Changing Lives - Invite

Well, right now we are talking about changing lives.

2 Corinthians 5, 17 says that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.

The old life is gone.

A new life has begun.

When we follow Jesus, we begin to change.

Sometimes that change happens quickly, sometimes it takes a while, which is a great reminder to all of us to be patient with ourselves, but to be patient with the other people in our lives as well.

God is not finished with us yet.

The good thing about God, though, is that he does finish what he starts.

And when we begin to follow Jesus, a new life begins inside of us.

We are literally changing lives.

Our very lives are changing.

But we're called not only to be changing lives, but to be changing lives, changing other lives.

We're changing lives, changing lives.

And for the next few weeks, we're talking about how we do that.

How do we, as a church, change lives?

His hands church is not a building.

His hands church is not an organization.

You are his hands.

We talked about that a few weeks ago.

We are the church.

His hands is a movement that exists so that lives can change by receiving a relationship with Jesus.

This is a place where people come to get God's love, grow in God's love, and then give God's love away.

And when that happens, lives change.

We're going to measure these lives changing with a goal.

We have a goal right now.

It's 1,000 lives.

We want to see 1,000 lives in this community begin to change.

We believe God can use us to do that because God happens to think really highly of us.

Jesus called us the light of the world.

It's probably the biggest compliment anyone has ever paid to any of us.

And that's Jesus.

That's God Himself saying that about us.

He believes that we are capable of changing lives.

And so right now as a church, we're coming together and saying, we're going to change 1,000 lives.

And we're going to measure those 1,000 lives with stories.

At the back four columns where the giving kiosks are and the prayer requests, there are these cards that say, changing lives, changing lives.

And those are there for you to share your stories.

Stories about how God is changing your life.

Stories about how God is using you to make a change in other people's lives.

And I want to encourage you to share those stories.

Because our stories are so powerful.

Lewis talked last week about how all of us have a story that is worth sharing.

And the Bible supports that, by the way.

Revelation 12, 11 says, they have defeated him, talking about Satan, by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony.

It's our stories that have the power to overcome what Satan tries to do in this world.

Psalm 9.1 says, I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart.

I will tell of all the marvelous things you have done.

Simply telling people what God has done, what he's done in our lives, what we've seen him do in other people's lives gives people hope when they don't have hope.

It gives people encouragement.

It can change lives.

So we want to be people who share stories.

Sometimes we might look at ourselves and say, Man, I have a story that you would not believe.

Some of us in this room know that our stories are powerful.

And we can say that with confidence.

We don't have to be arrogant to say that.

We have stories in this room right now that will blow people's minds away.

I'm constantly impressed by how often I'll meet someone, and at first glance I think I have their story pegged, but then I find out that, oh no, they have a story.

Some of us might feel the opposite.

Maybe we feel like our story is a little meh.

I feel like that a lot.

I have a lot of friends here at his hands that have incredible stories, the kinds of stories that make you sit on the edge of your seat.

I've got multiple friends who before they encountered God were drug traffickers.

I have a good friend that was a professional gambler and hustler before he became a Jesus follower.

I have another friend who was in a gang before he followed Jesus.

All of them now serve as leaders on teams at his hands.

So there you go.

Yay.

None of them serve as leaders on teams in the children's areas.

I want you to know that.

So, parents, saw a few parents starting to stand up and walk out of the room like, no, no, you're good.

Thorough background checks.

Promise.

The power of Jesus has always been that he can change the worst of us into the best of us.

Nothing cannot make something happen.

And so when we see a life change, we know how real God is.

That's always been the way that God prefers to show evidence of who he is.

We might want over-the-top miracles, God prefers to point to changed lives.

And all of us have a story that speaks to someone.

I used to feel guilty that my story wasn't like those, that I don't have some past that's crazy and full of all these dramatic twists and turns.

My story is pretty simple.

When I was 10, I believed in Jesus.

And then I continued to believe in Jesus.

I went to youth group where I believed in Jesus.

