[SPECIAL] Finding Your People of Peace
Discipleship has moved out of the classroom (yes!) and into your normal life… but knowing who wants to be discipled and who just wants to be friends can be tough to figure out at times.
In this episode of the Everyday Disciple Podcast, I am sharing a BONUS training I did for folks in the Everyday Disciple Challenge. I’ll show you how to move friends and acquaintances toward discipleship relationships… And you’ll learn how to find the people (believers and not-yets) who may become part of your existing or new missional community.
God has people who already WANT to be with you!
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- How Jesus helped his disciples identify who they would disciple.
- How to identify the ‘People of Peace’ who are in your life today.
- Where to spend time looking for these types of people and friends.
- How to move folks from acquaintances to disciples on mission.
From this episode:
“If you love Jesus and you love people, you’re going to want to be out there where the action is. If you find yourself distracted by everything, uninterested or feeling jaded about helping people get to know Jesus, you may be suffering from a lack of love. Either a lack of love for people; you’re more worried about your pride and appearance, or a lack of love for Jesus; you really don’t think he’s all that great.”
Thanks for Listening!
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Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
Everyday Disciple Incubator – [REGISTER NOW]
Transcript
We think everybody has to like us and we have to like everybody.
Caesar:Um, that's not been my case.
Caesar:Not everybody likes me.
Caesar:I'm a little bit of a strong personality for some, and others just seem to really, really instantly lean towards us and like us.
Caesar:Do they seem to be leaning into relationship?
Caesar:Do they look to serve you and be with you?
Caesar:Do they seem interested or at least not turned off by your faith and your lifestyle?
Caesar:Most people are, by the way, they're not that turned off because we're Christians.
Caesar:What flips them out is when we get dogmatic and religious and we bust out do to be stuff on them and we should them to death, we should all over them.
Caesar:You should do this.
Caesar:You and your girlfriend shouldn't do that.
Caesar:Don't start there.
Caesar:Look for people of Peace, start where they're at, introduce them to Jesus.
Caesar:He and his spirit will work on.
Caesar:all that
Announcer:Welcome to the Everyday Disciple podcast where you'll learn how to live with greater intentionality and an integrated faith that naturally fits into every area of life.
Announcer:In other words, discipleship as a lifestyle, this is the stuff your parents, pastors, and seminary professors probably forgot to tell you.
Announcer:And now here's your host Caesar Kalinowski..
Caesar:Well, good day, brothers and sisters.
Caesar:Hope you had a good weekend or good week, or whenever you're listening to us, uh, we're just coming out of the weekend here and, uh, diving back deep into all things.
Caesar:Good.
Caesar:Uh, what a crazy week and bunch of days it's been so many of y'all joined us in the Everyday Disciple challenge last week, either live for the videos on Facebook, or you've been listening here in the Everyday Disciple Podcast to all the different segments.
Caesar:And I'm really grateful for that.
Caesar:For all of you who participated either live or on replay.
Caesar:Even hearing it here.
Caesar:That's awesome.
Caesar:And today I'm going to be
Caesar:giving you a special bonus training that connects right to everything from the last bunch of episodes and from the Everyday Disciple challenge training.
Caesar:And this is on finding your People of Peace.
Caesar:How do you.
Caesar:Find the people that God's called you to start to give your best time to be at believers or not yet believers.
Caesar:And how do people move from being sort of acquaintances, which
Caesar:we have a lot of through the rings of relationship towards becoming the People of Peace that will actually discipling their disciples now.
Caesar:So we're going to talk about all that today.
Caesar:I also want to remind you that if you're, depending on when you're hearing this, the Everyday Disciple incubator, that's that monthly membership community, where you get monthly training and your questions answered and insights, and all that goodness is, is still open.
Caesar:And it's closed in Tuesday night at midnight.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:So if you haven't joined us for the incubator or at least checked it out, Pause this, go check it out Everyday.
Caesar:Disciple dot com forward slash incubator.
Caesar:And I think you're going to be blown away by the resources and community.
Caesar:Check out the Everyday Disciple incubator.
Caesar:If you've not, if you're a regular listener, even new, at least check it out, go read and see what it's all about.
Caesar:I think you're going to be pretty in love with it and excited about it Everyday.
Caesar:Disciple dot com forward slash incubator, but go, let's go ahead.
Caesar:And I'm going to, I'm going to drop you into the stream.
Caesar:Just a few days ago, this extra bonus training that flows right out of the challenge and how to find your unique People of Peace.
Caesar:And then I'll be back afterwards with a few thoughts.
