Nothing Happens Outside of Relationships

How many of you would agree with me that Billy Graham was probably the most effective evangelist of our day and age. I think most people would agree with that statement, right? And you know his big events that he used to hold his big Crusades would attract people by the thousands, you know, he would fill stadiums with people coming to listen to him share God's work. I don't know if this church participate in or not but a few years ago. He did what was labeled as kind of His Last Crusade, but it was far different from any of these others Crusades and the project was called My Hope America and the idea behind it was that there was going to be a series of video messages that people could watch but the idea behind it was that Christians would invite others and hopefully non-Christian to their home to watch these messages together. Here's what it said on the website for this since my hope America with Billy Graham is a nationwide effort to reach people across the United States with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Following a simple biblical model My Hope America with Billy Graham combines the impact of video programs with the power of personal relationships. Under the guidance of their local pastors Christians Across America will open their homes this November to share the gospel message with friends family colleagues and neighbors using one of the new programs that have been recorded featuring The life-changing testimonies and Powerful messages from Billy Graham. So Billy Graham realized that the most effective way that he could reach America today is by building relationships. Because I remember our church and Wabash participated in this and as you read through the materials that they were sending to pastors. The focus was not on the videos. It was on the relationship part. It was on the inviting people into your home and eating with them and sharing that time together and working on forming relationships with these people that may or may not know Christ. That was the big Focus.

And you know in the early centuries of the church Christ followers use that exact same model. We see it over and over again, you know, they served people with compassion and kindness and as a result, the early church is estimated to have grown at a rate of 40% per decade. But that's a pretty long time to maintain that rate of growth. But they did it and if you think about it, you know, the early Christians didn't have all the tools that we sync thinker so essential to church is now, you know, they didn't have mass emails that they could send out social media or texting or you know, any large events that they would hold. You know, they didn't even have, you know, big colorful banners that they could put out in front of their church or you know sign so they could put messages on they had none of those things. All they had were themselves. All they had was their Community but look at how they grew and Acts chapter 2 verses 46 and 47. It says every day. They continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes in ate together with glad and sincere Hearts praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. And I think we would all be ecstatic if we knew that the Lord was adding to our number each and every day. If we knew that every day there were people coming to Christ in our community. That would be huge. And building trusting long-term relationships with people is a big part of that. That's a big part of the model that we saw but we also have to understand that building those sort of relationships with people doesn't just happen overnight. It's not an instant thing it takes some work. And you know what we see from that passage and axes that God entrusted his message to the church then and we have to realize that that same message is entrusted to the church today and we still have that same mission to get out there and share that message. Social media is a great tool that you can use especially during this time of a pandemic but it doesn't replace taking time to build relationships with other people. It never can and the church that develops long-term trusting relationships with people of its Community is the church that has an opportunity to help influence the culture of that community.

You're the most effective way to do that is in the context of serving cuz it's in the meeting the needs of others that we can begin to serve alongside them and we can begin to build relationships because relationships are key to building bridges into our community.

You know, we always have to be prepared to ask her community. How can we help you? The Apostle Paul challenges us to do just that and Philippians chapter 2 verses 3 and 4 where it reads do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. But in humility consider others better than yourselves each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. I love if you look in the messages Bible version of verse for it reads forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand. I like how blunt it is on that right there people respond. Well when they can see that you are putting their needs above your own.

