Salty - Week 6 - Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from

Lifehouse Church. Isn't that awesome? Yeah. I'm

going to ask you if Brent and Bethany would make

their way up on the stage here with little Vera.

They got James in tow as well. Amazing family.

If they can come around to this side. They don't

want to see me. They want to see you all. So

we want to get you up here. But we are honored

today. Vera was born 12 -26 of 2024 and continues

to be pure joy. to her parents and to her family

and friends that are here. And it's so good to

have them here. Children are amazing, aren't

they? They're awesome. It really is true. They're

an amazing gift from God. They're amazing to

watch, to observe, to be with the moment they're

born until they grow and be adults, you know,

and leave the home. It's an amazing thing to

watch children just change and go from stage

to stage to stage. That first year in particular.

And it is the baby moments that are particularly

incredible. How they use their entire bodies

to yawn and stretch, right, is an amazing thing.

The first time they laugh out loud, we just go

crazy. We do, right? The first time they look

up with that trust in their eyes to mom and dad,

and just you can see it in their faces. The first

time they crawl. And, you know, all those first

moments. And Brent and Bethany, God has blessed

you. This beautiful little girl and giving you

so many of those moments and we'll continue to

do that. So today, Brent and Bethany are acknowledging

that these moments are from God and that Vera

was in God's hands long before she was in theirs.

Today is a public declaration. It's about dedicating

Vera. back to God. And that's what they're doing

here today as parents. Children are a gift from

God. The word of God tells us this. They're on

loan to us. In Isaiah 40, 42, it says, thus says

the Lord who made you and formed you from the

womb, who will help you and keep you. Fear not.

It is the Lord who formed Vera in the womb. It

is the Lord who will help Brent. And Bethany

continued to aid them in forming and shaping

her character and who she sees God to be. And

we read this in several accounts in God's word

that God knew us, right, before we were even

born. God speaks this to Jeremiah in Jeremiah

Jeremiah 1:4

1, verse 4. It says, And the word of the Lord

came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the

womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified

you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

The Creator knows us before He even forms us,

and He knows what He's ordained us to do, and

He's done that for Vera. He knew before she was

a twinkle in your eye, before the plans were

made, right? He knew before you were longing

to have another child. He knew before either

of you even thought of all this, before you had

any idea who Vera would be and what she would

grow up to become, right? God knew Vera, and

God saw fit to place her in your loving and caring

arms and hands. He's trusted you, right? The

plans that he has for her, he's trusted you to

unfold that. The plans for her to grow up and

what she's going to become is entrusted to you

to help her develop and know that, right? The

things that she walks in and the things that

she will one day do. And the beautiful part of

all this is that he has picked you two to help

her discover that and to help her walk in that

path. Also, children are a gift. The word of

God tells us that. In Psalms 127 .3, children

are a gift from God. They are a reward from him.

Remember that when Vera is screaming at three

in the morning. She's a gift from God. You just

got to say it, right? Just keep mumbling it to

yourself. Just say it over and over. She's a

gift from God. She's a gift from God. Remember

it a few years from now when she sasses back

for the very first time. She's a gift from God,

right? When she's in junior high and she looks

at you like she knows far more than you ever

have or ever will know, right? She's a gift from

God, right? When she drags some boy home to meet

the parents and you're thinking, just leave that

back at the curb wherever you found it, right?

She's a gift from God. She's a gift from God.

Say it because it's true. Say it because it's

what you prayed for. And say it because God has

gifted you today with his amazing children, right?

Say it out loud. So that is the, and here's the

thing about a gift. The amazing thing about a

gift is a gift is meant to be received, which

you have received this amazing gift, but it's

also meant to be given. So one day when she's

grown, you're going to give her back to this

world so God can use the gifts and abilities

in her. Just kind of really feel prompted with

that. And today that God's going to. Give her

gifts and abilities, and you're going to get

to witness that and give that back in her life.

So today I'm going to ask you to publicly respond

to this commitment that I charged you with by

answering the question with we do. Do you recognize

that Vera is a precious gift given to you from

the Lord, and do you stand ready to dedicate

her back to the Lord's work so it can be manifested

in her life? And if you're there, just say we

do. All right, we do. You're doing a great job,

Dad. All right, he's juggling up here, right?

