The story is told of two shoe salesmen dispatched to a remote island to sell shoes. After about a week each salesman telegrammed the home office. The first salesman’s telegram read as follows: “Business is terrible here. Nobody wears shoes here. Nobody needs shoes here. Send no more merchandise here.” The second salesman also telegrammed the home office and his telegram read as follows: “Business is wonderful here. Nobody wears shoes here. Everybody needs shoes here. Send all the merchandise you can spare.”

It’s obvious the facts were the same. Nobody wore shoes there. However, the responses could not have been more opposite. What one saw as a closed-door the other saw as an open door of opportunity. While one missed the obvious need and market the other capitalized, took advantage of the opportunity, and provided what the people needed.

The message is so powerful and pertinent to us… Everybody Needs What We’ve Got! They may not even know it. They may not even know that truth exists. They may not be aware of the gift of the Holy Ghost and its life-changing power. They may be clueless that their sins can be washed away in water baptism in Jesus’ name for the remission of their sins. No one may have ever told them that Jesus loves them and died on Calvary to save them. Perhaps they don’t even believe in a literal Heaven and Hell. They have a very critical need… and we have the answer, we have the cure, we have the remedy!

Unfortunately, Satan is quite powerful in convincing us of lies: people don’t want what we have anymore; the gospel of the Kingdom is not practical for the twenty-first century; this message is old-fashioned and needs an extreme makeover. On and on his lies continue until we become desensitized and lose our sense of passion and mission. It is highly possible for Apostolic Pentecostals to become disillusioned about the urgent necessity of the gospel message.

Satan tells us “No one wants what we’ve got.” Jesus tells us “Everybody needs what we’ve got.”

Who will you believe? We have the message, the truth, the answer, the remedy! “Go ye into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Nothing is more important in the entire world than soul business! It is the most meaningful, most critical, most eternal, and most rewarding ministry of every ministry in the Church!

Just as the four lepers outside the gates of the famine-ravished city of Samaria discovered, once you find the remedy to your situation, it’s not enough to just save yourself. These desperate men spoiled the tents of the Syrians, who had fled their tents. After filling their bellies full, the consciences of these four men began to speak to them about the starving people inside the walls of the city. This is how they responded: “Then they said one to another, we do not well: this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace: if we tarry till the morning light, some mischief will come upon us: now therefore come, that we may go and tell the king’s household” (II Kings 7:9). They shared their good news and the entire city was saved!

How tragic our fate if we only save ourselves. We have a great responsibility to share the good news with a lost and dying world. Please do not ever forget the truth of this message: Everybody Needs What We’ve Got!