Greetings Flag Branch members and friends and thanks for taking the time to join me, Pastor Jordan, for some Fine Points from Sunday’s service and message “Power Of Persuasion”.
Persuasion is the process of convincing someone to believe something or act or do something that they were reluctant, hesitate or unwilling to believe, act or do before. As believers in Christ and children of God, we are tasked and charged with persuading our fellow human beings to believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This task has become more challenging of late. Not because of any threat to our lives in most parts of the world, but more challenging in persuading people that being with God is better than their alternatives. This has always been the greatest challenge.
Persuading people that God exist and desires them to be with Him has our common sense as an ally to help us. And until late, what the world had to offer was limited in its scope and appeal. But the world has gone from being a small rural mom and pop shop with few selections to a cosmopolitan mega superstore with seemingly endless isles of things to chose from.
As a result, interest in going to be with God has wain until it is difficult to get an audience with someone to listen to our appeal. Beside all that, people’s minds have been conditioned to believe that heaven or whatever God dwells is a boring place with nothing to do but sing and praise God and sit around on clouds.
This image of heaven can’t compete with the endless choices and array of activities that keep people entertained and occupied with pleasure, joy and happiness. Never mind the pain and suffering we also endure and work to avoid while pursuing these pleasures.
This is why Jesus explained that sending someone from the dead to convince or persuade someone not to die unrepentant and end up in a bad place will not persuade them to repent.
I postulated that if God announced from heaven so that all the earth could hear Him together in one’s own language for an entire day to repent and believe the gospel, that it would do little to change our behavior.
Because both of these things, returning from the dead and God making an announcement, serve as types of evidence that God is real and that there are consequences for failing to repent. But evidence of God’s existence and the likelihood that there may be something God expects and requires of us has never been the part that needs the most convincing or persuading though some hide behind this as an excuse for not believing.
But the truth is, if God came in person and gave them all the proof they requested of who He is, they still would not become a Christian because proof is really not the issue. They still would not accept God’s offer of redemption. Why not?
Because we want the freedom to not love, we want the freedom to hate and we want the freedom to do or not to do anything we want. And we can’t go be with God and continue to exercise that freedom. Our task is to persuade others that the voluntary suppression of that freedom is better that all the other possible alternatives a person can have.
Discoveries in modern science are helping us win the argument on the existence of God, contrarily to what some would have us believe. It’s the attractiveness of the world that is and always has created the believer’s greatest challenge of persuasion.
You can hear the complete sermon by clicking the sermon title above. You can also see and listen to our previous Sunday School, Missions and BTU sessions by clicking this link. Be sure to download our mobile app on your phones and mobile devices to get the latest news, updates and shortcuts to all of our ministries, functions and activities.
Click the SS Daily Bible Readings for an excellent devotional and preparation for the upcoming Sunday School lesson. Don’t forget to leave a comment or question down below. As always, remember to fear God and keep His commandments.
Pastor Jordan
