Speaker 1: What a blessing to be here all morning with FCC.
Speaker 1: Good morning, how are we doing?
Speaker 1: Okay, man, I'm just excited because I have been watching the FCC story for the last six years, since Pastor Nate came from a distance, following you guys online and watching what God has been doing here in Sassoon to see you guys make Jesus known to this community.
Speaker 1: It's just been so cool to watch from a distance, and now to be able to be here in person today has been a true blessing, and so I'm grateful to be in the house with you, and I thought I would take a moment to embarrass your pastor a little bit.
Speaker 1: Is that okay if I do that?
Speaker 1: So I'll have some pictures that I wanted to show you of our time in the 2000s.
Speaker 1: This first picture is when we were graduating college together from the same school.
Speaker 1: This is a little bit less hair on the lip and a little less muscles on the body, I think, probably at this point.
Speaker 1: So Nate has been an incredible friend for me and for my wife and for our family.
Speaker 1: He was the best man at my wedding, which is the other picture that I wanted to show you.
Speaker 1: This is me and Nate on my wedding day for almost 14 years ago hard to believe and we were just kids back then but so grateful for his friendship.
Speaker 1: And Nate is truly one of those friends that is so impactful and helpful for me in my life and I'm blessed and honored to call him a friend and I just I hope you guys know that you have one of the best pastors in the country right here in Nate Stone Street.
Speaker 1: So, man, what a friend.
Speaker 1: And I just, I hope you guys know that you have one of the best pastors in the country right here in Nate Stone Street.
Speaker 1: So, man, what a blessing.
Speaker 1: So, as Nate mentioned, along with my family and a team of people who are coming along with us, we're beginning the preparation to launch Odyssey Church, and so we've got a picture of our team that's starting to form and starting to come together.
Speaker 1: This is actually a couple of months ago and we have a number of other people already who've been joining us and coming alongside to be a part of the launch team.
Speaker 1: How many of you know and believe in a God who does new things?
Speaker 1: Amen, and I'm grateful for a God who wants to do a new thing and start a new church in the Seattle area and, as Nate mentioned, seattle is a city that needs churches and there's not a lot of people who believe in God yet, and so we're believing that God will do an incredible miracle in the city and in people's hearts and lives, and so I would encourage you, I'd love for you, to pray along with us and be supportive of us as we seek to see what God is doing here up there with our folks and our community, and so you can follow along, if you'd like, and learn more about what we're doing at odysseychurch, or you can follow us on Instagram or Facebook.
Speaker 1: Odysseychurch Again, odysseychurch.
Speaker 1: We'd love for you to follow along and be praying with us in support as we seek to start this new church, this new community.
Speaker 1: So today, if you have a Bible, we're going to be in John, chapter 1.
Speaker 1: We've been in a series here at FCC over the last couple of weeks called the Great Reveal, and we've been looking at John and his gospel and how he is slowly revealing who Jesus is, and over the course of these stories and writings, he's really trying to help us see this person named Jesus and who he is.
Speaker 1: And so John, chapter one John is one of the gospels, the first four books of the New Testament.
Speaker 1: So if you're new to scripture or new to the Bible, matthew, mark, luke and John were in the first chapter.
Speaker 1: Here the big numbers are chapters, the small numbers are verses.
Speaker 1: And John we're in the first chapter.
Speaker 1: Here the big numbers are chapters, the small numbers are verses.
Speaker 1: And we're going to be in verse 37 in just a moment.
Speaker 1: But how many of you like coffee?
Speaker 1: Anybody like coffee, maybe you've had some already this morning.
Speaker 1: I will say I have not had enough.
Speaker 1: Okay, how many of you are like me?
Speaker 1: You have not had enough of coffee this morning.
Speaker 1: Okay, but I love coffee.
Speaker 1: I think, being from Seattle, you kind of have to.
Speaker 1: It's almost kind of like understood, like, if you're going to be in Seattle, you got to drink coffee, and I don't know about you, but I have had my fair share of good and bad coffee.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: You have really good sometimes and then other times you don't have good coffee, and there is a difference.
Speaker 1: There are some people that believe that there isn't a difference.
Speaker 1: But there is a difference between good and bad coffee.
Speaker 1: But if you're anything like me, when I go to a new city or a new place I want to try to find the best coffee I can.
Speaker 1: Right, nate took me to Davis yesterday.
Speaker 1: We went up to hang out there and took me to Temple Coffee, okay, which was okay, it was pretty good, right.