I went to college and I interned at a church.

Crazy, I know.

And then after I graduated, about a year after, I came here to work at a church.

That's my story.

That's how I got here.

It was the scenic route for sure.

And I used to look at that and I would feel guilty.

I wanted more drama.

I wanted my life to be a story that people would go, wow, how did God do what he did?

And I don't have that, but that's okay.

Because sometimes we can we can overvalue drama, let's be honest.

If you've ever binge watched a show like 24, my wife and I once watched, I think, three or four seasons of 24 in a week before we had kids.

And uh, so we don't have time now.

And sometimes after after doing that, I'm sure some of us have done that.

You're like, I can't handle any more drama.

I'm done.

No more drama.

I need reruns of Everybody Loves Raymond.

I need something like that just to bring me down, just to get me back on track.

Sometimes we can overvalue drama in the church world too.

The dramatic stories, those are stories that we want to share.

We're gonna have a lot of dramatic, incredible stories once we hit this 1,000 lives goal.

And we will share those stories because they're powerful, but every story is powerful.

And not all stories have to be dramatic, not all stories have to be crazy to have a huge impact.

I'll share one that came through last week.

This person wrote, I wanted to do a Christmas angel this year.

I've never done it before, but I know God put it on my heart to help a family or a child in need.

When I went to get a star, there was only one left.

I asked how much it takes to adopt a child, and I was in anguish when I discovered I could not afford it.

I'm newly divorced, the money is tight, but right then an amazing friend of mine offered to split it with me.

I got Holy Spirit chills and was blown away that God provided me with a way to help a child in need.

Now this 15-year-old boy will have a great Christmas.

Thank you.

And see, that story could be more dramatic, right?

The person could have said that they discovered that it cost$150 and then they reached in their pocket and there was$150 in cash, and they had just reached in their pocket a few minutes before and there was nothing.

Right?

If that was the story, we would all be like, praise God, that's a miracle, but here's the thing: the result is the exact same.

That 15-year-old boy is gonna have Christmas.

That 15-year-old boy, by the way, asked for a bicycle and a basketball.

So he'll get that, maybe more.

The story may not be dramatic, but the result is powerful.

I love that that was the last star, by the way.

That was the 300th child.

That's awesome.

All of us have a story that is worth sharing.

All of us have a story that can speak to someone.

The Bible is full of incredibly dramatic stories.

Even people that don't believe in God's word and don't believe that it's true, still admit that the stories are really good.

You can look to Hollywood for that, right?

Hollywood may not agree with the legitimacy of the Bible as God's word, but it does not mind stealing the stories to make a lot of money.

There's a movie earlier this year called Noah.

It was about Noah.

Very clever name.

Later this year, Christian Bale, Batman himself, stars in a movie called Gods and Kings, which is about Moses and the Exodus.

It looks good, but it might not be.

Haven't seen it.

We don't mind, though, because it gets people talking.

It's exciting.

And it makes sense.

The Bible is full of amazing stories because God just so happens to be an incredible storyteller.

And the amazing thing about that is that our lives are his stories.

Your life is a story that God wants to tell to the people around you.

Your life is a story that will inspire other people.

And the more you're willing to share your life, to share your story and what God is doing in you, the more people will know Jesus.

There will be people in heaven because you share your story.

You may not feel like your story is powerful.

You may want to write something on one of the cards in the back, but there might be a voice in the back of your head saying, no, it's not big enough.

That's not a big enough story to put down.

Don't listen to that voice that is not God.

Share your story because you have no idea whose life it could change.

A lot of the people that follow Jesus had very dramatic stories.

If you look at the lives of some of his closest friends and followers, they could be made into movies.

I mean, look at Peter, for example.

Someone really should make a movie about Peter.

It could be Peter's life, and we could see Jesus through Peter's eyes.

Peter's story is incredibly dramatic.

It's full of all of these amazing moments that would look so good on a big screen.

I mean, Peter walked on water with Jesus, literally walked on top of waves in the midst of this huge storm.

