“We are unable to stop speaking…”

“When they [the religious leaders] observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and knew that they had been with Jesus…So they called for them and ordered them not to preach or teach at all in the name of Jesus…”

“But Peter and John answered them, ‘Whether it is right in the sight of God for us to listen to you rather than God, you decide; for we are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.’”

                                                                        –Acts 4:13,18-20 

The disciples were not preaching and teaching about Jesus because someone told them to. This wasn’t part of a church program or an outreach strategy. Methods of sharing Jesus are great helps but sharing Jesus isn’t about methods. It’s about that fact that you have been with Jesus and you can’t help but to talk about the things that you have seen and heard. You cannot stop. You are unable to cease from proclaiming the good news. It’s like a burning in your bones.

Show me a believer who is in love with the Lord, walking right with Him and willing to share Him and I’ll show you a believer that is more than ready to bring others to Christ—even without methods. The religious leaders noticed that the disciples were untrained and uneducated men. But they had something that methods can’t teach: a passion for Christ. Sharing Jesus should be an overflow of your own relationship with Him. Like a sponge that is full of water, when you are full of Christ, you can’t help but to drip Him everywhere you go—in action and in word.

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Albert Schweitzer was acclaimed in his day as one of the greatest men on earth. He was a missionary in the heart of Africa. He won more honors than any living man at that time. He won the Nobel prize in 1952. On one occasion, when he came to Chicago, a group of prominent citizens came to welcome him. They gathered around him, gave him the key to the city, and told him that they were greatly honored by his visit. The reporters took notes and the photographers were getting many pictures. Suddenly the great man excused himself. He rushed over to a little woman who was struggling with a heavy suitcase and several packages. He picked these things up and told the woman to follow him. He literally ran interference for her through the crowded station, put her on the train, and wished her a pleasant journey. When he returned to the committee, he said, “I am sorry to keep you gentlemen waiting, I was just having my daily fun.” And one of the reporters said, “That is the first time I ever saw a big sermon walking.”*

Reflect

He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30).

Respond

When people look at you what do they see: More of you or more of Christ?

Remember

Think about it: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much are you like Christ?

*W. Herschel Ford, Sermons You Can Preach on John, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), p. 273-4.

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In the late 1800s D. L. Moody began a Sunday school on Illinois Street in Chicago. One child who attended would walk each week from halfway across the city, which was a large city even in those days. He would pass church after church until he reached the Illinois Street Sunday School.

One day a superintendent of one of the Sunday Schools he passed asked him, “Why do you go all the way out there? Why don’t you come here? It is right next door to you.”

Looking up at the superintendent, the lad said, “I go where they love a fellow.”*

Reflect

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just like I have loved you; that you also love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

Respond

God created us for fellowship and at the heart of true fellowship is the expression of God’s type of love. How can you express God’s type of love to the people you visit each week? To the children? To their parents? To others with whom you come in contact on a daily basis?

Remember

“Real fellowship happens when people get honest about who they are and what is happening in their lives.”**

*Hyman J. Appelman, “Paralyzed People,” [July 1946], Hudson, Curtis, ed. Great Preaching on Soul Winning. (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 121.

**Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishers, 2002), p. 140.

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During World War II, a plant of parachute packers achieved notoriety because their parachutes only opened 19 out of 20 times. That’s an average of 95%, and although that will get you an ‘A’ in school, when you’re jumping out of a plane, it’s just not good enough. The manager of the plant developed a strategy to increase reliability. He required the packer to test the parachutes themselves. It wasn’t long until quality rose to 100%. That’s the principle of accountability at work.* 

Reflect

The people said to Joshua, “No; but we will serve Yahweh.” Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen Yahweh, to serve him.” They said, “We are witnesses” (Joshua 24:21-22).

Respond

Parachute packers need accountability and so do all believers. We need witnesses in our lives to hold us true to the commits we have made. To whom are you accountable and why do you think it’s important?

Remember

The value of accountability is that it “pressures” us into right living.

Try asking one or two of the following questions to some of your Christian friends this week:

• What are you reading this week in your daily time with God?
• What verse have you been focusing on lately?
• How have you seen God work in your prayer-life recently?
• What did you get out of the worship service this past Sunday?
• What is God doing in your life right now?

*A Children’s Leader Devotion, (Lake Forest, CA: Saddleback Church), Week 31.

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John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn’t, the girl with the rose.

