Living in 3D
Week Two of Walk Across the Room adapted from the sermon by Bill Hybels.
Today begins the 2nd week of our series called “Just Walk Across the Room.” In these four weeks we are discovering that reaching out to someone far from God is as simple as taking a walk across a room, and holding out a hand of friendship.
I don’t know about you, but during the past week, with all these ideas in my head of “walking across rooms” and “entering the zone of the unknown,” I’ve found myself refreshingly preoccupied…with people!
I found myself wanting to reach out to people everywhere: People in line with me, at the burrito store; people reading labels at the Stop & Shop, even people trapped with me in the elevator.
And, I think the preoccupation with people that really tells how excited I am about our church making this effort to connect people with God, happened at the 4-Way Stop sign down the street from my house.
March 23, 2014
Living in 3D
Pastor Patti Ricotta, Brewster Baptist Church
[vimeo 89927064 w=500&h=375]
[powerpress]
I looked to my left at the man in the pick-up truck with all the ladders on top and I began thinking, “I wonder if he goes to church. I bet he’d love to make friends with the great Christian guys on our Building and Grounds team.”
I looked to my right. There was a senior-aged lady in the car by herself, and I thought, “I wonder if she is alone. Wouldn’t she just love to meet the wonderful Christian ladies in our Widow’s Might group.”
And right in front of me was a teenager. It was his turn to go, but he was busy texting so he waved for the rest of us to go on…I just prayed for his soul!
In my preoccupation with people this week I found myself looking at them—really looking and thinking about them—and saying, “Okay, God … am I supposed to be sensing something from you right now? Do you want me to do something or say something?”
(I wanted to get out of my car at the 4-Way stop and run car-to-car to invite those folks to church. That’s when I listened to the nudge of the Holy Spirit that said, “Keep your seatbelt on, Patti! There will be more appropriate opportunities to come!”)
Anyway, my preoccupation with people has been uncanny! Did you all experience this too?
Hey, please know that we’re in this together. Pastor Doug, Pastor Mary and I are all learning right alongside you! We want to become more effective walk-across-the-room people, too. It’s a lifelong process and the deeper our love and friendship grows with Christ, the deeper our love and friendship can grow with the people God wants us to reach.
Jesus loved all people, unconditionally, and with every ounce of his life; he is asking us do the same. Remember what he said in John 15: 12-17:
12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
14 You are my friends if you do what I command.
15 I no longer call you servants, because servants do not know their master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
16 You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, so that you might go (walk across the room) and bear fruit–fruit that will last–and so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
When you and I love like this, that’s when we can be used by God to point people to faith, and that’s what God’s heart beats for.
With that in mind, let’s dive in.
Last week, Pastor Doug encouraged us to listen for the Spirit’s prompting; be willing to leave our circles of comfort, and just walk across the room into the Zone of the Unknown where we can engaging with someone who might need a touch from God.
Today, I want to spend our time together talking about what happens right after you decide to “just walk.” In other words, what should we be thinking about, praying about, and talking about once we’ve made contact with the other person? Because if you’re anything like me, agreeing to “walk” is one thing. But knowing what to do once I’ve reached the destination—that’s another.
So, to help us know what to do next we will be exploring what’s called “Living in 3D.”
3D Living is a framework for operating successfully in the Zone of the Unknown.
It’s made up of three phrases that start with the letter “D.”
Ready for the first “D”?
Walk-across-the-room people are those who are constantly looking for ways to:
• Develop friendships
If we’re going to reflect the Father’s heart, as individuals and as a church, then we need to be in continuous search mode. We need to develop “heavenly radar” for potential new friendships everywhere we go. That’s what Jesus did.
When we operate this way— constantly watching for the Spirit to direct us to people, and praying for ways to connect in friendship—God will honor our willingness to be used by him.
The Holy Spirit will help us find our courage to lean into the faith God gives us for that precise moment. And, we’ll be given the confidence to open our hearts wide, and accept people vastly different from ourselves.
