Latest / The Habit Lab / Episode 66: (Sharing Series, Part 1) Costco Samples of the Kingdom

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Episode 66: (Sharing Series, Part 1) Costco Samples of the Kingdom · The Habit Lab

• 1:08
  Speaker 1: We all have areas in our life we might feel stuck or overwhelmed.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: So join me, jenna Zint, habit Coach, teacher and follower of Jesus, as we go after little bits of better by building offensively small habits that create big impact.
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: This is the Habit Lab Podcast.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Habit Lab.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: I am Jenna Zint.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I'm going to do a three-part series on sharing.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, first episode this one is going to be sharing the good news.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: It comes on the heels of me returning from my missions trip to Ecuador.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I was there for 10 days, but this is actually a series that I have been dreaming up for probably six plus months.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: The next episode is going to be sharing with your community.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: And then the next episode is going to and the final one's going to be sharing with the poor.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: And I think it's funny because as I was making these outlines and kind of constructing and getting my ideas onto paper, I realized that a three-part series on sharing is going to be no part.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Nowhere am I confused that it's going to be clickbait titles.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: I might try to use some creativity later to like figure out how to describe this better, but gosh, I think the reason I couldn't get away from just doing calling it sharing is because, in my journey with habits, I think the second half of my journey, which I've said before on the podcast, has just been this beautiful reawakening the Lord, doing this deep work in my heart and, frankly, coming to some really core principles of the Christian life with fresh eyes and ears.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: And I almost feel like I'm discovering what it means to be a Christian, like a child, and there's part of me that feels embarrassed as I look to the heart of the things that I'm like, oh my gosh, reading the Bible.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I'm eating up the Bible.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: It's like, oh my gosh reading the Bible.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: I'm like eating up the Bible.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: It's like fresh bread every day, whatever the Christian phrase I could say to describe my new, like the last couple of years, how much I've enjoyed the Bible.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: But then I feel, frankly, on the same as easy as I could talk about that without any like performance or weird bragging.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: It's almost just this, like what I've heard people say, this my whole life.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: But I'm actually experiencing this.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: I thought they just said that.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: You know, I didn't think they really meant it, I don't know, so experiencing the life behind the words, but anyway.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: So what I was trying to say is sometimes condemnation can kind of sneak in when I'm like, oh my gosh, everybody's known this and I've heard people say this my whole life, but I think the difference is there's just this earnest, raw approach to it.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: I feel like, as a Christian who's grown up in the church, this recent I don't know if you want to call it rekindling of my faith, in the last like five, six years, but in the last couple of years, with habits specifically, it feels like I'm discovering these old truths that had gotten so deeply bogged down by Christianese, and like a lifetime of being in the church that they lost the heart.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: So now I'm not trying to be weird or obtuse by using different words, but like I connect with them in a way that, like I'd said, the Christian use phrases so many times that they had lost the heart.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Does that make sense?
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: So, yes, this episode is about let's call it evangelism, but when I say evangelism, even when I say it, I have this little bit of a gut like reaction and part of me instantly disqualifies, like I think I think of evangelism being a certain type of Christian, a certain personality.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: I think instantly of the people in my church who are more clearly wired that way and they're the ones who see people come to the Lord and share the gospel.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: They're evangelists and that is not my gifting.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: I would say I'm a teacher or a pastor or whatever.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: But I realized that in doing it and getting lost in the Christianese, I lost this like simple childlikeness of the heart behind it and that on some measure we're all called to it.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: But if I looked at it like that, then I would get condemnation from it's not in my life at all and like should have, would have, could have, and it would have lived on that list of I don't know Christian tasks, of things I really wasn't doing.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: You know which you used to Bible reading or quiet times, was on that list, or prayer.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: But I knew that that I had lost touch with the heart behind it and I didn't count myself as that person.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: So that's part of the reason that I went on this missions trip for 10 days is I wanted to get like a submerged experience where I don't know when you do something like when you do like a detox or a reset with your diet, the realization of this isn't real life, of how I'm going to eat all the time, but purposely recalibrating your normal so that you have a new normal and it's like a new baseline.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: That was like my goal with the missions trip and I do something like for spiritual investment every year and I've considered a conference.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: But I was at this point where I was like, no, I actually want to go, not do learning.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I think what I need is a output, not more input, if that makes sense.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: So my friend had led this trip for a while and I was so excited to go with her and I'll give more of a recap later.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: But I just wanted some context because I think if I were you and I was scrolling through a list of podcast episodes and heard that this was about sharing the good news, I'd be like I'm not evangelism or that doesn't make me excited, but I just would hope that maybe something would be peeked inside of you from someone who was in that boat and years of thick layers of Christianese over top of it, like kind of discovering the beautiful simplicity behind it.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so this whole series, when I think of the habits of sharing, I would think of you know, even though this is episode one, they're all practical, spirit-led, like what it looks like practically in a spirit-led approach to living a lifestyle, I would think of.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: You know, even though this is episode one, they're all practical, spirit-led, like what it looks like practically in a spirit-led approach to living a lifestyle of overflow.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that's where it starts with the good news.
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I kept thinking when I was choosing to go on this trip.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: I was like I heard this quote once from Bob Goff that was like are we being rivers of love or are we reservoirs of love, with the idea of like it stops at a reservoir, like literally dammed up for the purpose of accumulation, like more and more, but it doesn't go anywhere or flow anywhere.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: But this idea that we're actually called to be rivers of love and it's just kind of made me think of when I was choosing to go on this trip.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, a lot of my faith is more reservoir mindset, like I'm a pond, the gospel kind of stops with me.
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: I definitely have an overflow this podcast to people in the church or friends or community.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: But outside of the church there was no flow.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: Outside of being kind, loving a good person, generous, merciful, gracious.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: There was no sharing of my faith to an overflow or a flow to anyone outside of the church.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: I just had this awareness of like.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I don't love that.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: I don't know how to change it because my experience, which I bet a bunch of you can relate to, is I had experienced people with evangelism being like I don't know.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking through some of the flavors.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: One I experienced people being really intense and pushy.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I had some people in my life, like in my inner circles growing up, that were more evangelist mindset and they have beautiful hearts for the Lord.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: But when I watched them get almost combative with people who didn't believe about like, argumenting, arguing some of their stances on faith, like I felt so uncomfortable and part of me just frankly made some oaths of like.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: If that's what evangelism looks like, then that is zero, it feels zero parts effective.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: That does not feel like Jesus, like no.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: So that was one way I saw it.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Like I don't know, perform perform is the wrong word, but done.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: That turned me off.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Then the other thing I saw was almost like this sales technique.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: So maybe people weren't being combative or argumentative, but it was like a good pitch, like we, oh, here we go.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: And it's funny because I did a multi-level marketing company a couple of years ago and it was actually so helpful for me to get comfortable with actually selling things, and I don't think I'd be able to have my own courses or promote my coaching if I hadn't learned that skill and untangled, you know, offering a service as something slimy you know like.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: So I had to get way more comfortable at that.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: But there are so many similarities to when I would go into what I thought sharing the gospel was and it felt like a sales pitch and I was like, oh, I don't like this either.
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not secretly trying to bait people to come watch this puppet show so that I can pitch the gospel to them.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: So I saw that too and I again my last podcast was not about villainizing someone else in my formation, I'm just kind of giving words to the categories of flavors of evangelism.
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: I saw that I was like, oh, not that.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: So then I saw the other one.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Another example would be just service, and that's kind of what I've been more doing in the last year of my life.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: The Lord's really highlighted sharing with the poor and it's been beautiful and we'll get into that more in a few episodes.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: But I realized what was missing was I would just not cross the threshold from doing good to actually sharing the good news.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: And there was.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: It felt like a chasm of a gap.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I'm like I don't.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I could serve this person, feed them, take them, you know, do these things all day, like I could be love in you know hands and feet, but when it would come to actually saying anything about my faith or sharing my good news, I they're such a such a far cat.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: I just didn't, literally didn't know how to do it.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I was like Googling, like how do you do this?
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: Well, because the beautiful part after you know, like trying to be love and help others, like as a means, like an arm of my faith.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I just realized I was like, oh, but it's too, it's too an end.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: Like if I'm not talking about the fuel that's motivating me, this is not me loving them in this practical, service way is not the end of it to itself.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Like there's actually an overflow where I want to share what's my motivation, what's the fuel?
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: Like the love of the Lord for me and for them is why I'm not just checking this off.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: My they're not a service, you know, like they're not a task, they're not yeah, they're not a project.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: They're literally a target of love.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: If I don't talk about that fuel of love, then I'm missing the point so fast forward.
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I went on this mission trip because I realized I was a reservoir of sharing the gospel and not a river, and wow, it was so beautiful.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: I, as you know, I have a group of people which you're welcome to join at any point who are slowly reading the New Testament together.
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: This is my second year, so we're still in the Gospels.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: It's April and we're still in the Gospels.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: So when I was going on this missions trip, whenever I choose a habit or choose like an action, I say yes to something like most of my what's it?
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Everything that's on my schedule or that I say yes to is coming because I it's an action, it's the fruit of something the Lord's teaching me or changing or shifting my heart, and then I know that, like he's calling me to an application of what he's teaching me, does that make sense?
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: So, whenever that's the case, that's usually manifest in a habit.
