I want to talk about intervention. By this, I mean receiving influence from outside ourselves.
We are called to admonish, encourage, challenge and exhort one another on a daily basis. This is necessary because we all have a habit of excusing ourselves from the call of God.
We all tend to exempt ourselves because we feel personally inadequate. Or, we say we are too busy. Our lives are filled with commitments to work, home, family and friends. We are under pressure just to survive. Surely, God will not require that we actually take up the yoke of the kingdom. Surely, he will ?excuse us from the responsibility for the health and growth of the church.
As I search my Bible, I find that such excuses carry no weight. Jesus is Lord. That?s the end of all argument.
It?s at this point we need each other. Public preaching is not enough.
Sunday by Sunday, you hear the challenge, the exhortation and the encouragement to engage with God?s real plan for your life. But, by the time many reach the car park, the words of God so clearly calling for action are forgotten. They have died in the heart, buried by our own excuses.
One of the function of the cell groups is to hold one another accountable to the call of God. What action did you take last week, to build up the body of Christ and to reach the lost?
What did this week?s sermon call you to do, and how are you going to do it? As we speak like this to ourselves and to one another, we see our own internal arguments demolished. We stop being dominated or driven only by concern for our own welfare. We begin to take seriously the command of Scripture to become effective and fruitful disciples of Christ.
So I ask you, what are you doing for the sake of eternity? Are you too preoccupied with the fleeting hings of this world? What excuse will you have when, on that Day, you have to give account of what you did with what he gave you to do? Of course, you can stop reading this and turn back to business as usual. You can take comfort from the crowd.
After all, how many really take this seriously. But, that is false comfort and dark deceit.
It is time to wake up and do. It is time to stop making excuses and engage.
The day is far spent and night-time is coming. The door of our present opportunity will soon close.
Make your mark. Carry your responsibility. Let God determine the measure of blessing on your efforts. You will have simply done your duty.