What Is Islam?

good evening how's everybody doing hey I am so glad you guys are here a Thursday night to consider what we think is a really important topic how to engage Muslims in Islam with the gospel to give away a Thursday night when I know a lot of you have kiddos and jobs in the morning it's come be trained to live mission Allah is something that I'm just so grateful for and we don't ever want to presume upon so I'm gonna be sensitive to your time we think this is a really important topic so we are just really really excited let me just briefly introduce what we're gonna be doing tonight so a lot of you've probably been to a forum before but if you haven't let me kind of tell you what you're what you're in for so forums for us in the village church Institute we do about twice a year well typically do one in the fall and one in the spring and what we're trying to do is find this perfect marriage between what we think is an absolutely essential topic so we've done forums on is God anti-gay we've done forums on politics in the gospel and of course tonight how to engage Muslims with the gospel but we're also trying to find an expert teacher somebody that we think has just a really intimate and profound knowledge on a topic we're not gonna put just anybody in front of you so we're always trying to find a really healthy marriage between those things so tonight as we think about Islam Islam is one of the fastest growing religions in the world it's absolutely exploding in the West and in the east engaging Islam with the gospel is no longer just a matter of going to the nations they're also our neighbors if you don't have a Muslim neighbor yet just wait you will and it's gonna be important that we consider as a church but also as individual disciples how to engage these men and women with the gospel also Islam is often misunderstood mischaracterized and there can be also mistreatment of Muslims and our community so what we want to do is try to give you a faithful teaching of what Muslims actually believes that as we engage them we're not mischaracterizing or misunderstanding what they believe and I want to talk just real briefly about Afshin being an expert teacher so she would be the first to admit that he is not a scholar on Islam but he actually was born in a Muslim community was raised as a Muslim early in his life so he has a theological knowledge of Islam to be sure but he also has an intimate experience in the Islamic community so I can't think of anybody better to teach us but before introduce him I want to introduce one other thing so we try to do these forums like I said in the fall and in the spring and we have our spring forum planned we have a date we have a topics I'd love to introduce that to you on Friday April 20th to write that down Friday April 20th 2018 we're gonna be doing a forum on technology and the gospel with Andy Crouch he's written a book recently called the tech wise family and we're gonna be talking about tech wise Christians how do Christians faithfully engage in technology how does technology shape inform us as people how can we use it properly and how does it improperly use us I can't say enough good things about Andy Crouch if you've read any of his book he's written a book on culture and power he's just incredible we're thrilled he agreed to come join us that's gonna be a really fun topic again that is on Friday April 20th 2018 here's the structure for tonight and just a few minutes after he's going to come up and he's going to be with us for about an hour in terms of content he'll be presenting what Muslims believe for about an hour we'll have a short video for about three or four minutes and then action will cut will join us for about a twenty to thirty minute Q&A and that's when you get an opportunity to participate so if he says something that you have a question about or if you came with a particular question you can engage us by going to SL I do slash TV see forums and you can ask your question there and we'll have the opportunity if we can get to all of them to engage your question we'll do that for about 20 or 30 minutes and you can actually go there now and just put in your question whenever you want during the during the night you don't have to wait tor in the Q&A section let me tell you a little bit about Afshin he's from Houston Texas he received his undergraduate degree from the University of Texas at Austin he received his Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Seminary and in 2008 he married his wife Meredith he's the lead pastor of Providence Church in Frisco Providence Church was planted in May 2005 by the village church so there is a long and deep gospel-centered history between our two churches as we seek to make disciples and plant churches in the DFW Metroplex so I couldn't be more excited for him to join us and teach this let me do this I'm gonna pray for the evening just ask most importantly that the Lord Jesus will be magnified and glorified our time together that all of us would come to a deeper knowledge of him and what he has done to save us and we're gonna ask that he would save Muslims as well that as a result of tonight we would be equipped and trained and others who watch this later would be equipped and trained there not just one or ten or a hundred but thousands of Muslims would come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ will you pray with me father we were so grateful for a night like tonight to come and to consider Islam we pray that your spirit would be amongst us teaching nourishing guiding correcting exhorting us as we consider those around us who who have found their faith in Islam and we ask that as a result of a Sheens teaching that we would with hearts of compassion go to our Muslim neighbors our Muslim friends our muslim co-workers and that you would also perhaps send some of us to the nation's to proclaim the good news that there is salvation only in Jesus Christ that they would repent from their false religion they would repent from their false views and they might embrace the gospel of our triune God and that they might find a saving and loving knowledge in Jesus Christ we ask it in his name and by the power of the Holy Spirit would you please join me in welcoming a she thank you well thank you well good evening I'm so excited and honored to be here and we love the village at Providence obviously you guys are our mother church and even before I went to Providence to be a pastor I used to attend the village and I actually used to preach here a few times Matt would have me come in and fill in for him so I have a huge love my wife and I do for the village church so I appreciate that JT really said to you that you know I don't stand up here tonight as a scholar of Islam pretending that I you know got my PhD in it or and I've studied it backwards and forwards that's not the case I definitely think I probably study that more than the average person and I think what I bring to the table is I have a the unique experience of being raised in a Muslim home and so it's with that that I want to come and share with you I'll start by sharing a little my story with you some of you may not be familiar with my story and share that really quickly to give you some perspective of where I'm coming from and then quickly I want to get into Islam and I want to basically give you a very brief abbreviated history of Islam and then from there talk about what are the major teachings of Islam and how those differ with Christianity and then throughout it I will really be talking about my aim is so we would know how do we engage Muslims my great prayer for tonight is that you would walk out of here some of you're gonna hear the stuff that you've never heard before you haven't studied Islam there's probably some of you here that who have studied Islam and you may not hear a lot of new stuff but my hope is that for all in this room we're gonna walk away maybe with some of the mystery and some of the fear of Islam kind of put to the side and by the grace of God by the power of God that we would be emboldened to go and love and share the truth of Christ with Muslims in our community so that's my hope so my story basically I was born in Houston Texas and when I was 2 years old my family moved back to Iran where my parents are from when I was six years old the Islamic Revolution hit that country of Iran and so fighting broke out and my father being a doctor had the means to get us out and so we got out 10 days before the Shah the king of Iran escaped and so it was a revolution Muslim revolution about was overthrowing the Shah the king of Iran so if Iran went from being a monarchy to becoming a theocracy almost overnight and so my family we moved back to Houston when I was in the middle of first grade I didn't speak English I spoke Farsi which is the language of Iran I still speak Farsi today and so God at his incredible plan provided for me a Christian lady who became my tutor and this lady I'm going to talk to you a little bit more about her at the end of our time but this lady poured herself into me taught me English every day after school by reading me books and the second grade she came up to me and said I've seen I've been reading you all these books now I want to hand you the most important book you'll ever get in your life and she handed me a small New Testament and she said you're not gonna understand this book today but promised me that you'll hold on to it and read it when you're older so she plants a seed in my life in the second grade that wouldn't come to fruition until 10 years later and I took that New Testament home through in my house and grew up in a Muslim home as I said and not just any Muslim home my dad was the president of the Islamic Medical Society in Houston it's a very prominent Muslim in the Persian community there in Houston so all I ever was taught growing up there was the five pillars of faith of Islam I'll get to those later but basically that Jesus was just a prophet and if I did those five pillars of faith you know to the best of my ability that maybe I'd get to heaven I never had an assurance of my salvation and so my senior year in high school I became curious about the person of Christ several things happen in my life and basically God put that New Testament on my mind and I said you know I think I got a Bible somewhere so I went looking all over my room and if you can believe this ten years after that second grade tutor gave me that New Testament I found it sitting at the bottom of my closet waiting for me all those years you know open it up and the first book of the New Testament is Matthew starts off a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ's son of David son of Abraham and being a Muslim I knew Abraham right so that kind of drew me in and so I began reading and reading and I read the whole book of Matthew in one sitting now I didn't understand it all but God just developed a hunger in my heart to keep reading every night under the covers with a flashlight I would read so my parents wouldn't walk in and