A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - Week 2

But I want to jump into part two of our series,

Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. How many of you when

you were kids now listen to a lot of y'all

because we got a fairly young church. A lot of

y'all are not gonna know this show. But how many

of you can remember mister Rogers? You know he was.

He was like the ideal neighbor. He was always in

a good mood, he was always cheery. The man changed

shoes when he got home every day. I mean, you know,

just to keep his floor clean. I guess I don't know,

but uh, it was just a picture of an old

way of life.

That was just the norm back then.

But it's something that we have disassociated so far from

in today's world.

I'm gonna ask a question.

If you want to respond, you can if you don't

have to, if you don't want to, But how many

of you would be honest enough to say that you

don't even know your neighbors names?

Yeah?

Uh, we live in a different world and we have

lost what we thought as old time American values. But

actually it's an erosion of the fundamental kindness and friendliness

that was the key to evangelism. In the early Church,

and not just the early Church, but in the church

up until just the last twenty years. Most evangelism didn't

happen inside our buildings. Most evangelism happened out in the

world when people were inviting their neighbors over for dinner

and talking to them about Jesus, and at work and

talking to people about Jesus. And that's the way evangelism happened.

As a matter of fact, in the early Church, that's

the way it happened.

It says that they broke bread from.

House to house, they prayed for one another, and that

people were at to the church daily as a result

of friendship and homes.

That the church grew daily.

You know, the reality is, if we want the church

to grow daily, we could have a church service every day.

We could. I mean that's something we could do.

I'd be dead in about a week, but we could

do a church service every day. But the reality is,

I don't know that we would see any more people

get saved than we already see until we get back

to the scriptural basis of evangelism. And that's us evangelizing.

The people that we know.

If you got a Bible, go to a John, chapter four,

verse thirty four. W we John chapter four, verse thirty four.

It says Jesus said to them, my food is to

do the will of him who sent me, and to

finish his work. We could preach a series just on

the last part of that sentence, and to finish his work. Listen,

Jesus right there says that the Father could do it.

Come on, somebody, the Father could do it, but he

has chosen to delegate the finishing of the work to Jesus,

who then delegated it to us. That literally, we live

our lives in such a way that we finish the

work of the Father.

What an incredible mandate on our.

Lives that God has entrusted us to finish his work.

Do you not say there's still Do you not say

there's still four months?

And then comes the harvest.

Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and

look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest.

Let's pray, Father, we thank you for your word. See

only change agent on the face of the planet. And

I pray that today something happens a little different to

us than happens on most Sundays. But Lord, that we

are motivated empowered, initiated, ignited Lord Uh to see things differently,

so that we do things differently in Jesus' name. Amen,

you know, Uh, I wish that I wish that I

could have been there to actually.

See Jesus teach these things.

Because I think when we read it written, we miss

a lot of Jesus' communication style. I think that we

miss a lot of what's happening because we can't see

where he's teaching these things. Come on, somebody. We can't

see where he's pointing and what he's doing. But he

looks at his disciples and he says, hey, you say

there's still four months to the harvest. But look, he

didn't say go Look, he didn't take them somewhere where

they weren't already.

He said, lift up your eyes. Look, the fields are

already white for harvest. There's already things ready right now.

You don't have to go anywhere. You don't have to

do anything else.

All you need to do is lift up your eyes

and look and see what I see. In other words,

Jesus is telling us you don't have to go anywhere

else other than where you already go to be part

of the harvest, to help bring the harvest.

In a lot of times.

We think that that we got to go and stand

on a corner somewhere with a bullhorn.

Amen. You know that that we go down to Atlanta,

we get.

A bullhorn, we stand on the corner and we're listen.

That's not for everybody. I'm gonna go as far as

say that's not for me. I'm first of all, I

don't like to sweat. Come on somebody, especially not for me.

Between into May and you know, beginning of September in Georgia,

I know that I'm not called the bullhorn ministry.

Amen. That's not for everybody. Because see here.

There's a there's a difference between an evangelist and a witness.

An evangelist is gifted.

And called and mandated to stand and challenge somebody to

make a crisis decision in that moment.

You know you're an evangelist.

If the first thing you think when your waitress walks

to the table to serve you your lunch today, if

the first thing you think to say to her is

if you died right now, do you have the assurance No,

you're going to heaven.

But if you don't, you're going to have that's how

you know if you're an evangelist.

If the first thought that comes to your mind when

she comes to the table is wow, you know what

she looks.

She looks down.

