Salty - Week 2 - Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from

Lifehouse Church. Welcome to Lifehouse. Good

to see you. If you're with us online this morning,

it's good to have you there as well. It is good

to be in God's house this morning. And how many

know that we've been talking about reaching people?

I don't know if you realize that or not, but

last week we started this message series on Salty.

And I just kind of want to reiterate. what they

said earlier in the announcements, we've got

these green balls up here. And what this is,

is this accountability. Look at these two. This

is accountability. If you invite someone to LifeHouse,

if you invite them to know Jesus, what we want

you to do, stop at the connection station. They

got a magic marker out there. Get a green ball.

Put their initials on there and the date and

put it in this aquarium because we want to pray

over those we invite to LifeHouse, right? And

if you happen to lead someone to the Lord, I

want you to put their name on there. And when

you put an orange one in here, I want you to

gather a bunch of people because we're going

to celebrate, right? Somebody comes into the

kingdom of God. kingdom of God celebrates, we

celebrate. So that's what these are for. We're

going to be talking about this all week long

and actually all month long, going in to four

to five weeks here. And we're praying that God's

word penetrates your heart. And I started this

mess series last week and I started to talk about

becoming salty. Turn to somebody, say salty.

Now, listen, when I say become salty, I don't

mean salty in the normal sense. How many know

you can get salty and that means you're frustrated

with somebody? You're aggravated. Thank you.

Thank you. I got a witness. I got two witnesses,

all right? Aggravated about a situation, right?

Or a person, don't look at him right now. Or

a circumstance, right? And you're salty about

that situation. But that's not what we're talking

about here at LifeHouse. We're talking about

being salty for Jesus. We're talking about being...

actually salt and light for Jesus. And we want

to live out what Matthew 5, verse 13 says, 13

Matthew 5:13

through 16. It says this, you are the salt of

the earth. Say, I'm salt. I'm going to get this

in your spirit. I'm salt. You are the salt of

the earth. But if the salt has lost its taste,

how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no

longer good for anything except to be thrown

out and trampled under people's feet. Salt and

light. in the right combination to reflect our

Lord Jesus, our Savior, right? Salt and light

that causes others to see God's work in us and

not glorify us, but glorify Him. Kind of deflection.

I want you to be deflectors for Jesus. You do

the good works, they see it, they begin to glorify

God, and the glory goes right to God, right?

We kind of want to redefine the meaning of salt

life. How many like the salt life? How many beach

people we got in the house? Yeah, a whole bunch

of you, right? We want to redefine that, and

we want you to live salt life here at LifeHouse.

And last week, we determined this. This is all

going to take place. This is all going to happen

with us as a culture and as a church. And a couple

things we need to get in place to do that. First,

you got to decide. You got to decide. How many

know change does not come unless you make a decision

about something? You've got to make a decision.

It starts off with a decision. It all starts

with a decision. Secondly, you've got to get

in step with the Holy Spirit. We don't want you

going out and trying to reach people on your

own. That's a scary ordeal. We want you to reach

people with Jesus in step with the Holy Spirit.

When the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, when

he's guiding you, when he's directing you. So

one, you've got to make a decision. Two, you've

got to get in step with the Holy Spirit. And

three, you need a plan. You've got to have a

plan. And that's what salty is all about. Not

just the word salty, but the acrostic salty.

S -A -L -T -Y. Salty, right? We're going to use

this word all month long, and it's an acrostic

to help you remember the plan. You got to know

the plan that God has. You got to go out there

with a plan to reach people for Jesus. So this

morning, today, we're going to start with the

letter S. S, right? Which stands for start a

conversation. Look at the person beside you,

tell them, I'm going to start a conversation

with you in just a little while. I'm going to

do it. I'm going to start a conversation with

you in just a little while. It's good to warn

people, right? Start a conversation. You got

to start a conversation. We can't tell someone

about Jesus if we're not talking to them, right?

