(SLIDE 1) I don't know about you, but since talking to you last week about walking across rooms and entering zones of the unknown, it seems that I have become preoccupied with people. At the gym, in the hospital, in the community, at the store-I find myself asking God, “Am I supposed to be feeling anything? Do you want me to say something? Is there an open door for me to say something about the single greatest gift? Recently, a gentleman made an appointment with me to talk about a project he was producing on the subject of addictions recovery. As the conversation neared its end, I sensed one of those Spirit promptings and probed him a little about his faith. I had assumed since he was heavily involved in recovery efforts, he was a believer. But I found out otherwise. He was a seeker. We talked for a little while, I gave him a copy of The Purpose Driven Life, and I suggested that we hook up again.

Last week his name came across my mind. I interpreted that to be another prompting of the Spirit. So I picked up phone and called him just to say hello and let him know that I had been praying for him and to work out a time that we could get together for lunch.

Friends, we're in this thing together. I'm learning right alongside you. We're not taking six weeks of our calendar just to promote another program that's here today and gone tomorrow. We all need to become walk-across-the-room people. We need for God to use us to point people far from God to faith. Pointing people to faith is what God's heart beats for. He gave His one and only Son to reach lost people, right? Let's quickly recap last week's thrust. (SLIDE 2) We said that if we want to offer people the single greatest gift, we must, first, be willing to enter the Zone of the Unknown (leave our Circles of Comfort); second, listen for the Spirit's promptings by relying on His guidance instead of our own; third, just walk, remembering that Jesus took a walk across the cosmos for us.

Let's assume that we all are willing to take a walk. We've left the Circle of Comfort. Now what? What do I think about? What do I pray about? What on earth do I say? We will address these questions today by exploring what I call “Living in 3D.” By living in 3D we can operate successfully in the Zone of the Unknown.

The first “D” is to develop friendships. (SLIDE 3) If we are going to reflect the Father's heart, we must be in a continuous search mode for new friends. We must look for ways to connect with new people. I believe all of heaven rejoices when you decide to walk across a room to meet someone. Some of these encounters will provide opportunities for you to engage in spiritual conversation.

Let me illustrate what I'm talking about. Do any of you remember direct and indirect variations from high school algebra? Let's say you're trying to evaluate a young man's height and weight. We'll call this guy Jake. (SLIDE 4-image 1)

Maybe Jake just hit puberty, and so his height skyrocketed last year. Jake grew 10 percent in one year. [slide 4-image 2]

Now, if his height and weight are in direct variation, then as one goes up, the other goes up too ... in “direct” proportion. So, if Jake grew 10 percent taller last year, then he also gained 10 percent more weight. [slide 4-image 3]

Indirect variation would be reflected in a situation where Jake's height and weight go in opposite directions. [slide 4-image 4] In other words, Jake got taller-his height increased-but simultaneously, he lost the same proportion of weight-his weight decreased.

Now, let's take these same concepts and apply them to the life of a Christ-follower. Let's say that “Jane” has been walking with Christ for ten years. [slide 4-image 5] She comes to Christ, experiences life transformation. She thinks it's about the best thing she's ever experienced.

Her walk with Christ is thriving. [slide 4-image 6] Additionally, she has a newfound compassion for the people around her. More than anything, she wants those people to find Christ also. And so she embraces them and walks with them along their own journeys toward faith.

In other words, all is as it should be! [slide 4-image 7] Jane is walking with Christ ... and experiencing a corresponding increase in her love and acceptance of the exact same people whom Christ loves. It's all good.

Over time, Jane sees dozens of her friends and family members come to faith in Christ-the transformation she witnesses is simply astounding! These new Christ-followers and Jane start hanging out with greater frequency, just to chat about how much they love Jesus ... how much they love the new lives they're living as a result of His intervention in their worlds. It's all good!

But then something strange takes place. Things turn ... not so good. After many months, or even many years go by, Jane's life becomes nearly 100 percent consumed by her friends who love Jesus. Jane no longer reaches out. She no longer feels that initial enthusiasm for sharing Christ with people outside the faith. She exists in her warm, safe Circle of Comfort.

