From Here to the World
“What we need is not bigger and longer cars, more of material goods, but a spiritual awakening.” Matt. 28:16-20
I: One world and one gospel:
1. 2,500,000,000 people.
2. Hiroshima made us to realize that we live in one world.
3. Christ included the whole world in the Christian witnessing. Acts 1:8
II: Organized for the job.
1. The local church and local field.
2. The associations and Judea.
3. The state convention and Samaria.
4. The convention and the whole world.
III: Cooperating through the organization.
1. 23 State conventions cooperating.
2. Carrying out the great commission through: 30 hospitals, 6,000 beds, 2,000,000 patient days per yr. training over 3,000 nurses.
a. 30 senior colleges and universities enrolling 33,000 students; 30 Jr. colleges and academics with 10,000 students. Over 5,000 ministerial students in training. 20 chilodren homes caring for 5,000 children.
b. 22 State papers carrying the message into more than 1,000,000 homes.
c. 6 seminaries with 4,000 students. 1,400 aged ministers and missionaries receiving some measure of relief.
d. 1,000 missionaries in the home field serving all races.
e. Over 1,000 missionaries in 32 countries of the world. 400 schools and colleges with 50,000 students.
f. 5 publication houses, 5 hospitals, 10 dispensaries, and 5 clinics.
IV: God’s hurry and the everlasting now. The king’s business.
1. 4,630 people die every hour.
2. 1,543 are nominal Christians.
3. 3,087 stand before the judgment without Christ.
4. The atmosphere of haste runs thru the entire bible and intensifies in Revelations.
5. Men sometimes want God to hurry when they are in dire need.
6. Through all the ages God has been saying, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation.” Cor. 2 6:2.
V: From here to the world $20 a minute. (1 min. of silence).
1. A good steward in my church. (No other place in the world is a dollar worth so much).
2. A good steward in my association.
3. Interested in my State convention.
4. A steward through the southern baptist convention to the world.
5. In 1954 we gave more than any other denomination in the U.S.A $52,926,600. In 1955 $58,202,000 (Less than 18% of total gift. We have an elephant).
6. Is such a program worthy of our all?