From the Ground Up IV, Making Friends For Eternity

Again, worship team, I did alert you this is going to be a full morning, but we come to the crux of the morning today, which is our message. As you're getting your notes out, I want to remind our college-age students, we've got quite a few college students with us every Sunday, two weeks from today, we're going to have a luncheon for you after the second service, so I want you to plan to be here and be part of it. We had about almost 100 collegians here last time we did this, and we're expecting more this time, two weeks from today, and there's a planning meeting, I believe, it's after the service this morning. Even though Pastor Dave is ill, Kate Carlson will be leading that time, so that's important. Well, I managed to watch, as I'm sure some of you have, on most days, a part of the Olympic coverage that's been broadcast from Sydney, Australia. The incredible level of competition that's there, the amazing diversity of events, what is that synchronized thing that they do with the flags? I mean, that's different. There's all kinds of amazing achievements, and one thing that I've heard every athlete say, when they've been interviewed afterwards, every athlete, to some degree, has said something like this, whether it was a year ago or 15 years ago, they said, I set a goal that I would one day make it to the Olympics. And beyond that, in their mind, they were thinking, if I made it to the Olympics, I would win a gold. And then they organized everything in their life around that purpose. Many of them even reported that they physically moved their place of residence to be near a workout facility. Some of them changed careers. A number of them postponed marriage for a number of years. They did everything necessary for one purpose, and that was to make it to the Olympics and to win a medal. But I heard a commentator say something on Thursday night that caught me. Everything I've said to that point, you've all heard. Maybe you didn't hear this. He said, for everyone that makes it to that medal stand, to the gold medal especially, he said there were thousands out there who were disappointed. For everyone that made it to the medal stand, to the place of victory, there were thousands out there who were disappointed. And I began to think about that in terms of eternity. Have you ever thought about it in those terms? If not, listen or turn, if you'd like, if you have your Bible, to Matthew 25, would you please? It'd be worth turning there, I think, just to physically note it. It's not in your notes this morning because this came to me after the notes were printed. Matthew 25, I'm going to read beginning in verse 31. Listen carefully if you don't have a Bible, just listen. Matthew 25, 31. When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory. And all the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. And then the King will say to those on His right, Come, you who are blessed by My Father, and take your inheritance. The kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. Come and get your gold medal, is what He's saying. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink. I was a stranger, and you invited Me in. I needed clothes, and you clothed Me. I was sick, and you looked after Me. I was in prison, and you came to visit Me. Then the righteous will answer Him, Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison or go to visit You? And the King will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me. And then He will say to those on His left, Depart from Me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink. I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in. I needed clothes, and you did not clothe Me. I was sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me. They will answer also, Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty, or a stranger and needing clothes, or sick or in prison, and did not help You? And He will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me. And then they will go away from the gold medal stand, my paraphrase, to eternal punishment. But the righteous to eternal life. Now this passage is often applied toward a motivation that has to do with compassionate actions. But I want to ask you something. Is a person that is outside, listen, is a person that is outside of the saving knowledge of Christ in need of something? And would Jesus say to us, when, Lord, or would we say to Him, when did we see You needing to hear the gospel? He would say, back when you did it to the least of these, you have done it to Me. There is going to come a day when we are going to share inexpressible joy. First Corinthians 2.9 says, the mind cannot conceive what God has planned for those who love Him. On that same day, there is going to be indescribable pain and sorrow and regret for millions of people, many of whom you love. Hear me well, church. The Bible is clear about it. I can't profess to explain to you all of the theology of it, but I know that when Jesus says it this plainly, it's going to happen. What are you going to say to Him on that day? You know, we've been looking for the last number of weeks here about God's way of building mature people and mature churches. We're going to keep on doing that. We're not here by random action. We've had a very clear