The Ordinary Person’s Guide to Changing the World - Ben Stuart

well when pearl harbor was attacked in december of 1941 uh a scrawny shipyard worker named desmond dawes was among the many people in america that was disturbed by that and wanted to do something about it and yet as a seventh-day adventist he had sworn to never take a human life however he enlisted anyway but he just enlisted as a medic uh and resolved to step out onto the field of battle without a weapon not even bringing a knife and so his particular battalion was sent to the pacific theater and they were placed on the island of okinawa what charged with the almost impossible task of scaling a 400-foot cliff and then taking it from japanese forces that were embedded upon the cliff's peak and so they ascended that cliff and upon the top they were bombarded by enemy fire fierce fighting broke out that lasted a day and by the end of it there were multiple wounded in the american forces and they were driven back all the way back to the edge and back down that 400-foot cliff so that by the end of that day only three people were left on top of that mountain the japanese forces wounded american troops and little desmond dawes and as u.s forces regrouped down at the base of the cliff suddenly they looked up and from over the edge they saw a body appear that was lowered by rope back to the ground and it was a wounded soldier and then it happened again and then it happened again and it happened again and slowly what people began to realize was that desmond dawes who stayed for hours on top of that cliff would sneak through enemy fire to continue to dodge around find injured people provide aid to them and then drag their body to the cliff lash them with rope and carry them down and he continued this for hours upon hours so that by the end of that night the u.s military estimated that desmond dawes had personally physically saved 75 men so the medal of honor was bestowed upon him by our country and he was asked in that moment what was going through your mind as you continue to put yourself in harm's way to rescue those who were hurting and he said this what was running through my mind was i just kept praying please god help me save one more please god help me save one more now why do i mention that because i think many of us love stories like that that that an ordinary person can be used to do extraordinary things if they're willing and i mention that now because we're in this fascinating moment where paul is talking about the mission of the people of god and he said earlier in the book of colossians which we're wrapping up these two weeks that god is on an incredible mission to rescue thus out of the kingdom of darkness and transfer us in the kingdom of the beloved son that every human being though you're made in the image of god and in beautiful you're broken because of sin we are devastated by our depravity yet jesus christ went running into the chaos gave his life for us so he could pull us out of the darkness of death and condemnation because of our sin and transfer us to safety and life and health and eternity with god through jesus christ that god is on a rescue mission and what's amazing about the book of acts is he says to his people and you will be my witnesses in jerusalem and judea and to the ends of the earth that god says i am on this incredible mission of rescue of broken people i've supplied all that's necessary to redeem a human soul from condemnation and now i'm taking that message and i'm giving it to you to ordinary people that you see in the book of acts yes you have the apostle peter's healing and the apostle paul is working miracles but you also have phil who was in charge of bread distribution bringing the gospel to a nation that had never heard the name of jesus that god delights to use ordinary people to do his extraordinary work and all of us want to have a life full of meaning and life of purpose and if you're in christ you know i've been latched into the greatest of all stories and so my longing for a life of purpose is now intersected with the greatest of all purposes that i get to let the world know that jesus christ has come for them and let me tell you something if you're new to church for christians this thrills us i've been to so many conferences and events and moments where by the end of it after three days of worshiping and confessing sin and seeing redemption is true and all the beauty that comes with knowing the grace of god by the end people are usually fired up they're cheering and usually at the end of a conference it ends by saying we want to see god glorified and everyone's like yes we want to see the name of jesus made great yes we want to see his glory cover the earth like the water covers the sea yes and he say so you go and tell your friends and coworkers about jesus no no no no no no i do not want to do that that will be awkward they may not like that that you may say they're lost they don't feel like they're lost you may say they're drowning and we're throwing them a life raft but they're out there wondering why you keep hitting me in the head with life rafts hey i don't know that my friends want this and so there's a tension in the christian community if we want a life of purpose we have the greatest of all purposes we're meant to deliver it to people but often if we're honest