Caesar:I hope you're having a good day.
Caesar:You know, we've had a blast with the Everyday
Caesar:Disciple challenge all week.
Caesar:And as I was laying framework in different things, I realized, wow, there's so much more, I want to do.
Caesar:So I hope you've watched day.
Caesar:One of the training of the Everyday Disciple challenge is all the way through day four.
Caesar:If you're somehow running into
Caesar:us now and you're like, oh yeah, I haven't even caught up yet, but I, this sounded interesting.
Caesar:Great.
Caesar:I want to encourage you to go back and you can watch all these videos there'll be live until Tuesday night, like at midnight or something like that.
Caesar:And the team will pull them down.
Caesar:I hope that's the plan.
Caesar:And why don't you just leave them up forever?
Caesar:Well, we've learned over the years.
Caesar:If we did, you might not watch them.
Caesar:So get on it, get some friends.
Caesar:You can even host a watch party.
Caesar:If you've registered, I'm sending you that, that replay link that one whole page.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:It's got everything in it and get caught up.
Caesar:I'm going to dive in cause it's been a busy week of training.
Caesar:Let me go ahead and I'm going to share my screen.
Caesar:Oh, by the way, look at this.
Caesar:Huh?
Caesar:Talk about another new shirt.
Caesar:Those of you who got in on the incubator with me?
Caesar:Ah, you're loving it.
Caesar:Aren't ya?
Caesar:I was wearing my, my new black Everyday Disciple shirt, but then I had one done with the incubator on it too.
Caesar:And because I'm so stoked about this and what God's doing with this, and thank you to everybody who's joined in the incubator so far.
Caesar:If you're not, if you didn't get in on that with me yet, I will tell you more about that as the day goes on.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Today we're going to talk about people, a peace, like I said, and Jesus taught on this.
Caesar:Jesus taught on this.
Caesar:And I want to start today by jumping into his words to his disciples.
Caesar:Jesus says this in Luke, whenever you enter someone's home first, say, may God's peace beyond this house.
Caesar:If those who live there are peaceful, the blessing will stand.
Caesar:If they're not, the blessing will return to you.
Caesar:Don't move around from home to home.
Caesar:Wow.
Caesar:Right?
Caesar:This gives us a bit of a model for what's going on and how to identify who are People of Peace.
Caesar:Right.
Caesar:You maybe you're not even sure.
Caesar:Maybe that's a new term to you.
Caesar:Well, who are People of Peace?
Caesar:This is why here.
Caesar:These are the people you're going to end up discipling.
Caesar:This is what Jesus is doing.
Caesar:He's explaining to his disciples.
Caesar:How do you go find these people?
Caesar:How do you do that?
Caesar:So we want his model to be our model, because guess what?
Caesar:It works.
Caesar:Perfect.
Caesar:No surprise.
Caesar:So notice he says, stay in one place.
Caesar:Eating and drinking what they provide.
Caesar:Don't hesitate to accept their hospitality, right?
Caesar:Because those who work, deserve their pay and all that.
Caesar:Right now, let me point out a few principles.
Caesar:What's going on here with Jesus.
Caesar:He sends his disciples out, looking for these.
Caesar:We call People of Peace.
Caesar:Jesus didn't call them that, but he called them People of Peace.
Caesar:Those who would be initially opening.
Caesar:And to the good news of the kingdom, notice that Jesus sent them out in pairs as part of a larger team.
Caesar:So this isn't like a lone ranger, solo, adventure, this life of discipleship, which includes finding people a peace you do in community as well.
Caesar:We, I mean, we get to do it alone, but he sent them out two by two.
Caesar:So like I know often it's like, oh, this is scary.
Caesar:And I don't know if I have time for everybody.
Caesar:This is a community activity.
Caesar:Discipleship is always meant to be okay, so do this with another friend or a couple now.
Caesar:Jesus tells them to pronounce a blessing of peace over the folks that invite them into their lives.
Caesar:Now, this, I don't think is meant to be a little literal pronouncement, like may God's peace be on your house.
Caesar:Like you say that you'd probably get the door slammed in your face and this doesn't even have to be going to knock on their door.
Caesar:It's when you run into people.
Caesar:It's when you are at the gym, when you're at the grocery store, when you're at the park, when you're out watering your lawn and your neighbors are walking by, or when you're walking.
Caesar:And what he's saying is he's saying the idea here is to be a blessing and look for who blesses you back.
Caesar:So when you're nice to people and you encourage them.
