Invite: Be a Bringer

s for the glory of God and that's the big idea that's why Jesus left the disciples with this command that you see in Acts 1 verse 8 he says this you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you now I think that's important to just remember that everything I'm about to say today that does have to do with a lot of our responsibility it has to do with a lot of our engagement it has to do with a lot of what we do with our time and our treasure and our talent what we do with our days what we do with our conversations like a lot of it is going to be put on you if you don't do nothing or if you don't do anything nothing will happen so there is going to be a lot put on you but we need to remember that before it gets put on us God has put something in us which is the holy spirit that grants us the power and energy and the ability to accomplish the responsibility that he's given to us and so you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my Witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the Earth and so that is a massive assignment that has been given to these uneducated 12 men to go and make disciples of all Nations to go and baptize all people in the father Son and Holy Spirit and teach them to observe all that Jesus has commanded that is a massive assignment and we also have to remember that when you read acts one and you start then reading all the way to acts 28 a lot of times we want to read that because you can honestly you can read that in a day if you want you can go home right now and take a few hours and read all 28 chapters of Acts and you can look at that and you can say man I want to see that happen like I want to see that happen among our church I want to see that happen in our community I mean it's just a multiplication of the Gospel it's a multiplication of churches it's a multiplication of disciples it's an amazing thing and unfortunately we live in a fast food culture where we want it to happen now but acts 1 to acts 28 takes about 30 years for it to be accomplished like we're able to read it in a few hours and then demand that result tomorrow but it's going to take every day ordinary moments of conversations everyday ordinary moments of investing everyday ordinary moments of us engaging in the ministry of God that will take 30 years in our lifetime for us to make even a dent in what we see happen throughout scripture and so again it took them 30 to 40 years to just get the gospel Beyond Judea and Samaria which is again um still very Regional and if you forgotten this is also at the height of the Roman Empire so what they're looking to do over the span of their 30 years is spread a word about a kingdom a new kingdom that is technically outlawed in their Kingdom in their world it's illegal for them to go around telling people about Jesus it actually took 300 years before them being able to tell someone you should follow Jesus for it to be accepted and legal like we just need to remember that like no one's like if you go right now and share with your neighbor hey I would love to tell you why Jesus is the greatest thing that's ever happened to me they can't put you in jail for that but in their day and age when Jesus gave them this assignment this is the height of the Roman Empire so what is State religion and what is acceptable is either Roman or Greek mythology so it's the worship of false gods it's the worship of anything else that is not in their day and age a threat to Caesar is Lord so you can believe whatever you want to believe as long as you remember that Caesar is your provision that Caesar is providing for you that Caesar is is your Lord that Caesar is your ruler that you are to submit to Caesar and nothing else no one else can dictate your life other than Caesar and instead what were they going in preaching Jesus is Lord Jesus is Lord so it took them 30 years just to get out of their region it took them 300 years just to be able to get it to the known world at the time I say all that to say what we are doing as a church is not going to happen overnight it's not going to happen overnight it's going to take time and it's going to take our engagement it's going to take our engagement and so that's why again as we are talking about starting at the end and working our way back and so if you if you were here last week you heard it if you weren't here last week we started with the end goal and the end goal being is that if we want to take seriously Jerusalem Judea and Samaria and the ends of the Earth then we would say we want to grow to go we want to get the gospel to the Nations and primarily we were looking at the unreached Nations the unreached people groups um right now if you were to look at Stats around the world they would estimate that there's around 2.

4 billion Christians around the world now that's including every Christian denomination and Christian Rel religion if you will so it's including Catholicism it's including Christianity it's in including protestantism it's including Orthodox Christianity it's including a lot of different facets and so we're not here to dictate well how many of those 2. 4 billion are legit let's just say they're legit let's just say that out of the 2. 4 billion there's over 8 billion people in the world so we're looking at that and saying if it's true that 2. 4 billion people are Christians that's only 30% of the current world population which means when he gave us this command to go and make disciples of all Nations to be Witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and Samaria and the ends of the Earth the ends of the Earth is still active it's not been reached yet it is still needing to be engaged because 70% of it is not believing in Jesus it's not declaring Jesus is lord they're not putting faith and trust in Christ and who he is and so what we're saying as a church is if we want to adopt and be biblical with an idea that we want to be Witnesses in Indianapolis and the Midwest in North America and to the ends of the Earth then we need to see what we need to do now in order to be able to get the gospel there so what do we do here in order to go there and that's why we're saying we need to grow in order to go and so in order to get the gospel eventually to an unreached people group because I believe like I would love to do that I would love in the next 30 to 40 years the life of the district Church grows in such a way that we have the ability as a church to be able to send people to the unreached people groups and be able to say that there was an unreached people group that is now reached I would love that like to be able to at the end of it when we see Jesus and he says Well done thy good and faithful servant it's because we took serious what we do here that was able to take the gospel there and so with the end in mind it then begins to justify the means of why we need to grow so that we can be biblical in order to go and so what do we need to grow what do we need to do here and now in order to have that ability to be able to be biblical then and so there's three things that we're challenging our people with through this series that isn't just like a all right do this for seven weeks and then we'll get back to like just being normal casual Christians no I'm saying like this is our challenge of what we want to see a culture shift in each one of us on a daily basis and the three things we're looking at are investing inviting and impacting because here's the reality the health of a church is dependent upon the health of the individual and so if we just always say well someone else is going to invest the money someone else is going to invite the people someone else is going to be a helper and impact the Ministries in the church if we always say someone else is going to do it it's never going to happen rather the mindset should be if I don't do it it's not going to happen if I don't contribute no one's contributing if I don't invite people no one's coming if I don't impact and be a helper with my time and my talents when it comes to serving the body in the community if I don't show up and do it no one is going to do it and so we're challenging that to our people and I've given like very specific things out there last week we looked specifically at investing if you don't give start giving because it's biblical and we walked through that so if you can go back and listen to that online um I'm not going to recap that but we want you to start giving if you do give we're asking you to give 25% more because it's Vision 25 and I like the number 25 and we're rolling with 25 give 25% more give generously joyfully sacrificially and we talked about all the things that we're using that money to invest in if you want to cast seed you got to have seed if you want to cast Nets you got to have Nets and so we got to be able to have seed in order to do this have you prayed about this with the Lord if you're married married have you had a discussion with your spouse what it looks like to be generous in the church what does it look like for you to be generous cheerful and sacrificial in your contributions to the ministry of God inviting that's what we're going to be talking about today inviting there's going to be several things that I'm going to challenge you when it comes to an invite culture bringing people to Jesus one personally share the gospel with one person so that's like and that's not just man that's a great idea no it's like who's your one all right whoyou one.

