Buried with Christ
27th Mar 26 | 13:38
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LUKE 19 1-10 SEEKING TO SAVE THE LOST 08 Bridge building that changes the heart
📖 Luke 19:1-10
22Nov2020 - *Bridge building that changes the heart* - _Luke 19:1-10_ - SEEKING TO SAVE THE LOST 8 – Bible reading: _I Thessalonians 2:7-12_
_Luke 19:5 And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, "Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house."_
The Lord was now at the foot of the tree and was looking up at Zacchaeus. The Lord had come to seek and to save the lost. _Luke 19:10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost."_
The Lord’s heart is to raise up labourers. Labourers, who will have His heart and eyes and see people the way He saw them. He is longing to raise up labourers, who will go searching for the lost. The lost are all around us. Will we be labourers, who will continuously build bridges with the lost around us, as Jesus did with Zacchaeus?
Often there are several issues that inhibit us and prevent us from crossing those bridges into the hearts of the people, whom we are reaching.
It was the intimacy and the fondness of a friend, with which Jesus spoke with Zacchaeus, that melted his heart.
People around us are yearning for someone who will reach out to them with such warmth and friendship.
We read of an incident that happened when Peter and John went to pray at the temple. There was this lame man, who was begging at the temple gate. This was his life and people would pass him by, mostly oblivious of his presence there. If they would notice him, they would, at best, throw some alms his way and then pass on.
Peter and John were passing that way but they stopped at the place where the lame beggar sat. _Acts 3:4 And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, "Look at us."_
This was a sentence that meant much to this man. He thought they were going to give him alms and then move on but Peter and John wanted to connect with him, person to person. They were building a bridge with the man.
Later in the conversation with the man, they not only had built the bridge with him, but Peter also offered him his right hand. Offering his right hand was a big relationship step that Peter and John were building with the man. The right hand represents the hand of friendship and the hand of strength.
_Acts 3:7 And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength._
It is at this point of building the relationship bridge with those who are lost around us, in offering our right hand of strength and friendship, that the power of God flows through us and begins to bring changes into the lives of the persons, who we are seeking to save.
God's healing flows when we invest in people. As Jesus was building the relationship bridge with Zacchaeus, the healing of God was flowing into his life. Investing in people is about giving of ourselves to others, not as a ministerial activity or as a programme but because we genuinely care for each person.
Paul and the team had a successful ministry in Thessalonica. Due to the relationship bridges that they had built with the people there, the gospel was received not only in Thessalonica but throughout the entire region, the gospel of Lord was received and many who were lost were found. We read of this growth of the ministry in the first chapter of the first epistle of Paul to the Thessalonians.
What kind of relationship bridges did Paul and his team build with the people of Thessalonica? What was the substance of the work that they did there?
_I Thessalonians 2:7-12 But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. (8) So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us. (9) For you remember, brethren, our labour and toil; for labouring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we preached to you the gospel of God._
_(10) You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; (11) as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as a father does his own children, (12) that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory._
Friends, allow the details of the way the ministry was done, to sink into your heart. If we as labourers of God, will not be prepared and willing to be this breed of bridge builders, with the people around us, then let us not expect much to happen. We will not be able to seek and find the lost.
*Thought to ponder*
```We desire names and titles for our ministry but are we willing to be bridge builders?```