So my goal is to make her smile, invite her

to church, and leave her a big tip. You're probably

not an evangelist, You're just a good Christian.

Amen.

There's different ways to skin a cat. I don't know

even why we say that. I don't even know why

that's a saying. I don't even know why.

That's a saying.

Although I did, I'm not going to tell you that

story in Haiti one time. I know there was one

on its way to be skinned, and it definitely made

me appreciate the fact we were eating rice and beans.

Amen.

But there's more than one way to finish the work

of the Father. And it's God's will that none should perish,

but that all would have everlasting or eternal life. But

he refuses to snap his fingers and do it.

He's committed that into our hands, and he says, do

it right where you are.

You don't have to do anything else to make a

difference than what you do right now, other than opening

your eyes and seeing things in a different way. You

are working with people who need a savior. You buy

coffee from people that need a savior. Listen, if you

want to challenge you on this. If you go to

the same.

Convenience store every morning on your.

Way to work, and you buy coffee from the same

person and you don't know the person's first.

Name, I want to challenge you that Step one is.

To learn your coffee person's first name, the person that

runs the register. Just learn their first name over the

next week. Know their name by Friday. Amen, so that

you can come in next Friday and write their name

down on a prayer card we're gonna give you so

that you can pray that their heart would be prepared

to receive the gospel.

Amen. Can't listen. Some of y'all don't need to cook

a pie. Go buy a pie. I'm gonna go.

Tools of evangelism. I'm just I'm giving them to you

right now, y'all. Write this down. Go buy a pie,

take it home, take it out of the box, put

it in your oven and heat it up. Carry it

to your neighbor and knock on the door and say, hey,

I just took this pie out of the oven. Don't

tell them you don't tell them you made the pie.

Don't start it out like a hypocrite. I mean we

all are, but don't start it out that way. I

just thought of you and I wanted you to have this.

My name is Steve, who doesn't want a pie.

Now they may look at you and say, oh, I

can't have that. I'm diabetic or i'm you know what,

we're vegans, and.

This could get you at oil that if they look

at you and say, well, we're vegan. Is that made

with any animal products? Just to be safe, say yes

and take the pie home. Amen, and just say.

If they say those things to you, say oh, I'm

so sorry.

I didn't know, but I just wanted to make any

I just wanted to take an opportunity to get to

know you and introduce myself. And then on the way home,

get out your phone and say, Sherry, my next door

neighbor has diabetes.

Pray for that every day.

And then before you see Sherry again, get on the

internet and do some searching about diabetes and find something

if you can't cook, that you can buy that's okay

for a diabetic to eat. And when you see Sharry Er,

I say hey, listen, I was by the store and

I got you something, and go back in your house,

go out of your way, and start building a relationship

with Chary. Because the fields are white for harvest. Do

not start by saying, hey, come to church with me.

Is that where we want you to end up? Maybe, Listen,

I have no illusions that God sent me here to

build a kingdom.

He sent me here to build the kingdom. If you

lead them to.

Jesus in their driveway and they go to church with

Pastor Jensen, I am excited about that.

Amen. We just want people born into the kingdom. That's it.

And you doing your part in that.

Because the fields are white with harvest, to the point

that only eleven percent, and this is in the Southeast

United States, eleven percent of the population now identifies themselves

as church attending Christians. Eleven percent, almost nine out of

ten people you encounter are not church attending Christians.

It's a big pool of people.

America is now the second largest mission field in the world,

only behind India. There are more unsaved people in America

now than there is in China. Second largest mission field

in the world is right here in our back door.

Because we forgot how to be good neighbors. In Luke

chapter ten, verse thirty, we read a pretty pretty common

passage of scripture for those office that have been in

church for a while, if you had And that's okay.

But in Luke chapter ten, verse thirty, it says, then

Jesus answered and said, a certain man went down from

Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, who stripped him

of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. Now,

by chance, a certain priest came down that road, and

when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

So the preacher, the preacher was busy.

Pastor, if you're watching this, do not be so busy

going to visit the people that are already saved that

you walk by the people that are lost. But we

get so busy doing church stuff sometimes we're not really

very good to the community. And that's an indictment on us,

not as preachers, but us as individuals. But we just

blame it on how busy we are taking care of

the flock. Likewise, a Levite highly spiritual person. I'm gonna

call this guy board member.

Amen.

Likewise a Levi, a team captain, a board member, a

group leader. When he arrived at the place, came and looked,

and then he passed by on the other side.

Now listen, maybe the preacher didn't see.

