Do-It-Yourself Project

ROB O’NEAL, DIRECTOR OF CHURCH MULTIPLICATION

In the summer of 2014, my basement flooded. Again. After installing a sump pump with a battery backup, we thought we were safe. However, when the power went out and the battery failed, the pump turned off in the middle of the night, and the water started rising, slowly and silently covering the carpet in our basement.

The next morning the carpet was soaked. We emptied the basement, and a contractor came over to inspect the mess. His advised us to remove the carpet quickly to dry it if we wanted to save it. Otherwise, the carpet would mold.

It was a DIY dream. I decided to do it myself. I pulled out a box cutter and carefully cut the carpet along the seam. Nearby I kept a floor scraper with a long razor blade handy to cut away any glue holding down the carpet pad.

My sons and I rolled up the first strip of carpet, and I started to back up, barefooted, to take the carpet out to the dry garage to be saved. That’s when I stepped backward onto the razor blade and severed most of my Achilles’ tendon. I ended up in the emergency room that night, in a boot for weeks, and in rehab for months. Do-it-yourself didn’t work out so well for me.

Do-it-yourself doesn’t work out when it comes to being saved either. Contrary to our culture and our own inclinations, we can’t save ourselves. We can’t demand salvation, earn it, or do it ourselves.

To be saved, we need God’s Holy Spirit to be released in our lives. The Holy Spirit who has convicted us of our sinfulness and need for salvation makes us new. As our statement of faith puts it, “We believe that for salvation of lost and sinful man regeneration by the Holy Spirit is absolutely essential.”

We packed a lot into that short statement. We said that without salvation, we are sinners and are lost. We also said that in order to get saved, we need the Holy Spirit. We even said that the Holy Spirit has to regenerate us; the Spirit makes the old person new. We said that that we can’t do it ourselves. We must be made new by the Holy Spirit.

Incidentally, the Holy Spirit rarely saves us in isolation. The Holy Spirit almost always chooses partners with whom to work. People come alongside of us, remind us of our need for God, show us the love of God, and make the offer of salvation. New churches are particularly eager to have those kinds of conversations. That’s one of the reasons why church planting remains the most effective evangelistic strategy. Then the Holy Spirit does the hard work.