His interest in her had begun thirteen months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf he found himself intrigued, not with the words of the book, but with the notes penciled in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind. In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner’s name, Miss Hollis Maynell.

With time and effort he located her address. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. The next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II. During the next year and one month the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart. A romance was budding.

Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like.

When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting—7:00 p.m. at the Grand Central Station in New York. “You’ll recognize me,” she wrote, “by the red rose I’ll be wearing on my lapel.”

So at 7:00 p.m. he was in the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he’d never seen.

I’ll let Mr. Blanchard tell you what happened:

“A young woman was coming toward me, her figure long and slim. Her blonde hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears; her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness, and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive. I started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose. As I moved, a small, provocative smile curved her lips. ‘Going my way, sailor?’ she murmured.

“Almost uncontrollably I made one step closer to her, and then I saw Hollis Maynell.

“She was standing almost directly behind the girl. A woman well past 40, she had graying hair tucked under a worn hat. She was more than plump, her thick-ankled feet thrust into low-heeled shoes. The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own.

“And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible; her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. I did not hesitate. My finger gripped the small worn blue leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her. This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something perhaps even better than love, a friendship for which I had been and must ever be grateful.

“I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman, even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment. ‘I’m Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?’

“The woman’s face broadened into a tolerant smile. ‘I don’t know what this is about, son,’ she answered, ‘but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should go and tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!’”

It’s not difficult to understand and admire Miss Maynell’s wisdom. The true nature of a heart is seen in its response to the unattractive. “Tell me whom you love,” Houssaye wrote, “and I will tell you who you are.”

In the last sermon recorded by Matthew (Matt. 25:31-46), Jesus told the story about the sheep and the goats and sets a spiritual thermometer through which to gauge a heart by a person’s concern for the undesirable.

Jesus has called us to love the least lovely as well as the lovely and to love those whom no one else will love.

You might say it is a test. A test to measure the depth of our character. The same kind of test Hollis Maynell used with John Blanchard. The rejected of the world wear the roses. Sometimes we, like John Blanchard, have to adjust our expectations. Sometimes we have to re-examine our motives. Had he turned his back on the unattractive, he would have missed the love of his life. If we turn our backs, we will miss even more.*

Reflect

When Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17).

Respond

In the story one has to admire how Ms. Maynell put him to the test to see what his heart was really like. We face similar tests every day. For example, who are drawn to in life? People who are like you? People who are attractive? People who will give you a kind word and a loving touch? Or, are you drawn to those who need a loving touch, a gentle hug, and a kind word? Consider the people to which Jesus was drawn.

Remember

“The true nature of the heart is seen in its response to the unattractive. Show me who you love and I’ll tell you who you are.”**

*Max Lucado, And the Angels were Silent, (Portland, Oregon: Multnomah, 1992), p. 139-141, 144.

**Ibid.

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When Dr. Wayland Hoyt was pastor in Brooklyn, he was engaged in special meetings. Among those who evinced some interest was a gentleman for whom he had often prayed. He noticed his attendance one weeknight and thought he ought to speak to him about his soul, but through fear restrained.

Another night when he had returned to his home late, finding himself too nervous to sleep, he was reading in his study. As he read, something seemed to whisper in his ear, Go and see that man tonight. But the preacher mentally replied, It is after twelve o’clock, and he is asleep with everyone in bed. He read on. But the impression remained and grew. He argued. It is snowing, and I am tired! and finally, I have been working hard all day, and I don’t want to go! But all excuses to the contrary, the Spirit persisted, and at last he yielded and went.

As he touched the man’s doorbell, he thought, “What a fool I am to be ringing a man’s bell at one o’clock in the morning. He will think I am insane”. But instantly the door opened, and the man stood there fully clothed and said, “Come in; and God bless you. You are the man I have been waiting for all night. My wife and children are all asleep, but I could not sleep; I felt that I must find Jesus tonight.”

And the preacher testified, “It was no trouble to show that man the way, for the Spirit who had guided me had also gone before me.”*

Reflect

To obey is better than sacrifice… (1 Samuel 15:22).

Respond

Would you have found it difficult to be obedient to God in the above story? God created you to worship Him, but one cannot have true worship without full surrender and surrender implies that you are not your own—you belong to another. Hence, there can be no answer to Christ’s call other than “Yes, Lord.” Is there any area of your life where you are saying no to God? Have you said, “Yes, Lord” to all that He want you to do (everything from teaching to tithing to the small details in your daily life that He wants you to surrender to Him)? Is your life characterized by complete and total obedience to Christ? Why or why not?

