Cultivating Disciples

Cultivating Disciples

CCCAG Jan 27th, 2019

Scripture- Acts 4:36, Acts 16:1-3, 1 Cor 11:1

Intro:

Has anyone here ever gotten into an argument and when it's over you look back on and say man that was a stupid thing to argue about?

Back in the time before Facebook, or Twitter and other social media if you wanted to have online discussions with people you had to go to a chat room.

One of these discussions we are having was the debate about people who choose to live dependent upon other people or the government versus people who overcame despite everything life threw. There were 2 basic sides to this debate –

On one side you had the people who would give every excuse in the world why a person would need welfare to help support them. These people generally focus on where a person came from, the poverty they lived in, or everything in life that had been against them and therefore they needed the government to subsidize their lives.

On the other side of this argument- which was my side, there were those who said that this is America and no matter what color you are where you came from and poverty and no matter what life throws at you through hard work you can succeed.

America does not always ensure a result, but it will give you a chance if you're willing to work for it.

As with most online conversations, they usually devolve into passive aggressive attacks or just out right name calling. One of the people in the discussion called me out by name and said that it's very obvious I came from a life of privilege and it never known any hardship in my life and therefore had no right to tell others who have gone through hard times at all they had to do was work harder to succeed.

When you live in the poor areas, commonly called ghettos, you have a reputation you have to maintain if you don’t want to get beaten up all the time. Today it’s called your street cred- it’s the resume’ of how tough you are so other people don’t mess with you. I started reciting of my street cred to this person-

I told that person you have no idea where I have come from or what I've been through.

I said my parents split up when I was 4 and a half

My mom was on welfare

Most of my younger years were spent in a house where people were to either too drunk or too high to even cook us supper.

I got moved around to various relatives. Drugs were grown and sold in the houses I lived in. Even though I was relatively intelligent I kept failing in school until finally I dropped out at 16. I was functionally homeless for 2 years going from friend to friend and crashing with them. I made every mistake a young person could make in life and it 18 years old most people had written me off as someone who would never be anything in life.

I used that background to say that nobody helped me.

In fact, most people in Kenosha saw me as a loser and wouldn’t give me a single break.

NO government money, no program, no charity- I finally made a decision in my life to no longer be a victim of circumstances and made the choice to succeed in life.

I pulled myself up by my own boot straps and made something of myself.

The person who I was talking to replied- “Someone had to help you at some point”. I was so mad at that point that I just blew him off and shut down my computer.

I’m watching TV and fuming about this until I heard God say, “What about me? Do you think for one second you’d be as far as you are today after wasting half your life if it weren’t for me?”

God gave me a Job experience? (explain)

God started asking me those same questions-

“Remember when you mocked my servants as they tried to tell you the way to salvation, and they kept persisting even though you had people laughing at him?

God Said, That was me

“You remember that same person, and other believers at that factory that gave you rides to work so you could support your family?

God said, That was me

“You remember how many people blessed you financially as you struggled to dig yourself out of that hole you dug?”

God said, That was me

“You remember those people who came along side you and encouraged you in the ministry when no one else would give you a chance?

God said, That was me

I could go on and on about how God showed me in that moment how He used His people to help me in life.