Peter saw Jesus' body transformed into what it looks like in heaven.

And if they made that into a movie, it would be all CG because it's out of this world.

It's crazy.

It's awesome.

Peter's the only person that fights back when Jesus is arrested.

He has a sword, he cuts off the ear of one of the men that's arresting Jesus.

So the movie's gonna be PG 13 at least.

Peter has this really low point in his life.

He has a huge failure.

And he's ashamed, and he's brought to his knees because he abandons Jesus.

So we have that moment.

But Peter has this amazing moment of redemption.

He's on a boat on the sea, he sees Jesus on the shore.

This is after Jesus has been resurrected.

So Peter jumps out of the boat, swims in the sea to the shore.

It's like, hello, Hollywood, make this movie.

It's so easy.

That would look so good on a screen.

Peter's story is so dramatic.

The Bible is filled with similar stories, but it's also filled with stories of people whose lives are much more unassuming, much less dramatic, but those people still changed lives.

It's probably nice to be someone like Peter that has a story that could one up anyone else's stories.

Once you've walked on water with Jesus, there is no one on earth that can one up you, right?

As much fun as that must be, it's probably hard to be related to someone like Peter, someone who always has the best story, someone that everyone else wants to hear about, that everyone else wants to talk about.

Originally I'm from Springfield, Missouri.

Thank you.

And uh I don't know why you would you would clap.

There's no reason to clap.

We don't have much going for us in Springfield.

We've got one thing, one thing we point to, one thing we're proud of.

Brad Pitt is from Springfield, Missouri.

There you go.

Good old Brad.

Brad Pitt has a brother who still lives in Springfield.

That's gotta be hard.

Right?

That's gotta be tough.

The holidays, I mean, what do you do in that situation?

Imagine the one upping that could happen.

Brad Pitt comes home, his brother sees me, he says, Hey Brad, you look really good.

And Brad's like, I do.

I know, I maybe tries to be humble, says, No, no, you you look good.

I, you know, People magazine moved me down to number eight on the most attractive list.

It's been a hard year.

You you look great.

Maybe in the pictures, Brad tries to look worse, sticks his stomach out and slumps his shoulders.

Because if you're Brad Pitt's brother and you take family pictures, no one has ever cared that you're in that picture, right?

You show people that picture, like, oh Brad Pitt, you're like, I'm in the picture too.

That's gotta be hard.

It would have to be so tough to be related to someone like that.

Peter was kind of the Brad Pitt of the early church world, not in terms of physical looks, okay?

He was a fisherman.

But in terms of notoriety and fame, he had all these incredible stories.

Peter had a brother.

I imagine that that would be hard.

Peter's brother's name was Andrew.

Andrew was also a follower of Jesus.

He just doesn't get talked about that much because he never walked on water and he never cut off someone's ear.

But he's there all the time.

He's in the background and he shows up in a few really key moments.

His story is not dramatic like Peter's, but Peter changed lives, and Andrew also changed lives.

And if we want to learn how to be people who change lives, we have as much to learn from Andrew as we have to learn from Peter.

We see Andrew become a follower of Jesus in John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

It says, The following day, John was again standing with two of his disciples.

As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, Look, there's the Lamb of God.

When John's two disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.

Jesus looked around, he saw them following.

What do you want?

He asked them.

They replied, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?

Come and see, he said.

It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when they went with him to the place where he was staying, and they remained with him for the rest of the day.

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of these men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus.

Now, Peter has not even been introduced in the story yet, but already Andrew is Simon Peter's brother.

It's as if he doesn't exist unless he's Peter's brother.

Some of Jesus' disciples were criminals, prostitutes.

One was even a former terrorist.

And I imagine people would see them following Jesus and say, Wow, tell me your story.

How did you get from where you were to where you are now?

I need to know, because the last time I saw you, I mean, this is the last thing I expected you to be.

And Andrew's story isn't like that.

People said, Andrew, how did you become a follower of Jesus?

He'd say, Well, I was a disciple of John the Baptist.

