Look Into My Eyes V, Look Into the Eyes of Your Family

And if not, it's okay, but I want to encourage you if you come regularly to bring your Bibles, even though I do often put the scriptures on your outline, so take your outlines out of your notes as well, and we'll be ready to go. John chapter 1 is sort of the text that I want to use as my starting point today. John chapter 1. This is when Jesus is calling his first disciples, and John the Baptist is kind of going before him, letting people know that there's a new guy on the block. John the Baptist, the Bible said no one more powerful than John the Baptist had been on the earth prior to Jesus coming. John chapter 1, okay, in verse 35, the next day John was there again with two of his disciples, and when he saw Jesus passing by, he said, pointing to Jesus, look, the Lamb of God. Now, when the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus, and turning around, Jesus saw them and following, and asked, well, what do you want? And they said, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? Come, he replied, and you will see. And by the way, let me pause there and say, that's what Jesus says to everyone today who's honestly searching. You come. One step, listen, one step of obedience is worth five years of digging around. You want to know the reason why a lot of people don't grow in their faith is they won't come. They just sort of say, well, I'm going to look a little bit more, and it's fine to be searching. It's okay to seek, but some of you today, now you relate to Larry. Life's pretty good. Maybe you'll get around to finding out more about God, but Jesus says to you today, come, and you will see. Now, look at the next verse. Verse 40, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and had followed Jesus. So, he was one of the two that was walking with Jesus. Look at verse 41. The first thing that Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon Peter, and tell him, we found the Messiah, that is the Christ. He was the first one he went to. Let me ask you a question. How many of you have little brothers or big brothers, and if you found something really good, the first person you'd go to is your little brother or your big brother. How many of you find the last person I'm going to tell about this good thing is that guy, right? Huh? Because he was the one that picked on me or the one that kept me out of the games or whatever, but not Andrew. Andrew went to Peter and said, Peter, you've got to come and check this out, and look at the next verse. Verse 42, and he brought him to Jesus. Underline that if you have a Bible. That is a powerful verse. He didn't say, hey, go see what you think. He didn't say, you know, some people think this is pretty cool, you ought to go check it out. He brought him to Jesus. And I want to say, 11 o'clock service here at North Way, you need to be saying to people, let's go together and check this out. You need to bring them along. There's nothing more powerful than an invitation where someone says, hey, I'll go with you. But here's what's fascinating. As you read through the rest of the New Testament, from the book of John, all the way to the book of Revelation, who do you read about more as an apostle, Peter or Andrew? Peter. Peter became, next to Paul, Peter was the central figure of all the rest of the New Testament. Jesus, and then Paul, and then Peter. So Andrew slips into the shadows, if you will, of New Testament history, and his brother, the one he brought to Jesus, is the one that rises up to become the apostle to the Jews. Friends, you don't know which family member that you may lead to Christ, who might become the next great mover and shaker in the kingdom of God. And that may be the central thing that God is calling some of us to do. What an incredible twist that is in this story. Why is it that that's so rare these days? Why are family members so difficult to reach? I want you to, before we go any farther, I want you to do something. Take your pen out. And if somebody don't bring pens, and if you've been coming for a while, you know I'm going to ask you to do this. So bring a pen. Of course, I don't have one either. So, you know, go ahead and throw something at me. But up on top of your outline, I want you to write the initials of a person, a family member that you'd love to see come to know Christ in a personal way. That you'd love to build a bridge of love to. All right? Don't, just put their initials in. And if, just their initials so no names will appear. And if it's someone that you're sitting next to, just move the initials around, change them around. Maybe they won't figure it out, all right? Because this is really personal. It's about family. It's about people that you care about. Why don't family members come? Well, most of us know, really, don't we? I mean, we know that it's, one reason is because they know us so well that they know our history. They say, hey, you think you're pretty cool now that you have religion? I remember you when, and then they go down that list. Or how about the ones that say things like, well, if you're this super hot Christian now, how come you're still doing this? And then they point to something that really isn't in order in your life yet. And how many of you know that you don't just overnight become this perfect, sinless, holy person? Or maybe, maybe it's just that the family has such tradition to it, that when you say, you know, I'm going a new direction, they say, well, whoa, we've done it this way for six generations, and now you're going to go and do this new thing? And so they tend to be very skeptical, if not cynical. There's lots of reasons why family is resistant. But you can still build bridges. And God can still work. It's sort of