Obeying the Great Commission
Dear Christian friends,
Before our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven, He left us with one Great Commission, to go into all the world, preaching the Gospel, making disciples of all nations. Two thousand years later, this task is largely unfinished. Every year, the percentage of people worldwide who have heard the gospel is decreasing. According to one study, 90% of all Christians in the United States never witness to anyone. Every year, we see more and more people in our country turn away from God. Yet how can we expect the unbelievers to take the Gospel seriously unless we show them that we take it seriously?
The dedication of the cults puts us to shame. Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW’s) have all the responsibilities of job and family that we have. Yet they witness an average of 4 hours a week. (At that rate it takes them 16 years to baptize one convert!) One day, I looked out my window and saw two JW mothers going door to door with their children in baby carriages. Why can’t Christians do that? One of the strongest arguments the JW’s use is that they are the ones who are out witnessing for Jehovah, not the Christians.
Every Mormon takes two years out of his life for full time missionary service around the world before settling down to raise a family. Why can’t we do this? If we did, we’d fulfill the Great Commission in no time. Instead, we come up with excuses for not evangelizing–It’s not my calling, I’m a silent witness, I’m too busy. We find fault with every method of witnessing and every evangelism ministry.
One of the main reasons we have a hard time witnessing is fear– fear of rejection by others. Nobody likes being rejected and when we preach the Gospel some people will be offended and reject us. Rather than admit this, we come up with other excuses for not witnessing. We need to overcome this fear, but we never will unless we are first convinced that we must witness for the Lord in order to be obedient to Him. We all love to claim the promises of God, but how many of us claim 2 Timothy 3:12, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution”?
We all know that God has a plan for our lives, but many of us don’t realize that Satan also has a plan for our lives. The first part of his plan is to keep us from getting saved. Having failed in this, Satan’s second purpose is to keep us from witnessing to others. He does this through two means: 1. He makes us feel unworthy to witness because of our own sins. 2. He gives us a variety of excuses for not witnessing.
We must stop listening to the enemy’s lies and commit ourselves to obey the Great Commission of our Lord. I believe each of us should be witnessing for Christ in our everyday lives. But I believe each of us should also be involved in some kind of organized evangelistic activity on a regular basis–door-to-door, on the streets, at nursing homes, prisons, juvenile halls, etc. I pray when the Holy Spirit leads me, but I also discipline myself to set a regular time aside for prayer. I fellowship with other Christians when God brings me in contact with them, but I also set aside regular times for Christian fellowship. I witness whenever I am led by the Holy Spirit, but I also set aside regular times for witnessing.
I would challenge each of you to commit at least a few hours a month to some kind of organized evangelism outreach, in addition to whatever witnessing you do in your everyday life. Instead of looking for reasons for being excused from such outreaches, we should instead be dedicating ourselves anew to reaching this lost world by every possible means. I also encourage you to share this teaching with your pastor. I believe that the responsibility of each Christian to witness needs to be taught from every pulpit.
On the Streets
God blessed us with dry weather throughout December, and we had some fruitful times of outreach. On December 5 and 19, we ministered for two hours at Justin Herman Plaza, outside a popular outdoor ice skating rink. At times, our sound system was over whelmed by the giant system used by the skating rink. But, most of the time, they turned off their music so everyone could hear our Christmas music and gospel sharing. After these outreaches, we tore down our sound system and set up at United Nations Plaza, over a mile away. (Much thanks to Eric Livingston for doing most of the work.) This area is filled with street people, most of whom are drug addicts. Several people prayed with us here.
On three Friday nights, we witnessed at Union Square. A team from Faith Bible Church in San Francisco joined us one night. This area features a huge Christmas tree that attracts hundreds of people. We set up next to the tree and sang Christmas carols and preached. We had many good conversations, especially with some of the young people who congregate in this park.
Chinese New Year Outreach Saturday February 27
The largest annual event in San Francisco is the Chinese New Year Parade. Each year, up to 400,000 people come to Chinatown to watch the parade! We have witnessed at the parade for about 17 years. We will be meeting at 12 PM at Powell and Market St. for a worship rally. Thousands of people will pass this location on their way to the parade.
At our January 6th permit hearing, we were told we could use our sound system at Powell and Market from noon to 1:30 PM. After that time, we can only use one nine-watt amplifier. We would like to be able to use our whole sound system for a longer time, but this is the best we can do right now.
Coming Events
EVERY FRIDAY 7:15 PM. Witnessing in various S.F. neighborhoods. Meet at Vineyard, 7th St. and Harrison, San Francisco. Call (510) 531-5325 for more information.
Sat. February 6 San Francisco Outreach. 12-5 PM Powell St. and Market. Call (510) 531-5325 to confirm and for more information.
February 12-16 Mardi Gras Outreach, New Orleans. Contact Rescue Atlanta, (770) 924-0201 or Heart-Fire Ministries (414) 445-9490.
Sat. February 20 Berkeley Outreach. 12:30-4:30 PM. Call (510) 531- 5325 for more information.
Sat. February 27 Chinese New Year Worship Rally and Outreach. 12-6 PM. Meet at Powell and Market St.
SOS-San Francisco August 13-21
We have set the dates for this summer’s SOS-San Francisco outreach: August 13 – 21. Teams from the Vineyard (San Diego) and from Calvary Assembly of God (Salinas) are already planning to come. Besides being the last year of the 1900’s, it is our 20th annual summer outreach and we expect it to be a great outreach. We hope many of you who have attended SOS outreaches over the past 20 years will join us this summer.
Ministry News
We have e-mail. Yes, we are moving (slowly) onto the information superhighway. Our e-mail address is “sosmin@hotmail.com”. Send us a note.
Once again, I want to thank you for your prayers and financial support for this ministry. Thank you for all the Christmas cards and notes telling me you are praying for us and our legal situa tion. Our two big hearings are scheduled for January 20 and 22. I will have a report next month on what happened. We spent $300 photocopying the motions for these hearings! 7500 pages!
Please continue to pray that we will get permits to hold outreaches in locations where we can reach many people. Pray that we will once again be able to get permits for more than one hour at Powell and Market Streets. Pray for more Christians to help us witness on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. Pray that God will open people’s hearts and that we will see a greater harvest of souls.
Please pray for those who prayed with us this past month, or wrote us in response to tracts. We even got one response from Switzerland! A man named Basil wrote us from the city of Zufikon. William prayed with us at Union Square, Nathan prayed with us at UN Plaza, and Matthew prayed with us in Berkeley. Pray also with Yolanda (SF), Tammy (Richmond), Ann (called us from San Jose), Ed (Yountville), and Richard and Aristotle (Susanville prison).
Mary from San Francisco wrote us: “Please send me and my daughter [Debbie] some literature for reading to better our lives for Christ. We love to read about our Lord. I thank you so much. I am now having so many problems such as financial, marital, illness and just plain lonely. I need God’s help.”
Our Tape of the Month is Sharing Jesus One on One by Ron Radachy. Ron is Director of the Oasis in Hollywood, CA. This is one of the best teachings I’ve heard on the subject. We need to preach the gospel to the multitudes, but we also need to witness effectively to individuals.
I pray you will dedicate this new year to serving Jesus Christ with all your heart and reaching the lost. I hope many of you will join us for the Chinese New Year Outreach, or some other outreach this next month. We need your help.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum