Ready - Pastor Kipp Penrod

Thank you for listening to this message from Life House Church.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Anybody tell you that yet this week?

Come on, Happy Thanksgiving.

Let's give the one who deserves all the thanks glory and honor.

Would you do that?

Would you stand at your feet one more time?

Can you stand up?

Just give God glory.

Come on, do it like you mean it.

Lord, we give you praise.

We give you glory and honor today.

We thank you, God, that we can be in the house and hear your word

and we'll just not fail to praise you all week long.

In Jesus' name, everybody say together.

Amen.

Church of Robes, you can sit right back down.

It's good to have you here this morning.

It's good to have my son-in-law, Brad, my daughter, Jenna,

and my granddaughters in the house.

Yeah, come on.

Yeah, good to have them back home.

They're down there in Passion at Atlanta, Georgia,

serving at Passion Church down there and doing an amazing job.

But it's good to have them home because they're always life-housers,

whether they're there or not.

So yeah, so it's so good to have them back.

But listen, this is Thanksgiving week.

This is a week that you should spend time reflecting on the grace of God,

the goodness of God.

This is a time to be thankful, right?

All this week is a time to be thankful for the Lord's provision in your life

and what God's placed in your hand and the things that he's doing in your life.

This is a great week to take inventory.

I don't know if you've ever taken inventory, but just to stop and recount, right,

what God has put in your head.

That's what they do in inventory.

They count stuff, right?

Go back and count all the things that God has done over the years

and maybe even just in this year in your life, right?

A week of gratitude, a week of saying, okay, God, thank you for all that you've done

for purchasing my salvation, right?

But with your own blood, a week of Thanksgiving.

It's a week to do that.

And it should be that kind of week.

It should be a week of celebration, a time together with friends and family.

But we should thank God all week long.

And how many of we do that in different kind of ways in our family?

Some of you have different traditions, Thanksgiving traditions.

But most all of us, now, I won't say everybody, but most everybody has a Thanksgiving meal.

Amen.

Come on, say amen.

Yes, okay.

So you have this Thanksgiving meal in some traditional way, right?

You might have some traditional meal that you put together.

And some of you will partake in that and you'll bring friends and you'll invite family

and you'll have everybody come together at a certain time.

It'll be lunch or at supper time or somewhere along the way.

And we get together and we partake of a meal.

And that can usually consist of turkey.

Not always.

Some of you are ham people out there, right?

It'll be turkey or ham.

And some of you will have stuffing and gravy.

Amen.

Come on.

Some of you will have, Thanksgiving's all about the stuffing, right?

And the gravy.

Some of you are going to have potatoes.

Some of you will have sweet potatoes.

Some of you will have regular potato.

Some of you will have the twice baked potato.

All right.

You'll have sauteed greens of some kind, some veggies, cranberry sauce.

Are you getting hungry yet?

All right.

Come on.

Some fresh warm bread with butter melting on it.

And you're going to have all this.

And you'll celebrate for the day.

And that's only to be followed by a barrage of desserts that are followed the whole thing,

right?

It could be pumpkin pie.

It could be cakes.

Come on.

It could be cookies.

Have I mentioned pumpkin pie?

Right?

Come on.

Right?

Yeah.

Turkey.

Come on.

All of it.

It's all together.

And you'll come together and you'll celebrate.

And at every one of these Thanksgiving meals, there is somebody who cooked, baked and prepared

that meal.

And there's the skilled chefs in the family come together or just one who comes together,

right?

And makes the meal.

Somebody who has an eye to create a culinary delight of some kind for you to eat a little

later.

Someone who knows the favorite dish that you have, right?

That's going to happen.

And they got the eye to cook, bake or prepare something and make sure that it is ready.

Say ready.

It's ready for whoever's going to consume it.

They've got this knack.

Sometimes it's a process that they go through that they've done many times, right?

Some of them just have this eye.

They'll look in the oven, right?

They don't time it.

They don't do anything with those timers.

They look in, they know it's just right.

Right?

They got this weird ninja baking intuition.

You ever be around someone like that?

Right?

They just got a baking intuition and they know what it is when it's ready.

When it's ready for consumption and very similar in God's word.

There's a portion of scripture that helps us understand when somebody is ready to consume

the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Somebody who doesn't know Jesus, somebody who's never called Jesus Lord in their life.

There's a way to know when they're ready to partake, when they're ready to hear the message

of Jesus, when they're ready to find out that they're lost and undone, right?

And there's somebody who loves them more than they could ever even dream or imagine.

They'll be ready for the rescue that God provides for all of us, right?

He rescues us from sin.

They'll be ready to hear about new life and a birth in Christ Jesus.

They'll be ready to find out.

And I believe every follower of Jesus who desires to tell another person about Jesus

Christ, who has this thing inside of them that wants to testify what God's done for

them so they can see somebody else set free.

We all want to know when is that other person who doesn't know Jesus ready?

When are they ready?

Ready to be served up the greatest message of their lives.

When are they ready?

Because like in so many other ways in life, we can know when somebody's ready to receive

something.

We really can.

I have five grandchildren, right?

When Christmas comes and we're getting gifts out, how many I know when they're ready.

All right.

They tell me we're ready, Poppy.

All right.

They come with gifts, you know, arms out.

We're ready to receive.

Right.

We're ready to get it.

And some of you, how many of you know when somebody's ready for a hug?

Right.

If you go to hug somebody and they go, you know, I did that with the teenagers here once

when I come out, you give them a little side hug and they're like, like hugging a board.

You know, they're not ready for it.

They're not coming out with arms open wide.

Right.

Now, some of you, some of you adults will do that.

Right.

But you know when someone's ready.

Some people are ready for a compliment.

How many of you have ever complimented somebody and they just can't take a compliment?

You compliment them and they just they divert.

They go talk about the soup or the weather or something.

I don't know.

Anything they can find.

Right.

But how many of you know, some of you are like, some people are ready for a compliment.

They get a compliment and they're like, more please.

Come on, just bring it on.

I'll take everything you got.

Right.

And we know there's a way to tell when somebody's ready.

And it's this way.

If you go this portion of the gospel, you can start to find out when somebody's ready

to hear about Jesus.

So if you got your Bible this morning, I want you to turn to Luke, Chapter 10.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

We're going to start at verse one.

And while you're flipping and turning and getting to that spot in your Bibles or digital

device, whatever you're using, I'm going to pray over your ears as you hear God's word.

So Lord, we thank you for this day.

Lord, we know that your word is blessed.

We know that your word is truth.

We know that your word is life.

And Lord, we just come right now ready to receive.

God, I pray that our ears would perk up.

God, that our hearts would be ready to be written on and God, that we would hear the

truth that's in your word.

And Lord, we'll just not fail to give you praise all week long in this week of thanksgiving.

And we thank you.

And everybody said together.

Amen.

Amen.

Luke, Chapter 10, verse one, and it says this, after these things, the Lord appointed 70

Luke 10 · chapter mention

others also and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he

himself was about to go.

Then he said to them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.

Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

Go your way, behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves carrying either money bag, knapsack

or sandals and greet no one along the road.

But whatever house you enter, first say peace to this house.

And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it.

If not, it will return to you and remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things

as they give for the labor is worthy of its wages.

Do not go from house to house, whatever city you enter and they receive you, each such

things are set before you and heal the sick there and say to them, the kingdom of God

has come near to you.

But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say

the very dust of your city, which claims to us, we wipe off against you.

Nevertheless, know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.

But I say to you that is more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city.

Jesus has given some final instructions to 70 of his followers, 70 believers that he

is about to send out into the cities.

And he's not just sending them to any city.

He's sending them to the cities that he himself is going to go to following this group.

So he sends them out two by two and he tells them when you go out, I want you to go into

each city.

I want you to heal the sick and I want you to introduce them to the gospel.

I want you to introduce them to the idea of the Messiah who was himself, Jesus.

I want you to introduce him to the idea of the kingdom of God.

And Jesus begins this whole portion of scripture by giving them what I call send off instructions.

He's given them send off instructions and he starts off with the reality of the journey

they're about to take.

Jesus doesn't just give them a bunch of hype and motivational speech.

He doesn't make this last thing a big rah rah session.

How many of you can do a rah rah session when you get some people out like go team go.

And they all go running out right through the tunnel.

That's not what he's doing.

He doesn't sugarcoat the mission that's in front of him.

He doesn't make it nice and sweet.

So hopefully they don't back out at the last minute.

He says clearly to them that this is not going to be all peaches and cream.

Now he doesn't use that term knowledge.

He said this is not going to be skipping through a park.

Not that I've ever done that.

Right.

Well he says I'll be skipping through a park.

You kind of get my point.

This is not going to be all roses and sunshine.

Right.

It's Jesus gives them the deep reality of what they're about to step into.

He was letting him know that the gospel is incredibly important and it's worth every

bit of effort that we ever put in to get the gospel out.

Because sharing the gospel will not always be easy.

Amen.

It's not always easy.

It's not.

You know when we share the gospel or any portion of the gospel it might not always be easy.

It might not always be well received.

Some people are ready and some people are not so much.

Right.

In verse two in this portion he's talking to the 70 and he gives them a little bit of

their reality.

He says then Jesus said to them the harvest truly is great but the laborers are few.

He's given them the reality of the mission that's in front of them.

He says this is most definitely an amazing thing to go do and you need to go do this

but I'm not going to give you a rah rah session.

I'm going to let you know that this is going to be possibly overwhelming work for you.

Right.

So there that there's so much harvest out there.

There's so many people to reach.

There's so many people to talk to and there's going to be so few laborers and so few people

who are willing to get out of their comfort zone and go talk with someone about Christ.

And he said it might even look a little bit like a colossal task in front of you.

It might look like something that's just a bit too hard to get past and there's probably

not going to be enough workers right to make it happen.

How many know that's not a rah rah session right.

None of you are going rah rah right now.

Right.

You might think well well that's not very motivational but Jesus was doing them a huge

favor.

He was giving them the reality right.

He was giving them the stark truth of what's in front of them before you begin because

here's the deal if you know the truth about the challenge that's in front of you if you

understand the truth about what you're about to step into how many of you can prepare to

get there right.

You can make sure that you got everything you need.

You can armor up.

You can store up.

You can do whatever you got to do to get ready to go in and Jesus was saying listen I'm sending

you out two by two.

You're going to go into every city.

It's not you're going to it's going to look overwhelming the amount of people you got

to talk to and the people that you need to reach and you're not going to have enough

laborers to get to the harvest.

But I'm telling you I'm going to equip you.

I want you to go.

And he continues into verse two the rest of verse two he says therefore pray the Lord

of the harvest to send out laborers.

He says man pray for some co-workers pray for some people are going to come along.

Go your way.

Behold I send you out as lambs among wolves.

Ow.

Ow.

Right.

Jesus is letting them know this is going to be a difficult thing.

Have you ever noticed that the greatest things that we can go do are never the easiest things

that we go do.

Do you ever notice that.

Do you ever want to go do the great thing.

Do you know where you never find the great thing.

You never find the great thing on easy street.

You can go to easy street every time.

It's not there.

Right.

The great thing the God thing the big thing does not reside on easy street.

And he was Jesus was telling 70 that it's the same right in the kingdom in the kingdom

of God.

This is what it looks like.

And if you're going to do the great thing if you're going to do the hard thing how many

know what you might as well make it an eternal thing.

Right.

You might as well make it a God thing.

You might as well step into what God's given you.

And I even thought about this a little bit today just to punch this home I thought I

should send a sign up around the church because sometimes we do sign ups here and it should

say we're going to do an outreach and we're going to call it we're going to name it right.

We're going to call it lambs among wolves.

How many of you sign up today.

Right.

We're going to send you out as lambs among wolves and be like pass it on back to the

next person.

All right.

But look what he says in the next verse in verse four he says carrying neither money

bag right.

Nap sack or sandals he's talking to the 70 that he's going to send out and greet no one

along the road.

And I think in Jesus this is hard enough.

You're making it a little harder.

You're making it a little more difficult.

Don't take any money.

Don't take any nap sack which was where they would put their food.

Don't take any sandals.

Right.