You at the church I served in Cody, Wyoming. I may have told you this story before but we did a breakfast one year in our city park for law enforcement officers. Cody Wyoming had been named as one of the cities that the Hell's Angels was going to come to from around the country to hold a big rally in that particular summer. So with anticipating that law enforcement people from all over the state came to town to try to be there and keep the peace during that time. There's a lot of hotels and Cody and they rented out every single one of them. So they knew there was going to be a lot of people coming so we decided to

Thank all the police officers that came from all over the state for being there we decided okay, we're going to do this pancake and sausage breakfast in the park that they can all come to and eat with us. So we did that. What we didn't plan on was as were there serving this free breakfast to all of the police officers some of the bikers started to show up and they ass hey, can we have some breakfast? We said sure why not and the beautiful thing that we saw happen. There was then you now had the police officers in the bikers sitting there together eating breakfast sharing stories laughing with each other talking and it was a beautiful thing and I think that's part of the reason that the town got through the week with the least number of incidents. They've ever seen happen at one of those events. I think it was because of that time of them sitting there just eating some pancakes and some sausages together.

you know, so Then a few months later, we contacted the city and we said hey, we want to have another event in the city park. So can we reserve this particular area? They said no you can't. We're like, okay. Well, is it booked or what? No, we're not going to allow you to because the last thing we let you use our park for. you said you were going to have a breakfast for police officers and you ended up feeding those bikers to We don't want them to feel welcome in our community. So we don't like it that you guys did that. So no. You guys can't use the city parks anymore? Okay. But then our senior pastor was wise enough that he called her back the next day and he said okay, but we've decided if we can't do our church in the park that particular Sunday. We would rather spend the day serving our community. So, can you please come up with a list of things that you need done around the city and we will do them that day. She was a little shocked and she's like, what do you mean? He's like well, if you have any projects that you guys need help with let us know and so we finally got a list from him. She was kind of hesitant doing but they finally gave us a list of what we ended up doing. A lot of that day was different Landscaping projects cleaning up all the different city parks and re mulching stuff and replanting stuff and doing all this stuff to beautify. We painted the signs at each end of the town when you're coming into the city. And some of our church people even went back the following week afterwards and help the city employees finish up some of the projects that we had started. You want to know we never had problems Renton the city parks again?

and it actually became an annual thing where the church would help the city do those things and it began to create that relationship with the city because you know, a lot of the reason we had problems in the city creating that relationship was because Cody also has a very large Mormon community and the majority of the people in the city government there are of the Mormon community. So there's a little bit of tension between the Mormons and the Christians on some of that but it took down that wall and it began building a relationship simply by serving.

You know, we serve to meet the needs in our community to create those sort of positive relationships. We don't serve to get noticed we serve so that we can have those opportunities to share about God's Redeeming Grace in our service helps us to gain that right to be heard. And you might wonder why we need to earn the right to be heard, but I think it's hard for us to argue that the church has been marginalized in our society anymore.

And you know, however that might have happened and I think George Barna described it. Well when he said that the church is seen by many as an island of piety surrounded by a sea of irrelevance. You know all too often the churches in a community are seen as o those people or that group and I'm not a member of them. And that's what we have to work on to build those relationships to take that away because you know, we can debate all day what the reasons are in the causes of why the church has been marginalized the way it is and why it's not viewed as important. But we know that it has happened.

And you know, I remember when we first moved back here, you know Monroe was pretty much basically the same there might have been a few more houses out over on the other side and the ball diamonds were new and most of that stuff but pretty much it was the same old town, but I noticed when I moved back into this community that it felt a little different. Monroe was still Monroe, but yet it wasn't still Monroe if you know what I mean. And the more I thought about that I thought what is it? You know, what's different, you know Monroe used to be one of the most desirable places in Adams County to raise your kids. Because we were pretty close Community everybody knew who everybody's kids were everybody knew who everyone was and every single house. But unfortunately Monroe fell into the same trap that our entire nation, has that our entire world has. The church has been marginalized and no longer is the church seen as a resource by the community that can help make the community better. And that is why we need to be working to build more relationships in our community is so that people will think of the church. When they have needs when they're going through tough times that they will know that the church is a place where they can come a church as a place where they can belong and get the help in the support that they need. And you know as we build these relational Bridges, you know, we have to be vigilant for those little opportunities that will get to share about God's grace. That doesn't mean that we have to pull out a Bible tract and start quoting a whole bunch of scriptures and verses to him. But when you start building relationships with them, you'll get those opportunities to share what God has done for you and your life. And as you share those things of what God has done for you or how you've seen him work in your life. You'll be able to build that deeper relationship. And that will open the door for you one day to share the gospel truth with people.