we're scared to do it that it's in human nature when we enjoy something to share it with others we are all ambassadors of great movies and music and restaurants and we want to be ambassadors of the greatest of all kingdoms jesus but we're scared sometimes and let me just say this as a pastor i get it because yes i'm a pastor but i'm also an introvert when i waited tables in college i used to have to pray in the kitchen for the courage to come and take people's orders i'm not making that up and you're like ben you're their waiter they're expecting you to come and i would say i know and yet i understand what it is to be scared to initiate a conversation that's why it was crazy for me through much of my early years of ministry to be involved with an evangelistic ministry that would go to pool houses and bars and just come in with gospel tracts and tell people about jesus i was terrible at it and yet that impulse to make the name of jesus that healed me and forgiven me known to my friends is in me and so what i want to do today is teach us and i love that we've got this collection of door holders in here let's talk about how we can be a part of god's rescuing work and so what we're doing here today if i can just let you know what to call this it's the ordinary person's guide to changing the world that's what this talk is or you could call it the introvert's guide to evangelism right because paul in his mercy is going to make it real simple for us he's going to give us three steps that we can take right now even if you don't feel gifted talented you can take these three little steps and they might just lead you to being a world-changing life-saving human and the first of the steps we get right out of the gate in verse 2 he says continue steadfastly in prayer being watchful in it with all thanksgiving what does the believer do that wants other people to know that jesus they found which incidentally if you're here and you're not a believer in jesus you're like wait a minute what i'm not gonna go tell the world about jesus i don't even know if i like him hey that's fine we're glad you're here just know that this message has the opportunity to let you know a little bit about what's happening in the heart of the friend who invited you here okay so this is a little recon for you and for many of us who know him where do we start paul starts us with we pray earnestly we pray earnestly and as he talks about prayer he tells us how to do it and then what to pray about the how is in verse two he says you pray continually you adhere to it persist in it one translation says devote yourselves to prayer that means you stay actively busily engaged in something and then he says do it steadfastly that means persevere you don't give up persist and persevere in prayer that's what we're meant to do to keep going jesus taught like this he told the story in luke 18 of of the woman who went to an unjust judge this judge was crooked and corrupt but she kept coming to him day after day after day until finally the judge was like i don't fear god and don't like you but i'll give you what you want if you'll go away and jesus says if an unjust judge will answer that kind of persistence how much more a god of justice will he answer the prayer of his kids he says but when the son of man comes to the earth will he find faith and jesus flips them on him and says hey god is inclined to hear you are you inclined to talk to him if you don't pray very much can i just be real jesus says it not me it's because you don't trust god because you don't think he's real or you don't think he can really bring his power to bear in your life you just pragmatically don't think it's realistic so this is a challenge of faith today you believe god's real or not he's telling you test me come to me and persist in it don't give up so we pray persistently and then he says we pray watchfully what does that mean watchfully well jesus used that language in the garden of gethsemane when he was praying knowing he was about to die you remember he went and he was praying and he was sweating and crying out to god and he asked his boys to pray with him they kept falling asleep and he told him wake up and then he said man the spirit's willing the flesh is weak but he says hey watch and pray so you don't enter into temptation he said um guys there's a bigger story playing out right now this is a huge event historically and you're going to want to be awake for this and so watch and pray so that you won't be tempted to just be consumed with sleep or or get sideswiped by your fears stay aware that god is moving because this is a significant moment i'm about to go to the cross and what's wild is he uses that same language we don't have time to read all these all through his last sermons to us about his return that jesus christ is coming back and he says so be watchful and be awake because you do not know when he will return and then thessalonians says the same thing we are not children of the dark we're children of the light children of the day what he means by that is man we know what's going on in the world that in your offices at your school in the city that you move among there's a bigger spiritual story playing out than just did i get a parking spot and do i like my co-worker there's heaven and hell life and death eternity and the preciousness of