A Bridge of Hope | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson

what a beautiful song if you're not already standing i want you to stand to your feet and i i too along with pastor nolan i want to say how glad we are that you are here if this is your first time at first apostolic thank you for making this your place of worship on a midweek service amen we're so glad to have you worshiping with us and in the house for bible study tonight amen and amen everyone doing good tonight all right looks what a great crowd what a great crowd school's back in session yeah and that's that's good that's good i i like i like i believe it was brother hammond that said the parents get more excited about that i think than the students do but you know when you go to a great school like apostolic christian academy it's it's cool for the students too they've been having some great great sports going on great team sports been watching some volleyball and i know our our golf team has been doing amazing job and uh you know what i've i've seen some great things happening on the court uh i see discipline taking place all right so thankful for for teaching our students the coaches are teaching them discipline isn't that awesome is that so needed i know as a parent i'm thankful i'm thankful that my daughters um are a part of that and get to uh play a role and learn from coaches and learn to be a team team member so school is good and the crowd is good and i'm just so thankful for that i want you to turn your bible first corinthians chapter 12 and verse number 18 wasn't pastor hammond's message on sunday night wasn't that absolutely amazing i'm so thankful for a student body that responded the way that they did to the word of god not only was the message direct and and to the point and i believe it was so needed but i'm so thankful that the students responded to the message and again that says so much about our student body first corinthians 12 and 18 you are familiar with this simply says but now hath god set the members every one of them in the body as it have pleased him as it's pleased god and if they were all one member where were the body but now are they many members yet but one body let's talk about the body tonight then uh romans chapter 15 verse 13 if you want to flip uh in the book of romans be speaking on hope tonight and it says now the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that he made that she may abound in hope through the power of the holy ghost you see it right there through the power of the holy ghost when you start discussing hope tonight it's through the power of the holy ghost that we receive our hope i simply want to title this session i i'm going to speak on tonight simply a bridge of hope a bridge of hope and then i want to teach on the subject of relational evangelism a bridge of hope talking about relational evangelism let's put your bibles down let's just lift up our hands father we love you lord i'm so grateful for your people i'm so grateful for this worship team that's already led us into worship tonight they've already lord god done such a beautiful job bringing us before your throne oh i believe praise has gone up i believe worship has gone up and now lord it's time for you to speak to us through your word god i pray there's somebody that's here tonight lord hear your word a member of this great body lord of of your body the body of christ lord hear and respond to what you would have them do lord god in this place tonight lord i i pray that we become as the church a bridge of hope lord god help us lord god to bring hope to the lost to bring hope to a lost and dying world lord that is our desire tonight in jesus name we pray and everyone said amen and you may be seated in the house in the house tonight i borrowed my title from the bridge of hope school in beirut lebanon matter of fact as i began to to study um over this topic my mom went back and and i've been to beirut a few times but i believe was the the second time i got to be in beirut i remember how it affected me to see the syrian refugees they were living there in the in the slums really the slums of beirut beirut is a beautiful city but there is a very um an area inner city that that it's it's very poor matter of fact you know you go from uh very western-looking culture the the buildings are beautiful high-rise skyscrapers and um they're they're churches and and synagogues um are beautiful the everything you see there is is quite beautiful however there's one area a very large area of beirut um it's really probably a dangerous area to live in and dangerous because these refugees are living any way they can they uh beirut has not really given them electricity into their homes and so you see uh power cables stretch from window to window across the the uh the alleyways it's it's and just as hundreds and hundreds of wires just hanging and dangling and and you kind of wonder you see kids playing in the street you wonder how they could even survive but these people are really living without hope and uh the azaars uh they're our missionary there in beirut and uh as great of a church that they have there they're building up a great church uh with nationals with with people from lebanon that are that are coming to their churches they're seeing uh they're seeing people uh islam uh people that are getting the holy ghost again baptized in jesus name they're uh they're seeing great the muslim faith they're seeing people come into the house and um it's a beautiful thing matter of fact it's it's pretty much one of the only middle eastern christian nations there are now they're christian is is a catholicism but they do allow it and they're very open to allow uh christianity is what they're calling it but uh catholicism there and and so in beirut we have a great church uh a thriving church and if you follow the azares that you're gonna follow and see a lot of pictures of people being baptized in great things revival taking place in beirut but years back in their first building that they're in they were right at the end of a very large bridge and the bridge actually went over a lot of those slum inner city areas and they thought to themselves what can we do to reach these syrian people because although they're there these refugees although they're there they are not allowed their children are not allowed to partake in any of the nation's educational system so so lebanese children they're getting educated in their school systems no syrians are allowed to be in the school system so i think i've got a picture here but their children are on the streets their children are are from from sun up to sundown they're selling whatever wares they can find whatever they can sell their parents are giving them trinkets giving them bottles of water whatever they can go from car to car um there's children even as young as as four and five years old who are in the middle of these streets now when traffic when when traffic's moving these cars are going 40 miles an hour 50 miles an hour and these four-year-olds are literally standing kind of where this little boy is that they're just standing on the median if you call that a median uh four-year-old just standing there as cars are going back i remember the shock of seeing that i'm thinking myself i wouldn't let my daughters within a hundred yards of of william one drive here and these children these young children are right in the middle of this traffic and and um it's horrible it's a very hopeless situation these children and and so the azaleas they came