Thursday, September 30, 2010

September 29, 2010

"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them." 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' " Luke 16:27-31
For the past few days I have been sharing about the topic of urgency. God has been pushing this button in my heart since I studied this text for my message Sunday. As I prepared for Sunday morning I was moved and challenged by these last four verses of chapter 16 which picture the formerly rich man trapped in hell. It wasn't until he found himself condemned to this horrible fate for eternity. It was almost to unbearable but he was moved with an urgency to reach his loved ones and spare them his terrible fate.
I had to examine my own sense of urgency toward spiritually unprepared people. As I meditated on this condemned man and reflected on my own experience, I realized that the enemy of urgency is complacency. So, I asked myself, "What turns urgency to complacency?" I came up with three attitudes that rob urgency and faster complacency.
The first is success. Being successful can be cause complacency especially when you presume that your success is a direct result of God's blessing you. You reason that since He is blessing you then you must ok spiritually. Once you buy into that thought you begin to become careless.
The second we talked about was excess. Once you get too much "stuff" it distracts you from your primary purpose and passion for living. With all that stuff you have to guard it and grow it and get more of it. If success = blessing and blessing = stuff then the more stuff the bigger the blessing. That happened to the rich man and it can happen to you!
Thirdly, complacency can replace urgency because of access. This rich man had access to have compassion and help Lazarus, but he didn't. He remained detached and unaffected by the needs of this desparate man. Because he was unmoved by the needs of the man, he became complacent.
Everyone of us who want to live with passion and urgency need to stay connected with spiritually needy people. We need to have some good friends who are spiritual seekers. We need to befriend those who have an interest in spiritualility but who have not yet been exposed to the gospel. The only way to get an urgency or a burden to reach spiritually lost people is to spend time with them. Make time in your schedule to play golf with them or have coffee with them or go fishing with them or hunting with them, etc. Spend time in their world so you learn how to connect with them and lead them in to our world.
I am glad someone had a sense of urgency about my salvation. I want to be that for others.
How about you? How is your urgency for the lost?
If you don't care enough about lost people, get into a civic club or a golf league or a bowling league, some place where you can spend time with non-believers and begin to reach them for Christ. That will generate a sense of spititual urgency that is healthy and necessary to complete the Great Commission.
Fight complacency. Fuel urgency. Access lost people.

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