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Last week we talked
about leaving our comfort zone and reaching out to others. Maybe just
taking a walk across a room to be friendly and build a relationship with
a pre-christian.
All right, so in order to bestow this single greatest
gift on someone living far from God, you first must be willing to
enter the Zone of the Unknown, as we’ve established. But there’s more.
Because unless you’ve got some supernatural power on your side, you
could do more harm than good once you’re there, right?
Point 2: Listen for
the Spirit’s Promptings
PPT Slide 4/Point
2: Listen for the Spirit’s promptings
In order for us to be effective in the Zone of
the Unknown, we must be led by the Spirit. We must listen to the
Spirit’s promptings every step of the way.
Before you get the wrong idea about what this looks
like, let me tell you that being available to the movement of the Holy
Spirit doesn’t always work out the way you think it might.
Sometimes we hear about these evangelist types of people
who travel cross-country and on their way to the airport they lead
everyone they come across to Christ—the cab driver, the gate agent,
their flight attendants, the person held captive on the plane sitting
next to them, the family across the aisle—the whole plane becomes a
church before they land!
Stories like that make us feel like we’ll never measure
up or be successful at what God wants, don’t they?
This past week I
entered the zone of the Unknown. Following the prompting of the Holy
Spirit I met the guy who delivered our maps he was a traveling delivery
man from Washington. He seemed lonely and bitter from a divorce. To
make a long story short I had the opportunity to share the love of God
with Him and give him a bible.
Following the
prompting didn’t yield any progress that I could detect from a
human perspective, but the key to listening to the Holy Spirit’s
promptings is our willingness to obey them, even if we can’t always see
what he’s up to. Who know how God used what shared with him and the
bible I gave him literally down the road]
Yesterday I was at the
park letting my kids play there was a gentleman who sat not too far from
me I was trying to think how I could open a conversation with him. The
Spirits prompting wasn’t there and now words came.
Sometimes you see and you hear and you feel and you move
… and then you go ahead and take the risk. And then other times, when it
seems like maybe you should make a move, things just don’t open up that
way.
The key is this: fundamentally, being
walk-across-the-room people means that we walk when the Spirit
tells us to walk and we don’t walk when the Spirit says
not to walk.
That’s what makes this thing dynamic and mystical and
out of your control … and out of mine. Frankly, it’s what keeps the edge
and the adventure present in the Christian life.
PPT Slide 5/Matthew
5 passage
In Matthew 5:13, Jesus said this about his followers:
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how
can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to
be thrown out and trampled underfoot.”
So, as the verse says, you’ve got to have savor. You’ve
got to have spiritual potency. But what else does salt need if it’s
going to affect anything? It needs proximity. You’ve got to get
salt on something if it’s going to affect it, true?
Think of it this way: I can be the strongest, most
savory form of salt the world has ever seen. I can be the saltiest salt
known to humankind … but I won’t make a hill of beans’ worth of impact
unless I get up close to some people who need to be affected.
Based on the law of averages, there may be some of you
sitting here this morning who are pushing back against this. In your
spirit, you are saying, “You know, I agree with the ideas you’ve
mentioned.
But I think this whole deal is reserved for spiritual
superstars who can do the kind of thing you’re talking about with
one hand tied behind their backs.
And I’m not one of them! I don’t have the right
training, the right confidence level, the right skill level. I don’t
have the quick mind, the relational aptitude, or the gift mix, or
whatever. I just don’t have what it takes.”
And if you’re in that camp, I assure you I’m sympathetic
to your concerns. Believe me, I know what it is like to walk across the
room and go, “Oh, man, this is tough! This feels way too risky!”
It’s true: there is genuine fear that has to be
overcome to operate in the environment we’re talking about. There is
anxiety about how everything will unfold once you enter the Zone of the
Unknown. There can be incredible anxiety when a normal conversation
suddenly shifts gears and migrates into spiritual territory. It unnerves
even the most seasoned Christ-followers, I promise you!
But here’s the underlying reality I want to remind you
of: when we are relating right with Jesus Christ—when there is
vitality and openness in our spirits to the promptings of his
Spirit—here’s what happens:
You’ll find yourself standing in a Circle of Comfort as
usual. But by the Spirit’s power, as you’re listening to the
conversation at hand, you’ll be able to have one eye open and roving
around the room to see if there is someone the Holy Spirit really wants
you to see. You’ll be able to dial into the Spirit’s whispers—Are you
trying to tell me something about what’s going on in this place?
Is there someone you want me to go talk to?
Not all the time, but some of the time, by God’s grace,
if you …
• Commit yourself to being “salty” in your world
• Get some proximity to people who need grace
• Listen for the Spirit’s promptings
Then you can make that turn each and every time … and
with confidence tell him, “All right, I’ll walk. I want to know where
this prompting will lead, God, and so I’ll go.”
