For The Person Who Has Everything: An Invitation

Pastor Nate Gagne: Hey, good morning Restoration Church.

My name is Nate and I'm the lead pastor of, uh, of the church here.

And if it's your first time here, I'm really glad that you're here.

And we've been doing something the last couple of weeks called Holiday Gifts

Giving Guide with Pastor Nate Gagne.

And so I've been giving you, sharing with you either some great gifts that

I've received or that I've given.

And so today's Gift is not very flashy, um, in fact, you would

actually maybe be surprised that it's on our holiday gift giving guide.

It is, um, you know, it, I think if people open it, they'd be

like, oh, wow, until you use it.

And then, it is life changing.

Alright, this is your gift guide, alright, this is your tip.

I'm telling you, you need to do this.

It is a heated mattress pad.

Heated mattress pad.

All right.

I'm telling you, um, if you, uh, if you're married, it has dual zones, so

you don't have to worry about your, about your partner, uh, sweating you out.

But if you're hoping your marriage to move, um, from snowsuit to birthday

suit, this is going to help you.

All right.

This is going to help you in freezing cold winters.

I'm just telling you.

It is life changing.

So here's what you do.

You turn on that, that heated mattress pad about like half hour before bed.

You can even take a shower before bed.

And that thing is amazing.

It is amazing.

If you've ever gone grocery shopping in the wintertime, and then you get past the

trays of heated food, and you're like, I'm just gonna stop here for a second, right?

Because the grocery stores are so freezing.

That's what it's like.

The heated mattress pad.

So there's your holiday gift giving guide.

You can order it today through my affiliate link.

And, I'm just kidding.

Well, um As our pastors already said, we had 27 water baptisms last week, for

102 water baptisms through the year.

We celebrate that.

We've got another five people that have signed up for next week, so

we'll move beyond that for the year.

It is a record breaking year for us, that in 78 years of our church's

history, It's the first year we've water baptized over a hundred people.

And, beyond, I, I think, one of the, one of the things someone said to me

was, um, Oh, it wasn't a fluke, because last year was a record breaking year

for water baptisms for our church.

And it broke the previous year, which was a water baptism's record for our church.

So three years in a row, we've seen the number of people water

baptizing increased more than we've ever seen in our church's history.

And it is absolutely amazing to be a part of that, to share that,

to witness that, to see you take your step through water baptism.

And, uh, I'm just proud of you guys and church.

I'm proud of you guys for it.

And, uh, let's put our hands together for Jesus again.

He's the one who's changed their lives and saved their lives.

Some of the stories from last week, just a couple of them, because,

again, I can't go through everybody's story, but Kay was invited by Kashim.

Gavin was invited by his dad, Eric.

Sam and Mason were invited by Benaiah.

Amanda was invited by her mom, Tamara.

Adalia was invited by her parents.

Della was invited by her mom.

Emma was invited by her mom.

Kyle was invited by Jay and Heidi.

And as we work through our message today, Each of those stories, plus the names

that, um, of the dozens of names and the hundreds, hundred names from this year,

they are, they all have their unique testimony of salvation, of forgiveness,

of healing, of transformation.

Beautiful stories.

Last week, last week after the service here in Dover, people come up to me,

they're like, I cry every water baptism.

This time, I didn't want to cry, but I cried through the whole baptism again.

And it's, why is that?

Um, because these are beautiful stories.

For, for some of us in the room, we've served God for three,

four, five, six, seven decades.

And we can forget, it, it, the, the Christian life can become about

church attendance, it can become about, about church activity and not

about the Great Commission and not about the, the amazing, powerful work

that Jesus does in people's lives.

And every week when we see another person's life change,

I mean, it, it moves me deeply.

And it moves obviously so many of you where obviously you're sharing

with me like I cry every bad, these are my favorite services and they're

my favorite services as well.

I want to thank you for, uh, and, and thank the people who

were autobaptized last week.

Thank, thank your, um, thank you for inviting your friends and your family.

Church to hear about Jesus so that they could have the opportunity to

experience what they've what has happened in their life I think that's

kind of one thing that maybe we forget through every one of these baptisms

What if that person didn't invite them?

What if that person said I don't think they'd respond.

What if that person thought well I don't think they'd be interested.

