Three Ways to Introduce Your Friends to Jesus (Part 2 of 2)

Many churches, they will often encourage their congregations go on a missions trip. And I say, yes, go on a missions trip, walk next door. It's cheaper. You don't have to spend a year fundraising. Walk next Door.

Well, he does have a point there. Our mission field can be right in our own neighborhood. That's Jay John, and we're continuing a message from him on today's episode of Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. As usual, J. John is bringing his trademark humor and fascinating stories to a serious topic: the mandate from Jesus, known as the Great Commission, where he instructed us to share the gospel with everyone we meet.

And if you missed part one of Jay John's presentation yesterday, please get in touch with us. We are offering this message as part of a free collection of audio downloads featuring J. John, or you can get this message on CD. And you'll find those at focusonthefamily.com/slash broadcast. Or give us a call, 800, the letter A in the word family.

That's 800-232-6459. Here's Jay John speaking at Times Square Church in New York City. We're going to start with a brief recap today on Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. I walked up to the lady, I said, excuse me. I said, is your name Barbara?

She says, yes, it is. I said, I've heard that you've got a sick child. She says, yes, I do. I only have one child. He's dying.

She said, Can you go now? To the hospice, we go there, we find him.

Now, her son's called Johnny. And he's 34 years of age. I said, hello, Johnny. I said, I'm Reverend J. John.

I said, I just met your mother and your mother asked me to come and pray for you. I said, would you like me to do that? And then he stared me out. He just looked at me in the eyes and he didn't say anything. And it was so uncomfortable.

I'm like, oh lord. Lord, I don't know what to do. This is awkward. And then he said this. I would rather have a hug.

Killy and I bent down. He lifted himself up, where the three of us held each other. And he starts crying. Kelly starts crying, I start crying. He then let go, we let him go.

I said you want the prayer anyway? He says, Look. I'm an atheist. But if you need to pray, go ahead.

So I said. I will.

So all I did was, Jesus opened his eyes. And all I said was, Amen. Then I said to him, Hey, Johnny, we talked for a bit. And I said, Johnny, do you want me to come back again and talk to you? He says, I love it.

You see, before someone's a Christian, they're in minus territory. When they become a Christian, they step over a line, they're saved, they're born again, they're in Christ.

Now, when you're in minus territory, it goes up to minus 100. He was minus 100. I kept visiting him minus 90. Kept visiting him, minus 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30. Every time I went, I could see he was getting nearer and nearer and nearer and nearer.

And then I went, and he was in a lot of pain. It wasn't the day to discuss. But his countenance had changed. And I just stood, I held his hand. I didn't say anything, I just prayed.

Next morning, very early in the morning, knock on our door, open the door, it's the mother. He's died. She said She said, would you speak at my son's funeral? I said, of course I will.

Now, the mother is a new ager. She asks me to speak at the funeral. I didn't realise that her son was famous. I meet all sorts of people. I don't know who they are half the time.

He was a really famous nightclub DJ. There's 800 people at the funeral.

Okay, let's just reenact this. I'm walking around the village with Killy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done. Oh, Lord.

Oh, Lord. Quiver in the liver. Talk to her. Go and see her son. Pray for him.

Keep visiting. He passes away. Speak at the funeral. 800 people at the funeral. 800 people at the funeral.

People go, well, well, how does it work?

Well, you just walk around, your kingdom come, your will be done. You know, it's like, it's not difficult, is it? You know, you you don't have to say where are the non-Christians. They're everywhere. They're everywhere.

And look, we've got a station in London. It's called King's Cross.

Okay, it's an underground station. It's called King's Cross.

When I finished speaking, I stepped down. When I stepped down, I was mobbed. I was mobbed. There were people here trying to talk to me. There were people pulling, pulling my my hand.

J John, Reverend J. John, what did you mean that we can go to heaven via King's Cross?

Well, you do know that, don't you? You know you can only get to heaven if you go via the cross of the king. King's Cross, yeah? And my whole sermon was Go to heaven via king's crime. Cross.

That's it. You see, that's we've got to be more intentional in praying. Number one, more intentional in praying. Number two, oh, just warming up. Right, two.

More intentional in caring. Number two, Or a tension. You see. People don't care how much we know until they know how much we care. They don't care how much we know.

Until they know how much we care. You know, there's a scripture in Peter, always be prepared. You gotta be prepared.

Now in my coat in England which I forgot to bring to New York. Oh. Because we thought the weather was going to be good. But in my coat In the pocket. There is a pair of socks.