If we're not willing to speak to them, if we're

not willing to get in a dialogue with someone

else. And a dialogue is a conversation where

somebody is speaking and another person's listening

or somebody's listening and then somebody's speaking.

It kind of goes back and forth. It's like a ping

pong match, right? One volley's up and the other

one returns it. And it's a dialogue. We got to

get into a dialogue with people. And right now,

this is not a dialogue. I don't know if you know

that or not. I get you to say stuff once in a

while. But this is pretty much monologue. I'm

speaking and you're listening. Unless you're

on your phone chatting with somebody, right?

You know who you are out there. I can see you

from up here, right? Before church, you were

dialoguing with somebody. Probably after church,

you'll dialogue with somebody. Maybe on the break,

right? There's talking that's taking place. Dialogue

is that meaningful conversation where you're

engaged in speaking and just as engaged in listening

with someone else. Oscar Wilde says this, ultimately

the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage

or friendship, is conversation. It's dialogue.

Listening and talking to each other. Reaching

for people, people for Jesus requires us to start

a dialogue with somebody about God. A Jesus monologue

won't cut it. I cannot engage in what I call

a Jesus monologue or a Jesus elevator speech

and expect to win anybody for Jesus. Now, first

of all, let me ask, how many of you know what

an elevator speech is? Raise your hand. If you're

online, I want you to put it in the chat. Good,

about half of you know what an elevator speech

is. If you don't know what an elevator speech

is, it's when you get in, I mean, when you get

in an elevator at one landing, and let's say

you get in at the first floor and you're heading

to the fifth floor, you got about 60 seconds,

right? Maybe a little better than a minute to

whatever you're going to say to somebody, you

got to get it said. How many know when you get

in an elevator, there's a captive audience? I

love it. It's amazing. They can't get away from

you, right? And you get in the elevator, you've

got a captive audience in there, and you've got

60 seconds. And people practice this in business

all the time. Can you get across what you want

to say in 60 seconds or less before they can

actually escape and run away from you when they

get out right of the elevator? It's true. And

we're not called to really do what I call hit

and run for Jesus. Listen, if I say hit and run

in any kind of statement, how many know that's

a bad thing? That's not a good thing, right?

We don't want to do hit and run evangelism for

Jesus. We want to really get engaged in a dialogue.

We don't want to do a 30 -second spew about something

about Jesus and just walk away. I've had this

happen to me personally. I just actually had

it happen not that long ago. I had a gentleman

who came up to me. out on the, just out on the

sidewalk. And a gentleman came up to me and immediately,

he didn't say anything. He just started talking.

And he started doing his Jesus elevator speech.

And I thought, well, okay, this is cool, right?

And he's trying to make a convert out of me.

And he just come up and he's going, you know,

he's going on and on and on and on and on and

on about Jesus stuff. And I'm like, okay. And

he didn't let me get it worded edgewise. And

I had to wait till he took a breath. I knew he

had to breathe sooner or later. Right? He took

a breath, you know, and I said, hey, I said,

I'm a believer. I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm

a Christian. I thought he'd go like, man, that's

awesome. High five, brother. Right? He didn't

believe me. He didn't. He didn't believe me.

He just kept on going. He kept, I don't know

if I look like a hardened atheist. I don't know

if I look like I've been involved in a lot of

sin at the moment. I'm not sure what was going

on, but he just kept rolling with it. And I couldn't

say anything, so I just listened. I let him practice

his spiel, right? He did his whole thing. And

you know, he didn't engage in a conversation.

It was a Jesus monologue. It was hit and run

evangelism. He just wanted to get another spiritual

notch on his belt, right? I talked to one more

person about Jesus and I'm gonna keep on going.

He didn't care who I was. He wasn't interested

in what I thought. He didn't care. He wasn't

worried about one thing I had to say. Nothing,

right? We can't approach people in that kind

of manner. They're not a project. We gotta care.

