What Is Most Effective?

1 Thessalonians 1:13 “For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.”

There is much debate about what is effective Christianity… There is much debate on what is the most effective way to reach out to, relate to and lead people to Christ.

There need not be. Man makes complicated what is very simple in the Bible “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

The reason we have a Bible is because God didn’t leave the truth up to our imaginations to devise… he doesn’t require us to create our own truth… instead he just asks us to trust in and obey his truth “Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day. ”

And bear in mind, much of the debate over what is the most effective way to bring Jesus to people and so on is stirred by people who, in all honesty, never talk to anyone about Jesus Christ… who’s only evangelism is telling others who are actually doing it how to do it better.

For people who seem so confident in what is more effective… it sure isn’t working! The evidence is stark, never has the church been more irrelevant and impotent to effect what’s going on in our society. Many churches are a vestigial organ in their community, having no effect on what is done there, having no effect on people that are dying and going to hell. And that is tragic.

There was a young son of a prophet in 2 Kings 4 who went out into the field to find ingredients for a meal one day. He found a wild vine, and came back with a lap full of it’s gourds, he shred them in there, cooked it up and set on for them to eat. And when they began to eat they found it was pure poison “there is death in the pot”.

There is no life, rather toxic poison, in these new supposedly more effective and “palatable” ways of presenting Christ to people, ways and means that did not come from Jesus Christ, but from a wild vine found out there in the field of this world. All while there is no need to go “wild” from God’s recipe for leading lost sinners to his Son.

We are going through a crisis of ineffectiveness in Christianity today. And it’s not because the gospel lost it’s power… its because we’ve changed what works out for what does not. And there are reasons for that, not least some of which are wanting to be liked, more than wanting to see people saved. But your fancy new ways are not effective… they don’t work, not even for yourself, and never will.

And telling someone you went to church Sunday isn’t evangelism, and it’s not effective. All people are hearing is that you are religious. Which everyone has and is. People need to see something that has been effective, power present that has actually worked, in transforming your life and with power to save theirs also “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”

And so while there may be debate about what’s most effective, and people are bringing all sorts of things back from the field to see if that makes a better tasting meal… there is yet no debate in the Bible, even if there is in your mind, about what is the most effective way to reach this lost world, including yourself, for Christ.

Here in 1 Thessalonians 1, Paul gives the formula, the recipe… the “compound”… for winning people to Christ and he does it through the example of how the people in the city of Thessalonica were won to Christ… something that actually worked, that was EFFECTIVE… and the first two chapters are Paul outlining how they were converted to Christ… and a pattern of salvation and sanctification that holds true for all time.

And so the Bible shows us how to be effective, so we need not guess, and we are shown through lived and proven example at Thessalonica, so we learn from God’s word not from someone’s theoretical mumbo jumbo who never won anybody to Christ.

It was Paul’s preaching of the gospel of Christ that was effective! and it produced great effect in the people who were saved by the power of God at Thessalonica, because this is a church that went through great trial and tribulation for their faith, and such was and so dramatic the effect of the gospel in their lives, this effect reached the whole world, to the point we still read about it today everytime we open to 1 Thessalonians!

And so today, we are (clearly!) talking about what is “effective”. But we have not even defined the word yet…! The word “effectual” found in the verse quoted at the outset means “Producing an effect, or the effect desired or intended; or having adequate power or force to produce the effect.” … It’s where we get the word “effective” from.

And today, we are letting the BIBLE say what is effective “yea, let God be true,but every man a liar”… and to find long lost effectiveness which saints in ages past had, we have to return to what the Bible says is effective.

… and going back to 1 Thessalonians 2, and the verse quoted above, in this verse Paul thanks God that the church at Thessalonica received the word of God “as it is in truth, the word of God”. Do you receive God’s word like it’s God’s word? What is your attitude to God’s word, it tells on you what Christian you really are.

But the reason why Paul was so thankful was because of their attitude to God’s word in how they received it… which is key to it’s effectiveness in doing it’s work in their lives and then their sphere of influence. And it’s all because God’s word is effective, and it’s so effective it’ll save your soul from hell “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

But in order to be effective in your life, it has to be received, and received as it is, in truth, the word of God. Do you receive it as it is? It’ll be effective in saving you. Sealing you. Sanctifying you. SENDING you and serving him. It’ll change your life and those around you.

