WE HAVE BECOME PURVEYORS OF A GOSPEL MESSAGE THAT WE OURSELVES DON’T NEED ANYMORE.
This may well be the most important sentence I have ever written, at least when it comes to speaking to Christians. Yesterday I had to put it in italicized caps just because I couldn’t write it loud enough. Today, from reading some of your comments I can see I need to keep saying it. And I will. And I will say it in as many ways as I can think of.
If you’ve ever been to an AA meeting you will notice that no one ever puts their struggle with alcohol in the past tense, even someone who’s been sober for 19 years. (I say that because you get a special coin commemorating your sobriety each year as a milestone. I said 19 because someone once gave me their 19-year sobriety coin to keep. I still have it. I thought it was one of the greatest honors I’ve ever received. I felt like he had given me a million dollars. How can you put a price on a 19-year struggle? But that person would also be quick to tell me that they are struggling with alcohol right now, today, just as much as they ever were. The moment they think that struggle is behind them is the moment they will fall.)
The moment we think our struggle with sin is behind us is the moment we will fall. The moment we rest on being saved yesterday is the moment we will miss what we need to be saved from today.
Those of you who have attended a lot of churches know that in some denominations there is a tradition of providing for an “altar call” after the sermon. This is a time when people can respond to the message by coming forward for prayer. They may be coming for salvation or to “rededicate their life to Christ” or for prayer for a certain need, but it is a means of a humble response to hearing the truth. It might just be saying, “This message touched me deeply and I want to find out why.” Though I think it’s been abused in many ways, I don’t think it is a bad practice at all, but I think there is a way pastors could make it better.
Here’s what I think: I think if every pastor went down front for prayer after his or her own sermon, we would be a stronger church. It would be a continual statement that the pastor needs the message as much as the church does.
For all the pastors in the Catch, it’s my challenge to you. Give an altar call Sunday and then go forward. Let someone else close the service. Get down there and do whatever it is you would want your congregation to do after hearing you preach, and let us know what happens.
John Fischer The Catch 
I didn’t read yesterday’s post. That sentence is so profound (…a message we don’t need any longer).
Thank you very much for this one sentence, it is a great reminder. The last three years have been useful because of the the sinful strongholds that are being and have been removed from my life. This is intentional because I want to be like Jesus. I got to a place where I thought I had ‘arrived’ even though once ‘an alcoholic(sinner) always an alcoholic’. This place of pride you just stomped on and crushed with your most important sentence, so thank you. It is a great reality check.
Salvation is a gift, sanctification is a life long process. The latter is my choice to do or not. Sanctification has led me to ask what breaks God’s heart. I break it daily, He forgives eternally. God’s biggest thing is love. So for me the biggest thing is to love my neighbor and that means to reach out and share their pain first and foremost. It is the lack of love that is the root of all addictions or sins, whatever you want to call them. I suffer from addictions although I never was addicted to drugs or alcohol.
I had reached a point where my heart thought it did not need God because ‘I had done so well in becoming Christ like’, my brain did not but my heart did. Your sentence revealed that major flaw, thank you and God bless you for listening to the Holy Spirit to write this catch. It is wonderful how the truth is a daily wonderfully humbling experience.
I came to Christ in 1970. After re-reading yesterday’s comments and today’s catch it has me thinking.
In 1970 I didn’t confess, as a child, my sin because I was a afraid of hell. I was a little witnesser (not a real word) myself. At night I would pray for my “lost” friends. It was the spirit of God that clearly pointed out to me that I was the lost one.
It is God that calls the lost to himself, His spirit will reveal Himself to whom He desires.
We have used hell to manipulate others to accept Christ.
No one needs some Christian pointing out their faults or perceived sins. If there is good news news it is the we are loved, that there is no condemnation in Christ. In the presence of the Holy Spirit our “lostness” is revealed.
Christians pretend to have answers when we really only have faith. We’re all lost and we’re all sinners. The good news is that it doesn’t matter, Jesus paid the price for all.
We think because some technique worked 50 or 70 years ago we can use it now to manipulate God and others to a similar result. I say just love God and others and wait with great anticipation Gods next move. Share His love as an equal to others, not as a superior.
I treat everyone as if they are “saved”. I’ll let God handle the details. Most of us looked lost to somebody at some point in our life.
Oh boy do I love this: “just love God and others and wait with great anticipation for Gods next move.”
Tim – though I am still seeking – this makes sense to me.
Love the Altar call and writing about needing to rededicate every day. We are so blessed that Jesus grants the gift of forgiveness…over and over, every day. That’s what keeps me renewed and sustained.
Leslie