They would have missed out on that moment last week Last week we talked,

um, our series is for the person who has everything and we've been

talking about a gift you can give.

Last week we talked about the gift of the gospel.

Today it's similar but it's different.

To give the gift of an invitation.

And we can look at these baptism stories last week and someone

invited, Hey, come to church with me.

Hey, why don't you come to this event with me?

Hey, why don't you tag along with me?

And through that, they had an opportunity to experience the presence of God.

They had experience to, to participate in Jesus's bride, to participate in church,

in meeting other people who follow Jesus.

To, to have the opportunity to meet, um, a, a truer representation of Jesus, I mean

not a perfect representation of Jesus, but a truer representation of Jesus than

maybe they'd ever had through people who called themselves Christians in the past.

If you have your Bibles, I want to invite you to open up to a

famous passage of Scripture, famous Christmas story in Luke chapter 2.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

And ushers, could you just help me out in the back, that would be amazing,

whoever is on duty for ushers today.

Jump up right away and Respond.

Thank you.

So in, uh, in Luke chapter 2, the passage of scripture we're going to

Luke 2 · chapter mention

be reading, you've probably heard it before, but anytime that we have

a famous passage of scripture, I'm always challenging the people who've

gone to church for a long time.

or we've heard it before, to put yourself in the place of wonder and

curiosity, to put yourself in the place where you're not just thinking ahead,

but you're trying to feel the emotion of what you, of what we're reading.

What we're reading It is not a Christmas story like Scrooge.

It's not a Christmas story like, um, uh, like, like Ralphie, alright?

What we're about to read, it is a true account.

Luke was a physician who wrote a historical document interviewing

people, getting eyewitnesses accounts of what happened in the life of Jesus.

So what we're reading is a historical account from a doctor, um, about,

uh, who interviewed, uh, hundreds of people to, um, to write this account.

So it's Luke chapter 2, and we're gonna start reading at verse number 8.

Luke 2 · chapter mention

And it says, That night there were shepherds staying in the fields

nearby, guarding their flocks of sheep.

Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them.

So, it wasn't a car sized drone.

It's been happening up and down the East Coast this week.

But it was an angel of the Lord, and the radiance of the

Lord's glory surrounded them.

The shepherds were absolutely terrified, but the angel reassured them, Hey,

hey, hey, hey, hey, don't be afraid.

I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.

And that's what we talked about last week, church.

God loves you, sin enslaves you, but Jesus, He rescues you.

The Savior, yes, the Messiah, the Lord.

He has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David.

And you will recognize Him by this sign.

You will find a baby wrapped snugly in strips of cloth lying in a manger.

Suddenly, that single angel was joined by thousands of angels, the armies of

heaven, filling the sky, praising God, and saying together in unison, Glory

to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.

When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to

each other, What just happened?

They said, let's go to Bethlehem.

Let's see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.

They hurried to the village, and they found barren Joseph.

And there was the baby, the one the angels spoke about, lying in the manger.

After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened, and what the

angel had said to them about this child.

All who heard the shepherd's story were astonished.

But Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often.

The shepherds went back to work, glorifying and praising God for

all they had heard and seen.

It was just as the angels had told them.

Look up at me.

It's an amazing story.

I mean, just imagine yourself.

Last night, Michelle and I, we got home from a family Christmas party,

and we're unloading the car, and then, like, 45 feet in the woods,

like this screeching owl was like,

she's like, what was that?

And I'm like, I think it was an owl.

And, and it's like, but you stay out here.

I'll go inside.

And just imagine, right.

And that's just an owl.

Or maybe you've been out at a campfire and there's coyotes, or maybe you

went to a church and some of the people who were turned, who were

singing behind you a similar noise.

And we, we have these moments where we're fearful.

Imagine.

being out in the woods, being out in the field and, and, and you've

never seen, you haven't seen airplanes flying in the sky before.

You haven't watched UFO videos on YouTube before.

You haven't, you haven't done it.

You're just out there working like you always work.

And suddenly with an immense brightness, is an angel above you.

That's why the angel said, Hey.

Don't be afraid, because they were afraid, afraid, freaking out,

take the sheep, take the sheep,

holding their shepherd's staff, just absolutely terrified.

