Penetrating this World with the Hope of Jesus Christ!

This year Pastor Downs has commissioned the members of Calvary Chapel to reach one soul for the sake of the kingdom of God. Our mission is "Each One, Reach One"! There is no doubt that the word "reach" is a active verb. When I was at school they called these words "doing words". Looking at the dictionary, the word "reach" means to "strech out or put forth". So in order to reach our goal of "Each One, Reach One" it is going to take some action on our part.

A church that "sits" will birth situations and usually they aren't very pleasant. A "sitting" church is not "doing" and eventually becomes inward focused and consumed with internal matters. This is one way that the devil can shift our focus off the great commission that the Lord Jesus Christ gave us in reaching the lost.

The Bible calls true Christians to be three great things:
1. Salt (Matthew 5:13);
2. Light (Matthew 5:16); and
3. Leaven (Matthew 13:33).

If you look at each of these three things you will realise that they achieve one thing…..they all penetrate. Light penetrates darkness, Salt penetrates meat (flavouring and preserving) and leaven penetrates the lump of dough and raises it up.

I heard Rev. Jeff Arnold preach once that we have been saved and commissioned to:

• PENETRATE this world with the gospel
• PENETRATE this city of Canberra with the gospel
• PENETRATE our families with the Gospel
• PENETRATE our workplace and school with the gospel.

If we fail to tell people about Jesus Christ we are like leaven which is ineffective. By being ineffective salt, light and leaven we fail to penetrate the world for the cause of Christ, failing to build up the Kingdom of God as commissioned.

I heard a saying one day….. “You never know how far you can go until you try”. Now that is a tremendous step of faith. We should all understand that none of us as individuals or as a church can know how many souls we can reach, or what we can accomplish for the kingdom, until we try. Until we step out by faith! Ephesians 3:20 says that God is able to do works far beyond our imagination…you never know until you put your trust in God.

My family (on my mums side) were bee keepers. I heard someone speaking once about bees and they were saying that when the bees leave the hive they have no idea where the necter is. They don’t have some inbuilt guidance system that takes them to the necter. But they just form team and go out until they find the flowers and the necter. They go out by faith and they always find necter. Let us go out in faith! That's my 5 minutes!