“I Love this Place” part 3
(Relational Evangelism)
Brian A. Moon
I have a question for you all tonight… it is a little tricky so be careful in how you answer. How can you tell when something is on fire? The answer is not smoke, it is not heat, it is not light, the answer is because it burns. Fire consumes and ignites other material and in fact, any fire that does not spread will eventually go out. My point is this, tonight we continue our series called “I Love this Place” that has been looking into why people can’t help but say “Wow, I love to come here” and so far we have looked at our purpose for this group, and our strategy, but it all comes down to this… Are we going to burn? Are we going to continue to be on fire because we reach out to others and invite them to come to know the greatest news in the world, the news that God loves them and forgives them, Or are we going to be extinguished because we never shared God’s message with our friends and family? A fire that does not burn is a contradiction; it has to spread and expand if it is going to live. That is why tonight we are going to look at another value we hold high here, so that we don’t get one, two, or five years down the road and say, “Remember when, remember the good times…” The value that we are going to look at is this:
Lost people matter to God, and therefore they should matter to me, and they should matter to you.
(Say that with me…)
This is called “Evangelism” and around here the way we do it is through relationships! In other words we believe that the best way to reach other people is through life on life, friendship based influence. When asking people how they came to Christ, how they became a Christ Follower, the overwhelming majority will say, “Because someone I knew was a Christian and they made a huge impact on my life” It is not through big evangelism crusades or by watching some Christian TV special, but it through relationships! And this is no surprise because some of Jesus last words to his disciples were their “marching orders” so to speak.
Jesus said, “Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism… Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day, right up to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19 – 20 Msg
Jesus says here’s the deal… “I want you to go and communicate the good news that I have given you and lead people to faith in me. Then I want you to make disciples out of those people, I want you to teach them so that they can grow up spiritually.” Then Jesus unveils the way to do this, through the newly created church, or through the believers who meet together and fellowship. That is what we are, we are group of believers in Christ who meet together and hang out, and a group of people that depends on each other and looks out for each other, This is the way Jesus said the good news about God’s love would be brought to the entire world. Why? Because human beings need other humans, we are relational creatures that like to be apart of a group that loves and cares for them, like a family, or a church. And our mission, the mission given to the church is to be about the business of turning irreligious, far from God people into fully-dependant followers of Jesus Christ.
We are to help heal the hurting, and help turn them toward the answer for life, and freedom, and salvation, Jesus! Over the past 3 weeks we have talked about our purpose, and strategy which are vital for us to be successful, but they don’t amount to a hill of beans if we aren’t successful at this mission of evangelism. Famous news commentator Paul Harvey said once, “God has called the church to be fishers of men, not keepers of the aquarium.” So how do we do that? How do we become a group that does not keep all that God has done for us inside these four walls? Well let me tell you a story:
One time Jesus was hanging out with some people that we might regard as the scum of the earth. Jesus was hanging out with tax collectors and known sinners in this one town. It would be like him hanging out with some drug dealers and corporate thief’s today, probably not the most looked up to people of the day. So here he is talking with them, eating with them and the religious leaders of the day were watching him and muttering things like “Who is this guy that he associates with these sinners, these low life’s?” Jesus overheard them and got up, looked them in the eyes and said, “You know what the kingdom of God is really all about, you know what you really should be spending your time doing instead of complaining about me hanging out with the riff-raff…” Jesus then tells them three stories, one right after another to really drive the point home. The first story is about a guy who had 100 sheep that he was watching when he notices that he only has 99 in the pin. So what does he do, does he hang out and look out for the 99 and just consider the one lost part of doing sheep business? No! He runs out and leaves the 99 to find the one little lost sheep. When he finds it he tosses it over his shoulder and joyfully runs home to celebrate with some of his sheep herder buddies. The next story is about a lady that had 10 coins and loses one of them. What does she do… she tears her house apart trying to find the one coin that was lost. When she find it, she calls her neighbors over to have a party! The final story is about a man who had two sons. One day one of them says that he wants his inheritance now and leaves to go chase his dreams. The son spends his money on wild parties and wild women until one day it all runs out. He is hungry, lonely and desperate so he decides to go back home and ask his dad to hire him as a slave. When he gets close to his home he can see his dad sitting there on the porch. All of a sudden the dad sees his once lost son and he runs out to hug him. Not only that but he puts a new ring on his finger and throws him a multi-day celebration! In all of this Jesus ways saying to these religious leaders, In the same way that all these people rejoiced when they found what was lost; God rejoices even more when just one person who was lost and without hope turns to God and finds salvation. Jesus is telling these guys who think they are better than anyone else that this is what it is all about! That is why we meet here every Sunday night, this is what we are all about. We don’t meet so that we can look religious, or so that we can put another mark on our good things done list for the week. We meet to share the heart of God with other people who may not know all that God has done to have a personal relationship with them. We meet to offer other people a safe place to laugh, cry, heal, and just be themselves! In a recent survey that was done of people who were “unchurched” meaning that they did not come to church in the last 6 months it was found that:
1. The unchurched are becoming increasingly more receptive to what the church has to offer and are staying away not out of hostility, but out of inconvenience
2. 63% say they believe that the Bible is God’s Word
3. 77% say they pray to God
4. 72% believe that Jesus is the Son of God
5. 58% said they would come to church if it were the right one.
