I think that knowing that God is sovereign over ALL things, including every salvation, will definitely affect the way that we preach and evangelize and pray. Specifically in regards to how we live, God's complete sovereignty means that we totally depend on God and recognize His complete control.
Jam 4:13-15 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit"-- (14) yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. (15) Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that." (emphasis added)
I think that this verse illustrates God’s complete control in each and every situation.
The Bible says that those who are not children of God “hate the light”. They fear It and will run from It. Therefore a non-Christian (without God’s grace) will NEVER accept Christ and put their faith in Him. They him and indeed are BLIND to Him. To them, it is all foolishness. They cannot choose Him.
1Co 1:18 For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.
After realizing this first part (Total depravity) we then can see that the only chance for this person is if God intervenes…God is needed, not just to have died on the Cross to provide a way but also to give us the ability to even see the way that He has made for us. Our faith is also a gift from God. He gives us the grace to have faith in Him because we would NOT otherwise. John 1 talks of the “Light” and how the world “hates it” and will not turn to it. That is total depravity.
With regards to evangelism we will recognize that it is solely God (the Holy Spirit) that opens the eyes of the sinner and gives them grace to have faith. Therefore, the burden does not rest on us. God says that He has ordained the Word to be the agent that reveals grace and salvation to men. Therefore, our responsibility is to preach the Word and that is it…after this is where God takes over. If it pleases Him to open the eyes of the person and save them He will, and if it does not he won’t. It also gives all credit to God and none to the preacher or the listener.
Now I am not saying that we can go out to the World and lazily and sloppily preach the Word to the world. God tells us to work as if we are working to Him, and indeed in this case we directly are working for Him! But the salvation of the person does not rest on the witness. They can’t “screw” up the Message. This is why Paul rejoiced even when people were preaching the Gospel out of selfish reasons. Jesus Christ was being proclaimed!
Phi 1:15-18 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. (16) The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. (17) The former proclaim Christ out of rivalry, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. (18) What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.
Paul also said this…
1Co 2:1-5 And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. (2) For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. (3) And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, (4) and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, (5) that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. (emphasis added)
Likewise, the listener cannot resist the Gospel, if God indeed has elected him to salvation. They cannot refuse Christ. This truly shows the IMMENSE power of the Word!
So I think that our view on salvation and how it is accomplished is very important to our lives and the way we evangelize.
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