And one day, John said, Hey, there's the Messiah.

So I said, Okay.

And I walked five feet over to Jesus and I hung out with him for the rest of the day.

Been doing it ever since.

People would sort of shrug their shoulders and say, Okay, wow, that's uh that's amazing.

Right?

See, for Andrew, following Jesus was not this dramatic turn in his life, it was just the next step.

But Andrew changed people's lives.

He doesn't show up that often in Scripture, but when he does, he's always doing this one thing.

In John 12, for example, verse 20, it says, Some Greeks who had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebration paid a visit to Philip, who was from Beth Seda in Galilee.

They said, Sir, we want to meet Jesus.

Philip told Andrew about it, and they went together to ask Jesus.

Now it's odd, why did Philip not just say, Okay, let me introduce you to Jesus?

At this point in time, the only people following Jesus are Jewish.

There were a few people that Jesus went to himself outside of the Jewish faith.

There were a few people that came to Jesus directly outside the Jewish faith, but in terms of the people who had been asked to be part of what Jesus was doing, invited into the circle, it was only people from that faith.

There were no outsiders.

And these Greeks were outsiders.

So Philip's not sure what to do.

They want to meet Jesus, and he's like, I don't know if you can.

Let me go ask Andrew.

And Andrew says, I have a great idea.

Let's take him to Jesus.

That makes Andrew the very first foreign missionary, which is pretty powerful.

In John 6, Andrew shows up again.

John 6 tells the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000.

We always forget about Andrew in this story because we've got a lot of other characters at play.

We've got Jesus, who does this crazy miracle, this little boy that gives Jesus a few fish and some loaves of bread.

We've got the hungry crowd.

We've got the disciples saying, Jesus, send them home.

There's no way we can feed these people.

But Andrew's there.

Jesus soon saw a huge crowd of people coming to look for him.

Turning to Philip, he asked, Where can we buy bread to feed all these people?

He was testing Philip, for he already knew what he was going to do.

Philip replied, Even if we worked for months, we would not have enough money to feed them.

And then Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, again, as if we've forgotten who he is five chapters ago, right?

Simon Peter's brother, just in case we're confused, he spoke up.

There's a young boy here with five barley loaves and two fish.

But what good is that with this huge crowd?

I've always loved this story.

We've shared it.

I love it because God does this amazing miracle.

Jesus does this incredible miracle, but it requires that someone gives him something to work with.

It's amazing what God can do if we're willing just to give him something to work with.

But this miracle might not have happened if Andrew had not taken this little boy to Jesus.

See, that's just what Andrew does.

When you see Andrew in scripture, he's always bringing somebody to Jesus.

He's the kind of person that may not be the loudest in the room, he may not be the one that everyone points to as a leader, but Andrew is a person that cannot stand to keep Jesus to himself.

He has to share Jesus, he has to invite people along to meet Jesus.

The most significant moment is back in John chapter 1.

John 1 · chapter mention

Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, gotta remember that, was one of these men who heard what John said and then followed Jesus.

Andrew went to find his brother Simon and told him, We have found the Messiah, which means Christ.

Then Andrew brought Simon to meet Jesus.

Looking intently at Simon, Jesus said, Your name is Simon, son of John, but you will be called Cephas, which means Peter.

Means rock.

The reason that Peter knew Jesus is because Andrew, his brother, brought him to Jesus.

And there may have been some times later on that he kicked himself for that, because had he not, he would still be Andrew.

He wouldn't be Andrew, Peter's brother.

Peter wouldn't have even been called Peter.

He still would have been Simon.

But Andrew had to bring Peter to Jesus.

He could not keep Jesus to himself.

And because of that, lives changed.

You think about how many lives Peter has changed.

Not just in his lifetime, but how many people have been inspired by the stories of Peter.

Inspired by the connection that we see with Peter as a man who was flawed, but who was given a second chance.

Every life that Peter changed, every single one, Andrew has a hand in that life as well, because Andrew is the reason that Peter's life changed in the first place.

