Just thinking -- How much power has God given me?

Last Sunday I had the privilege of returning to a local Springfield church to fill in for their pastor.
It was an interesting morning since I managed to lock my sermon notes in my computer and couldn't retrieve them.
Actually, my sermon notes are really more like my sermon text and since I had typed it out recently, it was still pretty fresh in my head. Also, it was stuff that has been occupying my theological thoughts so it pretty much flowed as conversation and just sharing my thoughts. By now it's a bit of a blur, but there was an older man that took issue with a couple of things I said and his comments afterwards have given me more to think about.

The first part of my message shared some of Jesus' teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. Mostly it focused on the "You've heard it said, but..." kind of things that showed how wrong the religious leaders were about understanding God and the purpose of The Law.
The last part of the message was really taken from last week's post on changing my way of thinking.

The part about not worrying about their eternal salvation and just loving them now was the problem for that man. He said something like -- "If we just love them but never tell them about Jesus, they are still going to hell!"

I get that.

I've spent the past two decades as a Southern Baptist evangelist. I've made the invitation call at revivals, kids' camps, outreach events, conferences, and pulpits from South Florida to Oklahoma. I've also made the invitation in personal, one on one conversations.
But his comment got me thinking -- Would God really send someone to hell because John Hill failed to tell them about Jesus? Do I hold that kind of power over the souls of men and women, boys and girls?

Because of who I am, I will continue to tell people of God's great love for them.
Because of who I am becoming, I will focus more on loving others the way Jesus loves them.
And because God has not given me the power, nor the task of granting or withholding eternal salvation from anyone, I'm going to leave that part to God.
In truth, just the loving others the way Jesus loves them is going to be pretty much a full time gig for me. There are a lot of hard to love people out there!

God loves you!
Jesus lived for you!

John <><