Do You Have to Share Christ with the Unreachable? [40]

Host: TJ Freeman

Summary: In this episode of Back to Rurality, pastor TJ Freeman addresses the feeling that some people in our lives might seem beyond God's reach. He uses the story of Saul's conversion in Acts 9 to illustrate how no case is too hard for God. TJ also discusses his travels for the Brainerd Institute, aiming to create a theology of rural ministry and recruit young men for an upcoming residency program. The episode encourages listeners to trust God's ability to prepare hearts and to boldly share the gospel with those around them.

Connect with Us:

• Website: backtorurality.com
• Social Media: Facebook
• Email: tj@brainerdinstitute.com

Transcript

Do you think there's anybody who's beyond God's reach? Is there anyone who's unsavable? I think theologically you're probably inclined to say, no. I think God can save anybody he wants to. But functionally, are there some people in your life who are so hard to reach that it almost feels in your mind like, why even bother?

I can't imagine they'll ever be saved. If you've got someone like that in your circle, this is the episode for you.

Well, hello and welcome back to Back to Rurality. My name is TJ Freeman. I'm a rural pastor, which means like you, I live in the middle of nowhere and nowhere is where I've been for a little bit. Right? You haven't heard from me. I need to apologize. I'm sorry. I was scolded and reprimanded thoroughly for not releasing more episodes sooner, but I need to tell you what's been going down.

I've been traveling more this year than I ever have, and the travel has all been good. It's all been ministry related, and specifically for the Brainerd Institute lately, I've been traveling a bit to try to do two things. Number one, work toward establishing a theology of rural ministry that helps us understand why the middle of nowhere matters to the heart of God.

And then two, I've been trying to recruit some fine young men. For our residency program in the fall, I am totally psyched outta my mind for this upcoming residency. It will be our most robust yet, and I thought, Hey, I got a captive audience. Why don't you just let me tell you about it for a second?

So this fall, we are going to be able for the first time to send residents from the Brainerd Institute outside of training just at Christ Church, where I pastor. We're actually gonna have the opportunity to partner with a number of churches throughout the area to have some intensives here at Christ Church, and then to send our guys out, like student teachers to serve at a rural church.

Which really could be anywhere in the country. Specifically we have areas in Pennsylvania and New York and Ohio and West Virginia that we're thinking about. But I raised this issue a little bit selfishly. Indulge me if you would. If you are someone who would be interested in coming for residency or you know someone who might be interested in coming for residency, I would love to talk.

Pop me an email out, tj@brainerdinstitute.com. tj@brainerdinstitute.com. I would love to have a conversation with you about residency that begins here in Pennsylvania. 

 It's a pretty sweet deal. We pay for our residents to come for a two week intensive. It's like really, really good, seminary level education, taught by some excellent qualified guys that the Lord has brought together.

And then we farm you out, like a student teacher out to these other places. We pay for you to come back once a quarter. So that you can go through another intensive and we pay a small but helpful stipend and we make sure that housing is taken care of. It's a pretty awesome deal as far as rural pastor training goes.

And then if you're also like far away from Pennsylvania, but you'd be interested in having a conversation about what it would look like maybe to send some guys for training and have us send them back. We would love to be in conversation about that as well.

But that is not why you listened, because at the beginning I promised you something. I promised you we'd be talking about that tough case in your life. That one who doesn't really wanna listen to the gospel and you're pretty sure they never will. I'm positive you can think of people like that.

Maybe those that you've been trying to reach out to for years and they've been unreceptive. Maybe those who are just like clearly anti and you're like, man, they'll never be receptive. You think there's anybody like that in the Bible? I'll bet you it wouldn't take long to come up with, with a decent list of people who were living in a way that you'd think that person will never come to Christ.

Someone like Matthew, a tax collector, the worst of the worst. There are murderers and prostitutes and adulterers and all kinds of folks in scripture who you'd think, man, never, like this dude named Saul. Saul was actually persecuting Christians. If you read about him in Acts chapter seven, you'll see he's the guy holding everybody's coat, approving of the murder of the Deacon Steven, who preached a fire sermon.