Caesar:And remember we talked about two days ago in the rhythms, how to bless people with either words, action, or gift when you bless people.
Caesar:And you're kind to them.
Caesar:You're showing them what God's like, and they return the blessing.
Caesar:That is an indicator that Hmm, like pay attention to that person.
Caesar:That's it.
Caesar:Now, Jesus also says to stick with those people, not to jump around from house to house group, to group, but to hang out with the people who are open to you, they seem to be leaning towards you.
Caesar:In other words, in fact, maybe he's even saying this is like put the kabash on door to door evangelism kind of stuff, where you're just dropping off tracks and bombs.
Caesar:He could, because remember the mission is make disciples.
Caesar:It's not get people to church or get them to say a prayer or read our little crumpled up track.
Caesar:The goal is to make disciples and help them move from unbelief to belief in absolutely every area of life.
Caesar:And so he's saying when you find people who are leaning into faith, leaning into relationship, then that's who you're looking for.
Caesar:And guess what?
Caesar:We all have people who are leaning in to relationship.
Caesar:We all have them.
Caesar:You have friends, coworkers, neighbors.
Caesar:Or extended family members who just sorta like you, they like you they're leaning in versus leaning away.
Caesar:You know what I mean?
Caesar:Like I'll just show it.
Caesar:I'm in here.
Caesar:I'm going to open up my screen.
Caesar:They're leaning into you instead of like that's okay.
Caesar:No, thanks.
Caesar:You know who they are in your life.
Caesar:You've got people that they know you, they like.
Caesar:For all your wackiness and who you are.
Caesar:They know you're a believer that doesn't freak them out because you've been cool about it.
Caesar:And you look into bless them.
Caesar:See Jesus words here, pronounce a blessing means a blessing could be words.
Caesar:It could be actions could be gifts.
Caesar:And what we're looking to do is we're looking to figure out who are the people ultimately leaning into this that we might disciple.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So as we've been talking about laying framework all week about what is discipleship, helping people move from unbelief to belief in light of the gospel in every area of life.
Caesar:Okay, great.
Caesar:And that we need to believe and help others understand their true identity created in the image of God.
Caesar:And then we look at the six rhythms of life that we get to look through and our lenses of up in and out, like who's specifically.
Caesar:Are we going to be doing this with, is it just people who go to happen and go to the same church?
Caesar:Is it, is it just, well, anybody who's around me, I have to, Jesus says, look for those People of Peace, look for those people.
Caesar:When you bless them, they look to bless you and serve you.
Caesar:And that's kind of how we've come to find out when you know, a person of peace is they're leaning in.
Caesar:They like you, they want to be around when you invite them to stuff that go.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:And there, this is another big indicator they generally look to bless you.
Caesar:I've had people of peace in my life when we first moved to Tacoma, my next door neighbor, he was just a person of peace.
Caesar:And before I could bless him, he's blessing me and every day, boom, and then helping me and then saying, Hey, I see you're working on in your house a lot.
Caesar:And my garage is full of tools and you can just come around through the, through the alley, come into my yard, through the gate and I'll leave the door open.
Caesar:You just take anything you need.
Caesar:I mean, you know, we, it was, it took us a while to figure out how to bless this guy.
Caesar:Cause he was always blessing us.
Caesar:And he talked and he wanted to talk and right and be around.
Caesar:This is how you can tell.
Caesar:See, oftentimes we think we've got to like, oh, I got to figure out how to get someone to church or get them saved or get them to say this prayer.
Caesar:We don't even have any relationship with them and they're not even interested in us or our kids or our life or the way we like to hang in party.
Caesar:Don't start with those people to go for the People of Peace.
Caesar:And you'll have them.
Caesar:You already have them in your life right now.
Caesar:You're thinking there are people who just like me and want to hang out, but I've never really been intentional every time I've invited them around.
Caesar:They come, they bring stuff.
Caesar:They've helped serve me when I was sick or this or that.
Caesar:We all have peace People of Peace.
Caesar:Who are they in your life right now?
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:Interesting.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So let me just review some of this.
Caesar:Jesus showed us how to then identify these people at peace.
Caesar:He sent his disciples out to identify them, look for those people who receive and return blessing, and then stick with them.
Caesar:Who is your one?
Caesar:Who's your one?.
Caesar:So you don't think that like life on mission or like maybe some of you want to build out missional communities within your church, outside your church.
Caesar:All that is like, you're going to go out and throw a lasso around 30 people.
Caesar:If you and a few other friends identify one or two other couples or people, of peace you've just doubled your world and you got plenty of people to disciple and hang out with, think about it.