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: Hence why I love habits, because I I feel like they're the putting the seeds that I'm getting into the ground to bear roots, you know, to grow roots and bear fruit.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: So for this mission strip, I always, whenever I have an action like a habit or something I'm saying yes to.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: I have a very clear why and it's tied to that word or whatever the Lord's showing me.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: So, for the mission strip, my why that I would just pray into as I was like leading into it and just kind of adjust my attitude.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Frankly, while I was on the trip and we were doing hard, long things, was that, oh, this is my chance to only show up in the role of a disciple, because in my normal life, you know, I'm mom, I'm wife, I'm leader.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: I purposely didn't lead this trip, I was just.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: You know life, I'm mom, I'm wife, I'm leader.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: I purposely didn't lead this trip, I was just one of.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: I was rubbing elbows, shoulders I don't know what the metaphor is or what the expression is with a bunch of like 18 to 25 year olds who are in our school of ministry, which is wonderful, but it was humbling on some level, like I'm realizing that I need to be activated, just like they did, even though I went through the ministry school, like two years ago, I think that's the thing, though, about habits how often, and even just with our faith, to be true, like we had them in different seasons, but as a season shift or a transition or something happened.
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Most of the time it's not purposely left them out, but we haven't carved out that they got set down in the transition and we've never picked them back up, or maybe it feels like too much work at the idea to reincorporate them, or we lost some of our original heart behind them, you know.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: So that was true for me with evangelism, and I knew that that's why I was doing this trip was to make room for something that did not have space in my life, and so my reminder for myself was like it's a unique opportunity to be able to show up just as a disciple not a mom, not a disciple and a mom and a disciple, and a wife and a disciple and a leader, just to get to be a disciple.
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: That was my role, and it's so much easier to go so deep when you're like you know, clear focus.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: But then my other why was so that I got to like live the gospel, like what I've been reading about for months and months in detail.
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: Slowly.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: Now I get to go like I almost I had this picture one time when I was praying with the Lord about the trip, of like the words coming off the page and me getting to like go see the things I was reading about happen and watch the principles that we're studying actually be real.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: For me, and I felt so much excitement, like I feel a little teary now too where I'm like oh, like it was a call to not just study the gospel but to go live it, and I just kind of got this awareness of like oh, where is this outreach component of sharing the good news too?
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: You know, even coming like in my life, like I am great at studying it.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: I think probably a lot of us who've been Christians most of our life and in the Western church, I mean, maybe you're not even great at studying, maybe that's a habit, a muscle you're working on, but then go to live it and then share about it.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: I was like blah, this is my reach, this is my growth opportunity.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: And I think, realizing that you know we talk about evangelism and it's a should, and then in my church specifically, we talk about revival, which would be, you know, like new wine.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: What's the Holy Spirit doing now?
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: Mix with the truth, you know like what.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: How does he want to encounter you individually?
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: Mix with the you know, unnegotiable truth of the Bible, like it's both hand, but they had become spiritual, lofty terms without emotional connection for me, but realizing like, oh, what's underneath them.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: On the trip I just discovered the simplicity of the invitation that they both carry into love and sharing this love.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was so profound I feel, just coming back from it, like I feel so marked of absolutely what I had prayed and like, hoped the Lord would do.
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: He did, like I.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: We saw so many, oh man, I wish I could find that sheet of testimonies.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: I should have been prepped.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: But we saw over a dozen eyes dramatically, either a hundred percent healed or just dramatically healed.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: We saw multiple shoulders healed.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: I remember one person on my team sharing the testimony after when we regrouped as a team on the bus lots of bus time, so we shared a lot on the bus.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: They prayed for someone in the park who had really bad shoulder pain and after a few prayers the person could actually like.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: They were fully like.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: All the pain was gone and the person was crying and they're like we're putting up their hair and they haven't been able to brush my hair for years because I've had so much pain and now I can do it.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: And then the cool part of that test, I believe it's those people who then, after they finished praying for that person they left away.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Someone else approached them and if it wasn't them it was another team, but anyways the person after they saw them praying they're like, oh, are you guys doing prayer?