up with this idea we need to start a school for these syrian children we support it very strongly i know uh the kanos have have been supporting this this school very uh strongly our episode christian academy one year for our christmas offering we raise money for this this uh bridge of hope this this school that's going on the tsars have started uh it's going great bottom line is this they thought if we can get these syrian children over this bridge we can show them hope we can give them hope we can let them find what hope really feels like discover hope and so they called it the bridge of hope school and and i believe now they have probably 50 or 60 students they're bringing in teachers from from the united states of america um they're teaching these children they're gonna give these children an education they're gonna be able to read they're able to write um math everything is gonna be taught to them as high up in as many as many grades as they can teach them before they have to allow these children to go back into their families and raise more money for their families but the great news is this they're seeing those children filled with the holy ghost they're seeing these children baptized in jesus name revival is taking place because of a bridge of hope but i want you to i want you to imagine with me and and i guess i begin to think of this subject of hopelessness i i began to see these children their eyes are are dark and their eyes are you could tell there's hurt and they've many of them are deaf because of of the bombs and missiles that went off in syria before they before they escaped syria and came to lebanon they've lost their hearing so many of them many of them cannot hear uh they might be deaf in one ear some are deaf in both ears and and these children you could tell they've been scarred by what they've seen and they have no hope and i began to to study the word of god i began to think through the bible i thought where is the most hopeless situation in the bible where can i find the most hopeless situation i begin to i begin to think through from genesis all the way to revelation and it it finally really hit me the probably the most hopeless situation found in the word of god were the three days when jesus was in the grave i want you to think about this because there's not a lot of scripture about it um there's a lot of scripture about the resurrection and we we celebrate that on easter and we we read those scriptures about you know mary and and and the disciples running to the to the sepulcher and finding an empty grave and find the stone rolled away but we got to imagine that the three the three days between the death the burial and the resurrection of jesus must have been the most hopeless situation imaginable because these followers of jesus his disciples and and and his in his mother mary and mary magdalene uh all that we you know we hear of the names of the of the twelve but we understand that there were hundreds of disciples who loved jesus who followed jesus there were there were hundreds uh that did not shout crucify when the crowd was crying crucify but these were the ones who were who were at the foot of the cross these were the ones who heard him in pain as he would say i thirst and as they would hear him say my god my god why hast thou forsaken me they listened as he bowed his head and said it is finished and these were not triumphant words these were not victorious words these these were words of total defeat and i know i i know what the word of god says i i know that jesus had told them brother bariak i i know that jesus had told them in three days i'm gonna rise again and and i'll come back to life and i know what jesus told them but don't you know there was a lot there was a lot of loss of memory of short-term memory when it came to seeing jesus bleeding and and seeing jesus on a cross with a crown of thorns there was a there's a lot of memory loss for those disciples uh when they saw jesus at the whipping post taking on stripes upon his back to where when they when they heard him say it is finished i gotta believe that all hopelessness began at that point as they saw him take the body of jesus down off the cross and put him into a tomb you gotta you gotta understand that their dreams their hope was buried with jesus in that tomb every dream these were people that had given up everything they'd given up their families they'd given up their careers they left home they left their parents they they left their careers of fishing if it were tax collected if it was they had left all their careers to go follow this man who now they believe was the christ and he was going to somehow bring this jewish nation back in control they're gonna shove off the roman empire they're gonna they're gonna move back into victory and triumphant and they were believing that jesus was their guy if you will who is gonna lead them to victory and no longer would they be under submission of rome in the roman empire but jesus was going to lead them into this victorious and they thought it could happen because after all he was a miracle worker they had they had seen him open blind eyes they they had seen him i mean there was there was gales of wind there was a typhoon that they were in the middle of and they saw jesus calm the storm where the bible says they said what manner of man is this that even the wind and the waves obey i mean we got to understand that it was it was in their minds it was in their thought process they thought we've always heard that there's coming a messiah who's going to bring rule back into the jerusalem and back to the jews and so they thought to themselves surely this is he we've seen him raise our own brother mary martha we've seen him raise our own brother from the dead surely he's the one they were there for the triumphant entry as people began to bow down and say hosanna hosanna as jesus came into jerusalem they thought this is it he's coming to take the throne he's coming to take over no longer will we be under roman leadership but now he's gone now he's dead now he's in a grave and for three long days they had to ask these same questions back and forth what are we going to do now when somebody becomes sick you guys think of peter and and i don't know this might be a bad example but he's probably thinking with my mother-in-law's sick again who's going to raise her up that might be a bad example pull it up what about what about lazarus what about the next lazarus that dies who who's going to raise up lazarus now that jesus is gone now that jesus is dead we we we thought we were following a hero we thought we were found a miracle worker how is the guy that raises people from the dead dead so we have here for three three whole days of hopelessness and i'm not gonna go into the easter story because i believe that everyone in this place knows the easter story but my point is this life without jesus is hopeless whether it's three days three years 30 years life without jesus is hopeless even when you know who he is even when you you've studied at the greatest catechisms and in the greatest seminaries and and you've studied this jesus and you believe in him you believe he's the son of god it takes so much more than just believing that he is it takes so much more than just knowing who he is we we were just at a at a volleyball game this week and and we were at a we were at we're at a school that that uh it was a catholic school we were in a gym and and it was very obvious as a catholic gym because i don't know there i probably saw five