The Big Invite

God has strategically placed people in your life - your Oikos - who are watching your faith journey and waiting for an authentic invitation to experience Jesus. The Bible shows us that the gospel spreads most effectively through trusted relationships, not strangers. Andrew reached his brother Peter, Philip found Nathanael, and each person shared Christ within their existing sphere of influence. Your dining table can be as powerful as any church building for creating authentic conversations about faith. You don't need to convert anyone - your job is to extend invitations and build relationships while the Holy Spirit does the transforming work.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Man, what's up? Hallelujah. Man, that is what a party looks like when a bunch of saved people get together and throw a party. Come on. Man, my goodness. I would I would hate to be the pastor that had to interrupt that moment. Amen. I'm uh I'm Pastor Jeremy if I haven't gotten to meet you. I'm not the lead pastor of McConnell, so you have to come back for Easter if you want to hear the real preacher. Um I'm normally the welcome and announcement guy, but I've been promoted today, and so I get the privilege of teaching, and I'm so excited. Uh, if you haven't been part of our faith family for any amount of time, um, I just want to catch you up. I feel like we've been in one of the most um transformative series of our church. And I don't say that lightly, I say it because I feel like it's a series that is really transforming the culture of our church, and and we've seen so many incredible things happen because the whole idea of the table is that you have people that are on the front row of your life. The Bible calls it your oikos, which is a Greek word that means household. There are eight to 15 people that are on the front row of your life, that is watching your life, and that is who God has called you to reach. And the reason I think it's so transformative is because I think there's a lot of people in the room that are starting to understand that you have been created to change the world, the world around you, the world that is on the front row of your life. And maybe you have been a part of this series and and maybe you haven't, but I'll tell you some of the feedback that we've been getting from church members is kind of two ways. One one feedback that we've been getting is people going, oh my gosh, I can do this. Like this is what I can I can do. I can invest in the people that are already on the front row of my life. And some people, maybe some of you in here have been going, this is what I've been doing. Like I'm I'm glad that I'm following Scripture. Like this is how the Lord has already been using me. And if you're neither one of those, you're probably in the room because you're on somebody's 8 to 15 and you've been going, oh my goodness, that's why they love me so well and have invested in me so well. I I really feel like we've tapped into something great. And so I want to close out the series, but I want to say this this is not gonna be the last time that you'll hear about this. I feel like this is like a huge part of our culture now, and so you're gonna constantly be hearing us talking about your 8 to 15 or your oikos. Uh, two weeks ago we got a card to be able to list our 8 to 15, and those are always gonna be available in the lobby, and we'll be encouraging you to fill those things out and to always be praying for and reaching your 8 to 15. So I'm gonna be in John, but before I do, I want to read a verse in Mark chapter 5, verse 19. Mark chapter 5, verse 19. This is right after Jesus cast the demons out of the demoniac, a guy who had been plagued by many demons, transforms this guy's life, and the guy's like, Man, Jesus, I want to go with you. Um and so here's what happens. Jesus doesn't let him go. Instead, it says this it says, Jesus did not let him, but said, Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you and how he has had mercy on you. That phrase, your own people, is actually a translation of the word oikos. So sometimes you see it translated as household, which doesn't necessarily mean the people who live in your house, but your extended community, your sphere of influence. But here it's a little bit more targeted and it says your own people. I think your own people is a very generic way to say the people that are on the front row of your life. And this is what we're talking about, the oikos, the people that you constantly come in contact with every single week. So if you have your Bibles, turn to John chapter one, we're gonna be in there. We're gonna talk about when Jesus began to call his disciples and just see how this kind of plays out at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry. And so if you don't have a physical copy of God's word, there's actually one in the pew pocket in front of you. And here's what I want you to do. If you don't have a physical copy of God's word, or you know someone who doesn't have a physical copy of God's word, please take that one with you. It is a gift from us to you. Uh we fill them up every week. There's about 10 to 30 Bibles that leave our church every week, and we love it. So take one with you. We'll replace it tomorrow. And uh, if you don't know somebody, take it, write your name in it, write their name in it, and give it to them as a gift. But John chapter 1, verse 40, it says this. It says, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. Verse 41. The first thing Andrew