Joshua's Victory At Jericho Series

And churches are simply a group of people and a church as a whole is either reaching people or it’s dying. The two functions of a church as far as the scriptures are concerned are disciple making and evangelism and both of these are necessary because either one by themselves doesn’t really produce anything.

I’ve seen churches who spent all their time in discipleship mode and the people of that church knew everything from creation to the end times. They could even tell you what each knuckle on the ten toes of the beast in the book of Daniel stood for but they’ve never reach anyone for the Lord and for the most part they couldn’t care less.

I was talking to someone like this the other day and he told me he was saved but also said he saw no need of evangelism because he believes that God has chosen those who will be saved and predetermined those who are lost and there’s not a thing that you or I can do about it. Now listen, this person knew a little bit of the great doctrines of the scripture but I wondered if he really knew the Lord. Listen, if someone else didn’t have a burden for souls none of us would be sitting here today.

On the other hand I’ve seen churches that were so committed to evangelism that every member was involved in either: door to door visitation, bus ministry, street preaching or personal witnessing. These people were reaching all kinds of people with the gospel and yet the back door of their church was as open as wide as the front and the people they were reaching were going to the church next door to learn the Bible.

Listen, we need to learn the truth of the word of God and then we need to be using the things we’ve learned to reach others but one without the other is useless. In other words, we have to be putting the things we hear into practice.

An old Chinese proverb says, “May you live in interesting times” and we do. Did you know that the various cults that are at our doors today take certain truths of the word of God and they use them to grow? For instance, did you know that the Mormon Church prides itself on this statement that is made to every Mormon convert? They say, “We will require more of you than any church you will ever belong to!” And because of their approach to ‘discipleship’ they build an average of 380 new churches every year. And not only do they build 380 churches but every church is absolutely debt free the day it opens.

All of us have seen Mormon missionaries riding their bicycles, wearing dark pants, white shirts and ties. Well, let me tell you a little more about their life-style. They don’t see their families during the two years of their mission service. They are allowed to call home only on Christmas and mother’s day. Their work day begins at 6:30 in the morning with an hour of bible study and prayer. Then they work until 9:30. They have about an hour to do laundry and study scripture before lights out. And this is their schedule six days a week. And there is no TV, no movies or dating for two years.

And yet, the Mormons have the weirdest beliefs you’ve ever heard. For instance, they’re absolutely legalistic when it comes to how they live. Did you know that if you use alcohol, tobacco, tea, coffee, coke or Pepsi or don’t tithe you will not only lose your membership in the Mormon Church but you’ll actually lose what they refer to as your position in the godhood.