Initiate: Earning the Right to be Heard

Think about it.  You’re channel surfing on an early Saturday morning looking for your favorite cartoons, and you land on an infomercial selling the newest “must have’ blender.  Odds are you change the channel as quickly as possible.  Why is that?  In our lives, we usually only listen intently to those who have earned the right to be heard.  Our teachers, our parents, and our friends have all earned that right because over the span of your life they have shown that they truly care for your well-being.  It is not different for those in our community who have not yet found Christ.

If this is true, then are you, your family, and your church serving the needs of your community and earning the right to be heard?  The way you live your life, treat your neighbors, and love those you come in contact with will either earn you the right to be heard, or build a barrier towards people receiving the Gospel.  If you aren’t living like Jesus commanded, you are representing Him well. 

If you want to start having conversations about Jesus, you’d better make sure you’ve earned the right to be heard.

Loving Out Loud

Did you know that God loves everyone? That means that every neighbor, classmate, and person we meet is another soul that Jesus died for.  How can we love God and be obedient to Him without loving the people God places in our lives?

Have you ever thought about what Jesus came to this earth to do?  With every action He took, it boils down to Him coming to serve, even to the point of death.  Learning to be like Christ means learning to live a life of sacrifice, because that is what Jesus came to do. Living a life of sacrifice means that we must love out loud. Loving out loud means that we love with purpose- to draw people to God and to the church. We love people, not because we get something out of it, but simply because God loves people.  To love like Jesus means to bring healing to our community by putting others before us.  If we are not representing Christ in this way, then we have not earned the right to speak His message.

Living On Purpose

The manner in which we live often communicates our message before we even open our mouths.  For instance, if you choose to leave church and immediately chew out the waitress at lunch, your lifestyle is not matching the message of Christ.

Our style must match our message!

 Why would anyone want to associate with Jesus if His followers treat people badly and only think of themselves?  This is why it’s so important to live out loud- earning the right to heard starts with our daily interactions with every person we encounter.  What is your life saying?  Do you make eye contact with the cashier at the gas station?  How about your waiter or waitress?  Or the lunch lady?  Are you rude to your teachers?  What do your daily interactions say about your relationship with God?

Initiate: Conversation is the Key

We live in a world driven by instant gratification. Today's society doesn’t know the importance of patience. Traffic, the cashiers at Wal-Mart, and other various aspects of everyday life frustrate us because they don’t move fast enough. We want what we want and we want it NOW! There's no time to just stop and simply enjoy the world around us.

The same can be said about a lot Christians. We expect our lost friends and family members to instantaneously agree to come to church with us when we invite them. When they do, we expect them to be completely be transformed by the words of the preacher, but we become frustrated whenever they continue living the same lifestyle after the service. We might think, “The worship team played the best songs and Pastor's sermon was clear. How could they not have been changed?” We then write them off, thinking that they are too far gone for us to deal with. So what’s the key to introducing your friends to the life changing power of Christ?  Start with relationship-building conversations.

What we need to realize is that evangelism is changing and our methods need to change as well. We live in an age where the Church is not as influential as it has been in generations past. It doesn’t mean that the church is unnecessary; it just means that the current generation is seeking relationships rather than institutions.

Here in the “Bible Belt” it is very easy to assume that everyone believes in the same God. We also mistakenly believe that if we just simply live our lives as good citizens that all of our lost friends will come to know Jesus. That way of thinking is simply unbiblical. The Apostle Paul makes it clear in Romans 10 that we must speak with our mouths in order to adequately share the Gospel, “For everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved. But how can they call on Him to save them unless they believe in Him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about Him? And how can they hear about Him unless someone tells them?”

Revivals and other church events are important but we cannot simply expect the lost to be transformed by those means alone. We have to be looking for opportunities to have conversations about what we believe. According to the Institute for American Church Growth, 75-90% of new Christians make a commitment to Jesus through a friend who explains the Gospel on an individual, conversational basis. Open and honest communication is key for any good relationship. The Bible says that God's Word will not return void. Every time that you and your friends talk about scripture God is doing a work in their lives. It will probably take more than a few times. It's easy to become frustrated with people who do not seem to get it but God rewards faithfulness! Your friends can be saved, but it’s up to you to open your mouth and start the conversation. 

"Our Schools Matter" Week Six: God Intended it for Good

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.” Genesis 50:20

Joseph was a unique guy.  He was special in the eyes of his father, which caused his brothers to be VERY jealous. To sum it up this jealousy caused Joseph to be thrown in a hole, sold into slavery, thrown into jail, and in a divine series of events became second-in-command over the nation of Egypt.  Fast forward to this moment, Joseph’s father has died and the same brothers who through him in a pit are literally bowing down to him.  Joseph is an excellent reminder that no matter what happens in our lives, God can use it for good if we allow him to.  

Most of us could probably point to at least a few scars on our bodies.  Maybe it was a sports injury; maybe a scuffle with a sibling.  Whatever the cause, we often carry physical scars as reminders of our past. We often think of scars as physical, but there are also emotional scars we deal with.  These scars can be the consequences of decisions we made or the result of someone else’s decision, but the bottom line is you are walking around scarred.  Think about it like this:

-1 in 6 students have seriously considered suicide

-20% of high school students say they have been bullied at school

-16% of high school students say they have been cyber bullied 

-30% of high school students admitted to having been drunk in the last month

These statistics represent the cry of a generation- and this is only the tip of the iceberg.

You may identify with this.  Your life may look good on the outside, but inside you’re dying.  When we don’t deal with our pain properly, it can blow up and create a huge mess.  

In 1999 one of the worst school shootings in history took place at Columbine High School.  The 2 students that attacked the school did not just start shooting people for no reason.  Upon reading their journal entries after the event, the police found this excerpt:

“I have no happiness, no ambitions, no friends, no love…My God, I want to die so bad….my life is the most miserable existence in the history of time.” -Dylan Klebold

Pain that is not transformed will always be transferred.  Whether we like it or not, our emotional scars will always find a physical outlet.  So how do we heal the scars instead of just covering them up?  

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”  -Revelation 12:11

Jesus raising to give us life.  THIS is what brings us to the point that he can take harm and use it for HIS good. Jesus’ body was broken so that our scars could be healed.  So are you ready for good to come from your mess?  Jesus is waiting with arms wide open.