a human life every day playing out and so jesus says wake up be watchful don't sleep stay awake there's a bigger spiritual game getting caught going on here so don't get lulled to sleep by just being interested in entertainment and comfort and clothes and sex when the reality is there's a bigger story playing out so yes eat yes get closed clothed yes live your life but never lose an awareness there's a spiritual story playing out in your apartment right now so we pray watchfully and gratefully why gratefully because we get to talk to a god who can do something and so we come before the throne some of you you can't get a meeting with your boss but you can get a meeting with the king of kings anytime you want and he's calling you talk to me come to me and then he tells you with what in verse three paul says at the same time pray for us what does he pray for that god may open to us a door for the word to declare the mystery of christ on account of which i'm in prison he's going to give us two things to pray for number one he says pray for opportunity pray that god will open the door paul prayed like that all the time one of my favorites first corinthians 16 he says a wide open door of effective ministries been opened to me and many oppose me i love that and he doesn't say god opened a door of ministry but many oppose me he says god opened a door many oppose me here i go right he says god's opened a door and then you see in the book of acts god opens the door of people's hearts that lydia god opened her heart to receive the message that god creates opportunity and god creates the life change so we start praying to god will you open up doors and particularly here it's like will you open up doors so that we may speak the mystery of christ what was the mystery of christ he said it back in chapter one christ in you the hope of glory that your shame your condemnation your sin does not need to be the end of your story there's no tragic heroes in the kingdom that all your flaws and brokenness won't ultimately bury you if you were in christ that his glory is too good it's too sweet that your guilt and your shame will not be your end his glory and his hope and his redemption is your end because christ wants to be knit together with you and so we have all this hope and so he says pray that god will open a door that we get to talk about that do you do that have you ever done that prayed that god will open a door of ministry let me tell you something i have to do that like i said i grew up in a evangelistic ministry that was led by people who were gifted in evangelism they would go out i kid you not i went once to the bus stop in dallas with one of these guys he said let's just walk along this bus terminal and see if people will talk about their faith and i'm like okay so i'm walking up to people like do you want to talk about your faith no yeah i don't even know why i see that i'm sorry man like it went so bad and he walked up to me and was like man how's it going i'm like terrible i'm just scaring people he's like ah man i'm sure you're fine then he just sees the guy and he goes hey man hey man i was reading this bible verse today listen to this and he read it he goes what do you think about that the guy goes i think i needed to hear that today he's like right you know jesus man the guy was like no he's like well let's talk about a man can i pray for you the guy was like yeah i'd really like that a lot and i'm like oh come on what what is this what what is this when i walk a dream like hey man sorry hey no no no we're cool we're cool i'm like i'm not good at that a lot of shame in my early evangelistic endeavors and so i realized i don't know if this is broke but i'm gonna do this god if you want me to talk about you you have to make a way because i can't produce it right and i would pray like that god will you create the opportunity and will you give me the courage to take it but i don't want to say that like yeah ben you did that i mean it didn't start great the first time i ever did it i was waiting tables at a restaurant that uh uh was hotter than it is in this room now i lost 10 pounds carrying fajitas to people i hated that job i mean it was so hot it was so hard to just get covered with food and spilling margaritas on me i didn't enjoy working at this restaurant so i got into a habit every day as i would pull up there i would park the car and this was my rhythm pull up park and then i'd go god please help me get through today amen i'd get out of the car and then there was one day i don't even know why i did it i went god please help me get through today and if you want to use me or whatever fine that's a quote and i got out of the car and i went in to wipe down tables before it started and i kid you not i go in there to wipe down tables and one of the other waiters turns the corner and goes hey man you believe in god i said yeah and he goes tell me about him then he sat down i was like what he said tell me what you believe i was like uh okay well uh i believe jesus the son of god i started talking about he goes hey hold on and he goes back and he gets another waiter he's like sit down start over tell him he's telling us about god go and i'm like what is going on here so i started telling him about jesus and it turns out they had watched some show the night before that had completely