
As the work grew, they prayed for the workers of the Lord’s choice, and for God to make it clear who these workers should be who would join them. They took the time to prayerfully and carefully prepare these workers to join the work. They prayed that “false workers” would not be made a part of the work.
As their work grew, they decided not to try to hang on to people or try to persuade people to stay in their work, either as students or workers, but pray for the Holy Spirit to lead people both into and out of their work. Fran said that this helped them keep from becoming a cult.
Finally, they prayed for the Lord to meet their needs day by day without asking for money. This approach enabled them to see more clearly the leading of the Lord as their prayers for God to meet their needs were answered. It also enabled others to see God answering their prayers, that they might know the one true God is a God of compassion who can be trusted to keep His promises and meet the needs of His people.
As I have conducted my ministry over the past thirty years, to the best of my ability I have tried to follow these same principles in building my church and otherwise. The Lord has never failed me or my family. In the church I serve, Stonegate Church, we believe that everyone who comes in the door has been drawn there for a purpose, whether for a long time or a short time as the Holy Spirit leads. We have also experienced the Lord drawing people out of our church that were or had become “tares” in our midst. We have experienced the Lord providing the financial resources we need in a variety of ways. We have experienced and know the love of God in each others lives as we have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ and have sought to know and do His will according to the Scriptures in the power of the Holy Spirit.
You might also like to learn more about Francis Schaeffer from two of his biographies, now online for you to read for free at http://www.labri.net .
Copyright 2009 by L.G. Parkhurst, Jr.
International Bible Lessons
Prayer Steps to Serenity
Serenity Groups
A Psalm and A Prayer