at least five framed pictures of jesus or what they feel jesus looked like and then there were brother johnstone there were some interesting uh interesting writings under there that were not bible they're quotes i think they're quotes from saints or whoever but you go outside and there there's a statue of jesus but knowing who jesus is or thinking you know who jesus is that's not enough because we read in the scripture we read it comes by the holy ghost we the only way that we really understand and have a relationship with our god is because we are filled with the spirit the very same spirit that raised christ from the dead dwells inside of us and that's how we have hope hope doesn't come in knowing who he is believing that he lived at one time believing that he was the king of the jew you can believe whatever you want about jesus the only way you truly have hope is if he's living inside of you and sister mother lee is so good to see you because i'm reminded we had a going home celebration for your husband for for brother lee we had hope we were all here there was there were there were tears because obviously we're going to miss him there were tears because of the memories that came back to mind and and memories cause emotion but the tears were not because we were hopeless but you think of people that don't truly know god that don't have a spirit dwelling inside of them you think of how hopeless they are when they have what they call a funeral service we have going home celebrations here but when they have a funeral service who do they turn to who do they look to for hope who do they look for to for peace of mind i don't know about you but i'm so glad that i know jesus i go i'm so glad not only do i know who he is i'm glad that i have him inside of me oh it's a constant time it's a relationship that we have with our god that gives us hope it's the very fact that we can worship him in spirit and in truth that gives us the hope of christ jesus so as i begin as i begin i'm kind of moving i'm kind of moving through my subject here because i'm getting to relational evangelism but but i want us to understand that we as the church we it is our responsibility to be the bridge of hope we are not the hope right we are simply the bridge that leads them to the hope but let's talk about let's talk about the churches for for a little bit because i think it's it's it's it's very important to understand that we have a difficult task that we face in the church today that the apostles did not face with the first church we have holy ghost field members who do not completely understand their role in the body of christ look with me in first corinthians go back to first corinthians 12. i want to read uh 12 through 20. i want to read verse 12 through verse 20. and i want to hopefully help somebody in this place understand what your role of the body is since whether as a body is one and half many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is christ for by one spirit are we all baptized into one body whether we be jews or gentiles whether it be bond or free have been all made to drink into one spirit for the body is not one member but many we we understand that and it's kind of it's gonna start relating to an actual physical body if the foot shall say because i am not the hand i am not of the body is it therefore not of the body and that's rhetorical no and if the ear shall say because i am not the i i am not of the body is it therefore none of the body no if the whole body were an eye here we go if their whole body were an eye where were the smelling or how would we or where the hearing if the whole word hearing where would the smelling come from but now hath god set the members every one of them in the body as it has pleased him if they were all one member where were the body but now are they many members yet but one body so first of all to be a member of this church and this is something that we we talk about i heard pastor talk about this not too long ago to be a member of this church we don't need a a a letter of membership there's not a card that you carry to be a member of this church however you do have to be a member of the body all right and and i don't want to go too slow here because i i don't want to insult anybody's intelligence but at the same time we got to understand our place in the body there is a membership but it's it's not because you've been baptized into the church it's simply because every part every member is a piece or part of the body is an instrument of some sort that's going to help the body of christ to fulfill what god caused us to be on earth today we are the body jesus's physical body is no longer on earth we understand that he ascended to heaven no longer is his physical body on earth that makes us his physical body think about this think about the links that make up a chain think about the links that make up a chain every person is filled with the holy ghost and considers them to be a part and they consider themselves part of the church you are a link to the chain and the church think about this the church is only as strong as its weakest link we are only as strong because that that's how strong a chain is it's only as strong as the weakest link it only takes one link if you've got your dog chained up in the back field it only takes one week link and you're getting sued by your neighbor it only takes one only takes one weak link and that chain breaks and whatever is whatever is attached to it is now free however as a church we are listen every link matters if we're going to disciple people and introduce them to hope and be a bridge that connects them with hope everyone has got to figure out the role they play in the church all right and i'm going to kind of preach my announcements a little bit because because connect groups are coming up and and so i'm going to kind of tie all this together because it's very important we got to recognize what kind of member of the body we truly are if we're going to be a strong link if we're going to be as strong as possible in whatever area god has called us to minister listen there's a lot of different links and this is in i'm going to go slow just for a moment and we'll kind of speed up here in just a few moments but bible study teacher is a link we've got to have bible study teachers somebody's got to educate doctrinally has got to educate people whether it's a search for a truth bible study exploring god's word this is that bible study we we've got to make sure we educate people through the word of god let me tell you another strong link our lobby greeters are strong links you think about if again if any link is weak people walking in this room into this in this building if they're not greeted in a hospitable way our custodians if our bathrooms are not clean all these first impressions that people have they they talk about in the first five minutes that people are walking to any place into a restaurant into a church building into an office building into a school the first five minutes they've already they've already set in their mind if they'll ever come back again or if they're gonna put their child in the school or the daycare or or if they're gonna come to church here again if they're ever if they're ever gonna go back to that doctor's office within the first five minutes and so the fit team thank god for our hard work we have the best we have the greatest fit team we listen i i was looking out from the lobby i was looking out through the coffee shop window and i saw i think it was sunday night