A toothbrush. A cross? And the little evangelistic booklet. Always. Why?

Because every time I see a homeless person, I will stop. Would you like a clean Pair of socks. Oh, yes, please. Would you like a toothbrush? Yes, please.

May I give you this cross? I always carry one with me. A little wooden cross. from Bethlehem. May I give you this cross?

No one has ever refused it. One man, homeless man, he put the cross in his hand and he was down on the floor and he was like, oh. Oh. And then I just said, This is what I believe about Jesus. And I said, God loves you.

And He said, I know he does. I said, how do you know? He said because you came. You think you've got to be prepared. If you're not prepared, then you're not going to be able to do it.

Now outside Macy's There's there's a lady Homeless woman In a wheelchair. If you're ever around Macy's, she's there in her wheelchair. Her name is Rosemary.

Now I've not met Rosemary, but the man who brought me to Christ called Andy Connomides, when he came a few months ago and actually came here on a Tuesday night, he met Rosemary And he kept meeting her and one night he felt he should go look for her and he went to look for her. and he had conversations with her. He texted me yesterday. He said, John, I want you to go down to Macy's and find Rosemary and give her a hundred dollars. You gotta be intentional.

I don't just mean. mean homeless people. Anybody? You've got to express that you care. Kitty and I we were in San Diego and And um Amidst all the different meetings and the conferences, we had like half a day free and we thought, ah, let's just go to a shopping mall and just wander around.

But we didn't want to ring the church and ask them to take us, so we got an Uber.

So, got in the Uber, and as soon as we got in the Uber, I said to the driver, is there something? I can pray for you. That's right. I didn't say anything else, apart from hello, where we're going. Is there something like he said?

Would you pray? Would you pray for my mother? She's got Alzheimer's. I said, yes. I said, we my wife and I said, we will pray now.

And we start praying. As we are praying, the Uber driver, he does this. Boom. I'm sorry, Jesus. I'm sorry, Jesus.

I will go to church. I will go to church. I didn't mention Jesus. I didn't mention the church. I'm just praying for his mum.

That's all I'm doing. Anyway, we get to the mall. We get to the mole. We just walk around the mall. To be honest, all we did is have a coffee and have a little wander around.

Right? It's time to go. It's getting a bit dark. Our Uber app isn't working. No!

Oh no, why is it not working? You know, and our phone wasn't working. Oh, no, what are we going to do? It's kind of like it's getting dark. And it's like, well, what do we do now?

I said, Killy, ask that woman if she knows why our Uber app isn't working. Killy goes up to the lady and says, I'm sorry, do you know anything about Uber apps? Because ours is not working. And she's, oh, no, dear, I don't know anything about that. She says, where are you staying?

Oh, well, we're staying at this hotel. Oh, she says, I know where that hotel is. It's around twenty minutes away. She says, I'll take you. Oh You know, your first thought is, ooh.

Is she gonna take us somewhere else? You know, has she got? You don't know, do you? It's getting dark. We get in I say to Killy you sit in the front I'll sit in the back.

We get in the car. We get in the car. She starts the journey. I say to the lady, what's been happening in your life? She says, well Where do I begin?

Two weeks ago my son died of an overdose. I believe God stopped the app from working. I'm convinced. He stopped the app from working because the moment we got to the hotel, it started working. We spent 20 minutes talking to her.

We got to the hotel. We asked her to wait. We rushed upstairs. We got a whole load of resources. We brought back the resources.

We prayed for the woman. We invited her to church. You know, look, you've got to be more intentional in praying. You've got to be more intentional in caring. And there are numerous opportunities everywhere.

Everywhere. Whether it's an Uber driver, whether it's a homeless person, whether it's a neighbor, whether it's a colleague, whether it's a friend. They're all lost. When I got baptised I said this, my friend Andy built a bridge from him to me and when he did, Christ Jesus walked over it. Let's build bridges.

Let's be more intentional. Let's be more expectant. I mean, I'm so grateful that the first Christian I ever met, the first Christian I ever met, I became a Christian. The first person to speak to me about Jesus, and I come to Christ. I mean, what if he hadn't told me?

I'd be running a Greek restaurant in London. I wouldn't be here, would I? Be more intentional in praying. Be more intentional in caring. Number three, be more intentional in sharing.

Number three. Be more intentional in sharing. You know, there's a beautiful story in John chapter 4: Jesus and the Samaritan woman. I love it.

