Video Transcript: Connection 7 - The World Part 2

All right. Welcome, again, we are looking at communication and connection  seven, the world, we looked at some of the evangelism methods that are quite  common, especially in personal evangelism. And in this session, we're going to  look at two CLI methods. So these might not be methods that you have  encountered before, we're going to look at the seven connection methods, which is really a walk with God, style of evangelism. And then we're going to look at  the spiritual dream method. The seven connections method, you know about the seven connections we've gone over many times different classes, our personal  walk, marriage, family, friends, support group, church, Kingdom world. I Peter  3:15-16, but in your hearts, revere Christ as Lord, always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have, but do this with gentleness and respect. So we are encouraged in the Bible to to have the reason for our hope, always ready to go. So the expectation here, or is  that that we're going to have these opportunities that people are going to ask  that these things are going to come up? Now, a lot of times they don't come up.  But what I want to talk about is how you can prime the pump. You have  relationships with people, how do you get from businesses, or some fun activity  that you're involved in? Someone you know, in the neighborhood, you have all  these connections to people, you converse with them about various things? How do you get it down to the spiritual thing? How do you? How do you how do you  create an environment where people can ask you about your faith and you can  share the gospel. So that's what we're talking about. So connection, one  connection, one is our connection to God. And what you need to do is look for  opportunities to share, how do I share my connection to God? Number one,  when someone complains about their personal life, so you have a friend,  coworker, neighbor, you end up talking, and they end up sharing things like, you  know, I'm just not, I'm just not, I have no passion. I'm at work, and I just, I can't  get into anything. I've been depressed lately. I just want to stay in bed. So  someone is sharing, and they're sharing their personal hurts, whatever it might  be. Okay. When someone asks about your personal life, you know, they see  that, you know, you're handling things well, and, and they're wondering how it is, or maybe you've gone through some kind of crisis, but you've done it with a lot  of grace, and a certain amount of competence. And they're impressed with that.  And then they make a comment, like, you know, I noticed that, that you seem to  be able to handle these difficult situations. Alright, well, what do you share?  When someone says that when someone complains about their personal life,  when someone asks you about yours will? What do you share? You share what  you do that helps you? So if someone's complaining about their personal life,  you're not just energetic. At night, I can't sleep or wake up in the middle of the  night. I have these fears. I can't hold on. I don't even know what I'm afraid of,  you know, they explain issues that they have. What do you share? How do you 

how do you get to that deeper level where you might be able to share the  gospel?  

Unknown - What I try to do is to explain to them what's helped me overcome  those same things. Yeah, you know, I remember waking up in the middle of the  night fearful too sometimes I you know, lost some passion and energy but let me tell you what I do. That helps maintain my passion. That helps relieve my fears.  Let me tell you what I do what I do. I read a little bit of the Bible every day. Every day, I begin my day by giving God all the things on my to do list. Lord, here is my prayer list. I'm going to give you these things. I got to church. I mean, I do, I,  here's what I do. So you could share what you believe. But people like to argue  about what they believe. But if I just share what I do, look into the things that I  knew. And I don't know, I can't even explain it totally. But it really helps me with  the same problem that you have. So you might try to do some of these things. I  mean, if you're really frustrated, I mean, if you're okay, then keep doing what  you're doing. But if you'd like to try something different. It's worked for me. See  what's nice about that kind of testimony. It's like people with vitamins that have  maybe you know, some person is really into vitamin, vitamin.E, take vitamin E,  your whole life will change. I'll tell you, when I took vitamin E, I was depressed, I  was down. I had no energy. And then all of a sudden, I took vitamin E. And after  a week, I had all this energy. I could talk to people, you know, I was I had more  enthusiasm for everything. Now, you could say, well, you're crazy. You can say,  well, how does it work? How does that vitamin, How does it do? I think it goes, I don't know. I can't explain it. All I can tell you is I was this before. And now I'm  this after I was blind. But now I can. See, it's hard to argue with that. You may  not believe them. You may think they're crazy. But it's hard to argue against  them. Look, you're down. You're discouraged. I was too. This is what I did. Now  I'm this. It might work for you too if not just keep going and you're depressed,  discouraged to state. your walk with God. So share your walk with God habits.  Connection two marriage. So it's the same thing. Look for opportunities to share  when someone complains about their marriage, or someone asks about yours.  And people complain about their marriages all the time. I know you're with a  buddy. And he starts saying you know, I'm married my wife 10 years ago was on love. And we had so much in common, but over the 10 years we had a few kids.  She has her friends I have my friend she does her thing i i do my thing we just  drifted apart. And you know, the littlest things, you know, we end up arguing and  fighting about the littlest things. So they start sharing their life. And you know,  that scenario is common. Here in the United States, 40 45% of all marriages end in divorce, people that started out with great hopes and expectations. end up  their brokenness, okay. So people are in the middle of that all over the place.  And it's fairly easy for people to end up, you know, they're hurting, so they want  to talk about it. So they end up talking about it. It's an opportunity, whenever 

