What Sermon For Those In Draped Chairs?

Once a preacher was invited to address the inmates of a large prison. The warden showed him around, and they came to the chapel. It was a large auditorium seating fifteen hundred. The preacher noticed that two seats on the front row were draped in black. The warden said, “The two men who will occupy those seats tomorrow are under sentence of death. On Monday they go to the electric chair!”

The minister asked, “Will this be the last service they will ever attend?” “Yes it is,” came the reply. “Your sermon will be the last one they will ever hear.” The preacher went home, took out the sermon he had prepared, reviewed it, and tore it up. “This sermon is of no use,” he said. “It does not meet the need.” Then falling on his knees he prayed, “Oh, God, give me a message for those two men who will be sitting in those draped chairs.” What would you have done? What sermon would you have preached?

Every time a preacher preaches and teaches God’s Word, there are people present who are sitting in draped chairs! Many are they that are lost in sin and cannot find their way to the Lord and salvation. The whole world is a searching, desperate world of indecision and the church needs to feel this urgency both at home and abroad. We must teach at home, and we must take part in preaching God’s Word throughout the world. Jesus teaches us in Matthew 28:19-20 KJV, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

The following are suggestions as to what we can do to proclaim the saving gospel of Christ:

1) Invite someone to worship with you.
2) Give a friend a Gospel tract or tape.
3) Encourage the church to be involved in mission work.
4) Invite someone to study with you.
5) Enroll your neighbors in a Bible correspondence course.
6) Open your home for a group Bible study.
7) Pray for the lost — by name.
8) Strive to put on the “real spirit” of Christ.
9) Subscribe to a gospel paper, read it, then pass it on to a friend.
10) Why not text for the glory of God? (see here).

Our Lord said in John 4:35, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest,” Let us as followers of Christ, “Lift up our eyes, look on the fields, and see the urgency of preaching the saving message of Christ!” (2 Timothy 4:2).

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets