Northside Church - Sydney
Never Ending Story Week 3 AM: Intersections
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Well, I instinctively, I said to Bev, just keep looking forward, don't look to the side. She hates that. I said, "Just trust me." Now, I certainly started to turn this way and we'll just, we're in Rome station in Italy and I've seen somebody I recognized. Not a close friend, a colleague, seen him at seminars, conferences and they say confession is good for the soul. I'm confessing this morning that I didn't handle this one particularly well. My mum was in fast forward and I was imagining him saying, "Gram, Graham, Agnew, Rome station, mate, what are you doing tonight? What are you doing tomorrow? What are you doing the next day?" You get my drip like, "Look, I love people. I draw energy from people. I love people." But when I'm on holidays and when one of the main purposes of that holiday is to invest as much time as I can into the one who often misses out on some of that time during the year. Under those conditions, let's just say I'm a little less gregarious and so it's funny. We wanted a cruise a few years ago and if you were just observing, you would have thought I was the most introverted person on that cruise, seriously. I just go into it differently because I want to concentrate on the experience and on Bevie and that sort of thing. I tend to avoid the person who in the briefing on a tour says, "I'm here because I'm looking for new friends." I mean, I will engage that person but we've got to get that imbalance. Now, here's what I'm coming to. Here's where God got me and he really taught me a lesson because the next morning at our hotel, just up the road, we're at the breakfast bar and in walks this same guy with his wife staying at the same hotel. How's that? And that's when I took the initiative and I said, "Barry, wow, together in Rome, fantastic. If only we'd known." Ooh, I said it was confession. It's very bad. Look, I'm not particularly proud of that story but I tell you what, it illustrates one thing. When it comes to the intersections of life, those moments when we encounter people, then we get to choose. We get to choose how we respond. We either embrace the moment and reach out or we hold back. We either maximize the moment or we squander the opportunity. Now, friends, look, the Bible is very clear. We are women to live in community. We know that. The image of the church of Jesus Christ as a body with each person, each member of the body playing a particular role. It's a beautiful picture. It's a picture of harmony. It's a picture of unity. The Bible also teaches that each one of us has members of the body. We have a part to play in the preservation of the unity. We also have a part to play in the process of bringing people into the unity. This is not meant to be an exercise in self-gratification. It's an outreach component of this, as Michael and Sam have already mentioned this morning. Peter puts it beautifully in this reading, just read to us so well by Jesse, 1st Peter 4.10. Look at this. Each one, as a good manager of God's different gifts, do you see? So there's a manager of the gifts God has given you, there's responsibility here. Each one of you, as a manager of God's different gifts, must use for the good of others the special gift we have received from God. In other words, the gifts given to you and me are to be used by the power of his spirit. That's where it starts. It's not about us, it's about him. To be used to encourage, inspire, serve, support others, to enrich their lives. And to give them an insight into the love, the grace, the joy, the forgiveness of God in Christ. Yeah, that's a pretty daunting task. Friends, I believe the cumulative teaching of the Bible is we are meant to relate to others in such a way as far as possible in the intersections of life that they go away from us with greater levels of hope, confidence, poise and dignity than before. Now it's not going to happen in every conversation, nobody's that good. This is going to be the cumulative effect of our interaction with this person or this group of people. It requires a certain degree of focus and intentionality. But here's the point. We can be intentional in our contact with people without being intrusive. Some people can't distinguish between those two. I mean, many of the cults, I mean, the Jehovah's Witnesses are very intentional and they're also very intrusive. Have you found that? But need not follow, but you can be intentional without being intrusive. You can be sensitive. There's no question. We have to earn the right to enter into the private recesses of a person's life. That comes by invitation. That comes after building up trust over a period of time. But as followers of Jesus, the way we conduct ourselves, the manner in which we speak, the words we choose to speak, we covered this a few months ago. The unexpected gestures of kindness and thoughtfulness, these touch people's lives in ways that we may never fully know. We may be just part of the cycle, part of the process, a link in the chain. We may play a relatively insignificant part. Someone else may get to see the ultimate transformation. Someone else may get to see the person who, like Michael says, in 15 years time becomes part of the family of God through what we're doing right now. Paul understood this. On occasion, he wrote to the Corinthian. Some of you know it so well. He was talking about their journeys towards salvation and saying how they'd come to Christ under different circumstances, different people had seeded into their lives. This is what he says in verse 6 of chapter 3. "Each one of us does the work which the Lord gave him to do as good managers. 