com is literally a place where you can go you can type the person's name in they'll send you an email they'll send you resources they'll send you prayer things they'll send you all kinds of things that can help you strategize how am I going to share the gospel with this person in the next year who's your one and because we're in Indiana who's your one the second thing bring bring 10 people this year for the first time everyone knows someone that you would consider a friend that's not a part of this church or maybe any church for that matter bring them just bring them shoot to bringing someone that's already in your sphere of influence domain of life circle whatever you want to call it someone that you know make it your just I I'm going to do everything I can to just continue inviting them hey we love what's going on at our church we'd love for you to come check it out sometime hey we're teaching this on this sermon series right now we're walking through this hey um Easter's coming up maybe sometimes people practice lint we're going to be walking through that the series following this series is literally going to be called Fast to Feast where we are going to take 40 days and we're going to fast as a church because we want to Feast on Jesus and so maybe there's someone because it's cultural that hey they know about lent they know about Easter hey we'd like to invite you to come and be a part of this series to learn how we can give up some something so that we can focus our lives in and become again just more joyful people invite them into something like that bring 10 people this year for the first time another one I call it hell Mary not because we're Catholic but just give out invite cards to a 100 people this year give out invite cards we got invite cards that are out there I want you to give out 10 personally every month just random people that you don't even know who they are again 2500 and what we're leaving will happen with that 2500 invite cars that get out this is just marketing guys it's just putting the name of our church in the face in front of people to get it into their mind so that in the next three to six months or whenever it happens and they have an encounter in their life where they experience something difficult and they're wondering whether or not God is real and whether or not God is speaking or whether or not God is showing up whether or not they their life is falling apart they think where can I go to hear what God might might be telling me or showing me in this moment oh you remember I put that card on the where is it like let me oh it's the district the district church maybe I should go sometime I'm not kid it works it works there have been people that have been a part of our church like right now uh um Riley and Lauren Hall who are missionaries in Scotland she uh Lauren was working as a barista at a coffee shop I was in the coffee shop I was sitting down I remember she came in and she handed in her um application to work at the coffee shop so in my mind I'm thinking they must be new to the area and so as she's heading out I said hey real quick I said I don't want you to think this is weird I'm not trying to like um date you or anything I just I'm a pastor of a church and I I it sounds like y'all are new to the area I I love this coffee shop you're applying for it um would love for you to come check out our church sometime handed them handed her a card she left um she ended up working at that coffee shop but it was about three or four months later uh her husband ends up showing up on a Sunday and he was like yeah she put this invite card I we stuck it on the fridge and we just kind of every once in a while talked about it like H maybe we should go to a church maybe we should check into it well I mean there was that invite that one time it works all right it works there are people in this room I remember we were at a coffee shop Indie coffee roosters I met Grant and while we were at Indie Coffee Roasters we had a conversation and just hey you should come check it out sometime like it works so just drive by Hail Mary inviting people we want to see that happen next week what we'll talk about is impacting creating time to serve and commit like stewarding and managing your life in such a way that you're available with capacity to be able to empty yourself for the sake of others to be able to Steward yourself using your unique gifts to help the church fulfill its calling so again those are the three things that we're asking of our people that you invest that you invite and that you impact we'll cover again more of that in the weeks to come so for this week we're going to be talking about inviting inviting and what that looks like let's dive in why should you invite people to Jesus and the church now it seems like it should be a straightforward answer uh but it's still good to look at it biblically because I don't want you to just assume what you should be doing I want you to have conviction behind what we're doing so I don't want you to just hear Dwayne's telling me to invite people I just need to do it no I want you to see from the scriptures why this is becoming a core value of our church to bring people and that it's not just some like new age Church philosophy of like how do we grow the church let's just go and invite a bunch of people I want you to see scripturally why we believe you should be inviting anyone and everyone to be able to come to this so turn with me to Matthew Chapter 13 I've got a few different passages that I want to show you this morning because again I want you to be compelled by God's word to spread the word about the kingdom Matthew 13 we're going to look at verses 1-9 that same day Jesus went out of the house and he sat beside the sea and great crowds gathered about him so that he got into a boat and he sat down and the whole crowd stood on the beach and he told them many things in Parables saying a sewer went out to sew and as he sewed some seeds fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them other seeds fell on Rocky ground where they did not have much soil and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil but when the sun rose they were scorched and since they had no root they withered away other seeds fell among thorns and the Thorns grew up and choked them other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain some H 100-fold some 60 some 30 he who has ears let him hear now this is a parable it's a story it's an illustration that Jesus would teach and at first if you just read it as a story you'd think Jesus is just teaching basic farming 101 here and in that case you need to make sure that you scatter seed on good soil which is why farmers plow the fields before they plant their seeds there's there's truth behind that but a parable is a story with a hidden or deeper meaning so when he's preaching this from a boat to a seashore because there were so many people gathered about him that he needed to have a little bit of like separation from them he's teaching them something Beyond just hey here's how you become a better farmer here's how you sew some seeds and so what he's actually showing us is that he explains it to these disciples because again like they would hear him teach Parables and then they would be like yeah we got nothing like we don't know what you're talking about and so down in verse 18 go down there he then explains it to them here then the parable of the SE when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart this is what was sown along the path as for what was sown on Rocky ground this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy yet he has no root in himself but endures for a while and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word immediately he falls away as for what was sown among Thorns this is the one who hears the word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful as for what was swn on good soil this is the one who hears the word and understands it he indeed he indeed bears fruit and yields in one case h hundredfold and another 60 and another 30 so right out of the gate the parable of the serwer is actually about the people of God being evangelists the people of God sharing about the word of God so that there are tons of people that are hearing the word of God so in this it's connecting the casting of seed is the casting of the word of God it's getting as many people as possible to have an opportunity to hear the word of God preached that's what's being talked about here and if you actually look at it as well Jesus isn't batting that great like if you were to look at it well we want to have 100% return on investment well that's not what's happening here he's not getting 75 even 50% he's getting 25% return on investment when it comes to the casting of the seed some people would look at that and say well that's not um a good representation of stewardship that's not a good representation of investing resources what do you mean we're going to throw a bunch of money at this and only get 25% possible return back on it again that's not up to us to decide how God utilizes what we cast all that matters is that we cast it all that matters is that we are getting the word out so that people have an opportunity to hear the word and where the investment actually really begins to pay off is that of the 25% who hear it and get saved they then become fruitful to where some of them are returning a h hundredfold of the investment some 60 some 30 as well the investment begins to multiply in regards to that now when we think about evangelism when we think about sewing seed we tend to think in terms of urban gardening what I mean by that is we're in a city and so there's not a ton of like um Gardens that you can just go to and and see and what not and so we tend to think more of all right if I'm going to sew a seed I'm going to buy a pot I'm going to get some soil I'm going to prepare the soil I'm going to put the seed in I'm going to water the seed and it's going to produce a plant and maybe they'll produce some fruit or vegetables on it or whatever and so we think about it in that framework when we think of gardening when we think of farming but that's not what he was talking about here he's not talking about you doing one onone of evangelism now I know that's part of our goal but stick with me for a moment he's not saying take one seed and go find one person and figure it out his view because again he's talking to people that many of them would be engaging in agriculture because that was their primary industry at the time you know there's not a lot of tech industry going on at this moment they're farmers and so he's using an illustration that they'll understand the way that they farmed wasn't even the way that we Farm today which is whole seed whole seed whole seed whole seed it was get a handful and Chuck it and then see what you get that comes from it that was the idea of what this farming was and so for him it was let's just cast as much as possible and see if any of it lands on good soil there's going to be a lot land on not good soil and that's okay but what we need to do is essentially create a crowd in order for the seed to be cast and some of that crowd will get saved and when you start to actually walk through the majority of the New Testament you see that this is the primary strategy because there would say in different sermons that are preached throughout the New Testament many would go away discouraged but some would believe and so what they got really good at doing was drawing a large amount of people in order to then preach and proclaim the good news and hope that it lands on good soil hope that it lands on hearts and Minds that are open to understanding this gospel that are open to hearing whether or not God in through Christ is the Messiah whether or not he can forgive their sins whether or not he can Usher in a new kingdom and so they were preaching and proclaiming no knowing that they're not going to be batting a thousand knowing that there are going to be a lot of people who are going to walk away from it but it wasn't just one-on-one evangelism I would even go so far to say this that throughout all of the scriptures when you look at the converts when you look at those who came to Christianity less than 1% of the accounts were based on oneon-one evangelism which means that over 99% of the Salvation that you see in the scripture was a crowd gathered with one person preaching over 99% let me show you the reason why we tend to see that the primary strategy for evangelism is oneon-one is because we know the names we know the names like we see the examples in scripture of the one-on-one just specifically for example the Apostle Paul that was a one-on-one evangelism Jesus did that one he just showed up like post Resurrection post Ascension he's like no I'm I'm coming back down for this one we know Apostle Paul because that was a one-on-one the 12 disciples was one-on-one some of that was two onone because they would show up and they were there together but like him going to visit Matthew in the tax booth oneon-one but we know the name because we see it one-on-one we also see the Philippian Jailer the slave girl Lydia though I would argue Lydia at Philippi hers I would still call it a gathering because she was kind of at like a Bible study but anyways we know her name the Ethiopian unic who was evangelized by Philip on the road when Philip was going south because God told him go south and then you'll see what to do as you are going south again that's just 17 people so let me round it up to a hundred just in case I missed any if there were a hundred people that were evangelized oneon-one in the span of this 30 years throughout the Book of Acts just in the first two sermons preached in Acts 2 and 4 which is still within the first month of the life of the church you have the first sermon preached and there's 3,000 Souls that get add added 3,000 Souls that get saved you then jump two chapters later which is just about a week later you have Peter get up and preach again which also he got arrested while on stage preaching it's just a side note all right so it's like if you're gonna if you're going to invite people to come and be a part of something and you get arrested from it on stage I don't think that's going to engage a lot of people to be like I want in on that but anyways he gets arrested off the stage as he's preaching this sermon and it says 5,000 people get saved that day it actually goes on to say that it was only the men who were counted so if there were women and children that also got saved that day it didn't count them so you could estimate that it was closer to 15 to 18,000 people that get saved but that's conjecture let's focus on the 5,000 so you had 3,000 and 5,000 within the first month that's 8,000 people that's a strategy if we're saying that one-on-one evangelism is the only strategy again out of that that's only like what what's what's 100 divided by 8,000 1.

