Video: House To House - Chapter 7 Reaching Out Beyond Ourselves

Many years ago, I met Yasuko. Yasuko came from the nation of Japan, as I  remember, I think she lived near Osaka, and I met her because we had some  friends who lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania when I was a pastor, and they  were leading this, this House Fellowship in their house, and they were really  concerned that all the people in the House Fellowship were believers. They  wanted to see some people come in who are not believers, so they decided to  open up their house one day for anybody from another country, or anybody who  was going to a local university. And Yasuko saw the ad in the paper, or however  she saw it, and she called them, and she became part of their family. And then  she realized, and she grew up with a Buddhist background, but she realized  then that these people in this house, they met and they talked about Jesus and  they talked about the Bible. And so she came to the meetings. A very kind girl  came to the meetings one day. As I remember, right before Christmas, she told  her hosts, she said, I want you to know I've got a Christmas gift. His name is  Jesus, and Jesus, I'm going to give my life to Jesus. I remember talking to her  meeting, meeting her at a restaurant because she was being baptized. Because you see, in house fellowships, you are the ministers. You're the ones who are  given leadership and House Fellowship, you can baptize. You said you can't  baptize. Jesus only baptized a few people, always. His disciples of baptized the  rest. Now, some of our religious systems are like that, but that's really there  attitude. When we led people to Christ years ago, we had to find someone to  baptize them. And so finally, a pastor said to us, look in the Bible, it's okay. You  know, Paul baptized very few. Also he had others he trained to baptize. So they  were going to baptize her in a local swimming pool, and they discipled her, and  they trained her, and eventually, as she grew in God, she went back to her  country looking for a church, and found a small church, and she tells the story,  she'd be involved with her youth group, and soon the youth group were on fire  for God, these young people come to Christ. And the pastor was struggling a bit  with it, and had some confrontation with her. She didn't know what to do, so she  contacted her spiritual parents back in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, said, What do I do? And they said, well, we'll pray God will show you need to honor authority,  and yet the same time and you're just trying to obey God and and so it wasn't  long after that, a few weeks after her pastor came to her and said, I'm so sorry.  Will you forgive me? He said, I really want to learn from you. I appreciate all  God's doing through you, and she went on to serve the Lord as a missionary,  God used her in an amazing way. The reason I'm telling the story is because this house church refused, this House Fellowship refused to just get together and  have a social club. They realized that the most important reason they were  called together was to reach people for Jesus Christ. And really I find as I meet  with house church leaders all over the world and meet with House Fellowship  leaders all over the world, I find the two biggest issues and problems they seem  to have are, number one, a lack of evangelism, and number two, a lack of 

multiplication, because the tendency for people is just get satisfied hanging out  with the same people and no longer reaching people for Christ. The reality is, if  you don't get new people in your house fellowship over a period of a year or two, it's virtually almost impossible for new people to break through, because  culturally, you become so tight it's hard for people to break through. Now, years  ago, when I was a young pastor, we started with evangelism. We started with  leading young people to Christ. I mean, that's who we were. But we found, after  a few years that sometimes in the house fellowships, it was really hard for them  to continue to keep an evangelistic flavor or focus. So we had to learn how to do that. So I mentioned in the last session that I spent some time in Korea. I  remember going to Seoul, Korea to a leadership conference, and I found a  Korean pastor, one of the Doctor Young into his pastor, who spoke English, had  a whole legal pad filled with questions to ask him. And so we're just learning  they're learning about how they do it. What can we apply that would work for us  in America? And I remember sitting in a session with a with a pastor from New  Mexico who was Baptist, and he talked about a way to lead people to Christ. I  simply never heard of it. He called it oikos evangelism. Oikos the Greek word for fellowship of people. And one of the Scriptures He used, and this really helped  us, really was revolutionary to us. One of the scriptures he used was from Acts  10. It says, In Caesarea Philippi, there's a man named Cornelius. We know he  was, he was a Gentile, and it says he and his family were devout God fearing.  He gave generously to those in need, and and then he had this vision from God, and I says he and his family, that's oikos. So oikos would be those people were,  it were relatives, as people are close. Relationship with us. And remember the  whole story, God speaks to Peter, and Peter goes there, first time Gentiles came to Christ. In fact, when Peter got there, the Bible says in verse 24 from Acts 10,  that Cornelius was expecting them, and had called together his relatives and  close friends, his oikos. Now, what is an oikos? Let me explain this to you that  this really helped us so much in seeing people come to faith in Jesus Christ, in  home groups and in house churches and in house fellowships. And so an oikos,  again, is a Greek word for household or house of people. So basically, people  have this common interest is people trust one another. Now, if we were sitting, if  you're in a classroom with me in this room right now, I'd ask you this question. I  say, How many of you came to Christ because you went to a crusade? I would  get very few hands, even though I love crusades and crusade evangelists. I say, how many came to Christ because you read a book about Jesus or pick up a  Bible. You came to Christ. And I'll say, How many of you came to Christ because of a church on and on, and you get very few hands. But then I'll say, How many  of you came to Christ because someone you know, someone you trust, family  member, friend, someone you trust, from university or whatever, someone you  trust either explained the gospel to you, or took you someplace, to a church  meeting to a crusade to somewhere where he had the gospel explained. And 

