The Cost Of Reaching Out

The Good News is free of charge, so we claim! Come to think of it, it is not free after all. Someone has paid the price. The forgiveness of sin is not cheap because it cost the Son of God Jesus to die on the cross to bring us that forgiveness. If there is anything that is free in life it is because someone has paid for it.

Evangelism, soul-winning or outreach programs cost money. Jesus gave us five Great Commissions, one in each of the gospels, and one in the book of Acts. In Matthew 28:19-20, Mark 16:15, Luke 24:47-49, John 20:21 and Acts 1:8 Jesus commissions us to go and tell the world the message of Salvation. As long as there is one person in the world who does not know Jesus, the church has a mandate to keep growing. Therefore growth is not optional; it is commanded by Jesus. God wants people to be saved and be blessed by the Good News of His love.

Let us have a correct perspective about money spent in reaching out to others.

1. Money spent in evangelism is not an expense.
It is an investment. The people we reach will more than pay back what we have spent on them. Which means, the offerings of the people we reached for Christ will more than cover the ‘expenses’ we ever spent on them. New people is the source of new blood and the life of the church. Without this the church is on the decline.

2. People give to vision and not to need.
If people give to need, we will always have enough money to spend. Our vision is to see many young people coming to know the Lord about Jesus Christ. Getting 100 young people to the camp costs money. Your offerings will enable us to accomplish this vision.

3. When we spend nickel and dimes on evangelism, we will get nickel and dimes result.
There was one time Jesus told Peter to find money in a fish’s mouth to pay the Temple taxes. In Matthew 17:27 Jesus told Peter, “… go down to the lake and throw in the line. Open the mouth of the first fish you catch, and you will find a large silver coin. Take it and pay the tax for both of us.” The important lesson we can learn here is this: The coins are always in the mouth of the fish. If we focus on fishing (evangelism), God will pay our bills.

How much does a soul cost? In the recent Chinese Oldies & Gospel Singing Evangelistic Concerts we collected RM12,977.00 free-will offerings and there were 59 people accepted Christ. The average “investment is about RM220.00 per person.” Does that give us an idea of what it will cost us to reach out to one person in our community? Tune in to the sermon to find out more.

Rev. James Wong