i saw our parking lot attendant waving at people as they come in i mean just waving at people i i bounce with i couldn't really tell it was i just saw an orange vest and somebody just waving oh that's awesome i mean if i'm driving in this my first time that's impressive and i'll tell you why it's impressive because i've been to some churches where i pulled in the parking lot and and they're like damn that way that way and i'm just like you know he's up on the roads bro you know what i'm saying i mean it's just like come on it's my first time i don't know where i'm going i know what lane to be in but thank hey park a lot of tenants that that's got to be a strong link people parking cars i mean we got valet y'all people parking cars that's got to be a strong link this place shining and smelling good has got to be a strong link choir members well let me preach for a little bit choir members man if you look like you don't want to be up there you're sending a signal people people are are getting an impression of you and not only an oppression of you they're getting an impression that you know what maybe it's not that important to sing in the worship god right or or they're looking at you and going dude that that guy is having a blast that guy right there man i could tell he means what he's i could tell he means every word he's saying right these things are all these impressions were given off these are chains i'm talking about disciplined people because there's a lot there's a lot of mindsets that feel and this is very common that just the pulpit disciples but that's not true it takes a whole church it takes kids quest workers it takes sunday school teachers it takes strong tower student ministry leaders it it takes van drivers it takes people who wash the van and fill the vans up with gas come on somebody so somebody some people are looking well what i'll tell you what i i wanna i wanna i wanna be i wanna be the preacher i want to be the guy i give the bible studies i want i want to be the guy that's teaching the discipleship course man listen that's just the frosting on the cake there are so many ministries i'm just looking at i see the roberts listen they're sending out they're sending out packages they're sending bibles to people and they're sending books to people all throughout the week they're packaging things and they're blessing people in other states and other countries all week long we don't even know about it it's happening behind us these people are getting on our website and they're ordering apostolic material that they're sending out and who knows what people are coming to the gospel just because we have people who are shipping packages i'm gonna hey i'm gonna stay on this for a little while because i don't want anybody to think whatever you do oh my word listen i i was in i was in ut hospital i believe it was yesterday my days are all running together i think it was yesterday when prayer yeah yesterday went and prayed sister kathy listen oh my goodness i probably shouldn't have said where i was i i wait and hopefully the custodian for ut hospital is not in here if you are you probably weren't there yesterday y'all it was nasty i was like i was being honest with you ut's one of my favorite hospitals and it's usually because it's always clean it's always just walk through everything's clean and i don't know maybe you know maybe they're low staffed and sorry if they're watching god bless you check restroom number 45. but i'm telling you thank god for a church filled with members that are willing to do the work of god it doesn't make you any greater or any less and if you're teaching a kindergarten class or a 12th grade class you're affecting young people you're instilling into young people doctrine whether they're learning how to spell or you're getting them ready for real life and i love teaching stuff like this because i'm just looking around i just pinpoint just looking through the crowd just pinpointing i love it brother johnstone thank you thank you for your passion to meet people brother john stone he and his wife pastored a great church in washington he said he comes here he said i want to be a door greeter now he's preaching he's teaching bible studies he's he's doing all kinds of things but he said i want to be at the door i want to meet people he he lets me know he said hey have you met this family they're brand new have you met this family over here they're brand new i talked to them they're from here he's telling me all these things that i got to know about at a church this size there's no way that i know the story of every person but thank god for greeters for for hostesses who are making sure we know what's going on who's here you follow me i got again you got to understand that when i when i'm when i go into do hospital visitations my mind's wandering because everything reminds me of something right and i was already kind of studying for this and the thoughts already going through my mind as i was i was visiting sister kathy belcher i got to think myself you know this is a heart hospital what would happen if every person employed by a university of tennessee hospital wanted to be a heart surgeon i got to thinking about that i got to thinking man this place forget forget bathrooms not being in order who's changing sheets who's cleaning up blood it's a it's a heart hospital who's cleaning up blood who's making sure that that that this trash can doesn't go here and this one doesn't go here who's wheeling people into x-ray rooms who who's wheeling people into mris and all these things that have to happen who's handing surgical tools to surgeons you take any one of those things i just said away and you walk into the dirty bathroom you have a you have an unsuccessful surgery you know i know i know the doctor i know the doctor gets all the credit i know a lot of you have had heart you tell me i love dr so and so you you have your your favorite doctors that have have worked on you and and uh you've got all kinds of replacement parts and stuff and that's awesome and those doctors have done a great job with it but you know what those doctors had a lot of help just like the church that hospital is made up of all these members that if you take anyone if there's any weak links what happens well it's very simple you don't you can't be successful so two things that every christian i'm moving quickly two things that every christian you gotta develop your link ministry whatever whatever your link is whatever that is you've got to develop that and the second thing is you've got to figure out a strategy to share your testimony with people in your life because here it is just because you're a door greeter or just because you're a sunday school teacher or just because you're a barista in the coffee shop we still all have to be witnesses we still all have to share our testimony amen because we're talking i'm about to go into right here we're talking about relational evangelism so let's kind of get into it because um i think i think this is this is very important we understand what true relational evangelism really is and and again i'm going to kind of preach our announcements but but our fac connect groups we're launching again the second week of september and i'm very excited about it we took the summer off uh some break off and we're we're coming back together and up till now i'll just be honest with you up until now we just kind of started groups the last couple years we went through covid we tried to have groups during covet and we've it's been a