Here's how this scenario plays out: we have Jane walking with Christ ... that part is still going strong. But simultaneously, the love for folks not yet walking with God wanes. . [slide 4-image 8] Proximity to Jesus increases while proximity to the people who need Him decreases. This is the most awful “indirect variation” known to humankind.

Seems hard to believe, doesn't it-that this trend could take place in the life of someone who is genuinely walking with Jesus Christ?

If you think about it, this whole dynamic is what makes the Circle of Comfort so comfortable. Almost all of us find it quite easy to love some people-maybe a spouse or our parents or our kids ... our friends at work, our friends at church. We see them, and our initial reaction is love.

Almost everyone has a loving heart toward some people. But here's what may not be so easy to admit. Almost every human being also has a secret list of people they just can't stand. A business partner, a spouse, a neighbor, ethnic group, those in a different socioeconomic level, Tigers, Gamecocks.

So when I say that we need to love people outside our circle, we tend to throw up qualifiers. They better be nice, they better be safe, they better hold to my values, they better be deserving. They better be pro-life. They better be white.

[SLIDE 5-LK 15] Do you remember the stories Jesus told in Luke 15 about the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son? You may remember the stories, but do you remember why Jesus told them? He was hanging out with some people far away from God-folks who cursed, drank too much, ran around on their wives-folks who would not be considered the most reputable in the world. He enjoyed rubbing shoulders with them. But to the religious leaders what Jesus was doing was scandalous. Jesus was hanging out with people on their list, the very people they hated. The very ones they assumed God was disgusted with.

It was in this setting that Jesus told the three stories. He starts with big scale-100 sheep, then He narrows it down to ten coins and then to one son. One dumb sheep wanders away and gets itself lost. One of the ten coins gets misplaced. And the one son asks for his inheritance, leaves town, and blows it all on wine, women, and wild living.

The Bible doesn't tell us how these religious leaders reacted. But it was evident Jesus directed the message behind these stories towards them. In all three stories, something wound up missing-a sheep, a coin, a son. Moreover, what was missing really mattered to somebody. The sheep mattered to the shepherd. The coin mattered to the woman. The son certainly mattered to the father.

But the most important lesson here is that the Pharisees would be taught a very important truth that the Father's heart was not like their heart. The Father's heart is indiscriminately loving. These folks Jesus hung out with really mattered to the Father. In fact, they were on His love list. In fact, God doesn't even have a hate list when it comes to human beings.

[SLIDE 6] So the first “D” is to develop friendships. Before you will ever walk across the room and approach a perfect stranger, you will have to overcome what is inherent in many of our attitudes, this awful filter that says, “Unless you pass my list of qualifiers, I refuse to reach out to you.” I wonder how many dozens of people we screened out this week simply because they didn't fit the mold of who we normally hang out with. We've got to get rid of this ungodly practice.

So many of us are growing in our walk with Christ. We grow in knowledge, in worship, in serving, in giving. But are we also growing in our ability to radically accept whoever is standing on the other side of the room...no matter what? Developing friendships. That's where 3D living must begin.

Once you walk across the room and begin to develop friendships, you will see some pretty interesting doors swing wide open. One opportunity, which is the second “D” is to discover people's stories. [SLIDE 7] We develop friendships in order to discover stories.

There's a couple at the gym who started working out a couple of months ago. He pumps iron and she walks. I really try to put into practice the truths I'm teaching you in this series. But at first, this fellow hardly would even look at me. I would speak to him. But that was about it. Finally, one day I probed him about the shorts he was wearing and asked if he was a strong supporter of that particular school. And so we were able to dialogue a little bit.

Another day I was able to go a little deeper and find out about his career and where he was from. I formally introduced myself and learned his name. Over the last few weeks it seems I've been able to go a little deeper. I don't think the trust level is deep enough yet to spring on him that I'm a Baptist preacher. But who knows? He may have already figured that out.