freaked them out and something about me they thought maybe this guy has some answers and so i looked at that i was like okay even the most pathetic prayers god can use so i'll tell you my life hack in ministry man i pray that all the time like my wife worked at a starbucks and she's so uh when i was in seminary she was so kind and gentle people coming to her asking her to pray for him whatever i'd walk into starbucks and i think i intimidate people i don't have an approachable face and so i just realized i don't know what to say so i would just pray god would you create opportunities and give me the courage to take them and i would pray that all the time and i would just keep going to the same shop so they would know i'm a part of the fabric of this community and i remember a lady came up to me once on her break took her apron off she sat down she said are you religious excuse me she said i see your bible out here said i need you to pray for my son i said okay so he started talking about the deepest pain in her life and i was able to pray for her and pray for her son and i just kept showing up kept coming back and then every time i would go get my coffee she would tell people hey y'all need to know this guy he's praying for my son hey meet this guy hey this guy's a part of this church she started telling the whole staff about what church i worked at where it was what time the gathering started and i'll see you there and one by one this starbucks had more and more people arriving at our church because i was a powerful evangelist no no one buys that but because god uses earnest prayer are you praying for an opportunity do you even ask him that do you pray for his opportunities for his church that's what paul says pray for us that god will open the door for us you've been praying for our venue some of you and this isn't every one of you some of you have been complaining that we haven't had a venue to meet in but you haven't prayed yet that guy would provide one so it's i don't know if it's on me as a leader it might be on you as a prayer i'm just saying somebody needs to pray about that because i got a verse right here that's all i'm saying i just let sit under a tree think about it because paul said to the corinthians you also must help us by prayer so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many paul says you have to i grew up in a home where my mom had a room after her kids graduated she she took one of the rooms and she transferred it into a missionary prayer room she was a teacher at a high school in her neighborhood but you went into that room and it was covered with maps of the world with pins of where the missionaries were that she was supporting she didn't have a lot of money but she knew the coffee this guy liked so she'd send him that coffee she knew this person needed someone to watch the dog so she had this ugly nasty very sick dog in her home so that missionary wouldn't have to worry about it and our life was touching the globe because of the faithfulness of my mom her prayers connected her to the work of god around the globe do you pray pray earnestly i don't know what to pray for pray for an open door and then paul says pray that i will make it clear as i ought to speak i just kept thinking about my buddy nate butler all the time because he would always shout down a pastor by saying make it plain it's like yes make it plain paul says pray for opportunity and pray for clarity that i would make it plain for me when i started as a youth pastor these kids would come to our church that were punks and by that i mean they would just like wear all black and like safety pins connected to them like they were really into punk and not really into church but one of them their dad made him come and so she would come and i remember i just shared the gospel with her i drew a picture drew a little stick figure up at the top quoted colossians all things were made by god for god then i drew an arrow down romans 3 23 says for all of sin and fallen short of the glory of god then i drew a line to eternity and the wages of that sin is death separation for god but the free gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ through a cross leading us back to god and i just wrote all those bible verses on it and at the end of that she's like can i keep this piece of paper like yeah and then she asked me if i'd meet with a friend of hers we went to like a burger king and i'm trying to be cute at that point i'm like god's kind of like a motorcycle and climbing a mountain she was like can you just draw the picture like yeah all right all things were made by him ages of sin whatever they invited a couple more friends and i'm still trying to be cute man i was reading this passage today and they're like can you just draw the picture man just draw the picture bro don't get cute just make it plain do you know the gospel can you share it the ministry i grew up in high school they made us memorize verses so that you could explain to someone about the glory of god the beauty of humanity our fallenness because of sin jesus stepping in living the perfect life we could not dying the death we deserved raising victorious over heaven so we might have eternal life in him they taught us to speak that in less than three minutes and i've often used the line that they told me when i asked somebody