'I planted the seed,' says Paul, 'a solace watered the plant, but it was God who gave the increase.' There's a process here. Very few of us get to see the whole thing from A to Z in our contact with people. But here's the thing, more than most of us realize we have the ability to impact and influence the lives of people with whom we have contact. I know most of us play ourselves right down in this. And maybe even tempted to say, 'Well, that's what the ministers do, don't they?' They say, 'Job, I get paid to do all this sort of stuff.' I'm talking about those with whom we work, those with whom we interact socially, even the people we meet in all kinds of settings, retail service, the people who give you coffee, the people who serve you in a restaurant, whatever. We can be intentional without being intrusive in the intersections that take place each and every day. Guys, I've got a question for you, I've got a question for me. If you're following Jesus Christ, to what extent are you allowing Him to develop in you the capacity to influence people for Him, to cause people to aspire rather than expire, to really give people a lift on their journey, to draw them closer to God ultimately, to bring out their best. Let's hold a bit of what influence is. I'm not talking about technique, I'm not talking about manipulation. I'm talking about an openness and an availability to God just to see what happens. The prayer that He'll always answer is, 'Lord, leave me to somebody who needs me today to share something of your love.' That's a scary prayer because it will inevitably be answered. That's been my experience. So you see, by drawing deeply on the power of the Holy Spirit, we can all exhibit the essential components of effective bridge building, because that's what it is. It's bridge, it's reaching out and people might not cross the bridge straight away, but they'll cross the bridge when they need to. Why do funeral homes advertise? They don't expect you to die, like that's not like, like, die fast so we can conduct your funeral. No, that's not, not that cynical, but it's when you have the need, you'll know to come to us. And that's a big part of bridge building for Christ. Just setting up a scene where people, 'Yeah, that's, yeah, Graham Agnew, he talked, he's into this stuff, he's into meaning and finding out what life's all about. Maybe I'll talk to him, that kind of thing. And guys, look, these things I'm going to share with you this morning, they transcend personality types, okay? You might be a really quiet, shy person, you might be a real extrovert or somewhere in between. Those things I'm going to share with you, I believe, can be developed by all of us. But they're designed to enrich the lives of the people with whom we meet. And here's the first one, authenticity. Gosh, you know, we can all pick a fake from a long distance. Ozies can do that really well, particularly in the area of religion. You get a fake religious person. One of the nicest things anybody can say about Northside, and I've shared this before, is when somebody says, you know, you people are kind of real. What I like about the church is it's sort of real, you know? You seem to have an appreciation of what's going on out there, of what's going on with people. There's no, sort of, no false piety, no simplistic answers to complex questions. There's a bit of reality, I really really like that. It gets a tribute to all of us and the way God is working because it takes individual members to respond like that for a church to get an overall reputation of being real, of being authentic. Here's the second one, acceptance. Now, there's a fine line between accepting somebody for who they are and without appearing to condone the sin that they may be involved in. That's a very fine line, and we really have to look to Jesus to get the ultimate example of how to do it. And that's a fantastic model, but he's the one. I mean, in his life and ministry, he intersected with all kinds of people. People who've been thrown out of society, people who've become involved heavily in the shadowy world of immorality. And you notice, as a consistent pattern in the gospels, Jesus treated all of them with dignity and respect. He had his harshest words to say to the pious self-righteous people who thought they were okay. That's when he came on a little bit critical, a little bit strong. But Jesus, for the most part, in his dealings with people, in every case, he treated people with the most, the masterful example of this is John 4, where Jesus encounters the woman at the well. And we haven't got time to unpack it, but you know, you look at that, a woman deeply involved in sin, but Jesus treats her with absolute dignity and respect. He had the courage and relationship building gives you this entree. He had the courage to speak into her life and point out a few things to change her ways to his way. That's part of bridge building, too. Here's the third component. It's warmth. It's good old fashioned warmth. I mean, there's so much discretacy and harshness around the place today. Have you noticed that in a way, in the way people deal with each other. I just find