Just Walk Across The Room - #1

THE SINGLE GREATEST GIFT

I WANT TO DO SOMETHING A Bit Different This Morning… In Fact, I Confess To you That It’s A Bit Awkward For Me Because ‘It’s Just Not My Style’… HOWEVER, The 4-Week Series I Begin Today, I Believe Can Be An Experience That Will Radically Change Your Life… The Life Of Those You Come In Contact With… And, The Life Of Trinity…

YOU SEE, This Morning I begin A Series Titled ‘Just Walk Across The Room’… That Deals With The Subject of Evangelism…. ‘EVANGELISM’… That Word Scares Some People To Death… It Has A Way of Sending A Tremor of Terror Up Some People’s Spine… In Fact, Some Of You, After Finding Out What The Series Is All About, Are At This Moment Wondering If I’m Going To ‘Give You’….

… A List Of Scriptures To Memorize

… A Formula To Use

… A Script To Remember

… Or, Worst Case Scenario, You’re Wondering If I’m Going To Drag You Up On The Platform To Give A Personal Demonstration of ‘How To’ Share Your Faith…

RELAX!! Chill Out!! It Just Ain’t Going To Happen!! To Be Honest, What I’m Going To Share With You Over The Next 4 Weeks Is Going To Be Unlike Anything You’ve Ever Read, Seen, Heard or Walked Thru When It Comes To Evangelism… The Type of Evangelism We’ll Be Talking About Involves:
… No Formula’s or Scripts
… No Quizes, Tests or On-the-spot Demands For Huge Chunks of Memorized Scripture

IN FACT, Evangelism Is As Simple As Taking A Walk Across The Room… WHICH IS SOMETHING WE ALL CAN DO… And Last Time I Checked The Word of God… IS SOMETHING WE ALL ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!

BY THE WAY… Isn’t That What You Want to Do… As A Follower Of Christ, Don’t You Want To Touch The Lives of the People You Know… You Care About… You Love … Who Are Living Their Lives Apart From God?
NOW THE ‘JUST WALK ACROSS THE ROOM’ Title To My Series Is The Key Concept In A Book Written By Bill Hybels.. That I’d Encourage You To Read. The Statement, “Just Walk Across The Room’, Is The Key Concept of The Book… and it’s roots are found in a story about a person who was living far from God… But One Day, His Entire World Got Upended Because A Christian Touched His Life… GUESS HOW IT ALL BEGAN… Yep, With A Walk Across The Room!

BILL HYBELS had Been Invited to A Luncheon. As He and the Other Gests Entered the Hotel Ballroom Where The Event Was To Take Place And Found Their Seats, They Were Asked To Introduce Themselves To the Other Folks Around The Table. Bill Didn’t Know the Other Members of His Group, But couldn’t Help But Notice How Different They All Were… In Terms, Of Age, Ethnicity, Etc…

SEATED DIRECTLY Across From Him Was A Tall, African-American Gentleman… Kinda Looked like a Linebacker… When He said His Name, It was Distinctly Muslim. After Every Person had given their name, they started the meal. At one point in the meal, the African-American Man Made eye Contact With Bill And Mouthed the Words, ‘I love your books!’….

*NOTICE HOW HYBELS WRITES IT…
‘I Looked Over my shoulder to see if there was some famous author standing behind me. There wasn’t, so I said, ‘Me?’
‘He said, “Yeah, you! We’ll talk later…” He had a huge grin on his face, but I still thot that he had me confused with someone else. So after lunch he pulls me off to the side and says, “I now understand this is probably a little confusing because you assume I am a Muslim… let me tell you a quick story…’

“I have been a Muslim my whole adult life. Being an African-American Muslim in a southern city-and being in the profession that I am in—it’s not always easy. As you might imagine, I have some struggles in social settings.”

He said, “In the profession I’m in, we have a lot of cocktail parties, and a lot of evening events; and the natural course for me at these parties is that I’m served a drink, I get some Hors d’oeruvers, and I try to make business contacts in the room. Inevitably, I wind up standing alone at most parties until enough time has elapsed and I feel like I can gracefully make an exit … and then I subtly leave. This whole dynamic is just something I’ve learned to live with.”