Family and church, do you stand ready to support,

and are you willing as a family and a support

system for Brent and Bethany both to support

them in every way as they lead Vera to follow

God's path? If you are, say, we're willing. All

right, so I'm going to ask you, church, to stand,

and as you stand. Tim, if you would come. Team

Wheeler is coming. Tim's coming for a couple

reasons. One, he's grandpa. What do they call

you? Pap. This is Pap. Say hi, Pap. All right.

This is Pap. Pap's coming because he's Pap. But

he's also a minister of the gospel of Jesus.

And he's going to make a few comments as Pap

and then pray a prayer of dedication over here.

Well, children, indeed are a blessing. Thanks

for your words, Kip. Those are excellent. Really

appreciate those reminders about our responsibility

before the Lord, but the great blessing that

these children are to us. And the multiple children

that we have and grandchildren, and it's a blessing

to be a part of God's plan in being able to just

live lives before them. That will be a testimony.

Yeah, absolutely. All right. Church, if you would,

I want you to extend your hand this way. And

if you would, Tim, lead in prayer of dedication

over Vera. Father God, we... come before you

now and we give, first of all, just great thanks

to you for this little one. For Vera and her

life, for all that is in the future, we thank

you. And Father, the words that I think of is

your spirit just gave these to me this morning,

Lord, to remember. Lord, my prayer is that you

would bless her and that you would keep her.

Oh God in heaven, lift up your face on her. And

be gracious to her. Gracious with the gift of

salvation, with the calling, with the drawing

through the Spirit of God. That she would come

to know you. And then that she would continue

to grow in grace and the knowledge of who you

are. Father, that you would lift up your countenance,

your being, and turn towards her in relationship.

And that in that relationship, Lord, that you

would give her peace, that shalom. that complete

fulfillment of life. May she be a blessing to

those around her, to her parents, to all of the

family, to the church. And Father, for those

of us around her life, for mom and dad, for James,

as they live before her every day, for great

-grandparents and grandparents, for our church

family as we live an example, for... pastors

and teachers that will impact her life. God,

give to us what we need to be a blessing and

to help this young lady grow into all that you

have planned for her. And all this we pray in

faith. Spirit, thank you for the gifts you give

us. And all this we pray in the name of our Savior,

Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you

so much. That's awesome. Can you give him a hand?

And at the same time, he may be seated. We do

have a little something that we love to give

the parents each and every time we do this. And

this is important to me because it represents

really what the love of God is all about. And

it's three roses. I'm going to give these three

roses to you. And if you see, they're different

colors. First, there's the white rose, which

represents the love of Jesus, our Savior. And

really, there's no greater love that anyone can

experience other than the love of Christ in our

lives. The second one is a red rose, and that

represents the parents' love. And in conjunction

with Jesus, you work and live and move to be

a part of Vera's life, which is the pink. It's

a mixture of the two, and to raise her up. So

we love and appreciate your family, and we want

you just to have this as a representation. You're

going to do this, man. He's got two hands. I

told you, he's going to juggle it all. Also,

we have this Beginner's Bible. We love this Bible.

There's actually great stories in here, stories

of the Bible that are at a level for a child.

So we want the Word of God to be first and foremost,

which I know you both care about that deeply,

and then also a certificate to commemorate the

day. So thank you for being a part of this. Thank

you for doing this. as an example. And we just

love and appreciate it so much. So would you

give them a hand as they return back? Love these

families. Absolutely. God's so good. Again, love

the opportunity to be a part of something so

amazing and being a part of families and being

a part of this. And I appreciate the family and

all the support that came along. They got a whole

section. They got a cheering section back there,

which is awesome. We love that and love seeing

that and that support because that's what it

takes. It really does. We believe in community

here at Lifehouse. It's one of the things we

strongly talk about. So appreciate you all so

much. Well, listen, this is the last week of

a message series that I have called Salty. Say

salty. Salty. All month long, as this is week

five, you've been learning about what it means

to personally share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And we use this acrostic, this word salty, hopefully

so it sticks in your spirit. Hopefully this is

something you can put in your pocket, take with

you and pull out anytime you're thinking about

sharing the gospel. And it's really this. They're

going to put it up on the screen. S is start

a conversation. Say start a conversation. Come

on. You're going to ask good questions. You're

going to L. You're going to listen to understand

and not just respond to somebody. You're going

to understand the person that you're talking

to, right? And then last week was tell. We're

going to tell the story of Jesus. We're going

to thread God's story through our story or through

whatever we're speaking. We want to make sure

that we're conveying in the conversation Jesus.

