Help Or Take Down The Sign

The story is told of a young couple who got married and set out on their honeymoon. They were driving on a dark road that night when the car swerved off the road and crashed in a ditch. The groom awoke from the accident to find his beloved bride bleeding and unconscious. In desperation, he gathered her into his arms and began looking around frantically for help.

Suddenly, the young man looked up and saw a light shining from the porch of a house on the hill. Knowing that his bride wouldn’t live long in her condition, he carried her up the hill to the house. As he came close to the house he got very excited, because there was a sign hanging on the porch that said, “John Smith, M.D.”

The young groom rushed to the door and began knocking excitedly. An elderly gentleman came to the door, looked out into the darkness, and asked, “May I help you?”

“Sir,” the groom cried out, “my bride has been hurt in an accident and is dying! Please save her!”

But the old man drew back and said, “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. I stopped practicing medicine twenty years ago.”

The desperate groom looked at the old man in stunned anger and said, “Mister, your sign says you are a doctor. Either help my bride right now or take down that sign!”

The church either needs to impact its community for Christ, or take down our sign that advertises that a real church meets here. Being salt and light means that we have something life-changing to offer people in a decaying and dark world. (Anthony Evans, God’s Glorious Church), 167.

When a church loses its kingdom perspective and its earthly mission, it becomes irrelevant and powerless to transform lives. It ceases to be a true representative of Jesus Christ.