did was find his brother Simon and tell him, We have found the Messiah. That is the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, You are Simon, son of John, you will be called Cephas, which when translated is Peter. Here we see the oikos principle, the way of life, just unfolding right before our eyes. And what happens is Andrew becomes a follower of Jesus, and he meets the Christ, the Messiah, the one that the people have waited on, and he realizes it. And the very first thing, scripture says the very first thing he does is to go and find his brother. You know why he goes to find his brother? Because he cares about his brother. And if we care about someone, we want them to meet Jesus, the source of life, the true life, the way to the Father. And so this is immediately what Andrew does. But also, too, when you read about Peter, you realize Peter's like a roughnette. So I think Andrew's first inclination was like, Peter needs Jesus, right? We all got some people in our family that we're like, man, that cat needs Jesus. And so that's what Andrew does. He immediately goes and gets him and takes him to Jesus. But here's what I want you to see. Here's where the weight is lifted off our shoulders as believers is because what happens is Andrew extends the invitation, but Jesus closes the deal. Like Jesus brings the transformation in this moment. Jesus is the one that changes Peter, literally changes his name in that moment because he is transforming his life as we speak. And so I know what you're thinking. If you've been hearing the word household, are you see this? You're like, and let me just go ahead and tell you, Christian, your family is the hardest group of people that you will ever reach. I told somebody one time, I would rather be sent to an unreached people group on the other ends of the earth instead of having to go to my family reunion and try to lead some of my cousins to Christ. It's hard, right? It's hard because they're literally on the front row of your life. But here's the beautiful thing it's Jesus that brings the transformation. And here's what I want you to know. Yes, it is true. It is so hard to reach our family, but you are the one that has been strategically positioned and equipped to do so. If not you, then who? You may be the only one. And listen, it may take years, but it's worth the investment. So remember that. So next verse 43, this is what happened. It says, the next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, Follow me. Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bathseda. So immediately after Andrew and Peter become followers of Jesus, they load up and it says, Jesus decided to go to Galilee. And on the way to Galilee, don't miss this, it says they go to Galilee and they and they find Philip. But what it says about Philip intrigues me because it says that they're from the same, he's from the same town as Andrew and Peter. Some of your translations are going to say their same hometown. And so I don't know, but just looking at it and reading it through the lens of Oikos, I'm thinking that after Andrew and Peter experience Jesus, they're like, hey, we got this boy Philip from where we're from, and we would love, like Philip needs to meet you, and you needed to meet Philip, and he listen, he's waiting for the Messiah. Just like us, Jesus, could we go to Philip? Now I don't know if that's how it played out, but I don't think it's a far-fetched of the imagination to think that that's the conversation that played out for them to load up immediately and go to Galilee and call Philip. But next verse, I want you to see exactly what happens here. The next verse it says, Philip found Nathanael. Are y'all seeing a pattern here? It's like Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathanael. Some of your Bibles may say Bartholomew, Nathaniel was also called Bartholomew. But it says, this is what Philip says when he finds Nathaniel. He says, We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets also wrote. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. He is so fired up in this moment because he has found the missing piece. He has found the one that changes the world, the one that eliminates the sin problem, that reconnects humanity with God. He has found the solution, the way, the truth, the life. He's so fired up, his life's been transformed. He goes to his best friend. He finds Philip. He goes right up to his best friend and catch this Christian because this is what usually happens most of the time. He goes up to his best friend. He's so fired up to tell him about Jesus, and he gets an immediate punch in the chest. This is what Nathaniel says. Can anything good come from there? Man. He's a skeptic. I know there's no skeptics in your family. There's no skeptics in the world, right? Man, Nathaniel is a skeptic, but here's what I want you to know. It's okay to be a skeptic. It's okay to have questions because Jesus is the answer. So you can have questions. And here's what Philip says. He doesn't try to argue Nathaniel into Christianity. He just says this. He says, Come and see. Come and see. Can anything come from Nazareth? I don't know, big boy. Come and see. Like you come and meet him. I had an experience with him. You come and experience him. This is what he says. And here's what I want you to see in the story is that Nathaniel doubted Jesus. He initially doubted Jesus, but he trusted Philip. He doubted Jesus, but he trusted Philip. And I want you to know right now, as you're laying out the people that