The Muslim man went on to tell Bill that one night, when he was at such a party, he found himself with a drink in one hand, a plate of food in the other, standing all by himself as usual. Sure, there were groups of people gathered throughout the room—talking, laughing, engaging in conversation about this or that—but he was there with no one to talk to and nothing to do. Except just stand there looking out of place.
At some point during the party, the Muslim man noticed a guy standing on the other side of the room who was in the middle of a conversation with people of his own color and his own “kind.” The guy looked away from his group and saw the Muslim man standing all alone just ten feet away. He was perplexed that this guy would even care to notice him, but what happened next shocked him.

The guy excused himself form his own conversation, turned away for the group, walked all the way across the room, stuck out his hand to the Muslim man, introduced himself and then asked for the Muslim man’s name.
From there on, the conversation unfolded so smoothly… so naturally. They talked about their mutual profession… their families… about business in general… about sports… and all sorts of things. Eventually—in the same conversation—the issue of faith came up.

Our African—American friend told Bill that at that point in the conversation, he became a little reticent… just assuming that there would be an unfavorable reaction when the other guy found out that he was Muslim. But he took the risk, and to his surprise, the guy said, ‘Well, I’m a Christ-Follower, but, truth be told, I know almost nothing about Islam. Hey, I wonder if you would do me the courtesy sometime—maybe over breakfast one day—of giving me the Cliff’s Notes version of your faith system… you know, why you committed yourself to Islam. Hearing your story would be pretty interesting to me.”
The Muslim man almost fainted! Can you imagine his surprise when he saw a Christ-Follower in a social setting Like That Operating with Such Openness and grace?

Well, The Two Men Agreed To Meet For Breakfast The Following Week, And The Conversation That Ensued Was Incredible. The Christian Man Felt Free To Ask Questions About Islam, And The Muslim Man Felt Free To Answer Them.
That Meeting Led To Another Meeting The Following Week. And Another One After That. And Another. For Weeks On End, The Two Men Got Together Over Cups of Coffee So That One Christ-Follower Could Take An Interest In A Man Living Far From God…

At Some Point In This Series Of Breakfasts, And Interesting Thing Happened. The Muslim Man Realized That This Christian Guy Had Been A Good Listener All This Time… Week After Week After Week. He Hadn’t Judged The Muslim Man’s Life Choices. He Hadn’t Wedged His Own Agenda Into Their Conversations. He just Kept Showing Up With A Listening Ear And A Genuine Interest In The Muslim Man’s Life.

LISTEN, In The Muslim Man’s Words To The Rest Of The Story…

‘I Really Didn’t Remember That Much About The Christian Faith. I’d Been A Christian At Some Point In My Childhood, But The Racism In Our Community Had Infiltrated My Family’s Church. Eventually, We Just Left The Faith All Together. Doesn’t Take A Genius To Know When You’re Not Wanted. But For Some Reason I Was Prompted During One Of Our Breakfast Meetings To Say, ‘You’ve Been Such A Good Listener All This Time… Would You Be Willing To Refresh My Memory On The Christian Faith?’

From there, it all Happened so Easily and Respectfully and Sensitively. And To Make A Long Story Short, Many Months Later, After Determining That Christianity Was The Superior Faith System, I Committed Myself To Jesus Christ! And It Has Made An Unbelievable Change In My Life. Bill, I Am Part of A Local Church Now, and That Is Where I’ve Come Across Some of The Books You’ve Written. I CAN’T TELL YOU THE DIFFERENCE THIS WHOLE THING HAS MADE IN MY LIFE… AND IN THE LIVES OF ALL MY FAMILY MEMBERS…

*LET ME MAKE AN IMPORTANT STATEMENT… THE SINGLE GREATEST GIFT A FOLLOWER OF JESUS CHRIST CAN GIVE TO THE PEOPLE AROUND THEM IS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE GOD WHO CREATED THEM… WHO LOVES THEM… AND WHO HAS A PRUPOSE FOR THEM LIFE! *NOTHING Beats It… Not Making Money… Having Possessions… Having ‘Friends’… Receiving Recognition … Receiving Accolades…

*FOLKS, This is What Evangelism Is All About…. CONSTANTLY WATCHING FOR WAYS TO GIVE THIS SINGLE GREATEST GIFT To Someone Who Does Not Have It….

