For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost – Luke

This week, a man who comes to our Discovery Group texted me, “I’ve lost my way.” An alcoholic and addict, his communication to me varies between rage to complete breakdown. For now at least, he is lost.

Today, he invited me to his AA meeting; I went along, but he didn’t show. I must admit, sitting through an AA meeting I couldn’t help but feel we had missed the mark as church. It was quite an experience. Haphazardly seated in a circle, some 60-odd people shared in an orderly way, their journey through alcoholism to sanity. There was no clear leader, only a moderator who quickly handed the group over to others. Doctors or drop-outs, it was impossible to tell as our differences were left behind at the door.

The stories were punchy and powerful and there was a gritty reality with honesty, truthfulness. No one was under any illusion as to their status, that they hadn’t ‘stuffed it up’. As with all sin, along the way there had been lots of suffering both for themselves and those close to them. One man in particular, told of punching holes in the wall, punching his wife, abusing his two girls and eventually – because his wife told him he ‘had problems,’ had an affair with another person in rehab and posted it publicly. His story was so raw, I couldn’t tell whether this had happened last week, last year or a decade ago. He knew and readily admitted that he had a daily choice to make; he could have alcohol, or everything else. Twelve years ago and each day since, he chose everything else. Daily repentance, turning from that which destroys us.

God was no bystander in the events, and conversation was peppered with stories of prayer, hope and being very grateful to God. Everyone knew salvation from where they had been and some at least, had found Christ. My friend asked whether Jesus would fit more comfortably into an environment such as this, rather than our idea of ‘church’. Coming away, I pondered that and wondered about our dull acceptance of the definition of church.

Reading through the chronological story of the early New Testament church, and thinking of this meeting today, I am acutely aware that our current Christian culture is so very different compared to that era. Firstly, I wonder if we truly understand how alien and foreign our culture is to an outside world. Even our language makes no sense to the lay person, as we struggle to explain our faith in a relevant way.  Our world is one of systems, theology, methodology as we use words few understand; even the word ‘Christian’ today, has strong connotations to most non-believers.

Then, it seems we no longer connect with those who are truly broken; those who had lost their way, came to Christ most willingly. Our friends, other believers, the circles we mix in generally seem to have it altogether and less willing to bare their soul. Indeed, most would be hostile to the Gospel, being affronted by the suggestion they are in need. Who needs Jesus, when you have all this – do we even?

The replacement in many believer’s lives, of Jesus for a system or institution has caused us to be largely irrelevant to the world. Somehow, we need to break down the barriers to reach this world for Christ, and I would suggest the barriers are often more on our side. We do that by laying aside our Christian culture, and presenting Jesus as one who genuinely loves us, and can truly set us free.

We must allow the Holy Spirit to flow daily through our lives – Christ within us literally, such that we can be relevant in both manner and speech to those who are seeking answers to life. Then, let our hearts be sensitive to those around us who are broken and lost as we look for an opportunity to share. Sitting through AA made me realise one thing, these people are our neighbours, work colleagues or community friends. We just wouldn’t know it.

Let us examine before Christ, those aspects of our faith that aren’t relevant to a world in need, and courageously discard them. Inevitably, I suspect, we will be left with little other than the One himself.

Incidentally, pray for my friend – Rob is his name; I sincerely believe Jesus wants to touch his life in spite of his wandering off from time to time.

When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God – Leviticus 19: 33-35

I’m reading through the Bible at the moment, starting in Genesis. It is fantastic, and I would encourage everyone to do the same. A recurring theme, is the verse above, where God commands the Israelites to remember they too were slaves, terribly treated – and so not to do the same with ‘outsiders’ who came to stay.

I’m not sure the Israelites ever listened, and it got me thinking about immigration into this country. What is our view? If you’re view is like mine then you’re probably bigoted like me, slightly scared of different cultures on ‘our’ soil, why can’t they just stay where they were? Hardly Christ-like. Some are peaceful, most want to change our country to suit them, some even want to kill us; much of this is true, but on another plain Christ has brought us an opportunity to expand our Gospel to their lives. How do we react?

Last weekend we were engaged in some training and fellowship for a day, in a Western suburb of Sydney. The stats were 40% Muslim, 40% Lebanese Catholic, 20% all sorts. That’s right, there are suburbs in Sydney that are Muslim enclaves. So, in an hour and half before lunch, we went out door knocking. Protocols were explained to us before, such as women talk to women, men to men and so on, and then two by two, out we went. We came laden with Arabic Testaments, cookies and goodwill. I went with my wife.