Him, but these people looked at him and moved to

the other side of the road. But a certain Samaritan,

as he journeyed, came where he was, and when he

saw him, he had compassion. His heart was broken over

the situation. What if we prayed and asked the Lord

to show us the invisible wounds.

They're not in a physical ditch.

Bleeding, but they're in a life rut, and on the

inside they're traumatized and broken and in need of help.

What if we said, gee, what if we started every

day and we said, Jesus, show me the hurting and

broken people around me. Let me identify them so that

I don't go to the other side of the road.

So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, poured

oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal,

and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

On the next day when he departed, he took out

two d naraim, gave them to the innkeeper and said

to him take care of him and whatever more, whatever

more you spend, when I come again, I'll repay you.

He paid him up front, and.

He said, listen, if taking care of this man cost any.

More, let me know. I'll pay it when I get back.

Sometimes we only enter relationships when we know we're getting

something out of it. But to enter into a relationship

and we don't know what it's gonna cost us. On

the other side, we don't know what that what that

withdrawal is gonna be. We don't know those things. We

know this person's hurting, we know this person's broken. But

I'm gonna choose to love that person like Jesus anyway,

and I'm willing to pay for it whatever it is.

I'm gonna go to the take that call at eleven

thirty at night. I'm gonna go to their kid's birthday party.

And I don't even like kids, especially their kids. Y'all know,

y'all got friends like that look at me like I'm unspiritual.

But I'm gonna pay the cost because their soul is

worth it. Whatever more you spend, when I come again,

I'll repay you. So which of these three do you

think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves,

and he said, he who showed mercy on him. Then

Jesus said to him, go and do likewise. Jesus didn't say,

right answer. You've moved from discipleship one oh one to

discipleship two oh one.

Because you knew the answer.

You know the answer, Put the answer into practice. Start

doing something with the knowledge you have. Will only been

saved a week. You're a week ahead of somebody that's

not saved.

Amen. As a matter of fact, you're still fresh.

Enough that you haven't been poisoned with the traditions of

the church. That will tell you that those people are dirty,

and those people come on somebody. Jesus was approached by

a leper, and the man said, Lord, speak to me

and heal me.

And we've seen Jesus speak and people be healed.

But Jesus went to the leper and he reached out

his hand and he touched the leper, and the leper

was healed. Because listen, leprosy. When you see leprosy in scripture,

it's symbolic of sin.

Because Jesus wasn't.

Afraid of somebody's sin. I wasn't afraid of somebody's dirtiness,

of somebody's wrong thinking he wasn't afraid of somebody dropping

the F bomb every other word. Listen, if somebody saying

the F word to you is going to send you

to hell, you're.

Just barely hanging on anyway. Now, you probably shouldn't jump

in and join.

But look past it, because Jesus looks at the soul

of a person and he understands that the brokenness on

the outside is symptomatic of the brokenness on the inside.

And if the brokenness on the inside has a grace

collision with Jesus, the brokenness on the inside is healed,

and eventually the brokenness on the outside will follow.

So it's time for us to do the hard work

of being a neighbor for the purpose of evangelism.

Let me say that again, for the purpose of evangelism, Like, well,

now that sounds a little hypocritical.

I'm only going to be their friends so they get safe.

Yeah, what better reason. You became friends with somebody at

work so you could get a promotion. You became friends

with somebody because they have a nice boat and you want.

To go fishing. We become friends with people because of

what people can do for us. Simple fact of the matter.

Why not become.

Friends with somebody with the intention of leading them to Jesus,

of saving their soul, pulling them out of the ire,

changing their eternal destination.

Man, you can come and get ready.

Listen, I don't don't in just a minute. When I

make the altar call, it's not time for y'all to

pack up. We still got a few things we need

to do.

Uh.

We're baptizing five people today and uh, and then we're

going to uh. We're gonna pray for over all of

our all all of our kids and teachers before we

leave today too, So everybody stay for that. Let me

go ahead and tell you to before I finish up

the space. It's gonna be a bang, I'm preach mm

hmmm h Your kids are gonna come in here and

come to the altar and we're gonna pray over them,

and teachers anybody works at a school. We're gonna pray

over them. And you're going to be tempted to grab

your child. No, do not move. We're gonna take your

children back to kids Church and you're gonna check them

out the normal way. This is why, because we want

to make sure that your child ends up at your

house and not at somebody else's house, because the safety

of your children is a priority to us. That's why

once I make the altar call, you're not gonna be

able to use the bathroom because we're.

Blocking the hallway.