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: Hey, I have someone who needs prayer, and it was like they were sought after when they realized that they had.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: You know, like they were praying for people and giving away stuff and it was just so beautiful to see and then I we got to go to.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: So I think the thing that was the most impactful about my trip was I loved the church services, but that was kind of more in my wheelhouse of what's familiar and comfortable when ministering and it's less about sharing the good news to people who aren't familiar with it.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: The analogy I kept imagining that was so impactful for me about getting outside of the church rather than more ministry to people in the church was that sometimes it feels like all of us who are in the church and know the Lord have like dinner plates with a ton of food.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: You know, on Thanksgiving, when you have a lot of food on your plate and then you find one more side dish that you're like, oh, I got to figure out and you just put it on top.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: Or maybe that's just me and you guys are really great about portion control, but anyways, when I think of doing ministry to the church and that's the analogy I get, like maybe I have, I definitely know I have something to give and the Lord wants to do something for him, but it feels like putting one more serving on top of a really full plate, cause so many of us are in a church we're learning, maybe you're in a Bible study, maybe you listen to podcasts and YouTube sermons you know from other churches.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: It's like this overflow of input.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: So while it is helpful and you feel excited about getting one more serving, it does not do the same thing that it does.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: When I saw it, when we went to do the ministry outside of the church which we got to go to a couple of prisons, we went to a couple of schools, we went to an orphanage and then we also did like this afterschool care program for kids whose parents were street vendors and they normally would just sit with their parents selling whatever they sell.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: But this little organization opened like a little storefront where the kids could come into this very small building and be there and, you know, get help with homework instead of sitting by their parents while they were selling Um.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: And then we did.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: We did some work with disabled folks and um some and a lot of street ministry and then some ministry to the red light district.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so, getting back to my analogy, the time that we did ministry to people outside of the church if inside of the church it was still good and helpful because we did so many church services it was like putting another serving on a really full plate.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: When we went outside of the church, it was like we were giving people a carrot stick and they were overwhelmed by the carrot stick and it like the awareness and the dawning on their face and how their faces would change and their eyes would light up when they would.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: You know when you'd be in conversation long enough and they'd get it.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Either we'd pray for them and it'd be a word of knowledge, like a prophecy that was accurate and they couldn't believe it and that would open up their heart.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Or we pray for healing, for something on their body, and that they would get healed, or they could feel the presence of the Lord.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Whatever the in route was, as you watched again sharing the carrot stick with these people and it just shift them and how grateful and thankful they were.
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: I was like, oh, this is the difference.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: This is why I need to have this incorporated into my life, because I'm sharing stuff with other people but it's sharing with people who have full plates already.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: The difference and appreciation it made to the people who this isn't what they, this isn't their regular diet I was like, oh, I can't, I can't go home and not do this.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: Like it almost made me feel like sorry, I didn't think I was gonna get so emotional.
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: The analogy I saw is like, again, if it's sharing food with people, there's an element of like, you know, timestamp with food.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: It's not like when I was had my Turbans for Tots business, I always said I'm so grateful I sold a non-perishable because it could sit on my shelf forever and it wouldn't go bad.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: You know, versus restaurant people, there's like a very definite time they have to move their product or it spoils.
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: And I kind of feel like this.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: The word picture I kept seeing with the Lord was like I'm sitting on a chest like a, you know, one of those big traveling chunks full of food and just overwhelmed Like I'm so abundantly wealthy with my knowledge and relationship with the Lord and all that the Lord's done for me and my history with the Lord and my experience, and like just overflowing, and when I don't have a habit of sharing that with the people around me.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I mean, I was thinking of saying the lost, but I think to me I said, evangelism makes me go like that word just has a bunch of history.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: That's unhelpful.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: I think saying sharing with the lost does a similar thing for me.
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: So it's just, I think, the simplicity, though when I have this trunk full of food and I don't take the time to notice the nudges in my own life from the Holy Spirit, of like in my daily rhythms, I think it's easy to allocate this ministry like outreach, sharing the gospel.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: When I'm on a missions trip, there is a set time, that's the purpose in place.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: But I just came back knowing like no, I need to figure out how to integrate this, like this needs to be integrated in my life, because, not because I want to feel good about my Christian walk, but like going back to that mental picture, I'm sitting on a wealth of food that's just spoiling.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: I could never eat this much.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: This wasn't actually meant just to be for me and who out there around me.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: If I just shared a little bit, their eyes would light up and everything would change and that could be like a life-changing moment.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: If that I just get over myself enough, or make room enough or fear of man, or learn how to do it differently or let myself like not be on autopilot so much that I missed the moments to be moved by, like compelled by love, to talk to that person or to bridge that gap or say the thing I'm feeling, like the Holy Spirit.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: You know, even if I used to think like well, if I don't have a definite word, like when I'm going grocery shopping, I don't get tons of prophetic words for people I'm grocery shopping it's not like I'm silencing the flow of like Holy Spirit, I know you just told me everything about that person, but I'm really buying toast right now, not toast.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: You can't buy toast, peanut butter, right now.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: That's not the reality.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: But I think what I saw on the street when we're doing ministry is how often we'd go up to people, somebody in our group, like we'd be in little pods of three or so so we wouldn't feel overwhelming Someone would be like I just feel like the Lord was making you stick out to me.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: You had such a great smile and you just draw people, so it's not like they had this word and then they'd start this conversation and the Holy Spirit would give them something or show up and it'd be this beautiful moment.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: I think what I was thinking is I'm not missing opportunities because I'm not shelving clear, prophetic words for people.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: I'm not giving, but I think the difference is just noticing when people are in pain or distress and letting that, or even when people stick out because they're so joyful, like letting that be almost like you know how, like God will speak in the loud and in the whisper, letting that be the whisper.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: I think how much I was like oh, I'm not sharing the good news because I'm not even I'm not recognizing these things as whispers.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: So invitations to be like, to let my schedule be interrupted to share the good news.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: So to share another story, I think one of the most profound, a couple of the most profound.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: I think all the testimonies I've shared thus far are from other people on my team, but for me, some of the really transformative moments were one we were praying for a street vendor.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Again, we went up and we bought chips.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: It was not profound, it wasn't like the Holy Spirit was like tell her this about her life.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: And then we're like open door or whatever.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: And as we were doing it, we're like, hey, is there anything you want prayer for?