How many know the sign up just got shorter.

Right.

It wasn't you're not angry before getting shorter.

But you know was Jesus testing them.

Was he was he putting him in some kind of spiritual boot camp of some kind.

I'm thinking through this.

But as I read about this a little bit as I studied let me shed a little bit of light

on this right.

The lack of money or the nap sack differentiated them actually in that time period from traveling

I was actually traveling teachers and musicians magicians who would go into communities and

they would charge people to for their services.

And Jesus said that's not going to be you.

We're going to send you into these communities and you're not going in there to take anything.

You're going in to give something.

Amen.

You go out into the communities you're not going to take and don't not going to expect

to do.

Don't go to them.

Right.

Don't receive.

And he says well and I want you to go with no sandals.

And what he meant by that we think scholars believe that that meant no second set of shoes.

And you see this very same thing in the Old Testament with the children of Israel where

God was with them and he strengthened them as they went and their shoes did not wear

out their clothes did not wear out for 40 years with the children of Israel when they

wondered around.

They think this is the same kind of reference like Jesus told them don't worry about taking

extra shoes.

Don't worry about taking extra clothes.

I'm going to provide as you go.

Just go right.

And lastly it says they were not to greet anybody along the road.

I thought OK.

All right.

What's happening.

Right.

Doesn't that seem kind of rude.

Not to say how many know even the bikers on the motorcycles they get the wave right.

As you go.

Isn't it.

It's shouldn't you greet somebody along the way.

But you got to understand back in that culture of that day when somebody stopped to do a

greeting if you stop to greet somebody it could take up to 10 minutes to greet someone.

They would do special hugs.

They would kind of do kisses.

Some people would bow.

They would talk and sit down and what Jesus was telling them listen don't go in there

taking anything.

Just head out.

Just trust in me.

Have faith in me.

And when you get there don't waste any time.

Go do the God thing.

Go get this.

These cities prepared because I'm coming in behind you.

Go completely depending on me doing this.

Go find somebody who's ready.

Say ready.

Right.

And Jesus says something right after this to help us identify a person who's ready to

hear the gospel.

In verse five he says but who but whatever house you enter first say peace to this house

and if a son of peace is there your peace will rest on it.

If not it will return to you.

Let me read that again.

But whatever house you enter first say peace to this house and if a son of peace is there

your peace will rest on it.

If not it's going to return to you.

The word peace in this text is shalom.

Say shalom.

Right.

It is typically translated as peace.

It's also used in the Jewish culture for a greeting.

You can say hello and goodbye with shalom.

Right.

And one of the meanings is that may God be with you is one of the meanings of shalom.

So you got to speak peace to the house.

Right.

When you're going to greet somebody when you're going to talk to somebody about Jesus you

got to speak peace.

You got to come in and speak a word of peace to that person.

Speak it to that individual and in the word of God says if a son of peace is there your

peace will rest on it.

So you're giving peace away.

Right.

You're giving a piece of God to somebody and when you do that if you extend that peace

to somebody you need to wait and see what happens.

When you extend that peace you need to gauge where that person is at because if the peace

of God is on them and they receive it right they take it in and receive it it'll stay

with them or they can throw it right back at you.

Right.

I brought a ball up here I thought well if this was the peace of God and I threw it out

somebody Eric threw it out.

Come on.

He threw it out to somebody.

Eric's got to make a choice.

Right.

He's got to decide whether he's going to he's going to keep that piece of God.

Right.

Or whether he's going to throw back at me.

Don't throw it back at me.

All right.

I know.

Here's here's what the word of God say you can identify a person of peace you can identify

somebody who's ready to hear the gospel.

If you throw a little bit of Jesus towards them.

All right.

If you throw a little bit of God towards them if you throw a little bit of the peace of

God to towards them and they receive it you're going to know if they don't receive it and

they throw it back or just drop it you're going to know as well.

Right.

I've seen this happen hundreds of times.

I've prayed for people out and about in public not in here talking about not so much in church

how many we're all believers in here or you come intentionally get prayer in church.

But if you could if you talk somebody out in the public somewhere and you're chatting

with them and they find that you find out they got a need of some kind and you stop

and say well can I just pray for you right now.

