B.L.E.S.S. - Part 3: Engage

0:00 This message is entitled, Engage. Thank you for tuning in today. This is a special Sunday. On this fourth Sunday in January, we are enduring a snowstorm here in the DMV area. And so I want to make all of our other people who are outside of the DMV know that we are worshiping virtually with you today. so we don't have a whole lot of people. I have a handful of dedicated saints here in the building.

0:38 And I want to just say to all of you today, be safe. There's not just snow outside, there's ice that they're declaring. Ice, and it's so easy to go outside and slip on ice that you won't even see. So I just want to urge you to be cautious and careful. We normally would do our installation of officers tonight at our communion service. And by the way, communion, again, will be virtual tonight, 630. We want you to prepare and have a cracker and some juice with you tonight at 630. It'll be an abbreviated service. So if you could just join us for 30 minutes or so tonight, it'll be virtual. So that's number one, just know that we're doing that. But we normally would install our officers tonight.

1:32 And what we're going to do is, as it was stated in the news, we're going to move that to February the 3rd. So all of our leaders need to know that on Tuesday night, February the 3rd, 7 p.m., we have dedicated that night as a night of prayer, and we will pray. and a part of that prayer is we will be installing officially our leaders for the First Baptist Church of Bernard. So please add that to your calendar and we hope that you will be able to join us. So I'm excited about that. I do have some special announcements we're going to make tonight. So again, I hope you will join us because I want you to have all the up-to-date news, especially for some special announcements that I'll make tonight at the 630 service. Now, for those of you who've been following us, we are in a series today to win. I'm trying to teach us how to win people to the kingdom of God.

2:33 And what we have done is challenged us, first of all, to bear fruit. We went to John 15 and we started off this series talking about the fact that God has a desire for you and I to be able to stand in a place of winning others to the Christ and bearing fruit. And we define fruit as being not only the development of your character, but it's also having character to win the loss to Jesus. So I want to ask every person, when's the last time you won somebody to the Lord? Or have you won somebody to the Lord? Or are you working on winning somebody to the Lord? And a part of this series is that we're walking through teaching you some practices, some methods of how to reach the lost with the gospel. And I hope you're finding ways that you could apply that to your life. So we started off this series from John 15 about bearing fruit.

3:30 God wants us to bear fruit. And then, who could possibly be the people that God wants us to win to the Lord? And we gave the acronym of Francis. Let me go through what Francis stands for, because each letter in the word Francis represents an area of your life, of people that you're connected to, that we want you to have a name, a name for most of these areas of people that you want to pray about, people that you want to reach toward winning to the gospel of Jesus Christ. The F in Francis stands for your friends. It stands for friends, people that you have relationships with. Now, I know over 80% of Americans in the United States, I don't know what the number is in other countries, but in America, in the United States of America, over 80% of the people who are living in this country are not connected to the Lord, and not connected in a church.

4:30 And that means eight of your 10 friends, eight of the people that you have friendships with, possibly, don't have a meaningful relationship with the Lord or don't have a church that they're actively participating in. You want to put those names. Put some of those names down on your list. The F is for Francis. The R in Francis stands for relatives. It stands for relatives. It means I know that there are people in your family who are unsaved, who don't have a walk with the Lord, your uncles, your aunts, your mama, your daddy, your children, your siblings, your cousins, people in your family, that God wants to use you to win to the kingdom of God. That's the call of God, that you take some steps to win these relatives of yours to the kingdom of God. The A in Francis stands for acquaintances. These are people, you might not even know their name, but they're people that you cross paths with that may be on a regular. It might be a doorman. It might be at the gas station or at a store. It might be the teller at a store, somebody who you could cultivate a connection with. It could be somebody that you see on a regular that I'm encouraging you to engage with them, talk with them, find out about their families, find out about the challenges that they have in their life. Ask them, how can I pray for you? How can I talk to my God that is answering my prayers? What can I pray for you about? So I want you to make that list. You may not know their name, but just say, you know, the teller at the bank, the cash, the lady, the cash register, what's that person called? Cashier. Yeah, thank y'all. I need y'all here for this sermon here.

