Just Ask

Sarah is one of the strongest believers we met in Japan. Thirty years in the country, married, two children, a woman of God you would want at your table. But when she was a teenager with a hard home and a reputation she did not earn, a church youth group invited her in. She felt welcome. She felt warmth. She felt what she later understood was the love of God. And not one person in that room ever asked her if she wanted to receive Jesus.

They loved her. They fed her. They let her belong. Nobody asked. She came to Christ years later, but not there and not then. Think of what those years could have held.

Paul writes salvation as a chain: call, believe, hear, someone. Every link is God's work except the last one, and God chose to put a human voice there on purpose. He did not have to. He could have written the gospel in the sky. Instead He put it in the mouths of ordinary people who love someone enough to say it out loud.

Belonging is not the same as being asked. Sunday you wrote a name on a card, or you meant to. Today, hold that name before God. You are not being asked to be an evangelist. You are being asked to be the someone.

We were feeding people experiencing homelessness in Tokyo. Mr. Yamada was in the line and every sign was there. He was open, listening, asking questions, and I felt the Holy Spirit press on me: lead this man to Christ. One of the pastors with us said, kindly, “He is on his path.” He meant it with respect. Leave it. He is in process.

So I asked Mr. Yamada a different question. “What is stopping you?” He said he felt he needed to learn more first. And I told him what Paul tells us here. We are not saved by knowing enough. We are saved by believing. A humble heart, turned toward God, that admits it needs a Savior and is willing to follow Jesus. Mr. Yamada said yes! 

Sunday we read Romans 10:9-10 together out loud, because this is the whole script. You do not need a seminary degree. You need this passage and a willing mouth.

Notice the two verbs. Believe in your heart. Declare with your mouth. Faith is not a private feeling we keep to ourselves until we are sure. It is spoken. Mr. Yamada's yes was spoken, and a little later he was singing in the rain with a microphone in his hand.

Nozumu is a young man whose sister had prayed for his salvation for a long time. Everyone at Kiseki Camp knew it. At one point he sat between two pastors for a good stretch of the evening. Nobody asked him. We were busy. The schedule was full. We were about to move on to the next thing and walk right past a door God had already opened.

So two of the young adults and I took him aside. It was not on the schedule. We sat down. We talked. We answered his questions. And we asked. Nozumu said yes, and he was saved at that camp. No better sermon. No better program. Three people who slowed down and sat down.

Look at the verbs in Acts 8. The Spirit said go. Philip ran. Philip asked. The man said, “How can I, unless someone.” Then he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Go, run, ask, sit. Beat for beat, that is Nozumu's story. It even ends the same way: “Look, here is water. What can stand in the way?”

Philip was not on that desert road by schedule. An angel pulled him off the map for one man. The Holy Spirit is willing to interrupt your calendar for one person. Busy people walk past people. You don't need a sermon. You need a chair.

Sunday we looked at a ladder. Rung four, ask the question: “Would you like to receive Jesus as your Lord?” Rung three, share His story. Rung two, share your story. Rung one, ask someone to come. Most of us stare at the top rung and say, “That is not me.” Fine. Nobody has to start at the top.

The ladder runs both directions. When you ask someone to come on October 4, they walk into a room where people tell their stories, where the gospel is read out loud, and where somebody at a table will eventually ask them the question. You do not have to climb the whole ladder. You have to get one person to the bottom rung. It starts with a simple ask.

Look at the verb Jesus uses. Ask. He tells the disciples to ask the Lord of the harvest for workers, and in the very next chapter He sends the same disciples out. The ones who prayed for workers became the workers. You prayed over a name on Sunday. You are the worker you prayed for.

The cards arrive next week. You do not have to wait for them. Today the invitation is a link and three words of your own. Send becomers.net/clothed to your one name and say, “Come with me.” That is rung one, and it is done.

Somebody asked you once. A parent, a friend, a Sunday school teacher, a stranger on a plane. You are a Becomer because of it. Sarah waited years because nobody asked. Mr. Yamada said yes because somebody finally did. Nozumu said yes because three people sat down. Asked people ask people.

Notice what Levi does the moment Jesus says “Follow me.” He gets up, leaves everything, and throws a dinner party. His first act as a disciple is to fill a table with the people who knew him before, so they can meet the One who changed him. He does not preach to them. He seats them next to Jesus.

That is what October 4 is. A table. Lunch at 11:50, teaching at noon, honest conversation, prayer, and a free book. The easiest invitation you will ever make is not a sermon. It is a seat. “Come with me.”

This week we sent one link. Sunday we will hear how it went, and we will hear the sentences you found in the Going Deeper thread, from Andrew to Levi. Nobody has to report a yes. Asking is the whole assignment. God takes it from there, the way He did in Tokyo, the way He did at Kiseki Camp, the way He did with you.