Can I just say a little prayer for you.

That's all I want to do.

He's still you're going to know that's throwing a little bit of the peace of God to somebody

and when you throw a little bit of the peace of God somebody coming right.

You're going to stiffen up like the hug thing.

Right.

You're going to be like no you know you're going to play.

I don't know.

Thank you.

But right.

Well and I've seen the complete opposite happen.

Peace of God falls on them.

Right.

And they begin.

I've seen people just tear up in a second change.

The meter completely changes.

They tear up in a second and they say man let me tell you what's going on in my life.

That's a person of peace.

That's somebody who's who's ready to hear more about what God has to offer.

Right. It is somebody who's open to it.

So you can know when you're talking with somebody you can start to gauge a little bit and you

just take a little bit of the kingdom.

You give them a little bit of the kingdom of God.

You give them a little bit of the peace of God and see how they respond.

Now listen don't go crazy and dump all over them.

Right.

When you get up to somebody you know don't know you know and you want to lead them to

Jesus don't Bible puke on them.

Anybody ever Bible puke on somebody.

Right.

Come on.

My grandson did right.

It was probably me.

Come on.

I.

True story.

I was at a place one time and this person came up to me and they started talking to

me a little bit about God.

They started putting the peace of God towards me.

I'm like oh this is awesome.

Right.

And and you know they started talking.

I'm like oh that's awesome.

I'm a Christian and I'm saved.

You know hey how you doing.

They didn't believe me.

I didn't even know this person.

They just kept going.

They died.

They Bible dumped on me for like 10 minutes and I'm like hey I know Jesus.

All right.

No that scripture actually could probably go to back to you.

You know and they just they Bible puked on me the whole time.

Right.

Nobody likes to get puked on.

Amen.

Nobody likes to get puked on.

Right.

Years ago I was working with a guy.

It was literally on my birthday and I was in my 30s and we were working out of town.

That's when I was working a secular job.

We worked an entire day.

At the end of the day we had to go get supper and there was nothing open except this little

place that there was just this little hole in the wall place and we went in and it was

like a bar here and then it was like seating kind of like the you know I'm trying to think

what they're called.

But anyway booths there were booths there right right across and we sat down to booth.

We just wanted to order some food and clearly there were some people sitting along this

bar area that were actually drinking alcohol and there was this lady right straight across

from me.

She was right to my left.

I'll never forget this.

She was clearly inebriated.

She started talking out loud like really loud.

You know she's doing all this weird stuff and she got sick.

She turned around.

I'm this far away from her and she throws up on my foot and my leg.

All right.

On my birthday.

Yeah.

The guy across the table looked at me and knew me really well.

He's like happy birthday.

He called me buck.

He's like happy birthday.

I was like yeah this is great.

Nobody likes getting puked on.

All right.

If you're going to go up to somebody you don't know you're talking with somebody.

You want to give them a little bit of Jesus and you want to see if the peace of God is

received in their lives.

Some of them aren't ready.

Extend a little bit.

See how they respond.

Maybe ask to pray for them.

Maybe you just give them a little bit of God's word.

Just a little smidgen of God's word in some way.

Maybe it's an act of service and you just mentioned God in some kind of way.

God opens the door for all this and you just got to see how they're going to respond.

Offer a little Jesus.

Offer a little peace and see if they receive it.

Come on turn somebody tell them speak peace.

Speak peace.

If they're curious they'll start asking questions.

They'll lean in.

Right.

If not they'll they'll stiffen up.

It's what the word of God says.

Test the waters.

Luke 10 7 says and remain in the same house eating and drinking.

He's talking to the seven such things as they have for the laborers worthy of his wages.

Do not go from house to house whatever city you enter and they receive you.

Teach such things that are set before you heal the sick there.

Right.

Go pray for him.

Heal the sick there and say to him the kingdom of God has come near to you.

Who wouldn't want to hear that the kingdom of God is getting close to them.

Right.

If they're ready they're going to receive the peace of God.

They're going to you're going to know.

Just give them a little bit.

Jesus also told the 70 what to do if you extend the peace of God to someone and they return

the peace of God back to you.