someone talks about a problem in their life, it's an opportunity to share your walk with God. What to share what you do that helps you your marriage walk with  God habit. So if someone's complaining about their marriage, I say, you know, I  know exactly what you're saying, you know, my wife, you know, we too, you  know, you get married, you have all this expectation. But then along the way,  you know, things happen. I understand that completely. You might tell a few  stories of your own frustration. Can I share with you? Just a couple little things  that my wife and I do that make home a difference? Can I share them? My wife  and I, every day, we don't take a long time. But every day we we share this thing that we're reading this just one verse a day. We share that verse. And we, you  know, maybe we say something about it, maybe we don't, but we just share that. But then life happens in the day. And often God uses that verse throughout our  day. And we end up coming back together. And you know, we read that this  morning, and this is what happened today. And we have a little prayer together.  And we go to church together. And those little habits in our lives. Reading the  Bible, praying, Going to church being a part of those things keep us together.  Because this is how it works. I think it's because God is sitting there. You know,  if God, were actually sitting at a table with you, and your spouse, you know, here I am, here's my spouse, and God is sitting at the table. And we're having this  thing and I'm angry about something you did or you sad, or you didn't do, or  she's angry, generally, you know, go the other way around, she's angry at me for saying something or not saying something or not doing something. And so you  have these frustrations. But we God of the universe, the God who sent His Son  to die on the cross for our sins is sitting right there at the table with us, how  judgmental am I going to be towards my spouse? How condemning will I be, you know, it's your fault. You always know, you know, God is sitting there, he knows  me. He knows what kind of person I am. You see, I'm going to be a little more  honest, and a little more forgiving. And we don't let things build up. And  marriages destroy themselves, because little things, they become bigger and  bigger and bigger and bigger, and they're just not dealt with. Well, if you had to  pray together every single day, if you prayed just once a week, you can only let  things build up for one week. Because you come before God, you gotta settle it.  So that's what I'm sharing, I'm sharing that if you just had a couple little habits in  your life in your marriage, it might make all the difference. Now. If you want to  keep walking in the frustrated thing that you're doing right now, then feel free to  do that. But if you'd like to try something that has worked for my wife and I, we  can help you do that. Connection, three family. So opportunities to share. So  we're going down the same pattern, when someone complains about their  family. When someone asks you about yours, what to share. What you do that  helps you your family walk with God habit.  

So people complain about their families all the time, especially when they get to  the teenage years, and we can't do anything with her. He does, he seems to he 

