From: Bob Allums Sept. 10-11, 2011: I flew out to San Francisco, Ca. to take the APL Seminar to a flagship Southern Baptist church called Petaluma Valley BC. The pastor, Tom Markum followed up with this sermon inpsired by what we talked about in the seminar.
Loving Our Neighbors to Christ
John 3:16
One of the ways that I know I have had an experience that has truly impacted my life is in noticing how long after the original experience I continue to reflect on it and even alter my behavior because of it. And by that measure, I’m beginning to realize that our most recent Prayer Conference impacted me greatly. Throughout the two weeks since our Prayer Conference, quotes from either the conference itself or the book on which it was based, A Praying Life, have continued to pop up in my mind and impact the way I’m actually living my life. Quotes like this:
“When you stop trying to control your life and instead allow your anxieties and problems to bring you to God in prayer, you shift from worry to watching. As you wait, you begin to see Him work, and your life begins to sparkle with wonder.” (A Praying Life by Paul Miller)
Folks, those two sentences describe a dynamic shift that can literally change your life. And here’s the shift—instead of trying to manage your way through the anxiety producing issues in your life, pray your way through them. When you make the shift from worry and management to prayer, you begin to see God working in the midst of your difficult circumstances to produce outcomes that you could not possibly have worked through your own effort. And it’s at that point that your life begins to sparkle with wonder. It’s an awesome picture of a praying life.
Folks, if you’ve not yet read this book…read it.
We were talking about all of this in our staff meeting a few days ago and I loved what Pastor Steve said about our Prayer Conference. He said that what Bob Allums did for us was to put prayer “on the bottom shelf.” In other words, he made the possibility of actually having a praying life accessible to everyone. He took away all of the obstacles that so often make us think of a praying life as something that other Christians can have but it’s just not for us.
I had a similar kind of reaction to our prayer conference in that I came away thinking that Bob had talked about a praying life in such a winsome, attractive, non-guilt inducing kind of a way that he not only made me want to experience it but I couldn’t find any way to object to what he was saying. I couldn’t find any reason to even try to opt out of this invitation to a praying life. I listened to the way he was talking about a praying life and immediately recognized that what he was saying was clearly true. It just kind of left me wondering, why I hadn’t made all of these connections previously.
LOVING OUR NEIGHBORS TO CHRIST
As I reflected on all of that, I realized that I had had a very similar experience almost exactly 2 years ago. I was participating in another conference when I was suddenly gripped…in a way that doesn’t happen to me very often…with a powerful sense that God had just opened my eyes to clearly see a brand new vision for the Petaluma Valley Family. It was a vision of living in the neighborhoods in which God has planted us with the specific intention of loving our neighbors to Christ. Choosing to live among the people to whom we are closest…our neighbors…in such a way that they begin to get glimpses of the love of Jesus through our relationships with them.
And the action plan for carrying out this vision of loving our neighbors to Christ is called the Prayer, Care, Share plan. And it really couldn’t be simpler.
PRAYER—It means, first, that we are going to get in the habit and practice of praying for our neighbors regularly.
--How many neighbors you pray for is completely up to you to decide. It may 2 for you; 5 for you; 10 for you and 20 for you. The point is not so much the number. The point is to pray for our neighbors.
--How you pray for your neighbors is also completely up to you. You may decide to pray for your neighbors in your home when you first come home from work. Someone else may decide to pray for their neighbors during their lunch break at work. Others may decide, as I enjoy doing, to silently pray for your neighbors as you walk through your neighborhood. Again, the point is not so much how you pray for your neighbors. The point is that we pray for our neighbors.
--And what you pray for your neighbors is also completely up to you. You may pray that God will bless your neighbors. You may pray that God will protect the marriages of your neighbors. You may pray that God will turn the hearts of your neighbors to Him. Once again, the point is not so much what we pray for our neighbors. The point is that we pray for our neighbors.
