A Simple Invitation

Two weeks ago, if you didn't know, I took a large number of students on a camping trip. We take our seniors, you saw last week some pictures from that. We took over a dozen seniors that had just graduated high school on a trip to Niagara Falls. We go camping, spend a couple days together.

But what kind of impressed me as I was looking back at Instagram photos, and Facebook pictures, and all of those was how many of those students that went on that trip were invited by somebody else to come to our group. Over half of them were students that didn't come to the church initially, that were invited by a friend that said, hey, you should come to this youth group with me. You should come to church with me. And so they started coming, and they became a part of our group.

And even out of those students, what's even more fascinating to me is some of those two of them particularly were invited by a friend who was invited by a friend. They get even more crazy. It's awesome when the friend that invited you no longer shows. We laugh about this a little bit, over the last ten years we have students that keep showing up when the person that invited them is like, I'm done with this.

It's really quite amazing what God does in people's lives. Especially when it's maybe a boyfriend or a girlfriend that invited them, and then they break up and you're like, this isn't going to look like. There's no way, and sure enough, they keep coming. And so that, I was like, man, it's pretty cool to see that and see how an invitation into something could be so powerful.

But that's just not in our youth group. I mean, that's happening at our church. If you were with us two weeks ago, like I said, we had 41 people baptized. And as people walked into the water, they often said names of people that got them there, that either gave them the invite to the church, that gave them an invite into thinking, talking about God in a way that they hadn't done before.

So much so this year, I was like on the sidelines half of the time, because you were baptizing your friends. It was amazing. And so this is part of our church, but it's also a part of who God is. That God is an inviting God.

So if you haven't guessed it, the stand alone today is going to be about the power of a simple invitation. So let's look at how God is an inviting God to start with. If you look at a lot of, I sometimes study other religions, I like to know and have a vocabulary to speak to people as, you know, I'm supposed to communicate the truth about God knowing their point of view. And as you look at a lot of other religions, what you find is that there's some sort of God or a city, and it's your job to get there.

It's your job to get to heaven, whether that's through sacrifices or righteous acts or some sort of dogma where it's what I do, it's going to get me to God. Christianity is the inverse of that. It is a God who is an inviting God, a God who has actually made the way for you. He's the God that invites you to be with him.

We talk about Jesus constantly and for good reason, right? That God sent his son Jesus to make a way for you. That it's through his death and resurrection that he is able, that you are able to have a relationship with you. It's not based on good works or good deeds.

It's God has invited you to be part of what he's doing. He sent out the invite. You can look through scripture and see this happening. One of them we talked about a couple of weeks ago is the parable of the shepherd and how he leaves the 99 to go search for the one that was lost, the 99 sheep that he has but he's worried about the one and how he goes after and he chases after the one.

Another passage that most of you would know that I really love is in Matthew 11. We'll put that up on the screen and read that. Jesus is speaking and he says, come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. An invitation come to me if you're tired, if you have burdens. Learn from me. Take my yoke.

I'll lighten it. It's easy. Let me explain for you maybe if you don't realize or maybe you just forgot what this idea of a yoke is. It's usually made out of wood, long piece of wood that is put over the next oxen cattle and then attached to the plow.

It keeps them going in the direction that the plow wants them to. In Old Testament time and then as the New Testament comes and there's these guys called rabbis, basically teachers of the scriptures, there was this idea that if you followed a certain rabbi, if you sat under his teaching, you would say that you took his yoke upon you. Meaning that, okay, I'll give you an example. Old Testament says that you should keep the Sabbath holy, that you should rest on the Sabbath.

Well, what does that mean? Does that mean I have to sleep all day? You shouldn't be here at church this morning. You should be in your beds.

Some people are, right? More so first service. But the rabbis then would take that law, would take that scripture and they would interpret it and say this is what it means. And so maybe one rabbi goes, you can walk up to a half a mile, but no more because then that would be work.