the tension that exists between the ideal of what you wish your family would do and the real, which is where they are. And that's true of everything in family, isn't it? I mean, the ideal in family is that we sit around a table and share a nice, comfortable, relaxed meal with meaningful conversation, right? What's the truth about family meals? Yeah, it's fast food in the minivans, you know, on the way to soccer practice, usually. Or, you know, holidays are supposed to be times of joy and sweet fellowship and peace. What's it really like in family? Oh, man, when's this nightmare going to be over? When are they going to leave? You know, that's it. It's that, oh, my gosh, it's added tension, isn't it? I mean, the ideal in families is long walks and talks when we can just open our hearts. The reality is, well, you know, it's car phones communicating between practices. We don't leave a kid someplace. The ideal in families is that, you know, the kids come along and they grow up and they take flight and soar. And the reality is that they come home. Sometimes. Start all over again. I mean, here's the ideal family. Hey, the Brady Bunch, right? Everyone just loves everyone else, even though we're all a little different. Here's the real family. Well, maybe not quite that bad, but it's sort of like that, isn't it? So what do we do to build bridges of love to our family members so that we can share with them what's most important to us? And by the way, my definition of maturity is living in the real, but moving toward the ideal. That's my definition. You're living in reality, but you're moving toward what's best. And I'm going to review what I talked about last week. And if you were here last week, you know that we spent the morning talking about building bridges and we just kind of ran out of time. So let me review a few of these things. Because we said last week that relationships are very delicate. They're not like computers or lawn tractors or some other piece of equipment that you just crank into and it works. Relationships fluctuate. Relationships can change because of circumstance, because of factors that you can't control. But here we go. We have to build a bridge of love to another person. You have to, number one, if you're taking notes, be proactive. You need to take a step toward another person. Jesus said it this way, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. So take some initiative. I remember last week the testimony was, hey, I just thought if I was a pretty good person that my friends and family and those around me would ask me, well, what's so different about your life? And that didn't happen. They talked about having to take a step toward another person. And by the way, friends, it takes some sensitivity because this isn't about, you know, what church you go to. It's not really about, you know, the whole thing of the institution of religion. It's about a relationship. And here at North Way, we want to give you lots of opportunities to share what's so important to you in ways that your family can relate to. That's why we have these holiday events like Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter and things like the Harvest Festival that's coming up here at the end of October, when you can bring your family and your kids and their family to share around that event, which, you know, the world has made into this incredibly hyped kind of thing. You can bring them to this concert on Thursday night, little venues where you can bring family and friends and share with them in a positive, proactive way. Second thing we said last week was refuse to wear a mask. I mean, that's a little secret. Your family already knows you're not perfect. They already see your flaws. They already realize that even though something's happened to you, you still have some things that aren't quite worked out yet. So you might as well be honest. Look at the scripture. And this is such a great translation of this. We can say with confidence and a clear conscience that we have been honest and sincere in all our dealings. You know what? If you want to have an impact in your family, honesty and sincerity. If you don't know the answer to something, just say so. If someone says, well, you know, why do little kids suffer if God's so loving? I don't have the answer, but I'll call Pastor Scott and he'll talk to you. No, we don't have answers to all those questions, but we need to be honest enough to say, hey, I don't know, but I do know this about God, that it's not His will that we suffer. And then we can go on from there. Next thing we talked about, and again, you need to get the tape. I filled all this in last week. Identify your common ground. I love what Paul writes here. The apostle says in 1 Corinthians 9, whatever person is like, I try to find common ground with him so that he will let me tell him about Christ. And then look at the next part, and let Christ save him. You see, listen, dear one, it's not your job to save somebody. Get that out of your head. It's Christ's job. Your job is simply to share with them, to give them the opportunity to know. And we said last week that the number one thing you need to do is to listen. Listen to the questions that they're asking. Listen to their story. And number four, we said last week, to build a bridge, you have to demonstrate God's love. Demonstrate God's love. And I gave you three ways to do that through accepting them non-judgmentally where they are. You know, not looking at their hang-ups or their faults and pointing this out. You know what? You know, God hates that. And you start going down the list of what are actions they're involved in that you think God hates. And that's not a great way to build a bridge. And remember I said last week, acceptance