GCC Reach Your Neighbor/LEADS Retreat 2025

Georgia-Cumberland Conference

Ann Thrash-Trumbo

The Art of Redemptive Listening

Father in Heaven, thank you so much for this time together, this precious weekend that we have just been absorbing so much blessing and goodness.

So many people who have wonderful things to tell and share.

I just ask that Your Holy Spirit would help our minds to be very absorptive so that we can retain all that we're taking in this week.

And Lord, especially right now, we ask that you would be our teacher.

And so we are thankful we are here in your presence.

Let me ask you out of the first 2, can you hear me okay in the back?

Okay, because I think that in this room we're resonant enough that hopefully you can hear okay.

You know what I'm finding out as I talk with people?

I've talked with thousands of people in their homes, in various venues, and I have found that they actually have a spiritual experience that predates them meeting me.

Now I know that may sound a little silly.

When did God first start working in your life?

When were you first aware of the moving of God in your life?

In fact, I sometimes even hear people say, Oh, I'm sure God was working before I was born.

He was working things out before I was born.

If He does that for us, He's doing that for your friends too.

He has been working in their lives, all their lives.

And I know that sounds funny, but I will say, I used to kind of think that God was waiting for me to show up at their door, or for them to come to meetings at our church, or for them to find 3ABN, or Lifetalk Radio, or 1 of those wonderful evangelistic outlets that we have.

But God is working and we have the privilege to come in partway through that journey with them and take sometimes 1 step.

Sometimes we get to walk a good little stretch of the path with people.

Sometimes we are with them near the very beginning, or even a little pre their Christian decisions.

Sometimes we get to see them make big Christian decisions in their lives.

We don't know where we stand in people's lives.

Where what point of the path we're walking.

But God is already working and we have the privilege of going part way with people.

As I get started I'd like to give credit to Dr.

He wrote an amazing book called Soul Talk.

And it is filled with all manner of good information.

Some of the concepts that we're going to be talking about today, I learned from him.

Not all, but some of what you're going to be hearing today comes from him.

Talking with someone about spiritual things?

How do you start to approach someone's problems that they start to tell you about as you're starting to build that spiritual relationship with them?

I think we always want to remember, it's not about me.

And it's about my friend that I'm talking with that's pouring out something to me.

What is it that God is doing in their lives?

Now going in, I think a lot of times we are worried that our lives are not quite far enough along, that our own spiritual experience is not quite what it needs to be, that my life isn't perfect enough for me to be able to speak into somebody else's life or to help make any difference in their lives.

You may be struggling with problems yourself.

Or you may say, I'm pretty fresh, new at this faith journey myself.

I'm still learning how to understand the Bible.

Or you may say, I've got problems in my own marriage.

I've got problems with my own weight, my own health, my own temper, my own, you know, you fill in the blank.

What is it that you've got a problem with?

I've got messy lives your friend that you're talking to that's why they're talking to you their life has issues But we also want to remember that wherever you are in your journey, Oh, they're Karen's, okay.

So wherever you are in your journey, God has brought you to a place of understanding some things and learning things in your own life that you can share with others.

He comforts us with comfort that we can comfort others with.

So, ultimately, it's about God who's working in your friend's messy life and in your messy life.

That's who we want to keep focused on here.

How do we deal with these spiritual issues?

These spiritual or sometimes physical problems that people talk to us about?

I don't think that every single conversation that we have with people has to be spiritual.

I think it's appropriate to just pass the time of day sometimes.

You see the neighbor out mowing the lawn, you just wave.

You don't have to go over and present a salvation Bible study right then it's okay to just pass the time day It's okay to have a business conversation with the teller at the bank.

It's okay to just have a Great time with friends, But there are moments when somebody opens their heart to you and you know that it's an opportunity to invite your friend into a deeper relationship with Jesus.

You know that if ministry is going to happen in that moment, it's going to be you that Jesus is going to do the work through.

Here are a few problems and situations that I have personally faced in my life and ministry.

There's been an affair and the other spouse is understandably very angry and absolutely devastated.

Or a friend, weeping, confesses that they're gay.

Or someone tells you about their deep anger towards a friend who has betrayed them.

Another friend tells me that they've just found out that their husband is very involved in pornography and they're devastated.

They don't know what this means for them.

Or another friend's teenage son has just gotten arrested.

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The Art of Redemptive Listening

Transcript

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