Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - Reaching People for Christ, Part 1: Reaching People for Christ

Episode Date: September 5, 2016

Everyone knows someone who is hurting, longing for comfort, and searching for answers. It might even be you who’s looking for light in a dark world. But when you find hope, you can’t wait to share it. Now’s the time to start Reaching People for Ch... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

We are Life Church, one church meeting in multiple locations and reaching around the world with the help of church online. If you have any questions or you'd like to learn more about us as a church, you can always check us out online simply by going to life.church. Or you can download and check out the all-new Life Church app. It's a great way to help stay connected throughout your week. You know, we all know someone who is hurting, looking for answers, or trying to find comfort. In fact, it may even be you trying to find light in a very dark world. but we all know when we find hope, we can't help but share it. And today we'll learn how in the message called Reaching People for Christ.

Hey, welcome today to all of our life churches, all of our open network churches, and our extended family all over the world at church online. I'm going to tell you next week we're starting a brand new message series that I believe can impact lives in a very significant way. We're calling the series Making Change, and we're talking about four big themes. What are the big themes? Less is more.

Stress is bad. Giving is good and tomorrow matters. This is the perfect time to bring someone to church. A new message series starts next week. Now, today we're going to do something different, something I'm very passionate about. I'm incredibly passionate about the subject and I'm incredibly passionate about the format.

The subject is this. What I want to do is talk to you today about how do we lead someone to Christ? How do we share our faith and be a witness? Now, the format is really exciting. What we're going to do today is really incredible. I'm going to team teach with, get this, 88 different staff members from our church, 88 different staff members, and this doesn't even include the open network pastors.

Why are we doing this? Well, I believe that in our team, we've got people with tremendous gifts, and today what I'm going to ask you to do is help our speakers be successful. Think about this. We've got people that have never ever spoken before, and they're going to come and deliver God's word today. We believe that God is going to strengthen our church as we expand those who can use their gifts to reach people. So, when they say something that's exciting, you can kind of cheer a little bit, okay? If they say something remotely funny. Okay, good, right?

And what I would love for you to do is make them feel welcome, celebrate. If you think about this, if there was a Guinness book. of World Records, our church is going to set it today for the most preachers in one church to ever preach on a single weekend. You can get a little excited about that if you want to because I'm really excited. Now what I want to do is ask you at all of our churches, how many of you who are Jesus followers know someone who is not a follower of Christ? You know someone who is a candidate for the grace of God for his life-changing, transforming power. If you are a Jesus follower, then you know that you're called to be

the light of the world. You are the salt of this earth. Jesus commanded you to go into all the world and preach the gospel to make disciples of all nations. And if we know all of this to be true, and yet we don't always do it, why is it that we often hesitate in sharing our faith? I want to answer that question today before I introduce our team teachers four reasons why we often hesitate in sharing our faith. Number one, if you're taking us, why do we hesitate? Number one, because many times we're afraid, right? We're often afraid. I know this was me back years ago. I took a class in seminary called Christian Witness training, and in that class we had to memorize a script to share our faith. I still remember the first line, and it goes like this.

Have you come to a place in your life where you know for certain if you died tonight, you'd spend eternity in heaven or hell? That's all I remember. It's a whole script, but I remember that. Now, my My professor told us whenever we had to do the assignment, guess what the assignment was? We had to go door to door, knock on the door of the houses of total strangers, go through the little script, try to lead them to Christ as our professor stood with his clipboard, scoring our performance. I never will forget. My professor said, pray before you knock on the door.

And I prayed every single time. Every single time I prayed, dear God in heaven, I pray no one is at home. God may no one be a home. Why did I pray that? Because I was afraid. I was so afraid. Why do we often hesitate? Number one, we're afraid. Number two, because we don't feel qualified, right? How many you would say sometimes you feel a little bit unqualified? What if they ask me a question? What if I don't know the answer? What if I get in a place where I can't fully explain the gospel? Why do we often hesitate? Because we're afraid. Because we don't feel qualified. Number three, we don't want to be pushy. We don't want to be pushy. I guarantee you some of you have known a pushy Christian.