is not the same as approval. There's a difference. You can accept people for who they are without approving of their actions. We talked about affirming them. The fact that everybody needs someone who affirms what they see in another individual as they go through difficult times. You can be there for them and share with them. And we talked about assisting them, helping them out in specific ways. And we're going to touch on that in a few moments. And you know, if a family is just sincere and does those simple things and demonstrates God's love, it creates an interest. I want to tell just a little story about my neighbor, Mack and Susan McKay. They're not here today, which I wouldn't want to embarrass them by this story, but it's a very positive story. And I know that if they were here, they would say, you know, to God be the glory. Because they invited a foreign exchange student into their home. A young lady from East Germany came to stay with them a couple of years ago. And I remember the first day she got there, you know, she didn't know all that much English. She was going to go to Pine Ridge High School. And I remember the first day she got there, Mack got out on his tractor. And he was driving around, cutting the grass. She said, well, let me drive the tractor. And she got on the tractor and drove it right into a tree. Boom. Not a great way to start a relationship. But Mack is one of the most patient people I know. And you know, over time, this little gal, her name was Jenny. It was very clear that McKay had made it clear that if she came to stay with them, that part of their commitment was to go to church regularly, and that she would be expected to go to church. So she signed on. And I remember for months, she came and sat right over there, where some of you young people are sitting right now. She sat right over there and listened to the messages. And I could tell she couldn't understand me lots of times. You can't understand me half the time. And she would nod and just kind of listen. And then one Sunday morning in the spring, she'd been here about seven months, I gave an invitation at the end of a service, much like I'm going to do today. And I remember when Jenny looked up at me, and she gave her life to Christ. And I remember thinking, you know, here's a person that came from a totally different culture. And her parents had nothing to do with her. They were separated and divorced. And there was no, quote, religion in her life at all. But she had seen in an imperfect way, a family living out their commitment, and saw enough that she didn't need to hear it all with words. She saw it demonstrated. And she responded. And you know, she came back just a few couple of months ago, she came back after a year of being back over in her homeland. And she's still following Christ, still on fire for the Lord, still excited about knowing who Jesus is in her life. Why? Because someone cared enough to demonstrate Christ's love. Next thing is, and I didn't get to this last week, give credence to their doubts and fears. In other words, acknowledge the fact that, hey, it's okay to not understand everything about the faith. In fact, it's okay to say, I had some fears too. How many of you had some hang-ups before you became a Christian? How many of you were afraid that maybe if I took that step, I might be really weird like that Pastor Jay guy? People think things like, if I believe like you're saying, am I going to become a religious fanatic? Am I going to give up all my fun stuff? I've had lots of people tell me, the reason I'm just not ready to become a Christian is I'm afraid I'm going to have to stop going out at night with my friends. And I don't want to do that yet. And they go through all this long list of fears that they have. And you know, you can say to them, you can say, I relate to that. I remember when I was struggling with this, but then I came to realize that I wasn't giving up nearly as much as what I gained by coming to know the Lord. But it's important. Look what it says. Look at the verse there. We must bear the burden of being considerate of the doubts and fears of others. You don't just say to them, oh, I don't have any fears. Don't be afraid. You know what? It's natural to have some fears. And you need to acknowledge that with them. You know, it's sort of like this. There's this little chicken inside of an egg. And that chicken is the spiritual life of a person. And you're going to get that chicken out either by taking a hammer and just hitting on it. What's going to happen to it? It's probably going to kill it. Or you can cultivate and nurture that little egg. You can surround it with love and acceptance and care and concern. And you can nurture it with understanding and a heart that gives time and sacrifice and love. And it'll hatch. And it'll become the spiritual being that God wants it to be. Letter E of the word bridge is expect God to use you. And one thing that I hear very often from people is they say, hey, you know, I just don't think I'll ever get through to my family. And it's very easy to kind of give up and just say someone else is going to have to do it. But you know, expect God to use you. You don't have to know all the answers. Just ask him to give you what you need to say at the proper time and what you need to do. Notice the scripture there. It says, at that time you will be given what to say for you. It will not be you speaking, but the spirit of your father speaking through you. And how many of you have had an experience where you were in a conversation and something came out of you and you don't even know where it came from. And it was the right thing to say. And you said, wow, wow, this is a God thing. It's an exciting moment, but you have to be able to