Remember

“Surrender is not only the best way to live; it’s the only way to live. Nothing else works.” **

*W. B. Riley, “Six Essentials in Soul Winning,” Hudson, Curtis, ed. Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 204-5.

**Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishers, 2002), p. 83.

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A missionary on the foreign field employed a heathen to help him translate the New Testament into the native language. The missionary would read the verses; then the heathen would translate and write them down. Finally they came to the first Epistle of John. The missionary read, “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us.” The man translated and wrote down the words. The missionary read on, “that we should be called the sons of God.” Then the native bowed his head and wept. “What’s the matter?” asked the missionary. The man replied, “Teacher, don’t make me put it that way. I know our people. That’s too good for them. Put it this way, ‘Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we may be allowed to kiss His feet!”*

Reflect

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name (John 1:12).

Respond

True discipleship is born out of an in-love relationship with a Great God of Love. When people “fall in love” with someone, they want to talk to the person, think about them, talk about them, look at their picture, figure out how they can make them happy, and so forth. When a person falls in love with Jesus Christ, that believer wants to talk to Him (prayer), be with Him (daily devotions), talk about what He’s doing (testimonies), be around others who love Him (church), obey Him and show Him off to the world (witnessing). Then, since true discipleship is an overflow of one’s love relationship with the Lord, your desire to grow also becomes a measure of the depth of your love for Him. How much do you desire a deeper walk with Christ? What is the depth of your love for Christ (i.e., Do you want to spend time with Him? Do you want to show Him off to the world? Do you obey Him?) On a scale of 1 to 10, how deeply are you in love with Jesus? Why do you feel this way?

Remember

“We become what we are committed to.”**

* W. Herschel Ford, Sermons You Can Preach on John, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), p. 348.

**Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishers, 2002), p 180.

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Charles T. Studd was a famous sportsman in England, captain of the Cambridge XI cricket team. A century ago he gave away his vast wealth to needy causes and led the “Cambridge Seven” to China. His slogan was, “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.”

During the first decade of this century, Charles Borden left one of America’s greatest family fortunes to be a missionary in China. He only got as far as Egypt where, still in his twenties, he died of typhoid fever. Before his death he said, “No reserves, no retreats, no regrets!”

A generation ago, Jim Elliot went from Wheaton College to become a missionary to the Aucas in Ecuador. Before he was killed, he wrote, “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”

“…I [Billy Graham] have chosen Christ not because He takes away my pain but because He gives me strength to cope with that pain and in the long range to realize victory over it.

Corrie ten Boom said, ‘The worst can happen but the best remains.’”* 

Reflect

For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).

Respond

Service is one of God’s purposes for your life and the heart for service begins when a person falls in love with Christ and is willing to say, “Lord, I will do anything you want me to do. Here I am. Send me.” Have you said this lately? Are you absolutely in love with Jesus? For what specific service did God create you? Consider it this way: When you want to drive a nail, you pick up a hammer. When God wants to (fill in the blank), He calls on you.

Remember

You’ll never be happier and you’ll never be safer than right in the middle of God’s will—even if it costs your life.

*Billy Graham, Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1983) p. 94-95.

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When Gypsy Smith was converted as a boy, he became interested in his Uncle Rodney’s salvation and began to pray for him. In those days it was not considered proper for a child to speak to his elders unless he was spoken to, especially about spiritual matters. So the boy prayed and waited for his opportunity.

One day the uncle asked, “Laddie, why are your trousers almost worn out at the knees?”

The boy answered, “Uncle Rodney, they have been worn out through praying for you. I want so much for God to make you a Christian.”

The uncle put his arms around the boy, and a few minutes later fell upon his knees and cried out to God for salvation.*

Reflect

I sought for a man among them, who should build up the wall, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none. Therefore have I poured out my indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I brought on their heads, says the Lord Yahweh (Ezekiel 22:30-31).

Respond

Gypsy Smith was burdened for the salvation of his uncle. For whose salvation are you burdened? For whom do you find yourself praying, longing that God will move in their life? A student in your class? A friend or a neighbor? A work associate? Or does this burden and passion for lost souls seem to be absent from your life? Many believers lack a passion for the salvation of lost people because they live too much in this world—they are not eternally-minded, storing up treasure in heaven and living in the reality that everyone they meet will either spend eternity in Heaven with Jesus or in hell, separated from God forever to pay the price for their own sins.