figure out what I was doing every day at my high school I would debate with a Christian kid literally I debate on the side of Islam against Christianity but every night I'd go home and read more about his Jesus without telling him all right so kept reading and kept reading until I finally got to the book of Romans and in the book of Romans I started reading about a righteousness that comes apart from the law apart from what we do for God but it's a righteousness that comes from God and it's given to us through faith in Jesus Christ and so that's when I first started to understand the gospel two weeks after that I was invited to an evangelistic meeting that was actually had a very peculiar name being a former Muslim the guy comes up and goes hey man you want to come to this crusade with me and I'm like I'm a Muslim you're inviting me to a thing called a crusade he goes oh no there's free pizza there I go okay I like I like crusade now all right let's go so I went to this crusade September 28th of my senior year in high school heard the gospel and gave my life to Christ the best day of my life but I hid my faith from my dad and my family didn't understand the cost of being a follower of Christ and so long story short my dad after sneaking out to going to church and hiding my Bible found out made me choose between him and Christ and everything in me wanted to say forget it I'll be a Muslim because I didn't want to lose my dad when he made me choose and by God strength alone so you know I'm not boasting I was able to look my dad in the face and said if I've to choose between you and Jesus then I choose Jesus and my father disowned me told me to get out of his face and probably the definitive moment of my life was when I went up to my room and I said God how could you do this to me and the Lord led me to a passage of scripture in Matthew 10 where Jesus says whoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge him before my father in heaven but whoever disowns me before men I will disown him then he goes on the state he's not supposed to came to bring peace to the earth I didn't come to bring peace but a sword and then Jesus says for I have come to turn a man against his father and I'm reading this going whoa that just happened for me a daughter against her mother a man's enemies were the members of his own household anyone who loves his father and mother more than me is not worthy of me anyone who loves a son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me then whoever wants to find this life or save his life for my sake or whoever wants the same as I excuse me will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it and that's when I first understood what it means to be a follower of Christ and truth be known my story and I wish I had time to tell you even more of it but my story is not about how faithful I was because man I went kicking and screaming much of the time but my story is man look how faithful God is and as I walked away from my dad and my dad's approval and in my family I want you to know God provided for me every step of the way I wish I could tell you story after story of how God brought me first of all into a church that loved me that put me on my feet that somebody paid for my seminary degree that I had a free place to live and then all of a sudden God opened up an itinerant speaking ministry and all of that to say that man now even today I've been able to go back into the Middle East and trained Iranians who want to be pastors to go back into Iran and plant underground churches so I just want you to know my story is one of God is faithful it may cost you to let go and follow him but I'm telling you it's worth it whoever loses his life for my sake Jesus says we'll find it and so this is my background this is kind of what I come out of so let me talk to you a little bit about Islam and I know this is gonna start really really really basic but I just have been around the country enough to know that I'm not gonna take this for granted so don't laugh to get somebody next to you really might go oh I didn't know that so Islam and Muslim let me start there are not two separate faiths everyone knows that all right so Islam is the religion Muslim is the believer the worshiper so Islam is to Muslim as Christianity is to Christian so Islam the word Islam means submission to Allah and Muslim means one who submits to Allah so right there you get a little bit of the teaching of Islam which I'm gonna get to later okay so what let me give you the quick history and again I'm almost a shame to do this history with you because it's going to I'm gonna have to do a really quick overview of it all right even to call it history I mean is not doing it justice but here it is just to put it in perspective for you in 570 ad alright 570 ad almost again six centuries after Christ 570 ad Muhammad is born and he is born in the southern Arabian Peninsula that was really full of polytheism pagan worship I'll get back to that in a moment but he eventually marries Khadijah who is it was from a wealthy merchants family and all the reason I bring that up is a lot of people believe because he marries into this family he came into contact with many other Jewish and Christian merchants and tribes and he was able to learn some of the judeo-christian faith and doctrine and so in 610 ad when he's 40 years old so he's born in 570 610 ad he claims that he went into a cave and he had a very unique experience he says happened he says that the angel Gabriel visited him and spoke to him and in fact he felt him pressed down on him and he heard the word read and then so Muhammad could Christ bat read what the angel Gabriel pushes back again read and then he says read one this happens three times and then what Mohammed claims is that a supernatural experience happened by which he actually read the Word of God now Mohammed was illiterate meaning he could not read and write but what he's saying is that spiritually he had this transaction by which he read if you will the Quran which is their holy book now the word Quran actually means reading or recital okay and so essentially this is how the Quran came to be in time when tribal wars would break out you know he passed on these sayings to his followers but in time when people started dying off they felt that they needed to write this down and wrote all these down and that's how the Quran came into being now Muhammad is living in Mecca Mecca some of you may have seen pictures of Mecca but in the middle of Mecca there is this big black box building which today is called the Kaaba which the Muslims walk around it how many of you seen that what I'm talking about the Kaaba the Kaaba used to be actually before Islam a place of idol worship and so I bring this up just to say Mecca was very much polytheistic meaning multiple gods and idol worship was very important to the economy because tribes were coming I mean merchants would come in and they would do their trading and then they'd go and worship their particular Idol so when Muhammad comes with this new religion that is monotheistic which I'm going to get to in a moment in fact they're probably the great Islam believes Muslim believe that they are the true monotheistic religion meaning one God all right that's a very that's a huge foundation of Islam I'll get to that in a bit but when he's preaching monotheism as you can imagine the people of Mecca don't like it because the polytheism that's there is really helpful to their economy and so eventually they drive Muhammad Muhammad out of Mecca and he has this flight to Medina a neighbor in town again I'm not doing the history justice but fast forward eventually Mohammed gains more and more supporters that in time he's able to come back to Mecca alright drive out the Idol worshipers in fact clear out that Kaaba and established Mecca as the center of Islam his newfound religion and from there Islam eventually through the century spreads ultimately there is a huge rift there's two major sects of Islam you've probably heard of the Sunnis and the Shia's or the Shiites and really ultimately that comes about because of an argument on who the successor to Muhammad would be after his death all right the Shias believe that it should be Ali who is his son-in-law the Sunnis Abu Bakr who is his uncle and so this is a again a very quick thumbnail sketch so you get kind of a year's the events how Islam started now what I want to get to is what does Islam teach okay now when I go there let me just say this I mentioned to you there their holy book the Quran and I want you to know that a lot of Muslim theology certainly comes from the Quran but there is a secondary source that really shapes Muslim theology Islamic theology and that secondary source is the hadith the hadith are the popular sayings of Muhammad - is who - his followers okay and so there's the Quran and there's the hadith and so what does Islam ultimately teach and so I'll walk through basically what they believe about God what they believe about man salvation Jesus and then land on what I believe is maybe the key difference that will I want us to think about one what do they think about God now their God the name of God in Islam is Allah then let me stop there really quickly chase this rabbit because a lot of times people ask me now I've seen should we use the word Allah I don't know if you've heard that question before thought about that question because is using Allah condoning the God of Islam by even using that word now I have an easy-out when I deal with Iranians Persians because we speak Farsi and the language of Islam is Arabic so I am able to use the Farsi word for God which is hold ah and I'm able to say hey hold ah is not Allah all right but well da is actually he saw a messy Jesus Christ okay now when you're speaking to an Arabic speaking person I don't know how you get around using or not using the word Allah and what I'm trying to say is I think you have to use the that the word Allah and maybe I'm presenting a problem it wasn't even in your head but I'm saying a lot of people have come to me listen you you've got to use the name Allah but here's what you do I mean you clearly just say hey look let me reveal to you who Allah really is he's not the God he's not the Allah that has been described to you in the Quran but he's the Allah that has revealed to us in the scriptures the old and new Testament of our Bible and so this is also now what do they believe about the Allah of Quran well first of all their view of God is that God is wholly transcendent I was speaking to a group of guys that are going through a leadership class at our church about this last night this idea that God is transcendent meaning he's above creation he's independent of his creation but the Bible teaches us that our God is actually imminent meaning though he's above creation and though he's independent of creation he is actively intimately involved in creation our God is now I would say Muslims believe that part two but what I am bringing up is the relationship with God that