Look Around - They're Hurting Out There // The Freedom to Share Jesus with Others, Part 10

When it comes to sharing Jesus with others, we can sometimes think – one day, one day God’ll use me in a big way … one day – and yet all the time, right at this moment, the people around us are headed for a Christless eternity. Right at this moment, there are people aching out there, people who desperately need to encounter Jesus.

C S Lewis was a great author and in his book The Screwtape Letters he points out that one of the greatest deceptions for anyone who calls themselves a Christian is to imagine that one day, well in the future in some far distant land God has some amazing evangelistic job for us to do.

And so the days slip by, they turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, months turn into years and we wait for that long off, far distant call and all the time, right here, right now, there are people around us who are hurting.

Not in another country, not in another city but at home, at work, at the football club, at school. Right under our noses. One of the things that stops us sharing Jesus sometimes with those people is this romantic notion that one day, one day God will do something big with me.

But in the mean time, well the people around us are going to hell. Does that sound a big strong? Does that sound a bit dramatic? We know well, those people around us who are going to hell. If they don't know Jesus, if they've never met Him and never put their faith in Him, never experienced His love and His grace through faith and tomorrow they die of a stroke or a heart attack or next week they get run over by the proverbial bus, that's exactly where they're going. Is it a bit strong? Well maybe but it's just the way it is.

These last nine programs over the last couple of weeks have been all about the freedom to share Jesus with others. Not a 'how to' guide, not a series of dot points, not some theological tree ties. Just born out of a conviction that so many Jesus followers feel inhibited, feel constrained, feel as though, "I can't share Jesus with other people. I can't do this great commission thing."

And so we've looked at a whole bunch of things that stop us and looked at the power of praying for people and getting out there and doing what God's already doing in today's deeply spiritual landscape across society.

We're thinking about finding the words and the confidence and putting our lives on the line. Not with the aim of creating some simple trite 'how to do' list. I don't think there's any such thing but just unpacking that great commission. Go on, go into the ends of the earth and tell them about Me and make disciples of them all.

Unpacking that. Taking it from being a burden, from being an albatross hanging around our necks, to being the incredible freedom and liberty that it actually is. With all my heart I believe that Jesus the Christ, Jesus the Saviour, Jesus the Son of God wants to use you and to use me to touch the people around us with His love.

Not in five years time, not in ten years time, not in twenty years time. Not half way around the world necessarily. But today, here and now. So what about the people in your life? Your husband or your wife or your kids. Maybe adult, maybe teenagers, maybe younger children.

Your extended family, your brother in law or your sister in law or cousins or uncles or aunts or grandparents or grandchildren. Your neighbours in your street, your friends. The parents of the kids that your kids might go to school with.

When you think about it we actually have relationships with a large number of people. Our work colleagues. You look around at your little group and there are probably fifty or a hundred or a hundred and fifty people that we regularly have contact with. It's quite staggering when you think about it.

Then you think, "Oh, hang on, a good number of those don't know Jesus. A good number of those are doing exactly what Berni just said. A good number of those are going to end up in hell. Wow, what do I do with that? There's too many of them for me to deal with all at once. How am I going to deal with all of this?"

Well God doesn't expect us to deal with all these people. God knows the ones with whom we can really connect and I believe that as we pray towards the end of this program, which we're going to do, God will bring the faces of the people that He wants to touch through your life and mine, right before us.

I believe that as we pray a prayer at the end of this program we will see those people through the eyes of the Almighty and all loving God. And you know something, they may not be the ones that we expect.

When God shows us those faces I can almost guarantee the feeling of, "Oh no, not him. Not her. They're such a problem bunch of people. That person’s marriage is falling apart. Oh that one, that one is a pain in the neck. I can't stand that person."

I tell you, God will bring those people in our lives because He's got a sense of humour and He's got a sense of grace and He's got a sense of love and when He speaks to us through His Spirit and says, "This one. This one, that's the one I want you to touch. I want to touch that person through you. Or this one. Or maybe those two or three."

God will know exactly what He's doing. When God shows you that person or those people, who they are, right near you, let me ask you something, will you be Jesus to them with everything that you are, with everything that you have?

Why has God brought them to you? Because they need Jesus and the reason they need Jesus is because their life maybe in a mess without Him. It's really easy to say no. It's really easy to say, "well Lord, you know, that was a nice exercise praying that prayer but, oh no, I don't think so. I've actually got a lot to do. I'm really busy in ministry or I'm really busy at work or I'm having a family thing and I need to go and earn money."

When God brings those faces before you today, as He will if we pray and ask, will you make the emotional investment in their lives? Will you make the heart investment in their lives and be like Jesus was to the lepers and the prostitutes and the tax collectors? Come on, let's pray.

Father God, We know that you have a plan to use us, a plan to bless people with your love. A plan to bring people to that door, to open the door so that they can meet Jesus and have eternal life with you.

Father, Sometimes we know it's not going to be convenient and sometimes we know we're not going to be able to and sometimes we know we're going to make mistakes but Father, we ask you in the mighty name of Jesus today to bring before us, right now, the very face of the person or the people that you want us to minister to.

Father, By your Holy Spirit show us that face, show us that name, speak that into our hearts Lord and put it on our hearts the fire that burns for you to be Christ to these people.

Lord, equip us, strengthen us, encourage us, give us the endurance and give us everything that it takes for you to use us as much or as little as you choose to bring this person or these people, that you bring before us now, to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Father, We ask you that in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.

As you contemplate what God is doing in your life. As you contemplate the people that God surely brought before you, let this knowledge set you free. Jesus the Christ means to use you and me in the lives of the people whom He's put next to us so that He can set them free.

It's all about sharing Jesus with others. Not sometime in the future when we're all perfecto. But right now, right now, just as we are. One of my absolute favourite passages of Scripture is Ephesians chapter 2, verse 10.

We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do the good works which God prepared beforehand for us to do.

Just the way we are. His workmanship. God's already gone ahead. God's already done things. He's started working in people's lives and He calls us alongside to love someone and speak to someone, to share our Jesus with them. Are you ready?