sort of strategy. We've talked in week one about connecting and becoming a member and part of a small group. Pastor Dave talked in week two about growing in your faith. By the way, look in your notes. There's a lot of inserts, but there's one there called the sacred romance. I don't want you to miss that. Because a lot of folks think that's a wedding or a marriage seminar. It's not. It's about your walk with God. The sacred romance. Thanks. This is coming up in just a few weeks, and we want many of you from North Way to come. We've been told that this will probably sell out. It's a nationally sponsored event that I just asked to bring here and we're able to host. But it's about your walk with the Lord, and I want to encourage you to consider it under the growing segment. You can register today. If you get in before the middle of October, you get a substantial discount. That's a growth issue. Last week, we talked about serving. Many of you signed in that little insert that we had that you wanted to be a servant here at North Way. I want to encourage those of you who maybe prayed about it this week. It's been inserted once again in your notes. You can sign up this week and put that in the basket and let us know how we can help you. We're going to be developing a seminar for that. This will roll out here in the next couple of months. So we're doing these things. But today I want to talk about what I think is the most difficult thing for this church. And that is to be faithful in this part of our growth, reaching out. And I believe that God wants us to hear today what's at stake. Look at the top scripture on your outline. The most important thing is that I complete my mission, Paul writes, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me to tell people the good news about God's grace. And what we have here, the lighting's a little bit fuzzy, but that's a bridge being built out. And you can see some folks standing on the end of it, reaching out. I want to talk about this today because I believe it's at the core of what God wants this church to do in the coming months and years. Here's a question. How many of you avoid things you're not very good at? How many women don't really like to cook? And when it comes down to it, you'd much rather eat out than have to put something together. How many men don't really like to do household chores, but for the sake of marital harmony, you learn those kind of things, right? I remember back when I was in eighth grade, as part of gym class, we had to climb a rope. You know, a hefty rope that dropped down from the rafters of the gym. And they had a multiple number of ropes, and every male student had to climb that rope. And in eighth grade, for whatever reason, I just didn't. I wasn't coordinated. I couldn't get the foot thing to work. I was trying to get between my feet. And I know it's hard, but I didn't have the biceps to quite just do it without the feet. So I'd get halfway up, and I'd be hanging. And it was the most embarrassing thing, not to be able to do it. I wasn't the only one, but I just hated the embarrassment of getting stuck halfway up the rope and having to climb down again. And I used to find excuses. I'd have to go to the bathroom. You know, I'd start a fight with other students. Just some way to get out of not having to climb that rope. I just hated it. Well, several months into that process, one student came up to me and said, Hey, it's really easy. You just have to wrap. And he showed me how to wrap the rope around one leg, and then kind of step on it, and pull myself up and step on it. And, you know, I did that. And 20, 30 minutes later, I mean, I was going up and down that rope like a chipmunk. I had it figured out. And it never bothered me. It totally changed my attitude about something I hated to do, or felt incompetent to do. I want to say to you today, the Lord is going to deal with the fear of incompetency that many of us have about extending the rope of the good news of the gospel to other people. That's what He wants to do today, because many of us are afraid. As you're going to hear from some testimonies in a little while, it's one of the great obstacles. We're afraid. And part of it is just being taught how to do it, and be given the tools to share in a way that takes away that incompetency fear and replaces it with a confidence in God. So what is, number one, your mission? Well, your mission simply is this, to invite others into God's family. Very simple. That's what you're called to do. And notice who's calling you to do it. It's not Pastor Jay. It's not the church program. Jesus said, As the Father has sent me, I am sending you. So if you think this is something you shouldn't do, then I want you to talk to the Lord about it. He's calling us all to be His witnesses. What is a witness? Who knows what a witness is? Is a witness an evangelist? Is a witness a preacher? What is a witness? A witness is simply someone who tells them what God has done in their own life. Anyone that has watched Perry Mason to Judge Judy knows what a witness does. A witness just stands up there and says, Well, this is what I saw, or this is what I experienced, or this is what I heard. That's what a witness does. Witnessing is simply sharing what God has done or is doing in your life. It's not being theologically