Preaching Christ is challenging

Be encouraged. God is at work. I want to share in the challenges of preaching Christ to our neighbours but also the encouragement that you get through God’s faithfulness. For some years now, several of our church members and I have been ministering to a certain man. He’s had seasons where he’d be intrigued about Christianity and had also shown good attendance at our bible studies. He's come to Sunday services a handful of times.

However, he’s expressed so much frustration in balancing what he knows about God’s standards that he cannot meet; his inability to tick all the boxes to follow Jesus, but also what he’s been told about God calling, choosing and gifting believers the perseverance needed in following Jesus. Every conversation I have with him is about God’s high standards that are beyond him and his conviction that he is not chosen. He is adamant that he is not chosen. He says he can’t see or have not experienced what being chosen feels like. Countless times, in the midst of this frustration, all I had to share with him was the gospel. There was nothing else I could offer and I could see no progress at sight in this man. Sometimes, when it seems like there’s no progress or development of understanding, when it’s been years that you’ve had the same conversation over and over again, we have a tendency to think, “Is the gospel not effectual? Does it not work? Is it enough?” We are called to make disciples of all nations and as we disciple, as we preach, as we introduce Christ to others, there will be times you’ll end up believing in the lies that the gospel is not enough. The lie that says you need more. The false teachers the apostles had to tackle knows much about this. To believe that the gospel is not enough is to lose faith in God, saying Christ is not enough. It is rather, gaining faith in other things; programmes, books, videos, people, etc. If the Spirit of God raised Jesus from the dead, an impossible task that nobody expected back then or even now, then is the Spirit of God not capable of using the gospel you share with others to open the hardened hearts of sinners? Isn't that how you became Christian? The Spirit of God, who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. He is sufficient. Be encouraged. God is at work. He never fails.