You know what? I don't know. Maybe he was afraid

of a real conversation or maybe he was taught

to do it that way. I'm not sure. But we've got

to engage in dialogue. If we're going to lead

people to Jesus, we got to listen to who they

are. We got to care about the person that we're

talking to. We got to be genuinely interested.

We have to care about someone enough to engage

in authentic, I care about you, Jesus conversation

with them. A dialogue that's taking place. And

if you don't really care about that person, if

you don't really want to be there in a conversation

with them, they'll pick it up. How many of you

can pick up when someone's not really there to

not engage with you whatsoever? They'll let you

know that. They just came out of a teen youth

camp. It was teen and juniors together, youth

camp. And I'll tell you, I used to work with

teenagers and they... Adults, y 'all as adults,

you're very kind, right? If somebody's doing

something that you don't really care for, you're

pretty good about like just playing it off and

like, and then you go away and talk about them

later. Teenagers don't do that. They'll tell,

they'll let you know right up front, right? When

you're not being authentic, they know, they'll

pick it out. We gotta use words. When we wanna

reach people for Jesus, we gotta use your words.

Say, use your words. We tell little kids that

all the time, right? Little kids who run around,

they're grunting at people. They're going, uh,

uh, uh, right? They're grunting at what they

want. How many know, right? Two, three years

old, going, uh, uh, uh, uh, right? And parents

going there, use your words. Use your words.

I say it all the time here at church, right?

Use your words. That's what they're doing, you

know? The kids going, uh, uh, uh. You can't do

that. You can't run around grunting and grumbling

and groaning underneath your voice, right? Huffing

and puffing your way through life. And then,

oh, by the way, I wanna talk about Jesus. You

gotta use your words. You gotta get in a dialogue.

You gotta start a conversation. Jesus did this

all the time. He started conversations. He started

conversations when it was socially acceptable.

and when it was not socially acceptable. He started

conversations at an expected time, and he would

start conversations at an unexpected time. He

really would. He'd do it in all kinds of places.

He'd do it with all kinds of people. He'd do

it with tax collectors. He would do it with sinners.

He would do it with religious leaders. He would

do it with beggars. He would do it with thieves.

It didn't matter. Those who were in great authority

and those who had no authority at all and had

nothing to offer him whatsoever, he started conversations.

And on a particular day, he starts a conversation

with a Samaritan woman, which in his day was

taboo socially. If you've got your Bibles, turn

to John 4, verse 1. It says this, Jesus is on

John 4:1

the move, right? He's leaving Judea. He's heading

to Galilee. And he's got to go through the area

of Samaria. And he came to the city of Samaria,

which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground

that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now, Jacob's

well, this is a physical well, like a well you

get water out, right, was there. Jesus, therefore,

being weary from his journey, sat thus by the

well. It was about the sixth hour. And a woman

of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to

her, give me a drink. This is the conversation.

He starts speaking, right? He gives her words.

Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away

into the city to buy food. Jesus is doing what

he did. He traveled. He was an itinerant, what

you would call preacher, speaker, rabbi, right?

Undercover son of God at this point in time.

And he's traveling from Judea to Galilee. And

he stops in the area of Samaria at the well of

Jacob. And while he's there, the disciples go

to get food. And this is probably about a 17

mile trek. He's probably in about 17 miles when

he gets to this point. And they're there for

a respite. They're there for a rest along the

journey. journey. And this conversation begins

with a Samaritan woman, which is taboo, but it's

how he starts the conversation. It's super interesting.

He looks at this woman and he says, give me a

drink. That's it. Just give me a drink. Now,

honestly, as I looked at this at first glance,

I thought, well, that's an interesting way to

start a conversation. Maybe even just a little

bit awkward, right? I thought to myself, what

if I was standing at a soda machine and I was

spanning, right, all my choices and I'm getting

ready to spend that two bucks. It used to be

a buck, but now it's two bucks, right, to get

a soda or to get a drink of some kind. And I'm

deciding whether to do Mountain Dew or should

I get vitamin water? You know, should I get something

healthy? And I'm standing getting ready to make

a decision and somebody walks up behind me and

says, give me a drink. I mean, I don't know what

I'd do, right? I only got two bucks. right? Give

me a drink. And some of you would probably just

ignore him like, oh, they're on their Bluetooth

talking to somebody else. I don't know, right?