They're in your face. You need Jesus. You need a turn. You're going to mourn. And they're just put religion, everything. You squeeze them and like they burp religion stuff. You know, you're like, stop. And you don't want to be that person.

You don't want to be too pushy. And so you just want to chill. And then often you don't. Number four, and this is probably the saddest thing is, but many of us, we are complacent. We simply don't care that much. Our life is okay. I mean, we got Jesus. We're going to heaven.

And we really don't care that much. May I remind you that you do not need a spiritual degree to share your faith? You don't have to be an expert. You do not have to know all the answers. Why? Because you are filled with the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead living inside of you. God calls you an ambassador. You are the highest ranking diplomat sent from heaven to earth to represent Christ.

So in all of our churches, those who say, yes, I am a follower of Jesus. God is calling you to share your faith. Would you please help and join me as we welcome at your location, one of 88 different local team speakers? Well, it truly is an honor for me to be team teaching with Pastor Craig and so many of our staff

from all of our locations today. What a blessing it is. You know, I don't know if you know this, but for me to be able to share the stage with Pastor Craig is such a huge honor. I'm humbled. He is the best senior pastor in the world. We as a church are blessed to have him as our pastor. In fact, I'm excited about this message. Reaching people for Christ, it's something I am truly passionate about. That's why church online exists today. It's so that we can share the love of Christ to people all over the world.

And I can't wait to show you three simple ways that you too can share your faith. in Christ. Because a lot of times I hear this, they say, Pastor Allen, I'm not, I haven't been to Bible school, I don't know how to share my faith well, what do I do? How do I tell all the people about Christ? I'm going to give you three simple ways that you can do this starting right now. So if you're taking notes, the first point is this. You can use what you have. The first way you can share your faith is by using simply what you have. In fact, the Bible shows us the first instance where the gospel is shared, and it's shared by someone who you wouldn't believe. It's shared by this guy named Levi. Levi was a tax collector, and in Bible days, tax collectors

weren't liked by people. They were seen as crooks almost, and people didn't like them at all. And Levi, another name that he had was Matthew. He was a despised tax collector. But when Jesus changed Levi's life, he couldn't keep quiet about it. Now, he didn't know how to share his faith. He didn't know, you know, he didn't know how to preach a sermon. He didn't know, he didn't go to Bible school. He didn't have any religious training. In fact, if people had even questioned him about his faith, I don't know if he would have been able to answer it.

Think about the volunteers we have at church online. We as a staff, we were actually talking about this. we probably wouldn't even recruit Levi as a volunteer at church online. That's how absurd it was for someone like him to be sharing his faith. But what he did was he didn't sit around. He didn't think, okay, I don't have religious training, I don't have this. No, instead, he did what he knew how to do. And the one thing he knew how to do was to throw a party.

And so that's what he did. He fired up the grill, threw some burgers on there, some hot dogs. He invited the neighbors. They got his little nephew and his band to play some music. They were having fun. People were meeting Jesus. All right. I modernized that version a little bit. Let me, let's go and see what Luke says in the Bible. Luke tells it a little bit better than I can. So Luke in chapter 5 verse 29 shares a story. He says, then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house. And a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belong to their sect complained to his disciples.

They said, why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered them, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Levi simply called all his buddies and invited him to a party. in the same way we can use what we have to reach those that we love. Now, if you're wondering, okay, Pastor Allen, what do I do? What can I do? Well, maybe you love playing basketball or soccer.