I wonder how many people have amazing, over-the-top, unbelievable God stories, but they owe those stories to the fact that someone cared enough to invite them into the presence of Jesus.

Someone that will never get a lot of credit, someone that will never get a lot of glory from that, someone that that person may never even really think about that often.

But their God story exists.

They know Jesus because someone invited them to meet Jesus.

If we are going to be a church, if we're going to be a people that change lives, we have to be like Andrew.

We don't have to be like Peter, some of us will be, but if you had a church full of a thousand people like Peter, I don't think much would get done.

A lot of fighting, a lot of frustration.

If you had a church full of a thousand people like Andrew, you have a thousand Andrews, a thousand people who have to share Jesus, who can't stand to keep Jesus to themselves.

You have a thousand people like that, you're not going to change a thousand lives, you're going to change one hundred thousand lives.

All of us can be like Andrew.

All of us can be people that realize how precious what we have is.

The joy, the peace, the love that we have from God.

All of us can realize what we really have, and all of us can look around us and say, Who needs it?

Who needs Jesus?

Who can I invite to bring with me to Jesus?

We don't have to try to convert people to Jesus.

We never have any story of Andrew converting someone or witnessing to someone or convincing them that they needed to follow Jesus.

He just said, Hey, I know Jesus.

Let me take you to him.

Just hang out with me as I hang out with Jesus.

All of us are on a journey with God.

All of us are in different places in that journey, but no matter where you are, you can look around and find someone to bring with you on your journey.

To hang out with you as you are hanging out in your spirit with the Lord.

All of us can do that.

All of us can be like Andrew.

And if we are, lives change.

Andrew changed the world with something as simple as an invitation.

He invited his brother to come meet Jesus.

Invitations are uh are pretty powerful things.

If you get invited to something that you really want to go to, you're happy.

If you don't get invited to something that you really want to go to, it hurts.

My wife once got upset that she was not invited to a wedding that she did not want to go to.

I thought that was interesting.

She said, Can you believe we didn't get invited to their wedding?

And I'm like, I don't know who they are.

Who is that?

Would we go?

She's like, Well, no.

But they should have invited us.

They did us a favor.

I mean, how many of us have gone to something that we absolutely did not want to go to, but we were invited, and we didn't know how to turn the invitation down.

We're just like, ah, I don't want to, but I guess I have to now, right?

Invitations are powerful.

Last year, Megan and I were house hunting, and we we had to look at hundreds of houses.

That's what it felt like.

And one day we had been out looking for houses for what seemed like just hours upon hours, because it was hours upon hours.

And Nathan, who leads our worship team here, sent me a text saying, Hey, would you like to come to Katie, his wife's parents, open house?

And the last thing I wanted to do was look at another house that day, but the thought of buying a house from someone that we knew, someone that we trusted, was kind of interesting.

So I said, Yeah, yes, let's do it.

So we we got back in the car, drove back to Katie's parents' house, the Switzers.

They're awesome people.

And we get there and there are a lot of cars.

It's a very successful open house.

We walk in and there's all this food, and I'm thinking, okay, this is kind of crazy, but it's giving it that lived-in feel, I guess.

And uh, and I saw Cliff and I started to have these questions for him that I felt were very relevant to the situation.

I'm like, so Cliff, how much uh how much square footage is in your basement?

Uh do you have a big backyard?

Is it flat?

Is it sloped?

I got a boy, I don't know if he can play out there, room for a playground.

Okay, that's good.

That's good, okay.

The the roof looks pretty new.

Is that five years?

Seven years?

What are you talking about?

And the whole time Cliff's just sort of answering my questions, but looking at me like I'm insane.

Right?

And then I hear people start to sing Christmas carols in the other room.

And I'm like, what kind of open?

No one's gonna buy your house, man.

This is, you gotta learn how to do this.

Right?

Answer my questions.

And see, then I realized after like 15 minutes that when Nathan said open house, he was not talking about an open house in the real estate sense of the term, which I'll just say is like the only sense of the term I know, other than a school or something.