roller coaster it's been hard but up till now we've been kind of ministering to the body if you will all right we've been kind of making sure that that our needs are our men we've been kind of you know uh come together we're gonna fellowship we're gonna break bread we're gonna you know if there's any issues going on in our lives we're gonna kind of minister the minister to the body which is so needed i i'm not taking anything away from that we're always going to want to minister to the body but but our new and this is something that i feel god has has impressed upon myself and got a conversation with with pastor carpenter in our connect groups we got to start looking outside of ourselves because here's a problem with looking inwardly too much when you get your eyes off of the outward and everything is inward that's when complaining takes place self-centered actions take place that's when people begin to woe is me murmuring complaining all throughout the old testament we see the children of israel because they were there all by themselves everything was about us our what the problems are around us what we don't have what we need what we used to have in egypt but don't have now right and so our new mission our new mission is going to simply be relational evangelism so relational evangelism is a little bit different than the typical evangelism and i don't take anything away from the typical uh what we would think of as evangelism and outreach you know i don't want to say back in the day because it wasn't that long ago but when we said it's we're coming together for saturday outreach what did that mean that meant we're all coming to go door knocking we're all meeting at the church we're going to go out in groups we're going to knock all the doors um it used to be brother or we used to actually like like witness the people when we door knocked right and when i say witness it was kind of like hey have you been reading your bible lately every read the book of acts you know and we kind of started there and but then it went to you know people kind of got a little bit weary because you know there are there are certain religions that ride bicycles and and knock your door you know what i'm saying and people got a little bit weary wary of that and so they stopped answering the door so then door knocking can we go and we what we put we put a door hanger on the door right that is safer in our in our day and age that is safer um put the door hanger out invite them to easter invite them to christmas concert whatever it was that was outreach well i'm not against that i'm going to say it right now i'm not against that kind of outreach i think it's good if nothing else it puts the name of the church in the community i'm for it i love billboards we do we do digital billboards uh we do the whole signage thing we we've put ads in the paper um we've done mail mail outs we've done tv tv advertisement nothing wrong with any of that but none of that is ha it's a a tenth as effective as you having a relationship with somebody and inviting them in all right i'm going to kind of talk about that and and bridge of hope is what our real mission is going to be now again connect group is not hope all connect group is is a bridge oh god if we could just get somebody because because here's the deal man there's hopeless people out there they're in your workplaces college students they're going to university with you and you might not recognize that at first they might be driving the cool car they might be dressed in the cool they got the the cool outfit on and everything looks good but they're going through stuff and they feel hopeless and what they don't know is you are their bridge of hope you are the person that can give them hope it's not the it's not what kind of wheels they got it it's not where they live it's not they live on the lake it's not it's none of that stuff that really brings them any kind of joy we read it in our text the only joy that you're gonna get is from the hope that you have from the holy ghost so so as we start starting to move into to connect groups and and i'm hoping by next wednesday uh by next wednesday you can get on your app you get on your church app and you can find whatever connect group um this is adults 18 and up uh find whatever connect group you want to be a part of get into a connect group because i promise you we are not going to be an inward connect group any longer we are going to find ways matter of fact i got a meeting all my connect group leaders and assistants right after service tonight there's another another announcement just preaching it right away um we're going to meet together we're going to talk about some ideas of what we have to form relational outreach connections that are relational evangelism that is relational it's got to be intentional so so here it is we we've got to figure out our personal strategy for our very own relational evangelists matter of fact i gave you a handout and just don't look at it yet just keep it close just keep it close uh we're gonna kind of at the very end i'm gonna talk about a little bit but but let's talk about what is relational evangelism what is what is it exactly because it is really a strategy it's more than just having a friend inviting the church it's more than that so so let's kind of talk about what it is because here it is a lot of people um how many extroverts are in the house come on let's just extras yeah i'm looking at you parker you're not an extrovert joking she is if there's ever been an extrovert as parker yep how many introverts are in the house yep all my people represent all right and and then there's what's called forced extroverts how many forced extroverts are there yep my people represent and how many are just like i don't care i want to be an introvert yeah you're out there it's okay it's okay it's good it's good um yeah you're just like leave me alone don't talk to me if there's talking let me come to you that's all right that's good that's good but here's the deal with evangelism with outreach what i'm talking about with relational evangelism there has to be and it might have to be forced but there has to be communication right there has to be relationship built but i think a lot of times we um we we introverse introverts and even forced extroverts it's almost like you see that person i'm just gonna use parker because i can use parker you see that person they can just walk into the room and just take control of the room and everybody's laughing and can just walk up to anybody and talk to them and and if we're not careful we can make excuses and say because i'm that i'm not that type of personality we're going to let the parkers in the house be the evangelistic people and you just leave me alone right but but but that problem probably that's a stereo that's a negative stereotype because that's not truly what relational evangelism is it's not about and now i'm not talking about parker now okay but it's not about being obnoxious or pushy i said i'm not talking about parker obnoxious or pushy or insensitive okay i have met those people they come talk to you and they will not let you walk away you know those people and i if i do this to you i don't know if you should take a hint or be offended but if when you come talk to me if i'm walking the whole time you're talking there's a reason why i do that okay because some people they're in a in a pushy way they're going gonna take control the conversation they're not gonna let you speak and if you've ever been if somebody's ever witnessed