correct necessarily. It's not being a pastor or preacher. It's not having slick answers to everyone's questions. Listen, please hear me. God is telling us all as a church, we have to learn to extend the rope of witness to this community. It's very important in our church life right now. I would say it is the single greatest deficit we have as a congregation. And you're the ones who's calling to it. Why? Because you know what, folks? I'm not the one that really is the best at it. You're better at it than I am. You're much more effective at witnessing than I will ever be. Why? Because I'm supposed to be. I start talking to people about the Lord. And they say, Well, what do you do? I say, Well, I'm a pastor. Ah, I get it. You're the paid professional. So this is just part of your little spiel that you do. Part of what your work is, right? And you know, they just... An interesting little wall goes up because they wonder about my motive. You see, that's not true of you. You're on... I might be... This is my calling. You're just a satisfied customer. Is that right? Is that right? I mean, and how powerful are testimonials for people responding? Well, let me just tell you how powerful they are. Anyone here ever bought something on an infomercial? Go ahead and confess it right now. Put your hand up. How about... On QVC, they have what they call... Am I right about this, ladies? The testimonial line. And they have people calling in in advance, lining up to say, you know, this is Charlotte from Charlottesville calling in to say she bought the Bean Master coffee grinder and it is the best. Tell us about it, Charlotte. What's so great about the Bean Master? Well, you know, they go, oh, that's so great. I didn't know that. And somehow we buy it. I mean, we buy it. What it is, is we see people just like us using the Ab Dolly and figure, well, if they get those kind of results, we certainly can. It isn't the Hollywood people that sell us things. It's people like us. Well, I mean, somebody somewhere is paying a lot of money to figure that out. Well, God knew that all along. He wants you to be His witnesses. Just share what God has done in your life. What is your message? Well, your message is simply this. It's good news. My message is good news. Now, I have lived here long enough in Pittsburgh to know something that many of you are thinking right now. Well, you know what, Jay? People don't really want to hear my story all that much and they don't care that much about your so-called good news. They have their own religion. And they respond to me the minute I bring this up, and they say, look, you have your religion, I have mine, you let me alone, I'll let you alone. But friends, stay with me. If you just get past that initial moment of rejection, which causes so many of us to cower away and say, I'm really sorry, I didn't want to offend you. And you just hold your ground for a moment. You know what you'll find, and I've seen this to be true countless times. If you challenge people just a little bit about why they believe what they believe, most people don't know why they believe what they believe. They just have this standard little response that they give to anyone that comes to them because it's the way of just keeping a safe distance. And the moment you stand and say, gee, you know what, I appreciate what you're saying there, but let me just ask you, where does that come from? And you know what, you can quickly open a whole dialogue. Because people are searching. They want to know is what they're believing really true or not, but they just don't want you, necessarily, to invade their airspace. And once you're there and just authentically just beginning to open the dialogue a little bit, you'll find them increasingly open to hearing from you because they're not sure about what they believe. If you went over to Sheetz today and took a little poll right after the service and just had people come in and you walked around the different gas pumps and said, how do you get God to like you and how do you end up in heaven? What would most people say is the way? It would have something to do with good works. That's right. If you do more good things than bad things, if you go to church so many times, if you do the religious deal and so on, in the end, God's going to grade in the curve and I'll probably slip in. I promise you that's what they're going to say. And the Bible makes it very clear that's not the way it is at all. It has nothing to do with the curve. It has nothing to do with good works and bad works in terms of whether or not you're justified before God. Those are simply a fruit of your justification. Look what the Bible says in Romans 117. The good news shows how God makes people right with himself. That it begins and ends with faith. As the scripture says, those who are right with God will live by trusting in him. You have good news, friends. Turn your hotline over. Here's the good news. Number one, you can tell people about forgiveness from their past. If I were to play up here right now a video of everything you've ever done in the past, how many of you would be happy to show the whole world that? How about everything you've ever thought? Well, now you're getting real personal, Pastor Jerry. Well, can we be honest and say that the Lord knows everything you've thought and everything you've done in the past. And it's all been recorded. The amazing thing that Jesus says is this. For God was in Christ restoring the world to himself, no longer counting men's sins against them, but, look, read the next three words, circle them, blotting them out. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. That's amazing news. Why do I know it's so amazing? Because there are psychologists and psychiatrists that are sitting in this congregation in this service today that would tell you that their offices are full of people who are living in deep depression because of shame and guilt and repression of things that they have done in their past. And Jesus has come to forgive them and set them on a pathway of liberty. That's good news. Also, your good news is that you have to offer people a purpose for living right now. There's an amazing search that continues on for answers about the origins of the universe and where we came from and life beyond the earth and all that. And then there's this whole discussion, this daily dialogue about the disconnect between happiness and affluence and the fact that the two aren't the same thing. It doesn't take rocket science to figure that one out. You were created for a wonderful purpose and there's a yearning, I believe this, there's a yearning in every person to find it. Everyone wants to know why they were here. Everyone's looking for it. And the good news is that Jesus said, I came that you might have life and that you might have it to its fullest. Now notice, he didn't say, I came and brought you a religion that you might have life. I didn't come that you might become a Christian. He didn't put a label on it. He just said, I have come. And you see, you have to get away from the labels and point people to Christ. It's so easy to get caught up in trying to be successful that people miss their real purpose in living. And third, the third benefit or third bit of really good news you have is this. There's a certain destiny for my future. Here's something I've discovered in my conversations with people. Almost everybody knows they're going to die. I think I met one person who thought, I'm not really going to die. I'll just be transported into the next dimension. But most rational people know they're going to die. But a lot of people only hope that they're going to go to heaven. There's a big difference. You can know that you're going to heaven. And today in our world, it's good news when you can tell someone how they can know. You see, it doesn't have to be the human idea of fairness. It isn't, well, you know, my good deeds and my bad deeds. It's no. Jesus says in heaven, it's perfection only. The only way you get to heaven is on someone else's ticket. And that ticket was purchased by Jesus Christ. And that's the message that we have to get into people's hands and hearts. Look at the next verse. God's free gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ. Now, here's the question. Past, present, and future, is that good news? Am I overstating it? Is that good news? I didn't hear that. Is that good news? It is very good news. And I'm not, irregardless of a person's achievements or accomplishments, status aside, that is news that no other messenger carries but you. Wow, that's amazing to me. And that's why you can't let Satan fool you into thinking people don't want to hear about it. They just have not heard the truth. It's not gotten through. What's your motive? Quickly, your motive is simply love. Write it down. Your motive is love. St. Corinthians 5.14, For the love of Christ compels us. If it's not love, if it's any other motive, people are going to smell it out. Give some rational thought to this, okay? Folks, this is maybe a shock. I want you to stand by. Not everybody likes you. And certainly not everybody loves you. And I've discovered not everyone likes me and every week I hear that not everyone loves me. And you know what? I have to be honest. I don't like everyone either. I don't even want to give any illustrations, okay? That's just not necessary right now. You know, it's true. But that's not true about God. This is astonishing to me. He loves everyone. He sees beyond their external actions, the ugliness of whatever they've gotten themselves into, and he sees a being that he created and loves. And when you ask God for his love for them, they can radically change. That's how Paul, the apostle who hated Christians and persecuted them and even had them killed, was turned into the greatest, most dynamic follower of Jesus that ever lived. That's how people like I saw recently on television, like Jane Roe. Is that name familiar? Roe v. Wade? The person who brought this lawsuit that has so changed the landscape of the moral issue of abortion in our country is now a radiant Christian. Somewhere in the last few years, her heart had been softened and she became a warm and loving and caring person. And I was just watching and thinking, somebody somewhere got through to her. And it wasn't through a placard or a protest or somebody laying in front of her driveway and saying, you know, you're killing babies. Now, don't misunderstand me. I think there is a place for protest. And I think that some of us, we need to look and see what, just because the FDA says this abortion pill is okay doesn't mean we believe