are on your 8 to 15, I will go ahead and tell you there are a lot of people on there that are skeptics. They doubt Jesus, but they trust you. I believe that right now you have earned your right, or you're earning your right to speak life into people. To allow them to experience Jesus through your life. Not because they trust Christ, but because they trust you. They trust you and they'll listen to you because you love them and you've built that relational equity. And this is what Pastor Steve has been teaching us that this was Jesus' plan to build a church. And last week Pastor Steve said that people don't care what you know until they know that you care. And you know the way that people know that you care? Not by lift service, but by loving them, by relational equity, by getting close to them, by experiencing life with them. Now, this is um this is the moment you've all been waiting for. Okay? You should have received a ping pong ball when you walked in here. And some of y'all were like, this is the weirdest communion I've ever gotten. These things are transforming. Every day. But here's what I want you to do. Some of y'all know what we're about to do. You're getting way too excited. You need to chill out, okay? I'm in charge, so wait until I say go, okay? Here's what I want you to do. I want to see if anyone in this room can ring this McConnell coffee cup. And if you like this cup and it's your first time here, you can stop by the connection desk. You fill out a connection card and meet Pastor Austin. You too can be the owner of one of these cups. And members, the only way to get one is if you're a visitor. So bring a visitor and then steal their cup. So here's what I want you to do. Wow, this makes me a whole lot more nervous in the first service because there were there's a lot more people on the balcony. Some of y'all are standing up. Y'all need to chill, okay? My heart is racing. And we tested this out in the first service. If it hits the back of somebody's head, it's okay. It's just a it's just a ping pong ball. All right? It's gonna be okay. And you have to throw, am I messing y'all up by being on the steps right now? It's all thunderous. You have to throw your ping pong ball. You cannot save your ping pong ball, take your ping pong ball home. But before we do, there's a kids. I was a youth pastor for years. There's actually one with a number on it. We're gonna play McConnell Powerball. And actually, if you've got B29, you get your tithe check back. I'm just kidding. There's also one golf ball in the room. I'm just Pastor Steve is watching this and sweating right now. I'm just so sorry. We're gonna have a meeting tomorrow. My hand is shaking. Um all right, are you ready? Who thinks they can do it? Let me see your ping pong ball if you think you can do it. You're pretty far away. John Rickett, I got a little faith in you. All right, you ready? Gosh, I'm sweating. One. If y'all can't follow instructions, one, two, three, go. Oh, oh, oh. Oh, oh. Taller in you, Apostle Paul. Oh, oh, oh. If you ain't cheating, you ain't trying. I like it. A for effort. Come on, now they're still coming. Who's still holding on dramatic effect? Somebody has to be the last one. Who's still got one over here? Yep.

SPEAKER_00 14:11

Anybody here.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Anybody. Okay, man. Here we go. Okay. Jum. So disappointing. Oh. That one got me. Hmm. And then after the service, we're gonna find out who the true servants of Gummit are. So pick this up. Hey, are you still holding on to yours? Come here, big gun. Can you give it another? I know that's goofy and I know you know what I'm about to say, but here's the thing that proximity really matters. And the point is not the fact that. Pamela, is that you? I can tell by how red your face is. Proximity really matters, but here's the thing, it's not about the people that are close to you, it's about how close you get to the people that are close to you. Because here's what we do sometimes. We're like, God loves you, like Jesus has a plan for you. Oh, here's the big one we say all the time. I'm praying for you. But once you get close enough to somebody to know them, then you're close enough to deposit the gospel into them. See, what we do sometimes is we stay so far away, and I get it, it's hard. It is so hard to get in the middle of people's mess and in the middle of people's life. I would much rather stand on a stage and preach the gospel to hundreds of people than to sit down and get in the middle of somebody's mess with them. But that's where transformation happens. And so proximity matters, to get as close to possible, to share our lives before we share the gospel. First Thessalonians says it like this is what Paul said. He said, So we care for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well. We loved you so much that we just didn't share the good news, but we shared our lives with you. We shared the overflow of love and compassion that God had given us. We shared that with you. We cared enough about you because God cares enough about you that we would sit down and hear your heart's cry, and that we would be there for you, and that we would comfort you, and that we would become friends with you, that we would love you. Here's what I've learned in ministry is that people have to trust a Christian before they trust Christ. How else can they trust the gospel that comes out of a Christian's mouth unless they trust that Christian? And let me tell you, things have changed in the past 15 years