I know that was your cue right Eric.

Don't do it.

All right.

But he can throw it back.

Right.

What will we do with the person who's not ready.

Right.

What do we do.

Ten 10 says this but whatever city you enter and they do not receive you go out into the

streets and say the very dust for your city which clings to us we wipe off against you

nevertheless nevertheless know this that the kingdom of God has come near you.

But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in the day for Sodom than for that city.

Unless you extend the peace of God towards someone and they hand it back that piece to

you.

Now listen don't be a smart aleck.

Right.

Don't don't.

How many know you can get all sassy with somebody if you get rejected a little bit.

Right.

Don't do that.

Right.

Don't don't get sassy with them.

Don't Bible beat them in any kind of way.

Don't Bible puke on them.

Don't be nasty or rude.

Right.

Just show them the love of God and metaphorically you know you just got to back off.

Right.

You just shake the dust off your feet.

You shake it out.

You shake it off right now.

Come on.

If somebody doesn't take the gospel you just shake it off and you move on.

You bless them in any way you can.

Right.

They're just not ready yet.

They're just not in a place where they're hearing the gospel.

How many of us.

Right.

How many of us were not ready the first time somebody told us about Jesus.

How many of us said I don't want to hear it.

Right.

How many of us were just kind of like put your hand up.

Right.

How many of us sat in church service after church service and finally one day God got

a hold of us and saved us.

Right.

I grew up in the church man.

It took Jesus 12 years to get me straightened up.

I was 12 years old.

You know before it did.

God sometimes has to you just shake the dust off and say OK man I just want to just hear

to bless you.

God bless you or hey it was nice meeting you.

You know just be cordial with them and then shake it off.

God might have to wake them up about something.

Right.

They may need they may need some time for God to work or the Holy Spirit to work on

our they might need their circumstance to change.

Sometimes our circumstance has to change and when the circumstance changes we start looking

up instead of looking in.

Right.

That sometimes has to happen.

Sometimes it's sometimes they just got to get around somebody that has enough of Jesus.

They realize there's a God sized hole in their heart and and for some reason I don't look

like what this looks like over here.

Right.

They're fooled.

They're rich.

They got God's presence in their life.

And here I am with this thing I keep searching for with everything else.

Right.

And sometimes that's all they need.

They're rejecting it.

Blaise Pascal says this.

What else does this craving and this helplessness proclaim but that there was once in man a true

happiness of which all that now remains is an empty print and trace.

This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him seeking in things that are not

there and help he and help he cannot find in those that are though none can help him

since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and unchangeable object.

In other words by God himself.

Everybody's got a God sized hole.

They're not if they don't know Jesus is Lord and Savior.

There's this void inside of them.

So when you approach them just give them the love of God extend anything you can write.

Don't take from them.

Don't get sassy with them.

Don't do any of those things.

Just bless them and let them see what's in you.

Right.

That there's not a void in your life.

Our job is to keep tossing out the gospel.

Just a toss.

Right.

You don't got to beat them with it.

You know you don't got to go up to them and dump the whole thing on them.

Right.

It's a toss.

It's a toss.

My grandkids just wait for me throwing back to them.

Keep tossing the gospel.

Keep tossing and see if you got a person of peace in front of you.

Right.

Worship team I'm going to ask if you'd come.

I'm going to ask if the church would just stand at this moment.

How many times have we heard this story of maybe co-workers coming together and one person

just keeps tossing the gospel to the other.

Just gently throwing the gospel out once in a while.

Waiting to see if that person of peace you know the person they know becomes a person

of peace.

For a period of time right somebody begins to all of a sudden a heart begins to change

a Holy Spirit begins to do something and as a result that friend comes to the Lord.

And how many times do we hear the story.

Somebody getting puked on.

Right and they're bitter and they're frustrated and they feel condemned before they ever even

get to meet the master.

Before they ever get to Jesus.

And I get it.

I get the I get the you know in your heart.

I get the whole idea of wanting to dump it all on them at one time right.

Because we know Jesus is coming back soon.

We know that nobody's guaranteed tomorrow.

We want to give them all the gospel we can so that they get saved.

