Answer the Door: Recognizing Opportunities to Serve
A practical Christian study of “Answer the Door: Recognizing Opportunities to Serve,” with clear application for faith, relationships, and everyday life.
Answer The Door
Play the original Excel Still More episode here without leaving the article.
The principle
If I could just say this without getting into too much trouble, and it applies to today's episode and next week, I think a lot of us who were raised in what we might call conservative churches of Christ, I did a little air quote thing there when I said that. We were not taught well, in my opinion, in general, the importance of sharing our wealth, the importance of being ready to share, to prepare to share and then engage in sharing, to pool our funds together with fellow believers and make a difference in the lives of the poor.
I'm talking about the poor who are among God's people and the poor that we meet in the community.
The deeper lesson
Today's story is a product of changing and probably just the beginning of where God wants to take us. Two days ago, I'm up here at the office working, it's Tuesday afternoon, and I hear a knock on the window at the front door of the church building.
It takes me a few seconds to get up from my desk and walk around it and work my way towards the front door, and as I do, I see a man, a black man, mid-50s, who had knocked on the door fifteen seconds earlier and now was beginning to walk away.
What it changes
So we decided the next day to pay up another day till we could figure out this car situation. And when I got to the motel, I picked up Lorenzo and Heather, and I met Kyle and his daughter Andy at the church building, and we sat down and had a Bible study.
If you could have seen her face, a young lady who maybe has never known peace, if you could have seen it, the look I saw in her eyes after she came up out of that water, and then her father's eyes, I'm supposed to be a word guy, but I just don't think there are any.
Live it today
Well, it just so happened that the lesson, the math problem that you, Lord willing, will hear next week, I had preached here in a much longer form a couple of weeks ago, so we've been having a lot of conversation about why we have wealth in the first place. Anyway, long story short, by the time we got home from church last night, forty five hundred dollars had been collected from the membership to cover all of Kyle's costs.
Far and away the best part was when Lorenzo and his daughter Heather walked through the door last night at 7 o'clock for Bible class.
Take the idea with you.
- 01Where do I see the problem or opportunity described in “Answer the Door: Recognizing Opportunities to Serve” in my own life?
- 02What Scripture or spiritual principle in this study most needs my attention?
- 03What one specific change can I make this week to put this teaching into practice?
Prefer listening?
The original episode player is available near the top of this article, so you can listen without leaving the page.