Caesar:If everybody in the church today identified just one person of peace.
Caesar:And I already, I already know a hundred percent.
Caesar:God's got them in your life and they started to intentionally show them what God is like, help them move from unbelief to belief about his generosity, who Jesus is, what Jesus has done for them and why the good news that Jesus came to rescue them to take their sin and unrighteousness upon himself so that they might be forgiven and live clean.
Caesar:Now.
Caesar:and be part of that family forever like people who are leaning into that.
Caesar:If everybody found one person and help connect them to community, not through a bunch of head knowledge, but to life in the kingdom, the whole church doubles tomorrow.
Caesar:Chances are you got more than one person, but what if you just identified the one it's amazing.
Caesar:It's amazing.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So how do identify your P People of Peace to, is there a natural bond in chemistry?
Caesar:Yeah, we think , everybody has to like us and we have to like everybody that stop in my case, not everybody likes me.
Caesar:I'm a little bit of a strong personality for some, and others just seem to really, really instantly lean towards us and like us.
Caesar:Do they seem to be leaning into relationship?
Caesar:Do they look to serve you and be with you?
Caesar:Do they seem interested or at least not turned off by your faith and your life?
Caesar:Most people are, by the way, they're not that turned off because we're Christians.
Caesar:What flips them out is when we get dogmatic and religious and we bust out do to be stuff on them and we should them to death, we should all over them.
Caesar:You should do this.
Caesar:You and your girlfriend shouldn't do that.
Caesar:Don't start there.
Caesar:Look for People of Peace, start where they're at.
Caesar:Introduce them to Jesus.
Caesar:He and his spirit will work on all that.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Do they seem interested in, they're not turned off by your faith.
Caesar:That's part of how we know.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:On many occasions I've had people say to me, well, I'm not this huge gatherer.
Caesar:I'm not this giant per people person.
Caesar:I'm just not wired as the life of the party, or I'm just too introverted.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Introversion has nothing to do with this.
Caesar:And I tell them, don't worry.
Caesar:Because as you build out oikos, extended family or missional communities, those naturally gifted sort of type a super outgoing folks in your community will put you into proximity with lots of people.
Caesar:Just be nice.
Caesar:And look for the one or two who were leaning into relationship with you, that certain person whom you easily click with.
Caesar:God will guide others to specific and unique fits with relationships with others as well.
Caesar:Not just you, it's not like, oh, everybody that comes over my house for a barbecue.
Caesar:I got to instantly be best friends with them.
Caesar:No, that's why we want to do this in community.
Caesar:That's why we want to do this in community.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So let me, let me just open up my screen again here.
Caesar:I'm going to stop sharing for a minute.
Caesar:Let me tell you about a time
Caesar:when we were helping some young couples, just a couple of couples.
Caesar:They had been having a Bible study forever, like five plus seven years.
Caesar:And they said it's two of us couples.
Caesar:Sometimes there's a third inner out and we've just been doing a Bible study and, you know, downloading the latest thing, getting a book, whatever forever.
Caesar:And I'm, I'll be honest with you now.
Caesar:A lot's changed our lives.
Caesar:Aren't that different.
Caesar:We're not at that.
Caesar:All that much more freer.
Caesar:We've learned some stuff.
Caesar:But we want to learn to live, like what you're talking about.
Caesar:We want to learn to live like this is a lifestyle and build up community.
Caesar:So what do you want to do?
Caesar:And so can you help us?
Caesar:And we said, sure, it's not that tough.
Caesar:Who do you want to make disciples of they never even thought about it?
Caesar:they never even thought about it.
Caesar:Just everybody.
Caesar:No, let me like saying to a parent.
Caesar:Well, who are your kids?.
Caesar:Yeah, just whatever kids show up, that's who we parent and spank them.
Caesar:And we feed them and we take them on vacation if they're around.
Caesar:And I don't know, whoever God brings.
Caesar:That's our kids, People of Peace are leaning in, you know, who they are.
Caesar:They, you are identifying them.
Caesar:And so we said, okay, let's start having a barbecue.
Caesar:And it was two couples and they just live a few blocks apart and said, Hey, on one Wednesday night, we're gonna have a barbecue at your house.
Caesar:Following Wednesday, we'll have it at the other house.
Caesar:They were just a couple blocks apart.
Caesar:So there was the same neighborhood and Tina and I lived real close and our restaurant, our breakfast all day restaurant, right between their two houses.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So we're going back and forth and we handed out little cheesy flyers, just inviting people to a barbecue every week.