And the other rabbi would go, actually, I think it means you can walk one mile, no more than one mile, and then that would be considered work. And so depending on what rabbi you sat under, what one taught you, you would say I'm taking his yoke, that you have this rabbi's yoke. And so at this point, the rabbis and some other of the religious leaders are making these laws and rules so hard that says that's a burden on the people, that nobody could actually live up to the standards that they're setting. And they won't do anything to help people kind of achieve that.

And so Jesus comes, and this is what he says. He says, take my yoke because it's easy and light. The reason it's easy and light is because you're not doing to work to achieve your righteousness anymore. The work is done through him on the cross.

And so this is a new message that come and invites you into a new way, this way of grace. Jesus, if you even just look at his life, is inviting and how he goes about calling his disciples, give you another kind of teaching point that I've found fascinating. As a rabbi, as someone that would teach the scriptures, you would have people that sat under you and would follow you, called your disciples. And to be a disciple of a rabbi was a really high honor.

It was something that you went after, that you were striving to be this disciple. And you would have to come to the rabbi and kind of prove why you should be his disciple, going, I know all of these scriptures, I've followed all of them. Here's my application. And the rabbi would get all these applications and he would look through them and he would say, you and you and you, the rest of you, go find somebody else.

You don't live up to my standards. You can be my disciples. This is a lot like some of your kids, when they go to college, right? They are trying to prove their worth to the college.

Here's what I did. Here's all my extracurricular activities. Here's letters of recommendation, like, choose me. Jesus changes this.

And many of you know this, right? Jesus, instead of having disciples come to him, he goes to them. He invites them. He says, come, follow me.

And he says it to guys that were most likely rejected by other rabbis and were fishermen and tax collectors. They were nobodies. And he invites them in. God isn't inviting God.

He invites us in. And so I want to talk, if we're going to talk about invitation, a passage in Luke 14. I would go home and read it. It is all about invitation, about being invited.

And most of it all surrounds being invited to eat. And so let me give you some backstory before we hit the specific parable we're going to talk about. Jesus gets invited to the home to eat dinner with Pharisees. Pharisees, if you've heard that term but don't really know what that means, they were members of a group of people that held to a very strict observance of the law.

And they prided themselves on how righteous they were. They were the ones that followed every rule that were saying, I am so righteous because I have followed all of this. They would try themselves. And people would look up to them and go, they are the religious elite.

And so Jesus, it's only a couple of times in scripture, he actually goes and eats with them. Often he's going to eat with tax collectors, sinners and prostitutes. But a couple of times he goes with the Pharisees. And so he goes to the Pharisees house and the real reason that they have them, it says that they have them over for food, for dinner, is they're going to trap them.

He's been saying things that they don't agree with. He's really making some out there statements. And so they invite them in to trap them, to trick them, to catch them up in his words. But Jesus, when you read scripture, you see he constantly kind of befuddles them.

He asks them questions that all of a sudden they can't answer. And so he starts talking as they're sitting around this table. And he's talking in parables. And he says, imagine there's a wedding feast.

And you go there. And you take the place of honor. But then somebody else comes that has more honor than you. That is higher in status.

Imagine if the host comes and takes you out of the place of honor and puts you at the place of least. And so he says, instead of putting yourself in the place of honor, meeting towards the head of the table, you should take the least, the spot that is reserved for the lolliest of person. Because then when the host sees you, he's going to move you up. The Pharisees know that this is a shot at them.

That they are assuming the spot of honor because of their righteousness, their worth. And so he's saying, kind of subtly, where you think you're sitting, where your place in this banquet, this wedding feast is, you've got it wrong. There's somebody coming with more honor. And he goes on, and then he goes to the host that's hosting the dinner party.

He said, when you invite people to your house for dinner, you shouldn't invite the powerful, the rich, the wealthy. You shouldn't invite the lame, the beggars, and the blind. People that can't repay you. Because then your righteousness will be given to you in heaven, right?

Your reward then is in heaven. Have you ever been at a dinner party? I feel like this happens sometimes with your family. And somebody starts saying things to somebody else.

Maybe they're being a little aggressive or maybe not so subtly attacking them. And maybe if you're around dinner, I know occasionally this happens right when I get together. My all of a sudden things start to get awkward. And everybody's sitting there like, oh, he shouldn't have said that.