25% of Salvation recorded and that's in the book of Acts covering 30 years of the life of the church now I want to give a little bit of some push back or common rebuttal to this type of strategy what if there aren't churches for people to come and hear the gospel preached which is a great question they would still take the strategy of going to where the most people were so for example the disciples when Jesus tells them hey go and be my Witnesses in Jerusalem Judea and Samaria and the ends of the Earth all right we need to go be his Witnesses do we start going and knocking door to door is it wrong to do that absolutely not you can go knock door to door you want we're never going to tell you that a strategy of sharing the word with somebody is a bad strategy they're it's all strategy we're just saying what are some of the primary strategies they didn't necessarily just run and go door too immediately where did they go they went to the synagogues where are the most gathered people that are opening up the word of God and having it declared to them but they're missing something and so they would enter into the synagogues and they would preach and teach about Jesus Christ who's fulfilled everything that they're actually discussing in those moments that was a strategy that they were conducting well what if um when the gospel left Jerusalem Judea and Samaria what about the areas that didn't have synagogues what about the Gentiles what did they do well the Apostle Paul when he entered into Athens first of all he observed all of the temples that were there which meant he went to all of the temples there so much so that he knew that they even had a temple to an unknown God so after he covered all of the temples it then says he went to the marketplace he went to where the people were and begin reasoning with people because he wanted to have the best opportunity to catch as many people as he could in order to spread the word and then what they would do was as he was there basically almost setting up his own booth and just saying like hey I got a new truth I want to share with everybody come and hear it they then took him to the areopagus which is called Mars Hill which is a place where they would gather a group of people in order to have someone preach and proclaim a new truth and some of them all went away but guess what some were saved some were saved so it was still the same strategy of going and casting or creating opportunities to be able to cast as much SE to as many people as possible so that some might believe if you still don't believe me turn over to Matthew 4 Matthew 4: 18-22 Matthew 41 18-22 as you're turning there I'll even just mention this because it's our ability to draw crowds just in as a society today is is a little bit maybe different than what it was 2,000 years ago which is why and this is don't hear this is getting deeper this is not me saying I'm a cessationist um and if you're like I don't don't know what that is that just means that they don't believe the gifts continued on after the last Apostle died um continuationist would say the gifts are still present today and I would still air on the side that the gifts are still present today but the primary reason for the gifts of signs and wonders and healings and so forth was because guess what would draw a crowd that was the purpose of the signs and the Wonders and the gifts it wasn't so that joeo could create a following and saying look what I can do I can make a dude's leg grow longer like that's not what the purpose of the signs and wonders were the purpose of the signs and wonders was there's some kind of power here that's not here and so let's go see what is happening let's let's let's figure that out and that's why like when word about Jesus began to spread they just thought he was a magician like Herod was so excited because he thought David Blaine was coming over to show him some stuff that was the purpose of signs and wonders was to draw a crowd so that the good news could be shared and some might hear anyways Matthew 4:1 18-22 while walking by the Sea of Galilee he saw two brothers Simon who was called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen and he said to them follow me and I will make you Fishers of Men immediately they left their Nets and followed him and going on from there he saw two other brothers James the son of Zebedee and John his brother in the boat with Zebedee their father mending their Nets and he called them and immediately they left the net or they left the boat and their father and followed him again because they too were going to be Fishers of Men now when you think about fishing we tend to think rod and reel and some bait like when we think about fishing like hey you want to go fishing that's what you think I'm going to ask you to go do let's go find a pond let's get a re rod and reel let's get some bait and let's do that again the baitur the fish once the bite you hook them reel them in good job you're a fisherman that's what we think that's not the kind of fishing that they were doing and so knowing that they are fishermen and Jesus loves illustration he loves story he loves giving them an example of what they're going to do based on what they've done or what they know and so when he tells them I'm going to make you Fishers of Men I mean I remember I remember sitting in an evangelism class um when I was in high school and them telling us we're going to make you Fishers a men and the whole analogy on the screen was the rod and the Reel and the bait and like now I look back and I'm like man I really wish that guy was alive so I could like text him and say you were wrong no I'm just kidding I wouldn't do that he was an awesome dude um but it was that idea of here you just go out and you find one person riding real and you catch them with the bait that is the gospel which is true like do that that's what we're I'm I'm asking you who's your one rod and real here's the bait the gospel go get it to them hook them and then um you know they'll be saved but when Jesus tells these men I'm going to make you Fishers of Men they have a context for how they fish and what we know based on what was just said is that they're casting Nets and they're mending Nets so their style of fishing was not rot and real their style of fishing was and I almost thought about like actually getting a net and like bringing it and showing you but I don't think you're ready for that type of prop sermons yet um and so anyways but they would take a net it would be folded up and then they would cast it out and it would spread and as it spread it would land in the water it would sink down and it would catch everything so that when they then gathered it up and pulled it in you're going to have plants you're going to have trash you're going to have debris you're going to have all kinds of stuff in there and you're going to have fish does the fish make up 100% what's in the net no did the seed land on 100% of good soil no and the the role of the fishermen is to then gather the net and weed out all the trash and the debris that's church discipline if you want to call it that they weed it all out to get to the fish which then provides the livelihood and the continuing of being able to be more fishermen because they would go and sell it and so forth but they would cast Nets that catch people that then bring them in and that's what he's saying is when you are to be Fishers of man it's not riding re it is you are going out to look for opportunities to cast as wide of a net as possible and not only that but the net needs to be durable they would mend their Nets and we're that's what we're going to be talking about next week is you can have a net and if you just keep casting it but it keeps tearing because it's hitting on trash and it keeps getting messed up or it keeps um having holes in it and so forth you're going to have fish that sliver out through it and so you need to also make sure that the Ministries are durable that what you are doing in creating a crowd is is also catching people that stay that they're being discipled we're going nuts over here aren't we