Every day pray that everyone you know will either become a Christian or influence others to become a Christian, and please share this online book with others - www.areyousureyouaresaved.com
Worship music - Please click the links and sing along if you know the words (You can also click skip ad to go straight to the songs) -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05hhZ0oFEIk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09sWkMK4uY4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-lRMO8vHT0
Are People Really Being Lead To Christ?
It's no surprise that people become pastors for the wrong reasons. Although, there are well meaning pastors who are taking a wrong approach. Wanting everyone to become a Christian is a great way of thinking, but we can't ignore Jesus' approaches in the Gospel's of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Many people try to make it as easy as possible for people to become Christians, but Jesus didn't take that approach -
1. To summarize Luke 18:18–30, Jesus told The Rich Young Ruler to sell his possessions and give to the poor (do what Jesus said to do for his calling in life, for example—Jesus calls some people to preach, be missionaries, and serve Him in ways where people are out of their comfort zones) and take up his cross and follow Him (live like Him). The Rich Young Ruler wasn’t willing to do these things (do what Jesus said to do and try to live like Jesus), and he went away sorrowful and didn’t get saved. When you put these two things together, you have the definition of the word ‘follow’ (imitate and obey). Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary defines ‘follow’ as 'to accept as authority: OBEY, to copy after; IMITATE.' The Rich Young Ruler wanted to spend more of his time, thoughts, and effort on his possessions and money, and he wasn't willing to spend more of his time “from that moment on” helping others, and when he wasn't doing that, thinking like Jesus and trying to not have sinful actions. As a result, The Rich Young Ruler didn't get saved.
2. Jesus met with three possible followers in Luke 9:57–62, and they weren’t willing to live the type of lives He was calling them to live. The first man wasn’t willing to be without a home and follow Jesus. The second man wanted to wait until he had his father’s inheritance before he began to follow Jesus, and he wasn’t willing to preach the kingdom of God to others. The final man didn’t want to completely leave his old lifestyle, and Jesus knew that the man would serve others but would turn back. As a result, all three men turned back and didn’t get saved.
3. John 2:23–24 says, "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men." This means that many people believed in Jesus because of the miracles He performed, but He knew that they weren't willing to be "committed" to Him and become His disciples. These people just believed with their minds, and they weren't willing to spend more of their time witnessing to and/or helping others and thinking and talking like Jesus. As a result, they didn't get saved.
4. John 6:26–66 means that this group of people turned away from following Jesus because they thought He was going to be a conquering Messiah, He refused to give into self-centered requests—people were following Him to gain prestige, popularity, and possibly political votes from others (They wasn't willing to follow Him for the right reasons. The reason that they should have followed Jesus was to make God look good in front of others, so they will praise Him and want to be saved too). He emphasized faith and not deeds in order to be saved, and His teaching was hard to understand and was offensive to them. Today, just like these people, many people want to ignore certain verses that they don't like (ex. Luke 9:23: "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.") and just focus on verses that mention believing. The more they heard Jesus' message, the more they divided themselves into two different groups: the true seekers who wanted to understand more of Jesus' truths (Jesus’ original eleven disciples plus Judas who later betrayed Him), and those who rejected Jesus because they thought His message was too hard to understand, and they wasn't willing to follow Him for the right reasons. As a result, the second group of people turned away and didn't get saved.
5. In Jesus' day, multitudes followed Him around admiring seeing Him perform miracles, and a particular instance was after Jesus feed the 5,000 (Actually only the men were counted, so if the women and children were counted, there would have been a lot more present). However five verses later, Jesus turned to them and told them what kind of life they will have to live if they "really" wanted to follow Him (Luke 9:23–26). The majority of the multitude turned away and didn't follow Him anymore. We know this because in the Upper Room during Pentecost, only about an hundred and twenty disciples (Acts 1:15) were present including Jesus' original eleven disciples. In another instance, 1 Corinthians 15:6 says, "After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep." These were disciples who saw Jesus after His resurrection. The point is that thousands of people turned away, gave up on Jesus, and didn't endure to the end. "And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved" (Matthew 10:22). So, we know that many thousands of people admired Jesus and followed Him around, but only hundreds (a small minority) proved to possess salvation. Compared with the four previous points that were made, that seems to be a relatively close approximation because Jesus (mentioning how many people actually enter Heaven) said in Matthew 7:14, "Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it."
You may look at these passages and become confused because Jesus seemed to present salvation a lot easier to other people, such as the woman at the well in John 4:7-26. Jesus didn't have to make it "seemingly hard" for her because He knew that her heart was already prepared, and she proved that she had became a Christian by the following verses -
John 4:28-30, "28The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, 29Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ? 30Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. she ran and told others." and John 4:39-42, "39And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did. 40So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days. 41And many more believed because of his own word; 42And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world."
Unlike Jesus, we aren't able to read people's hearts and know how prepared or unprepared their hearts are. So, we shouldn't tell people who aren't Christians to just believe in Jesus, even though this is very popular. For biblical ways on how to lead people to the Lord, please follow these websites -
If there is an urgent situation, please follow the instructions in this website: http://chriswaug5.wix.com/urgent
If you feel led to witness during planned hospital and/or nursing home visits etc., please follow the instructions in this website: http://chriswaug5.wix.com/planned
If you feel led to ask people if they are a Christian, and they say 'yes', please follow the instructions in this website: http://chriswaug5.wix.com/checking
If you feel led to ask people if they are a Christian, and they say 'no', please follow the instructions in this website: http://chriswaug5.wix.com/asking
If you feel led to ask people if they are a Christian, and they say they are of a different religion, please follow the instructions in this website: http://chriswaug5.wix.com/other
Jesus really wants people to believe that He is the Savior, but if they aren't willing to live for Him, He will not become their Savior. Jesus turned thousands of people away from Heaven during His time on the earth (explained in number 1-5 of this sermon), and He is still doing that today. Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever."
You may be saying, "When people were willing to follow Jesus in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, they was willing to become homeless and go town to town in order to minister to people, but we are under grace today and just need to believe that Jesus is our Savior." Being willing to follow Jesus doesn't always mean being willing to become homeless and go town to town in order to minister to people. This type of lifestyle best describes a modern traveling missionary. Obviously, God doesn't call everyone to be a missionary. Many pastors prove to be followers of Jesus, and God leads them to be married and have children. Therefore, they aren't able to become homeless and go town to town in order to minister to people.
The following websites explain what it means to be willing to follow Jesus, and it's relation to salvation - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/theanswer
http://chriswaug5.wix.com/chap4
http://chriswaug5.wix.com/chap5,
http://chriswaug5.wix.com/chap6
http://chriswaug5.wix.com/chap7
http://chriswaug5.wix.com/chap8
http://chriswaug5.wix.com/chap9
http://chriswaug5.wix.com/chap10
If you have never prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, you must be willing to follow Jesus from this moment on and for the rest of your life. This website will tell you how - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven
If you have prayed or made a decision to trust Jesus' death on the cross and His shed blood to erase your sins and let you into Heaven, but you haven't been following Jesus, please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/makingsure
If you have prayed or made a decision to become a Christian, but you are not sure that you are really a Christian (Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 21:18-22, 1 John 5:14, and Hebrews 11:1), you need to be sure - please follow this website - http://chriswaug5.wix.com/howtogotoheaven