And they were not, if we're going to think about, predict, Jesus is coming

back today, who's he going to go visit?

Where's, you know, the most important person in history, who's

he going to go hang out with?

Who's he going to show himself to?

We think maybe it's Maybe someone who's got a lot of influence, someone who's

got a lot of, uh, social media followers.

Because that way he could tell one person and they can instantly tell, you know,

50, there's 56 million followers on Instagram and it would get right out.

But he didn't do that.

He didn't go to the social influencer, social influencers.

He didn't go to the important people.

He went to people that no one even probably knew their name.

Some shepherds.

One thing that does for me is it reminds me Jesus came for me.

I'm nobody.

I'm not known.

No one follows my Instagram.

Oh, thank you.

At Nathan J Gagney.

And we, we,

one of the things is Jesus shows up to these people who aren't known

and every week he shows up to us.

We're, you and me, we're regular people.

We're normal people.

But he cares about us.

He cares about us.

In the midst of our mess, in the midst of our life, He knows you,

and He wants to show you who He is.

He wants to, He, He, He wants to announce it to you.

For, and one of the things that the angels did here that I, that we're

going to look at and talk about, is the angels, they, they set an example for us.

They show up, they talk about the gospel, we talked about that last week.

But they give these shepherds an invitation.

Hey!

There's a baby born.

He's the savior of the world.

And here are the evidences.

You need to go find him.

You need to go search this out.

You need to discover him.

Because if you take, if, we're going to share this with you, but if

you, you can do whatever you want.

You can stay here in the field.

You can go put on dry clothes, because they peed themselves.

Uh, you can, uh, uh, but there's an invitation here

for you to go and find him.

To see for yourself who he is.

And they gave an invitation.

This is something that we should be doing.

Something that you have the opportunity to do.

To give the gift of an invitation.

I want to read a scripture, two scriptures here in Romans chapter 10.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

Um, and these are foundational scriptures.

Important scriptures for you to, it would be important for you to memorize

them, for you to understand them.

The first is Romans 10, 14.

But how can they call on him?

So, the question here is about Jesus.

So Jesus has an opportunity.

Jesus rescues you.

That's an important thing, right?

It's part of the gospel.

Important.

Jesus rescues you.

All you gotta do is call on him.

But how can you call on him?

How can you call on Jesus?

For, to rescue you, unless you believe in Him.

So you're not gonna call on Jesus to rescue you if you

don't believe, believe in Him?

And how can they believe in Him if they've never heard about Him?

And how can they hear about Him, unless someone tells them?

It's going through, yeah, all you gotta do, is when you hear

the Gospel, is receive it.

But you can't receive it, if you can't believe it, and you can't

believe it, if you can't hear it, and you can't hear it, unless Someone

has the courage to talk about them.

Verse number 17 says, So faith comes from hearing.

That is, hearing the good news about Jesus.

Faith comes from hearing.

And an invitation or a presentation of the gospel, the good news, gives someone

the opportunity to hear about him and to hear about him can change someone forever.

And I don't mean forever, like till they die, I mean forever because

there's a life after this one in the presence and glory of God.

One thing that the scripture tells us is that declaring our faith

saves other people.

Declaring our faith is the starting point for everyone's faith.

Declaring our faith also is part of our faith that we must not forget.

I saw this recently.

This, um, uh, on the, on TV, on the internet.

It said, um, uh, not sharing my religion is against my religion.

We have, in order to be obedient to our faith, in order to be obedient to the word

of God, we have to share the word of God.

It is not something that's optional for us.

In Matthew 4, 19, Jesus talking, inviting others, and he was

inviting others to follow him.

He was giving them an invitation.

He called out to them.

He said, Hey, come follow me, and I'll show you how to fish for people.

These were men who were fishermen by trade, and he's saying, Hey, there's

a, if you decide to follow me, there's a new assignment for your life.

Everybody water baptized this year.

There's a new assignment for your life.

Everybody who said, Yes, Jesus is my Savior.

There's a new assignment for your life.

Fishing for people, and giving people an invitation, giving people the gospel,

giving people a chance to meet Jesus.

Earlier this year, my boys got invited to an event in Missouri.

So Michelle and I got to tag along as chaperones.