I experienced personally in Islam is not like the personal relationship with Jesus that we have in Christianity there's not this idea in my experience of a personal relationship there's 99 beautiful names of Allah that are listed but this idea of having this kind of a intimate relationship with him I thought was lacking in fact the prominent view of what the relationship between man and God is in I think is that God is a taskmaster and we are the slaves again remember that Islam is about submission to Allah all right that he's given us his rules and we've got to submit whereas in Christianity there are definitely rules and imperatives but Christianity is much more about a relationship that once you have been captured by the love of Christ and a relationship is born then the fruit of outer works comes out of that so the the greatest that I see in the Bible descriptor of the relationship between man and his God is that we are his children and he is our Father like Jesus taught us to pray our Father who is in heaven 1st John chapter 3 behold what manner of love that we should be called children of God and so I love how J I Packer says it and knowing God he says what is a Christian the riches answer I know is that a Christian is one who has God as his father and so I want to start there there's this so the personal relationship wasn't there for me and then what do they believe about man where they believe about man now in Islam man there's not this idea of this inherits in nature that we are dead in our sins in Islam and what I'm trying to say is in Islam they believe that man is born sinless with a clean slate now man sins throughout his life but they they believe that you're born sinless and then you accumulate good and bad deeds throughout your life now think with me the starting point is completely different because what does Christianity teaches we're actually born in sin in fact David says in my mother's womb I was conceived in sin so he takes it back to conception not even the birth and so man that is a whole different starting point and so whatever the reason I bring that up is you got to know that in the mind of a Muslim there's not this inherent need of a savior that's that's a foreign idea for them right that's why one time I wrote read a Muslim Scott who said this listen he said I liken the notion of Jesus to my sitting on the dot by the bay no he didn't say that sorry some of you know what I'm talking about all right Otis Redding okay here we go so I like in the notion of Jesus to my sitting on a dog and a man running by and telling me that he loves me and then throwing himself in the water and drowning himself to prove his love for me it's absurd I read that I go there it is see a Muslim thinks he's on the dock like what why is this guy dying for who right but a Christian understands no I'm not on the dock I am drowning in fact better yet if you really understand the Bible I am at the bottom of that body of water dead and I need to be made alive right and so the starting point is totally different so god man now what do they believe about salvation what what what how what man must do so let me well those are two things let me just let me start with first of all let me talk to you about the five pillars of faith so a Muslim is given from God these five pillars of faith that he is to live his life by right the first one is the Creed the Creed is simply that there's one God Allah and Muhammad is His Prophet and this is something that you say upon becoming a Muslim and you say it throughout in fact it's in the prayer that they do and you say it throughout your life now let me very quickly say you know I know in Christian thought there's this idea that when you repent and express faith in Christ obviously that's a prayer of faith that you make and I want to make me very clear that in Christianity there's this idea that we are regenerated right and we are made alive and then we put our faith in Christ all right and then we are saved right that's that's not the same thing in Islam in Islam you can say that Creed but you still don't know really if you're saved you still have to live life following these these rules and so there's the Creed and then number two there's the prayer so five times a day the a Muslim prays facing Mecca facing the east okay and it's a rote you know ritualistic prayer in Arabic now there is a portion that you can pray in your own language but I want you to know I didn't speak Arabic I spoke Farsi and so what I had to do was I had to try to memorize the the sounds in Arabic to perform this prayer okay and then there was a little portion again that I could pray in in Farsi but it's a very much a ritualistic act in fact I'll never forget being a DFW Airport once and I was traveling and in one of the concourses they're actually doing construction and so the the concourses were very narrow and I'm walking and it was the time for prayer obviously because I saw a Muslim guy who had the prayer mat out and he was praying full-on and not only did you notice it I mean it was such narrow courses you literally had to walk around this guy right and as I was walking it around him I thought you know what Jesus says about prayer when you pray go to your room and shut the door and pray in secret and when your father sees in secret he will reward all right and again I'm not trying to say necessarily that person was trying to be showy but I just want you to know it's very much just a ritualistic outward act okay so number one that the the kree the prayer the fasting they have to fast during the holy month of Ramadan from sunup till sundown no food no water married people obviously no sexual relations I mean from sunup till sundown okay so they wake up early before the Sun comes up and have a huge breakfast and then when the Sun Goes Down they have they break their fast there too with a huge meal so that's what they do during the holy month of Ramadan giving they have to give about 2% of their income to the poor and then for the fifth one the Hajj or the pilgrimage they have to one time in their life make a pilgrimage to Mecca the holy city to where the Kaaba is and then there's a little out clause there if they have the means so in other words if there's a poor beggar in India there's no way they're gonna get to Mecca right and so again when my salvation is on the line it's pretty subjective what does that mean right if they have the means like how much $30,000 a year or forty I mean where it where's the line there I don't know so but anyways these are the five pillars of faith in wassup now what does a Muslim believe about salvation ultimately with that what I see in mixology the Quran is that at the end of your life that throughout your life you're doing good and bad deeds and these good and bad deeds are being recorded by two angels that sit on either shoulder recording all your good and evil deeds and that when you die on the day of judgment and you meet your maker all your good deeds and your bad deeds will be weighed upon a scale and whichever one outweighs the other will determine if you go to heaven or hell now how long I talked to many Muslims they say oh yeah that's true but man God is forgiving as long as you're sincere I've heard all these arguments but listen to me they try to soften that but in the Crimea that's what it says ultimately the scales are coming and that is going to ultimately determine your destiny now interestingly enough before you think that's crazy maybe what Muslims believe I talked to many people who sit in churches they might as well be Muslim because I talked to them in how do you know that you for sure you're gonna be forever with God in eternity well because man I've done you know pretty good things bit of church oh my parents were Christian oh great for them right my grandparents were missionaries alright doesn't pass down through genes you know or you know I went to a youth camp I went down an aisle I checked the buck so if you think your salvation has anything to do with a sentence that starts with I something then you've missed the whole gospel unless it's I believed in the only work that was done for me which is Jesus okay what he did for me and so nowhere in the Bible that do you hear God saying just be 51% good and we were right you don't even get 60 75 you don't even sit man just make an a 90 percent you know if you want to go based on your works the the standard of a holy God is 100 percent sinlessness you can't take one sin before a holy God if you have one sin you have one sin too many and that's why the Bible says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God none of us can meet that standard and that's why Jesus Christ is so important did you know that even Muslims believe that he lived the sinless life but they don't know why all right they don't know that it was so that he would be the perfect Lamb of God spotless Lamb of God who would shed His perfect blood to cover over the sins of mankind and so what do they believe about Jesus so I've talked about God man salvation the scales now what do they believe about Jesus and I'll come back to what I think it might be the most important point what do they believe about Jesus first of all they believe you may not have known this that he was born of a virgin did you know that they believe he was born of a virgin in fact right when he was born as an infant babe one of the first miracle of Jesus according to Quran is he started talking an infant just I'm Jesus the prophet of Allah okay now I know I just said he was born of a virgin I'll go okay cool that's fine we have that in common no you understand I just said that they adhere to one of the greatest evidences that we have in our Christian faith of the deity of Christ Isaiah chapter 7 the Virgin shall give birth to a son and his name shall be Emmanuel which means prophet with us no good teacher with us now what does it mean God with us and they believe in the virgin birth of Christ they also believe as I already mentioned that he was sinless alright and who is sin there's none righteous not even one who is sinless but God himself so I want you to hear me say two of the greatest defenses of the deity of Christ Muslims actually already adhere to them but what do they really believe about him they believe he was not God but that he was just merely a prophet in fact one of the six major prophets there was Adam Noah Abraham Moses Jesus and then Muhammad was the completer of the faith in fact they believed that Jesus prophesied about Muhammad did you know that in fact some of them that I've talked to have used the Bible verse they've said you know in fact in your Bible doesn't it say that jesus promises after me will come another a comforter a counselor who is that speaking of the Holy Spirit I've seen even Muslims twist that to say man Jesus is actually prophesying about Muhammad and might no that's that's not what he is prophesying there and so have to teach them so so anyways what do they believe about Jesus deaths now this is interesting and in the fourth Sura it