usually about 95% of all the people raise their hand and I say, okay, that settles  it for me. That's because somebody in your Oikos, someone you trusted, was  one who brought you in the faith in Christ and led you to Christ. So why is this  important? Because we are called as we are called as house church leaders.  We're called as House Fellowship leaders to focus on seeing people come to  faith in Jesus Christ. Now let me give you some examples of oikos, and I've got  lots of stories to tell you, but I always give you some just make sure it's clear  from a scriptural perspective. In Luke 5:27-32 here we see Jesus, and you mean with Levi. And Levi invited his oikos members to dinner with Jesus. It was his  friends and people that he knew. In Luke 8:39, remember the gathering  demoniac and after all, the demons were cast out, he begged to go with Jesus,  you know, go back to the village. Well, why? Because he was going back to his  oikos, back to people who knew what he was like before that. John 1:40-42  Simon was asked by Andrew to come to get to know Jesus. Simon was a  member of Andrew's oikos. John 1:44-45 Philip, who is aunt Nathaniel, to come  to get to know Jesus, good Nathaniel was a member of his oikos. I was in the  state of in USA, in the state of Alaska, and I was speaking to a group of House  Fellowship leaders. I remember before I spoke, there's a man gave his  testimony. He said, I for many years, I was a pilot with Alaskan airlines. And he  said, You know, I was someone was not close to God at all. And said, my wife,  my family, in fact, I want nothing to do with God. But he said I noticed my  neighbors next door had people come to their house every week and cars  outside, and they were nice people. They waved to us. They're nice the people  are nice people. But he said, I didn't know what's going on. I want nothing to do  with it. He said, One day, he said, I was just, we're struggling with a house. We  have more children, and I need help. And I saw my neighbor. He said, hey, you  know, even thinking about you, anything we can do to help you? He said, I don't  think so. He said, But we got to build a room on our house. We're having to, you  know, more children, and it's just been hard. He said, You know, I have some  friends, and that's their trade. Their joiners they're carpenters. He said, Why  don't we do this? He said, You can buy the lumber. I hope my friends put up, put  a room on your house. Well, of course, many people can't do that, but they did.  He was amazing. They were the kindest people. They came put a room on her  house. It was amazing. And then I realized through the conversation that these  people were what he would have called a bit religious. Where he meant was  they had a faith in Jesus Christ. He said, I went through a very deep time in my  marriage, and I was all ready to give up. And I thought, I'm going to knock on the door of my neighbor and say, Could you help me? And he said, My neighbor  said, I understand. I know where it's like to go through these hard times without  Jesus, we would have never made it. He said, If you give your life to Jesus, he  said, that's what it's all about. That's the foundation. It all goes from there. He  said, That night I knelt that right there in his living room. I gave my life to Jesus. I

went home, my wife gave her life to Jesus. He said, we became then involved in this little fellowship they had. It was a House Fellowship. He said, We got  involved in their fellowship. He said it was amazing. They trained us, because  they were baptized. Went through all that. He said they trained us in fact. He  said, today our house is open for a House Fellowship. In fact. He said, right now we're planning to take our most of people in House Fellowship, have never  experienced another country. We're going to the country of Mexico, and we're  going to do a mission project with them. But see it all started because their  neighbors understood that their house fellowship was more their house church  was more than just a group of people to get together and encourage each other.  They were called to reach out beyond themselves, to see the kingdom of God  built. And what happened is, you see that whole family and on many others who  come to Christ. So the point is this, the purpose of House Fellowship is not to  look in, it's to look out. The purpose of the of the house church is the people  come into the kingdom of God. I was with some friends in Canada, and they  were telling me that they were praying one night, and they always pray for  people outside the group who needs Jesus, and this one person said, Well, I've  got a friend who's a truck driver and needs Jesus desperately, just so hardened  to the gospel. So they took time and right there, and they prayed, and they  prayed that God would touch this man the amazing the next time they had a  meeting, someone came back and said, You never believe. What happened  while we were praying, he was driving his truck in another province in Canada,  overcome with the conviction of God, pulled the truck off the side of the road and gave his life to Jesus Christ in that awesome that doesn't always happen like  that. No, not always, but we're called to keep focusing outward to see many,  many more people come into the kingdom of God. So if you look at oikas, who  are the people in your oikos in my oikos, in fact, you could write down all the you write down the names of lots of people you like us, and start praying for a few of  them and see what God does. Your like us is your family, your relatives. Your  oikos are those who have a common interest with you. Your oikos is those who  live in the same geographical location as you. You're oikos is those who have a  common vocation. You work together. Your oikos is others within me with whom  you have regular contact now, Governor national, the ministry that I've privileged to serve with was started even though we didn't know it was oikos. We were  building relationship with young people. They became our oikos, and we led  them to Christ, a no Christian background, and that's how what we're involved  today really started in the beginning. So we see that example. As I said, in Jesus life, you know, Andrew and Levi and others, they invite their friends, James and  John, they invite their friends, and that's how Jesus saw the kingdom of God  built. And here's the bottom line. Oikos is evangelism is the most natural way to  fulfill the Great Commission. It's the most natural way to see people come to  faith in Jesus Christ, because very practically, if you have 10 people, just 10 