One day I asked him where he lived. He identified the subdivision he lives in and that he lives with his girlfriend. Now, I could have probably destroyed our trust level immediately had I pointed out the evils of cohabitation. No way I was going to do that. Now, we're at the point where he even starts the conversation sometimes. It's usually about football, but that's okay.

I don't know where this friendship will take us. Here is what I do know. Once someone trusts you, that person will become very open about his story, even those not so pretty parts, which in turn will open the door for you to share God's love and help meet those needs. When I stay focused on building trust (no matter how long it takes), fantastic doors of opportunity swing wide open.

Some of you have been staying in your Circle of Comfort for a long time. Step out. Give it a try. Strike up a relationship with a lost person and start hanging out. Start praying and start trying to have a spiritual conversation. Reconnect with the real world. Get the spotlight off you for a change. Just see what God might do. That person may be one prayer or one conversation away from knowing the God you know.

God will provide for you some divine intersections this week. I pray that you will take the path that leads to engaging the person and perhaps providing him/her with a resource that will meet a need.

This leads to our third point. First, develop friendships. Second, discover stories. Third, discern next steps. [slide 8] Okay, you've walked across the room and stuck out a hand of friendship. You're discovering the person's story. Now, while all this is going on, in your heart you are praying. No, let me restate that. In your heart you are begging God for direction, for insight, for creative ideas, for appropriate next steps.

Let me show you a short clip that I think illustrates this idea of taking appropriate next steps in situations that may be turning spiritual. You will meet Dave, a sailing buddy of Bill Hybels, who felt firsthand what it was like to have someone take appropriate next steps in his life. [video, 1:15] [slide 9-next steps activity] Last week I asked you to mail a postcard to the person most influential in pointing you to Christ. This week I want us to go a little deeper and see the things that helped us warm up to the idea of submitting our lives to Christ. The video pointed out several next steps that Bill used in Dave's life. (You will learn how that story turned out in next week's small group session.)

Here are some of the next steps Bill used. He asked about his wife, Beth. He asked about his work, making Dave feel accepted and not threatened. He gave him a book on apologetics that answered some of the questions he had about Christianity. He told him he was going to pray for him every day that week.

Here's what I'd like for us to do. I want you to spend a few moments thinking about some of the “next steps” people took in your life that helped you understand God's love and generated a desire to have God in your life. Maybe someone gave you a book or said they would pray for you. Maybe it's something far different. What were the steps that really mattered to you? Take out your next steps card in your bulletin. Spend a couple minutes reflecting and then write one step on each card. Once you've written yours down bring your card forward and drop it in the basket.

[slide 10-Mark 3] Mark 3 tells about a man with a withered hand. The Pharisees were trying to catch Jesus in violation of Sabbath laws. So they drag this man with a withered hand into the temple to see if Jesus would take the bait. What these religious leaders did angered Jesus. The Message Bible says, “He was furious at their hard-nosed religion.” They prized religious laws over showing radical love to someone who desperately needed it.

Jesus, making no apologies asked the man to step up and be healed. He couldn't not heal the guy. If there is one thing I want to leave with you today, it is this. You have the privilege of reaching people around you with the same radical love and acceptance that Jesus displayed everywhere He went.

This same radical love and acceptance was extended to you at some point along the way. Take a look at the people filling this auditorium. I'm standing in front of a couple hundred pieces of evidence of Christ's love. [Read aloud a dozen cards.] All of us were withered in one way or another when people around us chose to take an appropriate “next step” or two to move us a little closer to God.

Around you every day are people with withered parts-withered minds, withered energy, withered hope. I wonder if God might want to use you to help heal a few of those withered parts between now and next Sunday. [slide 11-campaign] A new week is before us. We can choose to invest it in things that glorify and satisfy us, or we can choose to invest it in things that glorify and satisfy God. I challenge you this week to “live in 3D.” Develop friendships, with all sorts of people. Discover stories, remembering to focus on the other person. Discern next steps, letting the Spirit guide our every action. Be spiritually alert to the Spirit's promptings, asking Him to lead us toward people with whom we're supposed to build bridges of friendship. You never know when God is going to use you to be the very one to lead someone into the kingdom.