*W. Herschel Ford, Sermons You Can Preach on John, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), p. 338.

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Paul Bell was our missionary to the Mexicans in Bastrop, Texas. One Saturday afternoon he mingled with the men who came to town at that time. He came in contact with a man in his sixties and found him to be a ready listener to the sweet story of Jesus and His love. Later this man was gloriously converted. He said, “I can’t read or write, so I want you to teach me John 3:16. And since my people love to sing, I want you to teach me a gospel song.” With painstaking care, Brother Bell taught him John 3:16 and a stanza of the song, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” The man also promised to come to church and be baptized.

Three weeks went by and the man didn’t show up. On the fourth Sunday he came and brought with him five other Mexicans. He walked down the aisle with them and said, “We are all here to be baptized.” In this brief time, with just a little bit of knowledge, he had led five men to Christ. He lived for two more years. Again and again he would come in and bring someone that he had won to Christ. The total reached about fifty. Then one day somebody came to Brother Bell and said, “An old Mexican woodcutter is dying, and he is calling for you.” Brother Bell went out and found the man. “I am so glad to see you,” said the woodcutter, “Will you quote my verse for me?” Brother Bell did this and then the man said, “Now will you sing my song for me?” Brother Bell lifted up his voice and sang. He saw the old man’s lips moving for a while, then they stopped. At the end of the song, he saw that the soul of the dear old Christian had slipped out to be with his God. But in two year’s time, he had won fifty souls with one verse of Scripture and one stanza of a song.*

Reflect

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Respond

Evangelism is one of the purposes God has for you. He created you to shine His life and light to all you meet. How effective do you feel in bringing other people to Christ? In what ways can you grow stronger in this area? What is your vision for seeing people saved?

Remember

You are witness everyday—either for Christ or against Him.

*W. Herschel Ford, Sermons You Can Preach on John, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958) p. 429-430.

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In the mid-1700s David Brainerd was used greatly by the Lord to reach the Indians with the Gospel. At times he would be found praying for them for hours in the snow. He loved them with the love of God.

In his diary he once wrote, “I poured out my soul for all the world, friends, and enemies. My soul was concerned, not so much for the souls as such, but rather for Christ’s kingdom, that it might appear in the world, that God might be known to be God, in the whole earth…

“I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls to Christ. While I was asleep I dreamed of these things, and when I awoke the first thing I thought of was this great work. All my desire was for the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was in God.”*

Reflect

If I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones…(Jeremiah 20:9).

Remember

“Is life’s span so dear and are home comforts so engrossing as to be purchased with my unfaithfulness and dry-eyed prayerlessness? At the final bar of God, shall the perishing millions accuse me of materialism coated with a few Scripture verses? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what the course of others may take; but as for me, give me revival in my soul and in my church and in my nation–or give me death!”**–Leonard Ravenhill

*Sammuel Tippit, Fire in Your Heart, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1987), p. 24, 81.

**Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries, (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1990), p. 161.

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From a sermon preached by Jack Hyles in 1974:

I was an introvert when I was a boy. I was still sucking my thumb when I was fourteen. On my 17th birthday I weighed 93 pounds dripping wet and full of bananas. I could not pass public speaking. I was called “Jackie boy.” Nobody took me seriously. When God called me to preach, the angels wept and Heaven’s flag was flown at half-mast for three days!

One day when I was an older teenager, the chairman of our deacon board, Jesse Cobb, met me after the service on a Sunday morning in the back of the auditorium. Jesse was the best lay soul winner I think I ever met. He said, “Jack, will you do something with me this afternoon?”

“What, Jesse?”

“Will you go soul winning with me this afternoon?”

“Jesse, you know better than that! You know I am a timid introvert. I would not know what to say if I went out soul winning. Jesse, I couldn’t do it.”

“Jack, I will make you a deal. All you will have to do is to just go with me. I will do the talking. All you will have to do is listen.”

Well, since I had a Ph.D. in listening, I said, “Now, let us get this straight. You talk, I listen.”

He said, “Well, you may have to say hello.”

I said, “I think I can handle that.”

So that afternoon for the first time in my life, I went soul winning.

Jesse Cobb and I knocked on the door. A big high school football player, tackle on the Adamson High School football team named Kenneth Florence, came to the door. Kenneth looked down at Jesse and at me. Jesse looked up to Kenneth and said, “Kenneth Florence?”

“Yes, sir.”

“My name is Jesse Cobb.”

“How do you do, sir?”