You know, but it was kind of awkward. It was

a little bit, it was a little strange response,

but Jesus knew exactly what he was doing in this

conversation starter. He really did. He, first

of all, he knew that he was talking to a Samaritan

woman. He knew that was taboo according to society

that day. Jews had no dealings. with Samaritans

and Samaritans with Jews, they were actually

considered almost enemies of one another. They

had deep differences that was very historical

in nature that went back many, many, many, many

years. And there was this divide socially between

the two. And he knew the social biases he stepped

into this conversation. He knew what she was

thinking. He knew that this was not a thing that

normally took place. And he also knew that it

was just not good in general for a Jewish man

to speak to a woman, let alone a Samaritan woman.

And Jesus breaks all those social barriers and

he starts a conversation, not with chitchat like

we normally do, right? But he asked for a drink

from the well. Now you gotta understand, this

Samaritan woman, you gotta think about what's

running through her mind. She's like, why is

this guy talking to me? Why is this Jewish man

even speaking to me? And she's got two choices

at this point. She can either engage in a conversation

with Jesus. She either has to, because Jesus

said, made a kind of a demand on her, right?

Or she can walk away. and just pretend he didn't

even say anything. She's only got two choices.

And Jesus knew because he kind of placed the

demand, she was probably wondering, why is he

speaking? She might even been a little aggravated

about the whole thing. Why is he talking to me?

Why is this all happening? What in the world's

going on? She's probably thinking, this doesn't

happen. This isn't supposed to happen. And Jesus

knew this was gonna lead. He said something that

was gonna start a conversation, even if it was

a little bit awkward at the beginning. And in

verse nine, the woman responds. It says, the

woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that

you, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan

woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritan.

She points out the obvious. She points out that

this is messed up. This doesn't happen. We don't

do this kind of thing, right? And it's on. The

conversation's engaged. This conversation, right,

was so out of the norm. And Jesus says something

and she's got to respond. She's thinking, this

is not good. Why is this happening? And she states

it. And Jesus answers her. The conversation starts.

This is no longer a monologue. It's a dialogue.

And Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew

the gift of God and who it is who says to you,

give me a drink, you would have asked him and

he would have given you living water. He starts

the conversation with a request, almost a demand,

right? Which results in a question from her,

which piques her curiosity to all this and why

this is happening. And then Jesus flips the script.

He says, if you would have, if you had known

who was talking to you, you would have asked

me for a drink of water and I would have given

you living water. Curiosity peaked. intrigued,

engaged completely, right? They're on their way

to have a conversation. And listen, if you can

get somebody intrigued in your conversation,

you're gonna have a conversation. If you can

say something that helps that person realize,

you know what? There's some kind of hidden gold

here. I don't know what's going on in this conversation,

but there's something under the surface and I

wanna know what it's about. If you can get somebody

engaged and they're like, you know what? They're

talking about something I really need, right?

Living water. Where do I get living water? her.

You know, he, Jesus, he spoke and she was in.

