A Simple Strategy For Bringing The Kingdom Of God To Your Neighborhood

Based upon Jesus’ instruction in Luke 10 when He sent out the 72 to every town and village he was about with the purpose of finding, what Jesus referred to as,  the Person of Peace this simple strategy was developed and designed to help you find the person of peace that God has prepared in your neighborhood. 

A Person of Peace is someone that God has prepared and is ready to receive the Good News of Jesus Christ and could potentially be the key to reaching his or her entire network of relationships for Christ.  This strategy is designed to engage your neighbors and find a person who is ready to give their heart and life over to the care and control of Christ.

The thing to remember when reading and implementing this strategy is that it’s not your goal to share with everyone about Christ but to find the person that God has already prepared, The Person of Peace, and to lead to Christ and into disciple.  This person of peace will be empowered by God to reach their network of relationships.

STRATEGY PREPARATION:

1.     Make & Plate Chocolate Chip Cookies.

You want to make enough plates of chocolate chip cookies for the number of houses in your neighborhood.  Each plate should have about 4 to 5 cookies on them.

2.     Write Out & Memorize Your Personal Testimony

Write out and memorize your personal testimony of coming to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Your testimony should include 3 parts:

•  Your Life Before Knowing Christ
• How You Came To Faith In Christ
• What God Has Done In Your Life Sense Coming To Faith In Christ.

3.  Read & Memorize The Story Of The Sinful Woman

The story of the Sinful Woman is found in  Luke 7:36-50.  Read the story 4 or 5 times and then rewrite the story in your own words.  Be true to the text, don’t add or subtract anything to it, but make sure to tell it in a way and with words you would normally speak and use.  Practice telling the story over and over again.  .  Make sure you practice it by saying it out loud so you can hear your own voice telling the story.

4.     Memorize A Simple Gospel Presentation

Here’s a simple Gospel Presentation.  

It’s as simple as A, B, C!

A – Stands for Admit. 

Ask them if they admit that they are a sinner in need of forgiveness by God.

B – Stands for Believe. 

Share with them that Jesus died on the cross to take the punishment for their sins and then was raised from the dead proving that he has power over death, grave and sin.  Ask them if they believe in Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.

C – Stand for Control. 

Share with them that they can have their sins forgiven if they are willing to surrender the control of their life over to the control of  Jesus.  If they are willing to confess Jesus is Lord they can receive forgiveness of sin.  Ask them if they are willing to surrender control of their life over to the control of Christ.  Ask them if they are willing to pledge their allegiance to Christ and live for Him. 

HOW TO APPROACH EACH INDIVIDUAL NEIGHBOR:

1.     Knock On The Door & Introduce Yourself

2.     Offer The Plate Of Chocolate Chip Cookies

3.     Ask For Prayer Requests

For these first 3 parts, you can say something like this:

“Hi!  My name is  _______________________ and we are your neighbors from down the street.  We just came by to say that God loves you and we care about you .  We have also made some homemade chocolate chip cookies  that we would like to give you.  (If they accept, the cookies then continue with saying).  We were also wondering if there was anything going on in your life that you need God to take care of? Any need you might that I can pray for you about?”

4.     Pray For Whatever Requests They Share

5.     Ask If You Can Share A True Story From The Word Of God

6.     If They Say:

•  “No":  Thank them for their time and move on to the next home
•   “Yes”: Share the story of the sinful woman that you memorized from Luke 7:36-50.

After you finish sharing the story of the sinful woman you can seamlessly transition to sharing you testimony by saying something like this:

“You know there was a time in my life when I was desperate for God and His forgiveness just like the sinful woman in this story …”

7.     Then You Immediately Share Your Testimony

•  Don’t ask them for permission to share your story.  They already gave you permission to share the Bible story.
•  Just keep on talking as if it was one continuous story.
• Here’s a simple way to transition from sharing your testimony to share the simple Gospel Presentation.  At the end of your testimony say something like this:

“ and now one of the things that God has me doing is going around sharing with other people that just like the sinful woman was able to have her sins forgiven and just like I was able to have my sins forgiven, you too can have your sins forgiven if you’re willing to …”

8.     Then Share The Gospel Presentation

Here’s how to share the gospel.  Continue what you were just saying by including this:

“…  Admit you are a sinner that needs God’s forgiveness.  Do you have sins that you need God to forgive?  And if you are ready to Believe, that Jesus died on the cross to take your punishment for your sins and was brought back to life again three days later.  Do you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins and was raised back to life again?  And, if you will surrender Control of your life over to the Control of Jesus.  Are you willing to give Jesus control over your life?

 If They Say:

•  “No” Thank them for their time and move on to the next home

• “Yes” Lead them in a prayer of commitment to Christ.

9.     Set up a time to come back in 3 to 4 days to share another true story from the word of God.

10. Keep coming back week after week sharing another story from the Bible.  You might want to go through the Book of Mark to start off.

I got to tell you this strategy works amazingly in finding the person that God is already at work.  Here’s the best part!  You’re not trying to convince anyone of anything.  You’re just sharing the Gospel and looking to see how they respond.  If they respond negatively, you just move on to the next house.  If they respond positively you have just found the Person of Peace – you have just found the person whom called has already prepared to come to faith in Christ. 

THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS TO JOIN CHRIST ON HIS MISSION

LOOKING FOR THOSE WHO THE FATHER HAS ALREADY PREPARED!

Are you ready to join Christ on His mission?  Are you ready to bring the Kingdom of God to your neighborhood?  If so, go buy all the fixings for chocolate chip cookies, memorize that story and your testimony.  

