The Heart of a Hero
Chapter 5
Can you imagine a fireman who hates to save people’s lives? He grudgingly pulls up to the scene of a fire while smoking a cigarette and taking his sweet time. He spots a person yelling for help out of the 3rd story window. Immediately he says, “Oh come on! How did this guy get himself into this mess? Now I have to go up there and save him.” He slowly winds the rescue ladder up to the window, climbs up the ladder, stopping to scratch his backside on the way up, and finally reaches the person in danger. When he reaches the endangered person he pulls him out of the window and stubbornly stomps down the ladder to safety. A bystander walks up to the fireman and asks him why he saves lives? The fireman yells, “Because you people won’t do anything about it, you just sit there doing nothing!”
Nadab and Abihu were the sons of Aaron the priest during the days of Moses. They too were priests ordained to serve God by offering sacrifices. Leviticus chapter 10 records their death. In chapter 9, Moses and Aaron entered into the Tent of Meeting. After they came out the glory of God appeared to all the people, and then fire came out from the presence of the LORD and totally consumed the entire offering that was on the altar. This was fire from God’s presence! The people shouted for joy and fell on their faces.
After this, Nadab and Abihu filled their censers with “strange” fire and put incense in them. They offered this “strange”, or unauthorized fire, before the LORD. This was going against the command of the LORD. God sent fire out from His presence that consumed them and left them dead. You see, Nadab and Abihu should have used the fire from the altar, the fire that the LORD sent to consume the offering on the altar, the fire from His presence. Instead, Nadab and Abihu kindled their own fire. They offered earthly fire.
In our efforts to share the gospel with the lost, we need to be fueled by the fire of the Holy Spirit, not by the fire of our own flesh. For example, I go out on a weekly basis and share the gospel with people on the streets. There are a few questions that I need to ask myself regularly. Is my ministry fueled by the Holy Spirit and by the love and grace that God has shown me? Am I concerned that people are dying and going hell, and I want them to come under the same grace that God has shown me? Or, do I perform this ministry because other believers are not doing it and they should be, fueling my ministry with my fiery disgust at my brothers’ and sisters’ shortcomings and mistakes? If I am fueled by the latter, I am filling my censer with strange fire before the LORD. God will not accept this fleshly fire, and the person who continues with this fuel will be judged by the LORD, like Nahab and Abihu.
You see if our ministry is fueled by the mistakes and shortcomings of other Christians, we will grow bitter and resentful like the disgruntled fireman at the beginning of this chapter. Our love will grow cold, and 1 Corinthians 13 teaches us that if we don’t have love, we have nothing and we are nothing. Rather our ministry of sharing our faith needs to be fueled by the Holy Spirit and by the love of God. God is crazy in love with people and finds infinite worth in one human soul.
It breaks God’s heart that people are going to hell. He didn’t create them for that, He created them to worship Him in bliss for eternity. This same love for the lost is available to us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The power of this love can be strengthened through prayer.
I recommend regular prayer for God to purify our motives for sharing our faith. I am not saying that our motives will always be perfect. Pride and wanting recognition for our work sometimes creep up, but recognizing these impurities, bringing them to God, and asking for more of His Holy Spirit will help to keep our hearts right for the work.
Listen to this quote by Charles Spurgeon, “Do you want arguments for soul winning? Look up to heaven, and ask yourself how sinners can ever reach those harps of gold and learn that everlasting song, unless they have someone to tell them of Jesus, who is mighty to save. But the best argument of all is to be found in the wounds of Jesus. You want to honor Him, you desire to put many crowns upon His head, and this you can best do by winning souls for Him. These are the spoils that He covets, these are the trophies for which He fights, these are the jewels that shall be His best adornment.” That is precisely what having the heart of a hero for Christ is all about, a passionate love for Jesus, and a passionate love for people. Jesus is jealous for souls. If we are truly passionately in love with Jesus, we will be passionately in love with the people He loved – sinners.
Oh precious Jesus. Please work in me a heart that is passionate about the souls of men. Ignite me with the fire of your Holy Spirit and let your holy flames burn out my fears. Open my mouth and pour out Your words so that sinners will turn to You, and love you, and be safe with You for eternity. Amen.
There is another aspect of evangelism that your heart must be prepared for. Imagine a fireman getting cursed by others for trying to save lives. It sounds preposterous doesn’t it? However, this is exactly what you must be prepared for when you decide to be used of God in evangelism. Anyone who is not a Christian is still under the influence of Satan’s deceptive power. (Rev 12:9)
Non-Christians think that the message of the cross is foolishness (1 Cor 1:18), and some are even hostile towards this message, and those who deliver it. You may be cursed, made fun of, or worse when you share the gospel, but that does not mean that your evangelism was unsuccessful. As a matter of fact, every time you share the gospel with an unbeliever you are successful no matter how they respond.
