Booting Up For Service

How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who announces peace and brings good news of happiness, who announces salvation.
–Isaiah 52:7

The famed evangelist D. L. Moody was walking down the streets of Chicago one day when he confronted a stranger. He said, “Sir, are you a Christian?” The man growled, “You, mind your own business.” Moody replied, “This is my business.”

Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with unbelievers is not just the business of vocational evangelists; it is your business and my business too. In fact, the only reason God has left us here on earth is to take part in His business of delivering people from Satan’s kingdom. That is what it means to put on our “spiritual boots,” as Paul described in Ephesians 6:14-15. He wrote, “Stand firm therefore . . . having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” In order to put on the right spiritual boots, you have to focus on your purpose of sharing the gospel message with other people. Paul was saying you can avoid Satan’s pitfalls by making God’s business your business.

You might say, “Pastor, I agree that I need to shift my focus to what God has left me here to do. But how do I do that?” This week we are going to look at four essential components for booting up for service.

If you are going to be faithful in doing what God has called you to do, first of all, there has to be a conviction of people’s need for Christ. You will never risk sharing the gospel of Christ with an unbeliever until you are absolutely convicted that apart from Christ that person will spend eternity in hell. Most people today do not really believe that, including the majority of Christians. A Pew Research Center poll indicated that 57 percent of evangelical Christians believe many religions can lead to eternal life. That means more than half of evangelicals are saying, “Yes, God would like for people to trust in Christ for salvation, but in the end, He certainly is not going to send anybody to hell for not believing the right way.” But if you believe there is another way to God other than faith in Jesus Christ, you are really saying that Jesus was lying or at least exaggerating when He claimed, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). You will never embrace your purpose of leading people to Christ until you are absolutely convicted that your friend, your coworker, or the child sitting across from you at the breakfast table is going to spend eternity in hell apart from Christ. To make God’s business our business, we have to be convicted of people’s need for Christ.

Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Booting Up For Service” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2011.

R. A. Torrey, “Why God Used D. L. Moody” (New York: Revell, 1923), 45; Dalia Fahmy, “Key Findings About Americans’ Belief In God,” Pew Research Center, April 25, 2018, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/25/key-findings-about-americans-belief-in-god/.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org