See, we became ineffective when we went away from the only thing that is effective. We then turned to man. Like our government and our philosophies, and our institutions, and our programs could be and ever have been effective in addressing just how broken, and dysfunctional, and depressed, and despondent, and divorced our society is from God. Every politician is elected based on the breath of fresh air of new promises which inevitably fade into the same ineffectiveness the previous one had at addressing any societal issue “and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse”.

And so if you want to be effective, and effectual in your life, you need to not let the heathen educate you how to be a Christian. And you need to not abandon God’s effective method for saving souls for devices of man which have no effect… as the Bible says “The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect.”

Potency is a word used to describe the efficacy or power of a medicine to produce healing change to the problem you have. We as Christians want potency in our Christian life, to be effectual, and not irrelevant and useless.. well there was an impotent man who waited decades for a moving of God in his life… and he was only ever the word of God away from rising, taking up his bed and walking. Nooone was ever effective in helping him til Jesus swung by his life.

And if you perhaps doubt just how effective God’s word could be. Well, consider that everything that was made was made by the word of God. It was the word of God that “effected” creation of heaven and earth. And it therefore should be little wonder that it is that same word that will “effect” new life in you! “Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.”

And so for the Christians reading this… read what worked at Rome, what worked at Corinth, what worked at Colosse, what changed hearts and lives at Thessalonica, what as they said in the book of Acts “These that have turned the world upside down.”!!!

Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians… “For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak any thing.” …Their lives were so transformed by the power of the word of God, that Paul didn’t even need to go witness there, nor argue his doctrine, because when all is said and done, the evidence of a truly transformed life by Christ is indisputable.

And don’t be afraid of being called Bible basher etc… that’s just a lame tactic because they’re scared of the effect of God’s word on their life! And you’re getting bashed by everyone else’s philosophies and beliefs every day, you’re allowed to throw a little Bible back!

And so today, we have found what is effective through the word of God. The effect is still there, people are still being saved today. God doesn’t need you to come up with something more effective, he’s already provided it. To finish, there is a wonderful story in the New Testament, as if there wasn’t enough in Thessalonica already! which specifically shows the effect of God’s word to change a life and a country.

In Matthew 8, Luke 8, Mark 5…Jesus crossed a lake one day with his disciples and was met by a man full of devils. Which is coming to any society that departs from God’s word, as we lose all effectiveness in spiritual conflict, our society becomes possessed by evil spirits as is the case now. And this man that met Jesus had a new identity “Legion” “for we are many” and he was unhappy, violent, and suicidal. For an archaic book it’s amazingly present hey.

What would’ve we done with such a case? How would’ve we treated such a man. Our society has plenty of formulae for helping people like this, and none of it is giving them Jesus, the word of God, because they think that’s ineffective and in fact harmful to their situation. People, people don’t kill themselves because of Christ, it’s because they don’t have Christ. If you have Christ, you have hope, rest, peace, life… he was restless because he didn’t have Christ, not because he had him… and people with hope don’t kill themselves, it’s people that don’t have any.

But we find in this story that before Jesus arrived on the scene, every man and his dog had already tried what they thought would be effective to help him. But everything man had tried had proved totally ineffective. In fact it was pitiful, they couldn’t liberate him from his state, they just tried to “control” him in his state by putting him in chains… which couldn’t hold him. Look, people have different limits in sin, but the direction is all the same. And you may see God’s word as the problem in our society, but it is the only hope any of us have. God’s word changed this man’s life, not you, not I.

Then enter Jesus. And it was one word from Jesus “Go” which set this man free from devil possession. See, when you deny a lost, unhappy, restless, suicidal sinner the word of God, you are denying what is only effective in helping them and transforming their life as wondrously happened here. The anti conversion laws in other countries and soon here are designed to keep people from ever experiencing the glorious salvation power of Christ. Because in this story, it was the word of God, with power, that “effected” the change in this man’s life.

None of us have power to effect any change on a lost world dying in sin under the power of darkness…. But “speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. ” You may not think God’s word is effective and it may not be welcome to your situation of life… but it’s your only hope. … And you know what that country this devil filled man did when they heard this man got saved? Well they asked… how he did it! And when they found out “by what means he that was possessed of the devils was healed.” they told Jesus to get lost! You not welcome here! Exactly like today. Nothing has changed.

But what is most effective still remains. What is only effective is what God provided, his very own precious word, which is “forever settled in heaven” which “thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name”. The Bible says “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul” You want to make some converts? Do it the Bible way, that is what is effective, and ONLY effective.

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