6:26 The cashier at the store, somebody that you come across. I remember I used to go and pick up a friend of mine to go walking every day, and I had the guard at the gate of the community that he lived in that I began to pray for him. So A is for acquaintances. N is for neighbors. I'm trying to challenge our people not to be so busy in church that you don't have time to connect with the people next door, the people who live in your community, your neighborhood, your neighbors. The C in France stands for co-workers and for young people, also classmates. I'm so excited that even our young people are demonstrating the ability to think about winning their classmates. I went to the Sunbeams rehearsal the other day, and they went through the Francis list. They knew what the Francis stood for, but instead of saying co-workers, they said classmates. So I'm challenging you to reach out to the people you work with, your co-workers. Reach out to them, develop a relationship with them, pray for them, intercede for them, share the gospel with them, or classmates. We want to win them to the kingdom of God.

7:39 The E in Francis stands for your enemies. I know that might seem like a strange thing to say, but in fact, God wants us to reach the people who we know don't like us, who might put themselves in the category of calling themselves our enemies. And maybe you might call them an enemy. Maybe somebody's tried to hurt you, get you fired, get you terminated. Maybe they have fought against you, but the greatest thing you can do is win them to the Lord. The greatest gift you can give. We are called to love our enemies. We are called to intercede for our enemies. And so, I want to challenge you today to put some names on that list that will fall in your enemy category. And finally, the S stands for strangers, people that you don't, again, you don't know their names, may not even have any kind of relationship with them, but just pray for strangers that you might come across. And so, that's the Francis list.

8:37 And that's one of the tools we use to help our members understand who they are called to reach. And then I went into, and I'm in the middle of this now, of giving you five tools, five things to do. to help win somebody to the Lord. And we use the acronym BLESS, B-L-E-S-S. I want you to bless somebody. Somebody say, that's what BLESS stands for, BLESS, BLESS, that you want to bless somebody. And I'm walking through what each one of the letters stand for. And we went through the B, which means beseech God. Begin to pray for that person. Begin to call their name out before the Lord. Beseech God. Pray for them. We want to win people to the kingdom of God, and we want to do it by praying for them. We want God to call them. Matter of fact, nobody can come to the Lord except the Father drawn. That's what the Scripture teaches. They have to be drawn by God, and we want to ask God to draw our Francis and his name's people to his kingdom. We want God to open their eyes.

9:45 We are beseeching the throne of God. The L in bless stands for listen. This is a very important concept because most church people spend a lot of time talking. And I'm telling you to shut your trap. Close your mouth. Stop telling people what they can do, what they can't do, where they can go, where they can't go. People just need somebody to listen to them. Listen to their pain. Listen to their challenges. Listen to what's going on in their life that we believe is a very, very important deal in their lives. So listen. Now, we're on the E now. Today we're on the E. And the E, when I first started teaching this, when I first learned about this, it stood for eat a meal. But I'm changing that a little bit. And eat a meal does apply to it.

10:40 But here's the word I want to use instead. it. I want to say engage. Relationally engage with them. Again, I cannot tell you how important this is and how much, again, this is encouraged for us to do in scriptures. We are called to engage. So I just want to take these next few moments and just highlight this point. And I have a couple of verses and then I'll be done. Let me start with 1 Corinthians chapter 9. That's going to be the first passage I want to take a look at, 1 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 19 through 23. And I want to encourage you to look for the opportunity to engage with that person out in some meaningful way, in some meaningful environment. Here's 1 Corinthians 9.

11:33 The Apostle Paul is talking to the church in Corinth, and he says to them, I want you to get a hold of this. Here's what the Apostle Paul says to the Corinthian church because, again, he wants them to be actively involved in winning people to the Lord. And he says this, For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all that I might win the more. And to the Jew, I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews. To those who are under the law, has under the law, that I might win those who are under the law. to those who are without law, has without law, not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ, that I might win those who are without law. So to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men. Let me read that again. I have become all things to all men that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel's sake that I may be partaker of it with you. I think that's so profound and powerful.

12:48 Here's what Paul is saying to the Corinthian church as he encourages them. I'll do what it takes, I'll become, I'll engage, I'll participate, I'll walk with people wherever they are. If they're a Jew, I'll walk with them as if I was a Jew. Now, he didn't say he became a Jew. He didn't say he became under the law. He says, I'm walking as though I am. He says, I didn't become weak, but I walk with them as though I was weak. So in other words, God's calling us to walk with people wherever they are, whatever their issues, whatever their... As a matter of fact, here's what I say. Find out what their interest is.