Curiosity was piqued, right? Interest was piqued,

and this conversation was on. And Jesus drew

conversation, something, he started with something

that we all want. We want to know what the gift

of God is for us. Amen? I do. I want to know

what the gift of God is for me. I want to know

where I can get living water, living water that

can be inside of me and continue on in me. I

want to know that. Living water. It's what I

want. I want that. I do. I think some people

check out of our conversations sometimes because

we never pique their interest. Right? We never

get in a conversation where they're interested

in what we have to say. I think sometimes we're

afraid to say something that's life -changing

in the moment. Something that might grab them

in the second, right? And pull them in and draw

them into a conversation. But Jesus goes right

into it. And he makes it intriguing. Makes him

intriguing. Now, this whole message series is

about you getting out there and getting in conversations

and starting a conversation. So here's what I

wanna do. I wanna get you to practice this right

now, just for a second, right? And you might

be thinking, well, how in the world am I gonna

do that? I want you to get the person beside

you intrigued. Now, this is gonna be okay if

you know the person beside you. If not, get ready

for a very awkward moment, okay? But I want you

to turn to the person right beside you right

now, and I want you to smile at them. Go ahead

and do it right now. And keep smiling at them,

like awkwardly smiling at them. Come on. Just

keep smiling at them. All right, come on. Wasn't

that a little weird? Now, you did it because

I told you to. But if somebody did that to you,

do you know what you'd be thinking? You'd be

thinking, why are they smiling at me? What in

the world do they got going on in their head

right now? It might be a little awkward, but

you'd get a little bit intrigued, right? They'd

just keep grinning at you and grinning at you.

And you'd be like, do I know you? You know, you'd

be saying something like that. Have we met before?

Right, you'd be doing something along those lines.

You can do something that intrigues people. Start

the conversation. Just walk up beside them. Maybe

get up, step and step with them. I mean, if you

walk right up beside somebody who doesn't know

you and you get step and step with them, they're

just looking over you like, what's happening

right now? And you can start off with hello.

Say something intriguing. This happened to me

years ago, many years ago. Well, actually not

that long ago, but some years back. And I've

told this story before. So if you've heard it

before here at LifeHouse, please forgive me.

I'm getting old, I repeat myself. But I was in

a parking lot and I came out of a store. It was

pretty close to closing time. It was getting

close to about 9 p .m. and the store's getting

ready to close. And I was walking to the bottom

of this parking lot. And of course, the parking

lot lights were on. And this car, as I get to

the bottom of the parking lot where my car is,

this car pulls in up towards close to the store

and they put their window down and they yell

one thing to me. I'm the only one in that aisle.

I'm the only one almost in the parking lot. And

they say, man of God. And I'm looking around

like, who's the man of God I need to be looking

at, right? And that's all they said. And they

said it twice, man of God. And two things, I

turned around, I did not recognize the car and

I did not recognize the voice. Now I had two

choices at that point, right? Hop in my car and

just pretend I didn't hear that or walk back

up the parking lot and see who's up there. I

chose to say, I had to see who it was. I was

so intrigued. I thought I might get shot and

die and go to heaven right now, but I'm gonna

walk back up, right? I'm gonna walk back up to

the parking lot. And I walked up and this gentleman

said, God sent me here to speak a word over you.

And he spoke a word over me. I was so stunned.

I never got his name and he closed the window

and drove away. I stood completely stunned. It's

only ever happened to me one time in my whole

life. In the parking lot, it was crazy. And God

met me right there, right under a light in a

parking lot and spoke a word to me through somebody

I did not know. And they delivered the message

and they're like, whew, that's over with, right?

And they took off. They left. They did an obedience.

We got to start the conversation. We gotta be

intriguing in it. And it can be just as small

as a thing. And it might not look like that at

all, right? It might not be that crazy kind of

thing that takes place, but it could be something

simple. It can be something as simple as a smile,

right? You can step in step with them, walk up

right beside them. You can start a simple, natural

conversation with someone and move it towards

the eternal as fast as you can. Move it towards

something that they need eternally as quick as

you can. Let them know what the gift is of God,

right? Hey, I... I got a gift for you. I got

something to give you, right? Make it intriguing.

In verse 11, the woman said to him, sir, you

have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.

Where then do you get that living water? The

conversation's going on. Are you greater than

our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank

from it as well as his sons and his livestock?

She's in now. She's in the conversation. She's

talking. She's pulling up history. How did that

happen? A couple of things, a couple of things.