to you maybe before you go to church if somebody's ever witness to you in that manner that is the most annoying thing ever and so and so we can have these these these misconceptions we can have these stereotypes of well i don't want to be that guy and i don't want to be that guy either so so you kind of have you kind of have this this thing going on in your mind you're like well since i don't want to be that guy i guess i really you know i guess i can't tell my co-workers about god because i don't want to be that guy are you with me but then there's there's the opposite right there there's people that you look at that truly have a talent with people and they're bold they're outgoing right they're these extroverts and the same time that's also that's also a stereotype that we can look at and say because i don't have those things i can't be a witness either so so there's there's two sides there's a side that's that's annoying and and you don't want to be like them because you don't want to be that guy and then you look at these people over here that they have it all together oh they're good looking they got the biggest widest smile and and they know the right words to say and they always they're always have their you know those people and so if we're not careful we get right in the middle and we're like i don't want to be that person and i can't be that person so therefore i'm just gonna be right here in the middle can anybody else lift up their hand and say that could be me too awesome i thought i was by myself okay good they didn't raise their hands real high but a lot of people raised their hands so so we got to get over those two stereotypes because here's the thing when it comes to relational evangelism people don't want this person and they really don't want this person they want you they want what they're used to talking to every day at work okay so let's just kind of talk about so what exactly is relational evangelism number one you got to be authentic you got to be real don't i've heard people you know make make make christianity out to be this like glamorous thing listen listen there's nothing else i'd rather be but i've got low days just like the next guy and i'm not gonna go to work and try to act like to other people like my life is just always brother thompson always an all-time high because you know what they know you they saw you last week when you got mad on that phone call and you slammed the phone down right so so they're looking for authentic they're looking for okay you deal with the same thing i deal with except you're different all right they're looking number one looking for everybody say authentic number two they want natural relational evangelism reflects our own personality don't try to be somebody else don't try to be that guy that's outgoing when you're not outgoing just be be yourself who are you every day of the week number three personal be personal people today have grown immune to impersonal methods of communication right i mean the first time the very first text message we got there was like an ad or whatever it was like oh wow by the 100th one we're about to lose our minds you know that very first phone call you got that was like the digital person talking you're like oh my goodness you know this is awesome now it's like when it's like the first thing this is vacation rentals you're like it's like if i there's like two or three cities in america if my call id says that city it's just like i know it's like you've not redeemed your vacation points i'm like i don't have any vacation points what are you talking about right people are so used to these these methods that they just want somebody who's real they want somebody who's authentic they want somebody who is themselves i i guess when we're talking about relational evangelism i'm just simply saying you don't have to go to school to learn how to do it you just got to figure out who you are and be yourself to the people around you to your family members they know who you are already you don't have to act like you're something else don't act super spiritual that i'm going to move on that that drives me crazy when i see somebody that we all know is not number four talking about relational evangelism number four it needs to be process oriented okay look process oriented so you have event oriented evangelism right which is often it's like a rush it's like a push um event oriented okay so similar like i love um love trunk or treat it's a way to get people on the campus but it's a very it's a rush it's a push right it's not there's nothing relational about it i mean some guy comes in wearing a god awful mask right sister she was on her head because we've been there there's nothing relational there right it's more event driven um i'm all about events in the church we have we have programs which are good programs are good they're not bad we got programs where people can come we can invite people to church but a lot of that stuff is kind of pushed it's kind of rushed when we when you get into the process orient oriented evangelism it's a patient step by step it might take you six months to get your friend to come to small group but that's okay and they might come to small group for another six months before they'll actually trust you enough to come to your crazy apostolic church right but that's okay because it's a slow process and i promise you those type of people are gonna hold on longer because they're they're happening to to to rationalize everything and there's a trust there's a bomb that's formed right relation relational in your small group that's why small groups are so important so what we do in our small groups just in case you don't come we have what's called the empty chair and we put an empty chair in in the center uh we put it in the center of the room and and when we get done we pray for that chair we're like we pray we say god next week we want this chair filled with somebody from our community whether it's a friend a co-worker somebody we're going to we're going to university with god we want this chair filled so we pray over the chair believing that next week we have an empty chair on purpose believing that somebody's going to fill that chair the next time we have small group that that's what's so beautiful about small group because why we don't all it's not like there's one person one surgeon who does all the work no no everybody in that care group have different they have different ministries sister sister claudine sutton are you here i saw your hand over here i saw it very faintly very quick there it is sister sutton was with kathy belcher until 3 am in the er the other night sister sister something thank you your ministry of compassion is beautiful i can think of i can think of a hundred ministries i can name off right now but you stay in there until three am and saying i'm not gonna leave sister kathy belcher until they have secured her room that they could put her in a room y'all that's beautiful that but that's that's what a small group that's what ministries coming together did you teach you might you might have been reading scriptures of the bible to sister kathy i don't know but probably not you're we're probably just trying to get her back there trying to get her taken care by the doctor i know you're praying over but there was no bible study being taught nobody was bringing the word but here we have a woman oh listen something about connect groups it's a beautiful thing because if i can draw my co-worker into my connect group if i could be the bridge