Love People Into a Relationship With Christ

In one paragraph

Dave Hatfield, who ministers in Nakuru, Kenya with his wife Kim, brought the message this Sunday. He traced how God took him from stockbroker to full-time missionary and what seventeen years in a Kenyan dumpsite community has taught him about what actually changes people. The heart of it was simple: love your neighbors, let the Holy Spirit do the work, and stop expecting to argue anyone into the...

Read together

1. Psalm 66 Read as an encouraging call to worship before the opening song
2. Lamentations 3:22-23 Quoted about God's mercies being new every morning and His great faithfulness
3. Micah 6:8 Referenced twice as the text sung during the offering: act justly, love mercy, walk humbly with God
4. Isaiah 61 Jesus read from it in the synagogue declaring the Spirit sent him to preach good news to the poor
5. John 1 The passage Dave and Wesley began reading together, starting with in the beginning was the word
6. John 20:31 Quoted by Tim Dalton as the goal of the youth Sunday school study of the Gospel of John
7. Philippians 2:13 Cited as the verse that God is working in you giving you the desire and power to do what pleases him
8. James 4:11 Quoted as God's will: do not speak evil against each other or judge one another
9. Luke 6:27 Quoted directly: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you
10. Luke 6:35 Quoted: love your enemies, do good to them, lend without expecting repayment
11. Romans 12 Referenced as the command not to copy the behaviors of this world but let God transform you by changing the way you think

Talk about it

1. Dave described going to Jackson seven years ago simply because God said 'go and encourage the church,' even though he knew no one there. Has God ever asked you to do something that made no obvious practical sense? What happened?
2. Dave said many churches he has visited lately seem angry about the state of the world, and then pointed out that God has not yet set everything right, that he promises to do that when he returns. How does that change the way you think about what Christians are supposed to be doing right now?
3. Dave talked about how he almost gave Wesley his own list of things to stop doing, but caught himself and said instead, 'Let's open this book together and see what God has for you.' When have you been tempted to hand someone your list rather than walking alongside them? What held you back, or what did you do?
4. Dave read from James 4 that we are not to speak evil of one another or judge one another, and he asked what it would look like if someone walked into this church for the first time and never heard anyone criticizing or condemning anyone else. How close or how far do you think we are from that, and what is one thing you could do personally?
5. Dave closed by saying the people in his community run up to him wanting to be saved, not because of anything he argued or convinced them of, but because they watched Wesley's transformed life. Who in your own neighborhood or circle of relationships might be drawn toward Jesus if they saw that kind of change in you?