What if you could, you know, take a ball and go out into your neighborhood and invite the kids over there, your friends, neighbors, anybody, and say, hey, come play ball with me. It'll be a fun time. We'll have a blast. Maybe that's what you could do. maybe you are used to eating lunch by yourself at work and that's what you've done for all this time what if you were to invite some of your colleagues and say hey do you want to have lunch together

let's just talk because through those moments you could build a relationship and then begin to share what God's doing in your life in fact maybe some of you are great at cooking and you truly like Levi know how to host a party invite them invite them to your house host a party, feed them, and then begin to share what God has done in your life. You too can use what you have. Maybe you've been here at church online for a long time. Maybe you can start sharing your faith by volunteering here. We've got amazing teams. We've got amazing opportunities that you could step into. And maybe it means that you sacrifice one hour in a week to do that. But you too can use what you have. It reminds me of this story of someone in our community.

His name is Jeremy, and he and his family live in Houston, Texas, and he's in the sales industry, and God laid it on his heart to reach their community. And he thought, man, what can I do? How can I reach my city? I know God placed us here in the city for a reason. I'm not going to sit still. I'm not going to just talk about it, but I'm actually going to do something about it. So sure enough, he invites a couple of things.

friends of his and they all just meet at a restaurant and they watch church online together in a restaurant. And so he started doing that. They did it for one week. They kept doing it and more people started coming to where they now start renting a place and doing the same thing. They watch church online together and lives are being changed. In fact, it's so powerful because his own daughter accepted Jesus Christ as her personal savior and got baptized in water as a result of Jeremy doing what he knew to do. You too can reach people by simply using what you have. The second way that you can reach people is by inviting them to church. It's so simple, just invite them to church.

You know, John tells a powerful story in the Bible of this woman who, who was going through a tough time. She had experienced a lot of hurts in her life, and she was just not in a good place. And she meets Jesus at this well. And Jesus starts, you know, sharing the truth with her, and her life changes. And watch what John says in the fourth chapter, verse 28.

He says, then leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah? They came out of the town and made their way toward him. What does she do? She didn't preach a sermon. She didn't memorize a script. She didn't have her act together. She didn't lead anybody in prayer. All she did was come see a man. All she did was she simply invited people to meet Jesus. I was traveling one day and I caught this Uber. Uber is kind of like a taxi service.

It's there in quite a few cities all around the world. And the guy who was driving the car, we started talking. I shared briefly what I do and I started asking him, you know, is this what you do full-time? And he actually had another job as well. As we started talking, you know, young guy, what seemed at first was that he was enjoying life. He was making money. He was like, oh, yeah, man, I get to go to a different city every every other month and it's just great. And so I just started asking him like, hey, you know, I kind of used to live that kind of a lifestyle. Like, are you truly happy? And sure enough,

you know, just digging a little bit, he was like, well, it's funny you mention it because I'm chasing after money and I'm chasing after all these things. But no, I don't think I'm happy. Okay? And then he didn't stop there. He said, actually, I'm struggling right now. And I said, what do you mean? Well, my dad is struggling from an illness that could possibly lead to death. And I've been thinking about what would my life be like if my dad passed away. And I don't know how to cope with this. In fact, I'm struggling with depression.

In fact, I have question after question. I don't know what to do. And he started just pouring his heart out. Here we are. I'm sitting in a car that belongs to us. somebody I've never met in my life, and he's pouring his heart out. And I said, hey, you know, I don't have the answer to all of your problems, but one thing I do know, there is one person who can change your life, and his name is Jesus, and I'd love to invite you to my church.

And I had this card with our church online's website on it, and I said, here's the link. It doesn't matter where you live. matter what time zone you're in, we have a ton of services every week. Come join me at church. And he held that card and he looked at me and said, man, you don't understand how much this means to me. I am so lost right now. This is exactly what I wanted. And I got to pray with him in that car. You see, I don't know if he showed up to church. I don't know if his life has changed. Our job is to simply invite. God's the one who does the life-changing part. Who can you invite to church right now? There might be somebody

at your workplace that you know is going through a hard time. Maybe you're in school, maybe you're at a university and you know that there's somebody struggling. There's somebody that's depressed or looking for answers. In fact, the day and age that we live in right now on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, we all have seen somebody post that. that time that they were having a tough time or they're going through a difficult time or they're struggling with depression or anxiety or whatever the case might be,

it's simple for us to just say, hey, I know you're going through a hard time. Would you like to come to church with me? Because we never know how a single invite could change somebody's life forever. We never know. Who could you invite right now? Think about it.