does seem to be motivated. He doesn't do his homework, he doesn't seem to  care. He sits in the basement, and he plays video games. And I just read  something in a book, at least here in the United States, there's a lot of teenage  boys 15 to 25. And they're all sitting in the basement, they don't have jobs. And  they're sitting contented with their life in their parents basement, because they  had a choice. The choice was to be a barrister in Starbucks. So you know,  serving people coffee for a job, just getting a job. Or they can be a star ship  captain in the universe, sitting on a couch, in their parents home, in a virtual  world when they are important when they're somebody when they're making big  things in this universe happening. And most young men are choosing to be  starship captains in their parents basement. So parents are frustrated with kids.  You know, we've spoiled them, at least here in our country. And we wonder  what's going what can we do about this? We're just frustrated as all get out.  People are frustrated with the discipline, and the kids getting into drugs, going  off and getting into trouble all of us. The parents don't know what to do. So it's  easy to get people to talk about this. So when they do here's an opportunity for  you to share. You know, I have four boys. At one time, they were all teenagers.  So they're four teenagers all at one time. And, you know, they go into the school  and you know, all the things that are happening around them in the world. What  What am I going to do? I get the same issue, same problems, same polls and  kids into the video games and all of that into the music and all kinds of things  going on. So what do we do? Well, one of the things that that I did when my kids were teenagers, because I taught them the hymns. Where you know, my wife  and I are very musical and so on. So in my kids didn't know any of the hymns.  They knew the contemporary songs, but they didn't know the hymns. So we  taught them the hymns. we got out the old songbook and we you know, were  they thrilled. Oh, great. Mom and Dad are gonna teach us the hymns. I can't  wait. No. Our oldest son would be like, I'm not doing it. It was hard. We kept at it. And they learned the hymns. We taught them the parts. And I remember,  especially my oldest son who wasn't going to do it, this is now six months later,  he's sitting there doing organizing something. And while he was organizing it, he was softly singing Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, He was singing one of  those hymns. So we surrounded our kids with singing hymns, we read through  the Bible. One year we read through the Bible in a year, which means three  chapters every single day. So at nine o'clock every night, we got out the Bibles,  we sat in a circle, if they had friends over, didn't matter if they went to church,  whether they believed in the Bible or not, this is what we do. We surrounded our  kids with these habits, church, Bible, prayer did they want to do it? You know,  with reading through the whole Bible, you have to get through I and II  Chronicles, which are just a bunch of names. I'm thinking wow my kids are going to be in counseling, one day, our dad forced us to read the Bible. It was the best  thing we ever did. So that's what I would share, I would share, you know, we had

the same challenge. But here's what we did about it. Here are the habits and  practices that we got going in our family. If you want to try something different.  We can help you. If you're happy doing what you're doing, and keep going.  connection four support, or friends or small group opportunities to share when  someone complains about their lack of support and friends. And I just don't know many people. My husband doesn't have a friend, he doesn't have a bunch of  buddies to go fishing with he doesn't, you know, he lives, you know, he's  dependent on me. People have this least in our culture. Maybe you're in a  culture where you're surrounded by people all the time and their connections all  the time. And on the Philippines. That's the way it was. There's a lot of cultures  where you have this, but in our culture, it's missing. And so it's easy to get that  conversation going. When someone asked about your friends and how you do it. And what do you share, you share the thing that helps you use your support,  walk with God. So I have godly people that I'm that I'm connected to. Maybe I'm  in a small group, where, you know, I'm with families that are struggling, and they  all have teenagers, and we meet together, and we share what's going on.  Because sometimes you want to quit is not easy. And I got my oldest son  doesn't want to do any of this. What do I do? Am I doing the right thing? Or am I  not doing the right thing? I don't know. So I want to talk with people who are  struggling with the same thing. Or maybe they're a little farther ahead. What did  you do? How did you do it? So the whole mentors thing. That's what church is.  It's, it's people that have been down the trail, mentoring people who are just  starting on the trail, or whatever it might be in the whole family situation, support  whatever, whatever's needed. You know, whether it's, you know, people  addicted to alcohol or people, you know, struggling with divorce, or whatever the issue might be, there's a group at church of people that experienced the same  thing, but have come out the other side. And if you'd like to be connected to  some of these people, we can help you. Alright, connection, five church,  opportunities to share when someone complains about their lack of belonging.  Those of us who go to church, I think we take it for granted. We're a part of, you  know, we have friends, but we're part of this large group. It's a support network,  we got a problem. There's someone that can support us and help us. We're  never alone with these things. The average person who doesn't belong to a  church community, they're alone. They got a problem. A lot of times their family  situation and their extended family situation is all broken. They can't count on  uncles and aunts and cousins and brothers and sisters. There's all this  brokenness and so people feel that disconnect. And so when they're  complaining about that or where they're really hurting whenever the situation  when you know they're financially in trouble, or you know, their whole world is  falling apart is the whole community. that you can be a part of that can help you.  If you'd like to be introduced to that community, why don't you come to church  with us, just try it out. Or we have a group of guys that go fishing or a group of 

