"Highways and Hedges" (Luke 14:23)

"Highways and Hedges" from Luke 14:23 was preached by Dr. Mark McElreath at the City Baptist Church of Atlanta on May 31, 2026.

Find out more about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta at www.citybaptistchurch.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the City Pulpit. Bible messages from the pulpit ministry of the City Baptist Church in Atlanta. Please take your Bibles with me. Let's go to the book of Luke. Luke chapter 14. Luke chapter 14. And we come to a moment in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's going to be speaking and teaching here. And as he's speaking and teaching, I think he shows us some important things that he's going to use through this message and through the story that he tells, this parable he gives on our work today and what he expects of the church. Let's begin reading in Luke chapter 14 and verse number 15. Luke chapter 14 and verse number 15. The Bible says, And when one of them that sat at meet with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper and bade many, and set his servants at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come, for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it, and pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them, I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came and showed his Lord the things, of these things, and then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and there is yet room. And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. I want you to mark one phrase in verse 23. We'll take this for the theme of the Bible message this morning. In verse number 23, these words, highways and hedges. Highways and hedges. We find here the Lord is giving a story, and he tells of a man that makes a great supper. It's been prepared, and he begins to send out invitations to those that he wants to come to the supper, and we find it begins to give all the excuses. In fact, it says in verse number 18, they all with one consent began to make excuses. Hopefully you're never thrown a party and people decided not to come, right? That's exactly what happened to this man and this great supper. And he, we find one man, he says, Well, look, I bought a piece of ground, I got to go look at it, so I can't come. Another man says, Now, look, I bought five yoke of oxen and I gotta go check them out and make sure they're okay. I can't come. The last man doesn't even try. He just says, Look, I'm married, I can't come. Okay? But they decide we're not going to come to this supper, and the man of the house, this great supper that he's made, it's a picture for us of what the Lord Jesus Christ has prepared for us in heaven. It's a picture of that great supper, that everything has been laid in store and everything has been made available. And there are those sadly that will accept the invitation, but there are those sadly who will reject the invitation of the Lord, the gospel invitation. But he does not end. He doesn't say, Well, look, if no one, if they're not going to come, then I'm not going to have anyone. He actually tells, he says twice, once in verse 21, once in verse 23, he says, go out. He says, go out quickly in verse 21, and then he says in verse 23, go out in the highways and hedges and compel them to come in. He says, I want my house filled, and I'm going to have people here that will partake of this supper. And here we find an example for us of the Lord's commitment to reaching the lost. He gives us this parable. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. And he's saying, I've made a way for you to come and have fellowship with me. That's what the Lord Jesus is saying. And now I'm going to send out my servants to compel those that are outside the house to get in the house. What do you think that's telling us of? It's speaking of our opportunity and our witness to get people into the family of God and to be a gospel witness everywhere we go. Now, where does he send them? Look at verse 23, because this is where we're going to launch out from. The highways and the hedges. Where are the highways? Those are the well-trodden places. Those are the streets and the lanes of the city. Those are the places where commerce is going on and business is taking place, and that's where the people are. I've said this before, and I'll say it again. This city has no problem with this church meeting once in a while in this building and keeping everything we do inside this building. In fact, I don't think the devil has much problem with us meeting in this building and keeping everything we do inside these four walls. Let me tell you when I find that trouble starts happening in the Word of God, and the devil starts getting upset, and cities start getting upset, and municipalities start getting a little worried about it, when the Christians take their gospel message and the truth of God's word and begin to take it out into the highways and hedges. Because that's when true change is going to start happening. You realize all the Christians in this city aren't going to start lining up to get into this place. You realize that? Well, then what are we going to do about it? We've got to go out and compel them. We've got to go out quickly into the streets and into the lanes of the city, into the highways and in the hedges. What are the hedges? I think of the hedgerows. There would be something similar to this in the ancient times where it would have divided up property lines, is really what it would have been. And the hedges