and we could bring that co-worker into the connect group there's people all in that connect group who are going to take what god has given them as a ministry the the part the member of the body that they are they're going to bring that to that connect group and they're going to minister to your friend in ways you couldn't you you introverts thank god that there's going to be extroverts that are in your group they're going to carry on a conversation that you could have never carried on with your friend isn't that true you could have never i mean you're usually sitting there going what are we going to talk about next oh my goodness what am i going to talk about now what are we going to talk about now and you got you got people in the group that are just going to pick up a conversation and you're going to sit back and go this is awesome because you didn't want to talk anyways but you did your part you brought him to the connect group process oriented god help us and then this one goes a long way i'm going to talk about team number five is team oriented we do not have to feel that the individual uh the burden ourselves but god help us we have a team that's going to carry on the burden with us thank god thank god that we have people that are going to help us god doesn't require you to have every ministry you don't have to be the nose the ear the mouth god has given us each other so that we can have relational evangelism together strengths and abilities there's a story i'm almost through there's a story about four people one was named everybody you might heard the story another was named somebody third person was named anybody and the fourth person was named nobody there was an important job to be done and everybody was sure that somebody would do it anybody could have done it but nobody did it now somebody got angry about that because it was everybody's job everybody thought that anybody could do it but nobody realized that everybody wouldn't do it it ended up that everybody blamed somebody when nobody did what anybody could have done how many people will never find hope because nobody does what everybody has been commanded to do how many people in our county will never darken the doors of this church because everybody keeps waiting for somebody to do what everybody in this church ought to be doing i'm preaching to myself i mean how many how many times has that waiter left the table and you're walking out and you're like you know he seemed a little bit hungry and you're like ah i've been there i know what that feeling it's a it's a sinking feeling to know that you could have said something you could have planted a seed god help us it's not the pastor's job to win souls it's not the preacher's job it's not listen we are all disciple makers every single person in this room if you're a member of the body if you're a member of the body if you're not trying to be another member if you're if you're who you are if you're authentically you you are a disciple maker pick up pick up um the handout i just want to just just in my very conclusion i i want to um brother dale designed this out just enough to where i for my my spectacles and don't make fun i bought three of these for five dollars at the dollar store and sadly hey listen i've got a 150 pair and a 200 pair and this is my favorite pair right here so just just just saying sharing my testimony okay here we go why it is unique and there's no there's no other testimony just like it right it's personal and it's easy to understand why because it's your testimony i am the authority on it so it's really difficult to argue with people love a personal story and remember it people can relate to it so it builds a relational bridge in a post-modern world world it is the most effective witness and i believe we can all agree with that and then below here i'm not going to read all down through this but but there's there's steps to compose to compose your testimony okay and these are this is good and i'm just gonna be honest with you this came off of rhema woodward.com and like he is like guru on pretty much every subject so here we go look at look at those four things and obviously i want you to take this home um i've always wanted i've always wanted something like this but but never could find it you know tell me tell me how to share my testimony how do i compose my testimony because a lot of you're like well that's that's dumb all you got to do is tell what god did for you well some of y'all got a different testimony than i've got actually all y'all got a testimony that i got right we all we all just a different testimony so what brother woodward has done here is he's really gone through this like look for this right like suggestions for preparing what brother woodward is stating is simply this a testimony is not just something that's just blurred out it's something that you actually prepare all right like as if you're going to give any i think somewhere in here can't see it but somewhere in here he talks about trying to keep it around three minutes right because you don't want to bore somebody um you don't want to be there them thinking dear lord i wish to stop talking so so he's saying he's saying write it out on paper he said god honors preparation another one i really like he said refer to experiences most people have in common give concrete examples of changes in your life changes thank god whatever happened at salvation whatever changes took place in your life make those the very subjects and topics that you're talking about the more specific you are the more dynamic it'll be don't just say i want you to come to my church because my god changed my life that's too general stop talking about how did he change your life that's why when pastor carpenter gets up here and starts talking about putting fumes into a baggy uh gasoline fumes and and huffing and when he starts talking about that and and talk about god's god has brought him out of marijuana and all these different things and smoking however many packs a day how many cigarettes cigarettes a day those are all specifics he doesn't just get up here and say god changed me as a young person now i no longer do what i used to do be specific when you when you start to composing and i'm i'm talking about composing your testimony right now we're not even talking about testifying this just compose it and bring it together i like this one right here says he says don't talk down to people don't sound preachy nobody wants you to preach in the church top writer says the bible doesn't tell us to share our faith but to share our hope faith is what you believe hope is the benefit of what you believe share the hope that's what a testimony is you're not you're not just telling them what you believe everybody believes something you know what they're gonna do they're gonna turn around tell you what they believe i believe there's only one god and they're gonna be like i believe there's there's one god but it's in three persons they're gonna tell you what they believe it's not about sharing what you believe it's about sharing what has god done to your life how's god changed you why do they want what you have why should they buy into your product for all you sales people why why should they buy into whatever you're selling well it's simple because you found hope and they can have hope too you go down through these possible testimony themes i love this just giving great ideas of of of where you were and how god fixed it and then near the bottom it says remember that you have more than one