And this week is the last one, which is the why,

which is you. You. Take a finger right now. I'm

gonna let you do something that your parents

told you don't do. You're gonna point, all right?

Anybody's parents ever tell you don't point at

people? Yeah, mine did. All right, I want you

to point at yourself. You can do it, this is

legal. Point at yourself and say, you can do

this. You can do this, come on. You gotta encourage

yourself like David in the Lord. You can do this,

right? You can share the gospel with Jesus Christ.

You can lift up his name because God told us

to do this because Jesus commissioned us to do

this. And if he told you to do something, he

will empower you and he will enable you to do

it. Philippians 4 .10 says this, and this is

a familiar piece of scripture, 10 through 13.

It says this, and Paul wrote this, the apostle

Paul says, I know how to be abased, which means

to be brought low. And I know how to abound.

Everywhere in all things, I've learned both to

be full. and to be hungry, both to abound and

to suffer need. That means in all conditions,

right? I can do all things through Christ. That's

the key right there, who strengthens me. You

can do anything in Jesus. If it's his will, if

it's his purpose in your life, if you believe

in faith, you can do whatever God calls you to

do. So if you walked into this place this morning

with zero confidence that you could share the

gospel one -on -one with somebody confidently,

right? If you've walked in and you're thinking,

there's no way I can ever do this, I'm just gonna

listen to the message, come back next week, hopefully

he's preaching about something else, right? Well,

if you're in that place, I'm here to say awesome.

Because you're in the perfect spot, you're in

the perfect position for God's strength to come

alive in you. Because 2 Corinthians 12, 7 says

this, and he said to them, my grace is sufficient

to you for my strength is made perfect in weakness.

It's in our weakness where God works the strongest.

Amen? How many are happy about that? I am, right?

It's in our weakness. I can do nothing in me,

but I can do everything in him. And when Jesus

walked this earth, he gave us everything we need

to do everything he called us to do. He provided

salvation through a sacrifice at the cross. He

sent the Holy Spirit to empower us. He gave us

living examples in his word of how we should

walk things out. He gave us the keys to literally

overcome in every area of our life, physically,

mentally, socially, emotionally, financially,

relationally, spiritually. He's given us the

keys. And Hebrews 12, one. confirms this. It

says this, Jesus is the author and he is the

finisher. of everything we need. He is the beginning.

He is the end. He is the alpha. He is the omega.

He is the bright and the morning star. He did

not miss a thing when he empowered us to serve

him. Nothing in him is incomplete. provided everything,

the finished product for all that we would need

at the cross and at the resurrection. It's everything

that we would need to experience life, everything

that we would need to step through and do what

he has asked us to do. We have an all -inclusive

package in Jesus, all right? How many of you

have ever had an all -inclusive package in something?

How many of you have ever done an all -inclusive

vacation? Maybe an all -inclusive order of some

kind that you got, right? I got to tell you,

more than once, I've needed this in my life.

I've shared this many times from this platform

that my cooking skills and my baking skills are

highly limited, okay? That's being generous,

actually, all right? They're weak, to put it

truthfully. I can cook mildly, just a few things,

right? And here's the thing. My wife's an amazing

cook. She's an amazing baker. She's incredible

at it. I'm the recipient of all that. I love

every second of it. But here's the problem. She's

also a tax preparer. She has her own tax business.

And in tax season, I don't see her for a couple

weeks. She's knee deep in paper, actually head

deep in paper and numbers, and she's gone. And

if my children and my in -laws, if my son -in

-laws don't take pity on me, sometimes they do.

They bring meals during that time, which is amazing,

right? I will eat anything that's left over,

anything, right? But for those few occasions

that they can, they have this thing called HelloFresh.

Anybody ever hear of that? Yeah. It's an all

-inclusive meal package. I love it. It comes

with all this stuff. It has instructions for

dummies like me, right, that tells you every

little thing to do. And I can actually cook something

that's edible if I have a HelloFresh meal because

it's all -inclusive. It's ready to go. I can

prepare that. You can do this. Jesus has given

you everything you need to be salty in the world

that's around you. You can do this. He's provided

everything that we need in every kind of way.