The conclusion is that the people you know that are not here tonight and you know don’t go anywhere else, Are ripe for picking, it just takes the right group and the right way to make the invite! So how do we make the invite, how to we ask people to come here?
Before we mentioned that we do evangelism through relationships, that means we build into people’s lives around us and that is the first place to start…
Who to invite
My first answer is most likely not going to be as successful as my other answer, but it can work. My first answer on who to invite is anyone you know. As we have talked about in the past few weeks we are very strategic in how we plan out Sunday nights, we always keep guest in mind in everything that goes on here. So you could invite any person you have some sort of acquaintance with like a neighbor or teammate. You can even invite people that you do some kind of business with like the girl who rings up your groceries at Publix or the guy at the mall who works at the GAP but, The best answer on who to invite is the people that you have built into. These are the people that you made a conscience effort to be nice to and help out as best you can. You show them first God’s love by your acts of kindness, before to tell them. The Bible says,
In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. Matthew 5:16 NLT
Those people around you that you have built real relationships with, the ones that you have helped out when they needed it, the ones that you have showed that you really care… These are the people who are most likely to take you up on an invite to come hear about Jesus. If you don’t have any people that you are doing this with find some and begin showing them the love of God by acts of kindness and friendship. Specifically, these people that you have built into could be friends. They could be the guys or girls that you hang out with on a regular basis and do fun, social activities with. They could also be family members who you are close with like a brother of sister, even a cousin that lives in this area and who you are good friends with. Another group is people who you know have come before once or twice but have not come in a long time. There is a huge group of people that have come at least once but have stopped coming for whatever reason. Most of the time we bring someone with us on a Sunday night, but then we just expect them to come on their own the next week. You may have to invite someone, even pick them up 3 or 4 times before they feel totally comfortable here! Whoever it is specifically, a friend, family member or someone who has come before you best bet is to invite the people that are closest to us. Jesus taught to thousands of people when he was on earth but he built into only 12 guys! But it was through these 12 guys that the world was changed with the message of Jesus Christ. All I am asking you is to have three people that you are always building into and inviting to come here on Sunday Nights.
The next issue is:
Ways to invite people
The first thing to do is to relax and be yourself!
You don’t have to be educated in the doctrine of Christianity, you don’t need an answer to all their questions, you just need to be yourself and be honest!
The second thing to do is ask God for help, the Bible says,
“If any of you need wisdom, you should ask God, and it will be given to you. God is generous and won’t correct you for asking.” James 1:5 CEV
The third thing is to make the invitation in something that interests them. Try to find out what about Sunday Nights or some other area of our ministry would interest them. Maybe they like music, tell them we play some really cool music that might surprise them.
Maybe they like drama, tell them we do dramas. Maybe they like to talk and chat, tell them about huddle groups. Maybe they are into high tech stuff, tell them we do videos and multimedia presentations. Maybe they are looking for some answers to life, tell them we offer practical help each week. Maybe they just like fun, tell them we have it!!! Find something that we do and tell them how great it is as a way to get their interest up. The fourth thing is to take a positive approach. Think about it, if you walk up to someone and are really down and soft spoken and not real enthusiastic people are not going to want to come to what your talking about. But, if you are really enthusiastic in telling them about Sunday Nights, then they are going to catch the enthusiasm. People want to be apart of something that is exciting and if you are positive and enthusiastic about telling them they will probably at least be interested. The fifth thing is to put something in their hand. Tell them about Sunday Nights and then hand them one of our little cards and say, “Here is a little something to remind you about it.” People are so busy today and have so many things to do that it is easy to forget even if we had the intention to go. So help the person you are inviting out and give them a little reminder! They are non-offensive, they don’t say “Get saved or get microwaved”, “Turn or Burn” it is just a nice little card you could hand to anyone! Now that we have talked about why to invite, who to invite, and how to invite, in closing I offer you this:
Will you seize the moment
Remember in the beginning I talked about a fire will go out unless it consumes more material. My question once again is are we going to burn out because we have not seized the moment and been willing to invest in people’s lives and invite them here?
The Bible says, “Live wisely among those who are not Christians, and make the most of every opportunity.” Colossians 4:5 NLT
My challenge to you is this, commit to inviting at least one person next week. That is it, one person!
The next challenge is to be intentional with certain relationships. Start pouring some time and energy into some people around you. It is amazing to think that a game of basketball, a trip to the mall, a phone call with someone could be the way God begins to move in someone’s life! A young married couple had a little parakeet who would only say, “Let’s kiss.” They were a little concerned about it because whenever people came over the bird would say, “Let’s kiss.” So they called their pastor and asked if he had any ideas, and the pastor said that he had a parakeet and all it said was "Let’s pray” and maybe if they put the two birds together his birds language would wear off on theirs.
So they put the two little birds together and the couples bird said, “Let’s kiss” and the pastors bird said, “My prayers have been answered!” The moral of the story is even birds need love and so do many of the people in your life. Remember that this is your time!
(Video)
Prayer Time ---------
God thank you for giving us the opportunity to be apart of your work. Help us to have the courage to do it and the wisdom in how it should be carried out. I pray for all those that we are going to invite and ask that you give us the words to speak and the confidence of your presence.
Amen.