anyways I can see it in my peripheral um but we want to be able to cast Nets that catch as many people as possible in layman's terms do whatever you can to get as many people as you can in the door to hear the gospel preached that's what we be that's what we should be thinking about and collectively as a church we should be thinking about what kind of events what kind of marketing what kind of Outreach opportunities can we cast seed and Nets so that we bring in as many people through our doors on a Sunday morning as possible to meet Jesus now if there is something in your mind or heart because I I know people I know myself if there's anything in your mind or heart that feels off about that were icky about that just ask the question why why is it God telling us don't don't do that or could it be the enemy or our own insecurities that keep us from doing what God has entrusted to us remember the story of the talents that we looked at last week the five the two and the one the guy with the one Talent buried it because he thought wrong about the master and his strategy might we be thinking wrong about the master and our strategy of reaching people for the gospel I mean I would say the the number one strategy most people adopt that makes them feel good about evangelism is I know this person I want to build a relationship ship with them I want to just serve them and love them I want them to know me and trust me and eventually I'm going to share the gospel with them and what happens is a year goes by three years go by five years go by they move away or you move away and you never shared the gospel with them but man that was my strategy I was going to do it I felt so good about it I slept well at night because I knew I was going to and then we never do could we be thinking wrong about our strategy and the strategy that we feel icky about actually be the one that God has been implementing for 2,000 years again I'm just saying that it's possible for us to function in a way that we believe is being faithful but is actually misguided and Unfaithful and so we should be concerned about trying to get as many people in the door to hear the gospel preach because that is the primary strategy I believe of the New Testament Church and has been for 2,000 years since then now let me also diffuse some arguments to this approach as well because I just want to make sure I cover our bases on this sure there are churches out there who have big Visions to see thousands of people coming in their door on an annual basis and maybe they've watered the gospel down in order to accomplish this maybe they've used gimmicks to get people into the door and we're afraid of that maybe we're afraid of that and therefore we start asking the questions man if Dwayne goes this direction and we're just trying to get as many people in the door as possible what keeps us from becoming the gimmick Church what keeps us from watering down the gospel in order to try to reach lost people here's where I'm always going to land what gospel are they preaching and teaching what are they preaching and teaching I I mean I'll say this if someone can bring an indie car on stage and do donuts to draw people in but then the pastor gets up there and preaches the most clear clear articulated true authentic Gospel of Jesus Christ I will yes and amen that now do I think they could have spent the money a little bit differently instead of bringing an indie car on stage to do donuts absolutely I think there's a better way to signs and wonders draw people in I think there's a different way but what gospel is being preached because I would still say there are still some Churches that water it down and that do not preach the gospel but people are being drawn in and I would say don't go there I would say that so the question then for us is how do we make sure that we don't drift there if you're concerned that I might drift in my preaching and teaching about the authentic gospel then here's what I'll say do your job do your job as a church and hold me accountable to it if I ever get to a place where you think I'm watering it down and in order to get bodies in the door then let's put it on the table and look at it so that we can grow together it's just true like that's your job as a church like literally when Paul gives the orderly account of worship in First Corinthians and he says if there's someone who gets up to prophesy everyone's job is to test it against the word so every single Sunday when I preach part of your job as a congregation is to say is it true it's not just uh Dwayne give us the truth it's me studying the truth to make sure that I deliver the truth and you studying the truth to be able to receive the truth and in the delivering and receiving of it we're all coming together saying are we being truthful are we centered on the right thing is this what the scriptures are actually teaching us and so if there's ever a point where you feel like I'm getting off drift that table is open to be able to say let's put the sermon on the table and say man I I don't know is this biblical where else what other supporting because again there's only so much you can do in one sermon what other biblical supporting evidence is there for this strategy what for this Truth for this Doctrine and so forth and I'll be honest I love talking about the Bible I love talking about Doctrine and so I would welcome that that coffee dinner or that coffee time any moment for someone to say hey I want to know more about that now if you come in and say hey I think you're being a heretic all right that's going to be not the best coffee time to sit down but if you come in and say like if if I was a like a member in a congregation and I wasn't sure that what was being taught is true I'm going to approach it in the Curiosity of hey where did that come from like what what other supporting evidence is there I want to know more about that for one to make sure am I am I wrong and need to grow and learn again there's a way to approach it that's not like Witch Hunt all right I'm getting off there but holding it accountable to make sure that we preach the truth that's the main thing if we're going to draw people we want to give them the best product we want to give them the good news and we want them to then grow in the good news so that again and this is The Mending the Nets as we are growing as a church and they are growing in the gospel because just because you get saved doesn't mean you graduate from it you grow in it you mature in it you you you begin to Steward your life around it that's The Mending of the Nets we want them to go from milk to solids at some point and so we're not fearful I'm not fearful that we as a church are going to drift becoming a shallow because we want to become wide no I want us to go as wide as we love to go deep and so again you can be a deep church that never goes wide and that is a pendulum or you can be a wide church that never goes deep and that's a pendulum and what I'm arguing is is we have been a church that has aired on the side of going deep and not wide and I'm just trying to orient us to the middle to be able to say that both are the strategy of God he wants us to be deep and get it out to as many people as possible amen I just think it's biblical and if you're like I think you're a heretic let's have coffee so what do you do with the results how do we convince or compel people to come and visit if I'm telling you that you need to be casting seed and you need to be casting Nets you need to be getting as many people drawing a crowd as much as possible how do we actually get them to come how do we compel them how do we convince them let me finish with this Parable Jesus taught based on a banquet with invited guests Luke 14 you can turn there Luke 14 and we we actually we covered this in our Luke series probably a year ago who knows but Luke 141 12-24 says this again another Parable he also said to the man who had invited him when you give a dinner or a banquet basically just a party do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or Rich neighbors lest they also invite you to return