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PRAYER UPDATE: Dear ones, I underwent the dental procedure Tuesday afternoon, and I was amazed at how painless it was, and I thank God for being with me. I didn't even feel the needles of the two numbing injections nor the long extraction procedure that took way longer than expected. A little pain visited me at about 6:30 but thankful for pain meds! So, thank you, thank you for your faith and willingness to pray for me! God bless you and I send you my love! Pastor Eradio
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14 Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd:36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” 37 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.” 40 With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. (Acts 2:14a, 36-41 NIV)
I was invited once to preach at a significantly large and influential church in the heart of Methodism. I preached my sermon then had an altar call. As I was saying the words I wanted to hit myself saying to myself, "Man, great names of the faith have preached in this church; many known for their altar calls, and who do I think I am to do this?" But, God is faithful and the altar filled with people, who later said it had been some time since the church had had an altar call. An altar call can alter many a life. Years later I attended a pastors retreat required by my conference, and the speaker was the senior pastor of a large Dallas church. He was also a professor at Perkins School of Theology-SMU; had been a city councilman and a state legislator. He said he knew he needed to implement an altar call method but admitted he did not have the training or resources. He said he went to the Cokesbury Store (remember those?) in Dallas and searched in vain for books on altar calls. None. Surprise? He said he then wore an overcoat and a hat and sunglasses and went to the Baptist bookstore and to his surpise, found rows of books on altar calls, some of which he bougnt to help his ministry.
In this passage, verse 37, the sermon had an effect on the people who heard it. They were, as the scripture says, "Cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'" The Holy Spirit spoke to the heart of every listener on that day. They had seen Him fall as flames on many of them, and they spoke in other tongues; just as the Disciples had spoken of the great works of God in languages of the people visiting Jerusalem for that day. Some thought because of the unfamiliar languages these disciples were drunk at 9 in the morning; but Peter's sermon brought home to their hearts the realities of God working great things on our behalf. They wanted to know how to respond. Most of our churches have what we call Invitation to Discipleship; which is a way to respond to the sermon and whatever God may have spoken to their hearts. As a DS at one of our annual Pastors and Family picnics I spoke angrily about how we were missing the mark when it came to our true purpose as a church. I said we have given the use of the word to the Baptists and we failed God and people when we didn't offer the chance to enter into a relationship with Jesus, which we can also call salvation; but it is to enter into a life-affirming, life-giving, life-saving relationship in which we surrender our lives and sins to Jesus and in return Jesus offers to us a new life, a life beyond just existing that we call life in abundance; this is salvation. On Tuesday after that picnic I got an angry call from one of my pastors. She said she had never heard such a sermon and was very angry at my tone and my words. I calmly said it wasn't the first time nor the last time that I would hear something like that, but she said that she got home and had a talk with her husband about how angry she was with me. And she said she sat down and re-wrote her sermon for Sunday. And she said, "I preached it, and when it was over, the people didn't want to leave. They wanted to know what they should he doing about what she had preached. So, we had a meeting to talk about that. The people said we needed to start something like a service geared to children and youth;" and they did start a new service that attracted a lot of youth from the community and other churches. That evening service outgrew their morning service (much to the chagrin and anger of the morning folks), and during that meeting it was also decided that they should start a community Bible study. The janitor of the church came into that meeting and began to participate saying he knew the owners of a hotel known for the residents who were poverty-stricken and spent a lot of time on the beach. All because God spoke to this pastor and congregation using the angry words of a DS.
Peter, after his altar call says, those who heard needed to, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off -- for all whom the Lord our God will call." He urged them to be saved "from this corrupt generation." And "Those who accepted his message and were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day." Not bad for Peter's first sermon, 3,000 saved!
You and I have pulpits, meaning areas of influence on the lives of others, and we can use those pulpits to share Jesus and His message of love and hope; and we can even sway their responses to a better life by how we llive our life as an "altar call."
PRAYER: Loving God of second chances; speak to our hearts in ways that lead us closer to You and to others. May our lives truly be an altar call showing how we responded and how others can respond to You; in Christ Jesus we pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! YOUR CALL TO ACTION: Is your altar call ready?
Recieve my blessings of hope and peace,
Pastor Eradio Valverde, Jr.