do you know what the bible's about said have you ever had someone explain it to you most people are curious and intimidated by this book and so i've found that's been such a fruitful way to start a conversation hey man before we get into like the politics of christendom or whatever like do you know what the bible's about do you know its main story line most people say no i said can i take about three minutes and explain it to you i've never had anyone say nah there's a curiosity in people if we can explain it and make it plain can you do that so we pray for opportunity and for clarity let me give you the next two things we do there in verse five and six walk in wisdom towards outsiders making the best use of the time let your speech always be gracious seasoned with salt so you may know how you ought to answer each person that's your second point number one is we pray earnestly two is we walk wisely conduct yourselves with wisdom paul prayed this for us at the beginning he prayed that god would fill your life with spiritual wisdom so you would walk in a way pleasing to the lord that the lord made this world he knows how it works and so as we study his word we know how the world works and how to best work within it here's how to use money in a way that honors god and blesses people here's how to use my gifts in a way that honors god and helps me and others here's how to use my body in a way that cares for my soul as well as my body the bible tells you how to handle all manner of the ways the world is built so you can flourish and he says man pray and then walk in wisdom live out this word because no one wants to buy your perspective if they don't see it in practice so if your life looks no different from your co-workers that don't know jesus why on earth would they want to buy into this craziness they need to see the effect in your life to be drawn to the message that's changed it did they see it change life does the way you handle money where you handle sex the way you handle your mouth and conversations the way you handle setbacks at work and grumbling do you look different are you strange it should be the normal experience for a christian for someone to come to you and say why are you like that i remember a different table i waited tables a different restaurant i waited tables at uh we helped open this restaurant and i remember as i was there we had our opening day and it was training for waiters and there was all these new kids that had never waited tables before and were nervous about it so there was a moment when the trainer left and it was just us sitting around and you could tell pretty quickly the two camps the nervous new kids and the old seasoned veterans grizzled from waiting tables and these new kids were like what happened what if we get a six top what do you do and you know the old ones are like man i remember once there was an atop they all wanted separate checks you know they're telling rough stories and i was part of that crew but i remember one girl spoke up and she goes well i'll tell you when you don't want to work she said sundays because that's when all the christians go to church and she said they come out and they're rude and they're demanding and they're the worst tippers you know what happened when she said that all the other veterans nodded along and i couldn't argue with her because she was right profoundly disappointing to see how people would treat a waiter and then they'd watch you bow your head and pray and i walked out of that meeting really deflated and i'll never forget this girl walked up to me and we hadn't talked she didn't know i was a christian i just think she saw my demeanor i couldn't hide well how discouraging that was so she walked out and she looked at me and she goes that was pretty discouraging wasn't it i was like yeah and then i'll never forget she looked at me and she goes well let's prove him wrong i was like okay and it was literally like the 80s montage started like you could hear the keyboard start we were like let's do it and so what we started doing was walking wisely among outsiders we just started wiping down their tables for them if i'm wiping down your table it means i'm not serving mine which means i might get a lower tip but i'm helping you set you up to win that's not something you have to do for your job but non-christians would watch us clean their table like what are you doing we'd stay up later to help people break down so they wouldn't have to be there till 1am cleaning up their tables the cooks and there's famously animosity between waiters and cooks the cooks all the grease from their fires had gone up into their air ducts and turned them black so i took down all their air ducts took them to a car wash they had a degreaser as part of the gun i spent ten dollars just putting money in there and firing this degreaser at this thing just like until those things were shining and i'll never forget when we loaded them back up the cooks found out about it later it was the funniest thing because they walked up to us and they were like hey man did you clean our grills he's like yeah dude it's pretty cool man i was like yeah no problem he goes no man no that was pretty cool man like okay and after that we built a bond something happened here so when one of our co-workers invited them to church with us they all came how