And one of the things that they gifted the boys was a guided, um, um, a guided

fishing trip with, uh, with the guide, like with a professional fisherman.

And so this is in Branson, Missouri.

So we went out, I don't remember how long we went fishing, um, but it's

got one picture here of, uh, Benton here with one of the fish he caught,

which was, which is a real fish.

We didn't just pull it out for a photo op.

He caught a fish, uh, I was on a boat with him and Asher.

They both caught, uh, multiple fish.

My other boys, they were on a boat with another guy, and another, um,

Assemblies of God leader, and they, uh, they all got caught, they all

got caught, they all caught fish.

I didn't, I didn't catch one.

Not a sunfish, not a weed, nothing.

Not a goldfish, nothing.

And so, there's this, just one idea here, is that, you know,

who here has gone fishing before?

Other locations raised your hand, gone fishing before?

Yeah.

Everybody can.

Everybody goes fishing.

Not everybody is good at fishing, alright?

But the, the call for us and Jesus says, Hey, I'm gonna make you fishers of people.

He's not calling us to be professionals.

He's just calling us to grab the rod and real and to go out and participate.

in what he's doing.

Participate in what he's at.

Some people are really good at fishing, but anybody can fish.

Some people are really get right at inviting.

Some people are really great at, um, leading others to Jesus, but everyone

is called to be fishers of men.

Everyone's called to participate in it.

Some people have the spiritual gift of evangelism, but everyone

is called to evangelize.

It is an every person assignment.

And don't be discouraged because other people have made a profession out of it.

Because other people are experts out of, out of it.

Because other people have a grace in their life.

Or it's really easy for them.

Just participate.

Just celebrate.

Just take the pictures.

Like I did for the kids.

Just take the pictures and enjoy the ride.

And just keep sharing your testimony.

Just keep passing out and handing out those invitations.

Couple things about invitations.

Invitations.

Give the gift of, of an invitation.

Invitations encourage investigations.

And this is something that's, that is important.

unique about Restoration Church compared to maybe other

churches you participate in.

We are a church that wants you to investigate Jesus.

We're a church that wants you to investigate the Bible.

And, uh, it's very important for you to do that.

We give away Bibles for free every single week because we want you

reading God's Word for yourself.

We want you finding Him for yourself.

I'm not up here trying to get you to believe everything I believe.

I want you to believe the Word of God.

And if there's things I believe That other brilliant scholars don't

believe, we're going to tell you that.

Here, and, but here are the things that we know, here are the things that are true.

But when we begin to talk, and we say, hey, you know, I've

got to talk to you about this.

I want to share this with you.

People begin to investigate it.

And that's what we saw the shepherds doing in verse number 15.

They said, hey, the angels have told us that this baby has been born.

It's the Messiah.

He's in town.

Let's go check this out.

And when you have the opportunity to talk about Jesus, to send an invitation

to say, Oh, you're a Christian.

Yeah.

Not only am I a Christian, but so are these three other coworkers.

So are these 10 other students.

Yeah.

We're all going to this.

Then they're like, really, you all are really.

I thought you, I thought you're, you're also normal.

Really.

I thought.

And so because they're able to hear, because you're able to give an

invitation, they're able to show up and invest, investigate for themselves.

Don't invite people to an argument, but invite them to investigate.

Here's what Jesus did in my life.

Maybe he could do the same thing for you.

You know he can.

I'm inviting you.

You're not here.

You're here today, but you've never made a decision to follow Jesus.

I'm inviting you to investigate.

Hey, he changed my life.

He changed my wife's life.

He changed the, the baptisms last week.

He changed hundreds of people here, uh, around you.

If you investigate, maybe he could change your life too.

Hey, I know he can actually.

I want you to investigate it because I know what you'll find.

John chapter 1 verses 45 and 46.

John 1:45

This is about one of the disciples.

He gets invited by Jesus to follow him.

He meets Jesus, and he says, he says this, he said, Philip went to look

for Nathaniel, his friend, and he told him, Hey, we found the very person

Moses and the prophets wrote about.

His name is Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.

Nathaniel responds, maybe like some of your friends would respond, Really?

You're a Christian?

You believe all that stuff?

I'm surprised.

But Nathaniel said, Nazareth, which was a town, Yeah.

Can anything good come from Nazareth?

