Contagious Christianity

Well, if you were with us last week, you went for a very heady time of apologetics. It was our first annual apologetic conference. How many were here last week? Great. Yeah, it was a fabulous time. Now, for those of you who are still confused, apologetics is simply to be able to give a reason for why you believe, and in a gentle and respectful way.

Well, my task today is to serve as a bridge between all that heady, intellectual blah, blah, blah, heady stuff, and other ways to reach out. That's where we're going today. So for those of you still confused, again, apologetics is to give a good reason for why you believe. But for some of you I know, it's not your thing, and I want to touch on that before we even get going.

Apologetics is for many of you, as I would say shopping is for me. I don't know about you, but when I enter a department store, it's like, "Boom!" It's like I got hit by a tranquilizer dart. I just begin to feel just totally anesthetized. I just want to fall down. I want to sleep somewhere.

For example, recently my wife and I and three girls embarked on the journey we took off, yes, for the American Girl Store. How many of you have young girls in your life at all, whether they're yours or somebody else's? If you do, you know about the phenomenon that is the American Girl scene, okay? It's a huge, huge thing all across the country. Stores are popping up all over.

Now, if you're a father, as soon as you enter, they pull you aside, they make you take this pill. It's called "Daddy Be Nice At All." It sort of puts you at ease, and after it began to have an effect on me, I started to go, "Yeah, I just feel happy." It's a very lovely place, and I was able to tolerate all the dolly stuff inside.

And then they take you and they escort you to this nice balcony, because you know you can't shop and do doll stuff until you eat, right? And so they serve you this nice meal at $23 a plate. That kind of wakes you up, but then again, the daddy nice at all begins to put me back under a bit. So the dolls, too, get to sit at the table, because they get to eat with your girls, and here's my lovely ladies enjoying our time.

And then, of course, everyone's given a lovely, lovely menu. This is about what I had right here. It shows all kinds of pretty foods. Yeah, manly foods, right, right? Delicious beverages as well. You could have a Shirley Temple, or you could have a Shirley Temple, okay? That's your choice right there. It was a bit hard on me. You can see I kept passing out. It was hard for me to remain conscious at this place.

But after all of that, the shopping begins in earnest. Here's my youngest, Erica, just in the glory of all the American Girl stuff. And that's not all. You can do photo booths with your doll. Let's see, your doll's hurt or injured. They have a doctor for your doll, take care of the little wounds and things that your brothers do to it, or your father. And they even have a hair salon. Let's see, your hair's falling out, or they want to get it washed. You can go here, and they'll take care of that.

Well, again, in the end, like I said, it was just way, way too much for me. I just couldn't take it. And so they had to call an attendant who got a hand truck to wheel me out. They don't call them dollies there. No, it's a hand truck. And he took me out, and I was able to regain consciousness.

And many people think that this experience for me, American Girl Store, is like apologetics or heady ways of sharing your faith. It's just not your thing. God just didn't wire you that way. And let me just give you some good news today. Sharing and reaching out to others does not have to be unnatural or into something that you just dread doing.

No, God made you in a unique way. He's wired you with particular gifts, and he really wants you to serve according to how he made you. He really does. Now, of course, there are exceptions in the Bible when God takes an unlikely character and says, "I know you don't think you're suited for this, but I'm going to have you go do this, because it's going to shock the world and get my name out there."

I mean, for example, remember, Moses was slow to speak. Remember that? God called him to do what? Be the spokesman before Pharaoh. Or how about the insignificant slave girl Esther in a foreign land, and she's called to go as a slave girl, a foreigner, and go to the king and say, "Don't kill my people. Please spare us." Or how about little David? He's a shepherd boy, the least of his brothers, and yet he is called to be the king.

So those rare exceptions do happen, and sometimes in our lives. But like I said, they are more the exception than the rule, okay? God wants to take you how you're made, how he made you, and just use that in a way that reaches others, okay? I call these the contagious ways to reach out, and they're various styles.

So again, if last week you thought here, you were sitting here and you went, "Oh, my goodness, those speakers are so brilliant. If I have to know all the stuff that they do, I could never share my faith. It's too much." Here's the good news. You don't have to.

Now, my goal today is to be a bridge, like I said. Last week, all the heavy stuff. Today my first style is for those of you that like the heavy stuff. And then from there, we go across the bridge into the other styles of reaching out according to how God made you in a contagious way. And so grab, let's get started. Grab your message notes. They're there in your bulletin. And as we go along, you'll notice I've cited all the scriptures there for you, so you can look them up ahead of time because they're kind of long passages. I won't read all of them.