Caesar:Hey, we're just doing a weekly barbecue.
Caesar:Want to get to know our neighbors?
Caesar:People came, people came both houses.
Caesar:We started noticing that certain people came once.
Caesar:Hey, this is really nice.
Caesar:Good to meet you guys.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:They weren't leaning into relationship.
Caesar:They were nice.
Caesar:We bless them.
Caesar:Cause you know, we put out the ribs and the steak and you know, all the stuff, we didn't really have them bring much, but some people like, whoa, they stuck around at the end.
Caesar:They wanted to help clean up.
Caesar:They came week after week.
Caesar:We started noticing the conversations like with me and Scott.
Caesar:Like, like, I know this guy my whole life and he's really all, he likes guitar.
Caesar:I used to play guitar for a living and it was a record producer and he said, oh my God, I listen to those records.
Caesar:Oh my gosh.
Caesar:You know?
Caesar:And he was all that.
Caesar:And he drove Harley.
Caesar:I drive Harleys and, and then there was one of our gals was.
Caesar:Uh, a nurse and one of the gals in the neighborhood was a nurse and then boom, instant bond.
Caesar:Everybody loves Tina.
Caesar:She had one or two people who are all into cooking and hospitality stuff.
Caesar:It was just naturally easy peasy to like.
Caesar:You could tell who they were and then those are the people we started to text and hang out and invite over separately for dinner.
Caesar:Or let's go do this together.
Caesar:You see what I'm saying?
Caesar:Those are your people of peace and you all have them now, does that take a little intentionality?
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:We were having meals with them, but guess what?
Caesar:We ate those nights.
Caesar:Anyway, just like we were talking about the rhythms, there was no extra add additional a burden, like, but we love people.
Caesar:We love them.
Caesar:So I guess the big hassle was going around and inviting people and then being excited and some people going, oh, I'm so sorry.
Caesar:We can't make it next week.
Caesar:Sure.
Caesar:And they got to know us anyway.
Caesar:Listen out of that, all of that whole effort, I don't have time to tell you much more of the story.
Caesar:A whole Missional Community was birth and we baptized a whole bunch of those neighbors.
Caesar:Yeah.
Caesar:In horse troughs in the backyard, down at the, at the, at the water, at the beach on our Sunday gatherings.
Caesar:I mean, these, this stuff, this is how you make disciples.
Caesar:This is how we make disciples.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Let me go back to my screen.
Caesar:We're going to keep going.
Caesar:I got just a little bit more for you here today.
Caesar:I hope you're loving this stuff.
Caesar:I just, I just love this.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So where to look for your people, a peace, okay.
Caesar:Start by looking for those already in your life.
Caesar:How about that?
Caesar:You don't necessarily have to go out and
Caesar:start becoming the life of the party in a hundred places, but if you don't have any, you might need to get out.
Caesar:We want to get wet.
Caesar:You got to get out of the boat someone once saidd.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So start looking for those already in your life.
Caesar:I'll bet you already have them and you can say, okay, but now on intentionalize what I do with them.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Or you can start looking in the four pools of people, which I'm about to show you and maybe you're going to go, whoa, super helpful.
Caesar:Also, I want you to work through the rings of relationship.
Caesar:Let me go ahead and teach all that stuff to you.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:Start looking in your neighborhood.
Caesar:Proximity is king.
Caesar:I love it.
Caesar:When you can build relationship and build the cycling relationships and help people move from unbelief to belief and the right in your neighborhood.
Caesar:Because the goal here is to treat them like family.
Caesar:And if you're looking to build out a Missional community.
Caesar:And there was just a family on mission and oikos sort of on mission.
Caesar:Then you want to live in proximity.
Caesar:It's very hard to do this.
Caesar:If you feel like, well, I got a girl from work, but she lives an hour away and I drive 40 minutes to work.
Caesar:She lives an hour.
Caesar:The other way, how are you going to do life together?
Caesar:Or there's these people from my church that want to be a part of all this, but they live a half hour the other way from us.
Caesar:And they don't really even come over here and their kids go to different schools.
Caesar:The best pool of people to build out community and disciple with his people you can do life with, because remember discipleship's the process of what moving from unbelief to belief in absolutely every area of life.
Caesar:Absolutely every area of life.
Caesar:And so you want to be able to do life with them.
Caesar:You couldn't parent, your kids was seeing them once a week and them just driving in.
Caesar:That's not the thing about how much time Jesus spent with his disciples.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Here's another thing.
Caesar:Third space.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:You can look for People of Peace in the pool of third spaces.