Okay, let's do a quick Bible study. Jesus is here. He wants to go there. Every other Jew would have walked around Samaria. Because Jews and Samaritans hated each other.

So the first thing you read about the story is: Jesus broke long-standing traditions. Just because every other Jew walked around Samaria didn't mean he was going to do that.

So he breaks them.

Now, some traditions are fine, but sometimes we adopt traditions that hinder people rather than help people. Jesus walked that way. He stops at a well, a woman comes. When the woman arrives, Jesus and the woman, what was the difference between the woman and Jesus?

Well, first of all, there's a moral barrier. She's living in adultery, he's the high priest. Secondly, there's a social barrier. She's a woman, he's a man. Thirdly, there's a racial barrier.

She's a Samaritan, he's Jewish. Fourthly, there's a religious barrier. She's a Samaritan, he's Jewish. So you've got a moral barrier, a social barrier, a racial barrier, and a religious barrier.

Well, how did Jesus break down the barriers?

Well, he focused on what he had in common. He only had one thing in common with her. H two O. Oh. Oh, you want water?

Oh, I love water. Oh. Mm. Lovely spring water. Don't you love water?

But Cheers. I know about a different water. If you drink this other water, you won't be thirsty. What do you mean?

Well, there's this other water. If you drink it, you won't be thirsty. What do you mean?

Well, there's other water. And so he starts clarifying it. He speaks into her life. She drops a pot. She goes and gets everybody.

And what happens is, huh? The Samaritan revival begins.

Now this is incredible though. She addressed Jesus four times during the conversation. The first time she addressed Jesus, she calls him Jew. And when you read it in the Greek, it's a little bit like this. Chew.

Then she says Sir? Then she says Profit? Then she says Messiah? And we normally have the opposite effect. Look what happened.

Look at how her attitude changed. Look at how he drew her in. Jesus went out of his way, broke long-standing traditions, spoke to one woman. Ignites the Samaritan Revival. We need to be more intentional in praying, in caring and sharing.

You know, every Christian is a witness. And in a court of law you have a witness.

Now the witness gets up and says, let me tell you what I know. You just share what you know. Yeah. I was this, but I discovered that. I was in darkness, but then I discovered the light.

You know, I was discouraged, but then I was encouraged. This is what happened. I was in need, and God provided. And you just tell stories. That's a witness, that's a witness.

But then you have the attorney. And the attorney gets up and presents the facts in such a convincing manner as to get the jury to make a decision. That's what I do. That's what an evangelist does. We're not all evangelists, but we're all witnesses.

Every single one of us is a witness. I spoke at this one meeting in a university. I finished speaking, I stepped down, students were talking to me, and while they were talking to me, this girl comes along, interrupts us really rudely, like really rudely. She said, I hated what you said. I said, I'm so sorry.

She says, well, I can tell you that church ruins people's lives. I said, I'm very sorry that you feel that and think that. I said, but look, have you got some time? And she's like, why? I said, well, if you've got a few minutes, how about you and I?

We'll just go and have a coffee.

Alright.

So we get we, you know, it's like that.

So we go to the local refectory on the campus, like just a few yards away. We get the coffee. I said, why, why are you so angry? And it's like, ah, all this stuff comes out. And, you know, I'm not there to kind of argue with her.

I try to say a few things. You know, I said things like medicine is great, it's good, God provided medicine, but a lot of mistakes have been made in the name of medicine. Surgeons have made mistakes, and people have died. Pharmaceutical companies have made mistakes. Like thalidomide.

But we don't throw out the whole of medicine because of some mistakes that have been made. Yes, some mistakes have been made in the church. And men some of the followers of Jesus have not been a good example. But Jesus. Jesus Jesus.

So I said to her, Look, that was a Monday. Come and hear me Tuesday and we'll have a coffee. She came, we went for coffee. I said, come and hear me Wednesday, we'll go for coffee. She came, went for coffee.

I said, come and hear me Thursday and we'll go for coffee. She came, went Thursday. I said, one more meeting Friday. Come and hear me Friday. Friday, she's ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.

Five coffees. Five coffees. A bit of preaching and five coffees. We got to be far more intentional in praying, far more intentional in caring, far more intentional in sharing. I went to get my hair cut.

And I I noticed that the the lady cutting my hair by her mirror, she had her key ring. And on with her keys, and on her key ring, she had a rabbit's foot. I said to her, Why why have you got a rabbit's foot on your key ring? Ah she said, that's to bring me good luck. I said the rabbit wasn't lucky.

