If you are not seeing people saved, might you be preaching overmuch on faith and not enough on judgement? “What? How can we preach overmuch on faith?” As for judgement, “We are not called to preach condemnation to God’s people!”
Well, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter the apostle preached strong condemnation to those listening, because they had crucified their Messiah. They were “cut to the heart” and asked, “What must we do to be saved?” Saved from the judgement of God that awaited them. Peter answered the question by preaching repentance from sin and baptism as an expression of willingness to turn away from it by identifying with Jesus. The result was 3000 conversions to Christ!
You might object: “But unsaved people do not go to church!” True, but people who do need to repent of pornography, greed, self-interest, envy, and other evil desires. These sins are very much a part of life, and all Christians fall short of God’s holiness. We need to address these issues so that opportunities will be provided for the Holy Spirit to convict our hearts and the hearts of those outside the church, so that we can share in the holiness — spiritual purity — of God.
How else can those outside the church be “cut to the heart” so deeply they will ask what they must do to be saved [made safe]? It is not enough to spread nets in the water to catch fish — we must ready ourselves to draw in those nets and sort out the catch.
What do I mean by saying that we can preach overmuch on faith? Is not God-given faith the basis of everything else in Christianity?
And by preaching faith, do we not raise the expectation of the sick for miracles of healing? Yes, but not to the point that we neglect our need to live righteously. We need to preach for healing, but we also own need to address secret sins in God’s saints.
It’s “different strokes for different folks”. Peter preached “against” Jews in Jerusalem who had had crucified their Messiah and needed to repent. His message was intensive and intrusive. In contrast, Paul preached faith to the Athenians, and his message was expansive and inclusive.
We preach faith to believers because we are together “fighting the good fight” not only so that miracles of healing and provision can take place, but also to strengthen ourselves against a rising flood of worldly filth and corruption. Yet at times we sin and fall short, and there are consequences in feelings of guilt and unworthiness. R
But quick repentance gets believers back into the battle. Without it, we will sit in church knowing we failed to be what we might have been and ought to have been — the “woulda”, “shoulda”, “coulda” self-recriminations.
Many believers live with regrets and need to repent, so they can get back into their calling. The first epistle of John was written for believers — don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! (John 1:9 & 5:13) Sin is the root cause of bad fruit that will grow again, if not dealt with immediately after each and every act. Altar calls for outsiders have their place, but so do alter calls for insiders.