that I've been doing ministry, and things have changed in the past 50 years of the world. That the world is a different place. Fifty years ago, Billy Graham could stand on stage and he could give an invitation to somebody to receive Christ and to cross the threshold of commitment. But things have changed. At that point, people trusted the church. They trusted Christians, they even loved Jesus. And all Billy Graham had to do was to preach a gospel of repentance and give them an opportunity to cross the threshold of commitment. But let me tell you, in this world today, there are a lot more thresholds that people need to cross before they can cross the threshold of commitment. Because they need to cross the threshold of trust first. They need to be able to trust the church and to be able to trust a Christian before they can actually receive the gospel. I had a student in my ministry one time when I was a youth pastor. He came up to me and he was like, I would love for you to teach me how to follow Jesus. And I was like, son, you have been in my youth group for three years now. And he said, Yeah, but I've never trusted you. I haven't heard a single thing you've said. But now I do. And I think what you got is real and I want it. And I was able to sit down and begin to disciple this young man. People don't care what you know until they know that you care, until they can trust you. And so, listen, you are the invitation. You are the open door to people trusting Christ, and they must be able to trust a Christian first. Romans 10 says it this way. It says, For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. How then can they call on the one that they have not believed in? And how can they believe in one in whom they have not heard? And church, here's your job. And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? It is real easy to hear that verse and say, preach. Well, that's your job, Jeremy. You preach and I'll try to get them here. Listen, they're not going to be here tomorrow, but you're going to be with them. And you get to preach a gospel even with your life before you ever open your mouth. And so the Bible tells us, it even goes on further to say, beautiful are the feet that take the gospel to them. That's you. That's what you get to do. That's what you're created for to change the world. So here's what you get to do: you get to invite people. Invitation is huge. You know, we we've got the invite cards. They're going to be, you listen, you will be forced by an usher to take one. They will follow you to your car if you do not take an invitation card after this. But take an invitation card and invite somebody to the church, but this is far more than that. This is not just about inviting people to Easter because that doesn't always work, and that is so far from what Jesus has called us to do. But you get to invite them to experience Jesus. The same way that Philip invited Nathaniel, and the same way that Andrew invited Peter was to experience Jesus. So they get to do that by you get to surround them with your faith family. I think that is one of the best ways for people to experience Jesus is just begin to surround them with your faith family. I was thinking about this, and I was thinking about our women's ministry and our men's ministry and the ministries that we have in this church. And um I was thinking about Susan Ledford. I love Susan Ledford, she's just an incredible woman. And I was thinking if Susan Ledford was to invite someone to come to a women's ministry event on her 8 to 15, what that would look like. And what it would look like is someone that already had a relationship with Susan that was on the front row of her life would now step into a place where there are more Susans. You know, they're gonna come and they're gonna realize that Susan is not the anomaly. There are more women filled with the Holy Ghost that love Jesus, that are compassionate mothers and wives and friends, and they're gonna be looking around going, There's more of y'all? Like obviously, there's evidence to this. Like, there's so much truth. It's not just one. So we get to do things like that. We get to invite them into spaces where they can experience Jesus. Or one thing you can do to help somebody experience Jesus is to introduce them to his teachings. And I know this is where like it's like, oh man, I don't know if I'm smart enough to do that. I'll go ahead and tell you right now what I've experienced is that every single person in this world has some type of life issue that they are searching for advice. And I'll go ahead and tell you right now, in that Bible and in the teachings of Jesus is the life advice. And so all you get to do is to teach them the way of Jesus. I used to do this as a football chaplain. I used to do pregame devotions and get to teach at the school and all that stuff, and I just used the teachings of Jesus. Why? Because he was the greatest coach and leader and motivational speaker that ever walked the planet. If you just teach people what Jesus teaches, then you're gonna allow them to experience Jesus. And I'll tell you, there are people in early stages of marriage and parenthood and life and decision making. There are people that are in the middle of messes, there are people that are at the end of parenting and that are at the end of life, and they all have the same desire to be advised through some of these crises in their life, and you have the teachings that you can introduce people to Jesus through. The other thing is just to share your