it is. Friends, you need to look into that and have a conviction about it. But we need to love. Love changes people. That's the only thing. Arguing doesn't. Apologetics really don't. But love does. You say, well, I'm just kind of afraid to talk to people. Look at the next verse. The Holy Spirit doesn't want you to be afraid of people. Look at it. But to be wise and strong and to love them and enjoy being with them, if you'll stir up this inner power, you will never be afraid to tell others about our Lord. Isn't that a great paraphrase? That's the living Bible paraphrase of 2 Timothy 1, 7 and 8. So as you build this bridge of trust and acceptance, and you're going to hear about this in a moment, your witness is received by people. It's good news that you share with them. And finally, what is your method? Well, you've got to share it and show it. You've got to share it and show it. How many of you know people watch your life? I have people come back and say, you know, I saw you at so-and-so turning left when the arrow had not already changed. And I wrote down your license plate and just wanted to know, was you, Pastor Jay? I got your number. People watch us, don't they? They're examining your life to see if what you say is how you live. What is someone who lives a different thing than they say called? A hypocrite. And you know, the world hates hypocrites. And they think most people like us who believe in God are hypocrites. Now sometimes they just throw that at you because they don't know what else to say. And again, if you don't just back off right away, you'll find that they really don't have a clue about what they believe themselves. But what you believe and what you do really does matter. Look at Colossians 3.17. Whatever you do or say, let it be as a representative of the Lord Jesus. Colossians 3.17. But wait. It's not just how you live. I happen to know a number of people, maybe you do too, that are really pretty nice people. Actually, they're very moral people. They're friendly people. They don't bother me. I don't bother them. And you know what? I have to say, on the external side of things, they're good folks, but they don't care one iota about Christ. So you have to do more than just be a good person. You've got to tell people what's going on. And why do I know that's true? Because the person who lived the perfect, sinless life that I read about in the Bible, the one who healed people and delivered them from oppression, the one who walked around loving people, also talked to them about the gospel. That was Jesus. So you have to also say it along with doing it. If you'll share it and show it, people will be changed. You have to become what I call an AV Christian, an audio-visual Christian. Then people get the message. I want you to hear this morning a wonderful story. It really is sort of a weaving together of stories. Pastor Scott, who's heading up our outreach ministry, what we're calling 401, our outreach ministry, has got three folks who are going to come up and share right now how God has worked in their lives to touch others and reach out. I think you'll identify with some of the fears and concerns they have. So let's give them a warm welcome as they come on up. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for coming back. We've assembled this panel of actually rather, sorry, ordinary people. But I think you're going to hear some extraordinary insights that could be helpful to you regarding the subject of evangelism, sharing our faith out there in the real world. Why don't you just take a second and introduce yourself, starting with Shirley. I'm Shirley Gagnon. I'm married to Brian. I have three kids, two, four, and seven, and I'm a stay-at-home mom. Hi, I'm Bill Sinceri, a family of five, and I live in Mars. My wife's name is Jill. I'm Carl Adler, married to my lovely wife. Sorry. Funny. I've got three daughters and two grandsons, and it's a privilege to be here this morning. Okay, it's going to be a long day, Carl. My first question, why do you think so many Christians in particular struggle with this subject of sharing our faith? Why is it so hard? I think it's obvious. We fear that we're going to be rejected, and that our own lives are inadequate in this area. Who are we to discuss these great Christian lives? That's just a lie. How about you, Carl? The fear of rejection, the fear of not having all of the right answers. What if someone had a problem, and you were not able to give them the right answer, or God didn't seem to meet him in the same time frame that you think he should, so we have to cover for God? And who wants to go there? We're afraid sometimes. I would imagine that there must be experiences and so forth that have laid a foundation for those fears. Can you identify any of the common mistakes that either you've made or you've observed in the Christian community that we make when attempting to share our faith with others? Sure. I think that we fail to listen. We are so eager to give them our view of God that we don't appreciate their view, and how they feel about God and church, and we don't listen well enough, and it's a big pitfall. If we ever position ourselves that we're the ones that have it all together, and they are a subperson to us, because we have it together with God, and they don't. That pride really gets in