Burdened for the Lost
Romans 9:1-8
Intro: Christopher Sercye was playing basketball with his friends on May 16, 1998 when he was shot in the chest, and a bullet perforated his aorta. His friends helped him get to within forty feet of the entrance to Ravenswood Hospital and then went inside and asked for help. The hospital staff refused to help Christopher saying that it was against the hospital’s policies to administer aid to those outside the hospital. Eventually a policeman was able to get a wheel chair and wheeled Christopher into the hospital where he was helped by the hospital staff. It was too late, however, and Christopher died about an hour later. Many times it seems that churches are surrounded by people that desperately need to hear the Gospel, yet Christians are content to share it only with those that manage to come inside their church.
Many people today are burdened down with a lot of things.
· Some are burdened by their problems.
· Some are burdened by their predicaments.
· Some are burdened by their lack of prosperity.
· Some are burdened by their pursuit of money
· Some are burdened by physical sickness and bad health
· But in this passage of Scripture, we find a man that had a burden for people.
You may ask – why preach this message here? At Calvary Baptist Church in Dundalk, Maryland?
· A church that will give over $400,000 to world missions this fiscal year.
· A church that has two organized soulwinning times each week.
· A church that is preaching in the nursing homes, jails, multiple rescue missions around the city.
· A church that is running busses and vans.
· A church that just launched a Prayer Tent ministry with four teams of personal workers.
· A church that is about to launch a Spanish Ministry.
· A church that passes out 2 – 5,000 pieces of literature each month.
Why preach this message here?
Because we still have many that are not BURDENED FOR THE LOST!
The job of the pastor according to Ephesians 4 is:
· 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
· 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Having a burden that exceeds you, your wants, your needs, your life is a testimony of selflessness.
Being moved to action by the plight of someone else is a sign of true Christianity.
In this passage, we see an extraordinary display of a man of God’s burden for the unsaved.
I. The Verification of the Spirit – vs. 1
· 1 I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,
Some people talk about having a burden.
They believe in their heart that they are soul-conscience.
They would gladly identify with the soulwinners in their church, even though they’ve never one a single soul to Christ.
They pretend during the preaching on soulwinning that the message is not for them.
They truly think that they are doing all they can do to win the lost, but they really are not.
Paul made a powerful statement here.
· Paul’s Burden for the Lost was VOCALIZED by his mouth. “I say the truth in Christ, I lie not…”
· Paul’s Burden for the Lost was VALIDATED by his conscience. “…my conscience also bearing me witness…”
· Paul’s Burden for the Lost was VERIFIED by the Holy Ghost. “…in the Holy Ghost.”
QUESTION: Does your conscience bear witness to what your mouth is saying about your burden?
And does the Holy Ghost bear witness to what your mouth is saying about your burden?
· A burden for souls is impossible to hide.
· A burden for souls will be evident.
· A burden for the lost is not something you say; it is something you show.
· It is not something you declare; it is something you demonstrate.
You can no more brag about being a soulwinner when you don’t win souls, than you can brag about living healthy when you don’t exercise and you weigh 500 pounds.
You’re lying to yourself and everybody else.
You’re living in a fantasy world.
· If you’re not taking people to heaven with you, you’re not a soulwinner.
· If you never share the Gospel to a lost person, you do not have a burden for the lost.
· If you say you want to catch fish, but you never go fishing, you’re a liar.
· If you say you really want to kill a deer, but you never go hunting, you are a liar.
· If you say you love to pray, but you never pray, you’re lying to yourself.
And if you say you have a burden for the lost, but you won’t put your life on pause to go soulwinning, you are lying to yourself.
You can’t profess to believe in soulwinning if you never do it.
You can’t pretend to be supportive of evangelism if you are not involved in soulwinning.
You can’t boast about being a member of a soulwinning church if you are not a part of the soulwinning efforts.
Paul not only had a burden, but had the Holy Ghost as a witness of that burden.
· A burden is real.
· A burden is not a figment of one’s imagination.
· A burden is not just a word we use to sound spiritual.
· A burden is not a catchphrase we throw around to raise money.
· A burden is not just something missionaries say they have to get support.
Do you have a burden for souls?
Who knows about your burden?
Who has seen your burden?
Who has been saved as a result of your burden for the lost?
Who has been motivated to have a greater burden for souls because of your burden?
· A true burden for the lost will not be squelched by fear.
· A true burden for the lost will not be quietened by personal limitations.
· A true burden for the lost will not be hidden behind excuses.