*ULTIMATELY, That’s What The Christian Did In The Story… Something We ALL Can Do… He Had A Desire That God Would Use Him To Share The Gift of Christ With Someone Else’s Life… And Because He Was Open To Being Used… God Used Him…

THIS MORNING, We Begin The Process Of Understanding How To Get “Usable’ To God… I Hope That’s Something You Want… To Be ‘USED’ By God… *AND THE 1ST Step In Getting Usable To God Is Being Willing To Extricate Ourselves From Our Circles of Comfort and Stretch Out A Hand To A Person
Who Needs The Hope We Can Offer.

THIS MORNING, I Want You To Quickly Notice 3 Simple Steps Necessary For Us To Give The ‘Single Greatest Gift….JESUS’ To Someone We Know…..

I. BE WILLING TO ENTER THE ZONE OF THE UNKNOWN…
A. Think About This With Me…. ONE CHRISTIAN Was Standing In What I Will Call ‘A CIRCLE OF COMFORT’ (Refer Now to Flip Chart…. Draw/Refer to Image #1)

1. It Was A Circle In Which It Was: Easy To Relate
Easy To Converse
There Was No Threat…
*IE… Nothing ‘Unsafe’ Could Happen To ….
2. He Had Every Reason in the World To Keep Talking In The Circle He Was In…. It Was The ‘CIRCLE OF COMFORT’ That We’re All In Frequently…. AGREE!?
3. Yet, He Looked Across The Room And Saw Someone… Really Saw Someone… Who Was Standing Alone…. Maybe needing some Encouragement… Some Friendship…
(Build On Picture on Chart… ‘X’ – The Person Across The Room)
4. NOW, Not Only Did He Look And See… But He Felt Something and He Heard Something From The Holy Spirit—Something Like… ‘Why Don’t You Go Over And Talk To That Person On The Other Side Of The Room’…
5. NOW REMEMBER, He Has No Idea What is Going To Happen…. He Doesn’t Know What The Conversation Is Going To Be Like…. He Doesn’t Know What The Reaction Of The Person Will Be…. *BUT HE LEAVES THE CIRCLE OF COMFORT…. THERE’S NO TURNING BACK NOW!!
6. SO HE WALKS… Probably Praying Every Step Of The Way…
(Build On Picture on Chart…(arrow) pointing to person across room)
7. He Walks All The Way Across The Room… And Enters The ‘Zone of the Unknown’

B. Let Me Ask You…. HAVE YOU EVER ENTERED THE ‘ZONE OF THE UNKNOWN’?

1. Listen, It’s the ‘Zone of the Unknown’ Where God Often Does His Best Work!
2. It’s The ‘Zone of the Unknown’ Where The Man In The Story I Told A Bit Ago Struck up A Conversation with the African-American Man That Literally Changed The Eternity of
3. What A Simple Picture… Walking Just A Few Steps Across A Room…. But How Much Impact That One Faithful Christian Made By Taking Those Few Steps

*It Was A Staggering Sum Of Impact… I Believe The Gates Of Hell Shuddered When He Took That 1st Step… In That Moment, The Angels in Heaven Got Excited… ‘the Angels of Heaven Rejoice Over One Sinner That Repents…’
C. Here’s The Question I Want You To Think About… What Would Happen If We Were To Take A Few Steps Across The Room? Is It Possible That We Could Impact Someone’s Eternal Destiny… Or Even that Of Their Family? … That We Could Change The Course Of An Entire Family History By Simply Taking A few Steps Towards Someone Who May Be Heading For A Christless Eternity?
*DO YOU THINK THAT WOULD BE WORTH THE RISK OF 10 STEPS ACROSS THE ROOM?!
*LISTEN To This Quote: ‘The day Christ-followers like you and me stop taking walks across rooms in this manner, the day we stay glued to our Circles of Comfort, refuse to make the walk, refuse to enter the Zone of the Unknown… The day Christ-followers like you and me stop doing that sort of stuff, it is lights out for the Kingdom of God here on earth. It is the beginning of the end of redemptive history. It’s the slow defeat of the church—the bride of Christ. It’s the end of the dream of Christ that people on earth would come to know him.’
D. Listen To Me Carefully… I Want You To Know/Remember That One Of The Top Priorities Of The Holy Spirit In Each of Our Lives Is To Turn Every Single Person Here… Every Single Christian… Into A Walk-Across-The-Room Kind Of Person……EVERYONE!!