“And this is Jack Hyles.”

I generated all the extroversion at my disposal and said, “Hello.”

“Kenneth, Jack here wants to say a few words to you.”

Stuttering, I said, “Kenneth, will you go to church tonight?”

Jesse said Kenneth said, “Yes, I will.”

And I said, “You will?”

Kenneth said, “Yes, I will.”

I said, “I will come back and get you at seven o’clock tonight.”

At seven o’clock that night I went by to get Kenneth Florence. For the first time in my life I knew that God had given me a soul I had to win. I didn’t know one single Scripture of the Roman Road. I had never taken a soul-winning course. I had no idea in this world what to do.

The sermon was finished. I put my arm around Kenneth’s big, broad shoulders and said, “Kenneth, would…would…wouldn’t you like to be saved?”

He said, “Yes, I would.”

I said, “I can’t tell you how, but if you will come with me, the preacher can. Follow me.”

We went down this aisle. The pastor met me. I said, “Pastor, Kenneth wants to be saved.” I then turned and walked away. I got about two rows back, and the pastor said, “Hold it, Jack. Kenneth, Jack here wants to kneel and show you how to be saved.” No, Jack didn’t!

But I knelt and put my arms around Kenneth’s big, broad shoulders and said, “Kenneth, I do not know how to tell you how to be saved. John 3:16 says something like this: Jesus died for you because God loved you and gave Himself for you. Now, I believe that if you would be willing to ask God to forgive you and trust Him as your Savior, God would save you tonight.”

Thank God, somebody had already told Kenneth how to be saved. So Kenneth Florence bowed his head, and on his knees he began to pray something like this: “Father, thank you that this fellow is interested in me. I know I am a sinner. I know Jesus died for me, and I know that You, God, can save me, and I do now trust You as my Savior.”

While he was praying, something turned loose inside my soul! I tell you, the fireworks of Heaven began to ignite! The lightning flashed, the thunder rolled, the sparklers began to sparkle as I realized that here was something I could do. I couldn’t make the football team, but I could point a person to Heaven. I couldn’t make the senior play, but I could point a person to Heaven. I couldn’t get a date, but I could point a person to Heaven. I couldn’t make the basketball team (I did make the team, but because my legs were so skinny, people laughed at me, and I would not go on the floor); but I could point a person to Heaven.

I got off my knees and said, “Dear God, this is something a little introvert can do. This is something ‘Jackie boy’ can do.”

There is not a man or woman or a boy or a girl in this house tonight who can’t point someone to Jesus Christ…I am saying, there was a call in my breast, a call from within! I am praying that God tonight will give you that call, burning in your soul, and you will leave this place determined to be a soul winner.* 

Reflect

…for we can’t help telling the things which we saw and heard (Acts 4:20).

Remember

When David Livingstone returned from Africa to England for a visit, he recounted some of the hardships which he had endured. Then he added, “The thing that kept me alive, the thing that kept me going, were the words of Jesus, ‘Lo, I am with you always.’”

Yes, in the midst of the fiery trials of life, we are not alone and even though David Livingstone later died on the mission field, he gave his life in service to the Lord.**

*Curtis Hutson, ed., Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 44-46.

**W. Herschel Ford, Sermons You Can Preach on John, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958) p. 329.

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The following story is taken from a sermon preached by the famous evangelist Billy Sunday:

I will never forget one time in a town in Illinois when I was leaving the tent where we were holding meetings. Among those who went out last was a young man to whom I was especially attracted by his keen, bright appearance. I walked down the street with him, and we engaged in conversation. Presently I put to him the inevitable question, “Are you a Christian?”

“No, I am not.”

“Father and mother alive?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Father a Christian?”

“I don’t know; he is a steward in the [local] church.”

“Is your mother a Christian?”

“I don’t know; she is superintendent of the Sunday School in the same church.”

“Have you a brother or a sister?”

“I have a sister.”

“Is she a Christian?”

“I don’t know; she teaches in the primary department in the Sunday School.”

“Do you have family prayer in your home?”

“No, sir.”

“Ask the blessing at the table?”

“No, sir.”

“Has your father or your mother or your sister ever asked you to be a Christian?”

The tears trickled down his cheeks as he answered, “Mr. Sunday, as long as I can remember, neither my father, mother nor sister has ever asked me to be a Christian.”

Certainly that young man had a right to say, of his own flesh and blood, the mother whose breast he nursed, the father whose name he bore, and the sister he loved, that they didn’t care for his soul.”*

We say we care, but our actions speak louder than words.