So insert your town that you disparage.

Uh, Uh, And so if you're from Summersworth, disparage Rochester.

If you're from Rochester, disparage Farmington.

If you're from Dover, disparage Summersworth.

Just pick your town.

Can anything good come from that town?

And Philip said this, Come and see for yourself.

Hey, come investigate it.

I'm not gonna argue you.

I'm not gonna go back and forth with you.

Just come see him.

Just show up.

Find out.

Take the time.

And this is the posture that we try to take as a church.

This is the posture I try to teach you and lead you into.

You know what he did in your life.

You don't have to argue and try to convince people.

Just invited them to check it out for themselves because if they

investigate, They'll have the chance.

So Jesus invited Philip.

Philip invited Nathanael.

John the Baptist, in another part, he invited two of his disciples,

Andrew and John, to go find Jesus.

Then Andrew invites his brother Peter.

Then John invites his brother James.

And now, begin to see the disciples, um, they're coming to investigate.

And when they investigate, what do they find?

Oh yeah, I'm gonna follow him.

Jeremiah 29, 13.

This is a promise for anybody in the investigative stage.

You're here today, there's some part of you that's saying, I wonder if God's real.

I wonder if Jesus is real.

I wonder if he can help me.

This is a promise in scripture.

If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find.

If anybody's investigating, they're not investigating Jesus,

they're investigating God.

Although there are testimonies of people who are investigating

Jesus to find out what's wrong with it, and they discover him.

Renowned physicist, um, the director of the Human Genome Project, you can

look him up, he wrote a book about it.

But, ultimate brilliant scientist, begin to discover, begin to investigate Jesus.

And, hey, I don't believe, I should find out why I don't believe, comes

to Christ through his investigation.

If you're trying to find answers of Jesus.

You'll find them.

That's a promise.

Whether you've been investigating him for two weeks, or two months, or two years,

keep searching him with your whole heart.

You're gonna find him.

You're gonna find him.

You're gonna find him.

You're gonna find him.

It is a promise.

He's going to show himself to you and it will change everything.

Next thing is that in invitations bring celebrations.

Verse number 20, the shepherds went back to their flocks,

glorifying God and praising God for all they had heard and seen.

Listen, I've got dozens of nieces and nephews.

I love them all.

All right.

Even the ones that don't love me, I love them all.

And, um, I've, I've visited most of them at the hospital, uh, in

their first couple days of life.

And I was grateful.

It's exciting.

It's great to be an uncle.

It's great.

But I never left this way.

Glorifying and praising God for all I had seen and heard.

I wasn't like, I was like, Oh, poor kid.

He's, his looks are like our side of the family.

Poor kid.

Hopefully he grows into that nose.

My word, this one looks like an alien.

Alright?

Never did I, did I walk away like these guys when they saw a baby.

We've all seen babies.

They walked away glorifying and praising God.

Because you investigate and what do you find?

You find Him to be who He says He is.

Even in His meekest human form.

And he was God in heaven, but became one of us, to rescue one of

us, a covert mission to rescue us.

Even in his infancy, the power of God was changing people's

understanding, was giving people hope, was changing their lives.

Why do we share Jesus?

Remind yourself you're a follower of Jesus.

Why do you share him?

Remind yourself of the moment you met him put yourself back in that

place where you experienced him Allow yourself to give thanks and

glory to God again for that day.

He changed your life Now for me, I've gone to church my whole life.

I've shared this hundreds of times over, over my ministry here.

You know, probably a week or two weeks old.

I was in church and pretty, I mean, I've been in church ever since.

I never walked away from Jesus.

I never walked away from church.

I've just gone to church.

And I always believed.

I remember being a first grader and praying, Jesus, I give you my life.

Forgive me of my sins.

Um, and.

But, and always going to church, always believing, but being a 14 year old,

and being in a church service, and experiencing the presence of God on the

outside of my life, on the inside of my heart, for the first time in my whole

life, and crying, and being shocked, and thinking, I always believed in God,

but I had no idea God knew who I was.

But here I am right now, in this moment, experiencing Him.

And it changed my life.

It changed my life.

I was never a kid who swore.

I wasn't using chewing tobacco.

I wasn't stealing from my mom's purse.