take a step and make yourself available. And when you do that, incredible things start to happen. I want you to hear a testimony this morning from someone who, you know, their life wasn't going all the way that they wanted to go and they realized it and their family was complex, just like yours is. And things have been going on that just didn't seem to be making sense. And this person hung in there. And I want you to hear their story of how God not only touched her life, but her whole family. Let's give a warm welcome this morning, would you? You ready? Give a warm welcome to Nicole Straser and her family as she comes. Thanks, Nicole. Get your microphone. Thanks, everyone, for staying. It's so great to have you. I might have just turned it off. Let's see if I. All right. You read it with me. Yeah. What does the OFF say? I think we're going to share. Hello. Good morning. My name is Nicole Straser and this is my family. I'd like to introduce my dad and my mom, my sister, Lynette, my cousin, Connie, and my aunt Kathy. I'm here to share with you a story of how truly loving and miraculous our God is. It is a story of grace and mercy, a story of transformation and healing, a story of faith and love. I would like to begin by sharing a little about myself. I am twenty five years old and I'm a special education teacher at Shaylor Area Middle School. I am the youngest of four children and still live at home with mom and dad. I also have been a Christian now for five years and attended North Way for three. As I reflect on my childhood, I have nothing but sweet memories that I hold dear to my heart. My family has always been close and supportive of one another. In our younger years, we are a family who believed in God, went to church every Sunday and had good morals. We were thought of as nice people. What was missing? Well, I mentioned we believed in God, but we did not have a relationship with him. This was the root of our problems. When I was about four years old, my parents came to know the Lord in a personal way. They asked Jesus into their hearts and their lives began to change. They were involved in the full gospel businessmen, had prayer groups at our home, and were in fellowship with many believers. My aunt Kathy also made a commitment to Christ and was growing along with them. I was too young to remember this time, but I still enjoy hearing the wonderful stories of hope and healing. At this time, my parents were still attending our former church. After about five years of growing in Christ, they began to fall away from fellowship and the word. Over the years, their hearts hardened. I was a quiet child who had many fears. One of my biggest fears was of death. I always wondered what would happen to me when I died. I also longed to be accepted by my peers. Puberty treated me pretty bad, and I never had much self-confidence. I was now growing more concerned about conforming to the world around me. Because I did not have a real and personal relationship with Jesus, I filled the emptiness and voids in my life with garbage. In high school, I began experimenting with alcohol, and my main focus was on appearance. I became promiscuous and was living a life of sin. I attended church only because I had to. I disliked it very much. It bored me and was meaningless. My first two years of college were the worst of my life. I sunk deeper and deeper into the pit I dug for myself. I made poor choices on how to spend my time and whom it was with. I was involved in an emotionally abusive relationship, which did not help matters. The decisions I made led me to self-destruction. I asked God, why me, wallowing in self-pity, not realizing that by my own willful actions I was suffering and turned against God completely. I hated who I had become and fell into a deep depression. I no longer had a desire to live and had suicidal thoughts. The happy and cheerful girl my family once knew was gone. During this time, I feared God, because I knew that some of the acts I partook in were not godly at all, and I knew I was doomed for hell. I believed that works got you into heaven. The more good I did would outweigh the bad. I hit rock bottom and could look nowhere else but up. I was so confused about God and had so many questions. This is when God began to intervene in my life. He surrounded me with many Christians who took the time to share with me and lead me to Christ. This was the absolute best decision I ever made in my life, one in which I will never, ever regret. God miraculously began to transform me and open my eyes to His beauty and grace. For the first time, I truly understood and felt His love for me. As I surrendered, confessed, and repented, He began to lift my burdens and replace my sadness with joy and peace and cleanse me of all of my sins. I could not fully grasp His forgiveness of all I had done. It still amazes me to this very day. I began attending a university Christian fellowship, which I never knew existed on my campus. I was amazed by the large group of young Christians on my campus that were normal and loved God. It was so uplifting. I also attended a Friday night Bible study for young adults, at which I met my best friend and boyfriend, Greg. He was a godsend. Greg has taught me so much, and God has used him to encourage me to be myself, the woman God created me to be. While at school, I attended an awesome church in which I grew spiritually. Upon graduation, I moved home. I was frightened because I was away from all of my Christian friends, and I did not belong to a good Bible-believing church. At this time, my parents and aunt were not walking with the Lord, although they still attended our former church. My oldest sister, Sherry, who attends another church and she is a believer also, she was growing