God wants us to be a powerful influence for Jesus Christ in the everyday lives of people throughout this community. The vision of our church is that every believer is growing in the grace and knowledge of God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is being filled with the power of God’s Holy Spirit, is living out the one-another passages with God’s family, and is being an influence for Jesus Christ in God’s world.
Throughout this month our emphasis is on being an influence for Christ. Yesterday a number of us were out at the Meijer store, collecting food for our community needs. During my shift hundreds of people poured through the Meijer store and parking lot. A young girl from Lakeside stood in front of the doors handing out fliers, asking people to give to needs in the community. It struck me how a little girl could have so much influence over adults. People were bringing out gobs of food and donating cash. It was incredible. Of course, it wasn’t just her. There were also many others out there working hard.
But if you removed our teams from in front of the stores, how many people would have even been thinking about the needs of people in our community as they shopped? I am not saying that self-righteously. I am making the simple point that God places his people in a given place at a given time in order to be an influence! The influence of just a few Christians had a profound impact on the river of people pouring in and out of Meijer. It is true that many were indifferent. But for the moment we were there, we redirected the flow of the river. Complete strangers were being moved toward generosity. People began thinking not just about their own needs, but about the needs of others less fortunate. People felt compelled to ask questions about our church and our ministry. Christ Jesus was glorified.
God most certainly wants us growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. He wants us being filled with the power of his Holy Spirit. He wants us to be fully engaged in loving one another. But he also wants us to be an influence. There is nothing more fulfilling than shaping, effecting, changing, inspiring, impacting, winning, persuading, and influencing people for Christ. I pray for all of us to have a strong desire to be an influence for Jesus Christ.
Prayers as Starting Point for Influence
Last week we began talking about the four needs of an unbeliever. Every unbeliever has a need to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Every unbeliever has a need to respond to the stirring and to the conviction of God’s Holy Spirit. Every unbeliever has a need to connect into redemptive, Christ-filled relationships. Every unbeliever needs to see the power of God at work in their world. Influencing is helping the unbeliever know Christ, respond to the Holy Spirit, connect into God’s family, and see the power of God at work.
As we saw last week, prayer helps the unbeliever respond to the conviction of God’s Holy Spirit. Through prayer, God opens an unbeliever’s heart. He convicts them of sin. He reveals to them their need for Christ. He opens doors. The key to evangelism isn’t mastering a specific technique, but relying fully on God’s Holy Spirit. God can do and is doing some things we can never do of our own power. We distributed prayer cards to encourage you to begin praying for others. Last Sunday after church, God did something rather amazing.
I was over at Best Buy looking at air purifiers and software for my computer. As I stood there studying a package of software, a sales person walked up and asked me if he could help me in any way. I told him no and that I was just trying to understand how that software was different from another package of software I had purchased.
But he persisted, and he obviously wanted to talk. He said, "What are you doing? Are you doing internet podcasts? Are you doing internet disc jockey stuff?"
So I told him, "No, no, nothing fancy like that. I’m just putting my sermons online. I am a preacher, and I think you helped me buy a digital recorder a few months ago."
He lit up and immediately began asking me questions. "What did you think about all those people lined up protesting abortion over on Wabash the other day?"
Instead of closing the door I asked him, "What did you think about it?"
For the next thirty minutes we talked about abortion, the sanctity of human life, the nature of reality, morality, and whether or not there is good and evil, or absolute truth. We talked about the spirit world, the occult and haunted places. We talked about the Bible and why there were so many different versions. We talked about organized religion and he explained why he didn’t need it. It was truly an amazing conversation, as philosophically advanced as any I’ve had.
As we talked I kept praying, "God, give me an opening. Give me an opportunity here." Toward the end of our conversation he mentioned that he loved the The Chronicles of Narnia. The Chronicles of Narnia are children’s books written by one of the finest Christian authors of our time, C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis also wrote another book called Mere Christianity. That book has turned countless thousands toward faith in Jesus Christ. So I told him about C.S. Lewis, and his other book Mere Christianity. I said, "You ought to just read it and see what you think. I’ll try to bring you a copy."
That morning in our services, we prayed. Immediately that afternoon, a door was opened. Prayer is the starting point for being an influence for Christ. Pray like crazy. But don’t stop with prayer alone. Once you have begun praying for someone, take the very next step. Begin loving them.
Prayer + Loving
In John 13:34-35 (NIV) Jesus says, "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
More than anything else, our love demonstrates the reality of God’s power. If we love, the whole world sees Jesus Christ. But if we don’t love, they’ll remain blind. Pray for the unbeliever like crazy, but then love the unbeliever like crazy too. Pray that you will know how to love. Pray that the unbeliever will see God’s power at work in your life.
The single largest church in the world is in South Korea, and is led by Dr. David Yonggi Cho. I think it has 750,000 and maybe even over one million members now. They first encourage every member to join a home cell group, where along with a dozen other Christians, they pray specifically and regularly for their unbelieving friends. But then they challenge each home cell group to be a nucleus of revival in its neighborhood. That cell group is to be a magnet which attracts people to Jesus Christ. They encourage "holy eavesdropping" where cell leaders instruct the members of their group to be on the lookout for people having troubles. When they hear of someone having trouble in her marriage, or with raising children, or in overcoming financial difficulties, they invite that person for tea and then ask permission to share how Jesus Christ helped them overcome the same problem.