did they come why because we walked with wisdom there's something different about you let them see that that the way you're walking in life hey man things went sideways at work and everybody grumbled to complain you never do that i just i've never heard you complain why is that and then you got to make a choice well you know good parenting or if you say well i mean to be honest um it's not that i've never felt frustrated it's just god is working on my life hey man you just don't seem stressed this is a stressful town how are you peaceful in the midst of this crazy why uh i'll be honest with you i developed a rhythm uh from the scriptures that said don't be anxious about anything but let your requests be made known to god the peace of god will guard your hearts and minds in christ jesus i i live in that verse i don't know anything about that well i mean i'd love to talk to you about it sometime making the best use of time making the most of every opportunity i love that just the greek word is x agora agora means marketplace he says snatch it out of the marketplace ex agora get it out of there he said your time is diminishing so when you see an opportunity to do good snatch it don't miss it grab it be a part of it be in the middle of it brian head welch was the lead guitarist for corn i don't know if any of you know who cornway is anymore they're fairly aggressive rock band and with all the money he was making he uh got into real estate and as he got into real estate he wrote in his book i met a guy named doug he said derg was a church-going goody goody but he was a positive person so i was drawn to him and he said we'd do these real estate deals with doug and with eric and then he wrote but i was so addicted to meth i had eight brands going at once and he said in the middle of 2004 i was saturated with evil and depression doing more speed than you can imagine and getting more obsessed with pornography i had hit rock bottom he said i knew it was time for me to try and reach out for help so i reached out to doug and eric a little bit he said i sent them emails about real estate deals all the time but i started to hint at how unhappy i was he said and then one moment i got an email out of the blue from eric brian not to get weird on you or anything but i was reading my bible this morning and you came to mind when i read this verse come to me all who are weary and burdened i will give you rest take my yoke upon you learn from me i'm gentle humble in heart there you'll find rest for your soul my yoke's easy my burden's light i don't know why but i had a very strong feeling that would mean something to you and i should send it to you please don't take that wrong all the best eric i read his email and when i replied everything came pouring out of me i told him i'm a lost soul man my life isn't fun anymore do you have any advice on where to go from here and he wrote back awesome message i want you to get one concept because he said maybe i need to go to church going to church doesn't make you a christian any more than sitting in a garage makes you a car he stole that from billy graham a relationship with jesus is personal he's your confidant and your friend you can turn to him anytime he's always accepting no matter what you've done he can release you from any guilt pain or shame you have people in far worse circumstances have turned their lives around and come to know the unconditional love of god i would love to come and sit and talk with you more about it and brian head welch put his faith in jesus christ because of the faithfulness of eric and doug the real estate guys to make the most of every opportunity to see someone's cry for help and say hey man i don't want to be weird but where is god in that for you hey can i pray for you i don't have to do it with you that makes you uncomfortable i just want you to know i'm going to pray for you because i don't have any advice but my heart hurts for what you're hurting with make the most of every opportunity so we pray earnestly we walk wisely they need to see you're different and then we speak graciously that's the last thing a lot of people want to skip that in christian circles they love that quote from saint francis preach the gospel and when necessary use words you're like it's necessary you're going to need words all right that's like saying order food and when necessary use words you know you're like hey no learn sign language use it use communication to get a message across and so yes you do good and walk wisely to set up what this message does to you from the inside out and then people will be drawn to this message and you speak and he says let your speech always be gracious or with grace seasoned with salt so you may know how you ought to answer each person he says when you speak to people and he says always this isn't just when the religious conversation comes up suddenly you become this religious person that you're cussing rude grumbling complaining and then suddenly you're like well you know jesus christ has changed my life who did you just become now always with grace that you have a gracious way of talking to people you have a gentle way is what peter says be ready to give an answer but always with gentleness that the way you speak to people is kind your words aren't the thrust of a sword but they're like the wise words that