Right? You've been to those dinner parties. And so if you can imagine, the Pharisees are sitting around there. Their goal to trap Jesus, to kind of make him look dumb, to make him contradict himself.

But all of a sudden, he is poking at them. He's jabbing at them. He's not so subtle saying, where you think you are, your pride, your righteousness, you've got it wrong. And so this is where we're going to pick up the story in Luke 14, verse 15.

You can imagine they're all kind of sitting around. It's silent for a second. And somebody says this. When one of those at the table with him heard this, he said to Jesus, the lesson is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.

He kind of blurts out. It's like you're going to a wedding and somebody gives a toast. That isn't supposed to be given a toast. And kind of maybe they had one too many to drink and they stand up.

This is the guy. It's getting a little awkward. Our pride, our righteousness is being called into question. And so let me say this.

He's a blessing to those who are going to be at this feast. Feast, this idea of this big feast in the kingdom. This goes back all the way into the Old Testament. In Isaiah 25, you have the prophet Isaiah saying to the people.

He says this. Isaiah 25, 6. On the mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples. A banquet of age wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines.

See, the Pharisees, the Jews, believe that there was this feast to come. And the Pharisees believe that they were the ones that were going to be blessed in this feast. And so when the man kind of stands up or shouts out, he's saying like, we're blessed. We're going to be at this feast.

When the Messiah comes, we're going to be at this feast and we're the ones that are going to be blessed. Well, Jesus hears this. And so he goes, okay, let me tell you another story. Let me tell you this parable.

And so this is what he says in verse 16. Then he said to them, or to him, a certain man gave a great supper and invited many, a great banquet. And he sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, come, all the things are now ready. A great banquet.

This is the highlight of your life at this point. If you think about what it, you know, for us to get invited to a feast or a banquet, it's nice. But back then, when your whole life was just trying to get enough food on the table and you worked from sun up to sundown to provide that, and then all of a sudden someone goes, hey, I'm going to feed you and your family. This is like, don't miss it.

This is what you are looking for. This is a highlight of your life. And so he says the story that there's this great banquet and that the invitations have went out. Basically, hey, you're invited to this, but not yet.

I'm going to let you know when everything's ready. The best example I can give of this, I don't know how many of you are the cooks in the house. I do most of the cooking in our house. And as you're cooking, you kind of have everything timed so it all gets done together.

And as it starts getting closer, you know, okay, about 15 minutes, this food's going to be ready. So for me, it's, hey, 15 minutes, dinner's going to be ready. You need to be at the table. I want to eat when the food's hot.

See some of your cakes know this. And so I say this to my family. I have a six-year-old and a three-year-old and then my wife. And I say, hey, 15 minutes.

The food's going to be ready. I'll tell you when it's ready. So 10, 15 minutes go by. The food's ready.

It's hot. Everything's cooked perfectly. So now I yell out, hey, dinner time, get to the table. And you know what happens.

I mean, it's like clockwork. It's all of a sudden, daddy, I got to go potty. Like, dude, you had 15 minutes to go. 15 minutes.

So, okay, take them upstairs, help them go to the bathroom, bring them back down. Okay, we're ready. Dad, the dog ran away. Okay, stay here.

Nobody move. I'm going to get the dog. So I run out and I get the dog. Come back.

Dad, I lost Kobe in the woods. I'm like, Prescott, where, this has never happened actually. It's never been lost in the woods. At least not recently.

But right? And so half an hour later, you sit down in the food's cold. And you're like, every night. This is happening every night.

So now I, what's the last about this? I'm like, dinner's ready in 10 minutes. She's like, you haven't even started cooking. I'm like, yeah, I know.

I'm trying to get everything ready. So that I'm going to tell you it's ready 15 minutes before, then all the shenanigans can happen and we'll sit down and eat a hot meal. It doesn't work. I don't, if you have some tips, let me know.

I haven't figured it out. But this is what happens with this banquet, right? The message has been sent. The invite has been sent.