Speaker 1: But anytime I go to a new place I want to find the best coffee I can, because I just love a good coffee shop and I love a good cup of coffee.
Speaker 1: My wife and I recently, earlier this month, we were in San Diego for a few days and so we're on the search for good coffee in San Diego and we encountered some bad coffee for the first few times we tried, and then we stumbled upon a place in downtown San Diego called Gold Child, and you know, a coffee shop is good when you walk in and you're like, okay, I think this is going to be it right, like you can just tell from the decor and the furniture and the equipment that they have like okay, I think we found a good spot here and sure enough, it was an incredible cup of coffee and a great experience and all of those things that you want to experience and enjoy as you're drinking a coffee.
Speaker 1: And in San Diego it's warm, I'm drinking iced coffee.
Speaker 1: In Seattle I drink it hot, but normally, when I go somewhere where it's sunny, I drink it cold, and so I got an iced latte, and how many of you know, an iced latte usually comes with like half a cup or three quarters of a cup of ice.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1: It's like hardly any coffee, it's mostly just water.
Speaker 1: And so I ordered an iced latte and you know what?
Speaker 1: They gave it to me without any ice.
Speaker 1: I was like wait what?
Speaker 1: But they put this iced latte in a chilled glass.
Speaker 1: Man, I'm telling you that was the best iced latte I've ever had.
Speaker 1: It was incredible and the experience was incredible.
Speaker 1: Here's what I'm trying to go with this how many of you have experiences like that, maybe at a restaurant or a coffee shop or an event somewhere?
Speaker 1: And what do we do when we have a good experience somewhere?
Speaker 1: What do we typically want to do?
Speaker 1: We want to tell other people about it, right, like we want to leave a review.
Speaker 1: We want to shout them out on social media.
Speaker 1: We want to tell our friends about it.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because that experience was too great to keep to ourselves.
Speaker 1: We want to share it with other people, and we want other people to know how great of an experience we had, so that they can also have that same experience.
Speaker 1: And I think that's what John is trying to do here in his gospel.
Speaker 1: He's trying to help us see that experiencing Jesus is something that everybody should know about.
Speaker 1: Everybody ought to be able to experience who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: So the question we're trying to answer today is this who is Jesus?
Speaker 1: Who is Jesus?
Speaker 1: And we're going to look here in John 1 to see if we can understand, or begin to understand, who Jesus claimed to be.
Speaker 1: So two of John the Baptist's followers and Pastor Nate preached this last week about John the Baptist and his review of Jesus was look the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Speaker 1: And so after John the Baptist says that of Jesus was look the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
Speaker 1: And so after John the Baptist says that, two of his followers say you know what, we're going to go check this out and see if what John's talking about is true.
Speaker 1: And so they begin to follow Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so John 1, verse 37, the two disciples heard him say this and followed Jesus.
Speaker 1: When Jesus turned and noticed them following him, he asked them what are y'all looking for, right?
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, who are these guys and what are y'all about?
Speaker 1: What are you guys looking for?
Speaker 1: And they said to him rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?
Speaker 1: And I love what Jesus says.
Speaker 1: He says, come and you'll see, come and you'll see.
Speaker 1: And so they went and saw where he was staying and they stayed with him.
Speaker 1: That day it was about four in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: Andrew, simon, peter's brother, was one of the two who heard John and followed him.
Speaker 1: And I love this about Andrew, because Andrew is not a very well-known character in the Bible.
Speaker 1: You know, peter is like the guy who gets all the credit, but it's okay to be Andrew.
Speaker 1: It's okay to be the guy that told your brother about who Jesus was, and now your brother gets all the credit, but it's okay to be the person to bring him to Jesus.
Speaker 1: Right, and so he first found his brother, told him we found the Messiah, and he brought Simon to Jesus.
Speaker 1: And so here's what happens An investigation is being conducted, an investigation is happening this morning.
Speaker 1: Here's what I want you to see In this investigation they're trying to find out who is Jesus, and so an investigation is conducted and these two guys go and follow Jesus and they begin to understand who he is, and the first way that they begin to understand who Jesus is is he is the anointed one.
Speaker 1: That they begin to understand who Jesus is is he is the anointed one.
Speaker 1: Jesus is the anointed one.
Speaker 1: That is what the word Messiah means In our Bible.
Speaker 1: It's Messiah and then translated as the Christ, but it literally means the anointed one.
Speaker 1: And in the Old Testament, prophets and kings would be anointed with oil as a way to signify and to separate them from other people as having divinely ordained gifts and responsibilities.