That resulted in his literal death. And then Saul was ravaging the church. That doesn't sound very pleasant. And it caused persecution to spread so far and wide that the Christians gathered in Jerusalem scattered like to the ends of the earth. Saul's not a good guy. 

Saul is really a terrorist. He is terrorizing those who are following Christ and he's got legal papers saying he can do it. He can arrest people and haul 'em off and just ruin their lives. He's breathing out murderous threats. That's the dude. You got anybody like that in your life? Maybe you do, and I don't wanna discount it.

If you have a murderous, threat breather in your life, I don't, but maybe you do. This is not the kinda guy you'd ever expect to come to Jesus, but God intervenes in Saul's life in a miraculous way. He blinds him and confronts him with the fact that he's been persecuting, not just the church, but really ultimately Jesus himself. And then he sends him to Damascus.

Now we know that information, but you know who doesn't know that information? A guy called Ananias, not the Ananias that already got killed for lying about how much he was giving to the church. Different Ananias. This Ananias was just minding his own business in his house. The Lord appears to him in a vision and says, you need to go to Saul.

He's waiting for somebody named Ananias to come put his hands on him and restore his sight. And Ananias is like you mean the Saul that wants to kill us? That's Saul? Lord, you sure you want me to go to that guy? And an Ananias captures the feeling that I think we have a lot of the time. God wants us to go to those in our lives who don't know Christ, no matter how hard of a case they are.

And we have questions in our minds where we're like wait, Lord, don't you know this person said this, this person did that. That person could fire me. There's all kinds of reasons we have for not wanting to go. I think we could learn, though, from the way that God prepared the heart of Saul. Ananias didn't have all the details, but God had begun a miraculous work in him already, that God would be the one to bring to completion.

But he chose to use Ananias. Who did willingly get up and go and obey the Lord's call to go out to this guy, even though he was super dangerous and it could cost him everything. And God used Ananias to lay his hands on Saul to pray for him. The scales fall off Saul's eyes. He sees the truth, he believes he's baptized and he eats and he's nourished 'cause he hadn't eaten in a few days.

Anyway, more details from the text than you wanna know. If you wanna know more though, you could go read it. It's Acts chapter nine verses one through 19. It's a beautiful reminder to us that we can trust the Lord to do the work, and we can be responsible to do our part. Now, I know what you're thinking.

What if God hasn't prepared the heart of someone else like he did for Saul? Hey, that's not your business. Maybe God's prepared that person to receive the gospel now. Maybe God's using you to prepare that person by planting a seed, and maybe that person is just gonna have a hard and stubborn heart, and that's just not up to you to fix.

We have the responsibility of trusting the Lord to prepare the way for us to go to the people he's called us to in our lives, to share the good news of the gospel, which we've believed and been saved by. As we've put our faith in Christ, and this is worth doing no matter how hard the case seems.

So I know we've talked about it before on this podcast, sometimes sharing the gospel feels like super Christian work. And I just wanna ask you, would you reconsider your circle? Who are the people that you bump into or could bump into with some effort in the community or in your family or at your workplace who don't know Jesus?

And what would it look like for you to intentionally reach out to them one time a week and then to make the conversation go spiritual? Somehow with the Lord's help One time a month? Is it time to have that spiritual conversation? 

Maybe today is the day that you need to honor the Lord's call and go to that person in your life. Have a spiritual conversation that you know you're moving in a gospel direction and be ready.

Maybe the Lord would use you like he used Ananias to confirm the, the truth of the gospel to somebody today. Wouldn't that be amazing? In the end, though, the things that you're living for today, most of them are gonna disappear and be worthless.

But you have the opportunity with God's help to have an eternal impact by sharing the gospel just like somebody did with you. So let me encourage you, no matter how hard the case seems, it's time to rise up and go share the good news. You can do it with God's help. Well, I wanna thank you for listening to this edition of back to Rurality. 

It is always a joy to spend a few moments with you together, thinking about how we can glorify God in the middle of nowhere. You are part of God's solution for the gospel need that exists in your community. Let's take it real seriously. For now though, how about we get back to life, back to Rurality.

We'll see you later.