The people have actually accepted the invite and are just waiting. When's the food going to be on the table? And so the master sends out the servant, hey, go tell everybody the food is ready. It's on the table.

And so we, Jesus continues with the story. And he says this, but they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a piece of ground and I must go and see it. I asked you to have me excused.

And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and I'm going to test them. I asked you to have me excused. And still another said, I have married a wife and therefore cannot come. They start giving excuses.

And these, if you look into them, these are lame excuses. Okay, think about this. Who buys a field and then it looks at it after they've bought it, right? Jesus is trying to give you an example of how absurd this is.

He said, right, I bought this field, now I need to go look at it. That would never happen. They would have inspected the field and then they would have bought it. Please, you know, pardon me, I can't come any longer.

This is from somebody who's already accepted the initial invite. The next person goes, I can't come, I bought five yoke of oxen. Meaning 10 oxen, normal person might have one or two oxen. For you to have 10 means you have considerable wealth.

And at that point, do you think you would be the one looking and seeing if these oxen work? No, you have a servant to do that. This would never happen. It's a lame excuse.

And then the last one's the best one. I got married. Can't come. Like what?

I don't know what you're doing. But I got married, I can't come. There's no part in me, excuse me. It's kind of in your face, I'm not coming.

They're all excuses. Maybe some of you have had this happen. You've invited someone to something and they start giving you excuses. Have you ever had this happen?

Hey, you want to go see a movie? Yeah, I can't. I have to weed. They're like, the movie's at 10 o'clock.

Yeah, they're the night ones. You can only get them that night. I'm out there with a headlamp. And you're like, okay, just tell me you don't want to come.

Now you're not only saying, oh, I'd like to, but you're going to be this excuse. You're making me feel like I'm stupid. So this is what's happening. These excuses are our lame.

They don't hold any water. And not only that, remember I told you that when you were invited to someone's house, it was such a sign of friendship at the time that if you ate with somebody, you were saying, we are friends. And if you refuse to eat with somebody, it's saying, I want nothing to do with you. We're enemies, right?

Don't talk to me. Don't look it, right? We are, stay away from me. And so for people to accept an initial invite into a great banquet and then say, nah, I can't go, here's my lame excuses.

This is major insult to the host. And so Jesus continues with the story, the parable. And so the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.

The people originally invited decline and the host is upset. It's an affront to him. And he goes, okay, I'm going to have a full house. And he tells his servant, you go out into the alleyways, into the streets and you get people.

I don't care if they're blind, if they're crippled, if they're lame, you invite them. They're invited here. The Pharisees would have heard this story and at some level almost be like, that would never happen. First of all, no one would refuse the great banquet.

And second of all, someone of that amount of wealth to have a great dinner party would never invite these people. But that's what happens. He goes and he tells the servant, go out, get these people. And he goes on.

He makes this kind of even crazier. And he says to his servant, you have it up there, perfect. And the servant said, master. He comes back.

He says, it's done. I've invited all these people. Just as you commanded me. And there's still room.

Then the master said to the servant, go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be full. He goes to the servant. Have you done what I asked? The servant says, yeah, we still got more space.

He says, all right, you're going outside the city. You're going to the people that everyone else has rejected and you're going to go find them. Go out to the people under the hedges, meaning people that have no homes, people that are outcast by society. And you're going to invite them to a feast.

And you're not only going to invite them, the word changes now to compel them, meaning like I am going to push them to come to this banquet. The thing is, it would have been a hard task because somebody that's been outcasted their whole life, been on the margins, all of a sudden here is, hey, there's this wealthy person that wants to have you for a great banquet. You're invited. I've never believed it.

And if they did believe it, they would have then refused because I could never pay them back. I can't have, like, you want to come over and have dinner under the hedges? This doesn't work. There's no payback.

And so the servant would have had to compel them to say, no, there really is no. There's a banquet. You are invited. And there's no strings attached.

You just need to come and feast and eat at my master's house. Let me give you kind of a real story of how I've seen this played out. This is a story that my mom tells me. This is a story of how she came to faith.

