Pebble In The Shoe

Pebble In Their Shoe

(2 Tim. 4:1-5)

Intro:

A. I had a wonderful time with Gidel, the preacher from Hanover is past week. We met in my office to talk, have some coffee, pray and share. It was great. He taught me something about vision and prayer. He told me he wanted to get more chairs for their auditorium and I asked why. I knew it was not because their attendance was so great they needed more chairs.

B. Here is what he told me. He said, “I told the church that I walk around this room and pray over the empty chairs because God knows the name of the person who is going to sit there.” His vision for the church in Hanover is that God was going to bring so many people that they didn’t have enough chairs for souls to sit in and worship God. It’s not a pie in the sky preacher/elder vision. He believes God “knows the name” of the person who will one day sit in that chair and that the church needs to be praying for God to help them meet the person who will be sitting there. So, I did that, I prayed over the chairs we have in this room, but especially over the currently empty chairs that God will be bringing people to sit in. God knows their name; we just need to go out and meet them and compel them to come into God’s banquet table. I came into this church building and prayed, “Lord, let a revival break out right where I am sitting today.”

C. Spiritual conversations is not about learning a new program, it s about bringing Jesus into our conversations. Sharing the joy of the Lord, the peace that passes understanding, the love of a church family, a statement or scripture that really touched us in class or worship are all types of things that we can bring into our everyday conversations. It’s about putting a pebble in a shoe. That’s a metaphor I don’t like.

I. Pebble in the Shoe

A. I would guess it has happened to all of us at some time and in some manner. I can remember very clearly walking down a trail – yes I once walked down a trail – and during my walk I somehow picked up something that got into my shoe and worked its way under my big toe.

B. Being a rather lazy person, I didn’t want to have to stop, untie my shoe and get it out so I kept on walking. The more I walked the more is irritated my foot. I would shake my foot in my shoe trying to move whatever it was. All that did was move it to the arch of my foot and then to heal of my foot. No matter what I did it was there and was always something that I focused on. No longer was I out for a walk, no longer did I see God’s creation or enjoy nature. Finally, after a while I couldn’t take it and I had to stop and deal with the “pebble in my shoe.”

C. What amazed me was when I first took off my shoe I didn’t see it. I pounded the heal of my shoe and sure enough, a tiny stone fell out. I mean a small stone, but that little stone caused me to have to stop and deal with it.

D. Don’t take this wrong, but I want my conversation to become a spiritual pebble in another person’s shoe. No, I don’t want to cause them pain, but I do want to say something that forces them to ponder, think, reflect upon Jesus and our relationship with Him.

II. Biblical Examples

A. Let me give you a couple of examples. In Acts 17 we read about Paul going to Athens. Paul saw the city was filled with idols and it was the pebble in Paul’s shoe. Paul couldn’t just say, “they believe what they believe, and I believe what I believe.” The Bible says, “his spirit was provoked within him.” It is a Greek word means to “arouse to indignation.”

B. But Paul used it to his advantage. It pushed Paul to go and reason or intellectually challenge their thinking. Now listen to Acts 17:18. You may know the rest of the scripture, but I want us to see that Paul brought Jesus into the conversation and Jesus became a pebble in their shoe.

C. Let me give you one more. It is actually something Jesus did after the feeding of the 5000. Jesus took the conversation from the bread that he fed them the day before and started talking about the bread of heaven. That pebble in their shoe caused them to question Jesus, but Jesus pushed back and talked about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. Strange conversation? Yes, but is was a pebble that caused them to think – the result many say is that the masses left him because of the conversation. But listen to the scripture, John 6:60-71. Yes, many left, but what he did was push his circle of disciples to think if leaving is the right choice. Peter’s answer is the best answer, “To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life…”