guys that are into this, or whatever it might be. And you slowly invite them into a  big group of people a support system that most people in the end really need.  Alright, connection, six, the Kingdom opportunities to share when someone  complains about their lack of being a part of something significant. So  remember, you know, walk with God, marriage, family, the friends support group, church, kingdom, Kingdom is this, you know, we are part of a movement that is  worldwide. I mean, working here at Christian leaders Institute is cool. Because  of that we have 180 different countries and students from all over, you can go to  the directory and just look them up. You can read profiles of people, I had a we  had at our church, a missionary from Nepal, came and talk to our church. And  so I just looked at the directory, we have 12 students in Nepal. It's so cool to do  that. And in some ways, we take for granted that we're part of this incredible  worldwide movement called Christianity, it's the greatest movement the world  has ever known. Nothing is compares to it. And we are a part of it. And that  gives us purpose. And meaning. life has purpose, it isn't just working and paying for things. And living and then getting old, slowly falling apart and dying and put  in the ground. And then that goes on for a while. 1000s of years, finally, the sun  burns out the earth freezes over. And that's the end. So the goal of humanity is  to somehow get off of this planet and you know, find another one, you know,  where the sun is younger and we can. Humanity can live on. But what about my  life, my life ends 70, 80, 90 years. Now see, were a part of this purpose. My life  every day means something. Because I'm connected to this greater thing. And  the people that I meet, I can go anywhere in the world, anywhere in the world.  And I can instantly connect with people who will accept me, who will take me  into their home, who will feed me who will guide who I mean, it's amazing. Being a part of this Christian Network, is the most amazing, purpose filled thing that  anyone can do. If people don't have that they're searching for purpose. And  they're pouring their life into some activity, or some sport or into work, or in you  know, getting possessions and whatever it might be. They're trying to find  something to give their life to but they know, in the end. It's like It's like  rearranging the chairs on the Titanic. It's going down so we have this purpose so when people you know, at some point in in a person's life they go you know, I've  been working so hard for money is always brought brought me his brokenness  and pain and discouragement. Whatever they've been working towards  whatever they've been given their life to, and it always crashes. And when it  does, I'm now part of something that gives me real purpose and meaning. That  goes beyond the crashes beyond death itself. There's my opportunity to share  and so I can share the thing that helps me I'm connected to them. And you can  do so I share my kingdom walk with God habits. Finally, connection seven the  world opportunities to share when someone complains that they're that they  have nothing worth sharing. A lot of people what do they have to sell? They're  not excited about anything. Or maybe it's fishing or some hobby or some sport, 

but that's it. They don't have anything significant to share. And so again, you  have something of significance to share. And so, you know, when someone's  complaining about that, you can say, Well, can I share what I share? This is the  thing that I enjoy sharing, and it feels like it gives me purpose and meaning Can  I share this with you? And then you share your faith. This is the thing I think is  worth sharing now You can keep doing what you're doing. So what I like about  this form of evangelism is I'm just sharing what I do, and what works for me. I  don't know if it's gonna work for you, I don't know if you want to do it. But you're  the one that's complaining about some problem or some issue. And it's not  being resolved with whatever you're doing now. So I'm just offering you an  alternative. If it's a big enough problem, you might want to consider trying it. And I am here to help you if that's what you want to do. I'm not forcing anything. I'm  just here to help you with your problem. Alright. So the next way to share your  faith, kind of was born out of Christian leaders Institute is what's your spiritual  dream? So this goes back to the Kennedy method, he had two questions. This is another modern way of doing something with a question, what is your spiritual  dream? So Henry, and I have asked people all over the world for the last 15  years, no matter where we would go, we have asked you if we are in a taxi, we  ask the taxi driver, this question, Hey, so what's your spiritual dream? It's  amazing. In fact, you don't have to warm up the conversation, you just blurted  out, you walk to someone up in the shopping place, and just say, hey, excuse  me, can I ask you a question? And they look at you like, what? What's your  spiritual dream? And it's such a captivating a lot of times they'll say, Well, what  do you mean by spiritual? And then I always just say, well, whatever you want it  to mean. And everywhere. We ask this question, people give the same two  answers, they have a God answer. They have a people answer. They have a  God answer. And a people answer. I'm gonna go back. A God, God answer or a  people answer. Now, they don't say God or people. But what they'll say is, well,  my dream is to know the truth. Or My dream is to connect to the universal force  that connects all life. I remember one guy said, My dream is to be one with the  whales. We were in Vancouver on the West Coast. And a lot of so what was he  really saying, in the West Coast, there's a lot of new age people who think that I  am God, Your God, the tree is God, the waters God and the whales are God. So he was just saying, I want to be connected to my version of God. You know, a lot of different versions, but they have a hand reaching out to whatever it is. So  that's one thing people will say, the second thing people will say is, you know, I  want to, I want my marriage to be good, I want my kids to turn out right? I want  to live my life in such a way that I make a difference in the life of somebody that  that what I do, makes a difference in the lives of the people around me, or in the  world itself. So people will have the hand reaching up or they have a hand  reaching out. And everyone does. Everyone shares the same common dream.  So are you totally satisfied that you are achieving this dream? Most people say, I

