Flatwoods church of Christ

You are here: Home / Archives for Media

The Invitation

by Leave a Comment

I recently read the following from an online resource regarding the invitation that is extended at the close of the sermon:

“Here it comes. The preacher is wrapping up his sermon, people are putting away their Bibles and grabbing the song book, and then the singing starts. The preacher stands at the front of the congregation scanning the crowd for any responses. You make sure not to make eye contact with him, not wanting him to confuse your errant glance as guilt. The song ends. The preacher walks disappointedly to his seat and the worship service ends with a prayer. Sound familiar? …If your church is like mine then you probably see this most Sundays…I am not saying that we should not provide people with an avenue to voice their hurts, ask for prayers, or ask to be baptized. We need to allow people to do this. My question is: Is a public invitation the best way to do this? I’m thinking no.” For the full article see https://start2finish.org/tbh-invitation-still-effective/

pew

The writer closes his article by saying in part: “I am not saying I have all the answers or that I am even right. But I do see a problem that needs help. You might completely disagree with me and that’s fine.”

There have been others also who have said the invitation after the sermon is not needed and should not be offered. I firmly disagree.

First we need to recognize the invitation is the Lord’s invitation. This is what Jesus did. Matthew 11:28-30, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…”. The Bible closes with an invitation. Revelation 22:17, “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely”.

Second we need to recognize the purpose of the invitation. The invitation is an exhortation from a servant of God for the unforgiven to receive forgiveness of sins by obeying the Gospel (Romans 10:17; John 8:24; Luke 13:3; Mathew 10:32; Mark 16:16) or an erring Christian to return to the Lord by confessing, repenting and praying (Acts 8:22). While the Lord’s invitation is always open, this may be what someone needs to hear to respond at that time or it may plant the seed to bring about obedience later.

Imagine if you will that you are one that had never heard the truth of God’s Word and one Sunday you come to worship with the Lord’s church. As you sit there you are impressed with the simplicity of the worship and the book, chapter, and verse preaching from the pulpit. Listening intently to the sermon you wonder, What must I do to be saved? The preacher concludes his sermon, steps down from the pulpit and without another word, the congregation begins to sing. There you sit without a word of how to have your sins forgiven.

Do we not recognize the importance of this time when we all pause together to encourage someone to come to the Lord; the invitation. Remember in Revelation 22:17 “the bride” says “Come”, that is the church.

How can a faithful preacher “reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2) and neglect to offer an invitation to the lost that need salvation and not remind the faithful of God’s Plan of Salvation? It is always appropriate and right to exhort people to obey God.

 

-Jerry D. Sturgill

 

 

Turn to the Lord

by Leave a Comment

The message God gave His people through the prophets was, “Return to Me.” Zechariah provides a good summary statement of the message of the prophets and how previous generations responded, when he pleads to the people of his day, “Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD” (Zech. 1:4).

God had a message of impending judgment for backsliding Israel but often attached to it was a message of hope if only they word turn to Him. Because of this exception, there are some prophecies in the Bible that in a sense do not come to pass, or perhaps it would be better to say these prophecies had a conditional aspect based on the response of the people. God explains in Jeremiah 18:7-10:

turn

At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

This conditional aspect of prophecy was even true of Gentile nations. For instance, Jonah prophesied “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4); however, we know from Jonah 3:10 that Nineveh was not overthrown after forty days because God “saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” In fact, it was because Jonah, in his bad attitude, understood this principle of God’s merciful response to man’s repentance that he grew angry, saying to the Lord, “I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil” (Jonah 4:2).

This conditional aspect of prophesied doom is also true of individuals. Elijah prophesied of Ahab’s doom in 1 Kings 21:21-22; however, “it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly” (1 Kings 21:27). Because Ahab humbled himself before the Lord, the Lord postponed the determined evil so that it would be after Ahab’s days (1 Kings 21:28-29).

As a nation and as individuals, we too have prophecies of judgment hanging over us if we are not obeying the Lord, but if we turn to Him, the Lord may relent of the evil determined for us (Psa. 9:17). Like the nation of Nineveh or king Ahab we may postpone earthly punishment only for future generations to suffer it (the book of Nahum gives God’s punishment on Nineveh more than a century after Jonah’s preaching). The only way for us to avoid punishment is to turn to the Lord.

 

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

 

-Mark Day