Safe Is Not the Same as Sent

There are two rooms every believer knows well.

The first is the prayer closet. The Lord Jesus told us: when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret (Matthew 6:6). It's just you and Him back there. You can wrestle with a hard truth, weep over a wayward child, confess the same sin for the third time this month — and nobody but God ever has to know.

The second room is the church house. Not as private, but still safe. Saved people fill most of the pews. The preaching is sound. The hymns are familiar. Nobody in there is going to curse you or spit on the gospel.

Both rooms matter. And a Christian who neglects either will be weak for it. But neither one was ever meant to be where the Christian life ends up.

James said: "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves" (James 1:22). A man can move faithfully between his closet and his pew for forty years and never once open his mouth in public to a lost man headed for hell.

Christ's command wasn't to fill the building. He said, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15). That's a different room altogether — there's no hymnal, there's no amens, just lost and dying people who need exactly what you've been storing up in secret and rehearsing among the brethren. The prayer closet builds your spiritual strength. The church house sharpens you in the Word. The world is where it finally gets spent.

You probably need more time in that closet than you're giving it. But you certainly need to walk out the church door and go find somebody to tell.

Pastor Fortunato
Founding Pastor & Preacher of the Word
Pilgrim Baptist Church — Cookeville, Tennessee

https://pilgrimbaptist.church/
https://www.sermonaudio.com/solo/pilgrimbaptist/