[Music] if we are going to reach our world we have to reach our world by cultivating the web of relationships that we have already got with those with whom we have a common kinship with family and friends [Music] well I'm excited to share this message with you british evangelist J john will encourage you to be more intentional about sharing the good news of Jesus Christ with others you're going to hear some stories that will really build your faith j john is an author and speaker who has been all around the world his home base is London England so here's J john speaking at Times Square Church in New York City on today's Focus on the Family now a missionary is not someone who crosses the sea a missionary is someone who sees the cross that was very good repeat after me a missionary No I said after me a missionary is not someone who crosses the sea a missionary is not someone who crosses the sea a missionary is someone who sees the cross the love of Christ compels me compels me it's the love of Christ that compels me in Matthew 28:e 19 we read this then Jesus said "All authority." How much authority all all yeah not a little bit all authority all of it and And what did he say all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit now I'm Greek i'm bilingual i speak Greek i read the New Testament in Greek the Greek word for go means go there is no dispute about that we've actually got to go we Christians must be global Christians with a global mission because we have a global God we have a global God too many Christians have taken literally what Jesus said to three disciples see that you tell no one many Christians are like Arctic rivers they're frozen at the mouth but the love of Christ compels me it compels me acts 1:8 you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem Judea Samaria and the ends of the earth when the Holy Spirit comes into our lives into us it the Holy Spirit empowers us to be witnesses the Greek word for witness martia from which we derive the word martyr it will cost to be a witness killy and I we're now firstborn son Michael he was about two three nearly three two and a half three and we went to a department store we were down in the basement we're just looking at a few things he's with us and And as we're looking then we look down he's not there it's like Michael Michael Michael Mike we couldn't find him it's like wait a minute he He was there like a minute ago now he's not there and we're thinking where and we're Killy's running around i'm shouting Michael michael Michael and he there's no way he could have gone up to the next floor it's literally 60 seconds and then you think you know has he been snatched where is he so I go up to the next floor and I go to one of the counters and I say to the lady behind the counter I said "Listen I've lost my son." And she just looked at me i said "Do you have one of those tanoy machines where you can speak you know to the whole department store?" She said "Yes I we do." I said "Can I use it?" She said "No." I said "Give it to me." She wouldn't give it to me so I jumped over the counter i mean you should have seen me jump over the counter i got hold of them the the tanoi i said to all shoppers all shoppers emergency please stop shopping and they wouldn't stop shopping so I had to I had to say it again stop shopping i said "A little boy's lost a little boy's lost he's got a blue jacket just look around and see if you can find this little boy he's called Michael i couldn't care less what people thought of me why why would I care what people thought of me why would I worry that they said "Oh look at that stupid man." Why why would that worry me my son was lost that is the kind of an analogy that is used in the Bible about lost people so why should it worry us what people think of us people are lost do you know someone who used to be a Christian used to be a practicing Christian and is no longer a Christian if you know someone who used to be a Christian who is no longer a Christian please stand up to represent them and if you don't mind just stay standing go on look around i'm standing up for nine people so I'm standing for nine people we must no doubt be representing hundreds and hundreds of lost people please stay standing for a moment now I've brought those people to your attention why don't you text one of them tonight and just say this hi hi John i thought of you tonight it's been a little while how are you how about can we meet for a coffee just send it just send it and see what happens lord you know all the people that we're representing as we stand here these are lost lost Yes sons and daughters and Lord if there is anything that we can do to help them to remember to return and to rejoice we pray that you would show that to us and Lord if we do send out those texts Lord may your spirit just soak that message and touch the people that we're reaching out to we pray we ask this in Jesus' name amen please take your seats the great commission and the verse in Acts what a what a strategy we've got there so the Holy Spirit came on the first disciples of Jesus as the spirit comes on us today empowers us to be witnesses and and they were given a strategy begin in Jerusalem and then go to Judea then go to Samaria then go to the ends of the earth now what did Jerusalem represent to the first disciples of Jesus well that was where the disciples of Jesus denied him peter denied him publicly where were they at the crucifixion only John was there so Jesus was implying I want you to start in the place of your greatest failure where is that for you and me i'll tell you where it is family friends neighbors colleagues