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: And she asked prayer for her niece, which was super sweet.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: She talked for a while, but even how, just having someone care about your life meant something, and that was actually literally a demonstration of the gospel, not just whatever the miraculous signs that I kind of had quantified as being enough to demonstrate this good news that I wanted to tell them about.
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: Anyway, so then we are listening to her and we got to pray for her and then she just started telling us more about, like, what she was selling and how some of this stuff was from.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: She picked up an avocado and she started telling us how like, how much us, how blessed she is because her land is so fruitful and every morning her and her husband pick and it was like a refrigerator box stall she was in that's how small it was and she's back in the dark and it was raining.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: It was not an ideal situation, but this woman had so much joy and she was like, can you believe how fruitful my life is that this came from my land.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: And she's like that's the favor of God or something like that.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: And I was like overwhelmed, being like, okay, let's rewind a bit and think about Jenna's life and how.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Jenna has a pool and two cars that work and air condition, and she loves her job.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Yet because they currently, jenna, can't afford to pay the landscaper, they are doing their own landscaping and their house, their front lawn, is overgrown and a hot mess, but every time she looks at it she feels a little pity for herself because she can't afford her landscaper anymore and she's pity that pity or whatever you want to call it if that feels too strong for you that she's going to have to be the one to go out there and do the work and give up some of her hours on her Saturday.
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: And I was like, meanwhile, fast forward, this lady is just grateful that her little plot of land that she has grows this avocado and she feels overwhelmed to the point of tears.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, this is some good perspective shift.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: What if I actually the next time I saw my weeds in my yard overgrowing and I felt annoyed at the future yard work that I was going to have to do instead of paying someone else.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: What if I actually rewired, reframed that to contentment of like how wonderful that I have a yard, like truly, yes, it's going to require some work, but I'm the lucky owner of this beautiful yard and we can afford this yard.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Like, wow, okay, no problem that I have to maintain it, but how great, like what if I shifted to gratitude of what it was, evidence of the fruitfulness of my life, just as she was there.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: So that was one thing that really hit me.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Then the other thing was, um, I could tell when we were talking to her that she had pretty bad cataracts.
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: Her eyes were really fuzzy and blurry and that was one of the things I had been praying into.
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: The trip was to see the Lord heal like some blind eyes, cause he does it so much in the gospel.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, you said greater works we were going to do, and I feel so grateful that we live in a church, that we believe in miracles and healings and that it's for everybody, it's not just for a special pastor.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: So that was one of the things.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: I was like I would love to see you heal someone's eyesight.
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: So I asked her we had an interpreter if her eyesight was hard, and she said yes, so then the interpreter got a newspaper and was like, can you read this?
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: And she's like, no, that's where I can't read.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: And he was like, okay, and then we just I prayed a pretty simple prayer, because the reality that's the one nice thing is there's no illusion that I'm the one that can heal anyone.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: So whether I have the right words or the special words, or long enough words or eloquent on words, there's no like formula, because it's not me anyway, you know.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: So did a pretty basic prayer a little bit, and then she opened her eyes and the interpreter got the newspaper back out and she was holding it herself and anyways, it became pretty clear quickly that she had dramatically, her eyesight had dramatically improved.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: So we prayed again and healed a little, like she got a little bit more healing and she's just at this point she's just weeping because she was like, oh my gosh, like I can't believe my eyesight just got so much better and she's like I couldn't read that, you know.
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: And she's Spanish, explaining like pointing to the newspaper, how she couldn't read the smaller print and now she can and anyways, but the real thing I mean that was.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: All these things have been impactful, but one of the things that hit me the most was she was like, after her eyesight got healed, and you know she's telling us about how.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: You know she had previously told us about how beautiful her yard is, that it can be fruitful and produce this avocado.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: She was like what was it?
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: She said I can't believe God loves me so much that he would send you guys from America to Ecuador, to my country to love on my country.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: And then he loves me so much that he would have you walk on a rainy day to pray for people and stop at my booth.
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: And he loves me so much that you had asked me what I did prayer for.
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: And then he loves me so much that he would heal my eyesight, like wow, and she's just weeping so quietly and softly like that.
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: She's like I'm so loved by God.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: And when she said that it was funny because, as she's saying these things, my logic is like I mean I signed up for this trick six months ago.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: I mean this was scheduled on the schedule to be out here for outreach.
