As of October 25, 2011, the estimated world population is 6.97 billion people.  For simplicity’s sake round that up to 7 billion.  What percentage of that population would you say are born-again, Holy Spirit filled, Bible believing Christians standing upon their blessed assurance waiting for the Lord’s imminent return?  One percent, ten, maybe even fifty percent?  Let’s just focus on the United States of America, my home, with a current estimated population of roughly 300 million people.  Again for ease of argument I will take the lowest believable estimate on the amount of “true” Christians living here, that being 1% or three million people.  60 million children are currently living in the USA, half male and half female, (CIA fact book).  Subtract that number from the 300 million total population as children will all go to heaven and we are left with 240 million adults.

Now divide the number of believing Christians into that number and we come up with eighty people.  So, for each believing Christian to fulfill the mandate of the great commission for the Lord Jesus we each would have to make disciples of eighty people at some time in our walk to bring about His return.  Let us say that we tell one person about Jesus per week for the next eighty weeks then the entire population of the U.S. would have heard the Good News within the next two years.  If we just told one person a month for the next 6.5 years we will have fulfilled the same expectation.

I know that this realization causes some significant discomfort as well it should.  The most current estimates of “born again” evangelical Christians is ~25% of the U.S. Population.  This would mean that there are sixty million believers further reducing the amount of people we need to disciple to a whopping “Four” people.  At this point this story becomes heart braking and laughable.

If I knew that my little Sister were about to get on a plane that I knew was destined to crash I would do everything in my power, including forcibly restraining her to prevent her from getting on board that aircraft.  We as Christians know that the “ship of this world” is about to crash and all aboard may be lost.  Yet we stand idle, speaking no words of caution, giving no directions to salvation, taking “NO” action.  Do we truly believe in the Sovereignty of God when the evidence clearly points to the lack of belief?  I consistently hear various excuses from my brothers and sisters for why they cannot tell people the good news.  I speak the truth in faith and love when I say, we are a disobedient body who refuses to perform the works for which we were designed according to God’s pleasure.  We must choose, we cannot both serve this world and serve God . I beseech you my Brothers and Sisters to prepare yourselves and all those around you to do the work of an evangelist and hasten the return of our Lord Jesus by spreading the Good News to the “Next” four people who God will place in your path.  Praise Jesus, Amen.