and you be afraid or repaid now let me pause there for a minute because that literally says don't invite people so if you're like oh that's the one thing I heard heard in the whole message was Luke 14:12 do not invite your friends or your neighbors or your brothers that's not what he is saying I I don't want you to think okay few I'm off the hook what he's talking about here is he's talking about inviting people who actually need it so so what he's saying like my strategy for growing the church isn't hey go and invite all your Christian friends hey if you know someone who goes to another church go recruit them that that's not what we're saying to do what we're saying to do is invite those who need the banquet who need the dinner who need the party that Jesus is throwing here because if we were to go the other strategy of just inviting those who are Christians already it's just swapping sheep it's just saying yeah your shepherd's not as good as our Shepherd you should come hear him preach sometime that's not good that's not good and to be honest with you I don't want those people because you know what other Christians that come from other churches that come into our church you know what they are like most of the time hey here's how we used to do it at our church hey y'all don't do it this way hey here's how we've always done things I'm going to tell you this right now the most refreshing group group of people that are in the membership of a church are new believers who don't know anything and want to know everything about Jesus because their life has been transformed the woman at the well who goes away to tell everyone what Jesus has just revealed to her that's the kind of people that I want the only way we get those is if we tell those who need need Jesus to come and see but how does that convince them how does that compel them keep going but when you give a feast invite the poor the crippled the lame the Blind and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you for you will be repay at the resurrection of the just again we're not doing this to get things out of people we know that our reward is going to come in eternity and it's going to be a great reward so we don't we don't do Church to make ourselves feel better or to gain anything ourselves now Joy absolutely you're going to get joy out of it I'll show you here in a moment but we don't do it in order to get something we're going to get something great and we get to look forward to that eventually what that means is that what we do now is that we get to empty ourselves for the sake of the gospel and not anything in return it's the only thing in our world right now that says that everything else is invest so that you get a return on your investment do so that you get something out of it if that friend isn't loving you and sering get rid of them if that spouse isn't satisfying get rid of them and so what we're saying is is you're not doing this for yourself you're doing this because the Lord's commanded you to do it because he says this is going to bring you Joy but because what actually is the joy is seeing a lost person get saved and get to enter into the heavens for eternity and worship with the angels who are saying Lord Lord you are so good you're so amazing you're so mag magnificent like we want people to experience that and that's the return that we get here and now that's better than anything that someone else might provide for us he goes on to say when one of verse 15 when one of those who reclined at the table with him heard these things he said to him blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God but he said to him a man one gave a banquet and invited many and at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited come for everything is now ready but they all alike began to make excuses the first said to him I've bought a field and I must go and see it please have me EXC excused and another said I've bought five Yol and oxen and I go to examine them please have me excused and another said I've uh I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come I want you to hear this here's the equal frustration and encouragement of evangelism here's the frustration the frustration is you don't have the power to convince anyone to do or believe anything that's the frustration you can invite your next door neighbor every week and never be able to convince or compel them to come it's just true now on the continuation side if you're able to like you know they break their leg and you go out and like mend it back together and all of a sudden they're like whoa where' that come from Jesus come check them out Sundays at 9:00 a.

m. District church if you're able to do that that's fantastic I doubt you are you're not going to be able to convince and compel people to come that's the equal or that's the frustration here's the encouragement you're not able to convince and compel people to come that's the encouragement it's not up to you it's not up to you who then is it up to to convince and compel people to come when we cast seed and Nets the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit that's the encouragement the Father John 6:44 I'm going to Rapid Fire through these no one can come to me unless the father who sent me draws him so I'm going to invite as many people as I possibly can to come hear the good news of Jesus not one of them will come unless the father begins to draw them to himself and he says and I will raise him up on that day so that's the father's role he draws people to himself what's the son's role John 12:32 and I when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself so Jesus already also gets in on that no one can come to the father unless they are or no one can come to me unless they are drawn by the father and also no one's going to come to me unless I draw them so the Father and Jesus are in this game of drawing people to themselves John 14:6 Jesus puts it this way I am the way and the truth and the life no one comes to the father except through me so in just those two examples we need the father to draw someone and we need Jesus to draw them so when we're going out and inviting I believe this is the number one reason why the two Ministries that were given to the church is Proclaim the word because it's in hearing the word that people get saved that's John 10 Romans 10 hearing the word people get saved but also the ministry of prayer because if it's not beseeching the Lord to do the work it ain't going to happen so we're preaching and proclaiming the source while then praying for the source to connect the source to the people and that's why like when there was a arose um a dis dispute in the church in Acts chapter 6 about waiting on the tables the the helenistic Jews that were not um being served in the moment what did the apostles say they didn't say um hey that's our job we need to make sure that we're doing that they said that's necessary and needs to be happening and the impacting of the church and The Mending of the Nets that needs to happen but we can't do it because if we give up the ministry of the word and prayer it doesn't matter if this happens and so we got to make sure that we are preaching the word and praying in order to have people actually be drawn to hear the word of God again he goes on in John 1514 through1 17 you are my friends if you do what I command you no longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know what the master is doing but I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my father I have made known to you I have made known to you you did not choose me but I chose you like just if anyone ever gets in that debate with you where it's like man does God choose who's going to get saved or do I choose when I get saved and so forth and I know that I mean it's been a 500 year old debate but when you go to a passage like this and Jesus from his words says um nobody chose me I chose them okay okay that's important to know when we're casting this seed I'm going to be praying hey um father Holy Spirit Jesus we want to preach and Proclaim to as many people in Indianapolis as