But grab your notes, look at those, and let's check out this first style, the bridge, the link. It's called the intellectual style. Now beginning at verse 16 in Acts 17, we read this. Watch how Paul employs this. It says, "While Paul was in Athens," I'm kind of skipping ahead, "he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned," there's the key, "in the synagogue, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happen to be there. A group of philosophers began to debate with him."

Now jumping to 22, he said, "People of Athens, I see that in every way you are very, very religious. For as I walked around, I looked carefully at your objects of worship here and there, I found an altar with this inscription on it. It said, 'To an unknown God.' So I see that you're even ignorant about the very thing you worship, and this is what I'm going to proclaim to you."

Now it's a long text, so I'll just summarize. Paul goes on to preach to them what I call his Pinocchio sermon. Now not Pinocchio on the "ooh," the lying nose thing, no. Pinocchio in the sense that he's going to contrast the real with the make-believe, or the real boy with one that's man-made out of wood, okay? And these Athenians are playing with a dead, nonliving wooden deity, and he's going to point him to the real.

And he gets right at it. As he reads on, he sees that they have a quote to their philosophers and their religious leaders, and it says this. It says, "We Athenians are his offspring." Now noticing this, watch what Paul does, he gets to the heart of what he picks up. "Hmm, they're longing to be offsprings of the divine." And he says, "Athenians," he said, "Let me tell you something here. You're on to something. We are to be offspring of the divine, but you've got it backwards."

So Paul turns their whole thing on its head this way. He says, "Instead of you being Geppetos who carve out and make your own Pinocchio gods and then you worship them of your own making," he said, "No." He said, "You can actually, instead of make fake offspring, you can be the real offspring of the real living God, not a wooden one." And it just blows their mind.

And the result of it, of all this, is this. They see in verse 34 that Paul's on to something and watch their response. 34, "Some of the people became followers of Paul," in other words, Paul's religion of Jesus, "and believed." Okay? Boys, I soaked in this all week. I just came up with a few highlights for you of Paul's intellectual style.

First, what did Paul do? He just didn't stay home, did he? He went to Athens. And so if you want to reach out, you've got to go out. You have to go. You can't just sit home. That's the first thing he did. And secondly, notice this, it says Paul was what? He was distressed. How do you get distressed for good? You go out and you hang out with people. And when you see their need for God, okay, your heart will soften. It will break and God will mold it to love others. And that's what happened to Paul.

It's Paul initiated. Again, he went and he initiated talking to the Athenians about important stuff. And he knew the truth, okay? So Paul knew his stuff. And that is very important with this first style of being contagious, all right? If you want to do this intellectual style, you have to know your stuff.

I mean, for instance, think about people you know. They may have various beliefs about this or that. And you see all kinds of stuff like this where we live, right? Okay? Well, if they're sharing about their beliefs with you, and it's all about what's in their heart or just what they came up with, but there are no reasons, objective reasons that you can examine that back up the beliefs, how do you really take their system?

I'm guessing you respect them perhaps because they're sincere. But I'm also guessing you probably don't respect the actual beliefs themselves. Why? There are no good reasons presented to back them up, all right? So this is very important in this style. You got to know your stuff.

Comedians exploit this kind of ignorance about beliefs all the time. In this clip, watch how Jay Leno exposes ignorance among Americans who just ought to know these things that are common knowledge. What country would you find the Panama Canal? I don't know, blue. What country would you find the Great Wall of China? Probably most likely China. Okay, what country would you find the Panama Canal? China. Who was the first man on the moon? Armstrong. That's right. What was his first name? Louis. Louis Armstrong. Who was that? How many commandments out there? 10. Can you name any of them? Freedom of speech. What is the opening line of the Bible? A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. What was the Gettysburg Address? Have you heard of it? Yes, I've heard of it. I don't know the exact address. You don't know the exact address? You said four score and seven years ago our forefathers. Who are in heaven. How many stars on that flight? It's moving too fast to count them. You ever call AAA? No, I don't drink. What separates your inner ear from your outer ear? Your brain, right? I'm sorry, we just had to go with that stereotype for all you blondes. I'm sorry, we don't mean anything personal about that.

So again, honestly, if you met these individuals and they said, "Hey, we want to start a common American knowledge club and Bible knowledge club, join us." You might go, "You seem like nice people," but you wouldn't take them seriously. Why? They don't back up their beliefs with good knowledge or reasons, okay? And that is the intellectual style summed up.