Jesus knew where he was before he started the

conversation. He knew he was in Samaria. He knew

the history. of the peoples, right, between the

Jews and the Samaritans. He knew the social bias

that this woman would be coming from. He knew

that she knew nothing about him personally at

this point. She had no idea who she was talking

to when this conversation started. He knew he

was near water, right? And this could be a conversation

point because we all need water. He knew all

of it. He thought through. He was aware before

he started the conversation. What am I saying?

When you're going to start a conversation, with

someone, take a look around you before you start

to talk. Take a look around you before you start

the conversation. Know where you are. Know generally

who you're talking to, the general audience that

you're speaking to. Get a hold of some social

cues that are around you, the climate that's

in the room, the climate where you're at, right?

And lean into the Holy Spirit to start the conversation.

Here's a great thing you need to understand.

This does not all lean and lend on you. If you're

walking with the Holy Spirit and you breathe

the word to him, you say, Holy Spirit, I need

you right now. I wanna start this conversation.

I need your help. Help me in this conversation.

How many in this house, you've got into a conversation,

at the end of the conversation, you're thinking,

I have no idea where all those thoughts and words

came from. That was the Holy Spirit, had to be

the Holy Spirit because it wasn't coming out

of my brain, right? I just spoke those things.

Get in that conversation. I go on hospital visits

sometimes. Sometimes people will call me and

say, hey, I got a relative in the hospital and

I don't know who they are or I don't know who

they are. They know, of course, they're a relative,

right? But I don't know who they are walking

in. They'll say, pastor, would you go visit them?

And I'm like, sure, I'll go visit them. And they

don't know the Lord. Would you lead them to the

Lord? And by the way, they're about to pass from

this life to the next. So I got to walk into

a room, right, a hospital room, where the person

A doesn't know me, the family around them may

not know me, and I have no idea of this person's

bias, hostility, or anything towards Christianity,

and I got to start a conversation with them about

the most important thing in their life, and that's

if they've given their life to Christ. You got

to pray and lean on the Holy Spirit. I'm usually

desperately praying the whole way to the hospital,

like, Lord, you got to help me with this, right?

Give me the words. He's going with a plan, but

I need the Holy Spirit because I need the words.

Look at who's around you. Know where you're at.

As I was thinking about this, I was thinking

about Jesus. What if he swung into Sturgis, South

Dakota, while one of the largest Harley Davidson

rallies that's on the planet is taking place?

What if Jesus rode in on his Harley to Sturgis

and slid up beside somebody and said, give me

a drink? How many know they wanted to hand him

water? That had a whole different meaning in

that context, right? If he had came into Sturgis,

South Dakota, while there's thousands and hundreds

of thousands of bikers there, he would have had

to start the conversation different. It would

have to look like something else. He might've

slid up and say, you know what? I need a half

inch wrench. My exhaust pipe on my bike is loose

and I need a half inch wrench. You got a half

inch wrench? And they'll hand him a half inch

wrench. And he might've said, you know what?

I know the one who holds all things together.

I know the one who put it all together, right?

I know the one who can keep it bound together.

He might start the conversation in a different

way. He might say, you know, do you got some

leather softener? I've been wearing these chaps

under my cloak. Come on, I need some leather

softener. And by the way, I can give you, listen,

if life is rubbing you the wrong way, I know

the one that you need to go to this morning.

Come on. How about some chrome polish, right?

You got some chrome polish conversation starter.

I need to remove the sin, right? Chrome polish

is like, you can remove stains and sin with chrome

polish, right? Jesus is the chrome polish. He

just started the conversation in some other way.

It would have looked different. Take a look around.

Don't just go off of your IQ, which is your intellect,

but go off of your EQ, which is your emotional

intelligence, right? Pick up on what's happening

around you. See what's going on. Rely on the

Holy Spirit and start a conversation. Start it.

Don't rely on your skills, right, or lack of

conversational skills. Some of you might feel

very skilled in conversations. Some of you are

like, I hate getting into conversations, right?