Caesar:Third spaces are those places where people hang out.
Caesar:They, I don't know who coined the phrase, but like they say homes, your first place, usually for a lot of people, work is your second space.
Caesar:And your third space is where you like to hang out with regularity.
Caesar:So it's usually like a cafe near you or a park that you just love or.
Caesar:a pub a restaurant that you go to regularly and you're starting to get known.
Caesar:You're starting to get a reputation for being cool and generous.
Caesar:And you tip really, really well.
Caesar:By the way, some day I have to teach you gospel tipping.
Caesar:What it looks like to tip not based on performance, but based on how much grace God has shown us.
Caesar:That's gospel tipping.
Caesar:Talk about that someday.
Caesar:So you can look in third spaces, pick one, pick a
Caesar:place that you frequent
Caesar:and go the same day and the same time for like a couple of weeks.
Caesar:And you'll start to notice the same people.
Caesar:Tip the waitresses, tip the barista.
Caesar:well buy coffee for the person
Caesar:behind you.
Caesar:You will start to be known as a generous person, ask good questions.
Caesar:People know you.
Caesar:How about civic groups?
Caesar:You can join some civic.
Caesar:When we first opened our restaurant in Tacoma the years ago, the sixth avenue business district met at our restaurant in one of the rooms, uh, one morning, a month to do their big meeting.
Caesar:And we said, sure, absolutely.
Caesar:First time I was at the meeting, they said, oh, this is the week when we're electing officials for the sixth avenue business district who would like to be on the board.
Caesar:I raised my hand.
Caesar:I'm looking to get to know people and help and be a blessing almost no one else did.
Caesar:Boom.
Caesar:I was on the board now I'm getting invited to all these meetings and parties in their homes and holiday parties and like with the mayor and other politicians and all this, because it's a big deal.
Caesar:Crazy.
Caesar:Maybe it's chamber of commerce for you.
Caesar:Maybe it's your HOA.
Caesar:Maybe it's some
Caesar:organization that serves homeless or at-risk youth or whatever, civic organizations.
Caesar:You can find people a peace they're leaning into relationship, common issues, common bonds and your work, or where you work at your job can also be a pool to look for people of peace.
Caesar:But ideally those people from work, not only are they leaning in, but they live somewhere around where you could start to do life together so you can help them move from unbelief to belief in all kinds of areas, they can see your marriage, they can see your parenting, they can hang out and help you do yard work.
Caesar:You can help them.
Caesar:You can do all this without proximity, but it's really, really hard.
Caesar:I compare it to this.
Caesar:Can you imagine parenting your kids if they all live like 30, 40 minutes away or had to drive in for everything from the time they were little.
Caesar:How few touches you would get with them to be able to form their life and character and help them understand grace.
Caesar:It's kind of like when people raise kids in a broken family and you only get to see them on certain days of the week and it's real metered, and then they got to go and then I, but not this week and they were, you know what I mean?
Caesar:Like you're still family.
Caesar:It's really tough.
Caesar:So look for these are the pools that you can look for.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:So now let me explain how people that you meet in these four pools
Caesar:of people move from sort of acquaintance to maybe becoming disciples or people that are really a part of your oikos.
Caesar:Now your extended family.
Caesar:That's what that word oikos really means.
Caesar:It's also the word they used for the church in the new Testament.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So, so you'll notice this here.
Caesar:Look at the rings of relationship, this outer ring acquaintances.
Caesar:You've got a lot of acquaintances in your life.
Caesar:People you go, Hey, how's it going?
Caesar:You know, you've seen them before you met them before maybe, you know, in the neighborhood or same person at the grocery store or restaurant the waitress.
Caesar:They're just an acquaintance.
Caesar:They've not become friends yet, but notice there's more acquaintances in that ring than there are friends in our life.
Caesar:But some of those acquaintances when we bring intentionality to it and because they're leaning in and we lean back and we start to become friends, Be a good friend with people before you try to worry about getting them to join your family and believe everything you believe.
Caesar:I have a really good smart friend of mine years ago said, Hey, before we worry about trying to figure out how to be good Christians again, why don't we just learn how to be good people and friends.
Caesar:Let's just start there and let the gospel right.
Caesar:Move along.
Caesar:Those, those lines of trust.
Caesar:Remember I said, the kingdom expands at the speed of relationship.
Caesar:And then the gospel will move along the lines of trust.
Caesar:Start being intentional with acquaintances that seem like they're leaning in and start inviting them over for stuff and going and watching their kids ball games and be a friend be a friend.
