On this week's episode, Brad discusses the importance of meeting people where they are, particularly in the context of faith and church. He uses the biblical story of Peter and Cornelius to illustrate how God calls us to reach out to others, regardless of their background. The narrative emphasizes the need for openness and learning in our spiritual journeys, encouraging listeners to respond positively to God's call in their lives.
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(upbeat music) - Hello, my name's Kamal Grant and this is You Don't Know What You Don't Know, the latest podcast on the Hope Cast Network, where I, Kamal Grant, go talk to leaders in the consumer package goods world because I need to know more things. I'm trying to launch a new brand called Magic Middle's and I want to get it on all the grocery store shelves. So I'm talking to leaders in the industry so I can learn from them so I can learn and let the world know. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - This is the Hope Cast Network. Stories and shows you actually want to listen to. (upbeat music) - My name is Brad and this is your weekly calling. Hey, I hope this week is a great week for you. This is the beginning of a new week. So if last week was bad, hopefully it wasn't. Let's kick this week off with a bang. Today, I want to spend a little time talking about what it means to meet people where they're at. You know, a lot of times as Christ followers, we expect people to show up at church, right? We expect them to just come to church and then we'll go, "Oh my gosh, Jesus loves you." That's not how it always works, right? God doesn't say open, turn the own light, the open light on, you know, at the church and people will just flock there because you know what? People have options today. People can go to football games, they can sleep in, they can, you know, back in the 50s, the only thing to do on Sundays was go to church. Everything was closed. Today, people have options and a lot of times the church is guilty of expecting those people to show up. But there's a story in the Bible where God basically tells us we can't be like that. And it's the story of Cornelius and Peter. I love this story because you get two sides of things and two very different reactions. If you go to Acts, chapter 10, you can read this story. It's a great story. I'm gonna sum it up in my most story tale here a little bit but I'm gonna follow it. So basically Cornelius is a Christ follower but he's missing one thing, right? He does everything right. He's like a Pharisee. He knows what to do to be a good Christian. He's a Gentile. A lot of you listening right now are Gentiles. I'm a Gentile. I'm not Jewish. We probably have some Jewish listeners but he's a Gentile. He's doing all the actions but he doesn't have the heart change. So God sends this angel and he's like, "Hey man, you need to send your man "to get Simon Peter of Caesarea." Okay, well, or a Japa and not this Japa, not Caesarea. And he doesn't know Simon Peter which is crazy, right? 'Cause Peter did so many things with Jesus. So he immediately sends these three guys. I mean, he probably closely pooped himself when he saw the angels. I probably would have done that. And he sends the three guys to get Peter. Peter's living his life man. He gets on this roof. We cut Caesarea or Japa and Peter's up on the roof, right? And he's like an angel comes and says, "You need to go, you need to go to Caesarea." Peter's like, "No, I'm good man." Angel comes in a dream. "You need to go to Caesarea." It's like, "No, I'm not a man, I'm not doing it." Third time. And Peter's finally like, "Okay, look, I'm gonna go." I don't wanna go. He's kind of like, he's kind of like when my wife or your wife, your husband tells you to do something and you're like, "I don't really wanna do it." And he finally goes, "Okay, I'm gonna do this. "I don't want you to remember that I'm doing this, right?" So he gets up and he's greeted the door by the man that Cornelius sent and they're like, "Hey man, Cornelius, Angel came to Cornelius. "He put himself and you need to come see Cornelius." He's like, "Okay, I'll do this." So he'd been grudging, he goes, "Have you ever begrudgingly went somewhere?" I have. I do that sometimes. I'll be like, "I really don't wanna go to this place." And the next thing you know, we're eating at a restaurant I didn't wanna eat at. And I'm actually kind of enjoying it. God's teaching me a lesson. God's always teaching lessons, right? So anyway, he gets on the road and he's heading there. And he's not happy. It's 32 miles. Maybe you walk at 32 miles, but grudgingly. You're mad and you're still walking. You're like, "I'm gone, I'll get here. "I know I can." (grunting) So anyway, he gets there and he gets there and Cornelius calls us, we say, "Stand up. "I'm just like an average man, just get." Now, I would probably wanna follow my feed. Peter walked through the door too, 'cause Peter's a boss man, he's a disciple. But what's unique about Peter is, if you think about it, how many times did I cry three times? How many times did it take Peter to, haven't the answer to convince Peter to go three times? I think it took three days for him to get to Cornelius. So three is a significant number in Peter's history. So he shows up and he's like, "You know, I shouldn't be in this house, right?" They're like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know that, "but we don't want you to talk to us." Peter just like, if you chat as before, did the Pentecost, right? So he had preached a couple of 3000 Jewish people and said, "Go spread the word of Jesus." But he didn't know he had to spread the word of Jesus to Gentiles. So he's in the house of agenda and he's like, "You know what? "I'm gonna tell you about Jesus." And he tells Cornelius and Cornelius just eats it up. And at that point, we get something in the Bible we have met. Cornelius is the, basically, I think he's the first documented one, Gentile to accept Jesus into his life. And Peter says, "I tell you what, man, "everyone in this house knows Jesus, man." See, school was in session for Peter. Peter learned a lot in that journey. He shows up angry, but he leaves a man who has learned, "I can't just talk to Jewish people." See, that's the difference between him and Paul. Paul was like, "I'm gonna go out and we'll tell everybody "about Jesus." But Peter struggled with talking to Gentiles because he was a born Jewish. He only knew it was Jewish. It's a Jewish religion. And he's like, "I don't want to do this, but now." But God, him in this, this story's more about Peter than it is actually about Cornelius, 'cause Cornelius would have found Jesus. God would have sent someone, but he wanted to specifically send Peter because Peter needed to know. We can talk to Gentiles. They're just as good as Jewish people. We're no better. What's God telling you to do today? Is God making you drive 30 miles somewhere? You don't want to go up with grudgingly? Just so you can learn a lesson and be taught something good. Not a lesson. It's bad. Nobody likes bad lessons. Is that what God's calling you to do today? If I'd say, "I'm gonna challenge you this week." Hey, I want you to go out and I want you to hear when God calls you to do something this week 'cause he's gonna call you to do something. You do it. You fill it in your gut. You go do it. Don't do it, grudgingly. If your spouse asks you to do something, do it with a smile on your face, 'cause it could be something God's trying to tell you. Let's pray. Dear God, I just thank you for these listeners. Thank you for this morning. Laura, thank you for the story of Peter and Cornelius. What a great story. What a great story about obeying and God's always calling us to do something. You're always calling us all. Thank you for that. And I pray this week, as the week starts out, I pray for each one that is embarking on their journey this week, this listening that they're blessed. And I pray that we all accept that challenge too. Do what you call us to do and do it because we're doing it, we won't do it, and you're telling us to do it, not progrudgingly. We're not walking less 32 miles progrudgingly, Laura. Thank you again. You're really a man. My name is Brad and that was your weekly call. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]