And so I kind of want to share it with you. It's long, but I think it drives home the point. My mom grew up in a family that was Catholic. They kind of went to church somewhat sporadically.

And she would go and kind of, you know, sit, sit there, and, you know, my family goes. And as she got older, she still kind of went here and there. And then she gets married and she has three boys and three years. I'm the youngest of them.

And her life kind of gets crazy, complicated. And she says the one day she decides to go and she's sitting there in church and she's thinking there has to be something more. She had this very surface intellectual knowledge of kind of, there's a God. But that's it.

And she's sitting there. She goes, there's got to be something more. Some time passes. She's taking my oldest brother to preschool.

And she's kind of in the hallways chatting it up with some of the other moms. And this new mom shows up and she's kind of maybe a little crazy. And she asked my mom, she said, hey, do you know any churches in the area where I could get closer to God? I was like, I have no idea.

And she tells me she's like, I was kind of thinking like, this doesn't happen and we're on that. So I don't know what to tell you. The next week goes by and this woman, Dawn, comes up to my mom again. Dawn ends up being a lifelong friend of our family.

And if I could describe her, I mean, she's the loud, not rude, but I don't know. She was always, would talk to anybody, was somewhat blunt, like the crazy aunt or uncle maybe. And so she comes up to my mom and says, hey, I found a church. They're having a Bible study and you're coming with me.

Mom doesn't know this lady. Right? A couple of times she talked to her in the hall. And my mom's like, yeah, right.

She's like, I'm sorry, I can't. And she goes, I have three boys. My husband usually has meetings on that night. And Dawn's like, well, go get a babysitter.

You're coming with me. And then the woman, there's a woman standing next to my mom. I'm giving you a lot of names, but her name's Dee. And she goes, and you're coming too.

You're coming with me to the Bible study. I mean, this is Dawn. And so they both are kind of like in the corner like, OK, I guess we'll go. And so they both agreed to go with her.

Some behind the scenes stuff, just to kind of fill the story in, I think it makes it a little more impactful. Mom's told me that Dee has a sister named Barb, a sister-in-law. Barb's a Christian and has been praying for Dee that she would come to know God, that she would come to a closer relationship to him. And so Dee calls up Barb and says, this lady at our preschool just cornered me and another mom and said, we got to go to a Bible study.

You're coming with me because I don't know any of these people. And I know you're like a Christian, so you're coming with me. So then Barb's like, well, I guess I got to go. And so on February 19, 1985, I know this date because it's my second birthday.

OK, do the math. Makes me 34. Some of you, the students of mine, that makes me old for some of you that makes me nice and young. But on February 19, 1985, on my birthday, she goes to the Bible study.

And she's told me this because it's kind of this big moment in her life. And I asked her, like, when did I have a birthday party? Like, what? She's like, oh, we had it later.

I was like, I don't remember this. And of course, she don't remember much when you're two. But she promised me it happens. So I got to take her for her word.

Anyways, on my birthday, because Dawn insisted, Kimpelled her and said, hey, you're coming to this Bible study, my mom shows up at this woman's house for a Bible study. Now mind you, it's not Dawn's house. Dawn has just started coming to the church. It's for any of you that is brand new today.

It's like you taking five people off the street and saying, hey, I just heard about this. You're coming with me. You could actually do that Tuesday. The women's Bible study is meeting.

Just saying. Little plug right there. So Dawn shows up at this woman's house who mind you, has never run a Bible study in her life. Kind of has no idea what she's doing.

With five friends. She's taking people off the street and said, you're coming with me. And then some of those people now invited people, because I'm scared to go with Dawn. And they ended up at this Bible study.

And so my mom says that they sit down and they start talking about God. She said that night, she says, really sticks in her mind. And that was the first time that God and the story of his work became real. That it was explained in a way that she connected and said, like, there's a God that wants me and loves me.

And that invites me to him. And so as she's sitting here listening to that, Barb, remember the invite of the invite, leans over. This is kind of crazy and says, do you want that? Do you want to pray for this?