says it this way in the Quran it says it only a Peter I'm sorry it says that Christ but Jesus excuse me was not crucified but it merely appeared to them as so that's all the Quran says about the death of Christ now there's been many interpretations of what that surah surah is a verse in the Quran what that means okay or actually it's a chapter and then ayah is the verse but anyways so what does that mean that it only appeared to them as so and so man I've read it all I've read them say that man some some of the ones that you've heard that Jesus didn't actually die on the cross that there was a swoon theory that he just cut and merely passed out on the cross and somehow and that you know - and the coolness of the tomb even though he was wrapped like a mummy somehow he kind of unwritten or wriggled himself out of that and came back and rolled away the stone I don't know or they his body was stolen but here's the thing probably the leading theory that I've read that Muslim scholars say is that in fact Jesus was rescued by God so that when Jesus prayed in the garden if this cup may pass remember but not my will your will be done that God actually rescued Jesus when the Roman soldiers were coming to arrest him in the Garden of Gethsemane that God performed a miracle and took the likeness of Jesus his face and he put it on that of Judas and that they accidentally arrested the wrong man Judas and crucified him and Jesus ascended to heaven and one day he will return and testify against the Christians and be buried at the Kaaba that's what many of them believe now that's a very interesting theory right but what are we gonna do with a guy who was hanging from a tree is that not Judas or is that really Matthew who had Judas's fate but it's like domino face getting passed down I don't know so they do not have a really good answer for the death and resurrection in fact nobody has ever had an answer outside of what the Bible tells us happened for the death and resurrection of Christ and so they but they say he did not die and in fact let me just say this they would even say I don't know that I have time for all of this that they do not believe that Jesus ever claim to be God himself and the Bible doesn't claim it either they would say and I talked to a lot of Christians who can't find where Jesus claimed to be one with the father and there's many places by the way but I tell you what just an interest this time I'm looking at my clock I want to make sure maybe I'll come back to that so let me just keep going because I'm gonna get to the main idea so stay with me are you with me say yes yeah all right here we go so God where do they believe about man all right and what do they believe about salvation the scales I'm gonna come back to that now and then what do they believe about Jesus so now let me get to what do you think all right is the key differences the main difference between Islam and Christianity that I want to share with you that you're thinking about as you're engaging with a Muslim all right so I've mentioned to you the scale system ultimately everyone look up here real quickly imagine here's a Muslim all right and throughout his life he's doing all these good work so these karate chops are good works okay right so he's doing all these good works throughout his life and then at the end of his life there's a scale and depending on which way that tips is gonna depend on whether they go to heaven or hell okay what is this system called works right that's a works based salvation now stay with me some here like I already know this stay I'm going somewhere with this okay Christian what is the Christian belief well a Christian believes that he is dead in his sin there's nothing you can do to make himself alive that God must actually come through the Holy Spirit quick in his heart regenerate him open his eyes give him the gift of faith to even be able to receive what Christ alone accomplished on the cross for his sins when Jesus said it is finished on the cross that means man does not add to my work for his salvation and so we receive it on the front end paid in full now what is this system called not works but what grace good job you good students alright works verses grace probably does not make anybody in here ago I didn't know that but here's where I want to go I want to go underneath works in grace I want to go to the motive now now stay with me what is the motive to live for God in a works based system ultimately I'm doing all these works and hopefully my good will outweigh my that so that I'll go to heaven what is give me a one-word and motive a motive word what is it fear did you look at my notes fear ultimately just joking ultimately I contend to you that Islam is driven by fear and I'm not talking about the holy fear that we find in the Bible that man a reverence of God that when God told Abraham now I know that you fear me because you didn't withhold your only son from me when I called for him in other words that fear means when God speaks I move in reverence that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about the fear that man if I not good enough I'm going to hell in other words God is out to get me right so that is fear now you got that now what about grace before you answer I'm Muslim listen to me is gonna hear your gospel and hear your message of grace and that Muslim is going to say that is ridiculous why would anyone live for God if once they receive Christ it's paid for in full and even by saying that what they're admitting is that anyone who would really live for God the only reason they would live for him is if God has a gun to their head and they wouldn't say it that way right but ultimately that's what they're saying by asking that question why would you live for God and so what I try to tell Muslims all the time is hear me friend a Christian does good works also but his good works are not a means to his salvation but rather a product of his salvation in fact I would say this way his good works are a proof of his salvation marilla James says ah you say that you were saved by faithful I say that yeah I'll show you my faith by my works okay doesn't mean that James are saying that I'm being saved by my works he's saying I'm saved by faith but my faith becomes evident by you seeing my good works in my life okay but here's the question why great question why would a Muslim live for God well we talked about any work space religion ultimately it's fear now they may try to deflect it but that's what's driving it why would a Christian live for God in a grace based system why does one live for God one word give it to me love 2nd Corinthians 5:14 for the love of Christ compels us that were compelling secre news 5 means pressure which causes action in other words main it's pushing me out the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus that if one died for all that's Jesus then all died that those who live live no longer for themselves but for him died and rose again a Christian does good works but it's it's driven out of love and not out of fear and Muslims will say to me all the time listen no no God God is a God of love also but I want you to know ultimately what is lacking in Islam and most other religions is the unconditional love of God that is what transforms lives that's what's transformed your life and ultimately love in order for it to be love it has to be freely given if you put a price tag on it it seized ceases to be love right so in other words if I love my wife Meredith for what she does for me then I don't really love her I love the things that she does for me right love has to be freely given that's why my favorite verses a former Muslim is this that God demonstrates his love for us in this that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us before you did anything Jesus died for you and that's a demonstration of true love so we are saved by grace through faith that not of ourselves it's a gift of God and not of works lest any man should boast and right after it it says but we are Christ's workmanship he has created us for good works that works comes out of it but it's driven again out of love and so I want you to think with me that's works forces grace and ultimately fear versus love and you know by the way there's a verse that has both fear and love in it does anyone know what I'm talking about there you go you got it first John 4:18 listen to this there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear for fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love and so I'm telling you friend you have the greatest you have the greatest message for a Muslim to hear because they don't understand love they don't understand how love can be freely given they don't understand how it can transform you you see if you by the way believe you're saved by grace and you think see Paul answers that question by the way if you're saved by grace then why would you live for God we were Paul says shall we go on sinning now that we're no longer under the law that's the work space system shall we go on City now that we're no longer under the law but under grace he says certainly not for though you were formerly slaves to sin you have now become slaves to righteousness no there's before you are bound by a sin nature you couldn't help but sin but now you have been given the Holy Spirit and you can actually now live for God and by the way I contend that you know in Hebrews it says only when we understand that we have an eternal Redemption can we be set free from dead works to serving the Living God so listen to me if you think you're doing good works in order to gain something from God you're not actually living for him you're still living for yourself you're trying to get something it's only when you know you are freely forever forgiven that when you start living for God you're actually living for him you're freed from dead works to serve the Living God when you understand the grace you have you will go out and live for God because listen to me it's not that you're not just getting a free breath mint on their way out of a Mexican restaurant all right that's not going to cause anyone to do backflips right it's that you are dead you or you you are dead and there's no way you're coming back to life unless someone let's say gives you this one drink and you somehow come to life if that person purchased it by selling all of his possessions and spending millions of dollars to gain this whatever this potion let's say and he hands it to you and you come to life what are you gonna do you don't know who dispel thanks for the free breath mint you're gonna fall at his feet and I'm at your service you don't understand what you're getting freely if you would say if it's by grace I wouldn't live for God you see it and so this is what they need to know so fear versus love and that's why I answer to the question I've walked through Islamic teaching very briefly the remaining time I have before QA I think I got 18 minutes 20 minutes hopefully I want to talk to you about how do you share your faith with a Muslim