I was a good church kid at that point in my life, who

fought my brothers and sisters.

I was a good church kid, but the moment that That I met God it changed everything

for me And that's one of the primary reasons that I'm a pastor because I want

every Single one of you to experience Jesus like I did in eighth grade or the

summer after eighth grade Every single one of you to experience Jesus just as I

the reason we have fun in church to reason Why we do everything we do is, again, just

kind of all setting the stage for you to feel comfortable to investigate Jesus,

because I want you to try to find Him.

I want you to experience Him like I did, because when you do,

you're going to celebrate.

You're going to celebrate.

You're going to celebrate.

He is so good.

The last thing here is that invitations affect generations.

Verse number 18, it said, All who heard the shepherd's story were astonished.

And for 2, 000 years now, The account of these shepherds has been shared

around the world over and over and over and over and over again.

We're still hearing about the angel's invitation to the shepherds.

We're still hearing the shepherd's story about what happened to

that night, to them that night.

And the invitations that we share, it doesn't just change your friend.

It changes their family, their future family, It changes far

beyond you could ever imagine.

Imagine Jesus in the scripture we read earlier, he said, follow me

and I will make you fishers of men.

This is another promise.

I will make you a person if you allow me to.

I will make you a person who affects other people's lives with my good news.

I will make you a person who helps me on these rescue missions.

I will make you a person who's a carrier of the good news.

I will make you a person who carries the presence of God.

This is a promise from Jesus.

This is a promise from Jesus.

You gotta, you gotta recognize this.

This is important.

Your life, every one of you, your life, It will produce spiritual life.

Your life, your invitation, your, um, your, uh, um, confusing

description of the gospel.

You're like, I did not do good.

I'm sorry, Lord.

I did not do good trying to explain you.

But every effort that you give, your life will produce spiritual life.

It will change people for eternity.

Your life will.

Your testimony will.

Your invitation will.

It will change, not just there today, it will change there forever.

I want to share with you a couple photos from last week.

Just a couple.

I mean, there's a bunch of photos, but some baptisms from Bethlehem and

Another one, here's a baptism from Dover, uh, baptism from Plymouth.

These baptisms are, I, you know, I shared with you earlier.

about how they were, who they were invited by.

It was an invitation.

Hey, I'm going to church.

You want to come to church with me?

People said just randomly one day.

Sure.

All right.

Sure.

Okay.

Fine.

Yes.

And now they are celebrating this in front of the whole church.

Hey, I was invited to come.

I investigated it.

And now I'm celebrating today because he changed my life.

He's not just their Lord and Savior.

He's my Lord and Savior.

Some of the stories from last week, Della was invited by her mom, Amanda,

who was invited by her friend, Heidi.

Kay was invited by Kashin.

Kashin was invited by Brian.

Brian was invited by his mom.

His mom was invited by people from the church who were doing an outreach.

Gavin was invited by his dad, Eric, who was invited by his dad, Dave,

who was invited by his friend, Max.

Sam and Mason were invited by Benaiah, who was brought by Michelle

and I, who were both brought to this church by our mothers.

Adalia was invited by her parents, whose dad was invited by her mom, and

whose mom was invited by Eric's dad.

Something about that

is so wildly beautiful to me,

because we're not talking about a couple months, where it was the fad thing, the

in thing to do, so a bunch of people, oh church is cool, let's all go to church,

let's all get baptized, No, we're talking about, we're talking about decades

that when Eric is 13, his dad brings him to church.

Now when his son is 20, he's getting water baptized.

That when I'm five years old, my mom signs me up for Wednesday

night kids program here.

And now, however many years later, I don't know how old I am, a long time later.

Now, my friends are inviting friends.

It affects generations.

Why?

Because being religious is good?

Heck no!

The worst seasons of our church's 78 year history were the seasons

about religious activity.

Horrible years.

Should I share some more stories?

Bad years in our church because they came about being

religious, not about the gospel.

Beautiful, beautiful stories.

As you, I've got this invitation I've been playing with, I apologize, I keep trying

to hide it so I wouldn't distract it.

This is a Christmas invitation.

One of the reasons that we give out invitations, something I discovered long

ago, is some of us are shy and some of us are, are just too introverted, we're

too shy, even extroverts can be shy, but it's hard for us to share our faith.

