God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
John 4:24
The other night, I was listening to a Christian podcast by Dr. Charles Stanley and he said something that I really haven’t been able to let go of since I heard it. He said….
“When you die, do you want to have made an impact or an impression”
There isn’t much to that until you put it into the context of his sermon. He spoke on how incredibly good God is to us. How richly blessed we are to be children of God. And how we as children of God should be doing everything we can to speak as witnesses to God’s amazing blessings he bestows upon us. It literally should be our number one priority!
We have every opportunity to spread God’s word but how many of us do? That’s not a question written in judgement by me because the reason this sermon stood out to me was because it stopped me dead in my tracks – I need to do better! It’s abundantly clear I need to do better.
When we are with our friends and family, do we spread God’s message and tell people about Jesus? Or do we just talk about last nights football game or what happened on the latest episode of __ whatever show we watched?
Dr. Stanley then went on to say isn’t it funny how we will go to great lengths to make sure our earthly possessions are taken care of before we die. We will go to lawyers and fill out papers and go through all our items one by one to make sure that they are given to people we love and care about when in reality, all of those things mean nothing when we’re dead and gone. But very few of us spend time thinking about sharing our heavenly blessings from God.
The salvation made possible by Jesus on the cross.
Sure, Joe had a really extensive baseball card collection and his grandson is really happy to have it. Or Susan sure had a lot of collectible dishes that she left her sister to care for. Very nice in gesture but useless in the end. It’s all just stuff.
If you want to make an impact, leave them something that’s worth something. Tell them about Jesus. Tell them about salvation. Tell them about the amazing blessings God has enriched your life with and how the Holy Spirit works through you. Tell them about the cross and what it means. That’s making an impact. That’s leaving something worth more than all the riches and gold on this earth.
I’ll just be honest, hearing this really made me think about how I need to do better. I honestly don’t remember the last time I’ve spoken about those things to my friends or family. I need to be someone who leads by example. I need to share God’s word more than I do. I can feel God pushing me towards this…
While at church today, my Pastor (Howie) also preached something similar. Pastor Howie spoke on how we as Christians like to “play church while a lost world dies”. Powerful statement, right? It’s true. There will be people who die today who won’t know Jesus. As Christian’s, that should break our hearts. I know it weighs heavy on mine.
Then tonight, I opened my bible to read scripture tonight and one of the first messages I see is John 4:24.
Okay God. I hear you. Thank you for opening my eyes to this. Thank you for blessing me and giving me a voice and allowing me to know You. Thank you for speaking through me.
I’m not saying we need to go stand on a street corner or scream from our roof tops. I’m just saying there might be better ways for us to stop playing church and start living church.
We’re just the vessel, God’s steering this ship. Don’t be afraid or ashamed to share that. It’s the greatest blessing you’ll ever know and the most powerful, important message you have in your life to share.
Worship God in spirit and truth.