all right number one number one I think every Christian first of all do you have Muslims in your up in your life raise your hand a neighbor a co-worker oh wow wait raise it up again I'm really high awesome awesome number one you ought to be praying for them every every one of you ought to be praying for your Muslim friend I believe in the power of prayer and I've seen it in the lives of many former Muslims in their testimonies and man Jesus when he sent out the seventy in Luke 10 he sent them out two by two and the first thing he asked them to do is pray the lord of the harvest for more workers the workers a few I love that he leads with prayer everywhere I'm sending you you first saturate that place with prayer before I move in first Timothy 2 says there to pray for all men this is good and acceptable in the sight of God who desires all men to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth I believe that prayer is the beginning of evangelism of God's work of redemption he's called you as a Christian to be praying for their soul and I'm telling you in my life there was a group of high school seniors that decided they were gonna pray for a sheen that Iranian kid at Stratford High School for one year they committed to praying for me every week and that next year I became a Christian and I see it all the time in the Middle East one lady that we trained up to share her faith share the gospel and every time by the way we train these people to go back to Iran they have these backpacks with the New Testaments to NGO the gospel is the injeel gospel of Jesus in their back pack and this lady walks into a bookstore and a man comes in and goes up to the bookstore owner and says hey do you have an NGO for me the gospel of cheeses and the book store owners going oh no we don't have that but we've got the Gospel of Barnabas which is not a real gospel it's used to debunk Christianity and the guy somehow knew that goes I don't want that stuff I want the real thing and the guy goes oh we don't have that here and so then he leaves and so her heart's racing and she's praying God what would you have me do now for a woman to go up to a man in that culture and even what if he's from the government looking for the Bible's to burn them right so her hearts racing and God says go and she goes out there and follows this guy and walks up to him and and says excuse me sir I heard that you were asking for a gospel and he's like yeah and she's like well do you mind me asking why you want one and she's like if I told you you he's like if I'd told you you'd laugh and she goes we'll try me and he goes well last night I had a dream and a man and brilliant whites came to me and said go to this book store and you will hear my good news and she was like I was in that bookstore and here's his good news right here and hands him a gospel all right this guy later we find out people were praying for his life I'm telling you I see it happen all the time number two we are to serve and love them in 1st Corinthians chapter 9 verse 19 Paul says though I'm free from all men I make myself a servant in order to win the more and I'm telling you there are Muslims who are coming to our communities and they just like me feel like they're on another planet and they want somebody to help them somebody to help them get assimilated somebody to teach them English somebody to serve them and I'm telling you Paul says ice make myself a slave in order to win the more and I believe this that Muslims want to see you heard this they want to see they want to know that you care before they care about anything you know okay they want to don't want to see the hands and feet of Christ first and that's what's happened in my life when we moved to this country the second-grade tutor that gave me the New Testament what I didn't share is that that new testing was given to me during the Iran hostage crisis we thought we were leaving the turmoil of Iran for comfort in America and we had no idea what was going to hit us in America because man we had rocks thrown through our window in Houston because people knew we were from Iran if you don't know the Iran hostage crisis again a group of Americans were held hostage in Iran for over a year people would slash our my parents cars tires threaten to beat up my brother and I all of this and I don't say this to throw a pity party but just to say had any other American handed me that New Testament I would have thrown it away but since it came from that one lady who loved me and poured herself into me and served me I said man this must be important and I held on to it when I went to the University of Texas there was a Muslim guy that would lived on our in our dorm and my Christian friend by the way if I had a nickel for every time somebody wanted me to talk to their Muslim friend all right will you come talk to him and I go oh listen God's got you in his life why don't you talk to him and let's just see where this goes and so look he's poor and my Christian friend was praying for this Muslim guy they had just yeah he loved this guy he had a friendship with him and they would debate by the way and he would reject Christianity but my Christian friend would keep his friendship hey are we still on for basketball and I'm watching this from a distance and one day true story he comes up and knocks on the Muslim guy's door he opens the door and he's like bro I can't do the Jesus talk thing today look at these books behind me I got a paper due tomorrow and my Christian friend goes hey well I don't have anything tomorrow let me just help you with a paper how you gonna help me I don't know I'll help you research I'll help you type my Christian friends stayed up all the way till them the next morning and help this guy finish his paper okay and then the next Saturday the Muslim guy called the Christian guy and goes hey you know what you always invite me to go to church with you all right I'll go to church with you and so he went to church on that Sunday with him became a Christian and became one of the leaders in our Christian community at UT now I listen I'm not saying guys I figured it out here's how you make a Muslim a Christian you do their paper right but don't you agree with me that he gave weight to his words by the way he loved this guy and served him and then ultimately God will give you a moment I believe to open your mouth and speak I think of Acts chapter 8 what a great story about evangelism that Stephen is told to go and overtake the nest a Stephen Philip is told to go overtake a chariot and he goes up to a Ethiopian man reading from the prophet Isaiah you remember this story and he walks up to him and first thing it says is he observes him he observes that he's reading so one thing is just hey get to know them and vite them into your house observe them and then he asks questions of them he says do you understand what you're reading and can I just say a lot of evangelism is it there's a Muslim guy got to sit him down and tell him I Jesus everything I know a lot of evangelism is hey let me invite him over and ask him what do you believe what do you believe about God what do you believe about Jesus hey I want to know what's most important in life for you let me tell you a really basic amazing question ask how can I pray for you I've never heard a Muslim say to me I don't want you praying for me because you're a Christian they'll tell you here's how you can pray for me so so he's he's observing he's asking questions and then he says what is this referring to here now your Muslim friend may not be reading Isaiah ever but that's what's happening here this Ethiopian guy is reading from Isaiah and in and he asks um who's this referring to and the Bible says that Philip opened his mouth and beginning in that scripture he preached Jesus to him so at the end of the day what we've got to do is we have to bring them to Jesus we would do it through your story John 9 when the blind man when they say what happened to you he testifies to what Christ has done for him and I believe as you listen to a Muslim God will give you open doors to say hey let me share with you in my life how I struggled with that and what God did for me all right you share they they love to hear what difference has it made for you but ultimately you got to share his story meaning Jesus story the gospel you got to point them to the reason Jesus is so important and again I think you have to point Muslims to Grace because they don't understand truly what grace is about they don't understand it I'm a mother the scripture that changed my life if you're wondering is every day under the covers of the flashlight I would read from Matthew on-on-on and I got to the book of Romans chapter 3 and verse 21 through 26 I started reading about that we have a problem we're all sinners separated from God and that God has put forward Jesus as a propitiation which is a big word that simply means he bears the wrath of God that we deserve so that whoever puts their faith in Him receives it as a gift of faith whoever receives it that they get the favor of God and Jesus gets the rafter they deserve okay but then the problem that most Muslims have to wrap their mind around because listen my my dad when I shared the gospel with them he said to me I've seen Christian he makes no sense you just say a prayer and Jesus just brushes all the sin under the carpet I'm like no that's not what Christianity teaches in fact I believe that's what a scale system teaches just be a little bit more good at all the battle just get swept under the carpet but no not in Christianity friend the Christianity when you put your faith in Christ every one of your sins past present and future is accounted for and paid for on the cross by Jesus all of it is paid for and then his perfect life is imputed over to you is credited over to you he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him all right this great exchange happens every sin is paid for you see it and that's why Romans chapter 3 says this was to show how God is both just and justifier because a just God if we've here about a judge who just lets a guy go scot free who committed a heinous murder we'd all cry out for justice right how can God save sinners out of his love but yet maintain his justice and the way he does it is through the person of Jesus he did the cross is the only way the cross is how the love and the justice of Christ come together it's the only way that mankind can be saved and God can maintain his righteousness it's through the one way he made the cross man I'm chasing the rabbit here but did you know y'all still with me say yes yeah did you know that even so I'm sitting with my parents another time and their friend walks in and says wait so you're a pastor I've seen like yeah you really believe this Christianity stuff yeah and so she's asking me about it and so I started telling her that were saved by grace through faith and all this and she says to me no no I'm sorry my stepmom says to me my dad sitting right here my stepmom says oh no we believe in faith too in the