You can do it. Point at yourself one more time

and say, you can do it. Go ahead, do it right

now. I'm watching you. I'll just wait till you're

done. Okay, you can do it. You can do it. And

on this last message, I wanna give you just a

few biblical perspectives on personally sharing

our faith, being salty. Being salty. And maybe

shift your perspective just a little bit because

our perspective always changes how we approach

something. Our perspective always shifts the

lens that we see through, the filter that we

go through in life. And if you don't believe

me in this, go ahead and experiment a little

bit with this this week. Here's what I'll ask

you to do. Walk into a place sometime in a private

setting or even a public setting completely dressed

different than you normally dress. All right.

And how many know everybody else's perspective

of you will change? It's true. It's true. I can

tell you some different things you could wear

that would change the perspective of what people

see. A few months back, I had the opportunity

to go into a rehab center. I was going for a

pastoral visit. That's what pastors do. One of

the things we do is somebody will call and say,

hey, can you go to see so -and -so in the hospital

or in the rehab unit? So I went to this rehab

unit. And usually when I go to a rehab unit or

a hospital visit, I wear a jacket, right? I try

to put some clothes on that looks like like I'm

pastoralist in nature. I don't even sure what

that is, but you're right. It's a pastor. Well,

this particular day, I didn't have a jacket and

I came into this rehab center and there was this

little lady, elderly lady, very elderly lady

behind the reception desk. And she looked at

me and I said, I'm here for a pastoral visit.

And she looked me up. She looked me down. She

looked me up. She looked me down. And I saw the

doubt in her eye. And she goes, do you have any

ID? Not driver's license, like pass or ID. I

said, well, matter of fact, I do. You know, so

I pulled out my ID and I showed her my ID and

she looked me up and she looked me down and she

almost shook her head like this. Like, I guess

I'm going to have to sign them in right for this.

She didn't believe me. And it was just because

of the way I was dressed that day. She wasn't

buying in. And she had a perspective as soon

as I came in the door. She had a perspective.

There was a lens, there was a filter she was

looking at me through. So our perspective can

shift things. And how we approach sharing the

gospel with someone, if our perspective is off.

We're not gonna approach it the right way. And

here's a couple of things that we gave you. The

first thing I wanna give you this morning is

this, sharing our faith is not a spiritual event,

but it is a spiritual investment, okay? Small

tweak, small shift in perspective, but sharing

our faith is not a spiritual event. It is a spiritual

investment. Sometimes we look at sharing our

faith and an invitation to someone like it's

an event, right? Like it's a checklist kind of

thing. Like I need to invite somebody to God's

house and I need to invite somebody to know Jesus

and I got to check it off my Christian spiritual

checklist, right? Kind of thing. And listen,

don't get me wrong. I understand that there are

spiritual events that we celebrate. There really

are. There are things here that we celebrate.

When somebody makes a decision for Jesus, that's

what these orange balls are all about over here.

And we had 12 of them this week. Praise God.

Come on, you can give him a hand for that. Yeah,

12 of them this week. When somebody, that's an

event that took place, spiritual event, we celebrate

that. We really do. When somebody takes the next

step in salvation and they get water baptized

and we, right? Come on, we dunk them into water.

We baptize them in the name of the Father, Son,

and the Holy Spirit. And we all jump up and get

happy and celebrate, right? We play music. Those

are events. Those are things. When somebody starts

stepping into their giftings or their callings,

somebody's baptized in the Spirit. These are

spiritual milestones and they're spiritual events

to take. place and we celebrate it. But Jesus

taught us that leading others to him and into

the kingdom of God is also about investment.

It's about investing in others. And a little

perspective change makes a big shift in your

approach. Instead of talking at somebody, it

becomes investing in somebody. I mean, that's

very different. If I'm talking to you, if I'm

speaking to you, that's one thing. If I'm investing

in you as I talk to you, that's a whole different

thing. Coaching and mentoring, if you come from

that perspective, if you come from that light,

it changes everything in your approach. And I

realize sometimes we don't get a lot of time

with people, right? Sometimes it's only a few

moments. And you've got to think investment even

in those moments. Even in those flashes of time

with a person, think investment and not event.

Jesus said this in Matthew 28, 18, before he

left and went to the father and commissioned

us in what we're supposed to do. He said, and

Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority

has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples, invest, mentor.

coach. That's what making disciples is, right?

These newer terminology be mentoring and coaching,

invest in them, of all nations, baptizing them

in the name of the Father and of the Son and

of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe

all things that I commanded you. And lo, I'm

with you always, even to the end of the age.