story. I think this is exactly what Andrew. Andrew and what Philip did is like they just went and just shared what they had experienced in Jesus. Like that was the most compelling thing that they could do is just say, like, I met a man who is the Christ and he changed my life. And you let me tell you the most powerful thing about your testimony, and I'm not just talking about your salvation story, I'm talking about the way that God continues to show up day after day after day for you to be able to testify to that. When you testify to that, what you're doing is you're staring at a story that is real to you, and therefore it's real to them. Because they've heard about Jesus, they've heard about the church, and most of them have misconceptions. And to hear about the real evidence of who Jesus is, that's what's transformational. So I think it's just kind of like Philip said. Because sometimes you're going to meet that opposition, but sometimes it's just going to be like, come and see. Like, just come and see what Jesus is doing in my church, in my family, in all of these areas of my life. Just come and see what Jesus is doing. I just want to invite people to experience Jesus and to see the evidence of his life. And I think that's what we get to do. So invite people to faith environments. This is why we ask you to invite people to church. When you invite people to faith environments like ministries, or you can invite people to your small group, you should probably tell them it's a small group. I invited somebody to a small group one time and didn't tell them it's a small group, and they did not like that. I was like, we're just hanging out, and two minutes into it, they're like, this is a Bible study. I was like, this is a Bible study. So invite them to church, obviously. Um, you know, a lot of people won't accept your invitation to church right off the bat. Uh people are primed and ready for Easter to be able to invite people to Easter. But what about the other one? What about inviting people to your home? It's a faith environment, right? Acts 246 is the verse that Pastor Steve started out this whole series with. This is what Acts says. It says, Every day in the early church, they continue to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and they ate together with glad and sincere hearts. This is how I know the first church was a Baptist church, because if we ain't eating, we ain't meeting, okay? If you've been a Baptist for any amount of time, you get that. We're like, anything that we can throw a potluck onto, we're gonna throw a potluck onto. We can we give you a donut as soon as you walk through the door here. We're like, man, we just believe in hospitality. But man, they got together and they broke bread in their homes together, but they weren't just meeting with believers. That wasn't just the church going over to people's homes, but they were inviting people into their homes to be in faith environments. Here's what I've learned is that your table, your table is as much a faith environment as your church. I I think I love this table being on stage because I'm such a visual learner, but here's what I think. I think you have the opportunity to invite somebody to your table as a faith environment. I I think that your table can become the first church experience that a lot of people have. And here's what I've learned. This is so crazy. Here's what I've learned is that it is so hard to invite somebody to church, right? I'm sure if you've ever tried to invite somebody to church, you've you've been denied. People say crazy stuff. They're like, man, I've been to church. It's weird. Just tell them we got snakes. Say, hey, we got snakes, just get it right out right out of the gate, you know? Um, and then they get here. We don't have snakes. Some of y'all are like, this is my first time here. They got ping pong balls, they must have snakes. Um, but they they it's really hard because church, church is a very difficult place for a lot of people uh to come to. But but here's what I've learned. You can invite somebody to church, and it's super hard to get them to say yes to an invitation. But if you invite somebody over to your house, you're like, hey, would you like to come over to my house for pork chops? They're like, what time? Just tell me when. It's a whole lot easier to get someone to come over to dinner than to get them to come to your church. But here's the most bizarre thing that I've discovered, and I think I've been doing it wrong for so many years, is that this atmosphere is actually more impactful than this atmosphere. You know why? Because when someone comes in here, this is a one-sided conversation, right? Y'all can amen and you can laugh and all that stuff, but I'm the one with the microphone. And this is a place where someone comes into a place where they have to listen, they don't get to share, they don't get to think for themselves, they may even feel attacked if they have any kind of doubts. But this place right here becomes a neutral conversation. This is the place where I'm listening as much as I'm talking. I want to know what someone believes. I want to know their church experience, their Jesus experience, because I want to be able to speak into it and connect with it. This becomes a place of hospitality. And there's a place too where when you eat with someone, there's some walls that come down, right? There's some relational walls that begin to drop and you begin to connect with somebody. If you break bread with somebody, your relationship