You’re in Full-Time Ministry

Hey, welcome to Ignite with Barry McGuire. If you're a Christian, you probably share my concern over where our world is headed and even more concerned over what the Church has become, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. Get this. In 1960, 7 years of our population were weekly Church attenders, but that number dropped to less than 20% in 2019 pre-COVID. And 30% of those have a watch-one servant since COVID, with anger, fear, and anxiety being as prevalent inside the Church as it is outside the Church today. Something's drastically wrong and we need to fix it. I just one guy, but I would suggest that we completely lost focus on God's purpose for the Church, which is the proclamation of God's gifts of eternal life to the last. The great commission doesn't tell us to go into the world and read our Bible or go to the world and pray or even go into the world and feed the poor. Of course, we are called to do all of that, but above all of that, God's called us, called you to go into the world and share his gifts to be eternal life. And with the world growing darker by the day, his command for us to do that has never been more urgent. When Jesus was asked, which command was the greatest? He responded by saying, love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, all your strength. God, I don't want anything between us. I just want to serve you. I want to love you. I want to manifest yourself in me and be a blessed others. And then he goes on and he says, the second is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself. Here's the deal. If you love your neighbor as yourself, everyone you influence, you'll be as concerned for their salvation as you are your own. That's the game changer. That's everybody around you. And then he added, if you love God and love your neighbors yourself, you'll complete the law in your life, all 10 commandments. And why is that? How is that possible? Because if you're focused on getting everyone under your influence into heaven, you'll make sure that everything, I mean everything you say and do from that point forward is moving everyone every day closer to Jesus and and bringing glory to God, including what you say, how you dress, what you laugh at, what you talk about, how you treat people, how you care for people, no amount of prayer and Bible study by itself would do that for you. It's only when you're focused on moving everyone every day closer to Jesus full time. A staggering 80% of our population are unchurched. They're unbelievers. They're blinded by Satan, lost to the darkness and believe it or not, they're searching for God and already have at least one Christian in life that they trust. That's opportunity knocking. The fields are white for harvest. It's never been easier to share your faith and the darker it gets, the easier it gets. Knowing this is our reality today, consider afresh the questions given to us in Romans 10, 14. How will they know God loves them unless someone tells them? You're not going to church. And who will tell that unless someone sends them? This is where the church is failing us. I got to tell you, they are. When's the last time you heard a sending message from your pastor? Ephesians 4 aloud explains the role of the pastor to equip the saints that's us for ministry, but that almost never happens. When's the last time your pastor told you that you're in ministry? Actually, if you're a Christian, you're in full time ministry. A city set on a hill. If you're a Christian, everything you say and do is moving everyone watching you closer or further away from God, to the smallest detail, especially in the smallest detail. You're being watched by people, you don't even know. And moving them closer further away from God without even knowing it. This is where the rubber meets the road for every Christian for you and for me. And you're probably not even hearing it from your pastor, every hearing it from your pastor. The typical church offers entertainment rather than worship and edifying messages and how to be a better person with three points in a joke without even mentioning the most important task God has given you to seek and save the lives. What are we doing? Few research studied 50,000 servants from 6,000 churches last year. And they found that less than 10% of all the servants even mentioned salvation. God help us. The church is broken. The lost are growing in numbers. And almost no one is doing anything about it. That's why we're in this mess. And that's why we're doing these podcasts. We're in a battle for the soul of America whose root cause is neither political or racial. It's spiritual. People are led by demons are trying to do it and are really doing a very good job and destroying America because we're trying to fight this spiritual battle with politics. The minds of men, that's not working. It can't work. We need the whole armor of God. Whether you're a person or a country, when you're in sync with God, you have peace and joy and love. But when you move away from God, you move away from peace and joy and love. Very simply, that's where America is today. America and Americans have moved away from God and are suffering the consequences. This is spiritual warfare. And we're not even showing up for the battle. We just sit on the sidelines and complain. I mean, listen to us. No one's telling the lost that they're lost or how God is the solution for all their problems. For all of America's problems, instead, we don't know what to say. So we say nothing. Our soul has lost its solidness and being trident of the foot of man. That's what's happening. Scriptures are being fulfilled. It's never been more true. We've met the enemy and it's us. The world has lost the darkness. We have the light, but we're keeping it under our bushel Do you understand this? This has to change or there's no hope for America. I'm a patriot. I love America. But the most important thing I can do is lead everybody every day closer to Jesus. The world's lost unless some of us, all of us, bring light to the world. We could do this. You know, here's a sad thing. Even our pastors who mention God's call to share faith almost always have it at the end of their to-do list, like it's an add-on. This is our problem, pastors. It's not an add-on. It's not the last thing. It's the first thing. It's the thing that drives everyone else. Excuse me. It's the thing that drives everything else. It's our great commission. Everything else we're called to do in the Christian life follows in the wake of the great commission. Here's why. Most Christians don't pray or read their Bibles. But every Christian shares a faith that's in the Word and on their knees every day. That's a fact. And sadly, most of those who do pray and fast and read God's Word every day never share their faith. They're proud of being religious in their disciplines and even boast about the money they're giving to ministry. But without one thought of taking personal responsibility for the eternal destination of those around them. And are often even careless in their language and indulges us. I see it all the time. It doesn't make sense. Where's their mind? Where's their focus? But when you share your faith, no one has to tell you to be in the Word and on your knees every day because you're being asked questions you can't answer. And you're praying for all the people God is bringing into your life and about to bring into your life. Your Bible study and prayer life coming alive with purpose as does everything in your life including the bad stuff. Your entire life is ignited. It's exciting folks. I got to tell you and you'll never again be lax in your actions and your language and you're understanding that everything