Who knows? There could have been thousands of prayers offered up to God by people who are longing for someone to walk across the room to the person that will be standing in front of you…and God chose you to answer those prayers! Haven’t you prayed that kind of prayer for someone you love? I have. And I’m hoping that, very soon, there will be a walk-across-the-room kind of people answering my prayers for the ones I love.
Reaching out to Develop Friendships is the dynamic that we hope Christians would play out with such frequency that the angels in heaven live in perpetual party-mode. But things don’t always pan out this way, do they? We don’t talk about this very often. It’s uncomfortable but true that all across America there are many non-religious people who think of Christians as people with a “list” a “hate list” … and on that list are all kinds of people that don’t measure up to a whole host of so-called “Christian qualifiers.”
Any of this ringing a bell? So, where do these qualifiers come from, and are they really Christian?
Do you remember the parable Pastor Doug read about the lost sheep? It’s the first of 3 parables Jesus told in Luke 15? You know, the lost sheep … the lost coin … the lost son.
In the beginning of Luke15 Jesus is hanging out with people who are really far from God. These were people who had made every kind of mistake there is: they drank too much, slept in the wrong bed, cheated folks out of their money … You could put in the list the kind of person that really gets to you and that’s who Jesus was spending time with. And, he genuinely loved them … he talked to them, listened to them, he just enjoying their company.
As the scene plays out, we notice that the religious leaders—the scribes and the Pharisees—become disgusted. They start to mutter to each other. They think the whole scene is outrageous because the people Jesus is interacting with are the exact people who are on their hate list! And yet, Jesus is loving them up!
He hears the religious leaders’ grumbling and he sets out to tell some stories about God’s true heart towards the people these guys hate.
You probably know the 3 stories. In each one, something wound up missing. One sheep wound up missing. A coin wound up missing. And a son wound up missing. And, whatever was missing really mattered to somebody!
The lost sheep really mattered to the shepherd. The lost coin was precious to the woman who lost it. And the wayward son was irresistibly loved by the father.” When each of the “lost ones” were found, there was nothing but pure joy in the heart of the shepherd, the woman and the father. That joy was so great that each one called their friends and neighbors over for a huge party.
What Jesus was saying is that the Father’s heart is indiscriminately, wholeheartedly, and unabashedly loving! Those unspiritual, immoral, profane individuals that Jesus was talking to actually mattered to God—they weren’t on the Father’s hate list; they were on his love list. In fact, God doesn’t even have a hate list!
One reason Jesus gave us these parables is because he knew that before you and I will agree to reach out to a perfect stranger, we might have to confront our own list of qualifiers.
We won’t be able to hear the Holy Spirit speak to us if we are unconsciously screening out dozens of people who don’t fit our own personal love list. Yes, God will lead us to walk across the room to many people who are like us, too. But, developing friendships means acting on an attitude—a heart posture—that says, “I’m open to you. Whoever you are, whatever you have done, whatever you believe life is all about … I’m open to accepting you, knowing you, journeying with you, and caring about you…” That’s what developing friendships is really about.
Okay, our next “D” is Discover stories. We’ve developed friendships, now we want to discover people’s stories; sort of find out what makes them tick.
When we make up our minds to become radically inclusive, just like Jesus, we can start to build trust with people who need someone to trust. That’s when our friendships take on authenticity.
Sometimes, after developing an initial friendship with a person far from God, we need to be patient. If we bombard someone with our spiritual solutions before we fully understand the person, we could do more harm than good. I know this because I’ve made my own mistakes.
A long time ago, I met a woman in a very different place in life from me. I’m not proud of it, but it was easy for me to judge what I considered to be her worldly lifestyle. I insecurely and self-righteously told myself that I had something she didn’t have—I had the Lord.
I know that my superior attitude affected the way I treated her because about year into our relationship, I heard the Holy Spirit whisper, “Patti, you’re the only Christian she knows well. How will she ever be attracted to me if you keep on judging her in ways I never would?”
Wow! … Straight to the heart!