1. Regardless Of Your Age… Gender… Color… Personality Type… Your Respective Spiritual Gift Mix… or Experience In Talking to People…
2. If You’re A Living, Breathing Christian… The Spirit of God Is Asking You To Walk… He’s Asking You And Me To Make A Difference In The Lives Of People Every Day!! At Work… School… In Social Settings… At The Gym… At Your Kids Basketball/Baseball Game… In The Midst Of Our Crazy Schedules…. WHEREVER… WHENEVER…

E. Absolutely… If You’re A Christian And Wonder Why You’ve Not Rocketed Ahead In Your Spiritual Development or Maturity… Could It Be, For Too Long Now, You’ve Clung To your CIRCLE OF COMFORT… Refusing To Even Glance Towards the ZONE OF THE UNKNOWN… Let Alone Take A Walk Into It….

1. Too Many People Have Come To Christ… And Then Developed ‘Spiritual Amnesia’… Forgetting How Important The Cross Of Christ Is To Them…
2. They Get Wrapped Up In Their ‘Circles of Comfort’ … Focusing All of their Energy And Attention on Their Circle of Comfort…. NEVER Looking Around To Acknowledge The People Across The Room Who Desperately Need Hope…. And Help…

*LISTEN, If You Know Jesus… If He Has Changed/Impacted Your Life… Then Why Would You… Or Any of Us… Not Share Jesus With Others….
*ONCE AGAIN, If We’re Going To Share The Single Greatest Gift On Someone Else… First of All, You’ve Got To Be Willing To Enter The ZONE OF THE UNKNOWN….
II. LISTEN FOR THE SPIRIT’S PROMPTINGS….
A. To Be Effective In The Zone Of Comfort… We Have to Listen To The Holy Spirit
1. Understand, Being Available To The Movement Of The Holy Spirit Doesn’t Always Work The Way You Think…
a. Sometimes You Hear Evangelists/Pastors Talk About Leading Everyone They Come Across To Christ… And When We Heart That… It Makes Us Feel Like We’ll Never Measure Up/Be As Successful… TRUE??
b. Candidly, It Hasn’t Ever Worked That Way For Me…. *But I Do Know What It’s Like For The Spirit To Work… *Jay Orcutt…. Mike Nevitt
(Mr. Noris)*Husband Of Lady In Muncie/Revival
2. The Key: Being A ‘Walk Across The Room’ Person Means That We Walk When The Spirit Tells Us To Walk… And We Don’t Walk When The Spirit Says Not To Walk… *That’s What Keeps God In Control…
B. Notice Matthew 5:13…. ‘You Are the Salt of the Earth. But if the Salt looses it’s saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill, cannot be hidden.’

1. We Need To have ‘Saltiness’ (‘savor)… Spiritual Potency…… *BUT You Also have to have ‘Proximity’…. Salt has to be ‘ON’ Something If It’s Going To Affect It….
*IE.. I Can Be The Strongest.. Most ‘Salty’ form of Salt In The World…. But I Can’t Make Any Impact Unless I Get ‘Up Close’ To People Who Need Affected…
2. NOW TRUTH BE KNOWN… Some Of you Here This Morning Aren’t Comfortable With What I’m Saying…. ‘I Hear you Dave… But You Need To Understand That What You’re Talking About Is Reserved For Spiritual Superstars Who can do the Kind of Thing You’re Talking About… BUT THAT’S NOT ME!! I’ve Not been Trained… I Don’t have The Ability.. Aptitude… Gifting… or Skill To Do It… I DON’T HAVE WHAT IT TAKES….’
3. Believe Me… I Understand… It’s Tough… There is Genuine Fear To Overcome When You Start Walking Across The Room… There Is Anxiety About What Will Happen When You Venture Into The Zone of the Unknown… IT’S SCARRY!!

C. But The Reality Is…. When You Are Relating Right With Jesus… When There Is Vitality And Openness In Your Spirit To The Promptings Of His Spirit… *This Is What Happens…
*You’ll Be Standing In Your Circle of Comfort As Usual….Talking, Listening, Communicating… And You’ll Be Looking Around The Room To See If There’s Someone The Holy Spirit Really Wants You To See… ‘Are You Speaking To Me? Are You Trying To Tell Me Something About What’s Going On Here? Is There Someone You Want Me To Talk To????’