13:26 I won a high school friend of mine to the Lord who's a member of our church to this day, 20 years ago. When I became, I became interested in flying and I learned he was a pilot. And I engaged him. I began to talk with him. I reached out to him, began to talk to him and we developed a relationship, a friendship. And he helped me learn how to fly and I helped him meet Jesus. so uh and he still walks with the lord to this day and i suspect that there are people on your friends list that you could engage you could find something that they have an interest in that you can engage with them in that interest you can walk with them you can uh talk with them You can participate with them in that arena. And I love what Paul says. He says, I want to do this for the gospel's sake, that I can win them for the sake of the gospel. That's what the Lord Jesus has called us to do for the sake of the gospel. Let's think about what you might be able to do.

14:35 What area, what things might you be able to do with the people that you love and care about? Can you engage in their world? Can you go and attend something that they do? Can you go to their meetings? I ain't telling you to go to the club with them. Let me just say that right now. I feel tension in the room. I feel some of y'all saying, oh, I'm going to go to the club with them. No, I ain't talking about that because some of y'all can't handle the club. Now, if you could handle the club and go in there and win them to the Lord, go in there and preach to everybody in the club if you could. But I know that everybody ain't going to fall in that category. but God's calling you and I to find something that we can do to engage in their world. Engage in their world. You might want to find something that they like doing and go. Go to a game with them. Go to a show with them. And again, you look for opportunities to share the truth of the gospel with them while you're doing that. I think that's profound. I think it's powerful that Paul lays out this concept, this idea. And sometimes, as I mentioned when I first taught this, I first taught this saying, eat a meal with them. And that's even important. Eat a meal.

15:51 There's something that happens powerful around the meal. As a matter of fact, eating a meal with somebody takes the relationship to another level. It allows it to embark on a different dimension. And again, we want to look for opportunities to take people beyond just the casual encounters, but in fact, looking for an environment where we can take that relationship to another dimension. And I believe eating a meal or even engaging with them in something that they have an interest in that you might be able to sacrificially go and participate with them. Here's what Philippians 2 says, and I'll be finished with this little brief message today on this snow-filled day. Second, Philippians chapter 2 verses 2 through 4, here's another profound thought that just centers around this one point that I'm making, this one point of this thing here today. Philippians 2 verses 2 through 4 says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem others better than himself.

17:04 Oh, that's wonderful. Think more highly of others than you think about yourself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interest, but also for the interest of others. This is again Paul talking to the Philippian church and telling them, let's have a mindset to think about the concerns of others, the passions of others, the burdens of others. Let's ask God to give us a sensitivity. This is what I want to pray about. God, give me the sensitivity to be caring and concerned about other people outside of what my interest is. I think it's important for Christians to learn that everything in life does not revolve around you and your interest. In fact, the Lord is calling us to recognize that He is beseeching us to be compassionate, loving, and concerned learned about other people. And I think that would please the Lord. I think that would be pleasing and acceptable. And it's one of the things that the scripture clearly tells us to do.

18:11 Let's don't do anything with selfish ambition or conceited, thinking that it's all around, all about me, but lowliness of mind. Think more highly of other people. That's what verse 3 says. Let each esteem others better than himself. Let's put others on a higher level of respect. Let's respect others on a higher level and look out not only, not for your interest, but look out for the interest of other people. That's what the call of God is. Now, I want you to think about how selfish you have been in your life, how self-centered you have been in your life. Think about how everything revolved around you and not around the other people. And I think this is again one of those areas that God desires for us because he modeled it for us. Jesus modeled it for us. He gave up his seat in glory. You know what the Bible tells us? Jesus gave up his seat next to his Father in heaven, came down through 42 generations, became a human being, lived among men, was crucified, beaten, whipped, crown of thorns placed on his head, pierced in his side.

19:24 not because he needed it, but he thought about us because we needed it. Hallelujah. He did it for us. He died for you and I. He shared his blood so you and I could be what? Forgiven of the sins and the standards of God that we missed. He died for us on the cross. That's the glory of the gospel, that that's what Jesus did. He died on the cross. He thought about us. He loved us so much that he, that God gave his only begotten son, and Jesus loved us enough that he died.