Daily Dose of the Word of God - Beyond Sunday Ep. 104

Jeff Klein, Pastor of Outreach

Transcript

Jeff Klein  0:06

 
Welcome to Elmhurst CRC's Daily Dose in the Word of God. It's Monday, November 10. This is Jeff Klein reminding you to take your faith and following of Jesus beyond Sunday and into your week.

Jeff Klein  0:18  

The other day, I was in Jimmy John's picking up my favorite sandwich (a number 10!). They are freaky fast, but I had time to notice a poster on the wall. It was a list of 16 things that the CEO of Jimmy John's had learned by his 50th birthday. As I started reading down the list, one of them especially caught my eye. It was number 4 on his list of 16. It read like this: "People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them." Ouch, he's probably been around some Christians. I don't even know what he believes, but he certainly hits the nail on the head when it comes to us as Christians. We are so ready to convince someone else about this Jesus we know that we don't take time to listen and explore where they are coming from first. This actually becomes an obstacle to our message!

Jeff Klein  1:07  

Did you know that listening is as important as talking when it comes to sharing your faith? Here are some questions you can ask people in order to be curious about what they believe. I'm curious, do you have faith? What is your faith based on? How did you come to believe? What do you believe? Can you take me back and tell me how you formed your beliefs? Have you ever seen God act in your life?

Jeff Klein  1:32  

It's amazing how often in the Bible, God leads with questions. In fact, one of the earliest stories in Genesis 3, when God comes to walk in the garden, Adam and Eve are hiding because they have disobeyed. Clearly, God knows what they've done, but he doesn't start the conversation with statements or accusations. Instead, he launches with questions for them. Where are you?Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree I commanded you not to eat from? What is this you have done? Since God is all-knowing, what purpose do you think he had in asking the questions? Well, he wanted Adam and Eve to discover the answers for themselves. He wanted them to own up and wanted them to know that he was still with them. When we think about conversations with people who believe differently than we do, let's prove Mr. Jimmy John's wrong. Let's be curious and listen before we speak. Maybe this will earn us the right to be heard and someone might actually want to hear our message.

 
Jeff Klein  2:34  

Let's pray. Father God, teach us to move through the world like your son Jesus did. Help us to ask questions, be curious and interested in other people.  Help us to be curious about people and treat them in a loving way so that our message might go out with power in the world. In your name we pray, Amen.