Speaker 1: But those people were just a foreshadowing.
Speaker 1: They were just a glimpse as to who the Messiah that ultimately would come to be, that anointed one who is going to come and preach God's word and proclaim the good news of the kingdom and set up God's kingdom on earth.
Speaker 1: And so the first century Jews they were anticipating and waiting for this Christ, this Messiah, to come, who is going to rule and set up a kingdom and overthrow the Romans and make Israel a great nation again.
Speaker 1: And I think they were looking for the Messiah, but they were looking for the wrong kind of Messiah.
Speaker 1: They wanted someone who was going to solve their problems.
Speaker 1: They wanted someone who was going to make them what they once were, again going to make them what they once were again.
Speaker 1: And so often, I think, in our lives, we're looking for that same kind of Messiah.
Speaker 1: We're looking for a Jesus that solves our problems, or a Jesus that works for us or does what we want him to do.
Speaker 1: And when Jesus doesn't do what we want him to do, then he must not be the Jesus that we thought he was.
Speaker 1: Isn't that how we typically go through life?
Speaker 1: We think Jesus is what we want him to be, or we thought he was going to be this, or he was going to do that, or he was going to answer this prayer or show up in this way, and when he doesn't, we begin to question who is Jesus?
Speaker 1: Who is he supposed to be for us and for our life?
Speaker 1: And instead of conforming our lives to Christ, we attempt to conform Christ to our life, and that's when we begin to miss who Jesus is, because he hasn't done what we wanted him to do or what we thought he would do.
Speaker 1: And so we begin to miss out on who Jesus is, because Jesus is the one who brings life.
Speaker 1: He's the one who brings us from death to life, from darkness to light, and I wanted to share a quick story, as a way to illustrate this, of how people in the first century maybe, were missing who Jesus was.
Speaker 1: So later in John's gospel, in chapter 11, is a story of where Jesus is encountering a family who's lost a loved one.
Speaker 1: A loved one has died and he begins to interact with this lady named Martha.
Speaker 1: In John 11, verse 21,.
Speaker 1: It says this and then Martha said to Jesus Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died.
Speaker 1: Isn't that so often how we are too with Jesus?
Speaker 1: It's like Jesus, if you would have done what I wanted you to do, this wouldn't have happened.
Speaker 1: And Martha says to Jesus Lord, if you would have been here, my brother would not have died.
Speaker 1: And yet even now, I know that whatever you ask from God, god will give you.
Speaker 1: I think she's trying to convince herself that it's going to be okay and that Jesus is going to figure this thing out right.
Speaker 1: But she's not quite sure.
Speaker 1: And Jesus says to her your brother will rise again.
Speaker 1: And she responds and says I know that he will rise in the last day at the resurrection.
Speaker 1: I know that that's what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: She's still kind of struggling with that doubt of like.
Speaker 1: Is Jesus going to do something here?
Speaker 1: Notice what it goes on to say in verse 25.
Speaker 1: Jesus said to her I am the resurrection and the life.
Speaker 1: The one who believes in me, even if he dies, will live.
Speaker 1: Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Speaker 1: Do you believe this, martha?
Speaker 1: Do you believe the truth about who I am?
Speaker 1: Look what it says.
Speaker 1: She says yes, lord, I believe you are the Messiah, the anointed one.
Speaker 1: You see, the Messiah brings life.
Speaker 1: We think the Messiah is going to bring us deliverance, or rescue, or restoration from what we want him to do.
Speaker 1: But ultimately, the reason Jesus came, the reason the Messiah showed up, was to rescue us from sin and death, to give us life with him, so that, even if we die, we will live.
Speaker 1: So who is Jesus?
Speaker 1: He is the anointed one.
Speaker 1: He brings life.
Speaker 1: Not only is Jesus the anointed one, but he is the prophesied one.
Speaker 1: He's the one that has been talked about and written about and prophesied about for centuries in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: Look at verse 43 of John, chapter 1, with me.
Speaker 1: The next day, jesus decided to leave for Galilee.
Speaker 1: He found Philip and told him follow me Now.
Speaker 1: Philip was from Bethsaida, the hometown of Andrew and Peter Philip found Nathanael and told him we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and so did the prophets Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.
Speaker 1: So here he says listen, we've found the one who the scriptures have been telling us about For hundreds of years.
Speaker 1: The Jewish people would have read and known, and even memorized the Old Testament scriptures, and known that this person was to come.
Speaker 1: This promised person was to come and rescue them, and so they would have known these prophecies.