Nobody can go down the kids hallway because we don't

want somebody hiding and taking your kids. So don't get

mad and change churches because you couldn't go to the

bathroom during.

The altar call. Come to the altar.

And he'll handle that problem for you too, Amen, Isaiah,

Chapter fifty.

Eight, verse ten.

If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy

the afflicted soul, if you extend yourself to those that

are hurting and broken, that's what it says. Then your

light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall

be as noonday. The Lord will guide you continually and

satisfy your soul, and drought and strengthen your bones.

You shall be like a water garden, and like a

spring of water whose waters do not fail those from

among you. So I know the reality of this series

we're doing.

Not everybody's gonna catch it, Pastor, I mean, do you

have any illusion that everybody's gonna get it, I mean,

no going to see the reality is, it doesn't take

everybody to turn a community upside down. It just takes

a few somebodies. Listen, just a few people to realize

that Jesus talking to me today. I just came to

talk to somebody.

Today, not everybody. Those from among.

You shall build up the old waste places. You shall

raise up the foundations of many generations, generational impact.

That there are people who haven't had a child.

Yet that you will reach and it will impact their

grandkids and their great grandkids because of your efforts in

building relationship for them to find Jesus today. You shall

be called the repair of the breach, the restorer of

streets to dwell in.

So the reality is that.

When God created the earth, man stood in a place

where there was no chasm between them and God.

God came from heaven every day in.

The cool of the afternoon, and he walked with at

him and even he talked with them, and through one

act of rebellion, that relationship was broken, and a chasm

was formed, and no longer could man just simply stretch

out his hand and get to Holy God. There was

a separation and there was a need for sacrifice and

priests because sin requires blood.

And then Jesus came.

And Jesus became a bridge. But the reality is is

the chasm is like this.

And Jesus is the bridge.

But he sits under humanity to serve. He sits under

humanity that has saved. He sits under humanity that has.

Lost to serve.

The Bible tells us that if Jesus is lifted up,

that he's lifted.

Into the gap.

And he fills the gap between falling humanity and Holy God.

That's your job is to lift Jesus up by building

relationships so that people can see him as.

Their lord and savior.

And when we lift him up and we glorify him

through our lives and the gap is filled, you become

the repairer of the breach. God is looking for some

breach repairers today.

For some people that will just see people differently. Today.

It's not your hateful neighbor that won't cut their grass.

It's a broken soul. It's in need of a savior,

and you need to wade through the waste high grass

to become a repair of the breach. That's your boss.

Who everybody hates because he's a mean old cuss. Needs somebody,

needs you to build a relationship for the purpose of

leading him to Jesus. Maybe it's your mom or your dad.

You know, my dad's not doing well right now. It's

probably the very end of his life.

We're talking.

He told my mom the other day that he didn't

think he was going to live very long. He doesn't

do everything right. But I had an opportunity a few

years ago to present the gospel and see him accept

Jesus into his life. And now we're at that moment.

And now we're at that moment because that breach was

repaired and restored.

That's all the difference, not to me as a son,

but to him as an individual that needed Jesus, that

found Jesus.

And now we'll have a restored body and will never

be in pain and hurt and suffer again, and will

experience Heaven with Jesus. Who Who Who are you thinking

about right now?

Because that's the person that Jesus wants you to win.

That's the person that you're befriend That's the person that

you start peeling back the layers, making a difference in

their life.

It's up to you.

Everybody staying with me, Am, I call this simple today.

If you're here.

And you want to be a repair of the breach,

you want to make a difference in somebody's life. I mean, listen,

if you say no to that, you're just a selfish

person and you really need to settle some things inside you.

I'm usually not.

Mean, but that just I just felt good about saying

that you.

Want to make a difference in somebody's life.

When I count to three, I want you to acknowledge

that by stepping out coming to the altar, Alter team's

not going to meet you here. You're making a decision

to ask Jesus to anoint you to be a repair

of the breach, to anoint you to win the lost,

to anoint you to build a new relationship, to anoint

you to see humanity the way he sees humanity.

You're asking Jesus to do that in you. It's on

the counter of three.

Now listen, if you're here, if you're getting baptized, as

soon as I count to three, you need to get ready.

If you're already ready, just come over here.

Diana, write a line up over here, and this Diana's

gonna take care of you guys.

But on the count of three.

I want you step out and I want you to

move if you want to be a preparre of the breach,

one you, two, three, step out and move right now.

Come on, get your hands up and ask the Lord

do what you need to do with me.