Yes, you have to have the heart, okay? Because nobody likes a smart aleck who isn't loving. But you've got to have the head with this view if you're going to be credible, okay? So for those of you that are just lighting up at this style, you're thinking, "Oh, I would have loved to have been along Paul's side in Athens going along and debating with all the philosophers, okay? If I had a time machine, I know that's what I would want to do. That's my style."

But let's see, that's not your style. You're like, "Eh, I don't like all that stuff." It's not that you're, I mean, you could be even more brilliant than people that like this style, but it's just not your style. Well, now I've got good news for you. The next style is called the invitational style.

And I love this one because anyone, anyone who can simply do something like this, "Hey, my church is gathering food for second harvest. You want to help me out?" Or, "Hey, my church is doing the serve the bay thing and we're going to repair a school that ran out of money and give the teacher like a school supply care package. Would you like to help contribute to that? I want to invite you to that." They might go, "Yeah, I could do that. That's what this style is all about."

And an example from the Bible that brings this out is in Luke 14. Now before I read it, let me just summarize and then get to the punch line. In this parable, it's called the great banquet, all right? And there's a master, this is God, and he calls his servants, these are you and I, you and me, and he says, "Go out and call people and invite them to my banquet." That's the world.

Well, the servants go out and do this and they come back and it gets off on a down note. They have to report back to the master some bad news and they say, "Master, we invited everybody but they're all making excuses of one kind or another and very few are coming in." So he reissues the invitation. He says, "Go out to everybody then." And watch what he says in verse 21. He says, "Go out to the streets and the alleys and the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, the lame." In other words, everybody, everywhere.

"Sir," the servant said, "what you have ordered has been done but there is still room." And the master told his servant, "Go to the roads and the country lanes and compel them to come in so that my house will be full." Wow. So in this parable of the banquet, what is God trying to share with us along the lines of this invitational style? Well, first, he's saying, "Invite everybody and go everywhere to do it. Invite them all. I want them all in. I want a big family." And also secondly, realize that many that you invite will come but many won't as well. That's part of it. We can give that to God.

Also, we're to invite all, okay? Or excuse me, first is God is inviting everyone. Now thirdly, we're to invite all. And as I get on this, I want to pause here for a second and say this. Rather than think in vague terms of invite everybody, everywhere, it's kind of vague. I don't know where to start. Right now and for the rest of this talk, imagine that one person that you, perhaps God puts this person on your heart right now, could invite to something or share one of these styles with. So invite that one person.

And lastly, what happens in this style? Much good happens. How so? Well, those that do the inviting, it says, are blessed and repaid. And those who say yes to the invitation find home. They find God, okay? So a lot of good stuff happens.

Let me share with you a great example that just stirred my heart when I read this. It's from someone that goes here at Twin Lakes and they wrote to us about this and here is their story. This lady says, my story begins almost seven years ago. I was pregnant and with my first son. I knew I wanted to give my children more religion than I had growing up, but I just didn't know how or where to begin. And my husband was not interested in pursuing any religion. So it was going to be on me. Not easy considering that the two main people in my life, my mom, formerly religious but no longer interested, and my husband would not be joining me in my efforts.

Well, my sister would always be inviting us to TLC for Easter, Christmas, Sunday, any opportunity she could. But we never went until that December. That was seven years ago and I cannot believe how much it has changed our lives. My mom, who very much shunned the church after her upbringing, has rarely missed a Sunday ever since. She has been truly reborn.

I never once pushed my husband to go. I just invited, I keep asking. But he never went until finally on holidays he started to go. And now he is dragging me there half the time when I'm tired. He loves it as much as I do. I prayed for that forever but never expected it to be delivered. He doesn't just go through the motions. He's been changed. He has a true love and passion in his heart. Sure we still have a lot to learn and change, but there's no going back for any of us now. It has become our way of life. Our marriage has been saved. We have secured it with a foundation that would be hard to shake and we have given our children the great gift that we could. Jesus, his grace and his salvation. Is that not awesome?

And it came about through an invitation and probably one that had to be made many, many times I'm guessing. But finally there was fruit. So again think of that one person. And sometimes it takes years to see a response but it is worth it. Stick with it. And that's the essence. That's the essence of the invitational style.

Well that leads to our third style. It's called the counter cultural style. And I think the ultimate example of being counter cultural is Matthew 5:43–45. It says this, you know this verse probably by heart. You have heard it said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy." Some saying they picked up in those days. But Jesus turns it around and says, "No, but I say to you, love your enemy and even pray for those who persecute you so that you will be like your father in heaven or you'll be his children." Wow. Talk about counter cultural. Loving your enemies? Are you kidding me? That is counter cultural.