possible would you choose some of them would you choose some of them we need you to do that because that's your job not my job I can't convince them or compel them but you can because you choose you choose them so please do that and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask in my name he may give it to you again that's what we're asking in the lord's name that he would give us people because he chose them and Drew them to himself that's what we're asking for well it's the holy spirit's role in this John 16 7-1 nevertheless I tell you this is Jesus speaking to his disciples it is to your advantage that I go away from you can you imagine that being the disciples sitting with Jesus and Jesus telling them the best thing for you is if I leave like who that's not what we signed up for you're Jesus you rais the dead people back to life you give the ability for signs and wonders and miracles and healing you have all authority and possess it and in this moment Jesus says it's best that I leave from you not because he's sending them something greater but he's sending them something that's omnipresent that he's sending them something that when Jesus is with the 12 disciples on a Mountaintop is unable to interact with the other disciples who are not on that Mountaintop but he is sending them a spirit of Christ that is on the mountain toop and in the valley at the same time he's sending them a helper that is able to sit down with you in your room when you pray and sit down with me in my room when I pray so that when I'm preaching here and you're preaching in a coffee shop and or you're sharing the gospel with your neighbor that same spirit is drawing them in each of those categories and moments at the exact same time and so Jesus tells them it is for your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away the helper will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you and when he comes guess what he's going to do he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment do you have to convince them that they're Sinners no the holy spirit's job is to convince them that they are sinners here's the good thing about that now does it mean that you can't tell someone that when they're doing something wrong they should stop doing it no that's that's part of preaching the gospel but the more you show them the beauty and Perfection of Jesus man it reveals the imperfections and wretchedness of our souls because the Holy Spirit enters in and says let's play comparison let's play comparison 1 Corinthians 14:23 through2 I love this one this is again Paul encouraging the church in when they gather together for worship how should they act how should they conduct it here's what he says if therefore the whole church comes together in all speaking tongues because again at that point they just they loved the idea of everyone having the gift of tongues and let's just be chaotic and let's I'm not saying that tongues are chaotic but they were more concerned about what they got to do in the worship than what the worship was about and in this moment if Outsiders or unbelievers enter will they not say that you are out of your minds yeah they they will if you come into a worship service and everyone is doing whatever they want to do and they're about themselves you're going to walk in and be like this place is a cult and they probably just all on something and that's how they were but if all prophesy which is the preaching and proclaiming of the word not just the speaking in tongues if all prophesy and unbeliever or Outsider enters he's what convicted by all he is called to account by all the secrets of his heart are disclosed and so falling on his face he will worship God and declare that God is really among you so this is Paul saying that when you have an order of worship and again I've always heard that the gathered service on a Sunday is for the church to be equipped for the work of ministry and that's true but that's not all it is if that were all it is why would you ever invite a lost person to come into this right if all it is is just for us to get up and help you mature in the gospel so that you can go out and do the work of ministry then don't invite lost people to come to this but for Paul to include this in his exhortation of the churches in Corinth means that he assumes that there's going to be lost people coming into the gathered worship which meant that part of the strategy of the church was to create a gathering that is mixed of lost and saved so that when the word of God is preached it's not just for the equipping of the Saints but it's also there for the conviction of those who are not Saints it's just the Bible that's what it's showing us and therefore we should try to get lost people to come in here and then pray that the Lord would actually draw them to come in so that when they're here and we preach and proclaim the word of God the true authentic gospel the Holy Spirit convicts their hearts and they fall down on their face and they begin worshiping God so with the help of the father and the Son and the Holy Spirit who draws people to come to God who chooses people to be saved who convicts people of their sin so that they repent and believe in Jesus what should we as a church do with that invite everyone be a bringer again as it finishes out in Luke 14 that parable of the banquet so the servant came and reported these things to the master all the excuses then the Master of the House became angry and said to his servant go out quickly to the streets in the lanes of the city and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame and the servant said sir what you have commanded has already been done and still there is room and the master said the servant here's where you get that famous song go out to the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled for I tell you none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet this is saying I mean this is like you're talking about the the hell mares of the invite culture that's what he's telling them to do go to the go to the coffee shops go to the the the cashiers at the register go to the waiters and waitresses in the city go go to anybody and everybody that you have access to be able to tell them come come and hear of a person who can satisfy every longing desire that your soul has do you have enough money no do you have enough friends no do you feel like your job is satisfying no do you feel like you want more out of life yeah absolutely I want more can I invite you to come he about someone who can actually provide that maybe and then let the Lord begin drawing them stirring their heart and their mind to be able to come and here fast application for you here set some goals set some goals how many people do you want to bring to church this year this month next week who's your one actually or actively sharing the gospel with someone bring one person every week invite 10 people every month shoot for that that's my goal what you're strategy what's your approach again personal evangelism like we we want you to cast seed in Nets because it's biblical but we still want you to be like Phillip in the Ethiopian unic on the road going south we still want you to be like Jesus with the Apostle Paul don't hit someone but be like Jesus with the Apostle Paul there's different strategies that you can use with that would you read the book of John with me and discuss what it says they may never have opened the Bible before in their life but if you have a relationship with them and you say hey look do you think I'm crazy and they might say yes but likely they're probably going to say no I think you're down to earth I think you're a good person I think you're a normal person sweet do you think I would believe something crazy now the gospel is crazy to those who don't understand it but just say would you explore it with me would you be willing to just read the book of John with me and let's just discuss it over coffee just ask what what's going on here in this book ask them do do what Jesus said who do you say that I am just ask somebody hey Jesus what do you think