And one thing I discovered long ago is try to give tools to the introvert.

A reason to talk about church, a reason to talk about Jesus.

So what is one thing everybody is going to be asking each other at work

and school for, for the next few days, uh, this week and, and next week?

They're going to ask, hey, what are you doing for Christmas?

Have this invitation on you.

You can even start, hey, what are you doing for Christmas?

Oh, we're going to, whatever it is.

And then they say, what are you doing on Christmas?

Well, Christmas, with my family, Christmas Eve, we go to Restoration Church.

And we've been doing it for a lot of years.

It's so much fun, whatever, whatever.

Um, you should check it out.

Who, especially here in New England, how many, how many people talk about

going to church in a positive light?

Not very many.

I mean, it happens.

Obviously there's great churches all over New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont,

Massachusetts, amazing churches, amazing pastors, amazing men, I want to know God.

Uh, but when I was growing up, there was not a person in my school who talks

positively about their church experience,

including me until freshman year.

So when you say, Oh, I love going, it's so much fun, whatever, whatever.

And you begin to share, or even if you've never been before, I heard it's amazing.

I'm going, just pastor.

There's this guy there.

Pastor Nate, unbelievably cool.

He's got like a Instagram.

Amazing guy.

And give the invitation.

You're not trying to convince them, you're, you're giving them the

opportunity to investigate for themselves.

Sometimes people say, I don't know, I don't have the answers.

I'm afraid to share the gospel.

Maybe you're, but you can share an invitation.

Sometimes people say, I'm just too afraid.

I'm afraid they're going to ask me a question I don't know the answers to.

And I just want to encourage you not to worry about that.

My, my middle schooler told me this week, he said, you know, kids

been asking me all these questions about, about church and God.

They asked me this week, is it a sin to marry your cousin?

So he's asking me later, Dad, is it a sin to marry your cousin?

And so we're having that conversation, and I said, Well, what did you say to the kid?

And he said, uh, I said, Do you want to marry your cousin?

And, like, why are you searching for the answer to that?

Is it a sin to marry your cousin?

Why?

Are you, like, really attracted to your cousin?

Is that something you're trying to get set up for the holidays here?

A little mistletoe accident?

A little bizarre?

And so, listen, don't worry about what you don't know.

Talk about what you do know.

He changed you.

The other thing that can kind of happen is, well, I don't have it all together.

I, I'm a mess.

Uh, uh, uh.

Listen, it is okay.

We're all from different places.

We're all in different seasons of our life walking with Jesus.

You're maybe not able to, to show how He transforms lives yet, but you're

able to show how He forgives past.

And you're at that starting point, you may not show, be able to show how he, how

he changed his families for generations yet, but you're able to show how he's

changed you today from yesterday.

That's a great thing.

We need people who are in the beginning part of their journey as

well, because otherwise it feels like I could never fit in here.

But when you get in and you, and you're able to see people where

we're able to see, we're obviously all from different places of life.

You've got some people you can see they have definitely

served Jesus for generations.

They just They just uh, like a have a fragrance of the presence of

God You can definitely see in the parking lot when you're leaving.

There's some people who haven't met the Lord yet We're coming

from all different places.

That is a beautiful thing Don't be embarrassed about where you've been.

If you've ever recommended a restaurant to someone else, I'll

recommend to you one right now.

There's a Brazilian barbecue place in, um, in Manchester called Gaucho's.

Brazilian barbecue, for those of you who've never heard of it,

you have, uh, it's kind of like a game of red light, green light.

And you have a card, literally a card, one side's red, one side's green.

When you have it on green, you just put it green on your table.

The waiters don't stop coming and bringing you meat.

It's steak lamb, different cuts of steak, chicken sausage, as long as it's on green.

They just come and they give you more, more more more.

And then when you're when you're when you're like to full or to

embarrass you flip it over to read.

And it's amazing.

Amazing place.

Um we were like, um we had a deacon Christmas party there a

number of years ago during COVID.

We were like their first customers.

since they opened back.

So it was like the waiters were excited to finally get a tip again.

I mean, it was a good, good night.

But if you were to ask me, Pastor Nate, talk to me about that restaurant.

What's the marinade?

Where do they source their ingredients?