changes. You get to have real conversations. And plus, too, the Bible says where two or more are gathered, there I am. And this becomes church as soon as there's two believers at the table. Now I get to do this with my wife because we're two believers at the table. Sometimes my kid shows up and it looks crazy. There's probably ping pong balls under my table at home right now. There's something, something under my table at home right now. But this becomes a place in which me and someone else can invite someone to experience Jesus. And if you're single or you live alone, you can invite a friend, uh someone in the sitting on the row with you right now, someone that's in your small group. One of the things that we discovered when we started doing 8 to 15 with our staff is that when we started listing them out, we started to realize, oh, so-and-so is on your list too. Let's start to get together and see how we can influence these people together. To be able to bring them to a place that we can invite them to experience Jesus. Now, the word invitation is one of those things. I'm gonna put this in because I know the ping pong balls is already messing with somebody, and if I leave this out, that is just another distraction for y'all. But here's the thing invitation is one of those words that we use a lot at church, and obviously we're gonna invite people to church. There's a sign that catches your attention as soon as you walk out that says, grab a card, invite somebody, change a life. But also, too, we have this part of the service that we call the invitation, right? At the end of every service, it's literally on the order of service that we have printed out that's the invitation, and there'll be an invitation hymn, and we'll have a moment and we're where you know we slow down a little bit. We worship together and we give people an opportunity. We invite them to respond. But but I think the invitation was never meant to be limited to a moment at the end of service. I think it was meant to be a lifestyle, this lived by the church. And here's track with me for a minute. This is what I think has has happened. I think over the years the church has not done the work of reaching people the way they're supposed to, and so the pastor has taken it upon himself that he has to be the one to extend the invitation to follow Jesus because no one else is. And I'm talking about other churches. This church, man, I know y'all filled with the Holy Ghost and y'all go, y'all just be dragging people in here. I told somebody the other day, I said, I feel like our church just cast the nets on the other side of the boat and we're just trying to pull them in. We're like, oh my goodness, um, this is so great. I love seeing what God is doing and God is using you. But but I think the mentality of the church has changed over the years in which we think that in order for someone to receive Christ, it has to be through someone like me. At the end of a service, when the lights are low and the music's down, and we could say, hey, come up here. This is where you receive Christ. And and the invitation has been extended in church services because the church hasn't extended it as an individual. In Ephesians 4 11, it says this. It says, Now these are the gifts that Christ gave the church, the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and the teachers. Now I'll read that really good. See, it calls pastors a gift. Just don't forget your pastors are a gift to the church. I'm waiting for an amen or three. Pastor Danny used to say, Amen or owe me. These are the gifts, and here's what it says. And you read that and you go, evangelists. That's it. Evangelists, those are the ones, those are the ones that tell people about Jesus. Those are the ones that extend the invitation, and people raise their hand and they give their life to Christ. That's it. But that's not what it says at all. The next verse says this it says, their responsibility, my responsibility as a pastor, is to equip God's people to do the work and build up the church, the body of Christ. Here's what happens in a healthy, gospel-centered church. The church does the work of the church in verse 12, so that the pastor can do the work of the pastor in verse 11. Oh my God, it's doing incredible things in our church. One, because he's going to do what he wants to do. But two, I think that the people of this church have realized what they were created to do. And that's to transform the world by reaching people for the cause of Christ. And so let me tell you, as a pastor that's on the staff of this church, I love this place with all of my heart because I am able to be a pastor. And my job is to equip you. Because listen, tomorrow morning I am not going to see your eight to fifteen. I will maybe get to see them once they come here. And I promise you, once they come here, they will not trust me. They will trust you. Because I am a stranger and you are not. I think the strength of the church is not how many people respond to an invitation. I think it's how many people are extending one. I think for years we've we've maybe subconsciously been able to measure the success of a ministry by how many people raise their hand at the end of a service in the invitation. I want to do a different invitation today. I want to do a different opportunity for you to respond. I want to give you an opportunity to raise your hand if you're actually pursuing the people that God has called you to pursue. Because I think that's the measure. That's the measure. Because if