1. Not All of The Time… But Some Of The Time.. By God’s Grace.. IF YOU…
a. Commit Yourself To Being ‘Salty’ In Your World
b. Get In Proximity To People Who Need God’s Grace
c. Listen For The Spirit’s Promptings…
*You Will Know God Is Speaking… And With Confidence Will Know He Wants You To Walk Across The Room!!

D. This Morning, I Know there Are Several Types Of People Here…

1. Some Of You Know what I Am Talking About… Talking To Other About Jesus Already Is A Priority In Your Life…
2. Others Of You May Be Able To Think of 1 or 2 Times When You’ve Experienced Something Like This…
Never Really Thought About Doing This… Straining To Hear The Murmurs of the Holy Spirit… Leaving My Circle of Comfort To Walk Across a Room… Exploring the Zone of the Unknown… Having A Conversation With Someone Who’s Eternity Is Hanging In The Balance… With No Clue What God Is Ultimately Going To Do’
*BUT UNDERSTAND… It’s Something We Can Do… Should Do…. Must Do… To Impact Others For The Kingdom of God…
*SO WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO… WHAT’S THE KEY???.....

III. JUST WALK!!
A. Notice This Verse…
‘But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were sinners, Christ died for us.’ Romans 5:8

1. I’ve Spent Some Time Thinking About This Verse This Week…. (Talk about my Salvation… How God Showed His Grace… ‘What A Gift—not merely that God would feel this type of love for me, but that he would go to such lengths to demonstrate it…’
2. And What Was It that Jesus Did To Demonstrate The Love Of God To Me….
‘Have the same attitude of mind Christ Jesus had: Who, being in the very Nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a human being, he humbled himself by being obedient to death—even death on a cross!’’ Phil.2:5b-8
3. At A Specific Point In History… Jesus Walked Across The Cosmos And Reached out His hand to People Like You and Me…. *And Because Of That One Walk, Mankind Has The Opportunity To Be Saved And Secured As The Family Of God Forever…
a. Jesus, Under The Direction of the Father… Left the Ultimate ‘Circle of Comfort’ … Heaven.. And Took The Longest Walk A Person Could Ever Take…. WHY?? To Reach Out To People Like You And Me… To Reach People Who Were Wrecking Their Lives… *THAT’S ALL OF US… YOU AND ME!
b. Jesus Not Only Walked Across The Cosmos To Reach Out To Us… He Walked Across the Cosmos To Save Us…..
c. He Walked Across The Cosmos To Show Us How It Is Done….
‘Christ left us an example that we should follow in His steps…’

B. Listen… What I Want You To Get This Morning Is This… The God Of The Universe Doesn’t Want You And I to Get All Stressed Out Over What to Say… Over The Mechanics… Over Knowing This Or Not Knowing That… When It Comes to Sharing The Message With Others…. HE JUST WANTS US TO WALK!!
*That’s the Point…. JUST WALK!!... Because He Did…

ONE OF THE GREAT STORIES OF THE BIBLE That Illustrates What I’m Talking About is Found In John Chapter 4…. Jesus and His Disciples Had Been Traveling All Day Long… They Were Hot… Tired… and Hungry As They Came To Jacob’s Well… The Disciples Decided to go Into Town To Get Food… Leaving Jesus At The Well to Rest…. While Jesus was Waiting There… A Woman Came To Draw Water…. Later On In The Story We Learn That She Had Been Thru 5 Marriages and Divorces and at that time was Living With A Man she Wasn’t Married To…. *Well, Jesus, Seeing the Woman, turned and walk towards here… *CANDIDLY, Because of the Customs of that Day… She Wouldn’t Have Expected Jesus To have Anything To Do With Her… I Mean, He Wasn’t ‘Walking Across A Typical Room’…. He Was Walking Across Gender.. Racial… Cultural… and Man-Made Religious Restrictions… Because of her Lifestyle.. She would have Been Labeled A ‘Sinner’…. NO ONE Would have been Expected To Speak to Her…

BUT YOU KNOW THE STORY… Look At The Slide…
*All Because One Person Was Willing To Walk Across The Room….

Slide…. ‘Just Walk!!’

CONCLUSION: This Week, Would You Consider Leaving Your “Zone Of Comfort’?
Would You Consider Listening To The Promptings of the Holy Spirit?
Would you Accept the Challenge to ‘Walk Across the Room’