Amen. That's what the word says. Jesus calls

us to invest. He calls us to invest in others,

to mentor others, to coach them, even if we get

a few minutes or we get more, right? It's not

an event in the kingdom of God. It's an investment.

And that perspective change will shift how you

approach anybody when you're going to talk to

them about Christ. I've seen this myself as an

investor, right, in others. Sometimes if you

come and you're just making an event, they're

going to run the other way. People know when

you're not investing in them. It's true. So whatever

time God gives you, whether it's a minute, right?

Whether it's a day with somebody, sometimes you

get the day with someone. Maybe it's a week that

you get to work with someone. Maybe it's a year

period of time. Whatever time God gives you in

that invest and don't make it an event because

we want to approach it. We want to be salty and

we want to come in with the right perspective.

It's true. It's true. It's true. And I understand

this in God's word. There's a pattern to investment.

Investment begins with an invitation to come

and see. Any investment always begins with the

opportunity to come and see. If I want you to

invest in something, I'm going to ask you to

come and see. I want you to come and observe.

Just come and take a look, right? It's true.

Years ago, Dixie and I got the opportunity to

go to Cabo San Lucas on vacation. And it was

not because we had money. It's because we knew

somebody that had money and they invited us to

go to Cabo San Lucas and said we'd pay. And we're

like, ding, ding, right? We're in. He said the

magic words, all right? And we went with this

couple to Cabo San Lucas and it was this five

-star all -inclusive resort. We were so out of

place. We had no idea what we were doing. And

we went to this place and it was incredible.

And once we got there, even on the way there,

we're like, how are we going to pay for things

there? Like this is a five -star resort. And

we found out that when we got there, that this

was, they had an opportunity to invest in this

organization, to invest. And they had what calls

like a timeshare thing, right? You come and see

what you can invest in. And if you did that,

you got a couple hundred bucks to spend at the

resort. resort. Like we will come and see anything.

If you're going to give us a couple hundred,

well, almost anything. All right. If you're going

to give us a couple hundred bucks. So we went

and did the timeshare. Thank God we didn't have

to produce any bank statements because we had

never got in the door. Right. This was high end.

You know, I think they started off at like $75

,000, like for two weeks to stay at this place.

Yeah, it was laughable. So we went in, but the

offer was to come and see. And after we got talking

with this guy and we sat down with him, we fessed

up. Like, there's the way. God's green earth.

We can do this. But he said, hey, it's okay,

right? You came to see. Investment always begins

with coming and seeing what you're going to invest

in. Come see what's taking place. And investment

to come and see Jesus, it starts, right, with

investment. It starts with the idea, just come

and see. Come and see who Jesus is. We invite

someone personally. We come with the attitude

and the heart. Just come and see Jesus. Here

at LifeHouse, that's what the green balls are

all about over here. This is about the invitation.

If you invite somebody to church, if you invite

somebody to life group, if you invite somebody

to know Jesus, we ask you just to fill out one

of those balls. We tell you, put the initials

of the person you invited or a symbol that represents

them, the date that you invited them, and put

that in there and celebrate. You know why we

do that? So we can pray over those invitations.

We want people to come. We want to pray over

what's taking place here at LifeHouse. We want

to respond. Come and see what it's all about.

Come and see who he is. Come and see. how he's

changed lives. Come and hear the testimony. Tonight's

revive. If you've never been to a revive, what

takes place at revive, it's not structured nearly

like a Sunday morning. When you come into a revive

worship service, we get together for an hour

and we just lift up God in praise. We worship

him. But at the end of revive, it's been our

tradition that we gather up front and we just

hand the mic around and you hear testimony of

what God's done in people's lives. It's incredible.

It's amazing. Just listening to somebody talk

about it. Come and see what he's about. Come

hear the testimony. Make the invitation a come

and see event, right? Not an event, an investment.

Come and see investment. We should give people

time to observe Jesus. We should give them time.

They need to come and look at it and test and

see God for themselves, see Jesus for themselves.

If I invite you to my house, For a meal, and

it's the first time you've ever come to my home.

How many know that's a come and see thing, right?

You're going to come and see. We all do this.