An example of the Bible of this that I think gets at it in almost a touchy way and I hope I don't offend anybody here is in 1 Corinthians 6. Alright. 1 Corinthians 6 talks about this counter cultural style in a relevant way for our day. The verse goes on in 6 verse 4 in a context of lawsuits and not being like the world. And here's what it says, "If you have disputes," you Christians, "do you ask for a ruling among those whose way of life is scorned in the church? I see this to your shame. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge between a dispute between believers? But instead one brother takes another to court and this in front of unbelievers."

Now he's not impugning the unbelievers. Remember this is imperial Rome. The people in the courts who ran them were not God-fearing people. A lot of bad things happened. And yet Christians were bringing people in front of these Romans in their courts. And he goes on to say, "The very fact that you Christians have lawsuits among yourselves means you've been completely defeated already." And here's the point. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?

Now his big picture point here is not that all lawsuits between all Christians are always wrong in all times and all places. I would hope that if you're an attorney and you defend the cause of the poor and you get someone to do some justice, that's a good thing. But his point here is if you're in a situation before a secular court, please be sure that Jesus' name is not dragged through the mud.

For example, let's say I'm the judge. I'm not a believer. But I'm aware of your holy book in this crazy chapter about Christians not supposed to be litigating against each other. And I see two Christians come in. Now if I see them come in and it's all about selfishness and they're trying to get the goods out of each other and it's all about their own agenda, do you think I'm going to have any interest at all in their holy book and their Jesus? No. I'm not going to respect them. They're being hypocritical.

Now if one of them says, "I'm here to defend the rights of the poor. I want justice for them." I'm interested. Or if one of them realizing that he's wrong by being there says, "Wow, this is not going well for the cause of Christ." You know, Your Honor, I'm dropping this whole thing. I just have my, he's got my attention now. Okay? I'm going to be interested in that holy book. Why? Again, big picture. These Christians have pointed me to Jesus in a counter-cultural way. That's the whole thing.

Here's another scenario, very common in our day. I deal with this all the time. Let's say you're in a divorce situation, blended family, and you share custody. And when your kids come home from being with your ex, you hear over and over again, "Your name just dragged through the mud." How bad you are, everything's your fault. The whole family splitting up is all having to do with your mistakes.

Now if you share that around the water cooler at work with most friends, they're probably going to say, "Oh, boy, your ex is here. She's the worst. Give it back to them. Oh, they're wrong. Let me tell you where they're off-basin. Give it back to them." And your kids, of course, are spectating this, and they're kind of running a script, "How to deal with an ex," blah, blah, blah, as they grow up, right? They're running the book on how to relate.

So let's say you turned that around and you loved your enemy, and you never paid back evil for evil. I know that's got to be hard with someone who probably has hurt you, okay? And it's continuing to hurt you. But instead you told your kids, "You know what? I'm sure some of that is probably based in truth, but kids, will you just help me? Would you pray with me? Let's pray that I could love your mother or your father, whatever, and that I would not be like what they're saying. And kids, if you see that I am, would you bring that up? Pray that I won't be that way. And let's pray for your mother or father that they'll find Christ too." Do you think that's going to get your kids' attention? You bet it is. They're going to rewrite that script. Ooh, love your enemy, even in a broken family situation, okay?

Or maybe you sneak over and you drop groceries on their porch, and that's counterculture, maybe that's too much of a stalker thing for your ex. Maybe instead you just send a note in the mail with a check saying, "Hey, I know times are tough. Here's some extra money for the bills." Do you think that's going to preach to your kids and to your neighbors and to your friends who go, "Wow, your ex just impunes you at any chance and you're giving them money?" That is being countercultural. That's preaching Jesus. That's phenomenal.

I know that's hard, but that's what Christ can enable you to do. Or maybe for you it's other things. Maybe for you it's sticking in a situation that is not pleasant at all, but you do it for the sake of others so that they can remain blessed. Or maybe being countercultural for you is you're blessed with money and resources, but instead of letting those dominate your life, you apply them for the good of Jesus' cause. That's being countercultural. That'll get your neighbor's attention for good.

Or maybe your job is on the line and you refuse to be unethical and you might even lose that job for standing up for Christ and not cheating or doing something that's against the law. That's countercultural. That shares Jesus. Or maybe it's like this last example. I was in Africa a couple years ago and I saw something very countercultural. I was in the middle of rebel-controlled territory where people who did not like what was going on still loved.