were the hard to get to places. You know, there's highways in this city. There's easy places to get to, and then there's hedges in this city. That's the hard places to get to. The hedges sometimes are the places where no one else wants to go. The hedges are the forgotten places. The hedges are the difficult places. The hedges are the places where maybe someone would say, Well, that's a little tough to get there. We don't need to get out there. You know what we did today? We cranked up the Bible bus early this morning. And we went out in the highways and hedges and we picked up a lot of them and brought them in. We were out yesterday, yesterday morning, we were going house by house, street by street, one of our neighborhoods. We completed one little neighborhood, just a few hundred houses in that neighborhood, putting a door hanger and a gospel invitation on every one of those houses. We're going to follow it up with knocking on their door and inviting them to church. Give them a gospel invitation. Why? Because we've got to get out in the highways and hedges. This passage, I think, shows us why we would have a door-to-door soul-winning time. I think this shows us why, if we're having eight World Cup matches just two miles from this church, why would we plan and put things together and try to recruit people to come out and help us? And I just, in fact, just this week, there's a printing ministry called Bearing Precious Seed in Milford, Ohio. They just brought us about 20,000 of these. This is a copy of the book of Romans in English and in Spanish. You know what's amazing is Spain will play twice in just the first couple of weeks of these games. And it has a little QR code on the back that takes you to a gospel film that gives a clear presentation of the gospel. And it says true victory on the front. It's a World Cup themed copy of the Scriptures. Why would we take these and go out in the hot sun? It's going to be hot. It's going to be miserable. There's going to be people packed in so tight you're going to feel like sardines. Why would we put all the effort in and all the labor in to go out and do that and try to pass out some copies of scripture and speak to people about the Lord and have gospel conversations? Why would we do that? Because we've got to get out in the highways and hedges. Now I want you to make note of some things today because we will go out in the highways and hedges because, would you make note of the first thing? Number one, because faith comes by hearing. Would you go with me to Romans chapter 10? Romans chapter 10, the Apostle Paul writing here, the human penman. And Paul gives us such wonderful teaching on salvation all through the book of Romans, but he really comes down on a key passage here. We'll begin reading in Romans chapter 10 and verse number 9. We will go into the highways and hedges because faith comes by hearing. Verse 9 says, That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. By the way, that's all that's needed for salvation. It says here in verse 9, Confess with thy mouth and believe in thine heart. Confession, that is something that is seen, visible. Belief in the heart, that's something invisible, that's between you and God. Only you can know if you've truly believed in your heart in the Lord Jesus Christ for your soul salvation. And that is the only message. That's the only thing that will take us to heaven. It is the confession with the mouth and the belief in the heart. If we add anything to that, then we've added something to salvation. We find here he goes on to say in verse number 10, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. And with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. He says in verse 11, for the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Now that's something we should all take to heart, right? If we believe on him, we shouldn't be ashamed of it, right? Look at verse 12. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all them that call upon him. You know what that tells us? We shouldn't just go to the Jew or just go to the Gentile. We go to all people. You know what we do here at City Baptist Church? We are reaching all of this city. Every person in this city should get a free presentation of the gospel. There's no one we're going to hold that back from. He goes on to say in verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You know what that tells me? Anyone who understands they're a sinner, and anyone that understands the Lord Jesus Christ died to save them of their sins, if they call, they're a part of that, whosoever, anyone shall call upon the name of the Lord, they shall be saved. We had some people, sometimes we had people come to help us with evangelism and things like that. We had someone come, this has been quite a while back, I think a few years ago now, and they came on Saturday to go with us door to door. And uh they started doing, they started walking up the sidewalk, and they told our people, they said, Now don't go to that door. Because that person's already been given over to a reprobate mind. Don't they? There's no way they could even be saved. And I, what in the world are you talking about? They said, look, no, they're already done. They're already gone. No, you know what the Bible tells us? Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved? That means whosoever is out there in front of us, we need to be faithful to get them the gospel. We don't skip houses, we don't skip neighborhoods, we don't skip streets because we think it's too far gone. No. No person's too far gone that the gospel can't get to them. No person's too far gone that Jesus can't reach down and save them. Whosoever shall call. Look at verse 14. Because here's the crux of the matter. He says here in verse number 14, how then shall they call on him whom they have not believed? He says, okay, if they're gonna call, first they've got to believe. And then he says in verse 14, how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? How are they gonna call on the Lord Jesus Christ if they've never even heard of the Lord Jesus Christ? Realize we live in a world today, some conservative estimates that say that half of the world at least has never heard a clear presentation of the gospel. That's a very conservative estimate. I read recently, at least two billion people on earth, at least two billion, have never heard the name of Jesus. How will they call on him if they have not heard? Look what he says in verse 14. He says, and how shall they hear without a preacher? You say, Oh, well, we're covered then, Pastor, because you're the preacher. That's not what it's talking about. You realize what it's talking about? Each of us going out, opening our mouth, and giving the gospel and speaking to people about the Lord. You say, Well, look, there's a lot of controversy now today, Pastor, about whether men or women could be preachers. Well, concerning pastors, I think the Bible's very clear on that. The pastoral role is for a man. We understand that. But let me tell you what a preacher is. Here it's talking about someone going forth with the gospel on their heart and the love of Christ on their heart and speaking to someone the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ, his death, burial, and his resurrection. And each of us, you know what the Bible has done? It has deputized you as a preacher of the gospel. Now, you may not stand up here in this place and you may not open the word of God in front of this church, but everywhere you go, you have a message and you have been sent. And the Bible tells us no one's going to be saved if they haven't heard. And how will they hear? Look what he says here, except there's a preacher. Look what he says in verse 15. How shall they preach except they be sent? Alright, we've been sent, right? And as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. He says in verse 17, so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Why would we take copies of the Word of God out and hand them out? And we take gospel tracts that have Bible verses in them that talk about what the Lord Jesus Christ has done to us. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You know what's interesting in verse number 15 here in Romans 10? What is the defining mark? The thing that is pointed out about the preacher in verse number 15. You would think it would say, How beautiful is the mouth of them that preach the gospel of peace. But it doesn't say that, does it? You know what it says in verse number 15? How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace. You know what that means? We should be a going people. We should be a people that are wearing out some shoe leather because we're going all around this city speaking to people about the Lord Jesus Christ. We should be, as we're going, giving the gospel everywhere we go. Why? Because faith comes by hearing. You know this highways and hedges idea is not just used by the church. Political people believe that in the last presidential election there was over a million doors knocked on, political candidates going door to door to speak to people face to face about their political candidate. Now, Joe Biden and Donald Trump didn't knock on a million doors. You know what? They had other people going for them. I've had more pastors and churches and religious leaders than I can count say, why do you go door to door? That's a lost thing. Nobody wants anybody knocking on their door. And yet the world still does it. You've had somebody try to sell you an alarm system door to door. You've had somebody try to sell you solar panels door to door. You know there's hardly a door we go to, especially in these last few weeks with all the elections coming. There's not some political candidates' information stuck on the door. Why? Because the world knows it works. We're going to go into the highways and hedges because faith comes by hearing. And if the world is out there, we've got to get out there where the people are, where the world is. Would you make note of a second thing? Not only do we go because faith comes by hearing, but would you make note of a second thing? Secondly, we will go into the highways and hedges because obedience comes by going. Obedience comes by going. Romans 10.15, he says, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel. Back in our passage in Luke chapter 14, he says at verse 21, go out quickly into the streets and the lanes of the city. He says in verse 23, go out into the highways and hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. One thing, and we need to do more of it, and we're going to work at it, is not just our door-to-door work, but open air work. Open air work is some people call it street preaching. Now, you've probably seen some bad street preaching. I've seen a lot of bad street preaching, all right, where people hold ugly signs and they scream and yell at people. That's not what I'm talking about. Just because something has been done bad doesn't mean we don't do it well. We need to do it well and show people a good example of it. You know what we find through the Bible examples of those who went out in the highways and hedges and preached the gospel? You know what Noah was called? 