if you if we are going to reach our world we have to reach our world by cultivating the web of relationships that we have already got with those with whom we have a common kinship with family and friends with those with whom we have a common community with neighbors colleagues with those with whom we have an a common interest with we start there now many churches they 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 you see if you want them to come to church well you have to invite them to your home first invite them to your home first before you invite them to church we need to cultivate the web of relationships we have already got and then it says Judea then you move out into the county and then you go to Samaria that's where our enemies live that's right and then you go to the ends of the earth now some people have been called to bypass Jerusalem bypass Judea bypass Samaria and go to the ends of the earth less than 2% 98% of us have been called to reach the world by reaching our world now I've spent years thinking about this teaching it studying it and my conclusion is this we all need to become far more intentional in doing three things one we need to be more intentional in praying you see when we pray coincidences happen and when we don't they don't there was um a church that was next door to this derelik building and the derelik building was bought by a businessman and he was renovating the building to open it as a bar nightclub 24 hours a day the church were horrified so they had an emergency prayer meeting that night lightning struck the building ne not the church the building next door burnt it to the ground the owner of the building sued the church the matter went to the highest courts in the United here in the United States before the court proceedings began the lead judge said "I've never come across a case like this before." And this is a very difficult case because I have a businessman who is convinced that God answers prayer and I have a church that [Applause] doesn't one of my favorite prayer stories there was a a missionary in Africa he returned to his sending church in from Scotland and he's going there to report to encourage and to recruit more people to the mission field it's a very cold night he arrives and he's a little bit discouraged when he walks in there's 12 elderly people no no he's not discouraged that they're there he he he just feels it's great that they've come to pray but they will not be suitable for the mission field but he still feels that he should deliver the same message so he delivers the same message about the needs in Africa and more laborers to come he finishes his talk and he says "Who will go who will go who will go?" Now he didn't know that the organist who was playing the organs for the hymns had a a young boy that was helping him with the billows the air the boy stood up he says "I will go i will go i will go." That little boy's name was David Livingston they said to David Livingston "Well if you feel God has called you to go to Africa David you should become a doctor first a medical doctor so that you can go there as a medical missionary." He does become a medical doctor he goes to Africa and he's a medical missionary he's reaching people there's one particular tribe that he's trying to reach and they don't like it the chief didn't like it he sends him a message the message was tonight we're going to come and we're going to kill you and everybody in your compound and the reason we know all these details is because he kept a diary and it's all written in his diary he was very anxious lord he writes in his diary lord will our work be extinguished after laboring here for decades save us save us well they didn't come they didn't kill them years later they reached the chief and the tribe and they all turned to Christ and David Livingston well you got to wait when I finish you can do a great applause but don't interrupt the story it gets better it gets better he says to the chief "You said you were going to come and kill us." He says "Yes we did come we came to murder you and everyone in your compound why did you not murder us?" He said "Because surrounding your compound there were 46 giants." Uh interesting figure wait a minute don't applaud yet it gets better it gets better there are 46 giants interesting number isn't it 46 giants and when we saw the giants we ran away couple of years after that David Livingston returned to his sending church in Scotland he tells that story at the end of the meeting the secretary of the church comes up to David Livingston and said "Dr livingston do you remember the date that the chief was going to come and murder you?" He says "Of course it was this date." The secretary opens the church diary he says "Look this is the date there were 46 of us here praying for you come [Applause] on our next door neighbors not Christians but they call Killing and I they called us the neighbors from heaven that's not bad is it at least we're not called the neighbors from the other side the lady she had a stroke and as a consequence of the stroke she fell into a coma and she got transferred from our local hospital where we live in a village to a very renowned hospital in Oxford called the John Rackcliffe the daughter came and spoke to Killy and said "Killy we've just met with the doctors the doctors said she's brain dead no brain activity she's on a life support machine and uh we've decided that we're going to switch off the machine in 5 days." So she dies so we're going to have 5 days for the family to come and visit her so Key says "Well can can John and I can we come and visit her?" And the daughter said "Please would you visit my mother?" Because she was so fond of you the only day I could go was the fifth day so now we're driving to Oxford now confession time i was in a bit of a bad mood ah she was in the local hospital we could have been there in 10 minutes now we got to drive an hour you see a human you know all this comes out and then oh where is the hospital where are we going to park the car so I you can't say I was really tuned in spiritually anyway you know it's bit disgraceful really isn't it for a reverend anyway we arrive at the hospital she's in intensive care ICU we go in there and we walk into this room and I said "Hello Joyce." I said "It's the neighbors from heaven i thought "Oh I'll just go give her the last right and off she can go." And um Well she's brain dead isn't she so I start talking to her i said "Joyce what we're going to do now is we're going to pray." So I took her hand i held Killy's hand she held her other hand and I said "Joyce Killy and I will start praying the Lord's Prayer our Father who art in heaven hallowed be your name your kingdom come when we said your kingdom come she woke up it was scary i have to confess it was [Music] like you see you see when we pray when we pray coincidences happen i went back I said to her husband she woke up he goes don't joke i said I wouldn't joke about that i said she woke up he goes no she didn't i said she did he goes "No she didn't." I said "She did." 10 days later she came home look you know there's this sense of intentionality where we're praying and and just letting God go God to do what he wants to do now Killy and I every morning every day we pray for everyone that we know who doesn't know Jesus okay these are people in our Jerusalem we These are people we know we pray for them every morning every day currently we're praying for 46 people well why would we leave anyone out oh I'm only going to pray for three people really what who goes on the list who's going to go on the list what you're going to exclude 43 other people and just have I'm just going to do a prayer triplet what do you mean a prayer triplet what's wrong with you just write down everyone you know doesn't know Jesus and pray for them every day bring them to Jesus pray that their their eyes will open and pray that the eyes of their heart will open and we go on prayer walks so we went for a good walk today and we walk and we pray and on one day we're walking around the village where we live and so we're walking we're praying you're praying for the 46 people we're praying for the kingdom of God your your will be done your kingdom come we're praying for England oh come on Lord we need a revival we're praying for America we need a revival and we're walking and praying and I see this woman i said to Killy "Is that the woman that lives like five doors up from us?" She says "I think it is." I said 'Is that the woman who's got a very sick child kitty said "I think it is." Now when that happens the what happens is there's a kind of a a battle in your heart shall I shant I have I got time have I not got time i always ignore it i used to battle but now I don't i I just go with it 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?" Because she said "I know who you are," she said and then she said "Can you go now to the hospice and pray for my child?" And then I thought "What does she think I do all day?" Okay let's just redo that redo that i'm walking around your kingdom come your will be done yes Lord i get a quiver in the liver you've had one of those a quiver in the liver yeah a stirring speak to the woman well I've just been praying "Your kingdom come your will be done." And now she's saying "Go and pray for her son." "Well of course I can go." I said "We'll go now." Had to go home get the car drive to the hospice we go there we find him now her son's called Johnny and he's 34 years of age he's sleeping killy goes "Right we know where he is we'll go and come back later." I said "I'm not coming back later." So I kick the bed really hard and I really hurt my leg and then he kind of wakes up and I said "Hello." I said "Hello Johnny." I said "Um I'm 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." Key and I bent down he lifted himself up with the three of us held each other and he starts crying killy starts crying i start crying he then let go we let him go i said "Do you want the prayer anyway?" He says "Look I'm an atheist but if you need to pray go [Music] ahead." So all I did was "Jesus open 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 - 100 i kept visiting him - 90 kept visiting him - 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 newager she hugs trees she asks me to speak at the funeral i didn't realize 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 his 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 is 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 jon 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 Cross that's it you see that's we got to be more intentional in praying number one more intentional in praying number two oh just warming up two more intentional in caring number two more intentional in caring 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 got to be prepared now in my coat in England which I forgot to bring to New York 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 a 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 and he was down on the floor and he was like "Oh and then and then I just said th 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 see you 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 Conamides when he came a few months ago and