Getting Motivated

I'd like to discuss the 6 Motivations for being a soul winner. Making an effort to win souls to Christ is work, make no mistake about it. Well, when you go to your job and put in time working don't you expect to be paid? Of course you do or else it would be called volunteering. It is the same in soul winning. It is a work we can, and should, do to earn rewards in Heaven (much like being paid at work). Many people get the idea that Heaven will be the same for everybody. This is not so. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:19-21 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." If Heaven is the same for everyone, then Jesus' statement makes absolutely no sense at all. Question, what is the only thing from this earth that is going to be in Heaven? .... Answer: people.

With this in mind, let's think about 6 motivations for Soul Winning. The primary scripture reference is from 2 Corinthians 5:9-20 which states,

"9 Therefore, we labor, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
11 Therefore, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences.
12 We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart.
13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you.
14 For the love of Christ constrains us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;
15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
16 Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.
17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,
19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

To make these a little easier to remember I will make each point start with the letter "C".

1) "Compulsion."
Look again at the scripture in verse 9. We labor to win souls so that we may be pleasing to Him. We are compelled to win souls so that when we stand before God to give an account of how we lived, we will be pleasing to Him.

2) "Compensation"
Look in verse 10. Much like the first point, we must appear before the judgement seat of Christ. This is where we will earn compensation or crowns for work done. There is no negative here. The judgement is to see whether you have earned rewards or not and, if so, what kind and how many.

3) "Conviction"
Look in verse 11. Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. There has been some half truths taught about God in recent years. All I ever hear is "God is Love." While this is true, God is also a God of Judgement and He will require payment for all sins. And if we talk about the Love of God without talking about the wrath of God, we are only giving half of the truth and when a half truth becomes the whole truth, it becomes an untruth. The good news is that when we get saved through Jesus, the payment is made on our behalf, but for the lost souls, they will have to stand at the Great White Throne Judgement and God will be judge, jury and executioner for the lost. As children of God, we have already settled out of court. It is the terrorizing thought that potentially one of our loved ones will be sent to eternal torment in Hell that should motivate us to witness to them.

4) "Compassion"
Look at verse 14. For the love of Christ constrains us. As a child of God, we know, appreciate and are so grateful for what Jesus did for us we can't help but want to tell others about it. Sadly, a person is more likely to go tell someone how they saved $2 on a sale at Kohl's then they are to go tell someone how they were saved by Christ.
Remember the conversation between Christ and Peter not long after Peter denied Christ? It is in John 21:15 "So when they had dined, Jesus said to Peter, Peter, son of Jonas, do you love me more than these? He said unto him, Yes, Lord; you know that I love thee more. He said unto him, Feed my lambs." Well, if we say we love Jesus, we should "feed the lambs".

5) "Commission"
Look at verses 18-20. We are given the ministry of reconciliation. Another popular scripture for this is in Matthew 28:18-19 " 19 Go therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen." This, of course, is the Great Commission.

6) "Count Down"
One of the sneakiest thing Satan can do to people is to get them to procrastinate and let them be ok with putting things off for another day. The problem with this is that we don't know if we will have another day on this earth. All the soul winning we will ever do, will be done on this earth. Once we get to heaven, it's too late. The Bible has several verses which speak of the urgency in winning the lost to Christ.

2 Corinthians 6:2 "behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation".

James 4:14 "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."

Proverbs 27:1 "Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth."

Hebrews 3:13 "But encourage one another daily, as long as it is still called 'Today,' so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

Unbelieveably, even Pharoah had the "tomorrow syndrome". When God was bringing the plagues to Egypt to let the Israelites go, one of the plagues was frogs. There must have been millions of them because the Bible says they covered the land of Egypt. Pharoah then told Moses he would let the people go if he would take the frogs away. When Moses asked him when he wanted this done, Pharoah said "tomorrow". Incredibly, he wanted one more night with the frogs.

Exodus 8:9-10 "9 Moses said to Pharaoh, "The honor is yours to tell me: when shall I entreat for you and your servants and your people, that the frogs be destroyed from you and your houses, that they may be left only in the Nile?" 10 Then he said, "Tomorrow."

Sadly, many lost people intend to get saved........ tomorrow. Most want at least "one more night with the frogs". Almost as sadly, many Christians intend to witness to a lost person............. tomorrow.

I think perhaps this factor of count down is the most important motivation. We never know when
a) a person we need to witness to will die and
b) when we will die. No one is ever promised tomorrow.

Psalms 118:24 says "This is the day which the LORD has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it."

We only get one "Today" each day, let's try to make the most of it. Let's be thankful we are given each day and live like it could be our last... because it just might be.