And as I was reflecting on this beautiful vision in light of our just concluded prayer conference, it struck me, that this is actually a great place to apply one of the very practical lessons that we learned in our just concluded Praying Life conference.
(1) Take a 3x5 index card, as I have done, here, and at the top of the card write, “MY NEIGHBORS.” Then, start asking.
(2) Ask God to bring to mind the names of the neighbors for which He would like you to pray. And as He prompts those names in your mind add their names to your prayer card.
(3) And then ask God very specifically but very simply, how He would have you to pray for them. Then, write down each prayer prompt as God brings it to your mind.
(4) Then, ask God to draw you to a specific verse of scripture that expresses the desire that you have for your neighbors. On my neighbor prayer card I’ve written, “For God so loved the word, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 I want my neighbors to know the love of God as demonstrated by Jesus’ sacrifice so that they can have eternal life. I want that for my neighbors. And this verse reminds me that God wants that for my neighbors, too.
(5) Then once you have your card prepared, use the prayer card to guide and prompt you as you pray for your neighbors. It’s that simple.
That’s one way, based on our Praying Life Conference, to do the PRAYER component of our PRAYER, CARE, SHARE action plan.
That brings us to the CARE component of our action plan. Rooted in Jesus’ command, in Mark 12:31, to “…love your neighbor as yourself,” we are going to look for simple, tangible ways to demonstrate Jesus’ love for our neighbors by taking a genuine and loving interest in our neighbors. And we’re going look for ways to express that love in some simple but tangible ways.
--Inviting a neighbor over for a cup of coffee. Simple. Tangible. Genuine.
--Baking an extra dozen cookies, the next time you bake cookies, and taking the extra dozen to a neighbor. Simple. Tangible. Genuine.
--Taking the time to talk to the neighbor we see outside rather than immediately rushing into the house the moment we pull into the driveway. Simple. Tangible. Genuine.
We’re not encouraging you to do anything odd or weird. We don’t want you to do anything that would in any way make you or your neighbor feel uncomfortable. The last thing in the world we want is for you to become known as “The Creepy Jesus Dude” in the neighborhood. If that happens, you did something really, really wrong. We’re simply encouraging each another to look for simple, natural opportunities to be good neighbors through some simple acts of kindness that expresses Jesus’ love for our neighbors.
And as we are faithful to PRAY for our neighbors and CARE for our neighbors we are absolutely confident that God will begin to give us opportunities to SHARE some expression of the gospel with our neighbors. And, again, we’re not looking to make anyone uncomfortable…either you or your neighbor…by forcing a God-centered, Gospel-themed conversation into a situation where it doesn’t fit.
“Boy, the Niners sure don’t look very good this year.” “Yeah, but Jesus looks great!” Folks, that’s just weird. And we don’t want anyone to be weird.
We have a really simple goal in mind for the sharing component of our action plan. Our goal is to be prayerfully alert to those divine appointments that we can’t create but God creates all the time. Divine appointments when God draws us right into the middle of a place in which He is already working and because we’ve been praying about it and watching for it, we recognize it for the divine appointment that it is and we speak quite comfortably and appropriately that word of Good News as God directs us.
And, again, this is another wonderful place to put the lesson of those prayer cards to work by taking another 3x5 index card, as I have done, here, and at the top of the card write, “ME.” Then, start asking.
And one of the things I would encourage you to ask for is this: “God, give me opportunities to speak of You to my neighbors.” Real simple.
And the scripture verse I wrote on my card is Colossians 4:3, “And pray… that God may open a door for our message…”
Loving our neighbors to Christ…by praying for them, caring for them through simple acts of kindness that demonstrate Jesus’ love and sharing with them some expression of the Good News that God’s love reaches even to them. The Good News that God’s desire is to draw them into His unfolding story.
I want to close by asking you a very simple question. And I want you to answer honestly. Silently but honestly. And I want you to do one more thing. I want you to be really alert to your immediate response to this question. OK?
God has given us a vision of loving our neighbors to Christ. Question: Do you suppose He wants you to be a part of that vision?
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