How much do you care that souls are going to Hell?

Reflect

The Apostle Paul wrote:

I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh… (Romans 9:1-3).

Remember

Sidney Lanier, the great Georgian poet, died at the age of thirty-nine. He said, “I have a thousand unwritten songs in my heart.” When we come to the end of the way, must we also say, “There are thousands of things which I should have done for Christ, but now I must leave them unfinished.”**

*Curtis Hutson, ed. Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers), 1989.

**W. Herschel Ford, Sermons You Can Preach on John, (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1958) p. 329.

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Adapted from a sermon by Hyman J. Appelman:

I had a friend in seminary…One day as he and I drove to our churches in Oklahoma, he told me of his conversion. He told how he was almost driven away from home because of his drunkenness, how he was kicked out of a Christian school in Mississippi, how he became a traveling salesman, how he went from bad to worse.

Then he told me of a night in a hotel room in Vicksburg, Mississippi, recovering from an awful bout of delirium tremens after a terrible period of drunken debauchery. He made up his mind then and there that there was but one more thing for him to do—commit suicide. Starting towards the Vicksburg bridge across the Mississippi, he walked up on the bridge and stood leaning over the railing watching the swelling, dark, muddy waters of the father of rivers.

Reaching into his pocket and taking out his package of cigarettes, he put one in his mouth but couldn’t find a match. Perhaps he did not have any or was to hazy to find it.

A man came along. This young fellow of my story stopped him to ask, “Mister, do you have a match?”

“Yes,” said the stranger, and gave him a box of matches.

Scratching the match with trembling hands, he tried to light his cigarette. One after another, match after match went out. Finally he succeeded in lighting the cigarette.

The stranger was carefully watching him. After awhile he said to him, “You look kind of sick. Are you?”

“Well, I have been.”

“Let’s go have a cup of coffee.”

Something about the stranger appealed to the man in question. “All right, let’s go.” In his mind he said to himself, I can commit suicide anytime.

After the coffee, the stranger would not let this young fellow go. “Come with me.”

“Where?”

“Never mind, just come along. Come on. You can go home after we’re through.”

They went to church. A revival meeting was going on. The two of them sat in the very back. Somehow, to the befuddled brain of the man in question, there came the story once again of the love of God, of the death of Christ on the cross. Apparently he was impressed, but he made no move.

He went back to his room. He stayed a few more days in Vicksburg to straighten out; then he went home. His people did not seem too glad to receive him.

On Sunday he went to church without saying a word to them. When the preacher gave the invitation, this young fellow walked slowly down the aisle, made a public profession of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, then followed the Son of God in baptism. Later the Lord called him to preach, he entered the ministry, became an outstanding religious leader in the United States, leading many people to Christ.

But what if that anonymous stranger on the street had been too busy to notice him? What if he had condemned him for smoking instead of presenting the love of Christ? What if he had not been prepared to give of himself to another? Then this young man, whose name is Charlie, would have died without Christ and would have found himself forever separated from God in the torments of hell. It’s amazing the difference one life can make, the change that one moment on a bridge can bring. The stranger could have passed on by, but instead he stopped. You have the same choice: Are you ready to stop and speak of Christ or will you pass on your way without a second glance?*

Reflect

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time (Colossians 4:5).

Remember

How shall I feel at the day of judgment, if multitudes of missed opportunities pass before me in full review, and all my excuses prove to be disguises of my cowardice and pride?**–W. E. Sangster

NOTE: Dr. Hyman Appelman, from whose message the above story was adapted, was born in Russia and was reared and trained in the Jewish faith. After becoming a lawyer he accepted Christ at age 28 in 1925. His Jewish family, then living in Chicago, disowned him.

His father said to him, “When your sides come together from hunger and you come crawling to my door, I will throw you a crust of bread as I would any other dog.”

Nevertheless, this Jewish Christian made eight or nine trips around the world as an evangelist, authored 40 books, and preached so intensively that he spent only two weeks a year at home. His ministry lasted 53 years.***

*Hyman J. Appelman, “Paralyzed People,” [July 1946], Hudson, Curtis, ed. Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 128-129.

**Leonard Ravenhill, Why Revival Tarries, (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1990), 68.

***Hyman J. Appelman, “Paralyzed People,” [July 1946], Hudson, Curtis, ed. Great Preaching on Soul Winning, (Murfreesboro, TN: Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1989), p. 128-129.

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