But he was saying, my parents' house is is open to anyone who would like to come in for some holiday fun.

And I felt so awkward, I felt so weird.

But I uh but I did my part.

I ate meatballs, I I half sang the 12 days of Christmas, I just sort of 12, okay.

But uh but then I left.

Then I left.

Houseless and upset with Nathan.

If you invite someone to an open house that is looking for houses, okay, clarify what you mean.

It's just mean.

Okay, back to where we're talking about.

Invitations.

Invitations are really powerful.

They are.

The reason I stayed for those extra 15 minutes and and ate the food and sang the songs was because I'd been invited, so I had to stay.

I felt obligated.

Just out of curiosity, and I'd love for you to raise your hands if this applies to you.

How many of us are here today because someone invited us to this church?

Okay.

How many good you yeah?

And clap.

Guys always surprise me when you clap.

Sometimes you don't clap when I think you do, and then you do clap when I don't, but I'll we'll just go with it.

How many of you are here because you saw a sign as you left Lowe's?

Anyone?

Okay.

Awesome.

Some people shop at Home Depot.

We can't keep relying on that.

All right?

It's not a long-term strategy that will work.

I know that some of us might be here for the very first time today because we were invited.

And so I'm sorry that I just put you on the spot.

I hate raising my hand in an audience.

I absolutely hate that.

I'm sorry that I asked you to do that.

If you didn't raise your hand, I would not have either.

It's okay.

But but I want us to understand how many of us owe the fact that we are part of this family to the fact that someone cared enough to invite us.

I know people who are here and who play a large role here and lead, who are here because someone invited them, who was invited by someone else, who was invited by someone else who years ago was invited by someone else.

One invitation set off a chain reaction that has affected lives for years and for years.

That's how powerful one invitation can be.

So as we think about the lives that we want to see change, the people we want to impact, please understand that something as simple as an invitation carries so much weight and has so much potential.

But also know that I'm not just talking about church.

This isn't just about inviting people here to an event, to Christmas Eve, to a Sunday morning.

It's more than that.

It's about inviting people along in our lives.

It's about opening our lives up and inviting other people into our lives and along with us on our journeys.

Because we are on a journey with Jesus.

We are not meant to be on this journey alone.

And I'll be honest, it's not much fun alone.

We're supposed to share it with other people.

There's this thought in Christianity, and I understand it in some ways, where serving God and spending time with God and serving people and spending time with people are viewed as separate.

It's like there's this tension: am I gonna focus on God or am I gonna focus on people?

Which one am I gonna be drawn to?

And I get that very much.

Jesus spent a lot of time alone with God.

He would often withdraw and be by himself to pray and just fill up in God's presence.

I've had moments where I have really needed to spend time alone with God.

And so I've I've set everything up, I've got some worship music ready, I'm gonna read my Bible.

I have children, so I either get the kids entertained or put them down for a nap or something like that.

But children have unbelievable timing, right?

Those of us that are parents know that it's the exact second that you start to do what you're planning to do that a crisis erupts, right?

I'll hear my son run down the stairs.

I have no idea how a 35-pound human being can make that much noise coming downstairs.

But it'll be the exact moment that I'll open my Bible up.

And my son comes running down, he has a problem, and he needs me.

And I'm tempted in those moments to say, son, not now.

Daddy is spending time with God.

This is really important.

So go away and I'll come to you later.

And in some ways, that might even seem like the spiritually mature thing to do, but it's not.

Because Jesus never did that.

When Jesus went away to be with God, he got interrupted often.

In fact, that story of the 5,000 that he fed, he was trying to get away and spend some time alone with God, and 5,000 people showed up.

And he did not say, I am trying to spend time with God, I will get to you.

Give me a few minutes, give me an hour.

He stopped spending time alone with God, and he spent the whole rest of his day with those people.

Because to Jesus, spending time with God and investing in and serving people were one and the same.

They weren't separate entities at all.