Some of you have already experienced this firsthand. If
you have, I think you’ll agree with what I’m about to say.
As Christ-followers take walks across rooms … as they
explore the Zone of the Unknown … as they have initial conversations
with people whose eternities are hanging in the balance and have zero
clue how it is all going to turn out … as they strain to hear the
murmurs of the Holy Spirit … as they frantically try to figure out what
it all means …
That’s living! That’s living your spiritual life at about the
highest level you can live it!
Those of you who identify with this, you’re thinking,
I know exactly what you are talking about, and I live for it! This kind
of thing is a high, high priority in my life.
Others of you may be able to think of maybe one or two
times when you have experienced something like this.
And the rest of you are going, “You know what? This is
totally foreign territory to me. If I were being honest, this is
something I’ve never given an ounce of serious thought to.”
What I hope you’ll discover in the next few weeks is
that this experience is not about trying to get everyone to march to
some new orders around the church. No, what this is really about is
helping all of us become more aware of how the heart of God beats
through us when we are operating in harmony with him.
As Christ-followers in this scenario—the scenario where
we’re operating in harmony with God—we win because there is an
internal spiritual victory that happens when we walk by faith and not by
sight.
There is something a lot like Jesus that is going on in
you and in me when we leave a Circle of Comfort and take that faith-walk
across the room and reach out that hand.
This is something we can all do. This is something that
every single person in this congregation can decide to do and can
learn to do. You can be trained for this. You can be equipped for this.
You can receive the pointers that will make you more effective.
But for what purpose? I mean, when you boil it all down,
what’s the reason we want to get better about all of this stuff?
I’m so glad you asked …
PPT Slide 6/Romans
5:8 verse
There’s a passage in Romans 5:8 that is familiar to many
of you. It’s coming up on the screens now. Will you read it with me? It
says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were
still sinners, Christ died for us” (TNIV).
Let me push the Pause button here for just a moment.
Personally, I have spent some time this last week
reflecting on what this reality means in my own life …
[how I came to faith
and
that Christ’s love
involves redemption—
he paid in full for my
shortcomings.
“What a gift—not
merely that God would feel this type of love for me, but that he
would go to such lengths to demonstrate it in such a radical
manner!”]
And how was it, exactly, that Jesus Christ demonstrated
the love of the Father? What was the radical move he made to prove to
you and to me that he really does feel redemptive, grace-filled,
unconditional love for each one of us?
Some of you know where this is going. He took a walk.
PPT Slide
7/Philippians 2 passage
The verses from Philippians you see on the screen say
that at a specific point in history—actual time and space—Jesus
walked all the way across the cosmos and reached out his redemptive hand
to people like you and me. And because of that one walk, humankind was
able to be saved and secured in the family of God forever.
Think for a moment about the implications of that walk:
this passage tells us that Jesus, under direction from his Father, left
the ultimate Circle of Comfort—heaven itself … direct
participation in the Trinity … the worship and adoration of the angels.
Jesus Christ left the supreme Circle of Comfort
and he took the longest walk a person could ever take, if you think of
it along the metaphorical lines we’re discussing.
But why? He did it to stretch out a hand to
people just like you and just like me. He did it to reach people, many
of whom were smack dab in the middle of absolutely wrecking their
lives.
We’re all in the same boat here every person who
has ever inhaled air has been (or is still) in dire need of being
rescued.
So Jesus leaves that ultimate Circle of Comfort, walks
stride by stride all the way across the cosmos, and reaches out his
redemptive hand to people like you and me. And we get saved and secured
in his family forever as a result.
Isn’t that incredible? Guess what? It doesn’t end there.
In addition to taking a walk across the cosmos so that
you and I could be redeemed, he also took a walk across the cosmos so
that you and I could see how it’s done.
And these days—right here in our everyday lives—what he
tries to do with us between now and heaven is to say, “What I did,
leaving that circle, making that trip and reaching out to you, what I
did … is precisely what I want you to do.
I want this to be characteristic of my followers, that
they would be walk-across-the-room kinds of people. Just following my
lead, doing exactly what I did … whenever I give them opportunity to do
so.”
And what I hope you will hear in Christ’s exhortation is
this: “Don’t get yourself tied up in knots trying to make sure all of
the mechanics and logistics are just right. Don’t give even a hint of
mental energy to motivations of guilt or obligation.
You can cast all that stuff aside and instead just take
the hand of the Holy Spirit and walk. If you will stay open, with an eye
focused on people and an ear tuned to his still, small whisper, you will
be amazed by what unfolds!”
God says to us all today, “I am going to ask you to walk
across the street; I am going to ask you to walk across a restaurant; I
am going to ask you to walk across an office complex; I am going to ask
you to walk across a cafeteria or locker room.