bring healing that the way you speak is attractive to people gk chesterton's one of my favorite people to study gk chesterton lived in the late 1800s early 1900s in britain his writings were so profound in their apologetics they helped convert a young c.s lewis from atheism to christianity they inspired everybody from michael collins to gandhi his writing's beautiful his book orthodoxy is historic but he was also really silly he was an overgrown elf of a man is what one person called him who laughed at his own jokes and amused children at birthday parties by catching biscuits in his mouth he didn't take himself seriously he was asked once about being one of the major proponents of christianity if you were caught on a desert island what so if you could bring one book what would it be and without hesitation he said practical guide to shipbuilding he's great and he was always invited to debate george bernard shaw h.g wells they would pack out stadiums for him to debate these men and he would show up late tripping on the stage pulling random scraps of paper out of his pockets and then laughing at his own jokes becoming friends with them and his habit was after the debate i take you to the pub and he became friends with all these guys he vigorously opposed their philosophies and yet even as he vigorously opposed their philosophy he was so winsome that they wanted to be around him this is what one person who debated against him said about the experience of being on stage with him he said to hear chesterton's howl of joy to see him double himself up in agony of laughter at my personal insults to watch the effect of his sportsmanship on a shocked audience who were one to mirth by his intense quarks of joy was a sight and a sound for the gods and i carried away from that room of respect and admiration for this tomboy among dictionaries this philosophical peter pan this kind and galloped cherub this profound student and wise master who has grown steadily ever since it was monstrous gigantic amazing deadly delicious nothing like this has ever been done or will ever be seen heard or felt again this was the guy he was disagreeing with said this about the experience he was disarming every philosophy i hold dear and to watch it was magnificent and glorious and i don't know if i'll ever see something that beautiful again why did he say that because this man cared that i can speak the truth in love that i can talk about the grace of jesus with a graciousness that's what francis schaefer did he would never let them be called debates when he would debate people on stage he would say i have dialogues because i never want to to dishonor a human being so he would ask his students pray for me that i can profoundly agree with someone's disagree with someone's philosophy but do it in a way that it would not be odd for us to go to dinner afterwards and he would do that famously he was able to say some very hard things to people bring up some controversial topics and tell them you are lost and dead in your sin and there's eternal judgment for those who deny god but by the grace of god jesus christ has interposed his precious blood that you can be made clean and right and holy before god but you must repent because you're a sinner and can't fix you that is such an offensive message to some but when you say it with a gracious way some people see the grace of jesus and they want it too so i pray earnestly and i walk wisely and i speak graciously and i love the way he ends it so you'll know how to you should respond to each person that to speak graciously to be winsome paul said it that to the jews i became like a jew to the greeks like the greeks in order to win the greeks so that by all means i might win some i love the way pastor louis says it we are winsome so we might win some so i don't just have a gospel message i throw at everybody i get to know you and the more i understand how the brokenness of sin that impacts us all plays out in your life i can apply the balm of the gospel to your particular wound billy graham was leading his massive crusades packing stadiums in london and so we got a call hey the prime minister winston churchill would like to meet you at noon today what he said he didn't even have time to get nervous about it i'm going to go meet winston churchill and he said on the way there he's so nervous what do you say to the prime minister and he said what i found out later that i didn't know was winston churchill was pacing his office saying what do you say to an evangelist he had no idea and billy graham through some mistakes had learned i don't try to act like i'm as equal as a leader i don't try to act like my opinions about politics are equal to his i don't pretend to be something i'm not i'm a minister of the basic message of jesus that's all i am and so he came in and he was just trying to be aware and sensitive to this man he said when he walked in there were newspapers spread all over his desk and as they began to talk winston churchill looked at these papers and he said these papers are filled with nothing but war and death he said do you have any hope in the world billy said yeah i do need to look at him he said well i'm a man without hope billy said that that felt like my moment god opened the door give me the courage to step into it and he said in that moment i was like are you