I want you to pray this week and ask God to clearly show you. God, show me who I need to bring with me to church. Either they can watch it with you. We know so many people that just open up their homes and invite people to watch church online with them. Or even just say, hey, tell me what time you're free and we'll log on at the same time so we're in the same service. God can help you use what you have or you can also just simply invite someone to church. one invitation could be all that it takes to change someone's life. So let's just recap. First point is that you can use what you have. Second is that you can invite someone to church.

Or third, you can share your story. Your story might be the most powerful thing that you have. In fact, I love this example, the story in the Bible, where Jesus heals a blind man. There were a ton of skeptics. They were all accusing Jesus of being. a liar and a con man. And they were not even trusting that what happened actually happened.

And they started attacking the man that got healed. And it's really cool to see how the blind man responds in the face of all these attacks. In John chapter 9 verse 25, we see the blind man responding. He says, whether Jesus is a sinner or not, I don't know. One thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see. Check it out. It was as simple as that. I don't know if Jesus is a sinner. I don't know who he is, but one thing I do know, I was blind, but now I see. For that blind man, his story meant the world to him, because at that moment, he could see. Well, the people still continue to attack him and say,

well, you know, did what happened really happen? And verse 26, we read, they continue to ask him, what did Jesus do to you? How did he open your eyes? And he answered, I've told you everything and you do not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples too? I love this. Do you want me to tell you the story again so you can be his disciples? You want to follow him too?

All he did was just share his story because it was his story. And that's all he knew how to do. If you've been attending church online here at Life Church, you might have heard my story. You know, for me, growing up, I struggled in school and ended up dropping out of high school, which led to just all sorts of insecurities. And I struggled with depression and anger and just all sorts of things. And I felt like my life was going from bad to worse. And I thought, okay, the only way that I can maybe fix this is if I make a lot of money

or if I have a lot of friends and just go to parties and enjoy life. And that's what it all was all about. But every morning I would wake up just absolutely hopeless, no purpose. I didn't know why my life existed. Have you ever had that feeling where you wake up and you don't know the point of your own life? It's not fun. And then at night I'd go hang out with friends and party and laugh. And if anybody looked from the outside, they thought, man, he is having a blast.

He's having so much fun. But the reality is I would come home every night worse than the previous night and lost and hurt. And so much so that I wanted to actually kill myself because I didn't think that life was worth living. Until somebody, one of my good friends just asked me a simple question, he said, hey, I know you're going through a hard time. Why don't you give Jesus a chance? and long story short, my life was radically transformed and changed forever. And I would not be alive standing on this stage right now if it wasn't for the love of Christ. So if you ask me, Alan, why do you get all fired up about reaching people for Christ?

Why do you do this church online thing? Because if you've been through the hell that I've been through and you've experienced the love of Christ, I'm telling you, there's nothing greater. on earth than reaching people for Christ, being able to share the love that I've experienced. That's why we do what we do. That's why we will do anything short of sin to reach people. Because as long as there's one hurting person out there, we will tell our story time and time again and point them to Christ.

Now maybe some of you don't have all the words and you don't have all the training. We'll use what you have. maybe all you can do is invite someone to church. Maybe you are the best inviter on earth, and that's how you leverage your social media platforms, and all you're focused about is inviting people to church, because honestly, is there anything greater than someone meeting Jesus Christ?

This is why we exist as a church. It's because we are passionate about leading people to become fully devoted followers of Christ. I believe with all of my heart that there's a group of people watching right now that you understand what I'm talking about. You understand the depth of what I'm sharing. But maybe you've been sitting on the sidelines.