you're doing what Jesus has called you to do, he is faithful to do what he will do. If you open the door of invitation, he will seal the deal. And I think God has so many people in this room that if they were to realize, literally realize what Jesus has created them to do, the gates of hell will not prevail against his church in this community. Man, I gave my life to this. Surrender my life to this. And I believe it with all my heart. Pastor Steve said one time that our church has 11,000 members. They just haven't came to our church yet, but they're connected to one of you. Y'all know the seven degrees of Kevin Bacon? This is the dumbest thing. Google it. That you could find in one way that someone is connected after seven connections to Kevin Bacon. It's the craziest, stupidest thing. But I will say that you don't need seven degrees to get from every person in this room to every person in this community. Y'all tracking with me? I would say that every single person that God wants to reach in our community is represented by every single person that is in this room right now. God wants to use you. You are the one to reach Peter. You are the one to reach Nathaniel. And he's equipped you to do it too. So invite them, invite them in to experience Jesus in faith environments. Invite them into your life and invest in their life. So here's what I want you to do. As we respond, I want to give you an opportunity. If you are committed to this, if you have surrendered your life to reach your eight to 15, and you are actively praying and pursuing them, would you just raise your hand? Would you just raise your hand and say, that's me? I'm committing to that, and I'm going to reach my eight to 15. Praise God. Praise God. I think this is the measure of the reach of a church. Because here's the thing: there's so many thresholds that people need to cross before they cross that final threshold of commitment. Now, there's some of you in the room that you're not a follower of Jesus. And I want to be very clear about this. Your job is not to reach people, your job is to reach out for Jesus. In this moment, I believe that you're here and you're in this moment because someone cared enough about you to say, come and see. Someone cared enough about you to invest. I don't know the days, the weeks, the years that it has taken to get you to this place, but I want you to know that someone is praying for you. I want you to know that someone is committed to you. I want you to know that someone is investing in you and somebody is excited about you going from death to life. So if that's you, here's what I want you to do. I'm not going to ask you to raise your hand. I'm not going to ask you to come down front. Number one, this is a trip and hazard. I don't know if our insurance covers it. Number two, it's because somebody's investing in you. So I want you to tell them. I want you to tell them you got more questions about being a follower of Jesus. I want you to tell them that you got a tug in your heart to surrender your life to Christ. I want you to tell them that it's time for you to become a follower of Jesus. And then I'm going to tell you this. That is the most exciting moment for a Christian, but it is also the most nerve-wracking. It's like a hot potato for us sometime. We're like, praise God. Man, it's going to be exciting. So share that with them. If you are here, because the Spirit has drawn you, and you don't know anybody in this room, find somebody and just tell them that you're ready to surrender your life to Christ. Let's pray, and we're going to spend the last few moments of our time worshiping together and just thinking, holy God, that He would care so much about us to send someone into our lives. Lord, we love you. We praise you. And Jesus, we thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

God, I thank you for the table that I ended up at. Thank you for the Christians that impacted me.

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Everybody look at me right now. I didn't plan to say this, but I need somebody to hear this right now. I was a drug addict that was delivered from drugs and saved and set free. And the first time I went to church, it was because my aunt and uncle had invited me to church, and I just went because that's the only way I knew to repay them. And there were people that stepped into my life that influenced me that I was able to trust in order to trust Christ. And so many people come up to me because of my past, because of my childhood, because of my addiction, and they say, Hey, I got somebody in my 8 to 15 that has childhood trauma or that has drug addiction. And I want you to reach them. I want you to hear right now. I feel like the Spirit of God wants me to tell you in this room right now that it does not matter what your past is, you can reach those people in the middle of that. The people that the people that poured into my life never struggled with drug addiction. They had perfect childhoods. They had no problems. And I didn't care. I didn't care if they had drug addiction. The only thing I cared about was that they cared about me. And I'm just so thankful that people would love a broken person like me and invite them into their lives and care so much about me that my whole life would be transformed. And so I just want to encourage you, Christian. Man, there are people in your life that are broken and they don't need answers. They don't need solutions. They just need you to love them and introduce them to a Jesus who can do all of that.