First time you go to somebody's house, you're

scoping everything, right? You're looking at

what's on the front door, right? As soon as the

door opens, you're peeking around. What's in

that room? What's in this room, right? You're

checking out the house. You're checking out the

yard. You're looking at the dog, right? Is it

a friendly dog? You're checking out how clean

the house is so you can decide whether you're

gonna eat the food, right? Or you're suddenly

gonna get sick and go home. You know, you're

doing all this. You come in and at a come and

see event, you come in for the first time, the

invitation, and you look. around. And then you

decide if you're coming back. We got to give

people time to learn about Jesus and to see Jesus

for the first time. Sometimes we mug them, right?

We just want to make them all make decisions,

right? No, let them come. Let them observe. The

word of God says in Psalms 34, 8, oh, taste and

see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man

who trusts in him. Let him come take a taste.

Let him see, right? Our investment in others

begins with the invite to come and see Jesus.

it let him observe let him see it starts off

with the come and see in God's word then it goes

to come and follow the disciples would say come

and see and Jesus would say come and follow you

see that in John chapter 1 and it starts with

John 1 · chapter mention

verse 43 and says the following day Jesus went

to go to Galilee and he found Philip and he said

to him follow me Now, Philip was from Bethsaida,

the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael

and said to him, we have found him of who Moses

in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus

of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael

said to him, now listen, this is Philip talking

to Nathanael. Look, we found Jesus. We found

the Messiah. We found the Christ. And Nathanael

said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth?

He doesn't believe it, right? Nathanael's like,

I don't know. I don't think anything good can

come out of Nazareth. Philip said to him, what

did he say to him? Nathaniel doesn't really believe

you. He says, just come and see. Come and see

for yourself. Philip was already convinced, but

Nathaniel wasn't. Come and see. Take a look for

yourself. Check it out for yourself. Find out

what's being said, what's being done, what the

testimony is. Check out the word of God for yourself.

Check it out yourself. Investing, mentoring,

coaching, discipling others begins with the come

and see invitation. You can do this, church.

You can do this, right? It's the why and salty.

You can do it. Let them come and see and taste

for themselves. It's a little bit like going

to Sam's Club. I love Sam's Club. I don't know

if you've ever gone into Sam's Club, but I'll

go in and look for the bargain of the week. We're

there about every week to get stuff for the church.

And I'm cruising the aisles looking for the bargain

of the week. And there it is. It always happens.

Right at one of the end caps, there stands a

person, right? And they have a come and see thing

going on right there. They've got a sample of

something. It's always some kind of food. And

they got it in little itty bitty tiny cups, right?

And you come over and they're like, come on over.

over here. Come on in. I want you to see something.

And you go over and you just take a little taste

of whatever they have. Now, what they're trying

to get you to do is invest in the product, whatever

it is, right? Whatever the thing is for the day.

But I love it. They'll say, come on over and

see. And I go, hmm, that's not bad, right? They

taste that. They're hoping you're going to buy.

You're going to invest. You got to let people

come and see. You got to let them get a taste

of what it's all about. You've got to help them

understand. And once they decide to follow Jesus,

once they make a decision on their own that this

is true, that Jesus is the Son of God, he's Savior

of the world, that he loves them more than anybody

else could ever love them. Once they believe

that he is the way, the truth, and the life.

Once they experience the love of God, that it's

like no other love, right? They understand the

forgiveness and freedom that comes in Jesus.

Once they call him Lord and Savior, once they

invest, then comes and... follow. Come and follow.

It's come and see and come and follow. Jesus

said these things. I'm going to go ahead and

reread that previous passage, right? In John

1 43, the following day, Jesus wanted to go to

Galilee and he found Philip who was already convinced

and said to him, follow me. Follow me. Follow

me. Philip was ready. He came and saw Jesus previously.

He was ready. He was convinced. He was convicted

and convinced, right? He was sure that Jesus

was Savior. Philip's all in. Come and follow.

Sharing the gospel with others, becoming salty

with the invitation, right, is a come and see,

right, and then come follow me experience. It

really is. But we have to start with the come

and see. And it's investment. It's the perspective

you're coming from. Are you investing in somebody?

Do you see it as mentoring? Do you see it as

coaching? Whatever you get, everything's about

the invitation to come and see. And then the

follow -up is come and follow. It really is.

And there is such a pure, amazing, beautiful

model of this in the early church, in the church

of Christ in Acts chapter 2. When your church,

Acts 2 · chapter mention

the first church is birthed after Jesus leaves

and goes to the Father, after he instructs his

disciples to coach and to mentor and to invite.