Quran oh really mom tell me more and she says well there's a prophet in the Quran his name is Abraham I'm like oh come on she's like and Abraham was told to take his son and sacrifice him and I'm like thank you Lord for this layup come on yeah and and and he told him to sacrifice him in and he had faith and and God was pleased with them and I'm like mom that story by the way friends that story has no business being in the Quran if it doesn't point you to Jesus because you know I said I go mom that story isn't just telling you that God wants us to be people of faith but it's actually showing you the object of faith the only object of faith that God will be pleased with us is when we believe in Jesus Yahweh Tama we remember that there was a goose Vande a ram whose horns was caught in the thicket yeah well the Bible has that story too mom and the Bible says that that RIM took the place of the Sun and it's only because there was a substitute sacrifice that then the Sun could be saved and restored to the Father and I looked at my parents and they're both what they we never knew that I wish I could say that right then they repented and believed in Jesus that hasn't happened yet we're still praying but I'm telling you they don't understand grace they see it as being just cheap grace no no it's a free gift to us but it was very costly to God it cost him his son and when you are freely forgiven then and only then do you live for God out of love I had a faith that pleases him and so here's how I wanna close and then we'll do some questions in a moment I've shared a brief history of Islam I've shared some of the what Muslims believe and I've gone to this idea of fear and love and said man pray for them serve them and bring them to understand truly what grace means and so I want to close with this guys there are actions the effects every eye on me there are actions Ziya fats all over your community in your neighborhood I don't have to tell you that how much our culture is changing the world is coming to us we're to make disciples of all the nations well friends the nations are coming across the street and they're coming to us and this is a time for us to act to move I preached here about a year ago and I mentioned this so if I'm repeating this forgive me but a couple of things happen about a year and a half may two years ago that made me wonder has the church forgotten what we're here for the first was the good folks in Farmersville Texas and I'm not saying all the folks there but there was a little bit of an uproar in Farmersville which is just north of where I live in Frisco some people were up in arms because the Muslim association of collin county wanted to build a cemetery there and my islamic cemetery and a pastor stay with me a pastor in that community actually stood up and he said we've got to put a stop to the cemetery if they're allowed to build their cemetery then more muslims will come to our community and I'm just like why are you a pastor a pastor are to stand up and say Church I got great news the Muslims want to build a center here a burnable the cemetery or whatever that means more Muslims will come to our community and maybe we can actually live out our calling and so they had a town-hall meeting and they invited an Iranian pastor from Frisco from a machine to come share his story I wish I had time to tell you about that it was pretty cool and then the Syrian refugee crisis hits and again I I don't want to get political here this isn't a conservative liberal Republican Democrat Trump or anti Trump State me I'm not this is just I'm talking to you as a Christian living in America here and when that Syrian refugee crisis hit and I get it there was this angst of all this terrorist attacks and say man no we've got to these refugees who's going to come the bad guys let's you know obviously block them from coming some said that's ridiculous some even some leaders were even suggested maybe we should deport some all kinds of stuff right and some of that's still going on now and again I'm not here to talk about a wall or no wallet or immigration policy I am saying this that I was asked to go to the Washington DC and sit on a panel with dr. Russel Moore some of you know who he is from ER LC a person from our state department person and World Relief who resettles refugees and then as she Iranian Christian pastor in Texas and so here we go these guys are much more brilliant than me they're sharing their stew and then the whole idea was just to talk about what should a Christian response be to the crisis the refugee crisis and so here's what I said and I'll say that to you I said look uh I want my government to do their job and protect me I want them to do whatever they can to make sure you know to vet anyone who's coming in I safety is important for me I'm gonna confess that but all I'm gonna say is as a Christian safety cannot be the overriding the primary motive of my life there's something greater to me than saving my own life as a Christian and that is the mission God has given me and I've got to think about opportunity to you and I quoted acts 20 where Paul says this Paul says man I'm going to Jerusalem and I know that suffering and affliction await me there and it's almost as if Paul knows then you're gonna probably say well why would you go there because after all shouldn't use preserve your life I'm going to Jerusalem and I know suffering the foots away from here but he says but I do not count my life of any value nor is precious to myself but only that I come complete the tasks that God has given me to preach the gospel to the Gentiles what he's saying is I want to fulfill the work of my ministry in other words there is something more important to me than saving and preserving my life and staying comfortable and safe and that is my mission it's even more valuable than my life and so I'm just wondering how we've forgotten why we're here that we have a limited amount of time and I say to you especially listen to me especially when a terrorist attack happens when something Islamic radical terrorism happens somewhere in the world and they or maybe even in our country and they are expecting you that is the moment that you can actually live out I mean expecting you let me finish that sentence to hate them or to ostracize them and you love them you're living out the gospel more than ever when September the 11th happened I was just a starting up evangelist and I somehow got on an email with a bunch of other pastors and there was a prominent evangelist who sent out this email and basically the message in the next day of after September 11th was rah rah let's go bomb them let's come on I mean it was just and I read it I was just shocked and listen do what did I want the you know Osama and you know at that time I wasn't sure who whoever was responsible I want them to be caught and yeah of course do I want terrorism to stop of course but I just email this guy back and all I said was I said look this is a unique opportunity that we have when they're expecting us to ostracize them if we can go love them you know they're gonna be blown away and then I shared my story same thing I said on Capitol Hill I said here's the thing I'm so thankful that when we moved to this country we weren't necessarily refugees but we left the turmoil of Iran thinking we were gonna be comfortable here and the hostage crisis hit and everybody turned against us merely because of association that we're from Iran and I'm so thankful that one Christian lady looked at my family and didn't see threat primarily but saw opportunity and poured herself into me and loved me so I'm saying something like this this evangelist going this is a unique opportunity to live out the gospel because the gospel essentially is this that we were enemies of God and while we were enemies of God God moved in love and grace to save us so when they're expecting you to treat them like an eminent enemy and you love them you were probably doing the most Christian thing you could possibly do and so he writes me back an email and saying I've seen that we're not ready for that message and said something like you need to wrap yourself in the American flag a little bit more which broke my heart and I because I'm first of all a very patriotic American I love our country but before I'm an American I'm a Christian and I have a mission and have a limited amount of time on this earth and more than ever Muslims are coming across the street and we have the greatest news ever that there is a way for you to be forgiven and only one way for you to be forgiven and God get all the glory only one and that's through Jesus I close with this I'm at Oregon State University talking about just like this about Islam and Christianity and a bunch of Muslims came in the back and they were sitting there saw mall come in and taking notes throughout my lecture and there was a Q&A just like we're about to have and maybe I'm setting myself up for something similar right now and these guys stood up and started bombarding me with questions I'm basically saying how could you believe have you and then one of them stood up and said this half she n-- are you telling me that you know for sure you're gonna be in heaven so you're telling me and I said yeah bro that's exactly what I'm saying to you praise to God that I can look at you and say I know I'm gonna be in heaven hey well he looked at his buddies I looked like that everybody else could hear that he looked back and he goes that is the cockiest most arrogant thing you could say and I said to them bro it is completely cocky and arrogant for me to say I know I'm gonna be in heaven based on anything I have done which is what a works based religion ultimately teaches but there is no arrogance at all for me to say that I know I'm gonna be in heaven based on what Christ alone is done you see it and so I'm telling you there's one way only so that no man may boast and God gets all the glory and it's by grace through faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ and we gotta go show them that love and we gotta go share that love with them let's pray Lord we love you we thank you God for this time and I just pray Lord as we think about Islam and we think about the gospel which we've been entrusted to Lord I pray that you would remove these this fall notion that Muslims are all here to hurt us the Lord that we would know that they are there our fellow human they are made in your image you love them just like you loved us we didn't deserve grace they don't deserve grace none of us do but you have made a way through Christ for us to be saved from our sin and when we understand that it's by grace that we get to truly live for you god I pray that we can go and be your hands and feet and be your mouthpiece and your ambassadors Lord we love you in Christ's name we pray amen [Applause] [Music] a refugee is an individual who has fled their country of origin based on a fear of persecution that fear of persecution can come on multiple accounts including religion your race your national