Today we are privileged to start a gospel meeting. Let us not take this opportunity to study God’s word lightly. Let us not take this opportunity to have fellowship with one another less than seriously. Let us not take this time to be evangelistic with any less zeal than we would the most important event in our life. The gospel of Jesus Christ will be proclaimed this week! It is a time for us to rejoice, invite, reflect, and show our love for God and for one another.
Gospel Meetings are too often looked at today as relics of days gone by. Many disparagingly say that the gospel meeting is not what it once was. And as long as this is our attitude toward it, then it will be exactly that. Do we get excited about studying God’s word. Do we delight in the preaching and teaching of the gospel? Our attitude makes a great difference when planning for and attending a gospel meeting. All good works start with good attitudes. All works that are destined for failure involve at one point or another attitudes that consign those works to failure. Let’s resolve in our hearts and our minds to have the proper attitude toward this gospel meeting and let everyone know that we appreciate and love the gospel!
Gospel meetings are times when we get to enjoy fellowship with one another. I love my Christian family and I want to be with them as much as I can. We should view our Christian family with no less love than we would our own earthly families. We recognize the importance of spending time with our earthly families. Do we recognize the importance of spending time with our spiritual families? Our gospel meeting is a time to do exactly that and to show forth the love that we have for one another.
Gospel meetings are times when we can work to evangelize our community. There are souls who are in need of the gospel of Christ right here in this city and county. They need the truth of God’s word or they will be lost. Do we believe this? Many times we invite our affluent friends and family members and they do not come because of their self satisfaction? Do we remember the words of Jesus? Go out into the highways and byways and invite the poor, the mame, the sick, and the blind! All need to come and hear the gospel. Let’s not limit our invitation to those who we think are “good prospects,” but invite all to hear the good news proclaimed.
Gospel meetings are a time to show that we love God more than anything. Yes we all have earthly concerns with which we must deal on a daily basis. Yes we each have responsibilities at work, bills to pay, property to maintain, and many different concerns with which we are forced to deal on a daily basis. But we also recognize that things that are truly important are things that we WILL take time to do. Are our efforts in the kingdom of God any less important than these other things? They are, in fact, the most important efforts that we can make on the face of the earth. Do we believe Matthew 6:33 when it comes to the yearly gospel meeting? Let us seek first God’s kingdom this week as we MAKE the time to come and hear the gospel preached.
Yes, our gospel meeting is a time for zeal, fellowship, evangelism, and love for God. As we read in Hebrews 10:19-25 “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”