that's happening in your life is working for good. God's good. Here's a great scripture for you in the letter to the Church of Ephesus and Revelations chapter 2. God calls Christians to repentance. That's people like you and me us Christians. He calls us to repentance for leaving their first love, loving something more than God and no longer doing the first work. The first work every Christian does when they're saved is announced into their friends they tell everyone and God calls Christians to repentance where they stop telling everyone about Jesus. Over the past 50 years our churches have trained us to be better people and to do good things. Most Christians today actually believe that being a good person sharing their faith but being good and doing good things may make you feel good but it doesn't get you or anyone else to have it. The world is full of good people doing good things that have nothing what's so ever to do with redemption. Unfortunately the world around us is going to hell and being good to them simply makes them more comfortable in their journey. They're lost and somebody needs to explain to them that they're lost. We are literally the the lukewarm shirts that God has raised a few out of his mouth being good doing good things and having zero concern for the salvation of those around us literally allowing the world to go to hell that's what we're doing. When we're on fire for God we're moving everybody every day closer to Jesus and those who are colder expected to do bad things but the millions of Christians many of you watching me right now the millions of Christians here openly have not proudly Christian and yet have no concern for the eternal death stage of those around them are the lukewarm church on the wrong side of Revelation's 315. If you're there you need to get out of there I've got to tell you God's calling for us to be watchmen in the wall is even more chilling. You know God tells us that it's equal 317 let me let me quote it for you. Son of man I've made you a watchman for the house of Israel therefore hear a word from my mouth God's mouth and give them a warning from me when I say to the wicked you should surely die and you give them no warning don't speak to warn the wicked from his wicked ways it changes life that same wicked man should die in his iniquity but get this his blood I require at your hand this is deadly serious folks you're not hearing this message God has put people in your path under your responsibility and God is holding you responsible for those under your influence and time is running out here my plea are you ready for some good news I got a lot of good news here it is there's a ton of scriptures that tell us what God does for us when we do share our faith when we are as concerned for the salvation of those around us as we are for our own salvation when we're focused on moving everyone every day closer than Jesus it's actually fun and you can stop worrying about all the things I just told you about here's the best promise of all of course in John 3 16 God promises his gifts of eternal life in heaven but get this in Romans 8 28 God promises to make everything in your life for now until you get to heaven work for good win and this is the point most Christians don't understand win and only win you love God you love God and you live your life for his purpose read it that's what it says when you live your life for his purpose that means to seek and save the last to move everyone every day closer than Jesus there it is that's the key that opens the door to a worry free life I mean wow it's incredible wouldn't you know that you know the God is making everything in your life work for good it's the end of worry and in the beginning of whole hearted unwavering faith that God loves and expects from us who doesn't want that no more worries church this is for us this is this really is good news when things go south you don't have to even ask God for anything you already know the God knows that you live for his purpose and because of that he'll honor his word to make everything in your life we're for good Yahoo it doesn't get any better than that yes it's bone chillingly clear how God feels about you if you're not sharing your faith but but it's equally clear how God will pour out his blessings on you the moment you commit to start moving everybody every day closer than Jesus this is God's purpose and you're called to live your life for God's purpose until your last breath this is God's highest priority for your life and you can start immediately how many unsafe friends and loved ones do you have in your life in addition to all the unsafe people God will bring into your schedule today and every day they are your mission field you can't save them that's above your faith that's above your pagory but but God's holding your response removing every one of them every day closer to Jesus here's the reality check I love by business but what do they get to have it it's not going to matter how many balls of car wax I saw it it's just not for all of us who are Christians the only thing that will matter a hundred years for now is how many people would be in heaven because of our influence because of your influence and the clock is ticking that brings us to the how to and that's the most exciting part because the biblical call to share your faith has nothing to do with training or memorization or recitation or or the pressure getting so enslaved in one setting faith sharing is a team sport it usually takes 10 to 20 encounters with Christians before an unbelievers ready to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and you never know if you're the first or the 20th first on that progression so just focus on moving everyone every day closer to Jesus most faith sharing experiences are spontaneous they're unexpected you never have any ideas happens and all of a sudden it's happening encounters that cannot possibly be scripted but Jesus said they'll know your right disciple by your love you don't have to be trained to love on people and you don't have to repair your thoughts there's nothing in the human experience that right was having the Holy Spirit speak through you to change another person's life and that experience can be yours on a daily basis and here's the best part igniteamerican.com will explain to you how easy it is and how much fun it is to love people into heaven it's packed full of articles videos and testimonies with people all walks in life who love to share their faith as well as cutting edge information and statistics that will make you the most informed person in every God focused conversation and it's all free with no sign of surpass words just a ton of reality uh uh factual helpful information that you're going to love uh we have this card that you can have and and it will send you to igniteamerican.com give you all that information carry these with you we all need to we're all gonna have to start sharing our faith so carry these with you they're free at igniteamerican.com carry these with you and give them to your Christian friends so you'll ignite them to share their faith it's a team sport folks and we need to do that and on the other side of this card you have seeking God.org and that's when you have these spontaneous conversations and you know you've struck interests in them about the Lord you've ignited interests in them and they want to know more and you got to leave you can handle this card and say if you want to know more go to seeking God.org and that'll tell them everything they need to know about God if they don't know anything will take them all the way to the center's prayer it makes faith sharing so easy we need your help to igniteamerica with revival see you next time