Maybe you've been saying it's not my time, it's not my time yet, or I don't know, I'm not qualified, I don't know if I'm ready for it. No, you, as you're hearing my words, you know that your next step is to be part of what God's doing here. I want you to make that decision today. I want you to make that decision that you're going to do whatever you can. You're going to use what you have. You're going to invite people to church.

You're going to share your story because it's so worth it. When someone meets Jesus Christ, their life gets changed forever. My life is not only changed, my family's changed. My kids are changed. I believe that the generations that are coming, if Jesus is second coming, Terry's my, I believe that every generation that's coming in my line, they're going to know Christ because of one decision that I made. What can you do?

You can use what you have. You can invite someone to church or you can share your story. Let's go back to Pastor Craig. Well, I'm incredibly grateful for that message that your team teacher just shared. And I want to review what we're learning today. What can we do to make a difference? Well, the first thing you can do is this. You can use what you have.

God has given you resources, tools, and gifts. You can use what you have. You can also invite someone to church. Very easy. You can even invite them online if they don't live in a local community. You can invite them to church. And number three, you can share your story. What can we do?

What can we do? We all have a story. We can use what we have. We can invite someone to church or we can tell our story. Now, before we close in prayer today, what I want you to do is look at your notes, and on there, you'll see a list of five blanks, five blanks. And what I want you to do is think back to what I asked you earlier. How many of you who are Jesus followers know somebody who is a candidate for the grace and the love of Jesus?

And what I want you to do is put five names on your list. Just you can do this now, you can do this later on, but I want you to think about it. I want you to write down five people that you know, and I want you to start praying. for those people and then when possible, I want you to invite those people to church. What can you do? You can use what you have. You can invite someone to church. Every one of you have a story and you can share your story of how you've been transformed.

Here's what's really cool and very personal to me. It must have been 15 years or so ago when I heard a message where someone asked me to write down five names and to pray for them. Four of them, I thought there would be almost no chance that they would ever be followers of Jesus. I wrote down those five names and I started praying for them. And here we are maybe 15 years or later and all five of those people are committed faithful Jesus followers today. Why? Because prayer is powerful. Because the light of the world shines brightly into dark places. And because as we lift up the name of Jesus, he draws people to himself. Write down those people that you're praying

for and believe that God can draw them into a living relationship as he uses us to lead people to become, help me out, fully devoted followers of Christ. Father, we pray today that your Holy Spirit would inspire us your church to be the light of this world. God show us that we can use what we have. You've given us all resources, God. Inspire us to invite people to your church and to know your son. I pray that you would make a difference through our story. And we will pray and believe for these five and maybe even more, giving you all the glory when you bring people into a relationship with your son, Jesus. All of our churches today, I want to take a moment.

Nobody looking around and just ask, how many of you would say, yes, there are some people in your life that you really, really love that are not yet fully experiencing the grace of God through Jesus, and you hope they do one day. Would you lift up your hands right now? Just lift up your hands, all of our churches. and we want to take a moment and pray for them. God, I pray that you would use our church,

use every person here who cares about someone else who loves them deeply. God, I pray that you would use us, use others, use circumstances, do whatever it takes, God, to expose them to your love. God, when someone's hurting, I pray that you would reveal your grace. God, when someone sins,

I pray that the conviction of your spirit would draw them to a point of repentance. God, I pray that you would use the things that we have in our lives. We would recognize they're not just to be a blessing to us, but they're to be a blessing to others. Give us a heart to serve others. God, I pray that you would give us sensitivity to see when we could invite someone to church or even be bold and invite them to follow Jesus. And, God, I thank you for every story that everyone who knows your son has.

