Success of Church

Worship at Newspring by Clayton King (3/16/2008)

• Vision — Winning people to Christ
• Key to Ministry — Preaching the Word

Mark 2: 1-12

1. The stakes have never been higher
   • People’s souls have value
   • Someone has to bring people to the place they can experience the Gospel
   • World is crippled by sin & selfishness; by the effects of sin
2. Must regain sense of urgency
   • Do we really believe that the Gospel can heal and save?
   • Be willing to do whatever it takes: i.e. coaxing with food
   • If don’t have a sense of urgency then you might as well quit because you are just a spectator. One can spectate for a while but have to catch onto vision — winning people to Christ
   • Are we too content on our own salvation that we forget about others?
3. God honors our faith and blesses our effort
   • God is sovereign & in complete control BUT
   • God demands action from us (outcome always good whenever someone was brought to Jesus in Gospel)
   • What efforts do we make to get people to God?
   • Until we are so desperate to see our friends come to Christ we’ll never take our hands and get them dirty to bring our friends to Christ — we may have to carry our friends to Jesus
   • We may have to destroy established structures to get our friends to Christ — are we willing to give up our traditions, our customs or our mindset?

Whatever It Takes