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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Jonathan Zita

Reaching the Secular Mind

So we're going to talk about compassion, reaching the secular mind for Christ.

And as some of you know, I mean, I mentioned it a little bit before, I work with literature Ministry across Canada.

1 program we do is Canada Youth Challenge.

And the Canada Youth Challenge, we have, it depends on the year, 60 to 100 students, pretty much in every province across Canada, every conference across Canada.

And they knock on doors, sharing literature with people.

We also do GLOW ministry, and we also do iHeal.

What we do is we do lifestyle assessments with individuals, and we use the books that we have.

We have very good books, especially books from Spain, Safaris, to help people with their lifestyle.

So everything centers around literature, okay?

But We meet secular people all the time and sometimes people ask, well, how do we reach out to people that are secular?

How do we reach out, whether it's on campus, whether it's people we work with, whether it's family members that don't really have an interest for God, how do you reach these people?

And so what we want to do, we want to just to cover some basic principles and then just share some practical tips of how God can use you to be able to reach them because these individuals are human beings that need to be reached, right?

I was in an apartment building in Ottawa, actually, which is the capital of Canada.

I had been knocking all day and I had somewhat some success sharing books about health, character building, and spiritual books.

And I remember I went into the elevator to go out for the day.

And I think it was like the 22nd, 23rd floor.

And then the floor right under, a couple walked in, a young lady and a man.

And the door shut and we rolled the elevator together all the way to the bottom.

And you know, I, during that elevator ride, I felt very uncomfortable because they started to discuss things that were not appropriate, things that they had done probably in their bedroom.

You know, and I felt like rebuking them in the name of God, but something told me hold my peace and just pray for them.

And I've never been around prostitutes per se, but the way she dressed, I thought she was a prostitute.

And so I prayed and I said, Lord, obviously this young lady, especially the young lady, she was the most vocal, doesn't know you and I pray that she may somehow get to know you.

Ding, reached the bottom, the door opened, I walked out, they walked out, that was it.

Now I've knocked at thousands and thousands of doors.

But about a month or so later, I was walking in a shopping, in a mall.

And I'm walking down the mall and I see the same young lady with 2 or 3 friends walking towards me and I'm thinking, strange.

You know, first of all, I don't recognize people usually, but I recognized her.

And I was prompted again to pray, to pray for her.

And I said, Lord, and I'm walking towards her.

I don't know, I mean, I pray that she may find you.

I said, Lord, if you want to use me to reach out to her, I'm willing.

And so I keep walking and she keeps walking and that's it.

A few months later, I'm knocking doors in another apartment building and this time I brought a church member with me.

She was excited about knocking on doors and I said, sure, come see.

People don't bite generally and then you can have a wonderful experience.

So she went with me for a couple hours in the evening And it was time to go home.

And so I said, we were in another apartment building somewhere, and I said, sister, we need to go home.

She was West Indian, you know, and she had that West Indian fervor in her.

And so she says, no, we need to do 1 more door.

We need to keep going, she actually said.

And I was trying to explain to her, there comes a point where when it's really late, knocking becomes counterproductive, you know, like they call the police and things like that, that's not gospel, you know, it's not the best light, the way to let your light shine, right, so, but she could not be deterred, she says, no, we need to do 1 more door, at least, And I said, and you know, my dad is from the West Indies, and sometimes when they are set on something, and it's not the only culture like that.

But when they're on set on something, there's nothing you can do to change their mind.

And I saw that look in her face and I said, okay, we're gonna do 1 more door, but we need to go home, okay?

So we're at this door, and we need to go at this door.

She says, no, spirit says we need to do that door.

And I'm like, lady, let's just do a door.

So I went to the door, I knocked at the door, and who do you think opens the door?

And I'm like, and I pray, Lord, please help me not to mess this 1 up.

And so I pray quick prayer like Nehemiah, and I start talking with the lady, the young lady.

And she actually lets us into her apartment.

And we go in, we sit down, we start talking.

She was sick that day, and so she had stayed home all day.

And that's why she was actually interested in letting us in because she was sick and we were offering something on health, right?

So she let us in, we sat down, we started talking, making friends with her.

There was a book on health called Health Power by Hans Diehl, some of you may know it, very good book.

And so she was really excited about that.

And so I pulled out another book called God's Answers to Your Questions.

And when she saw that book, her face just changed.

And like many Canadians do, because they don't want anything to do with, very atheist type country.

Anyways, she saw the book and she says, what, God?

She says, no, I don't want anything to do with God.

And then she muttered something about if God is so good, why did he let her dad get shot?

But you know, I learned something that day.

I learned sometimes what people mumble is sometimes what's the most important.

And sometimes also it's what it's not so much what people say but sometimes what they don't say.

So we have to be in tune with God's spirit to be able to listen to individuals.

And so I listened and I caught the mumbling and I said, since she was young, I said, hey, you want to know why your dad died?

So you know, we had to do a little damage control, make the mood a little bit more happy again.

And then when things were just right, the church member lady pulled the book out of my bag, same book, God's answer to your question, gave it to her and says, God wants you to have this book.

And she looked at the book, she says, no, I don't want to do anything.

Reaching the Secular Mind

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