origin a political affiliation that you have or being a member of a particular social group so once once a what's a refugee family and once they arrive in the u.s. we have no idea what their story is or where they come from many families are very educated they have to Greece they had good-paying jobs in their their countries and they were forced to flee and so when they come here they're essentially starting over they may not know how to navigate the bus system they may not know where to buy food or even how to put their money into a bank account they may not know how to register their children for school or even how to learn the language and so we asked the church as homegroups um one to kind of surround them and put a buffer around them to help them flourish here in our cities to help them have a newness of life in the city that the Lord has placed them in there might be other families who have been living in refugee camps for 15 plus years and so we bring them to this fully furnished apartment that our home groups have set up for them as where there are these very practical ways that home groups can help surround these people help them integrate well so that that they flourish living here [Music] general chaos kreygasm no merit rocky rah-rah-rah to San Diego chicken de de santillana rocky road rocky byakuya mundo Alberto Yanukovych economist Rudy Massimo New Jersey are in Tokyo Harbor Avenue in Yarborough when a limited visitation begins anew Hobart artificial trans novel to me Chinese women were sangrahani Naranjo a crystal amanda was body for attorney collision universal I'm so encouraged by hearing some of these family's stories and seeing how home grips are loving on them and sharing meals with them and caring for them spiritually and physically some of the families are coming to the village and while they don't have a holistic grasp of our culture and of the language they come why because they're hard to be captivated by the local Churchill loving them caring for them and engaging them as their neighbors just as we have been called to do now you what I tell you one to only invoke a Congo Daniella no kanata Sangha can zahana we move within the icao boca congo one of the reasons that we pursued a refugee ministry at the plano campus is that the nations are here and we know in revelation revelation 7:9 that every tribe and tongue and nation will be gathered together and worshiping the lord jesus christ and so what we see in accordance with scripture in acts 17 God in His sovereignty is orchestrating the movement of people determining a lot of periods of time in the boundaries of their dwelling place so that they might seek and find him I am praise the Lord would you guys do me a favor and thank action again for coming brother I just want to tell you - I've heard your story several times now and every time I hear it I just love how you share it saying this is not the faithfulness of a sheen because it's not it's a faithfulness of the Lord and I think I can testify as many of us can we see that in you and it makes me want to praise our Lord for what he's done in your life appreciate thank you thank you for having me yeah okay we're gonna spend about 10-15 minutes trying to work through some of these questions there's so many great questions that you guys have already submitted if there's still one that's just burning for you feel free to jump on to SLE I do slash TVC forums and ask that question the first one I want to ask and this is I think just a great question actually what are some things that well-meaning Christians either say or do that just shut down dialogue shut down relationship with Muslims quickly sometimes maybe before we even have a chance to share the good news oh man there's a lot I could say I would I will say this so the greatest I failed mentioned this earlier the greatest sin in Islam is the sin of shirk which is basically shirt with a K instead of a T okay shirk and shirk basically means to equate anything or anyone with God so this is why a Muslim cannot wrap his mind around the deity of Christ and I didn't even have time to talk about Trinity even they think that you we worship three gods some of that some of them wouldn't even think four gods because they've been around Catholics who seem to worship Mary even so so they think that we are polytheists they don't understand that we believe in one God who has revealed himself to us in three persons so that's a whole nother discussion but the deity of Christ which is a related one is something they can't wrap their mind around all right that God would put on human flesh and come to us and so knowing that I would say that I don't this is personally I'm not saying God can't use it but I wouldn't probably start with the deity of Christ okay because that's gonna shut them off and they're not gonna even want to listen to anything else okay but I would let them see how Christ must be more than human and in fact deity so for instance if you get offended that I call this thing a stole let's say for whatever reason I maybe won't come out and say hey this is a stool I'm sitting on but I'll say hey there's four legs here do you see the four legs oh yeah I see four legs and it's it's supporting a seat here that's gonna back yeah yeah I see that and then as I'm walking with them they go you know what yep that's a stool I'm like bingo right so it's kind of like that so I'll start hey Jesus is the only one who was ever born of a virgin right yes all right totally different than all maker yeah Jesus was the only one who was sinless do you know anyone who was who was sinless no now you know Jesus by the way in the Koran he actually gives life did you know that he actually breathes into clay and makes a bird have you ever known anyone else who gives life that's a human no no no and let them kind of see you know that even in their own theology okay that they have to get to a place where they're like man that it's more so that's that's one I would say that there's many more but that's that's probably a good one is there anything that Christians maybe sometimes do I loved your emphasis on serving Muslims engaging them is I'm guessing is it something you try to maybe engage in conversation too quickly kind of the TEL before you love yeah I would say that for sure to get to know them definitely there are some things you need to keep in mind with like going up to a Muslim woman if you're a guy for instance much better if you can start the dialogue with the husband I'm not saying you can't ever say a word but a lot of times we trip up like you know people ask me about for instance the pork thing what if they come over what am i Matt's you know push them supposed to make for them and actually make pork for the minute let me just say don't do that first of all I mean don't don't maybe serve them be they did right yeah yeah but if you did here's what I want to say man they're expecting you not to know all of their culture and their customs and and and I'm saying here's what you do if somehow you did something that they have to say oh I can't go there then you know I'm sorry I didn't know that's all all right it'll be it'll be fine I think sometimes were so afraid of engaging their culture that we think we're gonna mess up somewhere that we never even do it that's great this one just popped up I'm really interested to hear you answer to this one why is Islam growing so rapidly right so we think about there's probably a lot it this is probably a super complex answer will hear about Islam growing in the east and the west of global South as well Africa why hmm well yeah there are many reasons why you know obviously in history it has spread many times by force but I I think if I could get pretty theological with this I think the end of the day Islam appeals to the heart of sinful man in a way that that like for instance in in its spreading in prison you know and and and so someone who feels like they've messed up their life you're able to go to them and say hey look you can do these five pillars and you can do these things and with God kind of write a new chapter of your life and be say you know and so it appeals to the pride of man that I can do it right same thing at the very beginning the garden hey eat from the tree you don't need God you can be God for yourself so I think it hits the pride of the simple artifact you know words I think we have a much better message right forgiveness and grace certainly much more radical message yes okay this is an interesting one this person and several people asked this question they're thinking about learning more about Islam and I'm thinking about perhaps I should read the Quran is this something you'd recommend and if you do maybe is there a place to start and how did you start at the beginning right because sometimes with the Bible we say start with John right you're gonna get a picture for Jesus's and then maybe another resource that you'd recommend for somebody that's wanting to grow an understanding of Islam yeah I mean I think III would say you could read the Quran if you are I mean you're a believer you're saying man is it gonna my hope is that it's not gonna shake your faith it's gonna actually embolden your faith as you as you read it your faith in Christ and so I would say in for the Quran you start from the beginning I would say but so yes I would say so and then but I would I would definitely recommend resources to kind of help you and so I brought one today so here it is I don't know if we can put this up on the screen anyway it's called answering Islam all right and it's by Norman Geisler I would highly recommend this it kind of does a lot of what I did in terms of here's what Muslims believe here's a Christians belief here's Muslims objections to Christianity and here's how you answer it so I would I would recommend answering Islam that's great when you're sharing the gospel with Muslims sometimes they this person says I feel like they shut down when they hear about Christ being crucified and dying on the cross so the crucifixion becomes a stumbling block it's almost like the Bible talks about that right so how do we get around this idea of grace when there isn't this idea of Grace in their mind how do you how do you really infuse a message of God doing for us that which we could never do for ourselves yeah I think that's I was gonna say that would be the answer so what I mean by that is what the last thing you said is that there is no way for us right so I would probably say if you're saying man they're gonna get so tripped up by the cross and I'm gonna understand it I think first starting with the gravity of sin all right and really understanding what our problem is that if this if you understand sin that there's no way that you can get yourself out of that predicament you know there's no I think I share that earlier God is a holy God his standard is not just 51 percent it's 100 percent we've all sinned even they in their theology Adam because of one sin was removed from the presence of God which is pretty interesting because