Main Idea: The steps we take toward the lives we touch are always to lead to Jesus.

This morning we come to our last message in our series called "Peer 2 Peer: Sharing Jesus with Those We Know." In this series on personal evangelism—yes that’s what we have been talking about—we are focusing on three important areas that can help us share the love of Jesus with someone who is lost to a personal relationship with God. Our series has been based on a book called "Just Walk Across the Room" by Bill Hybels. The phrase "just walk across the room" reminds us that our task as believers is to engage persons who are not believers in a relationship at some level. That relationship begins with our leaving our circles of comfort and walking across a "room" to connect our lives with their lives and ultimately connecting with God’s life.

In our first message we said that sharing Jesus with those we know starts by our developing friendships that can last forever. Last week we said that after we have developed a friendship with someone we need to discover his or her story. Today we want to talk about our third "D" in our series and that is to "Discern Next Steps." What do I mean by that? Well, put yourself in this picture: You have made the effort to engage someone in a relationship at some level. You have "walked across the room" to intentionally start a friendship. In that process you have discovered their story and each of you have found out more about each other. Now, though, you are at that place where you know that as a believer you want to be available to God’s Spirit to share Jesus with this person. So do you take the conversation or the relationship a little deeper or do you let things stay on a superficial level and ease out of the conversation or relationship? You are at a fork in the road that can lead you to a place that might end in their following Christ or it can lead you to a place where you are just comfortable and you melt away from the moment. Do you take the risk and begin revealing that you are a believer, a follower of Christ, or do you just let it pass?

Bill Hybels says, "In your day to day life there are countless opportunities where forks in the road show up. Situations where you have to declare to yourself and to God whether or not you will take the next step to have impact in people’s lives." (Just Walk Across the Room, p. 95) Here’s the bottom line: Choosing wisely in these fork-in-the-road moments is what it means to "discern next steps." Now 90% of you are saying, "Oh no, here it comes! He is going to tell me I’ve got to present all the points of a plan of salvation and I don’t know how. I’m out of here!" I need you to relax a moment. I believe every one of us should know how to present the way someone can be saved but the truth is we don’t. Because we don’t, we immediately think that this removes us from any role in personal evangelism. Wrong! None of us are excused from being a witness but how we do that can be different for each person.

Every person’s story of salvation is a process. We may think it happens in a moment because all we see is one small part of it. In reality there are many "links" in the "chain" or process. This wooden chain that I hold this morning was carved by Harold Coop, who died several years ago. It was carved from a single piece of wood. The time and craftsmanship involved in it are amazing. Just as every link is vital to the uniqueness of the chain, so every believer who "walks across a room" is vital to the whole process. All of the "links" in the chain are to lead to one place and that is Jesus! The steps we take toward the lives we touch are to always lead to Jesus! That’s why choosing the next right step is so important.

Discerning the next steps to lead someone to Jesus is literally what John describes for us. The story takes place during the last week of Jesus’ life. He has arrived in Jerusalem, being praised as the Messiah. The time of his arrival was also the time of the Jewish celebration called Passover. Passover was a day to remember the escape of the Jews from Egypt 1200 years before. In the crowd of people who came to Jerusalem for the Passover were some persons who were Greeks. These were persons who were of Greek origin who had become followers of the Jewish God. While there in Jerusalem they had heard about Jesus. What they knew about Jesus we don’t know. Yet they were interested enough to contact one of Jesus’ disciples, Philip, and ask him one simple question: "Sir, we want to see Jesus."

Phillip was not quite sure what to do because they were not true Jews. So just to be safe, he goes to tell Andrew and together they tell Jesus. It’s amazing that after three years of ministry with Jesus they would still be hung up on who was okay for him to have contact with and who was not. Jesus, however, sees this as a defining moment for him because he explains that their coming was a sign that God was opening up the way of salvation to all people. In doing this he teaches his followers about the cost involved for himself and for them if they would follow him.

Phillip was faced with a decision, a fork-in-the-road, about what to do with those who showed an interest in Jesus. He could have done what had been done before and told them to go away. Yet in that moment he made the choice to go to someone else and together they went to Jesus. As we look at this story from scripture there are some principles that stand out that we can follow as we face similar moments where we know we must discern the next steps that can lead someone to Jesus.

The first principle I see is that we must believe that God is already working in their life and in ours. (John 12:20-21) As I said, we don’t know the source of these non-Jews’ interest in Jesus but what matters is that they wanted to know more. God was already working in their lives and that leading within them was leading them straight to Jesus. Jesus would affirm this principle when he said in John 16:8 regarding the role of the Holy Spirit, "And when he comes, he will convince the world of its sin, and of God’s righteousness, and of the coming judgment." Jesus says that long before any human involvement that God’s Spirit is already working in a person’s life. What happens when we connect with them is that we discover what God is already doing!

We often have the idea that people are totally disinterested in spiritual issues but they are. Admittedly, they may not match up with our ideas about spiritual truth but nevertheless there is an interest that is already there. I read an article in a secular magazine about a man who started out in a very conservative Christian church but had spent almost the last thirty years rejecting that experience as meaningless. Then, with the loss of his mother, he began to revisit that experience and returned fully to his faith in Jesus Christ. A new ABC series called "Eli Stone" revolves around the spiritual issues of who is in control of life’s events. The current movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman called "The Bucket List", about two men dying of cancer, deals openly with one believing in God and the other fully rejecting that.

