In addition to handling business last week, Louisiana Baptists also took time
to fellowship and hear a challenge to demonstrate Christian love to a lost and
needy world
Louisiana Baptists have the necessary message for these uncertain times, but
they must truly love one another if they hope to reach people with it, W.D.
“Step” Martin warned.
In addition to handling business last week, Louisiana Baptists also took time
to fellowship and hear a challenge to demonstrate Christian love to a lost and
needy world
Louisiana Baptists have the necessary message for these uncertain times, but
they must truly love one another if they hope to reach people with it, W.D.
“Step” Martin warned.
“We live in perilous times, …” noted Martin, pastor at Calvary
Baptist Church in Shreveport. “Devastation is everywhere. If theres
ever an opportunity for us as Baptists to step up and stand up, its now.
“What an opportunity is before us – and we have the
message. But we have to get the message across to the hearers,” Martin
said during the convention sermon at last weeks annual meeting of Louisiana
Baptists. “And sometimes, Im afraid that we lose the message in our
struggles and our battles and our attitudes toward one another.”
The key is to recover the new commandment offered by Jesus
on the night before his death, Martin told Louisiana Baptist Convention messengers.
After washing the feet of the disciples, Jesus told them: “A
new commandment I give unto you – that you love one another. As I have
loved you, that you also love one another. By this shall all men know that you
are my disciples, if you have love one toward another.”
As Jesus demonstrated his love, Louisiana Baptists must demonstrate
theirs, Martin insisted.
“The world needs to see it more than just hear that we
care about and love one another, …” he said. “We need to love in
deed, love in demonstration. …
“Thats something I desire to see in Louisiana Baptists.
… Theres nothing any more devastating, nothing any more misdirecting
than for us to have feuds goings on, than for us to have things transpiring
that keep us off the focus of reaching people for the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Unfortunately, it is so easy to be distracted and so easy to
get absorbed in things that are not related to fulfilling the Great Commission,
Martin indicated. If that mission is to be fulfilled, Christians must love Jesus
and one another as the early believers did – with passion, he emphasized.
“Jesus didnt give us an option when he said, I
write a new commandment, ” Martin reminded messengers. “He
said, This is a command of Christ, that you love another. …
“Its not a suggestion. Its a command from
God.”
When Christians do not demonstrate the command, it is a travesty
and a despair for the kingdom of God, Martin said.
“Weve become good actors. … We meet, and we pat
each other on the back, and we express our accolades of love and affection.
Then, we go off and in our sullen, sullen way, cutting each other to pieces.
“Listen, God is not oblivious to that reality in our lives,”
Martin warned.
Christians must make the type of love set forth in 1 Corinthians
13 a reality in their lives, he continued. “Is that kind of love demonstrated
in your life? …
“Theres room for diversity. Theres room for
disagreement. Theres room for different ideas. God wants us to work through
those things and demonstrate our love one toward another as we work through
those things.
“We can do that by the grace of God.”
Martin said he is not advocating compromise with heresy or
anything that would take away from the Word of God.
However, Christians must find a way to demonstrate love, he
stressed. “Theres no place for spiritual cannibalism among the church
of God. Theres no place for us to be biting and chewing and gnawing at
each other in a fashion thats unbecoming to the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Bitterness and resentment and hatred are subtle tools that
satan uses to sap Christians of their spiritual strength, Martin warned. He
offered a word of personal testimony about how such bitterness affected him
as a pastor at one point and affected him spiritually.
It only was overcome through the hard work of forgiveness,
Martin said.
“There needs to be some forgiveness in Louisiana Baptist
life,” he stressed. “We need to get to that place where were
willing to walk that course of the committed, to obey Jesus, not just Lord,
Lord with our lips.”
Without such forgiveness, bitterness and resentment and hatred
take over and cause the church to send a mixed message to people, Martin continued.
“This world doesnt understand. … We send mixed
messages by things that you and I have an understanding of that the world outside
doesnt have an understanding of. … We need to get to them with the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need to get to them with the good news that Jesus
saves and let them know that. …
“We dont need to send mixed messages.”
The bottom line is Louisiana Baptists must demonstrate the
fact that they love God and one another in a meaningful way, Martin emphasized
to convention messengers.
“This world is not going to have the message unless we
unify ourselves in love to make known that message of Jesus Christ, …”
he concluded.
“Wouldnt it be nice if in Shreveport and Monroe,
Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Covington, Lafayette, New Orleans, Morgan City, across
this state, not a one, not a one didnt know Louisiana Baptists love one
another – and they love them for Jesus.”