Jesus saw helping people, serving people, and loving people as God time.

We might measure how close we are to God by how much time we spend alone with him, but I believe often God wants us to measure how close we are to him by how close others are to our hearts.

Because we are all so close to the heart of God.

And we can't be distant with people and close to God.

It doesn't work.

The closer we are to God, the closer we want to draw others into our life and share Jesus with them because Jesus is meant to be shared.

He belongs to us, he's ours.

But he's not ours to keep, he's ours to give away.

And the more we give him away, the more we get back from him.

That is how it works with God.

Worship team, if you want to come back up, I want to share this story.

It's another one of our stories from last week.

It says, I've been inviting a friend of mine to church for months.

He hasn't been able to make it, but last week I saw him and his entire family here.

I'm so excited because he's had a difficult year and I know how much he needs God to relieve his stress.

Excuse me.

Later in the week, we were able to have an amazing conversation about God in life.

And he told me that he's coming back soon.

I am so thankful because I know his story is going to inspire others very soon.

If uh, it's awesome.

It's amazing when we get to be here and God shows up in a powerful way.

That's awesome.

But if you want to see something really amazing, be here on a Sunday when God shows up in a powerful way, sitting next to someone that you invited.

Because that changes everything.

That person's day was made not by the fact that they were here, but by the fact that someone else was.

See, for us, that can look very different.

There's so many different ways we can invite others in.

Maybe it's inviting a friend to lunch this week because you know they need to be encouraged.

Maybe it's inviting a couple over to your house for dinner, making them a part of your family for an evening because you know they need some family.

Maybe it's giving someone an open invitation into your life, saying, hey, I love you.

I care about you, and I want you to know that if you ever need me, if you ever need to talk, if you ever need anything, you have an open invitation in my life.

Ask me, and I will make time to meet with you, to talk with you, to pray with you.

I want to challenge all of us to be to be thinking and praying about that one person that we want to invite along on our journey with Jesus.

That one person that gets to share our life, that gets to be like Andrew, right?

Or we get to be like Andrew, that person that gets to hang out with us as we hang out with Jesus.

Because if we do that, lives will change.

I want to be part of a church that's changing lives.

I believe you do as well.

Will we be a church that's like Andrew?

A church that cannot stand to keep Jesus to ourselves?

Will we be people that will not settle for having all of God's joy when others have none?

Will we be a church and a family of people that invite others along on our journeys and into our lives and into this home that we have together?

Because that's all it takes.

Some of us here might not realize that Jesus has invited us into his family.

If you ever look at your life and say, I don't know how to approach Jesus, I'm not sure how to start because I've had some crazy stuff happen and I know I've got to work on a lot of things before I can get right with God.

No, no, that's not how it works.

You don't have to worry about how you approach Jesus because he's invited you.

He's invited you in, so you can just go to him.

For some of us here today, we need to accept that invitation for the first time.

In our hearts, just say, Jesus, I accept your invitation.

I want you in my life.

Woo indeed.

And for those of us that know Jesus, can we, as a church, can we commit to not keeping him to ourselves?

But to leaving today and really believing in our hearts that there is someone that God is going to bring along into our lives today that needs what we have.

And when we see that person and we have that tug on our hearts, it says, Oh, should I say something to him?

Should I not?

Should I, that we just say, Yes, I will talk to that person, I will engage with them, I will compliment them, I will, I will tell them that I'm praying for them.

I will ask them if they need anything.

I will just invite them into my life, even if it's for a moment.

Because if we are like that, lives change.

Thousands of lives change.

And that is why we're here.

Let's pray.

Jesus, thank you so much for your love.

Thank you so much for inviting us into your presence.

Every single day, we have a standing invitation with you.

And we can meet with you at any time and in any moment, and you are right there with us, Lord.

Fill us with the inspiration and the purpose that we need as your church, as your family, to be people like Andrew, people who have to share you.

People who will not keep you to ourselves.

We love you, Jesus.

Thank you for this time together.

Amen.