testimony and that's awesome too if you're putting together a three-minute testimony if you're used to sharing a 20-minute testimony break it into parts for this person over here that's dealing with with being addicted to alcohol or drugs don't don't talk about any other other addictions that god has delivered you from talk about that addiction be specific find people break your testimony down into specific if somebody's having marital issues and and god saved you from having a divorce don't talk about being safe from drugs just narrow it narrow it down to what they have everybody has more than one testimony amen and then the back i like the back how many have heard the term christianese like like like careful how many christian terms you use because there's a lot of people that did man unbelievers they don't talk when you say i'm blessed and they're kind of like okay i like he says that means happy you know we can talk about being born again and people are like what morning what and you just simply make statements like i was given a fresh new start saying something like hey back when i was saved well in in this phenomenal world that we live in save means a different thing to other people when you say my life was changed at that moment when you say jesus is my lord an unchurched person they're not gonna understand you're gonna say something i put jesus in the driver's seat when you say i repented peop again people that aren't churched they're not gonna know what that means you gotta say i changed my way of thinking i i made a mental u-turn i like this one right here brother dale said this was his favorite i had sinned i like that it says i knew i'd blown it yeah because you know what people in the world they they know you don't you don't have to be you don't have to be a christian to know when you sin they know when they're sinning they know they don't have to even know the ten commandments guilty conscience will tell them they're sinning right so when you start talking when you start talking in their language make sure they understand what you're saying i knew i'd blown it all our sinners or you could say instead of don't say that say nobody's perfect no no one bats a thousand i felt convicted or i realized just going on through these uh praise the lord hallelujah man uh i've heard those people witness getting to get in the break room hallelujah brother you're like okay all right all right just just under understand but but study over this because this this really um how to lead into your testimony this is good too right here listen for problems or needs that jesus helped you with for people that have those same needs refer to news a news item dealing with common accommodate or problem that's that's listen in our day and age man you get on twitter you can watch fox news you get it don't take long you can start bringing up topics and you can start bringing bringing god into those topics amen and everybody everybody you know we're in a very conservative area we're all dealing with a lot of the same fears um whether you're baptist methodist pentecostal whatever you are we're dealing with the same the same type of fears we we can develop our testimony not make excuses everyone say no excuses what is god what's the worst that could happen and i tell myself this is something i get out of myself about what's the worst that could happen inviting somebody and them not coming or inviting somebody and them looking at you like you go to church i mean what's the worst that could happen i mean big deal if you can't tell i go to church already something's wrong with me anyways right what's the big deal i hope this helps somebody stay stand to your feet with me it's 8 50. we're going to get out of here again thank you so much for coming out till wednesday night i i just want to pray and let's just pray that god would open our minds to personal evangelism all right they got that god would place somebody in our life i don't know maybe either a hungry a family member co-worker somebody at the supermarket somebody at that walmart would just would you pray that prayer with me i'm gonna pray and i i'm being so serious about this i'm praying this week between now and sunday god put somebody in my life that i can start a relationship with and they might not come to church on sunday that's okay they might not come to church next sunday that's okay but possibly if i could pull them into a connect group possibly if i could if i could just get them if i can get them to to the concert to our family weekend concert something if i could just pull them to something can you pray that prayer with me let's pray father we love you oh god i just believe lord god that this is our hour this is our time god this church is growing faster lord than it's ever grown before but i believe lord more members lord are joining your body than have ever joined before and god it's your will lord god it is your will that each one of us recognize what our part in the body is lord lord i want to be genuine lord god i want to be authentic in who i am i i don't want to try i'm not trying to be pastor carpenter i i'm not trying to be pastor hammond i'm not trying to be brother brother john stone i'm not trying to be brother brother sullivan i just want to be me lord god i want to be who i am lord you've given me a specific ministry lord you'll be given every person in this room a specific ministry lord god you've called them to do great things and lord god we're going to respond to that god and we need you to place a person in our lives place a soul into our lives lord god let us cross pathways i i don't know if it's going to be at a restaurant god i don't know if it's going to be lord at a department store i don't know if it's going to be at work if somebody's going to walk into the church tomorrow that's looking for hope god i just want to be that bridge ah god i just want to be the bridge of hope come on can somebody pray this prayer with me god help us to be the bridge of hope god is somebody in our county somebody lord god that we get to see every day and we don't even realize lord god that they're hurting that they're in need oh god i want to be the bridge lord you've given me hope and lord i want to give as many people hope as possible i want to show them who you are i want them filled with your holy ghost lord i want them to to feel the supernatural power lord that we feel in this place every church service lord i want him to come in here and be among us lord god and experience the things that we experience every day lord god every time we come into this house god lay our soul upon my heart oh god and i want to win them god i want to disciple them oh in jesus name come on if that's your prayer just lift up your hands come on let's just worship him now father we love you lord as we leave this place lord we're going to believe that you heard our prayer god you i believe that you see our desire lord god place lives in our hearts oh shut up god i feel your holy ghost because lord god i believe that the body works together i believe that the body does what it's designed to do revival is going to take place in this house lord god and you're going to be glorified and you're going to be exalted and you're going to be served oh in jesus name let it take place lord in jesus name we pray and the church said amen god bless you dismiss tonight in jesus name amen leaders and assistants on my small group connect group leaders and sisters if you will meet me very quickly in the connect center god bless you in jesus name