My mom says she pretended not to hear her. It was too far out there for her. She goes, I'm feeling it like in my soul that this is what I've been looking for. And this woman just next to me leans over and asks me if I want to pray for this.

And so she doesn't say anything and sits there. She's like, I'm just hoping nothing happens. And the woman repeats herself. She says, do you want to pray this?

Do you want this God? My mom responded yes. And February 19, 1985, she tells me all the time, was the night that she got saved. It was the night where she came to that understanding.

And you'll hear it a bit, not just a head knowledge of God, but a heart knowledge of God. And it was from a woman that invited her to a Bible study. It's the power of a simple invitation. I called her up because I wanted to make sure some of the details were right.

And we were reminiscing about the story. She had told me before. But I was asking her some more poignant questions. And when she said she looks back at it, she goes, I remember Barb after we prayed, gets up and starts dancing around the room basically.

And she goes, I had no idea what this Christian thing was. I had no idea. And so I'm sitting there going, this woman's crazy. Like I'm with a bunch of crazies.

But she goes, I look back and I go, that night was crazy. A woman, how did a Bible study? A mother woman who just started going to the church invites a bunch of people off the streets, says, you should come. And then in that room, one of them goes, yes, I want this and accepts Christ that night.

It's an invitation that has radically shifted not only my mom's life, but like our whole family's life. From that point on, my mom started pursuing God. And some of those women stayed with her and taught her what it meant to be a Christian. Many of those women are like lifelong friends.

I know all of those people that started in that room. That we hung out with their families because of the impact they had in our lives. My mom started putting Bible verses above doorways. We had verse of the day and verse of the month and verse of the year.

We had verses for everything. But I look back. That was foundational for my understanding and belief of who God is. And it was because my mom was invited to a Bible study.

Because my mom was invited to something that she was actually looking for and didn't know how to find it. Let me finish up with what happens at the dinner party with Jesus. The final verse, we get what happens. The meal is probably coming to a close.

The story is now coming to a close. And Jesus says something really hard. And he goes from talking about a story to talking to the audience, talking to the Pharisees. And he says this, For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.

It's the closing remarks. He goes from telling the story to telling the Pharisees. They rejected the invite. They rejected the meal.

And because of that, they're not going to get to share in the feast. Remember how this whole story starts? It's what the guy saying. Like bless us because we're going to be at the feast with Messiah.

See, I don't totally get all of this even as a pastor. But when you look at the Old Testament, God starts doing a redemptive work through a man named Abraham. It's a covenant he makes with Abraham and his descendants to come that God says, My redemptive work is going to be through you and your lineage, the Jewish people. And you're the first ones invited.

You're the first ones that know about the banquet. And he says to the Pharisees, you were the ones that were first invited. But when the food was on the table, when the Messiah has come and you were called to dinner, you declined. You refused.

But my invitation wasn't just for you, isn't just for you. It's for all people, for all time. And so I'm going to send people out to every part of the city, past the city because my banquet, my kingdom is going to be full and people are going to be invited. Want to make a point that why God is the one, right?

Or the master in the story is the one that's having the banquet. It's the servant that is going out with the invitation, right? The invitation is from the master, from the king, from the host. But the invitation is through the servant.

That's me and you. That's those of us who are following after Christ. He says that we are co-workers. Right?

We serve Him. That we are actually given the message of reconciliation. You've been given the invite to go to the neighbors, to go to the streets, to go to the hedges, and tell people you're invited. There's a great feast for you and you're invited.

And when you take that job seriously, when you do that, people's lives are changed. And those people's lives change other people's lives. That simple invite to come to Bible study all those years ago has affected generations to come. I want to show you a real example of how this works.

In our baptism two weeks ago, you heard so many people talking about who the one that invited them was. That who was the one that stepped out and said, hey, you're invited. So I want to show you Tim put together a video of the power that is in that. The power of a simple invitation to change a life.

And so instead of having the band come up and close with that, we're in close by watching this video. Hope you enjoy. No, I'm not. And I know he's there.

But I've never really had a personal connection with him. And then as soon as he moved to New Jersey, even though he thought it was a complete wrong time. He was completely fell in love with God in this church and the people here. And I now have a very strong relationship with him.

