Just like our lives need a solid
foundation, so does our evangelism. The foolish man built
upon a place that wouldn’t last and saw destruction because
he didn’t have a solid foundation. If we don’t have a solid
foundation for evangelism, we will fail, plain and simple.
Even before the foundation
Depending on the building and the
location a foundation can be laid anywhere. In our area
though, a building needs a foundation below the frost line,
30 inches or more beneath the soil. We’ve got to work even
before we lay the first brick in our foundation.
Evangelism is the same way, before we
can even begin building the foundation, we need to dig down
to the very basic level. In the case of evangelism, praying
and reading God’s Word are the two necessary elements before
the foundation can even be laid.
Why are praying and reading God’s Word
so important to evangelism?
Are we ready to move beyond this to
build the foundation, or do we need to spend more time in
this area?
The foundation
God does not change.
The church has not changed.
Society has changed.
We’ve got a problem.
In case you missed it, society has
changed a lot in our lifetimes. Baby boomers and those who
are older watched as God was thrown out of school in 1963.
Generation X witnessed the advent of cable television and
moral degradation across the airwaves. Today, elementary
school kids cannot remember life before a tragedy in
Columbine, Colorado where Christian kids were shot because
of their faith.
With these changes in mind, we should
realize that our programs that worked in the past might not
work at the present time or in the future.
But because God does not change, there
are things that we can cling to and that we must show
others.
Foundation #1
People matter to God.
The idea sounds simple enough, but do
we live it? Do our programs at church reflect this truth?
Do our checkbooks know that people
matter to God, or do they know that fast food matters to us?
If you don’t believe this one truth in
your heart, everything else you do in evangelism won’t be
for the right reasons and you’d be better off saving your
time.