You see this beautiful model. He sends 120 to

Jerusalem into an upper room and he says, I'm

gonna send the gift. And the gift comes, it's

the Holy Spirit who comes. Best gift ever, by

the way, right? You can't be, this kind of gift

isn't something that gets consumed, used, or

put on a back burner, or even at a yard sale

next year, right, for 10 cents. The Holy Spirit

comes to live within us. And those who follow

Christ, he comes and he resides within us in

the spirit. Spirit of the living God for each

follower of Jesus and his power and his prompting

and his teaching is ours. And we witness this

after the come and see and it goes to come and

follow. And it's so powerful. And what takes

place in that early church is when this church

is birthed, immediately. When the Holy Spirit

comes, the gift comes. Peter, who's one of the

disciples, right? One of the guys that Jesus

has been mentoring and coaching and pouring into

all along the way. He goes out to Jerusalem.

He goes out into the streets and he begins to

preach an invitational message. He says, come

and see Jesus. He preaches this message. 3 ,000

plus people decide to follow Christ. They go

to come and follow. Let me read the account for

you. In Acts chapter 237 says this. Now, when

they heard this, they were cut to the heart when

they heard Peter preaching and said to Peter

and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what

shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and

be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus

Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And

you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit

for the promises for you and for your children

and for all who are far off. Everyone whom the

Lord God has calls to himself. And with many

other words, he bore witness and continued to

exhort saying, save yourself from this crooked

generation. So those who received the word were

baptized and they were added that day, 3000 souls.

So he preaches a come and see message, an invitational

message. Then we'll look what follows afterwards.

In verse 42, it says this. Now, this is talking

about those who got saved. This is talking about

the 3 ,000 who are now following Jesus. And they

devoted themselves. He's talking about the entire

crowd here. To the apostles' teaching and to

fellowship and to breaking of bread and prayers.

And awe came upon every soul. And many wonders

and signs were being done through the apostles.

And all who believed were together and had all

things in common. They were selling their possessions

and belongings and distributing the proceeds

to all. as any had need. And day by day, attending

the temple together, breaking bread in their

homes, receive their food with gladness and generous

hearts, praising God and having favor with all

people. And the Lord added to their number day

by day, those who were being saved. They came

together in the follow, right? They devote themselves

to learning the word of God, to hearing the words

of scripture. and the words of Jesus. Now, I

can't tell you how important this is. You're

going to hear more about this. When we launch

into 2026, we've got a focus already set up.

We're going to get into God's word. We're going

to dive deep because there's incredible benefit

when you get into God's word. But this early

church, they dive in. They're learning the word

of God together. They're coming together and

learning together. They also engage in something

called fellowship. We love fellowship because

fellowship involves food. Amen. Yeah, church

people fellowship always involves food. It's

breaking the bread of life, which is the word

of God, and then breaking bread for real, like

the food we eat, the physical food. And we love

to get together. And there's something spiritual,

you didn't know this, but there's something spiritual

about eating together. It really is. About sitting

across the table and breaking bread and eating

together. Hearing the word of God, breaking spiritual

bread, and then breaking physical bread. And

listen, this happens all the time in our life

groups. I hear about all the great meals. Life

groups meet in different places. They all come

together. They're eating food. I hear about the

feast that takes place. They're breaking bread.

There's fellowship that takes place. And Jesus

knew this. It's why he instituted communion.

It's one of the sacraments we participate in.

It's the breaking of bread, and we remember the

body of Christ, and then the juice from the vine

that represents his blood. He says, when you're

eating and drinking, remember me. This is spiritual.

And then they come and follow, and they do something

else. They care. They care about each other.

And not just a, like, I care about you kind of

phrase kind of care. Not just a passing, hey,

I hope everything works out okay for you kind

of thing. This is the kind of care that comes

down to, I'm not okay if you're not okay kind

of care. That's what happened in the early church.

1 John 3, 16 says this, for by this we love because

he laid down his life for us and we also ought

to lay down our lives for our brother. But whoever

has this world's goods and sees his brother in

need and shuts up his heart from him, how does

the love of God even abide in him, right? How

does it abide in him? James 2, 14 says, what

does it profit my brother if someone says he

has faith but does not have works? Can faith

save him? If a brother or sister is naked and

destitute of daily food, and one of them says,

depart in peace and be warmed and filled, but

you do not give them the things which are needed

for the body, what does it profit? That's also

faith by itself. If it does not have works, it's

dead. I should not be okay if you're not okay,

right? If you need something. Now, I'm not talking

about catering to your wants or whims. That's

not what I'm talking about here. But if you got

needs in your life, if you need something, food,

clothing, shelter, support, right? This is where

we connect. This is what the early church did.