Because you know, I want to see our church become that place in our community that when people are in need whether they attend here on a Sunday morning or not that they see the church as a place that they can get help that they can get support that they can be loved. Because we have to realize that nothing happens outside of relationships. Me if you really think about that. It's so true and everything. Any significant thing that happens usually happens because of the relationships that have been built there.

In order for you to trust someone in order for you to be willing to open up to someone there has to be a certain level of relationship. There has to be a certain level of trust. You know, even for the famous Billy Graham, I think the only reason his Crusades had the impact they had was because people saw what he spoke and what he teach over a. Of time. They knew who he was they thought they could trust that and they saw other people's lives who were changed by the gospel. So they knew they could trust what he was saying. He built that relationship over time. And we have to think of ways to best engage our community and start to build relationships that way. And I know a lot of you are probably thinking how are we going to do that in the midst of covet? It is challenging it. Does that a whole other layer and level two things? The one thing I think it's doing. You know, they say the next big pandemic that we have in the world is going to be a mental health pandemic. Because of all the isolation because of all the having to not have contact with people.

And you know, I hope and pray that doesn't happen. But I also think about What if the church is prepared to be the one to step into that void? What if we've been doing what we can do to build relationships and connect with people right now so that when all these things start getting lifted and we can start going back to having our neighbors over for dinner and doing things they'll already be a relationship that we've been working on.

And think of how great of a Revival we could see in our country. If the church is the one that steps into that void that's been created by all the isolation all the things that have happened with.

I think it could be a huge thing.

So I want to challenge all of you if you know how has God called you to serve those around you.

A little more challenging right now. We have to be a little more creative with it, but it's important for us to remember that we can find ways to serve others. And it's also important for us to remember that you know what I might think of to do his Good Deeds to help somebody out and to just begin to build a relationship. You know, that might look different than what you need to do. My good deeds don't have to look like your good deeds and your good deeds don't have to look like mine. There's not just one way of serving God and loving on people. And we need to be still working in that to build those relationships. So yeah, maybe right now that just means we give him a phone call or send him a text or send him a card in the mail, but we're very intentional about doing whatever we can do right now to build those relationships.

Cuz in the midst of serving, you know, we can begin to listen and connect with people and ultimately we will be her. They may not ever say it or acknowledge it but they see it. And serving our community by simply being there. We increase our credibility with the community. That's something we have to learn it gives us a much stronger voice. And I was at the church in Wabash be hosted an event called teen serve. If you've never heard of it, what teenserve is is it's a Ministry that usually picks 223 cities across the US every year. And what they do is they come to your community and basically offer to do work on people's houses for free. So they get teens from all over the nation to come and all the kids sleep and stay in the high school during that week and they work on houses in the community. And then every evening in the school's gymnasium. They have a program for all the teams and all the residents who are getting their homes worked on. Not at the end of the week on Friday. There's a large program that the whole Community is invited to and the year we did it there was about 300 teams that came and stayed in Wabash high school for that week. And we ended up over the course of that week painting over 60 houses plus also building wheelchair ramps at a lot of different houses in the community. And it was great to see that happen. And you know, when we first decided to hosted Our intention was to get all the churches in Wabash County to participate in it. But it was hard to do that because churches aren't always the best at working together. So out of the 91 churches, we had and Wabash County. I think there was three maybe four of us that actually work together to pull off this event. And it's crazy cuz Valspar donated all the paint so they actually showed up with weed went to every resident who applied to get their house worked on and they picked their paint colors. We said at the Valspar that came with a semi load of paint and dumped it all off and it was an amazing thing, but it was a ton of work. It was crazy. I mean it was almost a year long process getting the whole thing coordinated and ready to go. We had to have people donate ladders. I think we had like a hundred and fifty ladders from different people in the community will where you going to store 150 step ladders and you know it so all that stuff took time. It took the community coming together.