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: I mean I prefer, if it wasn't right you know all these things of logic of almost talking out internally Of course I'm not verbalizing these things of why this wasn't divine or miraculous, but in that moment I just felt this shift in my awareness of like, oh, like, maybe it's so much simpler and I can actually like, maybe God is so much more outside of time that when I think I'm making a very natural choice and following a schedule and the plan and it does not feel like divinely led and it was not a woo-woo moment, it just felt like following the next steps.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: It actually, because of him being so sovereign, he wove it in to actually be this answer to a prayer and to be a demonstration of how radically he loves this street vendor through me.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: And it just shifted my idea of like, wow, what if my simple yeses and actually planning and scheduling could be an invitation that by my simple act of obedience, even if it's planned, could communicate how much God loves them, just by taking the minutes to stop.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: And then we got to give her some money afterwards and again, similar level of gratitude.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: But it just shifted something.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I'm like, oh my gosh, I don't want to be so set on my own schedule that I miss very ordinary opportunities to share literally share this good news.
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: Like it's that simple, it's not evangelism, because I'm not trying to pitch or argue anybody into the kingdom, like when you actually just demonstrate the kingdom, no one needs to be convinced or sold on it.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: It kind of I keep this is a funny analogy, but I keep trying to explain it to people Like it almost felt like on the trip when we get to pray for people and that same.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: I'm going to share one more testimony, that same outing, when we were doing street ministry, before we'd gone into another vendor.
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: Her shop was a little bigger and she sold art supplies and she was pretty cold and not really interested in talking to us at first.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: And then someone asked if she could pray and we prayed a bit and she was softened a bit and then I felt like the Lord.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: I was like asking the Lord for something about her that would open up her heart in a way that she would see that the Lord was wanting to like love on her and just show her love.
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: And I felt like that God said that she had her second child, was a daughter, and there was some relational tension and it wasn't quite that clear because I'm not like, I am not a prophet at all, I and there was some relational tension and it wasn't quite that clear because I'm not like I am not a prophet at all, I am not, that is not on my thing at all, so.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: But it's just crazy how simple the Lord, especially when your heart, is to want to bless someone else with messages that he wants to say about them.
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: How easy and simple it is to hear and not overcomplicated, because there's just no accolades involved too.
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: You know, like there's no performance and there's no accolades.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: This is not about you.
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: I think that's one of the things that was just really refreshing for my heart.
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: Getting outside of the church, too, is even the podcast where I'm coaching people.
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: There is a bit of like me getting the feedback and blurry lines on what part is Jenna's success and what part is God.
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: But when you're doing this ministry to people who don't know, you, don't care and don't have any need to flatter you and you don't actually have the authority to do any of the things or know anything about them, there's no confusion.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Who is demonstrating?
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: Who's showing off and demonstrating their power, you know.
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: So anyways, we asked the lady.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: She had a daughter.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: Her second child was a daughter and she had some relational pain, and she starts telling us a story and she just softens Like it was the key to her heart.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: I was like, yep, that's what we got to pray into that, and it was just ended up being what could have been felt like we were going to get shut down from the first couple of minutes, ended up being like a 15 minute conversation.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: It was just beautiful and sweet.
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: She hugged all of us by the end and she said something similar about how loved she felt by the Lord she was a Christian as well that he would stop and say that and get us to like pray with her and reveal that about her daughter.
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: So my point is, though, the difference of when you don't have to, it just kind of what reworked for me with this idea of evangelism, when I'm actually just simplifying it to sharing the good news is it doesn't need to be argumentative, nor do you need a well-designed sales pitch.
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: It's more like a Costco sample, like when you go to Costco, everybody loves the samples because you get stuff for free, you don't actually have to buy it.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: But how often do we actually buy the stuff too?
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: So I was teasing.
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: I was like we don't have to convince anyone of the gospel or that they need Jesus or the right rhetoric.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: This is not that.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: This is when they taste a sample.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: When they get a meatball, they want you to tell them where they can get the rest of the package.
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: And I just saw that time and time again.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: As we like just shared the good news with, like you know, supernatural.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: Sharing the good news, whether it was praying for someone or a little word for them, or seeing like praying in their body getting healed, or it was like, oh, this is the sample of the kingdom.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: And then they are desperate to actually buy the full package, for lack of a better expression.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: Just going with the Costco analogy, clearly we weren't selling anything once they tasted of it.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: But if I'm just trying to describe a meatball with my words like, yeah, that's going to take a lot more rhetoric or I'm going to have to choose the right words or be argumentative, but this was just so simple and different to me.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: And then gosh, just the idea that we are sitting on solutions that the poor and the broken desperately need.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Will we allow our schedules to be interrupted to share the good news?
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: I just almost felt like a glutton when I got that picture of me sitting on this chest full of food that I wasn't sharing.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: I was like how can I not share If there's people starving and hungry and desperate around me?