It was a beautiful picture of coming and following

Christ. There was word, there was fellowship,

there was care. The Bible says that they had

favor with all people, all people. Worship team,

if you'd come. You and I are salty if we come

in with the whole perspective and lens that we're

going to invest in other people. It can't be

surface, can't be checklist, can't be event.

We have to come in ready to invest. We got to

let them come and see. We gotta be invitational

and let them find Jesus and let them hear about

Jesus. And then when they come to Jesus, we gotta

invest further. We gotta go deeper in all this.

Investing in others is you inviting others to

come and see and inviting others to come and

follow Jesus with you. It's a perspective thing.

Perspective matters. Perspective matters. I read

this this week as I close. It says this, in February,

2020. BBC journalist Vicki Baker jumped on the

first Eurostar to Paris, motivated by a sudden

urge to have dinner with a friend. American Jim

Hayes had entered his late 80s and his health

was declining, yet she knew he would welcome

a visit. Jim always welcomed visitors to his

home in Paris. She was far from the only guest

wandering into his warm glow of his artist's

workroom on a wet winter's night. Inside, people

were squeezing shoulder to shoulder through the

narrow kitchen. Strangers struck up conversations,

brunch together in groups, and balancing their

dinners on paper plates. Jim had operated an

open house policy in his home every Sunday evening

for more than 40 years. Absolutely anyone was

welcome to come in for an informal dinner. All

you had to do was phone or email, and he would

add your name to the list, no questions asked.

Just put a donation in an envelope when you arrive.

There would be a buzz in the areas. People with

various nationalities, locals, immigrants, travelers,

milled around the small space. Open plan floor,

right? A pot of hearty food bubbled up on the

stove and serving would be dished out into the

trestle table so you could help yourself and

continue to mingle. It was for good reason that

Jim was nicknamed the godfather of social networking.

He led the way in connecting strangers long before

we outsourced it to Silicon Valley. At the dinners,

As the dinner peaked, Jim would welcome up to

120 guests filling his house and spilling out

into the cobbled back garden as an estimated

150 ,000 people have come over the years into

his house. The doors were always open, says Amanda

Morrow, an Australian journalist. It was a revolving

door of guests, some who wanted to stay over,

others who just wanted to say hello. Jim never

said no to anyone. Amid the outpouring of online

tribute since his death, January 6th, 2021, these

words from his son, Jesper, stand out. The only

thing that really got Jim down was people leaving.

He struggled with that. His goal from early on

was to introduce the whole world to each other.

He was almost successful. What if we were that

passionate and intentional to help people come

and see Jesus? What if we were that passionate

about people coming to experience Christ? What

if we were that passionate to not just make it

an event, but to invest like this man did? What

if we did that? What if we did that? I'm going

to ask you to stand. This is about being salty,

church, for Christ. It's about speaking. It's

about asking good questions, right? Speaking

to others. It's about listening. It's about being

intentional, investing into others. It's about

telling the story of Christ any chance you get

in any way you can. But it's also about you.

It's about you. It's about the lens that you're

looking through as you go out to be salt of the

earth. That's what the Bible calls it, salt of

the earth, light. This is what it's about. We

have to have a right. How many of you can do

the right thing and do it the wrong way? Amen?

It's true. We want to do this the right way.

It's an amazing thing. I love the, I'm hearing

about the invitations. We're hearing about the

people who are coming to Christ. We want to make

sure we're pure at heart when we go do this.

We want to make sure that we're going there to

invest. We're not looking for numbers. We're

not looking to pat ourselves in the back. We're

not looking for any of that. This is kingdom

work. This is just about getting people to Christ

so they can experience exactly what you did.

The freedom that you know, the forgiveness that

you know, right? The power of God, the Holy Spirit

in you. This is what it's for. Thank you for

tuning in to this message from Lifehouse Church.

We pray that you were impacted powerfully by

this message. If you have been personally affected

by our ministry and you would like to partner

with us as we love God, love people every day,

visit our website at www .lifehousecog .com.