You know close to the end of the week. I received a text from one of the young people who had been working there. He said there was a man where I work that said a teen group from Teen serve is working on building his mom a wheelchair ramp to her front door. And he told me that the way that they talk in act it's changing him and he said that he will be coming to the evening Services now for the residence. The teen went on to say that you guys are doing something amazing, even if those teams don't think so or no, so people are watching and people are being changed just by their attitudes.

Man, that was sent from a wall bash teen who? Hadn't been helping with it, but was just talking to a co-worker. Nicole Barker was telling him what this group of Christians were doing. And think about that and think of the relationships it begins to Bill. And you know after the group left a group of us men from the community spent about another two weeks afterwards finishing up some of the projects that didn't get finished before they left. But you know, it was all worth it with the impact. We saw it happen our community. and the beautiful thing was we weren't the only ones who saw it and noticed it because after that we got phone calls from pretty much every Church in the community saying wow, we didn't know that's what this was going to be. Next time if you guys ever do that again, we're in on it. And it changed the way even we is churches in the community worked with each other. It had built relationships there and it was neat to see how it impacted everything in the community. My hope and dream is one day. I would love to see his try to do a teenserve event somewhere here in Adams County. I don't even know what that ministry's doing right now in the midst of all the covid-19 zeit Imagine they've been impacted greatly, but maybe one day. You know, we have to remember that as a church. We can't just be focused on relationships Within These Walls. We have to be working on relationship outside of them. And you know one goal of an externally focused churches in deed to serve but the ultimate goal is to build the kingdom. Did you notice we talked about the King serve event? You want to know the number one reason that a lot of churches didn't want to get involved because they thought since we were the sponsor or host of it that everything was just going to be credited to us. That it would just be our church that got the recognition for all this stuff. You know, we are very intentional about the fact that our church is named was never on it. We just wanted the name of the ministry on it and the name of the kids in the community and it was actually something that we were quite surprised by the end of the week. We had news stations from Fort Wayne and other places around the state coming to cover what these kids were doing and Wabash. It was amazing to see the changes that had. But you know, we have to realize that we were serving in that way when we're extremely focused that that is serviced with the higher calling that is service with a bigger motivation and then simply building up what we have. We're looking to build God's Kingdom in our community. And relationships are not only essential for gaining the trust within the community. We have to realize that they are the door by which many individuals come into a relationship with Christ.

It often takes some other action that attracts them. And you are goal here at the lighthouses to get our people into the community building relationships. However, we can do that with lost people.

Cuz I tell you something I'd drive around town every day in a bus. And I often think is I go past a lot of those houses. How many mm are connected with churches how many of them? Know that they're welcome in churches that we want to see them there that we want to have a relationship.

Let me tell you that's really the reason I hate. Cuz it has made so many of those things so much more difficult.

You know, if you try to go door-to-door now talking to people inviting them to something. They would all probably look at you strangely. Like why are you inviting me to do something outside of my house? But we can find ways to build relationships and that's what we need to be doing cuz we need to realize if we don't have a relationship with people. They aren't really going to hear what we have to say to them.

What's bound prayer?

Heavenly Father we thank you for the blessings that you give us Lord. We thank you for the family that we have here at our church.

But Lord, we're interested in more than just growing this family. Lord we want to see this community be knowing. for its closeness for its connectedness Lord for the gospel being present in every life in every house.

Lord that is a huge Monumental task

But Lord, we know that really that is the desire of your heart. That is the mission that you gave the church. And Lord, I pray that you'll give us that same vision in Lord. Give us that same determination that the early church had to work towards building relationships so that we can share what our savior has done for each bus. Play the song in your most. Holy name. Amen.