I recommend memorizing these words of Jesus, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12 NKJV) We can even be happy about the reward we will receive in heaven when we are persecuted for our faith! Every time you share your faith you are a winner no matter how the people you are sharing with react.
Yet another aspect of evangelism that your heart must be prepared for is the fact that you will not always see the fruit of your labor. More times than not, when I am out street witnessing, I am planting seeds, not gathering a harvest. Many times I leave from sharing the gospel with a person, and cannot even tell if it affected them or not. This does not discourage me, because I know that God’s Word will not return to Him void. (Isa 55:10-11)
I remember meeting a young surfer when I was in Barbados. We surfed together and had fun, and one night the Lord opened up the door for me to share sin, repentance, the gospel, and the love of Jesus with this surfer, and two of his friends. Before they left, I gave this young man a gospel tract called, “Are You Good Enough To Go To heaven?” from Living Waters. I did not know whether the message really had any influence on these guys or not.
A few months later, the young man returned to Barbados to do some more surfing. He never mentioned a thing about the tract, or thinking about Jesus. Then, one day while we were surfing together, he brought up the fact that a certain pro surfer was a Christian. I asked him if he had thought any more about Jesus since we spoke. He told me that he had. He said that when he went home he almost had a nervous breakdown. He said he felt like such a bad person and felt guilty over his sin.
He read the tract by himself when he got home and he said he cried because he knew he sinned against God. I told him how much Jesus loved him, explained the gospel again, and told him that Jesus would wipe away all his guilt and shame and pour out His love on him. He understood, but wasn’t ready to give his life over to the Lord yet. He said that he just wanted to talk with his girlfriend first. I told him I understood, but that he needed to do this even if she wouldn’t come to Jesus. He said he knew, and that was what he was afraid of.
With tears in his eyes, he told me not to worry, that he was going to give his heart to Jesus. Now, I might never have found out how the gospel touched this young man if he didn’t return to Barbados. Maybe the same thing happened to the other two guys. God is in control. I praise Him for using me. Our job is simply to present the gospel and pray, the results are up to God.
As ministers of the gospel, we need to ask the Holy Spirit to make us brave. For our mission is great. I remember a time when I was in college and I had an old, failing Subaru Justy for a car. It was only a three cylinder car (can you believe that!) and I drove it an hour and 40 minutes every day to and from school.
One day I woke up, started the car, and knew that it was going to break down that day. I just prayed that it would get me to school. It made awful noises, but it got me all the way to school that day. After class, I prayed to God that it would just get me home. I started it up and it sounded even worse. I began to drive and got as far as the first 1/3 of the Howard Franklin Bridge in Tampa.
On my way up the hill on the bridge, I heard two noises that sounded like cannon shots. I knew the car had it, I knew it was the trusty Justy’s last trip, but I didn’t mind. I just wanted to get home. I took the car out of 5th gear and put it in 4th. It was still going! “Praise God,” I thought, “I’m going home!” I knew there was a problem, but I didn’t know the severity of the problem. Instead of listening to the warning signals and pulling over, I just wanted to get the journey over with as comfortably as possible.
I rolled up the windows, turned the a/c on full blast, and cranked up the radio so I wouldn’t have to hear the awful noises of my car engine. Not long after this, I noticed a man to my left side driving two lanes away from me in his car. He was angrily waving and yelling at me to get off the road. I couldn’t hear a word he was saying. I reacted with anger. I thought, “Look buddy, I know I have a problem. I just want to get home. You’re alarmed with the sound and think you’re giving me some big news. Quit making it worse.”
Finally, I turned down my radio, turned off the air conditioner, and rolled down my window only to hear the man yell, “YOUR ON FIRE! PULL OVER! PULL OVER!” I was in shock and I pulled over immediately. I quickly got out of the car, and saw that the front of my engine was ablaze.
Many people in the world know that there is something wrong with their life, something missing, but they try to get the journey over with as comfortably as possible. Others are so consumed with the pleasures of this world (like the music and the air conditioning in my car) that they are oblivious to the sin that is leading them to perish in flames. Either way, when a messenger comes to passionately warn these people about their eternal destination, some of these people get mad at the messenger, like I did with the man who warned me about my car. They think things like, “Look, I know there is something wrong but it’s not that bad,” or, “Leave me alone you lunatic, I’m enjoying my ride.” However, we must share the gospel with people. Once the Holy Spirit convicts the person of their sin and their need for the lover of their souls, once they realize the truth, they will thank us for being brave and sticking our necks out to share with them.
Oh God, please make us ambassadors for Your kingdom. Please make us truth bearers that love the souls of men, and win them for You. Amen.