With God’s help, I change. The difference in my attitude and behavior did not cause her to trust in Christ right away. I prayed for her and genuinely loved her for 11 years. One day out of the blue, when she was facing a crisis she asked me to write a letter, explaining to her what God might say to her in that situation. Folks, I put my pen to the paper and the Holy Spirit unleashed the power of 11 years’ worth of prayers onto that page. When she read about the unconditional love of God for her, she ask Jesus into her life and she has been walking with the Lord ever since. So if you are praying for someone, don’t give up. Stay the course and at the right time God will unleash the power of your prayers into that situation too!
It’s uncanny how once we are viewed as trustworthy … the other person feels free to open up about their heartfelt needs.
That leads us to our third “D,” which is: Discern Next Steps
As we get to know the person and lean way into the whisperings of the Holy Spirit we’ll receive direction, insight, wisdom and creative ideas about what that person needs next. And we will be given the courage to follow through on what we discern.
You all have a 3×5 card in your bulletin. We have an opportunity to share with each other some of the steps people took that helped us move forward in our faith journey? What helped you cross the line of faith? If you haven’t already, I hope you will take the time to write out what someone did that help you see God’s love. At the end of the service you can drop the cards in the baskets the Worship Welcomers will be holding at the door, and next week they will be displayed in the lobby. Who knows, maybe the Holy Spirit will use what you write to help someone else discover the next step they can take with the person God has put on their heart.
I want to end by telling you a story that shows the power of 3D living. It’s about a woman named Sabrina who lived in Western MA with her husband, Neil. They had a little daughter and newborn son when Sabrina found out she had a very dangerous form of cancer.
Sabrina had always known that God existed; that he made the world and all. But she didn’t know God’s tender love for her, or that Jesus wanted to be in relationship with her.
Before she learned she had cancer Sabrina had been in an exercise class with a cheerful woman named Gert. One of the reasons Gert seemed so cheerful is because she was a Christian.
After Gert found out that Sabrina had cancer, she went to Sabrina’s house to see if there was anything she could do. She “walked across the room” so to speak. Being shy, Sabrina felt uncomfortable accepting help from stranger. So she politely said, “I appreciate it, but no thank you. I’ll be fine.”
Ten minutes later, Gert knocked on the door again and said, “I’m not going to leave your house until you tell me what I could do for you.”
Overwhelmed by the love and tender care of this stranger, Sabrina could not refuse. She admitted that she needed someone to drive her to treatments, and she and Neil didn’t know what they were going to do about caring for their little children. So Gert made a plan. She enlisted the help of her teenaged daughter, Michelle and while Gert drove Sabrina to and from treatments, Michelle and her friend took care of the children.
Throughout her treatments, Gert never stopped talking about how God loved Sabrina and how Jesus would be close to her and give her strength. Sabrina got through it and also came to see God’s deep and personal love for her.
That was 1988. Now, fast forward. Gert’s babysitting teenaged daughter Michelle is all grown up and goes to Brewster Baptist. In 2010, Sabrina and Neil began moving their lives to Brewster, and guess what Michelle did? Yep, she told Sabrina all about BBC! Now, as a member of our BBC Women’s Bible study Sabrina is sharing her deep faith with all of us! (Sabrina, and Michelle, will you please stand up.)
In closing, here’s what I want you to remember: in your day-to-day lives, there are people all around you who need what you have. These people could be at the gym like Gert and Sabrina. If you’re a teenager, maybe you babysit or have a part-time job and there is someone where you work who could hear about God’s love from you better than from anyone else! Maybe you are in a service organization, take a quilting class, go to work every day with people who are far from God. Could God be asking you to reach out to someone there?
A new week is about to unfold in your life and mine. And like all new weeks, we can choose to invest it in things that glorify and satisfy us … or we can choose to invest it in things that glorify and satisfy God. Here’s my challenge to you and to me.
This week, let’s commit to:
- Developing friendships…with all sorts of people, in all sorts of ways
- Let’s discover stories…remembering to focus on the other person
- Let’s discern next steps…letting the Spirit guide our every action
Let’s make it our earnest prayer to be led by the Spirit to the people who need whatever it is God wants us to give!
If we will choose to be obedient to God’s leading, I think we’ll look back on this week and say, “Now that was a week well-lived.”
Let’s pray.