speaking politically are you speaking about your own soul and he said in churchill said my soul i think about it a lot he said sir can i tell you what i've been saying in these stadiums in london he said i'd like that very much so he started to tell him about jesus he'd been told on the way in the door the duke of windsor will be here in 20 minutes you have 20 minutes with the prime minister and you're gone and so dutifully there's knock at the door excuse me sir the duke of windsor's here and winston churchill said let him wait continue and billy graham got to preach the gospel to this man and then said i don't want to offend you but can i pray for you and he said i would like that very much so i don't know what opportunities god's going to give you but god loves to do extraordinary things to very ordinary people he'll do it he'll do it through you i had this beautiful i found recently string of emails i had gotten between me and a college student he left texas a m and went to go work with horses in austria he said i don't know any christians here so can can you give me advice on how to grow in my faith and then i don't know how to be a christian in the culture so i sent him a list of things just like this i said pray a lot the god will open doors study a lot get to know your bible really well serve people then ask god to create the opportunities and give you the courage to take him and he wrote me back so excited ben you're not going to believe this he said i was so convicted by that pray allot line said i don't pray at all so i started asking god to create opportunities and he said the next day i'm giving riding lessons to this kid the kid starts bringing up the church he used to go to as a kid and then says man i don't do that anymore and i got all these questions and what do you believe he said he brought it up so i told him what i believe said a couple days later same thing happened i'm teaching riding lessons to this girl and she said hey i watched this movie last night called the passion of the christ terrifying and she said i don't understand why that man had to die like that i don't get it at all and he said well i'm studying the gospel of john would you like to read it she said yeah actually i really would and he said and then i got kind of awkward he was like man i wasn't sure like her her and i one on one are going to read the bible together this might get a little weird and he was like i don't know kind of like the dynamics here get a little twisted when you're both cute you know so he's like i'm not sure what to do so he just kept praying about it and then someone else came and said hey what are you all doing you're like hey we're going to read the bible again she's like oh i want to do that and he wrote me back later and was like hey i got this little community that every day is reading about jesus said we had a woman come that's been searching spiritually all different places and she heard about what we're doing and she wanted to read it he said one of them she's reading it every day she's translating it into german so she can give it to her friends people have done that but she wanted to do it herself to get deep into the word of god and he looked up and he was like dude i don't even know how this happened but i'm walking people in an ever increasing wake of people to the front door of the person of jesus here's what he's like here's how he treated people who were a mess look how gentle he was with children look at what he was like look at who he is look at what he claimed he was do you believe it's scary but it's a wonderful opportunity augustine was arguably the greatest mind christianity has ever seen after the apostle paul augustine was obsessed with moving to the big city to be successful as a philosopher as an orator and he had a deep and profound brokenness particularly with his sexual obsessions but as he showed up there and pursued everything the world had to offer he was famous and wealthy and successful and empty and then he heard about back in his home country of africa a man named anthony who had left it all to seek jesus in the wilderness and to teach people the word of god they looked at his friend and said we have everything this man has none of our learning he charges the gates of heaven and we pilfer around with trifles and it convicted him he went to go hear the preaching of ambrose because he wanted to study oratory but he kept hearing about the beauty and grace of jesus that could forgive even him he recognized the power of the gospel in the life of anthony and when he released his sin and shame to jesus and came to faith in him he told a crowd of people i am here because of the preaching of ambrose the life of anthony and the prayers of my dear mother we pray we walk we speak and god opens doors and i'm excited to see what he'll do in washington dc as his timid trembling people walk this ancient path with him

Channel: Passion City Church DC

Views: 10,035

Rating: 4.956284 out of 5

Keywords: Passion, Passion City Church, Passion Sermons, Ben, Stuart, Washington D.C., Passion D.C., christian, sixsteps, (six), passion conference, passion, passion city church worship, passion church, passion music, worship, jesus, ben stuart, colossians, live again, evangelism

Id: LUMNFiJ36Ak

Length: 43min 19sec (2599 seconds)

Published: Mon May 24 2021