2 Peter chapter 2 calls Noah a preacher of righteousness. Where do you think he was doing that? No church building. I think he was preaching outside. You realize Noah only took he and his wife and his three sons and their daughters, eight of them got on the ark. Do you think he was just preaching to them? I don't think so. I think he was preaching to all those people working on the ark. Can you imagine working on the ark and dying in the flood? Noah's a preacher of righteousness. Who else we find? We find Jonah. Jonah was sent to a, oh, a wicked city. Nineveh's called a great city. In fact, the Bible tells us in Jonah chapter 3, verse number 4, after Jonah gets swallowed by a well and gets spit up on the seashore, it says, He began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet 40 days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. That's the only message we know of that Jonah brought. That's a pretty tough message to go to Nineveh and preach that message. And yet what happens? We find the city gets right with God, they get saved, and they turn back to the Lord. Now that was just a window of time where they turn back to God, but he used one man preaching out in the open. We find in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 7, that Jeremiah preached outside. It says the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Stand in the gate of the Lord's house and declare there this word. He goes out in the temple gate. You know where the temple gate was? It was a place of business and commerce. It's where people were coming and going in and out of the temple, and that's where Jeremiah preached. Why would we go down and do this kind of work out of the FIFA World Cup game? Because there's going to be 65,000 people coming from around the world right there in our doorstep. We're going to go out and we're going to preach the word of God. And we're going to get out in the highways and hedges. We find here Paul goes to Mars Hill in Acts chapter 17. Paul is characterized by open-air work and outdoor work all through his ministry. He stands on Mars Hill and he preaches to the Athenians. We find that Peter preaches at Pentecost. Pentecost was a feast that the Jews had once a year. And if you turn with me, will you go to Acts chapter 2? Because I want you to turn, I want you to see this. If you're in Luke, the book of John is next, and then the book of Acts is after the book of John. In Acts chapter 2, we find the Bible says, in Acts chapter 2, verse number 5, it says, And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. See, this was a religious time where people from all over the known world who were Jews came to Jerusalem. They packed the streets, they packed the buildings, they packed the place out. And what does Peter do? Look at chapter 2, verse number 14. When the world comes to Jerusalem, what does he do? Chapter 2, verse 14. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and said unto them, and then he takes the rest of chapter 2 and preaches the gospel. Well, what's the outcome, Pastor? If you look at verse number 41, it tells us 3,000 people get saved and they're added to the church. What does he do? He goes where the crowds are, he goes where the people are, he goes at a time where people are together and in one place and they've come for whatever the event is. What's that sound like? Sounds like a FIFA World Cup game to me. You realize Mercedes-Benz Stadium holds over 50 major events a year? I mean, if we wanted, we could be down there every week, reaching tens of thousands of people with the gospel. We just need a way to coordinate it and get people together. In fact, we're making something. They're coming in soon. It's a trifold map of downtown that has 10 key landmarks, a little write-up about them, that people can use. It has mardistops on it. It's a really well-made, really well-made thing. They just use these at the NFL draft. I was talking to some churches. In just the few hours they were out during the NFL draft, they passed out over 30,000 of them. On the back of them, they've got a gospel presentation and a QR code you can scan that takes you to the gospel on YouTube. We're going to have 40,000 of them. We're going to hand them out over the course of the eight games. Why? Because we've got to get out there. We've got to get where the people are. We've got to reach them. That's a moment where God is going to bring people from across the globe right here. Peter does it. But who's the greatest example of ministry outdoors? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. One of his greatest known orations. The Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, 6, and 7. He's preaching out on a mountainside. Matthew 24 and 25, he gives the olive discourse on the Mount of Olives. In Luke chapter 6, it says he went out in the plain and he spoke to the people. All through history, not just the Bible, but all through history, people had preached outside. We follow in the steps of great historical preachers. Men like George Whitfield and John Wesley. One reason they preached outside was the churches wouldn't let them preach on the inside because they were preaching. The Bible, and they started preaching the Bible, and it didn't line up with what the churches were saying they believed. So they kicked them out. What did they do? They'd put a tent up, they'd go out under a grove of