Should?a, Could?a, Would?a
1 John 2:6, "He that saith he abides in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."
Luke 11:42 "But woe unto you, Pharisees! For ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and pass over judgment and the love of God: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."
I. In the Area of Bible Reading and Prayer
A. We should have devoted more time in studying God?s Word and with God in prayer.
1. (Deuteronomy 17:19) "... he shall read therein all the days of his life: that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, to keep all the words of this law and these statutes, to do them:"
2. The lack of scriptural knowledge is the source of all evils in the church. -- John Chrysostom. Leadership, Vol. 16, no. 2.
3. In an interview, Billy Graham was asked this question: "If you had to live your life over again, what would you do differently?" His answer: "One of my great regrets is that I have not studied enough. I wish I had studied more and preached less. People have pressured me into speaking to groups when I should have been studying and preparing. Donald Barnhouse said that if he knew the Lord was coming in three years, he would spend two of them studying and one preaching."
4. There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write damnation with your fingers. -- Charles Haddon Spurgeon,
5. (Luke 18:1) "And He (Christ) spoke a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;"
6. (1 Chronicles 16:11) "Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually."
B. We could have...but...
1. We didn?t have time ? D.L. Moody - If you have so much business to attend to that you have no time to pray, depend upon it, you have more business on hand than God ever intended you should have.
2. We couldn?t understand ? Abraham Lincoln did not have the education to read the King James Bible when he started doing so, and its language wasn’t the language he and his neighbors used. But he pushed in a direction opposite from the one we are tempted to take today: He got his education from the Authorized Version. None of us is educated enough to read and understand the Bible. What a presumption it is to think that we are, or that we should bring its language any more than its ideas (if they could be separated) down to our educational level! ... [B]ecause Abraham Lincoln did not have [a] Bible paraphrase, we have "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right. ...
3. We had too many things putting demands on us ? The Word of God is demanding. It demands a stretch of time in our day--even though it be a very modest one--in which it is our only companion. ... God will not put up with being fobbed off with prayers in telegram style and cut short like a troublesome visitor for whom we open the door just a crack to get rid of him as quickly as possible.
C. We would have... But we didn?t make it a priority in our lives.
1. Whenever we place a higher priority on anything than on pursuing God, we are immoral.
2. (Matthew 6:33) "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."
3. (Psalms 34:10) "The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing."
4. (Acts 17:11) "These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so."
II. In the Area of Witnessing
A. We should have shared Jesus more
1. (Matthew 28:19-20) "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: {20} Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."
2. Erwin Lutzer ? Christianity spread rapidly during the first century because all Christians saw themselves as responsible for disseminating the gospel.
3. (1 Peter 3:15) "But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:"
4. Os Guinness, quoted by Howard Hendricks, "Beyond the Bottom Line," Preaching Today ? The main problem with American Christians is not that they aren’t where they should be but that they are not what they should be right where they are as doctors, housewives, lawyers, computer salesmen, or nurses.
B. We could have but...
1. We didn?t know what to say.
a) Nobody can be indwelled by the Spirit of God and keep that Spirit to himself. Where the Spirit is, he flows forth. And where there is no flowing forth, he is not there.
b) (Acts 4:20) "For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."
c) It’s almost impossible to see a rainbow and not point it out to someone else. It’s the kind of thing that just must be shared. You see one and you want to tell someone about it. If you are by yourself and see one, it’s frustrating. The gospel is such a beautiful expression of God’s love that it just must be shared.
2. We didn?t have the opportunity.
a) (John 4:35) "Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then comes harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest."
b) Jesus ... wants us to see that the neighbor next door or the people sitting next to us on a plane or in a classroom are not interruptions to our schedule. They are there by divine appointment. Jesus wants us to see their needs, their loneliness, their longings, and he wants to give us the courage to reach out to them.
c) Opportunity typically favors those who have paid the price of preparation.
d) Elizabeth Dole said this concerning her grandmother, ?My grandmother practiced what she preached and lived her life for others. When it became necessary for her, in her nineties, to go into a nursing home, she welcomed the opportunity. "There might be some people there who don’t know the Lord and I can read the Bible to them."
C. We would have but...
1. We didn?t want people to see us as religious nuts.
a. George Bush Jr.
b. (2 Timothy 1:8) "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;"
c. (Romans 1:16) "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."
2. We didn?t lead Spirit-filled lives.
a) Sure we believe in freedom of speech. You’ve got the right to say anything you like. But others don’t have to listen! They’re under no obligation to tune you in; when they do, they can also tune you out anytime they wish. Your right to speak is guaranteed--but you must earn the right to be listened to. It depends solely on your integrity. Integrity is the prerequisite to acceptance. If you expect to be paid attention to, back it up with your life. Let your walk correspond to your talk. This is fundamental to your witness for Christ. Many so-called Christians listen too little, talk too much, and live lives that contradict what they say. Their "witness" betrays Christ-and alienates those to whom they speak.
b) Jesus said, "Why do you call me, ’Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?" (Luke 6:46).
3. We didn?t really see the Lost through Jesus? eyes.
A. (Matthew 9:36-38) "But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd." (Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.)
B. (Revelation 20:15) "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire."
C. Gordon McLaughlin is a native New Zealander. That gives him the right to speak of his own nation. He has written a book about his homeland entitled The Passionless People. He calls modern New Zealand "a sterile society." Could that be said of our congregation?
III. In the Area of Caring
A. We should have loved and demonstrated that love more
1. Psychologist James Dobson reports seeing a sign on a convent in southern California reading: Absolutely No Trespassing--Violators Will Be Prosecuted to the Full Extent of the Law. Signed, "The Sisters of Mercy."
2. No matter how much the church wants to reach out, growth will not happen if the building and the people fail to say "Welcome!"
3. (Proverbs 17:17) "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."
4. (Ephesians 4:31-32, 5:1) "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: {32} And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;"
B. We could have but...
1. We were unaware of the need.
a) (Matthew 25:42-44) "For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: {43} I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. {44} Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?"
b) Christ declared ye have the poor always with you. Likewise there is always someone in need of a helping-hand, a touch, a kind word, encouragement, sympathy, a friend. We deceive ourselves if we don?t realize there are a lot of hurting people who need our caring.
c) John Owen ? Let none pretend that they love the brethren in general, and love the people of God, and love the saints, while their love is not fervently exercised towards those who are in the same church society with them. Christ will try your love at the last day by your deportment in that church wherein you are.
2. We thought others were doing it.
a)
C. We would have but...
1. The depth of our love is not what is should be.
a) It is amazing that in 15 years of asking high school students throughout America whether, in an emergency situation, they would save their dog or a stranger first, most students have answered that they would not save the stranger. "I love my dog, I don’t love the stranger," they always say.
b) (1 John 4:7) "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loves is born of God, and knows God."
c) (1 John 3:17) "But whoso hath this world’s good, and sees his brother have need, and shuts up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwells the love of God in him?"
2. We too often are concerned with our own needs.
a) Many believers live on the cafeteria plan--self-service only.
b) (Luke 6:38) "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again."
c) One of the greatest expressions of love is simply to notice people and to pay attention to them.
