Connecting Others

Who in here loves homecoming? Well, my school was weird, and the way we did homecoming was a little different. I went to an academy, and so all grades, kindergarten through 12th grade were represented. Now the way people were chosen, was all the 12th grade girls got to be a part of it and that’s who we voted on for queen, then high school and middle school each class would vote on a girl, and the girl would choose a guy. But for elementary, what we would do is during chapel one week, they would draw from a big ole hat of names and choose one boy and one girl from each class. Well, when I was in fourth grade, I got chosen to be on the homecoming court with this girl in my class i’m not quite sure i had ever really spoken to. Well all because of this homecoming, I connected with this girl and we started talking a lil bit, and then it got real serious ya know, I hit her with the text from my iPad Mini. “hey” “wanna be my gf?” and of course she said yes. so then we started texting, I even changed her contact in my phone to “that one girl” I know I know thats rizz. Then homecoming came and went, and I no longer really liked this girl, and so i sent her a LONG LONG text message detailing why we should no longer be together. Now this is besides the point but she was all upset, then I felt bad, then I had my sister video me pretending to cry so i could get her back and I did, then pretty soon I remembered i didnt really like her anymore so i sent another long paragraph of why we should break up and it finally ended.

I know I’m horrible, but what did the whole homecoming situation do. It connected me to someone I had never met before, and initiated me starting a relationship with that person.

Now who remembers our church mission statement? It says every day students connecting others

last week we looked at how God used an every day student named David to defeat a miliatry champion and how God loves to use everyday students, and this week, I wanna look at one of the ways God wants to use you. to Connect Others to Jesus.

What it means to Connect Others

Connecting others, simply means introducing someone to someone they haven’t met yet, and opening the door to them starting a relationship with that person

For example, say I took _____ he’s an eligible young bachelor right? And say I introduced him to this girl I knew who I thought would be the perfect match for him? now ____ don’t get any ideas I am not your wingman, but in this instance, I just “connected” him with this girl. Or maybe I took one of yall and introduced you to my best friend from home Michael Jordan… nah i’m kidding, he does live in Charlotte tho, but say i introduced you to him, I would be connecting you with Michael Jordan

In the same way, we can Connect others to Jesus. All that it means is introducing Jesus to their lives. We are connecting them with Jesus and opening the possibility of that person having a relationship with Jesus

If you have your Bibles turn to Luke 10, and we are gonna see an example of Jesus sending his disciples to connect with others.

Luke 10:1-20

Now before we read this I wanna set the stage just a little bit, Jesus has been ministering for a little bit, and has amassed a bit of a following. He’s fed the 5000, he’s calmed the storm, he’s sent the 12 out

Now before we read this we have a question thats answered here in the first verse, Why should we connect Others? Why should I do it, won’t others?

Luke 10:1–20 “After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others, and he sent them ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself was about to go.

these disciples prepared the way for where Jesus was going, so do we

What we do when we go out and connect others to Jesus, is we introduce people to him and make a way for where Jesus is coming. You see, these discipples were going to where Jesus was headed next, and they were getting harvesting for when Jesus got there,

And so now what we can do as believers is prepare the way for where Jesus is coming, which is all of earth. Jesus is coming back one day, and when he does all those who believe in Him will be saved, and those who don’t will be judged, and so when we go out to connect others to Jesus, we are preparing the way for him.

He told them, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest. Now go; I’m sending you out like lambs among wolves. Don’t carry a money-bag, traveling bag, or sandals; don’t greet anyone along the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this household.’ If a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they offer, for the worker is worthy of his wages. Don’t move from house to house. When you enter any town, and they welcome you, eat the things set before you. Heal the sick who are there, and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near you.’ When you enter any town, and they don’t welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ‘We are wiping off even the dust of your town that clings to our feet as a witness against you. Know this for certain: The kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will go down to Hades. Whoever listens to you listens to me. Whoever rejects you rejects me. And whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.” The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Look, I have given you the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy; nothing at all will harm you. However, don’t rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.””

Now I know that was a lot, but I think this story shows us some helpful insights into how we can go out and connect others to Jesus.

The Harvest is plenty

v 2

The first reason I think we need to go connect others is because the harvest is plenty but the workers are few. What Jesus means is that there are a lot of people who are ready to be told the good news of Jesus, but there arent many to go and Connect them to Him.

Y’all, the harvest is plenty. It was true when Jesus came, and its so true now. Idk if its because of AI or social media or politics, but there is a genuine hunger for the Truth. And guess what, we have the truth! Its in your hands if you have a Bible.