Speaker 1: They would have known about who this person was and they were expecting him to come and rescue them, and so they would have known these prophecies.
Speaker 1: They would have known about who this person was, and they were expecting him to come in a palace.
Speaker 1: They were expecting him to be the son of a king.
Speaker 1: They were expecting him to show up in a grand sort of way, and they missed Jesus because they didn't anticipate the way he would come.
Speaker 1: You see, they wanted a Messiah who would have come as a king, not as a carpenter.
Speaker 1: They were looking for someone who was going to come in great pomp and circumstance, and yet Jesus came in humility, as a suffering servant, proclaiming and preaching a counter-cultural way of life.
Speaker 1: And it's safe to say that Jesus fulfilled hundreds of specific prophecies in the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: Now, mathematically, it's pretty incredible to think about the chances of someone fulfilling even one prophecy that's over 100 years old.
Speaker 1: But Jesus fulfilled hundreds of prophecies from the Old Testament.
Speaker 1: He is the one that was being written about.
Speaker 1: He was the one that was being talked about as the one who was to come and save the people, and yet they missed it because they were looking for the wrong Messiah.
Speaker 1: They were looking for the wrong Jesus.
Speaker 1: He didn't fit the framework for the one that they had in mind.
Speaker 1: And I think so often today, you and I, if you're anything like me we're expecting salvation in a certain sort of way, aren't we?
Speaker 1: We're expecting our situation, our circumstances, our challenges, our problems to be handled and answered and taken care of in a specific way.
Speaker 1: And yet, handled and answered and taken care of in a specific way.
Speaker 1: And yet I think so often we're looking for hope in all of the wrong places.
Speaker 1: This is why we start a church in Seattle is because people are coming to Seattle looking for hope.
Speaker 1: They're looking for a job or a career or an education or a better life for their family, and yet they're missing the real person who can give them hope.
Speaker 1: You see, hope is not found in a job or a person, or a political party, or a bonus or a salary.
Speaker 1: Those things are all temporary, they'll fade, they'll go away, they won't last.
Speaker 1: And yet Jesus is the one who satisfies.
Speaker 1: They'll go away, they won't last.
Speaker 1: And yet Jesus is the one who satisfies.
Speaker 1: He is the one that will never fade.
Speaker 1: He was the one that is the same yesterday, today and forever.
Speaker 1: He will never leave us or forsake us.
Speaker 1: He is the firm foundation that we plant our feet on.
Speaker 1: He is the rock on which we stand, because he is the one who has been prophesied to come and give us hope.
Speaker 1: So, as this investigation continues, they begin to see Jesus as the anointed one, as the prophesied one, and then as God's only son.
Speaker 1: They see Jesus as the son of God.
Speaker 1: Look what it says in verse 47.
Speaker 1: Then Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said about him here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.
Speaker 1: Nathanael says how do you know me?
Speaker 1: And Jesus says before Philip called you.
Speaker 1: When you were under the fig tree, I saw you, rabbi.
Speaker 1: Nathanael replied you are the son of God, you are the king of Israel.
Speaker 1: All it took was for him to recognize the power of Jesus in that moment to say you are the Son of God.
Speaker 1: Now, in this culture, in this day, saying someone was the Son of God was saying essentially that they were God.
Speaker 1: The Son and the Father have the same rights and the same responsibilities and the same ownership.
Speaker 1: The heir of the estate has the same privileges in this culture.
Speaker 1: And so when he says you are the son of God, he's literally declaring and claiming that Jesus is God.
Speaker 1: Just as John wrote earlier in this chapter that the word was with God, the word was God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, nathaniel is recognizing that Jesus is God's only son.
Speaker 1: He is God in the flesh.
Speaker 1: John continues in chapter 3 with this very famous verse that probably all of us are familiar with, and that is John 3.16.
Speaker 1: He says For God loved the world in this way.
Speaker 1: He gave his one and only son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
Speaker 1: For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Speaker 1: This is why Jesus came.
Speaker 1: He came as God's only son, as God in the flesh, so that we can have a relationship with God once again.
Speaker 1: And so maybe you're here today and you're on, maybe, your own investigation of figuring out who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: Maybe you've been invited here by a friend, or maybe you've just Googled churches or you're trying to figure out what this whole Christianity thing is about.
Speaker 1: And I just want to say, like we're not going to be able to answer all of your questions today, but we invite you to continue your investigation, continue learning and understanding who Jesus is and who he claimed to be, who his followers wrote about him and what they claimed that he was.
