Reaching Out Together Series

We can build friendships. How? 1) Find common interests. Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 9:21-23, "Whatever a person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ and let Christ save him. I do this to get the Gospel to them and also for the blessing I myself receive when I see them come to Christ." So the way you do that is by finding out what things we have in common with others. What interests do we share? What do we like to talk about? What common experiences do we have? Common needs? Common hurts? Do we like to fish? Do we like to golf? Do we like to cook? Do we like to shop? Do we both have kids? Do we like to sleep? Are we interested in football, soccer, baseball or basketball or whatever?’ Use that as an opportunity to get to know them.

Or better yet, get other Christians involved by discovering the common interests in your group. You’ve got to talk to the people in your small groups and say, "What do we like to do?" and you just make a list of all the things that you find. "Oh, you like to do that? Well, I like to do that to." And you share it with each other, and then you ask, "Who do we know who’d also like to do that who isn’t yet a believer? Who do we know who is not in the family of God who probably would enjoy going to a Friday night football game with us? Or which of my coworkers or neighbors would like to do that?" I know at our home church in Grand Rapids we had lots of guys who liked to play softball, so we had three men’s softball teams and we invited guys who were not yet a part of the church to join our team as a way of building relationships, having fun together, getting to know each other. What if they like fishing or hunting. Maybe they have kids too and would like to do family activities. How can we use what we already like to do as a connecting point to build relationships with other people? Then we get the opportunity to invite them to church or a small group at our house. "Well, you know this same group meets on Thursday night over at Bob’s house. Would you like to join us?" "Well yeah, you guys are normal people. That’d be fun."

As we build friendships with them, so we can build a bridge between our heart and theirs that Jesus Christ can walk across. Now this step takes a little bit more time and effort. It takes a little more energy to build a friendship. You just don’t do it overnight.

Another way we can work together is to use a very Biblical method...have a party. Did you know that much of Jesus’ ministry was done at parties? If you go read the Gospels, go read his life, you’ll read that he often did ministry at parties. In fact, he was such a party animal that the religious leaders of that day, the Pharisees, called him a glutton and a drunk. They called Jesus a glutton and a drunk because he was always at parties. Why? Because that’s where the people were that he wanted to share the love of God with.

One particular occasion, a guy named Levi, not the jean guy but his disciple. His name was also Matthew. He decided to follow Jesus, and become his disciple. Look at what it says he did in Luke 5:29, "In his home, Levi gave a big dinner party for Jesus and many fellow tax collectors and other guests were also there." Now why does it say ’many fellow tax collectors’? Because that’s what Matthew was. He was a tax collector. So he calls up the office, all his buddies, and says, "Come on over for a BBQ." He had an office party for Jesus. And at this party not yet believers were able to rub shoulders with Jesus and some of his followers.