Together we had a wonderful time; we met a man who spoke no English, but desperately wanted to talk; the only word he understood was Isa, Jesus, so he took our New Testament to read. We left after prayerfully blessing him. We talked and prayed with Fred the Turk, who had a loud, comical wife; she spoke to him in Turkish, he spoke to us in English, we spoke to her in English. We met a 94-year old who was likely a genuine believer who had been in the area when there were just 4 houses. We met and prayed for an Indian lady, a young woman who was very cautious. All in all, we had a lively, rich experience of approaching people from a totally different culture.

There is a tiny church in the middle, with 38 adherents who spend much of their time reaching out to this community. They speak Arabic, Urdu and run gatherings in multi languages. They have their work cut out, and so we were able to be a blessing to them as well. We gave them the names of people to follow up.

God does something in a person’s soul when we pray with them or explain the Gospel. He works unseen, and we may never know the outcome until eternity. All he requires of us is to get started.

Occasionally, such as with Rob the surfer, we get the chance to go a bit further. This Thursday, I started a Discovery Group in a coffee shop, Lok’s coffee shop down in our village. There are 4 of us; Rob, who walked up our drive to buy a surfboard who was spiritually searching; another who wavers from time to time and has a young faith and another, who talks, walks and acts like a believer, but deep down knows he isn’t. Lok, the owner, also looks on with interest.

Discovery Groups, centred around Discovery Bible Study are changing lives around the world. They require no one teacher (other than the Spirit of Christ) so anyone can run one with any group. Everyone gets to participate. Everyone is challenged and held accountable at the end, to share the passage with someone else this coming week. From the outset, new adherents to the faith are taught that sharing Jesus is a part of following him. There is no excuse.

I’d love to see this expand into more groups, but that takes more than me; I need to pray, and the group needs prayer. If you remember as you walk along, then lift us up to the Lord. He alone will multiply this; it is the culmination of several years work, just to get to this point.

He wants to, we want to see the kingdom multiplied. Within it, there will be sojourners, those who need a refuge. In Christ, we have the answer to their rest. Let’s get started.

 

From that time, Jesus began to preach saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” – Matthew 4

But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice to address them – Acts 2

My wife, who was right next to me, dug me in the ribs and said, “what shall we say?”

“Not sure” I replied, “but you say something as she’s a woman.”

So it went on, as we stood side by side in Toowong shopping centre in the ‘training phase’ of learning to make disciples. We had been told by Steve and Dave that morning, that lunchtime training would be a practical exercise involving our going out onto the streets to talk to people about our faith in Jesus. I distinctly remember thinking at the time, “wow do people actually do that?”

That was a decade ago now, and we did end up talking to the lady, and she was most indignant about our approaching her to talk about Jesus; it was probably one of the worst brush-offs we’ve had. Back at base camp though, many came back with incredible stories of others wanting prayer, being able to share testimony and sharing Jesus with complete strangers. There was much rejoicing, much amazement and a new sense of perspective.

Many are sceptical of course, that such action is relevant or necessary in the Christian faith. Why can’t I just share with my family or friends they ask, rarely admitting that doesn’t happen either. On the whole, modern Western believers simply don’t share the Gospel. It is an indictment on us, that after sitting listening to endless sermons, and engaging in sometimes brutal theological debate, few of us can share Jesus with a non-believer.

My biggest argument for going out onto the streets, is that it sharpens you such that you can share your faith with anyone. Like yesterday, as an example, where I shared Christ with a Bunnings employee who was interested in skateboarding. Sharing the Gospel has become a natural and intentional part of my life. But it wasn’t always like that.

What do we say to a complete stranger, how do we open up a conversation?

The first thing I would say, is that you have the Holy Spirit with you, particularly I believe, at such times. In my own instance, I learned a lengthy Gospel presentation (Torben Sondergaard’s) off by heart, such that I could use either all of it, or just part of it at any time in a conversation. It was a useful beginning and even now is a backdrop to answering many questions people have.

In meeting someone cold on the streets, I will usually start with something like, “we’re a community of believers who feel we never get out and share our faith with people enough, so if God could do something for you to do, what would you ask him to do?” Inside 15 seconds, I will know if there is interest.

If I’m on a plane, or in an Uber I will look to start a conversation that usually begins with business or work. I can then easily move that conversation to “another part of my life involves working within the housing commission where I live, with the poor and marginalised. I do that because I have a strong faith.” It goes from there. We always try to pray with the person, as I feel strongly God will always move in a person’s soul with such interaction, even if we don’t ever see it. Always.

Others recite their own testimony, “oh can I tell you how God moved in my life?” or tell a simple Bible story that is relevant to somebody’s life, all the time keeping a natural conversation.