Speaker 1: He is more than just a prophet or a good teacher or a miracle worker.
Speaker 1: He is God, the Messiah, the one who is to come, the one who brings hope and life and purpose.
Speaker 1: But not only in this passage is there an investigation conducted.
Speaker 1: There's an invitation communicated as well.
Speaker 1: There's an invitation that's communicated here to those that are beginning to follow Jesus and beginning to see what he is all about.
Speaker 1: Not only does Jesus invite us to follow him, but he gives us an example of how we're to invite others to also come along and follow Jesus as well.
Speaker 1: So look at verse 37 with me again.
Speaker 1: It says the disciples heard him, they followed him.
Speaker 1: Jesus, he turned and he says to them what are you looking for?
Speaker 1: They said where are you staying?
Speaker 1: They said where are you living?
Speaker 1: Where are you eating today?
Speaker 1: Because we want to figure out more about you.
Speaker 1: And here's what Jesus says in verse 39.
Speaker 1: He says come and you'll see.
Speaker 1: This invitation communicated is an invitation to come and experience.
Speaker 1: Come and see who I am, come and see who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: This is more than just an academic understanding, more than an intellectual ascent, more than just a mental understanding of who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: This is an experiential thing.
Speaker 1: This is like hey, come and experience, come and live with me, come and abide with me is what John says in John 15.
Speaker 1: He says Jesus is the vine and we are the branches.
Speaker 1: We are to abide with him, we are to remain with him.
Speaker 1: And so the invitation from Jesus is not for you to just understand something here, but to experience something holistically, with everything we are, with our mind, will and emotions.
Speaker 1: We're to come to Jesus and experience who he is, because he is the one who brings life, who brings life and purpose to our individual heart and soul.
Speaker 1: So God is a caring God.
Speaker 1: He is an understanding and relational God.
Speaker 1: He desires to have a relationship with you.
Speaker 1: He desires to eat with you, to live with you, to walk with you through whatever it is that's occurring in your life.
Speaker 1: That is, the invitation from Jesus is to come and experience who he is.
Speaker 1: You see, jesus is so much better than anything or anyone the world can offer.
Speaker 1: Jesus is better.
Speaker 1: He is the one that satisfies.
Speaker 1: It's not that money or power or authority or influence that you might have.
Speaker 1: Those things will fade and fall away.
Speaker 1: It's not a relationship or a possession or a promise or success.
Speaker 1: All of those things are temporary.
Speaker 1: What stays the same, what remains forever, is that relationship that we can have with a God who loves us and wants to be with us.
Speaker 1: So this invitation from Jesus is an invitation to come and see, come and experience.
Speaker 1: But it's also an invitation to belong before belief, to belong before you believe.
Speaker 1: I love this part of the story.
Speaker 1: It's probably my favorite part of this story.
Speaker 1: Look at verse 45.
Speaker 1: So Philip finds Nathanael and tells him hey, we've found the one Moses wrote about in the law and the prophets Jesus, the son of Joseph, from Nazareth.
Speaker 1: Now, nathanael was a good Jewish boy.
Speaker 1: He knew the prophecy, he knew that Messiah wasn't supposed to come from Nazareth.
Speaker 1: Here's his response like very honest, a very honest guy, he says this in verse 46, can anything good come out of Nazareth?
Speaker 1: Like maybe you've been there with Nathaniel, you're like bro, you lost me at Nazareth man, like I was with you, I was tracking, like this Jesus guy sounded good.
Speaker 1: And then you said Nazareth, and I'm just like out, right, like that's not, that's not true, right, there's nothing good that comes from Nazareth.
Speaker 1: And here's what Philip does.
Speaker 1: Philip answers him come and see.
Speaker 1: Come and see.
Speaker 1: He says listen, you can belong before you believe.
Speaker 1: You may not fully understand it right now.
Speaker 1: You may not fully believe it right now.
Speaker 1: You may not understand who Jesus is, but you know what.
Speaker 1: You can still belong here before you believe.
Speaker 1: Here's what I know about FCC.
Speaker 1: This is a church where people can belong before they believe.
Speaker 1: They can come with their questions, they can come with their doubts, they can come with their skepticism and still belong here before they have to believe fully in Jesus.
Speaker 1: And that's the way that it should be.
Speaker 1: We should make room for people, make space for people to come and ask questions and try to understand more about who Jesus is and find belonging, find connection, find community, before maybe they step into fully following Jesus.
Speaker 1: That's what Philip did for Nathaniel.
