Wednesday, August 15, 2007
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Hundreds of thousands of Kurds had fled Saddam Hussein's Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, and they were spread over miles of mountainside on the Turkish border. Christian agencies flooded in with food, medical help and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But most of the Christian workers connected with the people there only from trucks and distribution points, where they handed out food and blankets. But the missionaries from one particular mission organization really broke through the barrier that others were encountering when they talked about Jesus. They had a unique way of getting close to the people and winning their respect and their trust. Here's their radical outreach strategy. Ready? These missionaries offered to pick up the garbage. See, it was everywhere on those mountainsides, and it was pretty gross. Nobody wanted to do the garbage, but those who were willing to were the ones who got listened to.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A WORD WITH YOU today about "Being There for the Garbage."
What opened doors and hearts among those needy people on that Iraqi mountainside is the same thing that will open doors and hearts where you are - a willingness to win the right to be heard by being there for people's garbage.
Jesus did. In Philippians 2:5-7, our word for today from the Word of God, He tells us: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but He made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross."
This is the Jesus who touched the lepers that no one else would touch, who stopped for people that everyone else walked by, who washed the dirty feet of His followers, who defined His day by the needs of people who came to Him for help, and who allowed men He had made to beat Him and crucify Him. The King of heaven came to us as a servant and He stole our hearts away.
You have neighbors who really need Jesus, coworkers, friends and family members. How are you ever going to get them interested in the Jesus, who is their only hope? By serving them; by being there to help them with the garbage of their lives. In Jesus' name, be there when their health levels them, when their marriage is struggling or over, when they lose a loved one, and be there when all the funeral folks have gone home. Be there when they're struggling financially, when they don't have enough help, when their business is in trouble, when their kids are in trouble, or when they've lost their reputation and no one wants to be around them.
Their moment of loss is your moment of loving opportunity to show them Jesus' love in action. When everybody else walks out, you're walking in. Then you will ultimately be in a position to explain to them Who this love comes from, and how He poured out His life on the cross to clean up all the moral garbage of our lives.
You win the right to be heard by being there to help people pick up the pieces and pick up the garbage. Initially, they may not be interested in your message, but tell me, who can be against someone who picks up their heavy burden and helps them carry it; who is there when nobody else is? It's that kind of love that will open their heart to the greatest love of all!