I am going to ask you to take that walk, leave whatever
Circle of Comfort you are in and take the walk, enter the unknown—and
something really exciting is going to happen. That is what I want you to
do.”
PPT Slide 8/Point
3: Just walk!
And that’s our third point: Just walk! Why? Because
Jesus “just walked” for you. For me. For us. And for every, single
person inhabiting the planet today.
Do you believe that? As you’ve probably surmised by now,
this is why we’re devoting time to our ministry calendar to think
about these ideas.
So that we can all get better about hearing the Spirit’s
promptings, yes. But also so that we will start taking action
with immediacy and a newfound sense of confidence … and in the process,
that we will become more like Jesus! This is what our four-week
experience is about.
One of the most dramatic occurrences of Christ taking
action in this way is found in John chapter 4. Jesus and his disciples
had been traveling all day and had come to a well.
It’s the middle of the day, and these thirteen men are
hot, hungry, and unbelievably thirsty. They see a woman standing by the
nearby well—we learn later that she had been through five marriages and
divorces and that she was now living with someone who was not her
spouse.
Make a note to take a closer look at this story during
some devotional time this week—again, it’s found in John chapter 4. When
you review it, you’ll notice that all thirteen—Jesus plus his twelve
disciples—come up to the well known as “Jacob’s well.”
In my mind’s eye, the disciples probably size up this
woman and say, “Hey, we’re going to hang together and go into town …
maybe grab some lunch or something.”
Now, I’m sure they invited Jesus to go with them. But
instead of heading off with the guys, he says, “You all go ahead … I’m
going to pull out of this circle for a minute, but you go on to lunch.”
After the disciples head into town, he turns around and
sees the woman again. Without giving it much thought, he simply makes
that turn, and he walks from one side of the well area all the way over
to the other—a move which catches the woman off guard, to say the least.
[Pastor: Have someone
sit in as the woman at the well across the stage from you if it will
help you to make the point.]
Because of the customs in that region, she’s not
expecting him to have anything to do with her. In their society, Jesus
wasn’t just walking across a typical “room”—he was walking across
gender, racial, cultural, and even man-made religious restrictions.
Because of her lifestyle, this woman would’ve been
labeled a “sinner” by the religious establishment. She was a Samaritan—a
sort of Jewish half-breed who didn’t even worship in Jerusalem, the
place where all Jews worshiped.
Most people—Jews included—wouldn’t have even walked
through this part of town because they believed they would have become
“unclean.”
PPT Slide 9/John 4
passage with image of Jesus with woman at well
But if you’ve read the story, then you know that despite
all of the protocol violations, Jesus took the walk anyway. He left the
Circle of Comfort. He reached out the hand, and he started the
conversation with the woman he wasn’t supposed to have anything to do
with.
Moreover, he lets the conversation evolve from the
seemingly innocuous topic of drawing a cup of water from the well to
something much deeper in nature … like “living water,” as he calls it—a
term that catalyzes this woman eventually coming to faith.
Right there in a dusty well area in first-century
Samaria.
The text says that she leaves her basin, runs into town,
and drags half of her friends and neighbors out, telling them that they
just have to come meet this guy who knew all about her sordid
past but who accepted her and showed her something called … grace.
And for the next two days all of these wide-eyed folks
hang around, just listening to Jesus teach. It says in the text that
many people from the town crossed the line of faith and joined God’s
family during that timeframe.
All because one man took a walk across a room—okay, a
well area—to reach out to someone living far from God.
But here’s the picture I want to leave with you from
this story: Imagine fifteen or twenty years later when all of the kids
and grandkids of these people are sitting around enjoying the beauty of
Christian community.
They’re basking for a few minutes in the community,
strength, wisdom … the guidance that God alone gives … the security of
heaven.
Imagine that they begin to tell stories about where
their faith journey began. One of them pipes up … “Hey, guys, where do
you suppose we can trace our salvation back to … I mean, where did all
of this start?”
Guess what the answer would be?
That’s right: you could trace their entire family’s
salvation back to a measly patch of sand where Jesus left a group of
twelve, with whom he no doubt enjoyed fellowship, telling them, “You
stay in your circle and head into town … but I’m going to make the turn.
Please excuse me. I will walk across this dusty well
area and reach out a hand of fellowship. And I’ll just see what my Dad
does.”
Once again, in essence, Jesus said, “Thanks, but I’ll
just walk.”
PPT Slide 10/Point
3: Just walk! (second appearance of same slide)
I know how real life goes. I know that, like the
disciples, we can all be tempted into staying in our safe little
circles.
Just like those guys did, we too can make a habit of
rushing off to our lunch appointments or business meetings or family
gatherings instead of caring about the people standing right in front of
us.
But hopefully, the longer we hang around the person of
Christ, the more our eyes will be pried open to seeing the things that
he sees.