There are a lot of high rise apartments in Korea, and it is not wise to go up and down the hallways knocking on doors. So one person came up with an innovative idea. She began spending hours riding the elevators up and down in her apartment building. As the elevator stopped at different floors, she found new opportunities to be an influence for Jesus Christ. One mother needed help with her baby. An older woman needed help carrying her groceries. Someone else had a leaking faucet, so she offered to have her husband come fix it. Other people she just silently prayed for.
Eventually she built relationships with many people in her building and obtained their phone numbers. Gradually, she invited them over for a home group meeting where they would worship, pray, study the Bible, and talk about loving their neighbors. This church has grown to a million in number because everyone in the church has caught a vision for praying and loving their neighbors.
Lakeside is a church of two hundred or two hundred fifty on a good Sunday. We may have three hundred or three hundred fifty regulars who frequent our church over the course of a month. What if we started gathering in one another’s homes for the purpose of worship, Bible Study, praying for the lost, loving one another, and loving the lost? Dr. David Yonggi Cho says that any church whose members gather regularly to do these things will flourish. It isn’t a Korean thing, it is a kingdom thing!
Acts 2:42-47 (NIV) says, "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
Do you believe by faith, that meeting regularly for prayer and sacrificially loving the lost will fuel explosive growth for God’s kingdom? Yet we're too busy to pray and we are too self-consumed to love sacrificially! God shows up wherever his people are gathered praying for Holy Spirit’s arrival. God shows up wherever his people love just as Christ loved. What if God showed up here?
In the average church it takes one to two hundred believers and hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce a single convert for God’s kingdom. It's not quite that dire at Lakeside. But I have often thought, how do we turn the corner with evangelism at Lakeside? How do we encourage every believer here to begin praying for the lost? How do we encourage every believer here to demonstrate sacrificial love? How do we get pockets of believers meeting together in neighborhoods throughout our community for the purpose of glorifying Christ? How do we get this church to leave the building and show up for Christ on the streets? How do we realize our potential for being an influence for Christ?
I don’t have the answer. I only have a prayer. I only share God’s vision for this church. But you have the answer. And you can pray. And you can catch God’s vision. You can make a decision to be an influence for Christ. You can grab two or three other couples and get together in your home for worship, Bible study, prayer and loving. Dr. David Yonggi Cho asks every home cell group to lead two people to Christ a year. It really is that simple, and it really is that hard. But God is looking for people of faith.
Throughout this month I have been doing evangelism training with my father-in-law at a church over near Decatur. I’ve done the same thing with them as I am doing with you. But the members of the church there are so frustrated and disillusioned with evangelism. Many of them have tried inviting people to church, but have been rejected. They have tried preaching the gospel to their friends, to their sons and daughters, and to co-workers, but have not been effective by their own estimate. The first night of training many persons raised their hands and talked about failure. Their failure wasn’t due to a lack of faith per se, because they were taking risks.
I asked them, how much time did you spend praying for the person by name before inviting them to church? How much time did you spend praying for them by name before sharing the gospel with them, or before opening your Bible? How much time did you spend loving them unconditionally before inviting them to church? How much time did you spend loving them sacrificially before telling them about Christ’s sacrificial love?
In each case they didn’t take time to pray and they didn’t organize themselves along with other believers to love others. They started with church, they started with the Bible, they started with technique, and they started with their agenda, instead of starting with prayer and starting with living God’s love. We all do it. I do it. It's our tendency! Have you covered your friends and acquaintances in prayer? Are you loving them?
S.A.F.E.
Let’s dig a little further into this loving thing. Let's talk about demonstrating kindness to the unbeliever in practical ways. I was just reading a book called Irresistable Evangelism and saw this "kindness process." It challenged me to think about how people move from being total strangers to becoming a brother and sister in Christ through simple acts of love and kindness. If someone is at the "Stranger" level, you do two things. First, you do small acts of service. And second, you listen openly to their needs.
A young couple moved into our neighborhood recently. They were from out of state. They didn’t know where their favorite stores and restaurants were located. They didn’t know where their daughter’s school was. They didn’t have any friends. Lara spent an afternoon showing the mother where the school was, shopping with her, showing here were restaurants were, talking on the phone, and being a friend. We bought them some Krispy Kreme donuts. We’ve helped them chase their dogs down whenever they get loose. We’ve helped each other work on home projects.
Most of this stuff has been brief, inexpensive touches. Nothing really heavy. After a very short time things progressed to the "Acquaintance" level. We did more serving and more listening. We sensed that they had a lot of difficulties in their family, extended family, marriage, work, and personally. I made it a point to work out in my yard and to always be available for conversation should they want to talk. Often times I would go over and chat with them about whatever we could talk about. I wasn’t doing this only to win them to Christ, I genuinely wanted their friendship.
Right now things are at the "Friend" level. We regularly help them out by serving them. They have shared a lot of very personal problems about their lives, and there is a deep trust there. They sense that we care for them. In fact, they know we care for them. Not a week goes by that we are not talking over the fence or hanging out.
Things have not yet gotten to the "Eternal" level. I have been praying for God to open that door and have chosen not to force it prematurely! But it is coming! They are on my top five list. I try to pray for them every time I see them driving up to their house or working in their yard.
We have people around us every day at various levels. The stranger, the acquaintance, the friend, or the eternal. Praying and loving helps them make the pilgrimage to eternal. We’ve got to get serious about being an influence for Christ. Anyone can pray. Anyone can love. Thus, any one of us at any given time can be an influence for Christ. You can invite the Holy Spirit to descend upon anyone you choose. You can help anyone see the power of God by demonstrating God’s love to them. There is no magical formula to evangelism. It's prayer. It's love.
"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."