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: Why wouldn't I recalibrate my normal life to incorporate this Like?
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: How can I not like?
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: How can I go back to not being aware of sharing the extravagant, the extra that I have?
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: Does that make sense, like I think I always thought about?
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: I knew I'd come back with this awareness of how rich we are monetarily or with stuff, and that definitely happened New level of contentment and gratitude.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: But what I didn't expect was to come back realizing how rich we are, with knowing the fullness of who God is, that he's relational, that he loves them, he's good, he's in a kind mood, he wants to talk to you, he wants to comfort you, he's powerful, he moves today.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: He's not a stuffy, angry principle from 100,000 years ago.
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: I think the crazy part for me was the simplicity of what I know to be so true as a Christian who believes in the full gospel.
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Watching that be revolutionary to people, I was like, oh, how could I not talk about this more?
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: How can I not make this part of my life?
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: And then I'm like I want to.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: At some point I was like all these lyrics we sing on Sunday, I actually need to get better at living them, like sharing and living and being so overwhelmed with his goodness and gratitude that I don't just sing it at church.
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: But I couldn't help but talk about it when I'm aware of those around me outside of the church who are starving and parched for a bit of this goodness.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Like that there could be that level of hope.
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: And just the question that I kept coming home with is like am I willing to be interrupted for the kingdom?
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: Is my normal rhythms and life flow?
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Am I willing to share?
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: To let it be interrupted for the sake of the kingdom?
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: One of the things I wrote let me see is I don't want to just hear, read or learn about the gospel.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: I want to incorporate, living it outside of the church.
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: I want to become aware that I'm sitting on solutions the poor and those in despair need.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: Am I going to let my schedule and my habits be interrupted to live the lyrics that I sing about every Sunday?
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Or am?
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: Am I going to let this radical revelation spoil on the shelves of my life Because I'm like the Pharisee who's too concerned with my own routines to be the hands and feet of Jesus, like the Samaritan was.
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: Those are my.
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: That's literally a little journal section, post trip, and there's no shame and condemnation in it.
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: It's just more.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: Like I said, I've been, I've seen the effect of what I take for granted.
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: Like God's kind, he loves you, he's powerful, he has good, nice, loving things to say about you.
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Do you want to know that God?
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: And then showing them that God was like oh, this is different, this is totally different and I have to keep doing this.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Last testimony, we were in the jail.
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: We did totally different and I have to keep doing this.
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: Last testimony, when we were in the jail, we did a little prayer time and it ended up being about forgiveness and I was leading it and frankly, it did not go well.
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: It was awkward.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: I didn't know what to do or have them pray or call them to.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: I turned at one point and asked my team.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: I was like where should I go from here?
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: No eloquency with what I was doing.
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: But while I was doing that, afterwards we broke up and we're kind of individually praying for someone and this lady was praying for one of the guys that had raised their hand and I prayed for him a little bit but he didn't really open up, it just wasn't hitting him.
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: And then she sits down with an interpreter who's praying for him and I just felt like the Lord told me to sit on the other end of the room and just pray into what he was doing with them, like in that little group, even though I wasn't in the conversation to like cover them in prayer.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: And when I was doing that, this boy it was a boy's prison, so like 13 to 23,.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: He was very aggressive, cold, turned off, like not joyful, not smiling eyes, that was.
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: I wasn't even actually sure he was listening to what they were saying.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: That's how unresponsive he was.
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: But my beautiful friend Jamie just kept going and was doing it so well and he'd nod or give one word, enough answers that she would keep going and explaining things and it was not argumentative or anything.
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: I just felt I was aware that some of like fear of man or context clues probably would have shut down and taken that as feedback and not have tried explaining in different ways or continue with the conversation like she was.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: So I felt really it was.
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: I learned so much watching everybody on the team and our leaders, Cause it's just not my, it's not something I have a lot of experience in.
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: So, anyways, as I'm sitting there praying for this guy, all of a sudden, the Lord, I just have this encounter with God.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Where I'm, I just feel like the Lord said I died literally the entirety of the Bible.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I think of the wholeness of the Bible as the grand redemption story that we're still.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: We're in the final chapters.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: We're still in a chapter.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: It's not in the Bible but we're in one of the chapters of the redemptive story.
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: It's this whole big thing of God, you know, restoring and redeeming man and the earth to his original intent.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: But thinking of, like this one boy, this like 14 year old, cold, closed off boy, like all of it, all of it was for him, and even like imagining in the Garden of Eden, god creating the flowers and the animals, imagining this boy like what he would delight in and what he'd find interesting and what would be hilarious to him about creation, and then fast forward to the cross.
