Michael Cloer had a surefire attention grabber for his message last Tuesday at the state evangelism conference. “The key to effective evangelism,” he announced right off the bat, “is the cooperative program.”
Don KirklandNo, not THE Cooperative Program. Instead, the cooperative program. Lower case, but uppermost in his mind and heart.
He drew his message from the story of Philip and the conversion of the Ethiopian official told in Acts 8. And he painted a picture of cooperation between Christians and the Holy Spirit in winning the lost that is beautiful for its simplicity, for its practicality.
Cloer, pastor of Englewood Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, N.C., cited two extremes in evangelism – believing that it is all up to us, or putting it all on God.
“Both extremes are wrong,” he made clear.
Rather, he pointed to a better way, a more effective way – working with a God who wants us as partners in his redemptive work. His ability finds its complement in our availability.
The partnership that results is founded on a mutual concern for lostness and a willingness to be found faithful. “The Holy Spirit won’t force us to do anything,” Cloer said. “He’s not going to bowl you over.”
Such a partnership between God and believers has three prerequisites the former South Carolina pastor pointed out.
The first is to “surrender to the opportunities of the Spirit.” Philip, Cloer noted, yielded to the Spirit’s urgings with an attitude of “anything, anywhere, anytime.”
Opportunities often are unknown to us at the time, Cloer mentioned. And, he added, they may seem unusual, at least from a human perspective. Abraham, he said, was told to go, and he went, traveling “under sealed orders.”
And take note of this, too, Cloer underscored: “God doesn’t explain himself.”
Second, Cloer said the partnership requires that the believer “secures the objective of the Spirit.” And that objective? “The one intent of the Holy Spirit,” Cloer said, “is to emphasize Jesus, to call attention to him.”
“The Holy Spirit,” he continued, “testifies of Jesus, it glorifies him. Evangelism takes place when we preach Jesus to them.”
And a third prerequisite is to “be swift to obey the Spirit.” It is significant, Cloer said, that when told to go to the chariot carrying the Ethiopian official, he “ran up to it.”
The Holy Spirit, said the North Carolina pastor, “knows when the time is right, and that time is always short. When God tells you to do something, do it right then.”
Cloer re-emphasized that God’s plan for bringing the lost into the fold of Christ is to “use human instruments working in cooperation with the Holy Spirit.”
“Right now,” he said, “God is preparing someone for you – someone to come across your path.”
What is needed from you and me is cooperation. That and something else. A willingness, even an eagerness to seize every opportunity to share the good news of Jesus. The recognition that all we do and say calls attention to Jesus, not to us. And one more thing. Time is fleeting. Act swiftly in obedience to the Holy Spirit.
It’s a partnership made in heaven.