then you say well then why the scales one sin was too many for Adam right and so to let them understand that problem and then I would say I think what's compelling to me is that the cross demonstrates as I said the love and the Justice of God better than any other religion it shows you how God can be both and I think the the cross shows you that you are loved and when you really understand that you would love for him that's great yeah this is a really interesting question as well so we've talked about sometimes maybe the mischaracterizations or misunderstandings that that Christians have of Muslims I want to reverse the question a little bit is there something in your experience that Muslims are in Islam in general views Christianity maybe even culturally like we talked about this pork thing a second yeah and they're like well Christians believe this oh they do this they acted this way is there something that we should be aware of in terms of how they view us as we begin engaging them in a relationship yeah I would say one of the leading ones is that when I've talked to Muslims even though especially overseas they equate Christianity with what they see in America okay so so they're gonna be like there's a lot of times that they're like well why would you believe in Christianity look what America is is producing look at their movies look at their music look at the stuff coming out of America it can't be and so I think one thing that you have to really teach them is hey America is not showing you Christianity okay and this share with them the difference between Christianity in America I think that's probably the biggest one that's really important good this is the last one I want to ask and then I actually want to close with a time of Prayer I was just blown away when when we were asked how many of you have a Muslim neighbor a co-worker friend family member I think it'd be appropriate for us because your exhortation to us was begin with prayer for us to begin that now so as we answer this last question begins thinking about the person that you want to pray for but I want to do this final question you've shared you've shared several views already I just find them so encouraging tell us a little bit more about maybe Muslims specific conversion experiences and not just like the story of them but what can we learn from them as we begin trying to seek and engage them as lost people with the gospel so how these conversion stories teach us to be evangelists yeah well I'll share one but let me do this I'm gonna steal a little more time if I can is that deal okay because I saw a question but we're backstage about terrorism yeah and I want to just hit that really quickly because I know a lot of people say does Islam naturally lead to terrorism okay does it espouse violence okay and I would say that in Islam in the Quran first of all the concept of jihad that you hear holy war is primarily a spiritual struggle in a life of the Muslim to do good versus bad alright that's the way it's presented first okay now I would say very clearly we've got to understand Muslims are not terrorists okay that's not synonymous okay Islam and terrorism is not synonymous there are verses in the Quran that say that there are to fight against the people of the book all right who have been given the scriptures but do not believe in Allah and in another surah that there to lie in wait for the infidel you know to attack them and stuff like that these verses that have been used by the radicals for their purposes that are mainly political ones right yes that's true you know is this long a religion of peace I'm not sure that I would go that far because I don't think there's peace in Islam there's not peace with God ever right because there's no forgiveness until hopefully maybe you have more than good than bad and there's not I think peace therefore with with one another and in fact someone who converts from Islam to Christianity or any other religion ought to be killed according to their theology so I wouldn't go so far say it's a peaceful religion but I also would say hey it's not no let me say this way if someone becomes devout about the Muslim faith it doesn't mean that that naturally means they're gonna end up being a terrorist you've got to start understanding there's another category a bigger one that's probably ninety nine whatever point whatever percent of them and that's those who become devout they actually become much more fanatical about the five pillars of the works of trying to keep them to appease God all right and that's probably the the most people you'll see across the street are nominal Muslims okay and if you find devout ones are gonna be devout in that direction first and foremost okay much more than you'll ever find a radical terror that's a really helpful category just so you guys know Josh and Matt did a podcast of that Sheen is maybe your so ago I can't remember exactly long ago it was where he talks about that and that's a really helpful third category yeah to think of a Muslim who is fanatical even about their faith yeah but is nowhere near the category of terrorists the same way we're fanatical about Jesus Christ there's simply fanatical yeah about their religion and have not turned it into a fanaticism around vile totally perhaps okay so your question here it is conversion stories how how do those teach us to be missional and evangelists towards Muslims I mean I could go on and on with stories about again the the incredible impact of Prayer of God moving orchestrating events all the time okay but I would say I would say WOW gosh got two stories in my mind which one do I want to go with uh how much time I think you should just share both um what do you guys think yeah okay all right all right y'all have time I'll do it real fast I'll do it real fast okay so there was a let me tell you the story about a man who grew up his his testimony in Iran and as a teenager what he would do is he would go and throw rocks he and his buddies at the neighbouring Christian village when the women would walk by with the clay pots full of water he would try to hit those clay pots and bust them that was their game and one day as a teenager he went out and he threw that that rock and it busted and he was like God and he turns to run and the lady's coming towards him and he thinks he's about to get a whoopin right so he runs and he falls and he scrapes his knee all right and so the lady comes and instead of beating him or you know scolding him she leans down with a towel and takes care of his his bloody knee and he's like well I'm throwing rocks at you and you're doing this to me and so years later okay he's in the iran-iraq war he gets injured it gets put in a hospital and a Christian nurse takes care of him and he remembers as she's identifying as a Christian he remembers the kindness of a woman who loved him when she when he was the enemy and it blows him away all right and he ends up becoming a Christian and then ends up getting theologically trained becomes a pastor of a Masjid is more probably the most devout Muslim town in in Iran maybe the second one and he gets taken or told if you don't leave we're gonna kill you and he's like I can't leave my sheep behind and they take him to the Mashhad square and they hanged him and I have met people who've come out of his churches with my own eyes and his life has impacted so many it all goes back to a Christian lady just like a tutor for me who loved instead of hate and so I say that teaches me one you've got an opportunity to show them the love of Christ all right especially when they're expecting the ostracize and then I would say man the story of getting to know them learning a little bit more about them praying and asking God and and using bridges to the gospel so let me show one more I can't believe I'm going to confess this but there are times when I get on a plane and I'm thinking God not this flight like don't put the non-christian or the Muslim person next to me that I have to share the gospel I know listen I'm a sinner I'm just I'm not perfect okay but I I'm either really tired or it's when I think in that or I've got to study for my next sermon and that was one of these and so I get on here no one's sitting there I'm like okay Lord let me just have an empty I just got to prepare the sermon and sure enough I look up various I mean he got on the plane I'm like of course I mean I know I mean you could tell this was a Muslim guy all right and he was flying like have your bag down exactly and he comes down and sure enough he's like that's my seed of course it is so here we go and he sits down next to me I'm like I'm still fighting God on this okay so I reached down and I pull out my and I didn't have this Bible I have a big Study Bible and thud on that tray right and he leans over it he goes you're studying the Bible you know like really loud so everyone looks back at me like you know am i hey I'll do it you know some like well yeah right and I'm like well why don't why don't I go have you studied the Bible I know he asked me why I go man I need it for my solo have you studied the Bible and he's like well I don't have time you know time why what do you do he's like I'm a risk analyst and I'm like wow if you only knew how risky is she was hey okay so you're a risk analyst and you don't have time to read the Bible okay I get it and I go well I go that's interesting all right so what's your name and as I'm talking his name was going on but unless something really long he's then he's not from Iran and he goes but short I just go by going on and I'm like are you kidding me because gonna and Farsi means sin so I'm like this is delicious right I mean it's a guy named sin who is a risk analyst that doesn't have time to say goodbye but right so I go no way I go well bro I go you know my name my name is gonna he's like really I go up not really but I said I go but do you know what your name means in my language and he's like no your name means sin in Farsi okay really oh yeah and you know what I'm a horrible sinner and by the way so is he and so she and so they and by the way so are you and the Bible actually says all of us are sinners and then do you know that God made a way for us to be forgiven and then I go into the gospel right so my point is I'm just want you to hear me say this and I could tell you story after story Muslims first of all I have found to be the most hospitable kind people you will ever meet and I'm telling you if you invite them to your home it'll blow them away and probably they're gonna bring gifts and when they come and you just get to know them and you just build a friendship with them and you just serve them and you just watch God will give you bridges maybe it won't be their name is sin but God will give give you bridges to be able to point them to the gospel

Channel: The Village Church Resources

Views: 33,653

Rating: 3.0599456 out of 5

Keywords: The Village Church, Afshin Ziafat

Id: VnrrP5WcJzs

Length: 96min 10sec (5770 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 11 2017