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: And then imagining like, oh, I did it all, even knowing because obviously these boys are criminals like knowing what he did, how it was worth him and paying the price for this boy and how he and it just shifted this perspective where I think, when we get too insulated in our faith and we grow and learn and do more like even if we're growing, we become the main character and we become the center point.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: But as I was watching this nameless I don't remember the boy's name, I know he has a name but this nameless boy across from me, who's middle you know, mid-teens and a literal criminal, hard heart, imagining all of it for him just as much as it was for me, and I was like, oh, this is actually fruit of going outside of the church and sharing the good news.
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: Because I remember I'm not the main character of this story.
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: My family, my husband, my marriage, my kids, my church, none of us are actually the main characters or the point of it.
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: It's all for all of us.
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: And if I'm not sharing, like, I get a little too inward focus and self-centered and gosh, there's just so much fruit that came from stepping outside of my normal stepping outside of the church, remembering, you know, um, at one point we just told someone, like when we were sharing the gospel, like hey, uh, we were just feeling like we're here on a mission trip and we were just highlighted to us and we felt like the Lord just wanted to stop and see if there's anything you need prayer for, and it was so simple we didn't have a specific word for them, or healing, you know, and it opened up a bit more of a conversation.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: But this awareness of like oh, they're all the one, and I heard this great quote.
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: I've actually read a couple books in the last six months that have been about evangelism, which is hilarious because I didn't pick them up thinking they were about evangelism.
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: You know when God teaches you things and there's a clear theme in your life, but you kind of got tricked into it.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: That is me with evangelism the last six plus months.
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: So, anyways, I picked up this book that I thought was about prayer and it ended up being way more about evangelism.
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: And they had they quote this great line where it was like God doesn't ignore the cries of the poor and the oppressed.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: It's us who ignores being, or his tapping us to be his hands and feet, to be the answer to the poor and the oppressed, and I was like, wow, yeah, I think that's what I just took home.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: I was like I can't ignore or wait for really dramatic, evident things.
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: This is part of the whole point and me saying I'm not an evangelist or being like.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: I don't like the way.
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: I'm just going to oversimplify it and rewind to the original intent and the roots of like.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: I can't not share the good news because this is so revolutionary that we serve a good, kind, loving dad who's powerful to heal, who wants to literally talk to you, who wants to show up in your life, who wants to be part of your life, who wants good things for you and is safe and has your best interest in mind and covering and is comfort To be able to share.
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: That that blows people's mind and then demonstrating the kingdom, like the Costco meatball sample.
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: They're like yes, I want more.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: So I think this awareness of like okay, I'm coming up from my mission trip and I have to figure out a new habit, which I'm clearly so I think this awareness of like okay, I'm coming up from my mission trip and I have to figure out a new habit, which I'm clearly so a newbie Some of you probably are listening or awesome at this Is that me, and I bet more of you can relate to me not having this operating of my own volition in my life.
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: Maybe you participate in some functions as a church or organization, but I do think there's something so different when you choose a grassroots, when you figure out how to develop it and make space for it in your own life, than participating in an organization.
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: I think it's a both and I don't think one's better, but I just noticed how much more ownership I have of it and how much more of a difference it makes when it's a grassroots habit of wanting to make space for that part of my spiritual walk in a way that's been neglected.
• 47:35
  Speaker 1: So I just hope that on some level you feel inspired and called to.
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: What does it look like to live the gospel and share the good news?
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: Because I kept thinking.
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: I was like, dude, we live in a culture of influencers who we listen to.
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: People go on and on about what they love, about this mascara, like I watched a two minute video the other day about someone's favorite mascara and I was like why did I just waste my life?
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: But I was so intrigued by their passion, how much it's changed their life, and I was like we're okay with all of that, but when we come to sharing our faith, it's like, you know, and talking about Jesus, the revolutionary solution that, like beautiful answers that we have, like a source of hope, that feels weird and slimy.
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: I'm like no, no, no, like we need to take the same open-mindedness that we are to being influenced by influencers, by hearing what they love about products and things, to actually like oh, actually, it's okay, and I meant to like why wouldn't I talk about this person and this relationship and this things that I have almost taken for granted?
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Like the air I breathe?
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: It could literally be revolutionary to someone else.
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: So my question to you is are you in the baby stage of sharing the good news, like me, or has your life already has a normal outflow of that?
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: Are you more of a reservoir with the good news, or are you a river and then just encourage you?
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: Remember, condemnation is never from the Lord.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: If the Holy Spirit ever.
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: If you feel conviction, it's because there's an invitation to an upgrade and just praying about.
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: What does that look like?
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: Maybe starter step is just give me a heart for how to want to share the good news in my life.
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: Or maybe a starter step is reading a book about it.
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: Or maybe the starter step is listening to more podcasters.
• 49:18
  Speaker 1: Or maybe it's actually doing it, noticing the nudges and just simple steps of sharing the good news outside of the church to people who could upend their life.
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: You know, like it's sharing a carrot stick and it being them overwhelmed with gratitude.
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: You took the time, okay, I hope.
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys can relate to this.
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: Have a great day.