Subject: A Sample and a Sermon!

By Maria Maria #474 CM/FM 3229 1/99

Dear Family‚

1. I'd like to share with you a significant message the Lord gave Peter and me in one of our daily prayer and prophecy times. It's about the whole reason we're here in the first place—to save souls!

2. It's interesting to note that even when we don't hear about things via your letters or the CROs' reports, the Lord knows what are the needs, strengths, and weaknesses in the Family‚ and He gives us the messages that you need. We weren't praying about any particular situation or because of something we'd heard or were burdened about, but the Lord just gave us the following message and told us what was going on and how some of you need to adjust your priorities in the areas of witnessing and your "Consider the Poor" (CTP) ministries.

3. After you read this message, please pray together as a Home about how you're doing in the areas the Lord brings out. Let the Lord speak to you in prophecy about what you can do to closely follow the counsel He gives here‚ so you can be sure to make all your witnessing ministries pay off by yielding the most precious dividends—souls for the Kingdom.

4. (Jesus speaking:) I wish to speak to you about a matter which is very close to My heart, and that is soul winning. Witnessing and winning souls—leading them to Me, showing them the pathway to salvation—is your main ministry. Everything else is secondary, for this is the purpose for which I have called you—to win the lost to Me.

5. Though it is important to give tangible proof of My love through your good works, through the love you bestow on others, through ministering to the needs of the poor; though all of these are good and very important, they are but a means to an end—the end being the winning of souls.

6. Your CTP ministries are precious and very important, but don't let them cause you to get your eyes off of the main purpose, the main goal of performing them‚ and that is to lead the sheep to Me‚ to feed their souls, to heal their broken hearts. Salvation of the soul is the ultimate goal of caring for their bodies and their physical needs.

7. These physical things are important and they bring you favor in the eyes of man and in the eyes of governments. They are needful and they are a good thing, but don't let them distract you from winning souls. Don't let the good will that you receive and the recognition that is given to you keep you from the most important goal—that of winning souls.

8. Although the CTP ministries are very important, useful and needed, you can compro­mise for gain in this area if you're not very careful. Of course, there are times when you must use great wisdom and you must move very slowly, and you must use the CTP ministries as a vehicle to allow you to have contact with those you would not normally have contact with, both those who are poor and needy and those who run governments and the programs. Your ministry brings you into contact with both of these groups of people, therefore you must be very wise and move with caution. But even in this, remember that the purpose of it all is to preach the Gospel‚ to reach the lost, to win souls. So be wise and know how to use these ministries for the furtherance of the preaching of My Gospel.

9. Sometimes these ministries are beneficial as a sample to show and to prove that you love the people and that you have their best interests at heart. Your sacrificial labors of love are tangible proof to them that you love and care, and this opens their hearts to receive your message of love and salvation for their souls. But in some cases, there are those of you who are fearful to take this step, to make the transition from being the sample to giving the sermon. And though in some situations this must be done very wisely and carefully, in many others it could be done more freely.

10. Remember, the sample proves the sermon. Your example of love and caring, of your consistency of ministering to the poor and the needy, is to many proof of both your love and My love. This helps them to be more receptive when you speak to them of Me and My love and sacrifice and salvation. Yet although the sample speaks very loudly‚ still the sermon must be preached.

11. So be wise, be winsome, be wonderful. But know that the ultimate goal of these CTP works is to reach them with My wonderful salvation. And for those who receive My gift of salvation, it will take care of all of their needs for eternity.

12. I speak this message to you as a caution, as a reminder‚ as a prod to those who have been fearful to take this step from sample to sermon. But there are some areas of the world where, because of the religion and the culture and the sensitive situations, this step can only be made slowly. If you are in these situations, you must seek Me prayerfully as to when and how to make this step with certain individuals or ministries, so that your work is not jeopardized.

13. There are many other places throughout the world where making the transition from sample to sermon is much easier, but some hold back for fear. But I say, fear not, for your sample has been strong, it has been wonderful, and those who work with you marvel at your anointing, your joy, your love‚ your self-sacrifice. Because they recognize that this is so extraordinary, they will be very open to receiving the message, the sermon‚ if you will but have faith to deliver it.

14. So remember‚ you minister and you serve in these CTP ministries for souls. Service for souls, that's the complete picture. I have seen your good works, the love that you have bestowed upon the needy and the heartbroken, the war-torn, the halt, the lame, the blind, the fatherless, the motherless, the rejected, the outcast, and in these things I am well pleased. For you are as the Good Samaritan on the road to Jericho; you have given of yourself for the healing of another. You have laid down your life for others—for a multitude of others—and in this I am well pleased.

15. I only remind you that the goal of all of this service is souls. So continue your good works, continue pouring out your life to others, continue being the sample and building the sample and living the sample, but also remember the sermon. For as a sermon without a sample can be weak‚ so can a sample without a sermon. They go hand in hand and work together, each upholding the other‚ making the message of the sermon more concrete, more real, more tangible, more understandable, and thus more successful.

16. So be a sample and preach the sermon so that these lost and hungry and needy souls will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and will live in peace and plenty for eternity. (End of message from Jesus.)

(See also "Consider the Poor," ML #2755:16-28, Lifelines 20.)