it incredible. I've been around long enough to know that there's been a death to shift there. I tell you. There's been a really shift. And so when somebody does come across as warm and courteous, they tend to stand out like a beacon. I had a guy in a supermarket recently, he said to me, "There's everything okay, let's drag you." I said, "What? Let me go on camera." I said, "What?" He just read my credit card. How simple is that? Yeah. Like, in a world where you can go and do the shopping at the supermarket and not speak one word to anybody, just get the beep, beep, beeps, you know, to have a guy say, "Is everything okay? Mr. Ag?" Like, just different, very, very different. Contrary, I reckon Christians ought to be on the front line with that sort of difference. We ought to be right there, right on the front line with making that sort of, with being that noticeable. There's a lotion-3, there's a detailed list of character traits that Christians are supposed to exhibit to each other in the body. That's this Causion-3, it's verses 12 to 17, check it at home, the list includes things like kindness, gentleness, patience, compassion. Now, if we're exhibiting those to each other, how much more should we be exhibiting those to the people with whom we intersect during the week? In fact, Paul, the American, he talks in that passage about clothing ourselves, like putting on a garment, clothe yourselves, he says, with kindness, with gentleness, and patience. And the message I get is, just like you wouldn't leave the house without any clothes unless you've got particularly understanding neighbors and work in an environment where things are very different. So don't go out without those relational garments. Don't go out without those, like the American expression, don't leave home without, you know? Link to warmth is attentiveness. And of course, I'm referring to the ability to really take an interest in people. It's reflected in our eye contact, in our active listening, which so many of you know about because of your professional training, our ability to reflect feelings and so on. We know our law was effective in this area. We know that Jesus was a master at this because he had the ability to ask questions. We want to do a series on this. He asked hundreds of questions over his ministry. And that takes a particular art. He asked the disciples on one occasion, who do people say I am? Who do you say I am? He asked the guy that there's the pool, do you want to get, well, are you serious about what an extraordinary question? He asked the disciples on one occasion, what were you arguing about on the road? What was that all about? He said, like, you also asked the disciples, will you also go away after the fitting of the 5,000? In every case, Jesus used these questions to start a conversation about life, about faith ultimately about salvation. He really had the ability to ask questions. And look, appropriate questions asked with sensitivity and courtesy are a great way of showing interest in people. Provided the questions are about the other person's agenda and not just our agenda, you know? Those of you in sales know that. It's not about you. It's about the customer. And that applies in relationships as well when we're seeking to influence people for God. Finally, vulnerability, a word that pops up a lot here at Northside, I think it's part of our reality, our willingness to talk about our challenges, our hurts, our doubts, our struggles, our fragility, you know, vulnerability. You know this Paul in his writings, you know, Paul was willing to do this. He once described himself as the chief of sinners. How's that grab you? This is Paul, chief of sinners. This is pre-Christ, pre-Christian days, but even after he accepted Christ, he's prepared to talk about his struggles in Romans 7 and verses 8 and 19. Some of you know this so well. I know that the good, sorry, I know that good does not live in me, this is Paul. That is in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I'm not able to do it. I don't know, I don't do the good I want to do, instead I do the evil that I want not to do. I don't think any bells for anybody, and this is Paul, prepare to put that into holy scriptures. Cameron, my son, I think it was about four, maybe five, he asked me a question one time. He said, "Hey Dad, what are you praying about when you take communion?" He didn't see me take care of you, everybody else take care of you. And I thought, "That's a good question." I said, "Well, Cam, I thank God for the gift of Jesus." I thank him that through that gift I'm able to have God our heavenly Father as my friend, trying to keep it to a simple level. I said, "I pray about the things I've done wrong." And he said, "Dad, Dad, what would you have done wrong?" Now, admittedly he'd only had a four-year window of opportunity to see you. Boy, I changed my, I mean, what sort of message am I giving to this poor boy about life and about failure? What kind of message will I give him so he should change tack a little bit and he became very enlightened in the coming years and would be under no illusions today if we gave him the chance to testify. Guys, let's just pause for a moment as we sort of land this thing. Look, just think of the thousands of contacts, intersections that Northside is going to have this week. I think for all of us. Just think of the encounters that are going to take place, the planned meetings, the