Let Love lead

0:10 So there was this time that I argued with someone, and I

0:14 walked away feeling like I'd won the argument.

0:17 But later God told me I'd actually lost.

0:23 Hi, welcome. Welcome back to Rooted With Me,

0:27 for me. Here, timeless biblical truth is

0:30 brought into everyday life in a way that's clear, honest, and

0:34 grounded. And I'm glad you are here.

0:38 So how are you? How has your week been?

0:43 Mine has been quite demanding. We have this modulating our

0:48 church called Past, which is basically short for prayer and

0:52 fasting. It's our time of consecration.

0:55 It's always powerful. But one thing about consecration

0:58 is it stretches you and it humbles you.

1:02 Yesterday at work I saw about four different people eating

1:05 plantains at different times and it felt like torture.

1:08 Like why did all of you choose planting of all things today?

1:14 But thank God He saw me through, and I trust Him to continue to

1:18 see me through this season as I learned to find my delight in

1:22 Him. Anyway, back to my story.

1:27 Some time ago I met this lady who told me she doesn't believe

1:29 in organized religion. Mind you, she grew up in a

1:33 church, her parents were committed, tragic green people,

1:37 and if I remember correctly, I think either her dad or uncle

1:41 was a pastor in the church. I'm not sure, but I know that

1:46 one of our close family members was a church here at some point.

1:51 Another thing to notice, she currently works for a church as

1:53 a media person. She loves everything media like.

1:56 She's good at it. So to build her portfolio, she

2:00 took a job creating content for the church, capturing the best

2:03 moments of their service. I think when I spoke with her,

2:06 she does more of the editing. Yeah, she likes to.

2:09 She likes to do the editing. She can do all that stuff, but

2:11 she just likes to do the editing.

2:13 So she can edit the pictures, she can edit the videos to make

2:16 them look very good, appealing to the eye and stuff like that.

2:21 Yes, she didn't really believe in any of it.

2:25 Or to put it better, I don't think it's the thing where she

2:27 didn't believe in any of it. She just had so many doubts and

2:31 concerns about the Christianity that just made her to decide she

2:36 doesn't believe in religion or organized religion, as she would

2:40 have said. She said she believed in a

2:41 higher power, but she just wasn't very convinced.

2:46 So of course, I took it as a challenge.

2:48 I switch into apologetics mode quickly, like very quickly.

2:52 And OK, just in case you're wondering, apologetics basically

2:55 means explaining and defending the faith.

2:58 So Peter in first Peter 3 verse 15 was speaking to the

3:03 individuals and he's telling them to always be ready to give

3:05 an answer to anyone who asks about the hope within us.

3:09 That's what apologetics is all about, responding to the deep

3:12 questions people have. Is God real?

3:16 Did Jesus actually exists? Has the Bible been corrupted?

3:20 Is God misogynistic? Does he support slavery?

3:24 How many more questions like that?

3:26 Anyway, I started asking her questions, trying to understand

3:30 where her doubts were coming from, and then I was just

3:33 mapping out answers in my mind. So the moment I got my chance, I

3:37 only did everything I had. The proofs of the existence of

3:41 God, the case for Christ, and some clarifications and

3:44 misconceptions about God and woman or Gods attitude and

3:48 approach towards women. And every time she raised a

3:52 concern, I basically had a response for her like.

3:55 And in that moment I felt all the time I'd spent studying

3:59 apologetics was finally paying off.

4:02 So anyway, some of our questions are things I'd already

4:05 encountered before. Some I had not maybe heard the

4:09 question directly like that, but because of a number of things

4:12 that I already knew, it was not difficult to necessarily answer

4:15 the questions to give reasonably enough answers.

4:18 And I could tell that she was wrestling with a lot of what we

4:20 had discussed. So I just hope that God would

4:23 cause the seeds to grow in our hearts and lead her to Christ

4:25 someday. Because she even talked about

4:27 how why are people always, you know, approaching and asking her

4:30 this? Because I genuinely did not know

4:31 anything about the lady. I just felt prompted to ask her,

4:34 oh, what church do you go to? And it was from dead.

4:36 Everything started. So on my way home that D God

4:42 spoke. It was Claire.

4:44 It was gentle, it was direct. Said he told her everything, but

4:50 he forgot to tell her about my love for her.

4:56 I froze. It hits like a brick.

4:59 In that moment I wasn't trying to save her, I was trying to

5:03 win, and you can win an argument and still lose a soul.