people in your house, search each person in your house church probably has 20 people in your like house who are either backslidden, neither Lord, maybe  someone to work with. They might be neighbors across the street. Could be  family members, whoever, and you take 20 times 10, that's the possibility of 200  people with 10 people, and if you break it down, so let's just pray for one, just  one or two, and see what God does. It's the most amazing thing. There's many  ways people can come to Christ, through your and again, through through your  house church. It doesn't mean they all come to the house church. It doesn't  matter. We want to see the Kingdom built, but we can begin to see begin to  share our life, the life of Christ, the testimony we haven't I encourage people  everywhere make sure you have an elevator speech. What's an elevator  speech? It's your story, how you've come to Christ in 90 seconds, when you get  on the elevator, bottom floor, to get to the top floor, 90 seconds and and  basically, it's real simple. What was it like before he came to Christ? What  actually happened when you were converted? What did that look like and what  has changed since that happened? We can do that in 90 seconds, because it's  our story that makes the difference. It's our story. When Paul was with King  Agrippa, he told him his story. He said, I had to be obedient to the heavenly  vision. He told his story. And we tell our story. Your story is powerful. Regardless of what you come through or haven't come through, your story will touch  someone's life, and we need to be challenged within our house churches. Let's  keep telling our stories outside of ourselves. I'll tell you one story at the close of  this session, and that is with a little house fellowship in a place called Effort in  Pennsylvania, one of the gals names in that house, there's an elderly lady. She  was probably in her 70s. Her name is Helen. I remember Helen went through a  leadership school, and she talked about it every week she leads people to faith  in Jesus Christ. That really challenged me, because I was not seeing people  come every week to faith in Jesus Christ. And so she's in our school. One day, I  said, Helen, how many people have you led to Christ this week? And she said, I  think two or three. I was just amazed. I said, Helen, how do you do it? She said,  Well, in my in my house, fellowship, we pray, and they pray that God would give  me opportunities. She says, so what I do? I go to the local hospital, and I walk  up and down the halls and up and down the elevator the hospital ladies pray  and pray in the Spirit and say, Jesus, show me people who need you. She said,  for example, this week, I'm in an elevator, there's a big tall man, his little son,  they're both crying because Mama's in the hospital. And I said, something  wrong. Mom's not doing well in the hospital. And she said, Well, can I pray for  her? They said, Okay, should I prayed? And then she said. She said, I look, look at the this the man, and at the elevator. And I said to him, said, you know, have  you ever given your life to Jesus Christ? That look? She says, little, little, 77 year old ladies, this big, young guy, the young father is No, I never have. And she  said, Would you like to and the Spirit of God just came in that place. And he 

said, Yeah, I'm ready. I want to do that. She said I prayed with him right there?  He said, I'll never forget. He looked at me after he prayed. He said, My mama's  gonna be so happy because she's been praying for me for years. And that  young man to acknowledge his family did not come to the house church, but  they had a part in the blessing, because they were praying for Helen and hell  was do what God call her to do, and you calling her to reach people for Jesus.  And because of that, the kingdom of God has grown and has advanced. So  that's why we need the whole body of Christ, as we need many kinds of  churches. There may be some people in the houses, your house church, I might  end up in a Community Church, and that's okay. If that happens, there'll be  people in a mega church will end up in a house church, and that is okay,  because for this season of time, we want to be sure we're fulfilling God's  purpose. As God links the right people together for His purpose. That's what  God does. He brings the right people together with the right people to fulfill His  purpose. And His purpose is, Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost.  His heart is for people to come to know Jesus. That's the heart of the Father,  and that's why He sent Jesus here to this earth. So I pray in Jesus' name, the  Lord would give you a heart for the lost, a heart for people who need Jesus, and give you a heart to share your story of how Jesus has changed your life so their  life can also be changed for the glory of God, Amen and Amen.