unplanned meetings, the delightful conversations, the really tough and ordinary conversations. With friends and strangers, it's going to be numerous. It's just unbelievably vast. The opportunities for us to positively influence people for God are numerous, numerous. To be authentic, to be accepting, to exhibit a bit of warmth, to be attentive, to be a little vulnerable. The opportunities are huge. And it's all ahead of us this week. And in our passage, Peter has a final word and I wish we had time to unpack this because this is really the heart of it, he says this in verse 11, "In all things, praise is given to God through Jesus Christ, to whom belong, glory and power." It's all about him, ultimately. It's not about us. Ooh, I spoke to so many people. It was in my day. How many people have you brought to Jesus? Well, gosh, not many. But I hope I've played a part. I wish I'd said that. I hope I've played a part, but I don't have too many on the list of those who've come right through. That was when I was a young guy involved in that kind of church. It's all about Jesus, "To whom belong, glory and power, forever and ever." Friends, that sounds like the never-ending story to me, forever and ever. We have the opportunity. We may never know the extent to which we influence somebody for eternity. That is the humbling and exciting thing about this whole thing of bridge-building for God. Some of you know my story in leadership, I was almost 20 years of age when I was introduced to Christian leadership. I was asked to co-lead a youth group for kids in upper primary and early high school, and we started from the ground up. And very quickly, we had 20-25 young people every week consistently meeting in this exciting group. I've never been out of Christian leadership since. It was a great introduction, and I thank God for it. Well, due to the marbles of Facebook, late last year, I got a message from a lady called Jenny. I didn't recognize her surname. The message was, "Are you the Graham Agnew who used to run that youth group in Perth back in the late '60s?" And I wrote back and said, "Yes, I was." I said, "Now, there was only one Jenny in that group," and I gave the name, and she fired back. She said, "That's me. I was a Jenny." And this is kind of exciting. She said, "Look, we had other exchange. She said, "Look, I live in Waddonga. I've got two kids. I've got two Graham kids." And here's what she said there. She said, "Look, you know, you may not realize it, but back in that youth group." She said, "That's when I started my Christian journey. I got baptized, not long after you left." And she said, "You wouldn't know it, but my home life in those days was absolutely shocking." And I knew she was serious because she said to me, "How many photos of that era do you have?" And I loved my photos and my sentimentality, and I said, "I got a stack." She said, "Would you send them all to me because I have no photos of me as a young person until I was in my late teens and started taking my own photos?" I said, "Well, I couldn't relate to that." And then she said, "I've been divorced, and my life's been pretty rocky, but I'm still a Christian, and I go to a local church, and I still love God, and I'm still drawing on His strength and power to get me through." Now guys, I had no way of knowing, and those other leaders, no way of knowing that what we were doing back there is kind of new leaders stumbling around trying to make sense out of this new group. We were involved in shaping a life, and you know that they made His thing, and this just didn't get one of those photos, and seeing this willowie 11-year-old, right, last time I saw her, she came to her farewell at Perth Airport, and then looking at her Facebook page, her 56-year-old woman, you know, that is amazing, and to think what had transpired between that picture and this, and she was telling me some of it, and the constant was Jesus had got us through, you know, she was staying with Him because she was introduced to Him. We, in that youth group, we will never know, we have no way of knowing where, well, no in heaven, when people come up and say, "You know what you tell me one time?" You know, I was in your son's school class, you know, you stopped and had a coffee with me at a time when I was really up against it, I'm here because of that. I stayed with Jesus, you didn't see it, it was years after, we never know. This is what I'm excited, I'm excited about the whole thing of intersections and building bridges for God. Write a few lines this week, maybe even write a paragraph or two, and it'll all be brought together and it'll be part of the never-ending story. We get to play a part. That's fantastic, that's very impressed, shall we? Well, Father God, thank you for the awesome privilege of being among the people who write your never-ending story. Lord help us to be more vigilant about the opportunities that come our way to speak are words for you, to show a little Christ-like kindness and compassion, to be one of those beacon-type people who just refuses to go along with the harshness and the discursacy that seems to be all around us. Help us to make a difference, even in a small way like that, realizing that that's where it starts, that's where people start to have their interest aroused. Lord, thank you for our participation in this wonderful tale of yours is unfolding. So Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray, amen.