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Remember last week - Mentos and Diet Coke?

Why does this work? - Nucleation

1.  The Gospel Still Works - Reactions Still Happen

What's the fastest growing religion in the world?

• Christianity is the fastest growing religious/spiritual group in the world today
• 175,000 new Christians in the world each day.
• Today there will be 50-60,000 new believers in China
• In India, there will be 40-50,000 new believers before tomorrow morning.
• One missionary had documented 10,000 conversions a month.
• Christianity may be approaching 18% in some Islam countries.
• There are house churches in Pakistan.
• One missionary planted 6 house churches on a busload of Christians traveling home from church, when 6 Christians agreed to host a church in their home, which the missionary could help to preach in.
• Post-Tsunami Indonesia - whole villages converted. Up to 18% of the country now follows Jesus.
• Africa - up from 3% to over 40% in the last 100 years
• The US Department of State estimates that Protestant Christianity may have grown 600% over the last decade in Vietnam

Every Day, The Reaction happens.

Every Day is Pentecost somewhere

2.  Matthew's Party - An Attempt to Start a Reaction

Jesus asked Matthew to follow him and he did

His friends probably thought he's lost his mind.

- Successful business man giving up his career, his identity, his comfortable routine, his financial security

 Tax collectors had a quota

Once they met their requirements they were free to keep the rest

Now he's walking with Jesus.

What do they think of Jesus?

What do they think of me...they know the stuff I was doing.

What if I throw a party...?

3.  Summer Block Parties - Can We Start a Reaction Here?

A.  Many of us Don't Know Spiritual Wanderers

- Fruit Mentos don't work

- Have to Leave the Circle of Comfort for the Zone of the Unknown

This is the love that defined Jesus' life

His Spirit wants your heart to mirror Jesus' heart.

The closer you get to going home with Jesus; don't you want your heart to increasingly look like the heart of the one who loved you?

Jesus came to seek and save the lost.

"I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners."

If our hearts don't mirror that love for people far from God...then our hearts don't mirror Jesus.

Just before Jesus died, he's hanging on the cross.

A person far from God reaches out and Jesus takes the time to extend grace.

None of them are at the table, asking to be saved.

"Just as we are invited to step into the worship of the Trinity in which the Son glorifies the Father in the Spirit, so we are called to share in the mission of the Trinity in which the Father sends the Son by the power of the Spirit to redeem the world.  The word "mission" is derived from the Latin verb for sending.  The Church is missionary because it is sent by God who sends his Son.  The Church does not have a choice about being involved in mission any more than it has a choice about being involved in worship.  Worship and mission belong in the very being of the Church.  We cannot be otherwise than a worshipping community and a missionary people because we have been adopted into the life of God.  God's life is a life of worship overflowing into a life of mission." - Christopher Cocksworth Holy, Holy, Holy.

B.  Who Do We Know / Can We Know?

C.  What Setting Can Bring Them A Step Closer to Following Jesus?

D.  Block Party Challenge

4.  Reaction Takes Investment

E-Trade vs. Snowy River investment

Pearl of Great Price / Treasure in the Field

Matthew 13:44-46 - "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Conclusion

"The question that has to be asked bout the church and about every congregation is not: How big is it? How fast is it growing? How rich is it?  It is: What difference is it making to that bit of the world in which it is placed?  Is it actually functioning as a first-fruit, sign and instrument of God's new creation for that bit of the world? - Lesslie Newbigin