I pray, God, that our stories would be an amazing invitation to share with others, just how good you are. We lift up those today, God, that don't know you. We pray, God, that your spirit would draw them, that your loving kindness, would invite them in to a place of knowing you personally. And God, we believe by faith, just like my five from years ago,

are now in your family. God, that you would draw thousands of people to know you because your church is praying and shining the light of Jesus. We ask and believe that you will do this, God. As you keep praying today at all of our churches, I know that there are many of you today that you're looking on and saying, wow, you know, that freedom that you're talking about,

that joy, that sense of purpose is something that I don't have. And all of our churches right now, there are those of you. I just need to tell you right now, you are not here by accident. I believe with all my heart that you're here today because God wanted you to be here today. You may look around, you may see people that seem to have something that you don't have, you wonder what it is, you've been searching, maybe your whole life saying, well, you know, if I get enough money, then I'll be happy.

If I had the right friends, I'll be happy. If I had the right lifestyle, I'll be happy. If I just have the right image or whatever, I'll be happy. And yet there's still a void on the inside. Why is that there? And the reason is because you have not found the very real reason for which you are created. What's our problem? Our problem is that we are separated from God.

by our sin. Sin draws us away from God and we are incapable of working our way back to God being good enough on our own. This is the amazing news that God loved us so much that he sent his son Jesus who was without sin perfect in every way. Jesus the light of the world. He hung out with those who religion rejected. He loved those that people thought were the worst of the worst. He loved people like you. He loved people like me. And the good news is that Jesus became sin for us on the cross, died and rose again. His resurrection defeated death, hell, sin, and the grave. At all of our churches, there are those of you, you recognize right now,

you have a deep need for his grace. At all of our churches, those who say, yes, I need his forgiveness. Yes, I want his life. Yes, I want to know him, be forgiven by him, and I want to completely serve him. You are here because he brought you here today. at all of our churches, those who say, yes, I need him, I need his grace, I turn from my sins today, I trust in him. That's your prayer. Would you lift your hands high right now? All of our churches

and say, yes, I surrender to him today. Those of you at church online, if you'll click right below me, those who are saying yes to him at church online, what we're going to do now is we're all going to pray together. Nobody prays alone. All of our churches, would you simply pray aloud? Pray, Heavenly Father, forgive me of my sins, make me brand new. I believe Jesus died for me, and he rose again so I could live for you. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you and serve you for the rest of my life. Today I give you my life. Now you have mine.

In Jesus' name I pray. As a church, it's our honor to play a very small part in all that God is doing in and through your life. And we would love to continue with you on that journey. what your next steps could be in your relationship with Christ, all you have to do is go to life.church slash next. You know, here at Life Church, we believe that ongoing change doesn't happen in the rows of a church or even behind a computer screen,

but rather through consistently meeting and growing with other people. Robert Dukeson, overnight truck driver, found himself in an interesting spot with his very unique schedule, but with the help of technology, found his community and found hope. Check out his story.

Well, I'm a truck driver. And I drive at night. We have a life group on the phone on Monday nights at 10 o'clock. Just kind of hang out and talk a little bit about everyday life, kids, wives, basketball, football, and then start talking about God. Just questions start going around the table. Or you can hear positive instead of all the negative in the world. Actually get prayer at work.

We need that. You are the first caller. You will be placed on home until the next caller arrived. Robert Dukes, how you doing, man? Doing good. Doing good. How are you doing? Man, I'm doing good.

How's the family? Everybody's good, me. All the trash made it to the curb. Everybody's good. I believe, and I believe that my friends on the phone believe that we just believe that the Bible says that where there are two or three gathered together, whether that's in person or on the phone that God is in the midst of us. It's not just church.

I get to have relationship with my whole city. With the state I'm in, with the states I go to, with the people at the truck stops, it doesn't matter where I go. I get to just be me. If you're not in the life group, you're missing out on everything life church has to offer, get into community where you start walking with other Christians, I think it will really change your life. It's changed mine. Thanks again for joining us here at Life Church, where it's our mission to lead people

to become fully devoted followers of Christ. It's that statement that drives everything we do as we help people find God and truly find life.