5:11 That day was after I became very sober.

5:13 Essentially, apologetics is good, but love is what actually

5:19 leads a person to life. I want to put a quick disclaimer

5:25 before I go on like it isn't an it will never be our efforts

5:29 that save people because there's also the tendency to think

5:32 that's like, because God spoke to me in that way, someone might

5:34 think, oh, so if I went with love, would I have any better

5:38 part? Would I have been what saved

5:39 her? You must understand that it's

5:41 not us. Salvation is the work of God.

5:44 We plant with water, but God is one who makes his world grow in

5:46 a person's hearts. People still have a choice to

5:49 respond to the call of God. So still God, I'll do the actual

5:53 calling. Still God, I'll do the actual

5:55 conviction. But we have a party play in

5:59 what? Sowing those seeds?

6:01 Also, I'm not speaking against apologetics.

6:04 In fact, more recently, a friend of mine who spends our pastors

6:08 reached out to me with a question.

6:10 He has grown up in church all his life.

6:12 He has served in the church. He has lived around the things

6:14 of God all his life. But he had questions, deep ones,

6:19 and I was reminded in that moment that the things I know

6:21 are not common knowledge. Even Christians have doubts,

6:25 fears, uncertainties. And so this time, by the grace

6:29 of God, I answered him with loving mind, not too sure of

6:31 what I knew, but to strengthen him, to give him clarity and to

6:36 bring hope back. So apologetics matters, and

6:39 there will be a good amount of it here on the Rooted.

6:42 I kid you not. I'm not saying it's going to be

6:44 everything. I'm not saying it's going to be

6:45 the majority, but a number of times one of the things that we

6:48 don't here is answer some of those burning questions that

6:51 people have and it could be as well to answer them.

6:54 So maybe someday if somebody else asks, we can give them the

6:57 answer. We look at God's true heart in

7:00 situations people are sometimes scared to ask about.

7:04 But in other of this feel like I've said but so many times, but

7:09 none of this love must still lead.

7:13 So as much as we are not the ones who save people and it is

7:18 God who does the actual saving, and as much as apologetics is

7:22 good and essential, love must lead.

7:26 I want you to picture this. Let's say you're standing in a

7:28 huge debate stage. Lights, camera, action, audience

7:33 pressure, everything. Your pride is on the line.

7:37 You want to assert yourself as a more dominant force.

7:40 You want to show that your voice is the more convincing 1

7:44 Everything about how you'd prepare your arguments, how you

7:47 would illustrate, how you would demonstrate your hands,

7:49 everything to the smallest details.

7:51 You would ensure that you will find them just so that you come

7:54 out on top, or your entire approach will be different.

7:58 If you're speaking to someone who was on the very verge of

8:00 committing suicide, your tone would soften, your posture would

8:06 shift, your urgency would increase.

8:11 Winning an argument is about a certain force.

8:14 It's about protecting your pride or trying to stop someone from

8:17 dying. That's about convincing them

8:20 that there's still a reason to live, that there is still hope.

8:25 In the same way, when we approach people with the gospel,

8:27 our goal isn't to defeat them or isn't to win an argument.

8:30 It's to rescue them. The idea is to save them, have

8:34 them saved to convince them that even if they might be

8:37 spiritually dead, and when I say spiritually dead, I mean

8:40 separated from God, there is still hope.

8:43 There is Christ, our living hope.

8:47 So the aim is not to conquer people, but to save them.

8:50 And I won't lie, it's hard sometimes, especially when the

8:53 person is maybe hostile or pushing your buttons or you must

8:57 let love lead in those meant when he just feels like

9:01 everything, you just wants to rise and just wants to battle it

9:04 out. You must let love lead.

9:07 Give them a reason to believe that Jesus Christ loves them

9:13 enough and wants to have a relationship with them after

9:17 God. You stop loving you despite how

9:19 difficult you were at different times or how difficult we've

9:22 been at difficult times in our lives.

9:26 So let love lead. And that's a wrap for today's

9:32 episode. Please, if you're not following,

9:34 please follow, turn on your notification so you know when

9:37 another episode drops. Ideally, episodes drop every

9:41 Friday, so Fridays should be the day you're looking out.

9:44 All your alerts give a rating as well.

9:48 And share this with someone. Let them know that love most

9:50 leaders in our evangelism, in our apologetics, in our dealing

9:55 with both believers and unbelievers, just like Christ.

10:00 So bye for now, stay rooted.