wouldn't say totally satisfied. People are often frustrated with this dream of  connecting to God, whatever their version of God is, and making a difference in  the lives of the people around them. If someone were to say, Yes, I am totally  satisfied, then I'll just say, Well, God bless you, because you don't have any  needs. If you don't have any needs, you're not going to be open to anything that  I have to say. If they say no, why not? What is keeping you from your dream?  There's a common dream everyone we ask a spiritual dream. The question is  the same answer God people. And also, on the side, it's interesting enough in  the 10 Commandments, God only commands what we already want. It's  interesting that people will sometimes criticize Christianity because it's a bunch  of rules, ie the 10 commandments, but if you look at the 10 commandments, all  they do is reiterate what our dream is. Matthew 27 Love the Lord your God with  all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. What does that  dream of? The dream is to connect with God, and God commands us to connect with God. He commands us to do the dream we already have. Love your  neighbor as yourself. Our dream was to make a difference. In the lives of the  people around us, God is only commanding what we already want. The first four  commandments of the 10 commandments are about our relationship to God that next six are about our relationship to the people around us. Hello. Common  problem everyone, we ask the spiritual dream question has some frustration in  fulfilling their dreams. The people dream problems. Genesis 3:7 then the eyes of both. Remember when sin comes into the world, Adam and Eve, listen to the lie  of the devil. They eat what they were told not to. And this is what happened.  Then the eyes of both of them were open, they realized they were naked. So  they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. When they  do, they hid from each other. Our dream is to connect with the people around us to have a great marriage, have a great family make a difference in the lives of  other people. But what is sin do? It makes us distrust, I distrust you, I have to be clothed, you have to be clothed. I don't trust what you see in me. You know, we  have this, we have this insecure thing that's leading to all this brokenness now.  We want closeness to sin makes us hide from one another. The God dream  problem. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden of the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God  among the trees in the garden, we want to connect with God. But when God  comes around, we hide sin separates us from God, we have this dream. God  commands it. Love me, love your neighbor, it's what we want. But because of  sin is this brokenness as well, like about this way of presenting the gospel is I  know what a person's dream is already, before I even talk to them. I know they  want what I want God, people, and I know they're hiding in the bushes. So it's  gonna be difficult. Just, it's going to be there. So some people are so far into the  trees into the woods, and hiding in the brokenness, that it's gonna take  something to get them out. The solution to the God and the people dreams, II 

Corinthians 5:17-18. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has  come, the old is gone. And the new is here. All this is from God, who reconciled  us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We have  the dream of connecting to God, and to people. So we got this vertical dream  and got this horizontal dream. Sin is the thing that is keeping us from that  dream. So what did God do about it? He sent His Son, the vertical, the  horizontal, and you put them together, and you get a cross the horizontal, and  the vertical, is walking through the power that Jesus gives us, that will help us  connect to the dream that we have. So that's how I would share my faith. I start  with where they are at, look, this is your dream, not my dream. And this is your  frustration with the dream. And now I'm offering you a solution to your  frustration. Would you like to try it? And often what I do is because sometimes  people aren't ready accept Jesus as their Savior. You say, Well, why don't you  taste and see if he's good? Why don't you walk with God? See, that's what the  track was all about. Why don't you walk with God for six days to see if he shows  up. See if this doesn't relieve some of the frustration that you have with dream  that you have in your heart. Okay, so anyway, those are two methods. We have  one more session. This whole topic of connection seven.