We Are The Church -The Miracle You Need

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My Roommates reading the Bible

Reading the Bible while smoking MJ

Reading the Bible while drinking

They were reading the Bible and asking questions

I would love to tell you that they all came to know Jesus, but I can’t I do not know what happened after I left

Some People hear this and get upset about what they were doing while reading the Bible

I look at it with excitement because at least in that moment they had truth in their lives.

Jesus went and sought out people just like my old roommates, He showed them Love, and when they came to Him, they lives were changed forever.

My Old Roommates, that were reading the Bible are very much included in who Jesus came to save.

People that you think are so far away from being saved might surprise you

To often we see someone that by our standards think, “That Person would make a great Christian” Yes Jesus died from that person too, but what about the people that we think won’t make good Christians

Jesus’ own disciples were some of these people

Matthew 9:9–13 NIV

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

A Jew who collected taxes was disqualified as a judge or witness in court, expelled from the synagogue, and a cause of disgrace to his family (b. Sanh. 25b). The touch of a tax collector rendered a house unclean (m. Teh. 7:6; m. Hag. 3:6). Jews were forbidden to receive money and even alms from tax collectors since revenue from taxes was deemed robbery.

James R. Edwards

Expand on Tax collector

Jesus called Matthew to be a disciple

this should be an encouragement, BUT also a charge to reach out to those who we think might not be “savable”

Story, about community service student, i’m best case scenarios person

We Need To Reach Those Who Are Lost

The Church Needs To Be A Safe Place

we we are reaching out to sinners, it means sinners will come to the Church

John 4:4–10 NIV

Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

If they don’t feel safe to seek God they will walk out the doors and not look back

We Have To Not Be Preoccupied

If we want to have people come to know Christ, we have to be paying attention to the people in need of Jesus

Mark 2:2–5 NIV

They gathered in such large numbers that there was no room left, not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus by digging through it and then lowered the mat the man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralyzed man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”

Lets look at the everyone not even noticing these men

even going up onto the roof

We have to make sure that when people are seeking that we notice them, that we are there to help them

we also cannot let our own preconceptions stop us from being there for those who are in need of a savior

WE WERE ONCE ALL LOST

I think some times we force ourselves to be preoccupied

You know I have to wash my hair, oh I have this and that so I can’t help, and we tell these excuses to God too, but what if we left those behind

Acts 9:10–18 NIV

In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized,

Ananias had every reason to try to get out of this calling God led him too, but because of this Ananias was the tool that God used to lead Paul to a relationship with Him, which fundamentally shaped the Church as we know it.

God has a plan, and sometimes it makes no sense, it didn’t make sense to march around Jericho so many times to the Israelites But God used it. We need to be willing to follow what God is leading us to do and not be preoccupied or contently preoccupied

We need to have the heart of Ananias and follow even when my seem crazy