Speaker 1: So my question for you today is simple Are we making room for people?
Speaker 1: Are we allowing people to belong with us before they believe what we believe?
Speaker 1: That is the beautiful thing about Christianity, because I know, and I'm sure you know, that it's oftentimes not the first time someone hears about Jesus that they believe in him, is it?
Speaker 1: It takes time, it takes intentionality, it takes conversation, it takes connection and relationship for someone to come and ultimately believe in who Jesus is, and so we want to create spaces where people can belong with us before they have to believe what we believe.
Speaker 1: Not only is this invitation from Jesus said belong before belief, but it's also an invitation to watch miracles happen, to watch God do and perform miracles.
Speaker 1: I love the testimony that Mason shared earlier during worship of a young man who came to know and follow Jesus at a camp.
Speaker 1: Like that is literally watching a miracle happen, watching heaven touch earth as another person comes out of darkness into the light, from death to life, stepping into a relationship with Jesus.
Speaker 1: And guess what?
Speaker 1: I want that same rejoicing and testimony for you as well.
Speaker 1: I want you to experience and watch miracles happen in people's life, to watch God do a breakthrough for someone.
Speaker 1: That's the invitation from Jesus.
Speaker 1: Look what it says in verse 50.
Speaker 1: I love this part.
Speaker 1: Jesus responds to him.
Speaker 1: Do you believe?
Speaker 1: He's talking to Nathaniel here?
Speaker 1: He says do you believe?
Speaker 1: Because I told you I saw you under the fig tree?
Speaker 1: He's like man.
Speaker 1: You haven't seen nothing yet.
Speaker 1: He says you will see greater things than this.
Speaker 1: Truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man.
Speaker 1: He says you are going to watch what happens through me, the miracles that I'm able to perform in people's lives, and you're going to literally see heaven intersect with earth.
Speaker 1: That's the society of God, the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: The kingdom of heaven is this beautiful yet mysterious way that heaven touches earth and intersects with what's happening here.
Speaker 1: Because Jesus told his followers to pray that we're to pray that God's kingdom would come here as it is in heaven.
Speaker 1: We're to literally pray that God would connect heaven and earth.
Speaker 1: And this happens through people coming to know and follow Jesus.
Speaker 1: Jesus said there's presence in the angels of heaven over one sinner that repents right.
Speaker 1: There's joy in heaven when somebody comes into relationship with the King and FCC.
Speaker 1: I would love that all of us, as the church of God, take this ownership of this invitation, this experience that we have had with Jesus, this encounter that we have had with the Messiah, and not keep it to ourself.
Speaker 1: The news that we have is too good not to share.
Speaker 1: The experience that we have had with Jesus is too good for us not to tell someone else about.
Speaker 1: And here's the beautiful thing about an invitation is it's really simple and yet it's so hard oftentimes for us to do, isn't it?
Speaker 1: The invitation is just hey, come and see.
Speaker 1: Come and see what God is doing in my life.
Speaker 1: Come and see what God is doing in my church.
Speaker 1: Come and belong here with these people before you believe what we believe.
Speaker 1: That's the invitation, and I wanted to share this stat with you as we close, that over 80% of people are likely to attend a church service if they're invited.
Speaker 1: 82% of people who don't attend a church are likely to attend if someone would just invite them.
Speaker 1: According to research, this is what they tell us, and so here's what it is, guys, it's very simple.
Speaker 1: If we're to know Jesus and to make him known we got to give invitations to people to come and see we have to come and experience.
Speaker 1: Who is this Jesus?
Speaker 1: Who is this person that can transform our life, that can change us from the inside out, that can take us from darkness to light, from death to life.
Speaker 1: That's who Jesus is, that's who he's claimed to be, that's who his followers said he is and that's who we believe him to be.
Speaker 1: And so I want to invite you this morning to consider, to believe.
Speaker 1: Maybe you're on your own investigative journey this morning.
Speaker 1: You're not still sure about who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: That's fine.
Speaker 1: Continue coming, continue experiencing, continue asking questions.
Speaker 1: And if you are a follower of Jesus this morning, man, it's too good not to share.
Speaker 1: Who is that person.
Speaker 1: Maybe, right now that you're thinking about that, you have in your mind that you could invite to come.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's to come to Easter.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's to come to a service here on a Sunday.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's to come and have coffee with you or to have lunch with you and to have questions answered and to have conversation about who Jesus is.
Speaker 1: That's the invitation that we see from Jesus this morning.
Speaker 1: Let's pray.