They did not like the warlords and some of the deeds they did which were outright butchery, but when these warlords in the middle of battles would bring in, say, their own childhood malaria or a wound of a comrade in battle, the Christians in this hospital would still love anybody. No matter what. In fact, their name was so good throughout the entire country of the Ivory Coast that when we were traveling, I noticed we had quick access through the checkpoints.

And if you've ever been in Africa, you know, the whole continent is littered with checkpoints and they usually, there's a young man there with an automatic rifle and he's in charge and he probably doesn't value life like you do and you better hope he's having a good day because if he's not, he might be looking for some fun at your expense, okay? And you're sitting there in that car. Here's how we got through all the checkpoints unmolested.

Typically cars in Africa have metallic signs that stick on the doors that announce who you are so you can get through the checkpoint or be stopped. Ours said this sign on it, "Hopital Baptiste" or Baptist Hospital, okay? So when that placard was on the side of our car, the gunman would see this and they remembered that hospital that was very counter-cultural. They loved people they didn't even like and they would see it and they probably were served in some way by the hospital or a family member was and they were let through. That is counter-cultural.

It was amazing. I mean, can you imagine going through a hospital where you show up and there's a sign there that tells you, "By the way, you can't bring in your Clint Eastwood pistol or your M16," okay? How many of you have seen that outside of the last time you went to your doctor? This is the kind of territory we're talking about here and yet in the midst of that context, okay, the name of Jesus is highly lifted up even amongst those who don't like their neighbors himself. The Christians there show them how to do it. That's being counter-cultural.

Well, so far we've looked at three styles, intellectual, invitational, counter-cultural. Well the final one is found in Acts 9. It's a story about an incredible lady that is famous for the kingdom and she really illustrates the last one. It's called the serving style. And the text goes like this. Look in your Bibles at Acts 9:36. It says, "In Joppa, there was a disciple named Tabitha. In Greek, her name is Dorcas." Now you would have thought that maybe the Holy Spirit when he got Luke to pen this, what a thought. You know, 2,000 years from now, the English people will hear this and go, "Dorcas, hahaha," you know, and she's going to spend all eternity in heaven with junior high boys going, "Dorcas, Dorcas, hahaha," you know, like that.

So that's not what's going on here. It's doubled up because of emphasis. Dorcas in Greek and Tabitha, Hebrew root mean the same thing. Here's what it is. It means someone who's beautiful on the outside and on the in, okay? And it probably means something like a gazelle or a dough. In olden days, you would point to animals to say that your beloved was beautiful. I mean today they wouldn't go over like if you were a guy and you said, "Well, my wife, she's pretty as a horse." That would probably get you kicked by that horse, right? And deservedly so.

Well in olden days, you would say, "Oh, my beloved is as pretty as a dough or a gazelle." But look at what she's really known for, the last part of that verse. She was always doing good and helping the poor. Tabitha made a name for not just helping those that could pay back, but for those who had nothing to give in exchange. And this is just endemic like a virus throughout TLC.

Let me just give you a couple of examples really quick. This is our food pantry. These people serve people every week. They give up food. In fact, this last week, they just hit the $92,000 mark as far as the value of food you've donated that they've given away. $92,000 worth of food. It's incredible.

Or how about our joyful noise? It's called that because they work with disabled folks who make a joyful noise. And here's a picture of them having a party for them and then even baptizing one of the girls. It was a great time. And similar to that ministry is our bridge of hope. I mean, you probably wonder, you see every week these army of wheelchairs that come in from the skilled nursing homes. And when they're there, they have these crazy parties for them. And all they do is love, love these people.

I mean, sometimes, yes, they have to use tough love like this one woman was mouthing off. So they got a dog to kind of nipper there and get her to quiet down. But otherwise, it's all about love there. And they might even use other creatures here to get people to behave, as you can see. But the point is they just love them all. I could go on.

But the one I want to really highlight today is about a man that is in Watsonville. His name is David Grazian. Well, Dave is retired. And in his retirement early on, God just got a hold of his heart and said, "Dave, in so many ways, I've made you to serve. And here's what I want you to do." And he led Dave to start an organization called Youth Now. It now means no other way but in Christ.

And here is Dave's story. Youth Now is a youth center established here in Watsonville. It's for high school and middle school. We have a learning center so that we do education. We help students with their homework. We also provide one-on-one tutoring. We customize it to the student and match up a tutor for them and help them reach their goals.