Caesar:Now, some of your friends will really seem to be leaning into spiritual discussions or they'll ask questions, or like you, you mentioned this the other day, Tina was just telling me at work, that a lady she works with who had trained her, she's a little part-time job in a bakery and she loves it.
Caesar:But this lady who trained her said, Hey, you mentioned something about church the other day.
Caesar:And my kid is about seven or eight and he's at and asked lots and lots of questions about God and faith and church and all that.
Caesar:I need some help.
Caesar:Well, see, she's kind of leaning in.
Caesar:And so Tina had some ideas and how we might help and let's get to know him and come on over.
Caesar:See, so maybe they're going to become friends and we'll see if they're People of Peace.
Caesar:Cause then when we say, Hey, do you want to do this?
Caesar:Maybe we'll go through the story again, which Tina already mentioned.
Caesar:She says, well, that sounds interesting.
Caesar:So, so, okay.
Caesar:Some of your friends will become People of Peace.
Caesar:Like we talked about who they are and some of those people are going to really start to want to walk in the ways of Jesus with you be disciples.
Caesar:And then they'll come to know the truth and get set free in more and more areas of their life, including, and there atonement issue and their afterlife and forever life.
Caesar:But notice here there's fewer people that are going to be disciples.
Caesar:Jesus said the road is narrow and most won't walk it.
Caesar:You're gonna have a lot of acquaintances.
Caesar:Now don't assume though, people are projects and your goal is to make an acquaintance, become a friend who turned them into a peace God's at work and all this I'm showing you kind of how it works.
Caesar:And you can see like what that oval what's going on there right now.
Caesar:Here's a little bit of what you want to focus on.
Caesar:Acquaintances.
Caesar:You're just focusing on gaining connections.
Caesar:You gotta be out there.
Caesar:So look at the pools, the four pools, and just be out there and make acquaintances with friendships.
Caesar:Your focus is going to growing relationships.
Caesar:Hey, I'm running into that person quite often.
Caesar:Maybe God's up to something.
Caesar:Hey, let's see if they want to go out, get a coffee, grab a quick beer or something.
Caesar:Come on over to the yard.
Caesar:We're having a barbecue.
Caesar:Or I got an extra ticket to the soccer game or football game or whatever, like come on for us.
Caesar:It's rugby out of taking guys to rugby Seattle champions.
Caesar:Anyway, with People of Peace, your focus is on developing spiritual interest in them.
Caesar:And, and you're starting to speak the good news to the thing behind the thing, to their bad news.
Caesar:You're starting to help them move from unbelief to belief in some areas, and they're grateful for it.
Caesar:And so you start calling them to really start to walk in the ways of Jesus with you, which is discipleship.
Caesar:And that's what your focus is then is doing life together.
Caesar:Around Jesus.
Caesar:Increasingly it's not a light switch.
Caesar:People don't go from, Hey, I'm a person of peace.
Caesar:I'm in every single thing.
Caesar:Even when you know we do that, when you pray the prayer and then we're like, we're in.
Caesar:It's not like a light switch and now we're totally sanctified and boom, we're the nicest people and we're out there.
Caesar:This is a long journey.
Caesar:My buddy, Hugh halter says when he meets somebody and they seem to be leaning into relationship, he assumes three to five years before they really are getting it an understanding and have moved from unbelief to belief enough to really start walking with Jesus and others in community.
Caesar:He just assumes that sometimes it's way quicker.
Caesar:But he just it's.
Caesar:It takes time.
Caesar:I think Jesus spent three years with his disciples.
Caesar:He was Jesus.
Caesar:They saw them hanging on a cross and die.
Caesar:They saw him rise from the dead.
Caesar:They saw him do miracles again and feed them and eat and hang out and appear and disappear.
Caesar:And it says that at his ascension in Matthew 28, the 11 disciples who were still alive were watching and go, and some still did not believe.
Caesar:So I think he was probably right in there.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So that's your focus.
Caesar:That's what you're trying to focus on during, as, as you're watching people move through those rings in your life.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:So how do identify them again?
Caesar:Just a little reminder, is there a natural bond and chemistry?
Caesar:You know, not everybody likes everybody.
Caesar:Is there a natural bond in chemistry?
Caesar:Do they seem to be leaning into relationship?
Caesar:Leaning in like that seems easy.
Caesar:It's not hard.
Caesar:They like us.
Caesar:Do they look to serve you?
Caesar:and want to be with you when you invite them around.