HOW TO HAVE A WORRY FREE LIFE – Part 3: By Surrendering Our Attitude To Desire Only God’s Will

“I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize the Lord is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine.  It makes no matter where He places me, or how.  That is rather for Him to consider than for me; for in the easiest positions He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult, His grace is sufficient.” – Hudson Taylor

The previous principle of actualizing a worry free life that I shared was to have faith in Sovereignty of God.  It was designed to help us understand and believe that God is able to do anything, through anybody, including each of us.  If God is truly God then nothing is impossible for Him and all things that He wills can and will be done.  In other words, there’s no force or authority above Him or beside Him.  

God most definitely is in control.  

But trusting and believing that God is in control, when left by itself, does provide insurance that we won’t be filled with worry and anxiety.  As a matter of fact, it is quite possible for a person to be actively doing God’s will and still have no peace about it!  People can be in service to God, doing exactly what He has asked them to do, with full assurance that God will accomplish His task and still be worry and anxious about it!  That sounds crazy, doesn’t it?  But it’s true.

Let me give you an example using the prophet Jonah.  You know the story of Jonah.  Jonah is commanded by God to go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it because their disgusting wickedness had come up to God.  Jonah however, didn’t want to obey God so he ran away and hopped on a boat headed for Tarshish.  While on the ship God sent a hug storm to come up against them and almost sink the ship and everyone on it. 

Jonah then convinced the other men of the ship that the only way to save the ship from God’s wrath was for them to throw him overboard.  While floating around in the water, God caused a whale to come and swallowed him up.  However, this whale swallowing experience wasn’t intended to kill Jonah but for God to get his attention and compliance.  As Jonah was sitting in the belly of the whale, He cried out to God, committed to obeying Him by going to Nineveh, and preach against the city.  Then after being burped up onto shore Jonah did go to Nineveh, he did preach against the city but once the king of Nineveh heard the message, on his own initiative, he got the whole city to repent and beg God for mercy. 

As God heard the sincere cry of repentance from the people of the whole city, He did show mercy on them and pulled back His wrath.  This, however, was not what Jonah wanted to happen.  Jonah didn’t want mercy to be shown them but instead he wanted the judgment of God to fall on them.  Jonah then begins to act like a spoiled little brat and throws a temper tantrum.  Listen to what the Bible records Jonah saying once he realizes that God had shown the people of Nineveh mercy.

“But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry.  He prayed to the Lord, ‘isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home?  That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish.  I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God; slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.  Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”  Jonah 4:1-3 (NIV)

While there are lots of lesson that we can learn from those first 4 chapters of Jonah, the one I want us to understand and meditate on today is this: 

 Just because you’re doing God’s will doesn’t mean you’ll experience God’s peace and be free from anxiety.  Just because you’re being obedient doesn’t mean you won’t have worry in your life! 

 Why?  Because a Christian who wishes to experience a worry free life not only needs to trust in the Sovereignty of God but they also need to surrender to the will of God in their attitude as well as in their action.  If our attitude is wrong, even when doing what is right, we still won’t have a life filled with peace.

 Jonah went and did what God wanted but he went and did it with a bad attitude.  Even, though his actions were right – his heart was wrong.  Jonah didn’t want the people of Nineveh to be forgiven – he wanted them to be judged and condemned!  Jonah knew, from his understanding of the nature of God that “if” the people of Nineveh repented God would forgive them and because of this understanding of God, Jonah worried that God would forgive them and show them mercy if they repented. 

The worry free life that we all are seeking always will come from both right actions and right attitudes.  Jonah obviously didn’t have the right attitude. Jonah desired something that was contrary to what God wanted and as a result, even though He was obedient, Jonah neither had peace about the assignment or joy about the outcome.

Now with this as the backdrop, let’s once again take a look at part of Hudson Taylor’s quote.  

“I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize the Lord is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine …”

It’s that last part of the sentence I want us to focus on,

“ … and His will is mine …”! 

Hudson Taylor had come to a place in his daily life where he could honestly say that he not only sought to do God’s will but also that it was his sincere hearts desire to see God’s will accomplished, regardless of what it was. 

So here is the third principle for a worry free life.  We can experience a life free of worry by: 

Surrendering Our Attitude To Desire Only God’s Will!

What I mean by that statement is that when we get our hearts to desire that which God desires; that we want what God actually wants; that we have no desires of our own but only to do the will of God then we can be freed from worry. 

Jesus, after talking to the sinful woman at the well described his desire to do the will of God in the following manner,

“Jesus said to them, ‘my food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.”  John 4:34 (NIV)

In other words, Jesus was so desirous to do the will of His Father that it was being hungry and thirsty.  It was only through complete obedience that Jesus was able to satisfy that desire. 

Think about a time when you were so hungry or thirsty!  How did you feel?  Wasn’t getting something to eat and something to drink an all consuming desire and thought for you?  Of course it was! 

THAT’S HOW WE ARE TO DESIRE DOING THE WILL OF GOD! 

Nothing else will satisfy. Satisfaction only comes when we obey!

There’s an old gospel hymn that perfectly describes this principle of conforming our attitude and desire to match that of Christ’s. 

WHEREVER HE LEADS I’LL GO

Wherever He leads I’ll go, 
Wherever He leads I’ll go,
I’ll follow my Christ who loves me so, 
Wherever He leads I’ll go.

He drew me closer to His side, 
I sought His will to know,
And in that will I now abide, 
Wherever He leads I’ll go. 

My heart, my life, my all I bring
To Christ who loves me so;
He is my Master, Lord, and King,

Wherever He leads Ill go.

(Alan Jackson)

 A true worry free life comes when we 1). Abide in God’s will; 2). Surrender our heart, our life and our all to Christ regardless of where He leads us.

 In order to experience the worry free life we must be willing to exchange our will to that of God’s will.