But rely on the Holy Spirit. Pick up on what's

going on around you. Last thing I'm going to

give you this morning, last thing. Be childlike.

Be childlike in starting a conversation. We should

be childlike in starting conversation. Well,

what do I mean by that? Well, let me read you

Matthew 18, verse one. It says this. At that

time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who's

the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? This is

the disciples. These are the very mature disciples

of Jesus. Who's the greatest? And calling to

him a child, he put him in the midst of them

and said, truly I say to you, unless you turn

and become like children, you'll never enter

the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself

like this child is greatest in the kingdom of

heaven. Disciples are arguing. Who's the greatest?

Who's the greatest disciple ever? It's what happens

when you get a bunch of guys together, right?

And Jesus pulls out a child and sets him on his

lap. And he says, boys, unless you get like this,

unless you get the humility of a child, you're

not even going to see the kingdom of heaven.

Start every conversation from a position of humility.

Start with humility. I see more than my fair

share of Christians come into a conversation

and they come in acting like they're the greatest

in the kingdom of God. They come in acting like

they got all the answers and you don't have any

of the answers. They don't come in listening.

They come in with this spiritual pride or arrogance

or whatever you want to call it into the conversation.

right? And there's no humility there. Listen,

if you want a good thing to do before you get

in a conversation with somebody about Jesus,

you need to stop and you need to ask yourself

to remind yourself of something actually, right?

I need to remind myself that I'm a sinner saved

by grace. And it's only by the grace of God that

I'm here, right? That I was lost and by the grace

of God, I'm found. You got to remind yourself

that I got nothing. I have nothing to give you.

I have nothing to give anybody else outside of

Jesus Christ. I have nothing of eternal value

within me that I can spew out into you. I don't

have anything. It's all him. It's God's grace.

It's his sacrifice. He paid a dear price for

all this, right? With his blood. You remind yourself

of all those things and who you are and what

God's done for you before you start to go into

a conversation. And you'll come into that conversation

with humility. Understand this. Humility is not

weak conversation. Humility is not timid conversation.

Humility is not mindless conversation. It is

not low self -esteem conversation. It is the

power of God within you. It's humility. It is.

It's the power of God in the conversation. Humility

takes me out of the conversation and moves the

conversation to him. Amen? It's true. It's true.

the worship team would come. Jesus heard these

disciples, right? They're getting all fired up

about who's the greatest. And he said to the

two -year -old, a child, I don't know if it was

two or three or what it was, but he said to the

child in front of him, my two -year -old granddaughter.

is at the house. She'd come up to stay with us

for her Maisie, Mia and Maisie. Mia's two and

Maisie's four. And they've come to our house

to stay for a few days. And Mia, she's only two

years old. And she never, you know, I've got

into conversations with Mia and they're very

short conversations because she can only say

one or two words at a time. But do you know what

I never get from Mia? Mia never, well, there

she is. She knew I was talking about her. All

right, she's crying. All right. but she's two

years old and I've never got into conversation

with Mia and thought, you know, I just don't

know what this kid's motives are when they're

talking to me. I'm not sure about this person,

right? I don't talk to Mia and I'm thinking,

you know, I think there's a lot of pride built

up back in there. Two -year -olds don't do that.

They'll come to you humbly, they'll come with

arms open or they'll scream their head off because

they don't like you and run the other way. But

it's all from a place of humility. Now, if you

get in a conversation with a three -year -old,

that's a different story. But two -year -olds,

this is how they do it, right? We come into the

conversation with humility. We come in just all

pride set aside, knowing who I am, knowing that

I'm redeemed, right? That my hope, can I tell

you, there's no way to come into a conversation

somewhere between pride and humility. I don't

know if you know that or not. There is no way

in between. You're either gonna come into a conversation

with pride or you're gonna come into it with

humility. As a matter of fact, try to find a

word that actually describes the in -between

state. Some people are like, oh, pastor, you

know, I have some pride, but I have some humility,

and I'm kind of both. What is that, pride -ility,

you know? I don't know. What is that? There is

no word for that. You're either coming in in

pride or you're coming in in humility. Even Jesus

started conversations from a posture of humility.