trees, and they'd preach to 10,000 people. Benjamin Franklin was a close friend of George Whitfield. And George Whitfield came, I think he was preaching in Boston at one point. It's either Boston or Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin, being the scientific mind, he wanted to figure out how many people could George Whitfield preach to at one time. And he started George Whitfield preaching on the courthouse steps. He started walking stepping backward and he walked backward as far as he could until he could no longer hear George Whitfield speaking. He did some rough estimation of how far he was from the courthouse and how many people wide there were, and he estimated how many people could stand per square foot. And he estimated that George Whitfield could on a clear summer day speak to 30,000 people in the open at one time. They went out where God would allow them to, and they'd preach the gospel. Why? Because there were people there and they needed to hear it. Would you make note of a third thing? We're going to go in the highways and hedges because faith comes by hearing. We're going to go in the highways and hedges because obedience comes by going. And I want to give you a third thing. I want to give you some of the benefits of outdoor evangelism. You might want to write these down quickly. I'll just give you a few of them. Number one, the benefits of outdoor evangelism. We're obeying the Lord's command to evangelize. You know, key tenets of the Great Commission are to go out and reach the lost. Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. Go ye and teach, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Go is the key word. We have a go and tell commission to the lost. Secondly, a benefit of outdoor evangelism is we follow in the footsteps of blessed Christians of the past and of the example of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We've talked about that. Thirdly, benefits of outdoor evangelism, we're forced to condense our message. You say, what does that mean, Pastor? I mean, if you're speaking to thousands of people that are walking past you, you can't preach a 30-minute message. You're really just preaching maybe a two or three-minute message over and over and over again. Because people are coming and going. They're just going to hear a part of it. It forces us to condense it down and be ready to speak in a moment. A fourth benefit of outdoor evangelism is we're made to be uncomfortable. We could do a little more uncomfortable Christianity. Sometimes we get so insulated and so comfortable, and we just like things just so. You know what outdoor evangelism, whether it's going door to door, knocking on doors, inviting people to church, you never know what's on the other side of that door. Whether it's meeting people on the street and speaking to them about the gospel, passing out literature, it gets us uncomfortable. And you know what uncomfortable gets us? Uncomfortable gets us leaning on the Lord. We could deal with a little more of that too, couldn't we? Trusting the Lord that he'll put the words in our mouth and he'll help us to be ready. Now, we've got to be ready and right with the Lord so he can work in our midst, but it gets us uncomfortable. You know, there's a fifth thing. People in the streets hear the gospel that may never come into a church building to hear it. There's a wonderful quote, a man named Charles Haddon Spurgeon, pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in the late 1800s. And he said this about outdoor evangelism. He said, Sportsmen must not stop at home and wait for the birds to come and be shot at. Neither should the fishermen throw their nets inside their own boats to take many fish. He says, Traders go to the markets and they follow their customers and go after business if it will not come to them, and so must we. Some of our brethren are for prosing on and on to empty pews, while they might be conferring lasting benefit upon hundreds by quitting the old walls for a while and seeking living stones for Jesus. He ends by saying this Let them come out of Rehoboth and find room at the street corner, and let them leave Salem and seek the peace of neglected souls. That's why we go out into the highways and hedges. There's a wonderful old story. I'll end with this. And he told the Lord, Lord, I will give a gospel witness to ten people every day. And at his little house on George Street, he would stand out on the corner, he'd take a gospel track, and as people passed, he would just say, May I ask you, you know if you died today, you'd go to heaven? And he'd hand them a gospel track, and many would turn it down, some would take it and go on their way. And there was a pastor that had was traveling in southern London, and he had someone, he asked for testimonies before the meeting. And a man stood up and said, I was visiting relatives in Sydney, Australia, and I was walking down George Street, and a little white-haired man on George Street handed me a gospel tract and said, If you died today, do you know you go to heaven? And he said, I kind of brushed it off. I took the piece of paper, I kept going my way, and he said, But I came under conviction. I called a Christian friend that I knew, and on the phone, that Christian friend led me to the Lord. Because a little white-haired man on George Street handed me a gospel tract, asked me, if you died today, do you know you go to heaven? That same pastor left southern London, flew to Australia, and held a conference there. In the middle of the