I said, how can an unlucky rabbit bring you any luck? She goes, I never thought of that. She bent down, she took the rabbit's foot off, she shucked it into the trash can. The next 20 minutes, we're talking about superstition. Mm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Why do hotels have floor 12 and then 12A? I mean, you don't know are you ju are we stupid? We know that 12A is 13.

Some people won't fly on an aeroplane if they're on row 13. Oh, lightning's just going to take out row 13.

So we talked about superstition. And then, after the 20 minutes, I said to her, My wife and I. We run a class in our home called Agnostics Anonymous. Would you like to come? She says, I'd love to come.

Can I bring my husband? Yes, of course. They came every week for 16 weeks. You know, people go, I don't know how to do it. What do you mean?

Your kingdom come, your will be done. A quiver in the liver, go and speak to somebody. You know, Lord, give me eyes to see things. Our responsibility as Christians, what is it? It's to go into God's orchard and we check the fruit.

We check the fruit. We're the fruit checkers. Check the fruit. Check the fruit. If the fruit is ripe for picking, what do you do?

You pick it. Pick the fruits! Pick the fruits. Don't let other people pick the fruit. We know, don't we, listen.

Without Jesus, we have A hopeless end. With Jesus, we have an endless hope. We have an endless hope. We have good news. Good news.

Listen. If you don't yet know the truth of what I've been speaking about, The good news of Jesus. It was explained earlier on. Basically, The heart of being a Christian is this: we are all broken people. And we can only be healed in the broken body of Jesus.

That is the message. Every single one of us. whether we're a homeless person with not even a dollar. to a billionaire. And anyone in between.

We're all broken. All broken. Only Jesus. can heal us. Only Jesus can save us.

Only Jesus can deliver us. And there's a beautiful verse at the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation, chapter 3, and it says this: Jesus stands at the door and he knocks. If you hear the knock, open the door, let Jesus in. Listen, if you haven't let Jesus in, let... Jesus into your life and experience forgiveness from the past, New life here today.

And our hope for the future. And we're going to close a great message from J. John right there. But he and his wife Killy went on in that message to pray with their audience at Times Square Church. And their prayers are very rich and detailed.

Let me encourage you then to visit us online to hear that extra content and maybe pray along with them. We're including it in the free J. John collection of audio downloads, or you can get this complete message on CD. That's a great idea, John. And I think we should all take Jay John up on his challenge to pray for each specific person we know who doesn't know the Lord.

That's what it's about. Pray for them every day. Or if you have a big list, split it up so that you're at least praying for each person once a week. And then let us know what happens. It might take weeks, months, or years, but I'm sure you'll have a story to tell.

And if there's someone who is really heavy on your heart, please give us a call. Our friendly staff would count it a privilege to listen to your concerns and pray with you. And if needed, you can also request a callback from one of our caring Christian counselors. And I'd also recommend that you get a copy of J. John's book called Jesus Christ: The Truth.

An in-depth look at the life of our Lord, and it might be the perfect book to pass along for one of the people you're praying for. We'll send that out to you when you make a donation of any amount to Focus on the Family to help us continue our evangelism efforts as well. Our research shows that over 290,000 people made decisions for Christ through Focus on the Family in the past 12 months, and we'd like to see that number grow.

So partner with us if you can. Yeah, be a part of what God's doing through this ministry. And you can get your copy of J. John's book in the free audio collection. Details are in the show notes, or you can call 800, the letter A in the word family.

And this quick reminder that we'd love to have you come visit Focus on the Family this summer. We have a wonderful welcome center where you and your family can relax and have a bite to eat at our soda shop and let the kids play in a safe indoor environment. They won't get bored, that's for sure. Plus, we have a terrific bookstore. We hope to see you sometime in the coming months.

On behalf of the entire team, thanks for listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly. Please take a moment and leave a rating for us in your podcast app or platform and share this episode with a friend. Help us spread the word about our helpful content. I'm John Fuller inviting you back as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ. Your marriage can be redeemed even if the fights seem constant, even if there's been an affair, even if you haven't felt close in years.

No matter how deep the wounds are, you can take a step toward healing them with a hope-restored marriage-intensive. Our biblically based counseling will help you find the root of your problems and face challenges together. We'll talk with you, pray with you, and help you find out which program will work best. Call us at 1-866-875-2915.