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Episode 17 - See People the Way God Does
30 Plays2 months ago
In this episode of Pray and See, host Brian Brooks invites listeners to slow down and look at the world through God’s eyes. Drawing from Matthew 9 and a powerful story from Central Ohio Youth for Christ’s detention center ministry, Brian shares how prayer transforms not only our hearts but also the way we see others.
Email pray@coyfc.org with topic suggestions, or to link up with a prayer team!
Pray & See is a ministry of Central Ohio Youth for Christ.
- Central Ohio Youth for Christ: www.coyfc.org
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- Equip Auto: www.equipautosales.com
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Pray and See' Podcast
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the Pray and See podcast. I'm Brian Brooks, your host. I'm glad to connect with you to share how God moves through prayer in our Youth for Christ ministries and some things I've seen in my own life.
Biblical Inspiration and Youth Transformation
00:00:18
Speaker
What we're doing here on this podcast, every episode, is introducing an idea, a piece of truth from the Bible that invites you to pray to animate your prayer life to open your eyes to see what god is doing we're sharing stories from our ministry with central ohio youth for christ and how god is changing the lives of young people around central ohio through people like you and me and through prayer but also how God is doing that in other places.
How Does Meeting Jesus Change Lives?
00:00:50
Speaker
The reason is because meeting Jesus and starting a personal relationship with God changes everything. And this is something that God offers people as a gift, something that he makes way for you to be forgiven by God, for shame and guilt to be taken away so you can relate to him freely and join him in his mission.
00:01:15
Speaker
Romans ah chapter 10, verse 9 through 10 says, If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved.
00:01:26
Speaker
For with the heart, one believes and is justified, and with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. The scripture says, Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. People wonder,
00:01:39
Speaker
How do I know if I'm good enough for God? How do I know if I'm gonna be accepted? Can I have certainty?
Engaging in God's Planned Good Works
00:01:47
Speaker
The Bible says that you can, that it's a transaction with you and the Lord coming to a place where you know you can't be good enough, but God is offering belonging in his family through Jesus.
00:02:02
Speaker
And he wants us to ask for it. Then the Bible says everyone who believes in Jesus won't be put to shame.
Harmony's Story of Change
00:02:09
Speaker
One of the things we get to do after that is you get to take part in the good works that God has planned in advance for you to do.
00:02:17
Speaker
Whether you're 11 years old in middle school or if you're decades later, you can participate in what God has. It's awesome. One of those things is prayer.
00:02:29
Speaker
Today, what we're going to look at is praying for the harvest. Pray to see people that you meet just like God sees them.
00:02:40
Speaker
So a couple months ago in our ministry to students in a detention center, a volunteer ministry leader and our staff person, they got to connect with this girl Harmony.
00:02:53
Speaker
And she was very hostile, very anti-God. She listened to this volunteer leader and our staff guy talk to her about God.
00:03:05
Speaker
And one day she decided, you know what? If God can forgive me, i think I want that. She came the very next day to Bible study full of a journal and pages of notes.
00:03:17
Speaker
things that she was praying about. And this girl came from a really violent past and she had gotten in fights and altercations in the detention facility.
00:03:29
Speaker
One was breaking out and instead of participating in it, she decided she was going to get in a safe place, lay down, and she was praying that God would help the people to reconcile and so the fight wouldn't get worse.
00:03:47
Speaker
And this is a girl that was no doubt in the detention center for things that she did that weren't that great.
Jesus' Compassion and Call to Prayer
00:03:54
Speaker
But our volunteer leader and our staff person, they saw her like God did and wanted to share with her God's offer of forgiveness and it changed her life.
00:04:09
Speaker
Matthew 9 says that when Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them. His gut was stirred. He was moved on a deep level because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.
00:04:26
Speaker
And he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
00:04:38
Speaker
We're going to unpack the rest of this passage in a later episode, but the beginning of it, it says Jesus saw the crowds. He literally saw them with his eyes. And his reaction was he had compassion.
00:04:51
Speaker
There was something about how Jesus saw people. He could see what they were struggling with, where they were at, that they were lost, that they had experienced
Seeing People Through God's Eyes
00:05:01
Speaker
brokenness. They had pain and he wanted to do something about it.
00:05:06
Speaker
We can pray for the harvest, pray to see people that we meet just as God sees them. The person who made your cup of coffee at Starbucks, people you pass in the hallway at school, your neighbors down the street when you walk in your neighborhood, wherever, people that you pass, God knows them.
00:05:29
Speaker
He knows what they have going on. We can pray that we will see them just like he does.
00:05:37
Speaker
Jesus also would regularly encounter interruptions. In John verse 4, he encountered an interruption. He took a roundabout way to go from one city to the next, went through a rough area, encountered people that Jewish people would not have wanted to talk to.
00:05:57
Speaker
And one woman that he interacted with brought a fair amount of people from the town to hear Jesus. And Jesus called the attention of his followers and said, look at this crowd. It's like the field is white with harvest. These people are coming because they need something.
00:06:15
Speaker
They need something from God. How can you see people like God sees them? and People know that the world is broken deep down. And I think most people know that they're broken too.
00:06:29
Speaker
Instead, for me, i usually look at people I get in a comparison game. They look more fit. They look healthier, wealthier, more organized. They're more driven than me. They're just better people.
00:06:41
Speaker
That's not what God is inviting us to, thankfully. He instead wants us to experience his level of compassion and care for every single person that you run into.
00:06:53
Speaker
This is a great invitation and something we can pray for.
00:06:59
Speaker
Here's a challenge. Who is God putting in your path?
00:07:06
Speaker
who'd Who are you gonna see for the rest of your day today? Or who will you see tomorrow? Ask God to open your eyes to see people like he does. All the people that you run into out in public.
00:07:19
Speaker
A simple prayer of asking God that you would see people as he sees them will change your perspective on them, on your life, your time, your interactions.
Joining the Ministry and Final Thoughts
00:07:33
Speaker
You know, it might make you slow down a little bit more to wonder, is this random person that I'm right by, is this someone God is bringing my way so I can love them?
00:07:45
Speaker
This is true if you're a middle school student If you're much older, it doesn't matter. If you know Jesus, God wants to send you on the same mission of love and reconciliation that we get to be a part of at Youth for Christ.
00:07:59
Speaker
There's many opportunities to join ah Youth for Christ ministry, to get to be a person like this, interacting with students who desperately need to hear about the love and grace that comes from God and the purpose that God wants to give them.
00:08:16
Speaker
But I think it starts with where you're at right now. Pray to see people like God sees them. Well, thanks for listening. I hope you take the challenge and ask God to change your perspective on the people that you run into.
00:08:30
Speaker
It's something I've done. It's been a real game changer. It's slowed me down and helped me realize what's really important. It's people.
00:08:40
Speaker
And if this podcast has been helpful for you, share the podcast with your friends, your family, people you serve within a ministry, others in your church or school. We want to get the word out there so more people can learn to pray and join God in what he's doing.
00:08:57
Speaker
Pray and See is a ministry of Central Ohio Youth for Christ. And we will see you next time on the podcast.