in her relationship with God, and that was exciting because we could share with each other. Sherry and I were on fire for God. We hurt for our family so badly. We knew we had received a wonderful gift and wanted the same for them. We longed that our parents would come back to the Lord. We prayed for their relationship to be renewed. We prayed every day for each family member. I remember talking to Sherry about how exciting it would be if we could have a Bible study and invite our whole family, but it never happened. We just knew they were hurting and wanted them to have the same. While praying for a home church, a friend from college mentioned North Way. I remember her promoting it by saying, Well, we even have Steelers that attend. That interested Greg and I, but seriously, she said it was a wonderful church. I remember as I attended North Way more and more, my dad would come with me here and there. He was in a golf league on Sunday and could not always come. I could see God beginning to work in him and stir up memories from his past. As for my mom, she had a more difficult time accepting my transition to a new church. I remember one day she kept asking me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. 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She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She asked me if I was going to confession and I told her no. She that had been missing for years. After the play, my sister and aunt began to attend North Way regularly, along with my dad and myself. My dad even gave up his golf league that I knew he really enjoyed. We saw the pamphlet for Alpha One, and we all decided to take the course. This was a huge stepping stone for us all. For me, Alpha was a review of many basic biblical truths, however, it was a tremendous blessing to sit back and watch my family get excited about God. We met many new friends who were just spectacular people and experienced God in an amazing way. The Alpha group my sister, cousin, and I were in was a wonderful support network. We discovered that the women involved had many similarities and needs. My sister, cousin, and I had developed such a bond that everyone called us the Three Musketeers. During Alpha, my mom began attending North Way more and is attending with us regularly. My cousin Connie comes now and then because she regularly attends her own church. From Alpha stemmed our family Bible study, which was an answer to prayer. Every Sunday night, we gather together for prayer, fellowship, and the study of God's word. My dad leads myself, my mom, both of my sisters, my cousin, aunt, and boyfriend. Our commitments to Christ have brought us all closer to him and in return closer to each other. I cannot believe how I have witnessed my parents' relationship transform to a more communicative and loving one, as well as every member of my family. The difference between my family in the spring of 99 to now is that we have such a deep bond with each other. It is incredible. We know and understand each other better than I ever imagined. Every week at the end of our study, we lift up our requests to the Lord and lay hands on each other in love and prayer. God is moving. He is so good. Our prayers are being answered every week and I truly believe very soon our entire family will be together in Christ. I just want to praise God and share with you also this morning, we brought two of our cousins and one of my young cousins is struggling with an addiction and this morning when Pastor Jay asked people to pray, they accepted the Lord also. So he is moving so just tremendously. We've been praying for them in our Bible study. My brother Kurt and his family are not there yet, but we're not giving up. We recently found out that our cousins in Ohio have come to the Lord. God is working in a mighty way, calling His people to Him. Please do not cease in your prayers for your loved ones because He will answer. Everything is possible for him who believes. Thank you. Thank you. Great job. And I said in the first service, I'm going to be out of a job here pretty soon, just to have these testimonies and last week this in series and you know, this is the message. I mean, the message are, it's, it's lives being changed because people care enough to share church. That's what it's about. Christianity. I'm not interested in your church. Don't listen. Never give up. Never stop praying. Never stop believing that something may happen in their heart that's going to open them at a time that you don't know. Dear ones, look back at those initials that you put down at the beginning of the service. Would you pray for that person right now and not give up and believe that maybe even today something could happen, that today you could reach up, pick up the phone and call them and say, Hey, let's have dinner. I just want to get together with you or maybe even humble yourself enough to ask forgiveness. Hey, I was thinking about something that happened last year and I, you know what, we need to make that right. Maybe you need to call your mom or your dad in another state and just tell them you love them today. Maybe you need to come clean with your spouse and just say, Hey, I've been pushing too hard or I haven't been involved enough. Don't give up. And maybe you'll be like Andrew and that loved one will be like Peter and together you'll become disciples that change the world. Let's stand and pray, shall we? Lord as we come to your throne once again, I ask you now as we prepare for communion that you'd open our hearts and our minds and help us to hear you speak to us. Let's focus up here as we sing together once again. I wonder that you're good to me, I'm in that place whatsoever. I wonder that you're good to me, I'm in that place whatsoever.