As the team gets ready to play, I wanna read

you one last scenario where Jesus starts a conversation.

And this time, it's in a place where he's teaching

and he's speaking. And he's rudely interrupted

by a bunch of Pharisees because they drag a woman

into his midst who was caught in the act of adultery.

And in Jesus' day, if you were caught in the

act of adultery, you could be stoned to death.

If you were found guilty, you could be drug outside

the city and literally stoned to death. And they

drag this woman in before Jesus and they throw

her at his feet. And they're there not for righteous

reasons, but for other reasons to trip Jesus

up. And listen to the conversation. John 8 says

this. Now, early in the morning, they came again

to the temple and all the people came to him.

And he sat down and he taught them. Then the

scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman

caught in adultery. And when they had set her

in the midst, they said to him, teacher, this

woman was caught in adultery in the very act.

Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should

be stoned. But what do you say? This they said,

testing him, that they might have something of

which to accuse him, Jesus, right? But Jesus

stooped down and wrote on the ground with his

finger as though he didn't even hear. So when

they continued asking him, he raised himself

up and he said to him, he who is without sin

among you, let him throw the first stone at her.

And again, he stooped down and he wrote on the

ground. Then those who heard it being convicted

by their conscience went out one by one, beginning

the oldest even to the last. I'm sure he was

writing down their sin. We don't know that, but

I kind of think Jesus was just writing their

sin out, right, in the dirt. And Jesus was left

alone. And the woman standing in the midst, and

when Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one

but the woman, he said to her, woman, this is

a conversation, right? Where are those accusers

of you? Where are those accusers of yours? Where

are they at? Has no one condemned you? She said,

no one, Lord. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn

you. And sin, go and sin no more. Go and sin

no more. He didn't trash her or thrash her. He

didn't drag her outside the city. If anybody

would have been justified, it would have been

him because he was perfect, sinless. He asked

her, where are your accusers? Is no one here

to condemn you? And she says, no one, Lord. And

he says, I don't condemn you either. But go and

sin no more. Go and sin no more. Don't do this

anymore. You can stand. Eternal impact starts

with a conversation. Now, I know some of you

are thinking, well, yeah, I love to serve people.

You should. Here's what serving does for you.

When you serve somebody, It gives you a platform.

I'm standing on a platform this morning. It gives

you a platform to speak the gospel to them. It

gives you, it earns you some space, right? Earns

you some cred, credibility with them to speak

to them. But I have never served anybody, right?

And never spoke a word and then come to Jesus.

I've never served them so much that they fell

on the ground and repented and said, Jesus, I

want you to be my Lord. Never happened. It's

a combination of both. Serve, absolutely. It's

part of what we believe here. Serve, serve, serve.

But you gotta speak. You gotta tell them why

you're serving. I got a friend who lives out

in Western PA and he's a minister and he's a

really unusual guy. He was super into biking

and hiking and anything outdoors and he became

a minister and he built a church and he did the

most unusual thing I've ever seen. He put a climbing

wall on the back of the church, a climbing wall,

little climbing wall. And on Friday nights, he

would invite the public in for free and they

could come in and climb on the climbing wall.

And he would offer pizza, do all these things.

And people eventually, he would just serve them.

And eventually they would ask him like, why are

you doing this for free? And he'd say, oh, let

me tell you about that. Jesus saved me. Jesus

gave to me. So now I want to give to you. And

he would start a conversation with them. He's

still pastoring today. His church keeps growing,

keeps expanding. We gotta start the conversation.

You gotta care about the person beside you, right?

You gotta take, you gotta use some intel. You

gotta look around you, take in what's going on

around you, who's around you. You gotta ask the

Holy Spirit and then you gotta start the conversation.

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.