the way of communication, and we need to just help them to recognize we're in the same boat that they are, only better off. Bill, we're going to get to you, by the way. I don't want you to think I'm being rude. We've got a plan. We've got a question coming for Bill that is meant just for him. Carl, you in particular have a reputation for being kind of a go-getter believer. I mean, I've actually heard people say things like, you know, Carl comes at you with the gospel, and so on, and I know that's not true. What are you thinking? And, Shirley, you could address this, too. When you meet people every day, what are you thinking? Are you going out into the world with a strategy in mind, with a plan, like you wake up in the morning and think, okay, step one, two, three? Are you thinking when you meet somebody, you know, boy, they're a sinner. I can't wait to lead them in a sinner's prayer. I'm going to get them. What are you thinking? I'm in touch with people on a day-in, day-out basis. Would you like the politically correct answer? I'd like the honest answer. I wish to say that every morning I would go out with that intent, but the reality of it is, in my humanity and life sometimes being up to here, that's not always the way it is. God chooses to love people and oftentimes you run into the situation you need to rise to it, ask God to open up the platform and as Shirley was saying, love people where they are. You know, we can't save anybody. It's the Spirit of God, but we do need to be obedient to when He begins to open up something, when there are those more than moments, when something is clicking, we need to respond to them. Any given day, would you say that your awareness level is high, mid-range, or low regarding the condition of another life? I think that all has to do with how alive and well your relationship is with the Lord. If you are in touch with Him you can see those needs. You are open to see them and you care more than when you're not in touch with the Lord. So I would say that if you're living on purpose, then you are more effective. Are there certain things or conditions experiences, events, that make people more receptive at times than others? Have you noticed anything like that? I would say in my own life, I haven't been a Christian very long, but when people are making transitions, when they're staying home, when they've moved, when they're switching careers, when they've had some crisis, they're looking. Something's different. And a well-used phrase is that there are no foxhole atheists. When the world is banging on your door and you don't have answers, you've lost a loved one, you're facing a difficult situation when you just don't have answers to how to go another day, that's a time when your worldly guard might be down. And we as believers, as we are commissioned by the Lord to be out there in that field, we just kind of need to be looking for those open doors and open windows. We're going to tie you into this now, Bill. Hi, Bill. And it actually relates to the last question that I asked Carl and Shirley, because the conditions were apparently ripe a few years ago. I guess Carl had been building a relationship with you. Bill is one of the owners of Pennsylvania Macaroni, a company in the Strip District that was actually written about in Friday's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, so I'm sure the public is just calling you guys. This is a big weekend for you, Bill. But Bill, what was it like? You were on the other end. You were on the receiving end. Here was this guy named Carl Adler. He was calling on you. And then one day, something happened. What did it feel like? What's the experience like being on the other end? The biggest thing was fear. And by the way, I moved to the North Hills to try not to have so many friends. But I opened my office door and there was Carl again who was trying to make a client out of me. And I was like, oh no, not again. I don't have time. I don't want to talk to anybody today. I've got too much work to do. And he just kept pressing on and pressing on. And as we talked, he started to talk about God. And I looked at him sort of strange and I felt this. I never saw this from him before. Where is he going with this? And all of a sudden, I knew he was going to ask me something. Do I believe or am I in fear? And I was scared. I was really scared. Let's get underneath that a little bit. Why did you even listen to him? Because of the pain and turmoil that were... I was vulnerable. I was in transition in my life. But you didn't even know he was a Christian. Not until that day. But you trusted him? Yes. Why? Because he came with a care and a general concern that was just genuine. So he had a track record with you? He had a track record of trust. Was he different than other people? Yeah, he was brutally honest. Shirley, you were on the receiving end at one point. You didn't know the Lord. What was it like for you? I was very resistant because I thought I already knew. And I really tolerated the woman who would try and talk to me about the Lord. I just tolerated her. But she didn't leave me in the sinner's prayer. She led me from resistant to receptive. And that was her mission and it was huge because it was a big step. And like I said, I tolerated her. But she did a mighty work. How important is timing w