actually came here on a Tuesday night he met Rosemary and he kept meeting and one night he felt he should go and look for her and he went to look for her and he had conversations with her he text me yesterday he said "John I want you to go down to Macy's and find Rosemary and give her $100." You You got to be intentional now I I don't just meet mean homeless people anybody you you've got to express that you care killy and I we were in San Diego 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 I didn't say anything else apart from hello where we're going is there something I 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 oh I'm sorry Jesus i'm sorry Jesus i will go to church i will go to I didn't mention Jesus i didn't mention the church i'm just praying for his mom that's all I'm doing anyway we get to the mall we get to the mall we We just walk around the mall to be honest all we 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 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 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 said "Oh no dear i don't know anything about that." She says "Where where are you staying?" Oh well we're staying at this hotel oh she says "I know where that hotel is it's around 20 minutes away." She says "I'll take you." Ooh you know your first thought is "Ooh is she going to 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 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 got to you got to be more intentional in praying you got to be more intentional in caring and there are numerous opportunities everywhere everywhere whether it's 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 baptized 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 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 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 arrived 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 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 h2o oh you want water oh I love water [Applause] m lovely spring water don't you love water but 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 you 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 Jew then she says sir then she says prophet then she says Messiah and we normally have the opposite effect look what happened look at how her attitude changed look at how he he drew her in jesus went out of his way broke long-standing tradition 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 the I was this but I discovered that you know I was in darkness but then I discovered the light you know I I 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 got a few minutes how about you and I we'll just go and have a coffee." All right so we we you know it's like that so we go to the local refactory 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 tried 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 theomide 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 meant some of the followers of Jesus have not been a good example but Jesus Jesus Jesus so I 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 we got to be far more intentional in praying far more intentional in caring far more intentional in sharing i went to get my haircut and I I noticed that the the lady cutting my hair by her mirror she had a key ring uh and on uh with her keys and on her keyring she had a rabbit's foot i said to her "Why why have you got a rabbit's foot on your key ring?" "Oh," she said that's to bring me good luck i said "The rabbit wasn't lucky." [Applause] 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 mhm mhm why do why do hotels have floor 12 and then 12A i mean you don't have Are you Are we stupid we know that 12A is 13 some people won't fly on an airplane 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 Agnostic 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 where the fruit checkers check the fruit is check the fruit if the fruit is right for picking what do you do you pick it pick the fruit pick the fruit don't let other people pick the fruit we know don't we listen with Jesus well 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 of what I've been speaking about uh the good news of Jesus 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 well that's where we'll have to end this great presentation from J john but he and his wife Killy uh went on to pray with their audience at Times Square Church and their prayers are also very rich in detail so I'd encourage you to visit us online to hear that extra content and pray along we're including it in the free JJ John collection of audio downloads or you can get this complete message on CD and let me encourage you to take J's challenge to pray for each specific person you know who doesn't know the Lord pray for them every day or if you have a big list split it up so that you're praying for them at least 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 call back from one of our caring Christian counselors i'd also recommend that you get a copy of J john's book called Jesus Christ the Truth it's 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 and we'll send that out 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 year and we'd like to see that number grow so partner with us if you can get your copy of the book by J john Jesus Christ the truth and access the J collection when you follow the link in the description below or call if you have any questions our number is 800 the letter A and the word family thanks for watching Focus on the Family with Jim Dailyaly i'm John Fuller inviting you back next time as we once again help you and your family thrive in Christ