conference, a woman came up to him. She said she lived in Sydney, and a little white-haired man on George Street, one day as she was walking past, handed him, handed her a gospel tract and said, Do you know if you died today, you'd go to heaven? She said, I took the piece of paper, I didn't think anything more about it. I pulled it out later, and it so disturbed me, she said, I went to my hometown pastor, talked to him about it, and he led me the Lord. Well, this man got very interested. He was thinking about these testimonies of this little white-haired man on George Street passing out tracks. He went to Perth, Australia, and was holding a conference there. A man that he went to a meal with, grew up in the church, became a businessman in Sydney, and he said, One day I was conducting some business down on George Street. And there's a little white-haired man as I was passing by him, he handed out a gospel track and he said, If you died today, do you know you go to heaven? He said, I took the piece of paper, I threw it in my briefcase. I didn't think anything more about it. As I was flying home, I pulled it out of my briefcase and I came under conviction. When I got home, I spoke to a Christian friend and he led me to the Lord. Well, this pastor was very interested. Now, who is the man on George Street that's passing out gospel tracts? Later, the story goes, he was in Atlanta, Georgia, at a chaplain convention, and he said he was asking many of the chaplains their testimonies, how they got saved and how they came to know the Lord. And he said the leader of those thousand chaplains stood up and gave his testimony in a meeting here in Atlanta, Georgia. And he said he talked about he was on a Navy ship and he got off in Sydney, Australia, and he got dead drunk in a bar and he lost his way and got off the wrong bus and he got off on George Street. And there's a little white-haired man that saw this drunk sailor and handed him a gospel track, and he said, If you died today, you know to go to heaven. He said I brushed the man away. I didn't want to hear anything he had to say. But he said, I sobered up and I got back on ship and I could not answer the man's question. He said, I went to the chaplain on board the Navy ship, and I said, Some man asked me whether I'd go to heaven. He said, I don't know. And he said the chaplain led me to the Lord. And now I'm a Navy chaplain, and I'm leading a thousand Navy chaplains and reaching people with the gospel. The man was incredibly interested. He later was in Sydney preaching, and he asked if anyone knew the man on George Street, the little white-haired man that used to pass out tracts. A little old lady came to him after the meeting, she said, Yes, that that's Mr. Jenner. She said, Frank Jenner for years has been standing on the corner of George Street, passing out gospel tracts, asking people, Do you know if you die today you go to heaven? And the story goes, it was Dr. Francis Dixon, who was hearing all these accounts. He said, Will you take me to meet Mr. Frank Jenner? Went down to George Street, and the lady knocked on the door. He was invited inside, and Dr. Francis Dixon sat with Mr. Jenner. And he said, Mr. Jenner, I hear that you're the white-haired man on George Street that passed out gospel tracts and asked people if they die the day they go to heaven. He said, Yes, I've been doing it now for well over 40 years. Ten people a day, at least, as the Lord helps me. My health is diminishing now. And he said, um, Mr. Dixon said, Mr. Jenner, have you ever heard of someone that's gotten saved from you giving them a gospel tract? He said, No, in these 40 years, I've never heard of anyone that accepted Christ as their savior from receiving a gospel tract. And Mr. Dixon sat for well over an hour and told him of all the stories he had heard of the chaplain that had gotten saved and the businessman doing business in Sydney and the woman that had walked past doing some commerce on George Street. And Frank Jenner sat there and wept. He said, I never heard of any of the fruit of my efforts passing out tracts on George Street. Frank Jenner would pass away two weeks later. And maybe you say, Pastor, I passed out a track here and there. And why would we go down and hand out copies of Scripture in two different languages and try to get people to go to a YouTube video and listen to the gospel? You say, I don't think anything's going to come of that. You know what? In this life, we may never hear one single soul that comes to Christ. We may never hear of any fruit that comes from passing out a gospel tract or speaking to a loved one about the gospel, or in passing, speaking to someone in a bank teller line, or leaving a track with someone working at a restaurant and telling them, hey, I'd like for you to read that and come to City Baptist Church and visit us. In this life, we may never hear of one piece of fruit that comes from any of that. But only eternity will tell what a gospel tract or a witness or speaking in the open air as someone hears the gospel as they pass by, only eternity will tell what going out into the highways and hedges will reap. So here's what I ask you: are we gonna go the easy route, the insular route, stay inside the four walls and just keep it all to ourselves? Or are we, as a church, the City Baptist Church of Atlanta, going to go out on the highways and hedges and compel them to come in? Thank you for listening to the City Pulpit. For more information about the City Baptist Church of Atlanta, please visit www.mycitybaptist.com.