Sometimes, we get to spend an hour with someone and share the full Gospel, other times we’ve got 5 minutes. The bottom line is, you need to be learn to share the Gospel and continue to learn how to share along the way. That includes the Father’s incredible love and our coming judgement because of sin. The story has to centre around the person of Jesus Christ, God’s complete answer to that story. For most believers, doing this is something they have never learned.

These days, we are trying to get people to commit to meeting ongoing as we seek to make Disciples, Jesus ultimate calling on our lives. We are running Discovery Bible Studies which are simple and easy, and engage all participants while allowing Jesus to lead. We’re not there yet, in fact along the way we are often disillusioned. To be frank, the disillusionment comes mostly from other believers who come wanting something different, so enthusiastic at first until they discover that church was never meant to be the church they have had, and that they actually need to be the church. There can be much pain.

Is that useful for you who read this? I don’t know, we meet many who are unsure but would like to do more, too embarrassed perhaps after a lifetime of listening, that they still cannot. When we scratch away, we discover so few can actually tell others of their faith through normal, everyday conversation. We were too, so please, take heart, you can learn! It is for all.

Just two more things to say; one, pray, pray and pray some more. God answers. Two, practise again and again. Open your mouths my friend, and let the journey begin. You will be fulfilled, the angels will rejoice.

Therefore, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution, how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? – Hebrews 2

We’re dog minding at the moment. He’s a beautiful dog, a Groodle, and he attracts a lot of attention. Last week we decided to see how useful an evangelistic tool he might be, so we wandered off around the streets, mutt in tow. Talk about a dream team.

“Ah, what a beautiful dog, can we pet him?”

“Absolutely, he’s very placid. While you’re there, can we tell you why we come out on the streets?”

“Of course,” we hear wondering.

So, we get a chance to share Jesus, or pray, or ask them about their lives in relation to God.

We asked the Lord to show us 10 people we could talk to that afternoon, and as always it was surprising. Surprising, because most had some type of church background, and most claimed to be “Christians.” Yet none, seemingly, were following the Lord.

We challenged a young Chinese couple, who’s churches included the local Catholic place, Hillsong and a Baptist church, to get serious in their relationship with the Lord. We prayed over and blessed an entire Turkish family, who’s children loved the dog. Their claims to be believers did not seem to match their understanding of what it means to “have faith in Christ.”

We spoke to an American, who told us his life had consisted almost constantly of ups and downs with God, but that church had never appealed in spite of his wife’s pleadings. His responses were flippant until we asked how he would go if his life was required of him that very night?

There were others as well, a young couple who said they were believers, yet after a quick conversation, clearly their lives didn’t represent such a belief. Sheepishly they admitted to illicit relationship and casual acquaintance with God. We urged them to take Jesus seriously and prayed with them.

Here’s the thing though, almost all seemed genuinely interested when challenged about how seriously they took Jesus’ call to ‘follow him.’ Maybe it was a welcome change that someone actually cared for how they lived. We did, and so does the Lord.

How does it all get to this state, where believers wander unaware that anything might ever be demanded of them, that they are called to Holiness and separation from the world. Alarming.

Many, many ‘Christians’ are walking in suburban slavery to a system that has blinded them to the real Gospel. For too long it seems, we can’t tell the difference between us and the world. How on earth then, are we going to change it – change it towards what we should ask, us?

Obedience to God, that is really sitting down and taking Jesus at his word has almost completely escaped the modern Christian life. The call to deny oneself, take up our cross, live our lives simply, sacrificially, prayerfully with a mindful call to be Holy is no longer applicable. Obedience to Christ has been relegated as instead we practice our definition of ‘Christian’ activity. In short, as the Hebrews writer tells us, we have drifted into the world. We are infected.

This week I was in an Uber, and I found myself talking about business. It was a longish trip, and about half way through I was aware that normally when I get an Uber I have a sense of mission – how can I introduce the Gospel into conversation? What had happened? Quite simply, I had drifted, there are other priorities and I was slightly shocked. Here’s how it ended.

The Lord graciously prompted me and provided an opening; here was a man absolutely battered by life, with a recent broken marriage, job loss and total sense of failure. A Greek Orthodox who didn’t know that it isn’t the Orthodoxy that saves him, but the One who stands behind it. He had a Bible app on his phone, so I encouraged him to read, and prayed with him that he would experience the life changing love of Christ in his life. I’m not sure who walked out more grateful, him or I.

What you do with Christ in this life makes all the difference in the world, because he is the difference. He wants us to live fully, alive in Him. If we stop following him, and instead pursue other things, even if they appear to be related, then we will drift. Jesus warns us clearly of the eternal consequences. No label will save us.