Welcome again to another podcast of Struggling Well. We're glad you've joined us again this week and we get we inch closer and closer to Christmas Day and I hope that there still is joy in your heart in the midst of all the preparations whatever they may be. you know one of the things that has struck me recently is how maybe because I for so many years pastored and taught on Sundays but when I look back into the gospels into particularly Luke's gospel one of the things I realized is Jesus told lots of stories. We call them parables but he told stories to get a cross his points. He just didn't say, "Here's point one, here's point two, here's point three." He said, "Here's life." And he told stories about life. And I find it to be fascinating that's not the only method he took because obviously you got the sermon on the mount, which is more of a straightforward teaching sermon, but he used story and so many times we don't I Suzi, I don't know what you think, but I think that we don't always take the time to listen to people's stories. I think that's true. I find for myself that I can tell you like a reporter parts of my life, but to get really into the depth of my story. I don't do that with everyone, but it's hard to do and a lot of people just find that almost impossible to do. And yet the story, the deeper part of the story is what fleshes out a person and gives you an idea of how God has been at work in their lives.
Yeah. Because we would say that there is one story that God has been telling from Genesis to Revelation. It's his story and it's all pointed to the coming of his son Jesus. And now we look back on that event and look forward to his second coming when he turns and makes all things new again. But our stories fit into that story that he told that he has been telling since the beginning of time.
And that's where it becomes important to me to understand how God is working in somebody's life.
And I think you know thinking about Christmas and being with your family and probably many of you read the Christmas story as you know a tradition which we talked about last week about traditions but I'm wondering if you have taken the time or felt comfortable telling this story to your family about how you came to know Jesus as your savior and desired to know him more deeply.
Yeah. And in some cases not everybody's I can speak to my own life that my story of coming to faith really started before I was even born because my mom and dad came to faith and before them their parents had come to faith and so there's a lineage there that I don't often look back on and reflect on the importance of all those things and so
can you give them the story the lineage with your dad?
Yeah. so my dad grew up in Charlotte and people know the Morai Ham Evangelistic Crusade in Charlotte because at that crusade a young man by the name of Billy Graham gave his life to Christ and we know the rest of that story. but what most people don't know ex outside of my own family is that at that same crusade, the Morai Ham Crusade, my dad came to know Christ
and that built upon where I grew up in a home where Christ was celebrated and we were taught to come to a relationship with him because that's it's not it's a lineage that's there, but it's not
it doesn't guarantee something going forward, right?
and I would say it provided some fertile ground for my brother and my sister and I, but it didn't guarantee because we still had to make that decision for ourselves.
and so at this time of year when we're gathering with family, a lot of us are, I hope we take the time to listen to story to tell story and to listen to story because it's in those stories sometimes we see how God is working and that's what Jesus did when he taught stories to people like in Luke 18 he teaches about a widow and he uses that story to teach about persistence and he talks about a tax collector and you go on and on and see all the different things that he used stories every day. stories to get people to see something deeper and understand that there's a bigger story that was being told.
You mentioned the word lineage and that just kind of stuck in my head because in telling the story of Jesus, you have to look at the lineage. You have to see how it I mean it prophesied in the Old Testament and the line that it ca that he came through. and we all have a lineage as well and I'm wondering it'd probably be really hard to do but if you think back to the person who first shared the gospel with you
and then that person has somebody who shared the gospel with them. I wonder and I'm going to be real, you know, touchyfey here, but I wonder if in heaven that I will meet people that go way back that are part of the lineage of me coming to know Jesus. I think that would be cool.
Yeah. Because the truth of the matter is, and Paul says this in the New Testament, some plant seeds, some water But it's God who gives the increase. And so we're in a process. Every one of us are in a process. When we share the gospel with somebody,
tell them our story and share the gospel of how God has impacted us. We play a role ultimately in what that person does, right?
But it really is the it's God himself who saves. We don't do that,
right?
But I think as u I'm thinking about the word witness
and here we are at Christmas and people are we've talked about this last week. Bust ing around and buying gifts and decorating and all that. And we have this really great opportunity when we're around other people at a party, in the store, wherever to tell a story, to tell the story about who Jesus is. And being a witness means just telling what you saw, what you've experienced. And it you don't have to be an evangelist. You don't have to be gone to a seminary, Bible college, any of that. You're just telling what you've seen that you've seen Jesus.
Yeah. And how it's impacted you in your life. That's what you're sharing with somebody. It doesn't mean you have to answer every question that's out there because I don't think there's any of us that can answer all the questions out there. and so here's a challenge for you this week. Sit down with somebody, cup of coffee, coke, whatever choice you want to make of your beverage. Sweet tea. Okay, I should have said that. We live in the south.
and ask them to tell their story and listen to what they're saying and see where h has their life intersected with Christ already or are they there or are they somebody who's still searching but go ahead and explore someone else's story and then share with them your story.
Let me say one last thing before we go. we are we have been working on our website and hopefully there will be space there that you can respond to us and we'll let you know when it's up and running. It won't be for a while but when it's up and running there will be space that we would like to hear from you about what your story is, what God has done in your life, how you came to know Christ. That would be thrilling for us to know. But in the meantime, we hope that you have an excellent week. we our prayer is that you will be settled about who Jesus is and you'll be settled about your Christmas celebration. So, thank you for listening. But we do have one shout out today and that is to a friend of mine, a new friend of mine, Joanna. She is, I'm going to use the word brilliant because she's from the UK and they use that word a fair amount, but she is a delight and she listens to us. So, thank you Joanna.
Thank you all. Have a great week.