ILLUSTRATION: A missionary to Africa told the story of an elderly woman who was reached with the gospel. Though she was blind and could neither read nor write, she wanted to share her newfound faith with others. She went to the missionary and asked for a copy of the Bible in French. When she got it, she asked the missionary to underline John 3:16 in red and mark the page it was on so she could find it. The missionary wanted to see what she would do, so one day he followed her. In the afternoon, just before school let out, she made her way to the front door. As the boys came out when school was dismissed, she would stop one and ask if he knew how to read French. When he said “Yes” she would ask him to read the verse that was marked in red. Then she would ask, “Do you know what this means?” and tell him about Christ. The missionary said that twenty-four of those schoolboys that lady led to the Lord became pastors.
You say, That is a great story!! Yes it is.
Do you have one?
II. The Vexation over the Sinners – vs. 2
· 2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
Paul’s burden produced a heaviness.
That is where we get the word “burden”.
· HEAVINESS: sorrow, pain, grief, annoyance, affliction; of persons mourning
There wasn’t just a heaviness.
Paul called it a GREAT heaviness.
It was significant. Not just a nagging thought.
It was more than a back of the mind awareness.
It was very important to him.
This was the type of burden that Paul had for souls.
Then he goes on to describe it as a sorrow.
· SORROW: consuming grief, pain,
There was a sorrow.
His heart was broken all the time.
It was always on his mind.
He never stopped thinking about souls.
ILLUSTRATION: We got word that our daughter, Marissa, was in the hospital in the Philippines. She has Dengue Fever and a severe bacterial infection. She’s been in the hospital for several days and will be for a few more.
We cannot stop thinking about her. In spite of what we are doing, or where we are, her mother and I are experiencing a heaviness in our heart over her.
It was a heaviness and a CONTINUAL sorrow in his heart.
It never went away.
No matter where he was, it was there.
No matter what he was doing, it was there.
A real burden for the lost will produce a heaviness in one’s heart.
A real burden will be felt by the one for which you are burdened!
ILLUSTRATION: D.L. Moody told the story of his conversion this way: “When I was in Boston I used to attend a Sunday school class, and one day I recollect my Sunday School teacher came around behind the counter of the shop I was at work in, and put his hand upon my shoulder, and talked to me about Christ and my soul. I had not even felt that I had a soul - until then. I said to myself, ‘This is a very strange thing. Here is a man who never saw me till lately, and he is weeping over my sins, and I never shed a tear about them.’ But I understand it now, and know what it is to have a passion for men’s souls and weep over their sins. I don’t remember what he said, but I can still feel the power of that man’s hand on my shoulder tonight.” The concern and tears of a godly Sunday School teacher resulted in the conversion of a man who saw a million souls saved in his evangelistic campaigns.
III. The Volunteering for Separation – vs. 3
Paul’s burden produced a very specific wish.
Paul’s burden produced a wish that consisted of several key elements:
· 3 For I could wish that myself were accursed
He wished that he could go to hell in the place of his countrymen; his kinsmen.
He was so burdened that he was willing to spend eternity in hell for them to be saved.
ACCURSED: cursed or doomed to destruction
Paul knew that those that are not saved are doomed to an eternity in hell; separated from God.
The thought of that was a great heaviness and a continual sorrow to Paul.
· Hell is not a word; it is a place.
· Hell is not just a doctrine; it is a destination.
· Hell is not a fear tactic; it is the future for billions of souls.
Hell is a real place.
People that are not saved really go there.
And the people that go there never get out.
ILLUSTRATION: Charles Peace, a notorious criminal in England, was executed on February 25, 1879. Just before his execution, an Anglican minister halfheartedly read to him from The Consolations of Religion: “Those who die without Christ experience hell, which is the pain of forever dying without the release which death itself can bring.”
Charles stopped the minister and said, “Sir, if I believed what you and the church of God say that you believe, even if England were covered with broken glass from coast to coast, I would walk over it, if need be, on hands and knees and think it worthwhile living, just to save one soul from an eternal hell like that!”
Paul was so burdened for others that he literally wished he could take their place in hell.
This is the man that said in:
Philippians 1:20, 21
· 20 According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
· 21 For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.
This is the man that said in:
Philippians 3:10-12
· 10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
· 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
· 12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
And yet here we find Paul willing to forfeit an eternity with Christ for others to be saved!
Paul’s passion for souls would be almost unbelievable if not for verse 1!
IV. The Value of their Soul – vs. 4, 5
Paul went to great detail to point out – these are the ones for whom Christ came.
Of course, Paul was referring to the Israelites.
He felt a personal attachment because he once was a lost, unregenerated, religious leader of the Israelites.
In Philippians 3, his testimony was that he:
· 5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
· 6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
He detailed God’s multiple steps to win them to Himself in verse 4 and 5.
Who are Israelites…
· to whom pertaineth the adoption,
· and the glory
· and the covenants
· and the giving of the law
· and the service of God
· and the promises
· 5 Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came,
This is just a short list of what God did to win them.
What are you doing?
Conclusion:
Do you have a burden for souls?
If so, what wish has your burden produced?
QUOTE: If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for! – author unknown
Comments