I get it.

But rarely do people respond if you puke on them.

You got to throw it out there and see if you got a person of peace in front of you.

And if you don't that's okay.

Just give it some time.

Pray for them.

Shake the dust off right.

Don't take it as personal.

Don't take it as a rejection in your own life of any kind.

They're just waiting through it.

They're just digging through it right.

They're just stepping through it.

You're getting ready to go into Thanksgiving week.

You're going to bump into people everywhere.

That the you know the public is going to get fueled.

If you especially if you go shopping and do any shopping.

There's going to be people all around you.

You're going to get opportunity.

You got to help.

I'm trying to help you this morning to understand.

Know if you've got a person of peace in front of you.

Throw a little gospel to them.

Throw a little bit of Jesus at them right.

Just toss it.

And if they catch it and they receive it and they hang on to it.

You know the door is open.

Right.

You know they're ready.

They're ready.

Get an eye.

Get an eye for this.

Father we come to you right now.

I thank you God for each person that's in the house.

I thank you for those who are listening online this morning.

And Lord if there's one in this house.

God as they hear me unfolding this.

They're ready.

They maybe don't even know everything I said this morning.

Or what made sense of all this.

You know.

You know.

You know.

You know.

You know.

You know.

You know.

You know.

You know.

You know.

I haven't seen all this yet.

But they know that there's this void in their lives.

They know that Jesus is the only one that can fill it.

They know that everything they've tried to this point has not worked.

Everything that they've dove into has not filled that space.

And I'm here to tell you whoever you are.

That it is only Jesus Christ who can fill that space.

It is only the Holy Spirit that can make you whole.

And if that's you.

The word of God says this.

All you have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus.

He is God's son.

He did die on a cross.

He did pay for your sin.

He did make a way for you to get in relationship with God.

And all you've got to do is receive that.

And that void will begin to fill.

I promise you.

It will begin to fill.

You can get with another believer somewhere.

And God will continue to fill that void in your life.

So if there's one Lord that's listening this morning.

God, I pray right now that they would just bow their heads.

They would begin to speak to you.

And they'd say, Jesus, come into my life.

Jesus, I want it all.

Jesus, I recognize that you've forgiven me.

Please come into my heart and life.

I need you in that void.

If there's a person of peace out there.

God, let them accept that now.

Lord, if there's one in the house, if that's you in the house.

Every head's bowed, every eyes closed.

You can put your hand up.

Put it right back down.

If there's one person in the house that's received Jesus this morning.

Just do that quickly.

Thank you.

For those of you who are following Christ.

When's the last time you tossed the ball?

When's the last time you tossed the gospel to somebody?

When's the last time you gave a gentle throw in somebody's direction.

To see if they were a person of peace.

To see if you could step a little further.

Lord, I thank you for each one in the house.

God I ask right now.

God, that you would guide us and direct us coming into this season, God.

Coming into the holidays.

Lord, help us to be people of God who tossed the gospel.

Who looks for that person of peace.

And God, when we see them receive it, we step through just a little further.

God, we give them one more.

Maybe two more.

Lord, help us to see that.

If not, God, if they send it back our way.

God help us to just shake it off.

To bless them.

And Lord, to pray for them.

And Lord, wait for the Holy Spirit to give us a signal to toss it back their way again

at some point in the future.

Lord, I thank you for each believer in this house.

I thank you for the opportunities you give us.

And we will not fail to give you praise and glory and honor in Jesus name.

Everybody said together?

Amen, amen.

Listen.

You are going to walk by a lot of people this week.

Some of them are going to be people of peace.

They are just waiting to get the gospel tossed to them.

Throw them something your way.

Right?

Open the door for them wherever they are going.

Say, man, this is how God does for me.

He just opens the door in my life.

You will know.

You will know and they respond.

If they just keep on going, that is okay.

Just bless them.

Right?

Shake the dust off.

But maybe they will turn.

Maybe you will get an opportunity to say something.

Maybe you will get an opportunity to pray for somebody.

Man.

We cannot get so busy in this time of year that we just walk right by everybody that is

around us.

We cannot do it.

Isn't God good?

Amen.

Amen.

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.