I am here today to welcome Jesus from my mind, from my past, to fully fill that whole finally in my heart. It's about moving him from your head to your heart. And I'm here to proclaim Jesus as my Savior and to say that I'm fully ready to surrender and to let him lead in this next season of my life and to claim my rightful place as a daughter of the king. I remember you talking about it at one sermon.

And I really just thought like what was I really waiting for? And so I figured why not commit my life and just commit myself to being addicted to God's presence for the rest of my life. I grew up keeping God in Jesus in a box. So speaking of work.

I asked January my family went through what I would call kind of a tragedy that kind of changed my life and my family's life. And I think it was God speaking to me. Not out loud within my heart and my soul saying to me that if I let him out of this box and I allow him into my life that he's going to lead me and guide me and everything is going to be okay. And I'm here because my friend Vanessa, she really opened my eyes to Christ and in school and at home, she really showed me what it meant to be a believer.

And so I'm here for her now because she's been talking with me throughout this year. I really think it's time to accept God. I feel like I resonate a lot with everyone else that's out here. You know, I feel like for a long time God has been present in my mind, my mind and my brain.

And I feel like over the past probably two years or so he's really become more present in my heart. And I'm just so excited to be here to kind of walk with him the rest of my life. I'm here today just to say with joint gratitude that I welcomed him in my life. And like somebody before me, I just said he went from my head to my heart.

When we believe when we align with the truth of who he is, we're also agreeing with who he says we are. That is who you're aligning yourself with today. He says that you are priceless. He says that you are valuable.

He says that we are free of sin and shame and no longer slaves to all that. I'm actually not sure. Do you know what your name means? Amanda means worthy of love.

And that is who you are. And that is who we all are in Christ. Watch that about 20 times this week and about crying at every one of them, including first service. And then if I let myself go, I'd be here up here crying again.

Our God is an inviting God. One that invites you. That he's made away for you. That through faith in Christ, you can have communion with him.

You can be at the great feast. The invite is out. So I challenge you if you've never done that. Maybe that's the day.

As you heard, that wasn't scripted. But all those people started talking about how God went from my head to my heart. And so many of them were baptized by some of you who've invited them into that truth. Second point I'd love to make before we leave.

And those of you that have already accepted that invite. You get to enjoy the banquet right now. Eternal life starts right now. And you get to enjoy a relationship with God.

And then you also get this other crazy thing that you get to do. You get to go and invite more people. Think about it. Somebody else is throwing a party and you get to invite them.

And this is what God is doing. And maybe that's not just invite them to church. But maybe that's invite them to a barbecue at your house and being open to talk about the things of God. People's lives have been changed like this year because somebody did that.

The servant gets to be co-workers with God to go out and invite people. To be an agent of change, of redemption, of reconciliation. So I would challenge you. Man, go out and invite somebody.

To think like crazy gone, invited my mom all those years ago. And it's changed my life because of that. That you can have an effect on the generations to come by a simple invitation. There's so much power in it.

And so I would challenge you to do that. To invite people, to invite them into your lives, to invite them to church, to invite them to God. That's what we're called to do. So let me pray.

I'm going to want to show you one more thing after we're done. Dear God, I pray for those in this room. Myself included. Would you give us great boldness?

Would you give us courage? Would you give us an ability to invite others into relationship with you? Will we not be satisfied just that we get to be a part of it? But would we, in most part of us, want others to be included?

Would you press that on us? Would you give us opportunities this week to invite people to know God, to know you? Thank you for being an inviting God, for going after the least of these and by using us to do it. In your name, amen.

Before you leave, let me tell you one last thing. Next week, we start a new series. The series is on the Psalms and it's called David Tabano when the word sings. There's some cool videos of Bono talking about his relationship with God and with the Psalms and what it means to him.

It would be a great opportunity for you to invite somebody. Open the church, invite them to your house for a meal and be open to talk about the things of God. A simple invitation has powerful impact in people's lives. Hope you guys have a great day.

We'll see you next week.