"But... they're not like us!" pt 1

Pastor Greg's sermon, part one of two from Sunday evening... paraphrased from my notes:

Acts 1:8 "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

That's His command. But, how do we reach the world with an unchanging gospel? The truth can't change, it must remain the same as it has always been. Therefore it is our methods that must warp. This is going to take us out of our comfort zones.

As a corporate church we are engaging our world to meet people where they are at with the gospel; programs like AWANA and Upward and Angel Tree. But on an individual level each one of us must be willing to go and be a witness in our world where we exist. I can witness to my neighbors, but I can't witness to yours, nor to those you work with, nor to your relatives. God has strategically placed you where you are in your spheres because He will use you.

Now some say that it's too hard to imagine sharing the gospel in those spheres. They say things like:

--"I'm retired." Well, are you a hermit? Can you go to where sinners hang out?

--"I don't have the gift of evangelism." You know sometimes I feel the same way. On Friday night I was just finishing up paperwork when Annette came in and asked if I could do something about a homeless man in the lobby who was making the parents nervous. It felt very inconvenient to me, but I thought if this was God's opportunity, I was going to redeem the time, amen? So out in the lobby there were tons of kids running around and their parents were there, stand-offish from the corner where the homeless man was. He wasn't doing anything at all; he was just sitting there. Now, I am not ready to throw caution to the wind, and I'm not saying that we shouldn't be careless about the many homeless people who spend time inside our walls. But it just makes me wonder, why were they standing so far apart from him, pretending like he's not there? Was he really a threat to their children, or did these Christian parents feel their comfort threatened? So I went over and sat and introduced myself. Come to find out someone had already helped him get something to eat, and he was just coming in to get out of the cold. He said he had family all over the map from one end of the country to another. Found out he came from a catholic background. I shared with him in just a minute a clear presentation of the gospel message, and he said he wasn't sure he could believe it. But at least I know that after we were done chatting, he would walk away having had it explained to him.

Was it my responsibility to have him saved? No. Was it my responsibility to share the gospel? Yes.

--"I'm done. It's time for someone else to take over." It's never over till it's over. Until your last sucking breath you can share the gospel, like my grandfather who shared Jesus with all his caretakers in a nursing home.

--"I have trouble turning on my computer, much less relating to culture today." So many of us think it is not as important to share the gospel to a group of people we don't know anything about. But you can learn! Go and try. Take a class, go and be there, and start. You'll find that as long as you show up to the place where they are, God will handle the rest of the details.

Lost people do stir the heart of God. It is our privilege to lead someone to Christ. It is His command to do so, and if we're not doing it then we are disobeying Him. It requires that we actually go into the world. Not stay in our comfy tread of what we do at church. "But Pastor Greg," you might say, "I don't have any connections with lost people." Then you need to change your spheres of where you spend your time... I'm not kidding.

I was talking this week with a woman from our church in the parking lot, and she asked me, "If Jesus came to our church, where would He sit?"

Where would Jesus sit, if he came in our sanctuary? I'll tell you where He would sit. He'd sit all the way back there, under the overhang, where it's a little darker, a little less noticeable. Or He'd be sitting up in the balcony. Is there anyone here who knows why He'd be in the back?? Every week these rows are always filled with our homeless population from downtown Salem. They come here for different reasons, yes, but that's where they go. Have we gone to be where they are?

Sharing the gospel requires that we actually go into the world. It requires courage, committment, and humility to love people. About humility: at the same time God is using us to share the gospel with others, it is always true that He is working at the same exact moment to show us the mistakes we're making in the way we act and think. There's an old phrase, and I shared it with the homeless man last Friday night, I said to John, "John, I don't know everything, I'm just one beggar showing another beggar where to get bread."

It could mean consequences.

Other Christians might withdraw from you, or they might stand off with fear or even turn and gossip. People you share Jesus with might take advantage of you. It might mean the consequence is that for you, you might feel like you really don't get along with them, or even don't like them. It might mean that you'll have to give up your normal routein, your normal way of thinking, your normal agenda of how you prefer to share the gospel with others.

Are you willing to get ripped out of your comfort zone to meet someone where they are at?

We have to look for ways to adapt to get into the culture to cause a salvation influence. If we do it'll mean a reward for eternity.

Next Sunday night I will finish up this idea by explaining "The Samaritan Factor" out of John 4. It'll be a discussion on how to move through evangelism.