How much do they pay their employees?

I'm going to say, I have no clue.

I don't have answers to those questions.

But what I do know, but what I do know, let me tell you about what I do know.

And when people come to you and they, and they're trying to put you, well,

how could you believe the Bible?

It's so full of contradictions.

Like, I, how, what, can you even marry your cousin?

And they're coming with all these questions.

Like, I don't know the answer to this.

Say, hey, I don't have those answers, but here's what I do know.

And don't say this, but, but in your own words, I was lost, but now I'm found.

In your own words, say, I don't know.

I showed up to church because, because my crazy ex girlfriend made me go, and now

she doesn't go, and it changed my life.

I showed up to church because someone told me there was, uh, unlimited eggnog at the

Christmas Eve, and so I went to go put that to the test, and then after I came up

front for healing, and, uh, I got healed!

Uh, you just share what you do know.

Talk about what you do have.

You're welcome.

In 1 John, chapter 5, verse number 10, it says all who believe in

1 John 5 · chapter mention

the Son of God know in their hearts this testimony is true.

You know what He's done in your life.

It is just deeply profound, deeply unexplainable.

But you're trying to create the conversation that others would

investigate and find out what you have.

Church, musicians, you can come up.

I want to challenge you to be bold this week.

To be bold this week.

To invite someone this week.

At the very minimum.

Give out these invitations.

There's some on your seats.

There's some at the new here area grab some How many can you believe God for?

God, give me the opportunity to invite one person.

God, give me the opportunity to invite 10 people.

How many can you believe God for?

There are, we just don't know who's going to show up, who's going to experience

what and how it might change their life.

Will you close your eyes and let me pray for you.

As your eyes are closed and bands figuring out what to do, I want to, um,

I just want to give you an invitation.

to give your life to Jesus right now.

We read earlier in Romans chapter 10 in verses 14 and 17, but verses 9 and

Romans 10 · chapter mention

10 says this, If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord, and believe

in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with

God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

To believe in your heart, that you are made And to say it with your

mouth, that I'm, that I follow Jesus.

If your eyes are closed, even out of their locations, I'll

ask you to respond the same way.

But you've been coming to church, you want Jesus, you've convinced yourself

maybe that He wouldn't want you.

But you'd say, you know what Pastor Nate, that's it, I mean I believe it in

my heart, but right now I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell my location pastor.

That, yeah, I'm giving my life to Jesus, and you just raise your hand up at me.

Um, I'm, I, I, I believe it in my heart, now I'm saying it with my mouth.

I follow Jesus, and just wave at me.

Thank you.

Anybody else?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You've been investigating, and now it's your time.

And what this verse says, it's right there.

And I'm gonna lead you in a prayer that's putting this verse into your own words.

But it says, declare that Jesus is your Lord, so let's pray that.

And you say this, Jesus, you're my Lord, you're my God, you're my Savior.

It says if you believe that He's raised from the dead, you'll be saved.

And you say, you pray that right now, Jesus, I believe the Christmas story and

the Easter story that it's true, that you came to earth and became one of us and you

died on the cross to save us and that you were raised from the dead to rescue us.

I believe that, Jesus.

And in that moment when you pray that and you believe that.

Your sins are forgiven.

Your life has changed.

You start a brand new life today in Jesus name.

So the next step that you, if you prayed that to God, the next thing I

want you to do is you raise your hand to me and I thank you for doing that.

But tell your location pastor, tell the person you invited, just share with them.

Hey, I made the decision to follow Jesus today.

Thank you God for your word.

Thank you for showing yourself to the shepherds.

If you would choose them to show yourself to you, show us.

Pour down your spirit in our services today.

We pray that you'd go ahead of these invitations that we'd hand out.

Let us bump into people while we're shopping, bump into people at school, have

conversations with people about Christmas and have the opportunity to invite them.

Jesus, we love you.

Thank you for the baptisms and the salvations and the salvations today.

You're still good.

You're still good, God.

You're still powerful, God.

You still forgive God.

You haven't given up on us, God.

You're still after us.

And you, even the people today are still wrestling.

I just pray they won't stop searching for you.

Because when they search you, for you, when they search for

you, they're gonna find you.

And we pray this in Jesus name.

Amen.