And so the first thing we can learn about connecting others is to Jesus, is to know that the harvest is plenty, and the workers are few, and so we need to go and harvest, and prepare the way for Jesus’ return

Look for People of Peace

Luke 10:6 “If a person of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you.”

Jesus tells his disciples to look for persons of peace. Now what exactly is a person of peace? What the term meant is simply someone inclined to peace, or someone receptive to the disciples message.

What Jesus is telling us, is that if we want to connect with others, we don’t need to spend all our time on people who are hostile to our message. We instead need to focus on people who are open to hearing it.

So when if we want to connect people to Jesus, we need to look for people of peace, who are ready to hear our message. These could be people who’s grandma has been praying for them to come to know Jesus for years, or who God has slowly been working on .Those are who we need to seek out and pray that God leads us to them. Those are people who will be much more receptive to the gospel. But unfortunately not everybody will be like that, Because the third thing we can realize is that…

Some will Say No

v10-14

Sadly, some people say no. It’s not something we need to beat ourselves up over, it is simply a fact about sharing the gospel. There are people who don’t care about the truth of the gospel.

And what does Jesus tell us to do in that situation? He says wipe the dust off your feet and leave. That means if a people don’t accept your message and are hostile towards you, leave.

When we try to connect people to Jesus, we will receive hostility, Jesus says just leave. And then gives a warning to those who don’t accept him. Any who don’t accept him, but heard about him and especially saw Jesus, they’ll be judged worse than some of the most wicked citites of the old testament.

And so we have to know that some will inevitably say no.

So, we know that The harvest is plenty, that we should look for those people of peace who are ripe for harvest, and to expect we will be told no, but how can we do that?

The Lord gives us Strength

And Lastly we need to remember that the Lord is the one who gives us strength.

It’s hard to go and connect other people to Jesus. But when we do that in faith, meaning we trust He will help us, God is faithful to give us the strength to do so. He says in verse 19 that He had given his disciples the authority over the devil, and he gives us that authority too in the great commission, through His Spirit.

He gives us authority over the lies of the enemy, by the power of his name. Yall there is power in the name of Jesus. Power to bring freedom which I hope you come back next week to hear more about that.

So, we know that The harvest is plenty, that we should look for those people of peace who are ripe for harvest, and to expect we will be told no, but what can we even tell them?

3 easy ways

There are two easy ways to connect people with Jesus that I wanna share and have you practice tonight. Now obviously some ways are to invite people to church, or something like that, but here are two practical ways to share the gospel with people.

15 Second Testimony

There was a time in my life when I was/felt ____ and ____. But then I had an encounter with Jesus and was ____ and ____, and now because of that I am/feel ____ and _____. Do you have a story like that?

Two Kingdoms

God designed His Kingdom to be perfect. This is God’s Kingdom We get glimpses of that when we hear babies laugh or see a sunset, but man decided to run from that perfect design.

When we did that we made the world’s kingdom which is broken with sin and death. We know there is something better than this kingdom and so we try to escape, usually with drugs or girls or alcohol, but ultimately those thing lead us right back to where we started. God wanted us to be back in the perfect kingdom, but our sin had permanently separated us from Him because He is without sin, so how could we do that?

The only way for us to go back into God’s kingdom is if there was a punishment for the brokenness the world, and so God sent his son Jesus to come down into the broken world, live a perfect life, and die a death we deserve, and then raise three days later so that when we believe and put our trust in him to be king of our lives, our old broken self which is a part of the worldy kingdom can be put to death, and raised to be a new life as part of God’s kingdom and one day spend eternity with him in heaven.

Which kingdom do you find yourself in?

Live it out

Man the best way you can connect people with Jesus is to simply live the gospel. Dig deep into his word, and into prayer, and people will notice a difference. For some people, your life may be the only Bible they’ll ever read.

I’ve heard some say there are actually five gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and You. Live the gospel out in a way that makes people want to know who Jesus is.

If i started hanging out with someone, and all the sudden I got jacked, and 4 inches taller, and you asked what I did different, and I said man I met this dude who showed me all this, you would prolly wanna meet that guy. In the same way, if you live your life by being in the Word, and in prayer, and people notice you have more joy, your kinder and more loving, people may notice and ask whats difference, and you can Connect them to Jesus.

Respond

Ok so what we are gonna do, is in your Breakouts, I want you to practice these methods, and then go over your questions ok?

Before we do that would you bow with me?

Maybe you’re here tonight, and you’ve never been connected to Jesus, and you are realizing you’ve heard a lot about him, but you’re still in the broken kingdom. If thats you, would you come grab me before you go home?

Prayer