Caesar:Do they hang out and are they, are they seeming a little interested or at least not turned off by your faith and your lifestyle?
Caesar:That might be a person, a thing, a person of peace.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:It might be a person of peace peace.
Caesar:Now, if you really, if you really want to do this, it just takes intentionality to notice because I promise you God has People of Peace for you.
Caesar:I know right now you've been hearing this.
Caesar:You've already got people coming to mind.
Caesar:God's probably doing that.
Caesar:It's probably the spirit bringing them to mind, start praying, asking what's next Lord with those people.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Here's my buddy, Ben Sternke says.
Caesar:It's a love thing.
Caesar:If you love Jesus and you love people, you're going to want to be out there where the action is.
Caesar:If you find yourself distracted by everything or uninterested or feeling jaded about helping people get to know Jesus, you may be suffering from a lack of love.
Caesar:And he goes on.
Caesar:He says, it's either a lack of love for people.
Caesar:You're more worried about your pride and appearance.
Caesar:Um, or a lack of love for Jesus.
Caesar:You really don't think he's all that great.
Caesar:And worth helping people get to know him.
Caesar:That's both encouraging.
Caesar:And that stings a little bit, right?
Caesar:If you really grasp the degree to which God loves you and believe that the gospel is really good news for everyone, you'll let those fears and those old patterns of self love.
Caesar:And even weird traditions maybe and all that fall away.
Caesar:If you really love Jesus and you love people, give your fears.
Caesar:As I know we have them give them to Jesus.
Caesar:because he's your friend too.
Caesar:He loves you.
Caesar:And there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:See, when we only hang out with our own family.
Caesar:Or just other Christians.
Caesar:I know some of you posted your homework.
Caesar:It was like, yeah, I'm totally going out.
Caesar:And I invited someone from church over
Caesar:I'm like, that's more in right out is not yet believers.
Caesar:Not yet people who are walking with you.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:But if you're only hanging out with your own family and other christians all the time, we're both committing the sin of Israel and their isolation from others, but we're also living out a dead end spiral and sort of a self fulfilling prophecy.
Caesar:Well, nobody seems interested in anything to do with church or Jesus anymore.
Caesar:Hmm.
Caesar:I don't find that to be true at all.
Caesar:People aren't into religion anymore, but that's what Jesus came talking to people about member and said, no, no, no, no.
Caesar:I mean about a religion and law.
Caesar:It's about grace and what I'm going to do for you.
Caesar:And now he says it's finished and I did it.
Caesar:And it's by faith.
Caesar:This is true for you.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:Ask God to take away any fears and selfishness that you might have in your heart, in this area.
Caesar:Okay.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:What do we learn today?
Caesar:Let me just go over it real quick.
Caesar:Jesus model for discov-.
Caesar:And I got prizes coming up in just a second here.
Caesar:Jesus model for discovering People of Peace.
Caesar:We saw how he sent people out.
Caesar:Don't do this alone.
Caesar:Go out.
Caesar:When you meet people, try to bless them.
Caesar:Be nice to them.
Caesar:Speak a blessing.
Caesar:If they return the blessing, pay attention.
Caesar:We also looked at how do identify potential people, a peace in your life right now they're leaning in.
Caesar:They like you.
Caesar:There's chemistry.
Caesar:We talked about the four pools.
Caesar:That we can build relationships in, right?
Caesar:Your neighborhood, third spaces, civic groups, maybe at work.
Caesar:So that gives you ideas and like, just pick one and engage that thing.
Caesar:And we talked about how people move through the rings of relationship from acquaintance to disciple and how to pay attention to that and what your focus is.
Caesar:All right.
Caesar:I bet you are seeing how you've got people in all the different rings and that they are, there's a lot more acquaintances than there are people towards the center of life, where we are making disciples with those.
Caesar:But think about it.
Caesar:Jesus had so many people that follow him around and he preached to the crowds, but he.
Caesar:Hung out with about a dozen or so, and even had is three and right.
Caesar:And so I hope that helps for you to realize the people that God has already placed in your life and where they're at and how you can bring some greater intention.
Caesar:Now.
Caesar:To this process and make more and more disciples of Jesus.
Caesar:And again, depending on when you're listening to this, the Everyday Disciple incubator is still open can get in right now.
Caesar:Crazy.
Caesar:Awesome.
Caesar:Check it out Everyday.
Caesar:Disciple dot com forward slash incubator.
Caesar:I'll talk to you real soon.
Caesar:Thanks for joining us today for more information on this show and to get loads of free discipleship resources, visit Everyday Disciple dot com.