While these may not be absolute proof that the person with whom you are connecting is ready to surrender their life to Jesus, they do remind us that God is already at work. We need to believe that God is at work in our lives in this moment and he is at work in theirs. You don’t need a seminary degree to discover that either. All you need is spiritual radar that is tracking the Holy Spirit’s promptings in you and listening for what he is doing in them. I challenge you to start believing that what is happening isn’t an accident but that God is the one already at work!

The next thing I see here is that we can each be a resource connection. (John 12:11) Phillip wasn’t so sure what to do with these non-Jews and neither was Andrew. The one thing they did know was to go to Jesus with them. They didn’t preach, witness, share their testimony or give them a tract. They simply took them to Jesus. They were a "resource connection" for these individuals who wanted to know more.

Every one of us can be a resource connection in one way or another if we are sensitive to the Spirit’s leading and what that person may be asking. A resource connecting person is a servant-minded individual who makes it a habit of uncovering the needs around them and then meeting them as naturally and effectively as possible. (Hybels, p. 94) That may mean giving them a book that answers questions that you may not feel adequate to answer. It could mean giving them a CD of music that you feel can touch their life. You may need to introduce them to a friend who has faced the same life issues they have. Yet it may mean that you just invite them to church. It may not be a worship service, it could be any number of activities that could be a point of connection. Your invitation may be rejected but it might be accepted and it could be that you are the resource connection that God uses to lead them straight to Jesus. Remember, every person’s journey to faith in Christ is just that—a journey! It is a process, not a box or a checklist, a prayer prayed once or a contract you sign. It is you being available to God’s Spirit to be used by him as a resource connection that can ultimately lead to Jesus.

Another thing that I see that can help us is to break out of our limits. (John 12:23-24) When Jesus is presented with the request of Phillip and Andrew, he speaks a powerful truth about himself and everyone who would follow him. Using the analogy of a grain of wheat, he is saying that if he chooses not to die on the cross then his life will be useless. Yet if he dies, his life will reproduce itself countless times over. In the same way, those who follow Christ must choose a path of selflessness or self-denial if they would see God use their lives to their maximum potential. To do that will mean choosing against our limits that we have placed on ourselves or have placed on God. My willingness to do that will be the extent to which God uses my life to harvest new lives.

Breaking out of our limits to share Jesus with those we know will mean one very simple thing: being with people with whom you need to connect. Just like a grain of wheat does little good unless it is planted in the ground, so our lives cannot produce the fruit God desires unless we are planted among those who need the life of Christ within us. It is while we are with others that we discover what resources they need. It may be a need that you can meet, like picking up a child from school or knowing they need a phone call of encouragement. As you commit to being with people in your various social groups—doing life with them, sharing yourself with them, rubbing shoulders with them—that "shell" around you begins to soften and the life of Christ is seen clearly. It will cost us and at times it may be painful but by planting our lives among those we are seeking to influence the result will be "a plentiful harvest of new lives."

Once we believe that God is working, have become a resource connection and have broken out of our limits in being with people, the last thing we need to do is be a daily follower (John 12:25-26). In speaking to his disciples Jesus defines for them what it will truly cost them to be his followers. It will cost them their very lives if they choose to follow him. The Message says, "In the same way, anyone who holds on to life just as it is destroys that life. But if you let it go, reckless in your love, you'll have it forever, real and eternal. If any of you wants to serve me, then follow me. Then you'll be where I am, ready to serve at a moment's notice. The Father will honor and reward anyone who serves me." (v. 25-26) We have to let our life go and follow him, "ready to serve at a moment’s notice." The point is you can’t serve at a moment’s notice unless you are following him and you can’t follow trying to hold on to your life. The only way to consistently let go of your life so you can follow so you can serve at a moment’s notice is if you choose to do it daily.

We have this idea that sharing Jesus with those we know is a decision we make one time and then if we fail, we decide to just forget about it altogether. What Jesus is looking for in our lives is to daily – just show up! We just show up at the very beginning of our day and pray, "Just for today, God, I will do whatever you ask me to do just for today." Then as we live out our lives that very day we are living with the awareness that he will use our lives and connect others to our lives that he knows we can reach. We do it daily. We follow daily. We listen daily and as we follow, as we show up, we find our lives planted where they are needed and lives are changed because we just follow – every day! We follow daily because we know that eternity is what is waiting for us all. How much does eternity really matter to me?

So what is your next step? What "room" do you need to just walk across to begin that process of sharing Jesus with someone who is lost? Where is the Spirit leading you to go? Wherever that may be, remember that the steps we take toward the lives we touch are to always lead to Jesus. We want to help you today. As you leave today you will find a packet of "invite cards" for you to take. What we want you to do is to take a packet and use them to invite someone to church in two weeks. Our series for Easter starts on March 2 and will last for four weeks. There is a general interest in spiritual things at Easter so it is an excellent time to invite someone. So start praying for awareness and be ready to follow the Spirit to "just walk across the room" and say "Come to church with me next week. Here is a card with all the information. I’ll be looking for you."

Friends, we have to get this right because the eternity of individuals destinies hangs on our being available to just walk across the room. There is nothing in the universe that is more important or rewarding than reaching someone else for eternity. At some point you will say your final goodbyes in this life and you will stand in heaven. Can you imagine what it will be when you get there? You’ll see Zaccheus who Jesus ate with one day, you’ll meet a woman who came to get water and Jesus asked her for a drink and you’ll meet some Greeks who were led straight to Jesus. While you are standing there you see a person who you knew to be a career sinner, someone you never expected to see, standing there in front of you and you ask: "How did you get here?" They respond with, "You know, I was just so messed up in my life and didn’t know where to go. I didn’t think that God could care about me. Then one day you just walked across that room and that day was the first step in a journey for me that ended right here."

Sunday, February 17, 2008

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org