And Watsonville is a high dropout rate between middle school and high school, but also not even completing high school. We also see an increase in gang activity. I saw the three parts, which was the education, the social, where we have a coffee house here for the high schoolers, and then the recreation piece. So we have a gym for the middle schoolers and we're having recreation there. So we're reaching out to those students. We're providing a place that's not only helping support them in their education, but it provides a safe social environment.

The volunteers that help us out here range from high schoolers all the way to the retired. We appreciate high schoolers and college-age students because they are really fresh on these subjects and they build relationships with these other students. We have people here that are Christians that just love on those kids. Part of what we do is we hear their home situation sometimes. We have opportunity to pray with them. We've heard some really dynamic stories of kids that have been abused through their life. We're just here loving on them.

I believe that that will make an impact. If we can help them stay in school and graduate and then encourage them to go on and do good things with their life, I believe that they will stay out of gangs and cry. We as Christian people are reaching out, sharing God's love.

Wow, isn't that great? Yeah. You notice Dave's passion was just so vivid there. Why? Because he took what is essentially a tutoring program. They tutor kids after school, that's it, but by tutoring them, they stay in school. And here's the chain of reaction, they stay out of gangs. And when they stay out of gangs, it's because they were in school, because they were tutored by them by Christians that share Christ. That's the whole essence of it. And Dave has passion at why he's found his serving style. He's found how he's contagious.

Well now, I'm sure there are many, many other styles. I've only touched on four major ones. I mean, maybe for you, your style could be sharing your story. You have a great one you could share about Christ. Or maybe yours is giving. Or maybe it's prayer. Or maybe it's just being an intentional friend to people. I don't know, there are many, many styles. All of us can find one in which we can be contagious.

And finally, I just want to say don't delay in exercising your style or finding it. Why? We just don't know how much time we have. Recently, I saw this special on 60 Minutes that reminded me of this need not to delay and to get into people's lives. It was a film that took place a long time ago that they dug up.

Now as this rolls, see if you can recognize where this place is. Do you recognize it? Yes, San Francisco and Market Street. This film is over a hundred years old. Now notice that many are even staring as it goes on at the filmmakers. They're probably riding on a cable car and just doing a hand crank camera. And such a phenomena would surely be a novelty back then. And I'm sure that some of the cars even you're seeing, if you'll notice, they kind of loop back in and out because there were so few cars. They have them keep looping in and out in a country that probably only had a few thousand at this time.

There's a busy flare. I mean, talk about traffic, cable cars, horse-drawn carriages, pedestrians. It's all there and automobiles. Now in the distance, you might be able to barely make out the original fairy building clock tower. I say original because of the now solved mystery of when this was shot. For a long time, it was assumed that the film was shot in the winter of 1905 or '06, as you old timers call it. But historian dug up all the details and he was able to determine that the film was actually shot on or about April 12, 1906. It's also believed that the film was shipped out of San Francisco just five days later on April 17th.

Now again, look at the people. Busy, happy-go-lucky folks. One of whom probably have any idea of what's coming that some of you remember. They have an imminent date with destiny, don't they? Their whole way of life, in fact, for some of these folks, their very lives themselves are about to be totally transformed forever in a not so good way. Now it's because the very next day, April 18th, 1906, the people you see in this clip, they would have to endure one of history's greatest catastrophes ever in the history of our country, the great San Francisco earthquake and fire.

So surely many, many would meet their maker. They say that about 3,000 died from the quake or the aftermath and that three-quarters of the city was instantly homeless. What church none of us again knows the number of our days. We don't know how long the invitation to the banquet is going to keep going, do we? So take this and realize, "Hmm, who's that one person now that God is working in my heart to go and be contagious in a good Christ-like way with? Who's that one person?"

It might be before their crisis hits or it might be that God is positioning you for someone for whom when the crisis does strike them and should they survive it, they come to you, that Christian friend who may have some answers. So pray and ask God to position you to either help somebody before or after a crisis. Men and women, all of us can do this. Look back over those styles and maybe check the one that most appeals to you and then this week pray and ask God, "Lord, how am I wired? How am I made? Direct me according to that style, to that person you want me to reach." That's what it's all about.

First bound prayer. Jesus, our prayer today is that you would help everyone here discover the ultimate adventure which is reaching others for you. Give us your spirit's guidance, wise friends and counsel and the means and passion to find the style or styles according to how you have made each one of us. And Father, help us to go from imagining ourselves employing one of these styles to actually getting to do it with that person you put on our hearts. Help us to do that God. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.