To seeing the people around us who need care, love,
friendship, community … and hope.
Closing
PPT Slide 11/“God
used you to help point the way” activity explanation
As we close todayI want you to think about how you
wound up in the kingdom. I want you to think about how some of your
friends wound up in the kingdom.
Almost every Christ-follower I know can think back on
somebody—it might have been a mom or a dad, it might have been a
coworker or a teacher, it might have been a friend or a neighbor—who
walked across a room for them.
And so if you are a Christian, then someone probably
took a risk for you along the way and did a little something that would
interest you in the possibility of knowing the love of God and the
opportunity to be freed from your sins.
If this is true for you, I imagine you have a pretty
high respect level for that person—the person who “took a walk” to
rescue you … the person who took the risk to approach you and hand you
the single greatest gift you’d ever receive in your entire life.
I know that my respect is off the charts for the one who
moved toward me when I was lost and confused and completely separated
from Christian community …
[Give a brief,
personal illustration regarding who you will be sending your card to.]
This week, I
want to ask you to write a note of gratitude to the one who walked for
you, helped point the way to Christ.
If you’re no
longer in touch with that person for whatever reason, then please think
of a person in your world who personifies all that it means to be a
just-walk-across-the-room person.
Write a note
to them, encouraging them to continue fighting the good fight because
their efforts will never be in vain.
I hope you’ll
address it and stamp it and pray every step of the way to the mailbox
that God will cause you to become the kind of person who will receive
similar postcards from all sorts of friends and family members and folks
at business cocktail parties who come to know Jesus Christ one day …
because of you.
PPT Slide 12/Just
Walk campaign graphic, Week One (second appearance of slide)
Can I close with a few lines from the book Just Walk
Across the Room?
“Jesus Christ knew that fulfilling his redemptive
mission would be excruciatingly difficult, risky, downright defeating,
and seemingly fruitless for us at times. ‘But if you will just
persevere,’ he might say, ‘the potential is colossal.’
Think of it! One more treasure—a priceless human
being—might be snatched from the clutches of a horrendous, lifeless
eternity because of your work. So go! Go right now and bear witness. Sow
the seed. Take the walk across the room.
Leave what’s comfortable for that which is eternally
significant. Risk your life for this, and know that you will never
regret your decision.”
The single greatest gift you and I can give to another
human being is an introduction to the God who declared that his mission
was to find every person who was lost … and to bring them home.
In the weeks to come, as we talk about what it means to
“just walk across the room,” here’s my fair warning to you all: we are
going to get painstakingly practical!
We will learn in detail how to excuse ourselves from our
Circle of Comfort. We’ll learn to look across whatever room we are in
and open our eyes and use our ears and discern if there is someone on
the other side of the room that we ought to be paying attention to.
In this study, we will learn how to take that first
step, how to pray, what to pray—specifically, what to pray
between the Circle of Comfort and the person who is standing in the Zone
of the Unknown.
We’re going to learn how to talk normally with
people who need a normal Christian to talk to them in a normal way!
Without sounding “churchy.” Without having a superiority complex.
Without droning on and on about things they don’t yet appreciate.
And as we learn together how to do it, I offer you a few
personal guarantees about the study ahead if you take these messages to
heart:
• First guarantee is this: we will all grow in
our relationships with Christ.
• Second guarantee: we will grow in our relationships
with each other—this is why we’re encouraging every single one of
you to come on Wednesday for four weeks’, whether you’ve every come
before or not.
• Next, we will get better at pointing people to faith.
• And finally, we will have fun doing it!
Let’s stand for closing prayer.
I am looking forward to hearing about your experience
once you’ve taken the plunge.
Now let’s pray….
Heavenly Father, thank you for the model Jesus Christ
set for us when he left his Circle of Comfort in heaven. He trudged
across the cosmos, took on human flesh, and dwelled among us. As we were
reminded today, he walked across dusty well areas to reach out a hand to
a sin-scarred woman … and to reach out a hand to a sin-scarred
(man/woman) like me … as well as so many people standing in front of me
now—men and women from a variety of generations and all sorts of
backgrounds.
If Christ hadn’t made his walk, it is almost
unimaginable what our lives would be like. But because he did
walk, it is now our turn to learn how to take walks across rooms. It is
our turn.
God, I pray that you will anoint these four weeks in a
supernatural way. I pray that you will turn every timid heart into a
bold heart for you … that you will take every pair of shaky legs—legs
that are often too comfortable in their existing circle—and that you
will help point them toward people outside the circle who need a touch
from you.
God, I pray that as our church moves into this exciting
new era of personal evangelism, every single person in this fellowship
will be open to becoming a walk-across-the-room kind of person, to the
honor and glory of Jesus Christ. It’s in his name that we pray, Amen
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