about him what do you think about him that'll start conversation maybe you go to someone hey I know we've known each other for a bit and you may know that I'm a Christian would you be willing to hear why I love Jesus would you be willing to hear that personal evangelism second one personal invites with compelling reasons again I know you can't compel them but you can be compelling if you just go up to someone and be like hey I'd like to invite you to our church it's okay and then you like just walk away they'll be like I don't know if I want to go to that I don't know if they want to go to that church anymore but you walk up to someone and be like hey our church is doing a lint series called Fast to Feast to help people take a break from certain things in order to learn more about what God might be teaching them in their life in this season I think you would find Value in it and so would you be interested in coming and and learning about this series and and learning about what it means to fast and how that can improve your life and so forth hey I know Easter is around the corner our church will be talking about the resurrection of Jesus have you ever really thought about the resurrection of Jesus before like do you think that it actually happened like when Easter is around it's just it's a it's a lob like a softball lob ready just knock home run hey the Easter is a Christian holiday about a dead guy who came back to life after 3 days and everyone worships him do you think he actually Resurrected we're going to be talking about it on Easter Sunday if you're curious about it would you be interested in coming and joining us for that Sunday again just personal invites with compelling reasons and again get there's the hell Marys pumping gas cashier waiter waitress Barista mechanic AC repair guy hey I know this is random but we really love what God is doing at our church we'd be glad to have you join us sometime here's a card if you ever think about it here's where we're at Sundays at 9 9:00 am just that easy that easy and lastly it's because it's the best thing in the world like what we get to be a part of is the best thing in the world some call the church and you're like man sometimes the church is not the best thing in the world um but it's the dearest place on Earth Matt Chandler preached a series about that one time and called it the dearest place on Earth as the man said at the banquet blessed is everyone who eats at the Lord's table that's what we're inviting people into and there might be a little bit of fear a little bit of insecurity not knowing if I really want to engage in inviting people and sharing the gospel with people people and so forth deep down you really want to you know you if you believe in Jesus you really want to you're a little bit nervous with the steps of actually doing it it reminds me just with the snow everywhere um growing up in Tennessee you didn't get a lot of this opportunity you didn't get a lot of like just massive snowfalls and being able to go sedding but there was this one time I remember when I was a kid I was probably around Ezra's age um there was a big snowfall that came and the good thing about Tennessee is you don't have to go far to find a hill um and so there was kind of around um the the area of the city and white house that I grew up in there was this back road and this back road had this this massive just Hill the road um was this massive Hill and so my dad with a 9-year-old and 11-year-old thought this is a great opportunity to take my boys sledding at this massive Hill that he probably sled at when he was younger um so we get there and there are a bunch of cars kind of parked at the bottom and so you have to kind of walk your way up the hill because you could not get a car up to the top of it and so as we're heading up the top I'm very excited I'm pulling my sled behind me I'm very excited because I really at that point I don't know that I've ever been sleding before and so I have no idea what to experience and so as we're going up my dad's telling me he's kind of like all right on this side's a guard rail you want to stay away from that which it's a guardrail for a reason like it's just I mean there's a Long Valley off the side um so you don't want to drift that way and then on the other side banked is is basically like another big hill with like rock that's been blasted out so the the the inside of it is um just a ditch with all of the like uh Rock and debris and boulders that are all just kind of packed along that so you really want to stay at the middle as much as possible so as we're going up I'm excited but I'm also a little bit nervous I'm a little bit fearful and then lo and behold there's this guy coming down I mean just flying and all of a sudden I see him enter into that inside portion with all the barrels all the boulders and he just hits and he just I mean Head Over Heels is just flying and so we just kind of like see him like as we're like passing by going up and my dad's like that was crazy um and so we're still working our way up well then as we're working up maybe about 10 minutes later like ambulance shows up and ambulance shows up I mean they're like taking that guy off on a stretcher he probably broke some stuff going through there and at this point I'm really thinking I'm like nervous I me like I'm scared to death at this moment like I I don't know if I want to do this and my dad is still in this moment of like he shouldn't have drifted like that way he should have stayed in the middle I don't know that he had control of that so anyway anyways we're we're there and my dad still thinks it's a good idea to send us down there on our own without him with us and so he just kind of puts me and my brother both in the sled and just pushes us all right doesn't even show us the way he just says go and so we end up going and I remember I mean my hands must have been just I was just grabbing on to as much of the road as possible to try to just keep myself balanced the whole way down but I made it all the way to the bottom and I would say for the next two hours solid I'm running up back and forth back and forth because it was the greatest thing that I've ever experience like I just I mean my that probably is what set me on the track of AD adrenaline junkie for a lot of other dumb decisions later on in my life but it was like the best thing I ever experienced I just had to get over that first initial seeing a crash and burn and then at the same time wondering is this going to crash and burn for me and I'm just telling you guys right now like when it comes to evangelism for whatever for whatever reason and I think it's primarily our own insecurities and the enemy that's telling us this isn't going to work out for you we are scared to share the gospel with people we are right it's okay to say it the Lord's good and gracious and has covered that sin as well we're scared to share the gospel but when you look through the New Testament what gave them the most Joy was not that Paul got to retire and get a lake you know in Italy and and write a few books and you know buy a yacht so that he could live his life out in retirement no what gave him the most Joy was I need to get this out to as many people as possible and if they take my life to live as Christ to die as game I've lived the best life I could ever possibly live everything that I had beforehand I consider it rubbish in now knowing Jesus Christ my Lord and being able to spread that to others what made his Joy complete was seeing other people come to know Jesus I'm just telling you right now you can continue you can continue living life the way you're living it and let's be honest you're not having a lot of fun you're not experiencing a lot of Joy I know that because I know you and I know the conversations that we have in community groups I know the conversations that I hear from community group leaders I know the not that they like tell on you guys but I just I know what's going on and right now we are all Fighting For Joy and maybe we're fighting because we're not engaged in what actually provides it let's pray father we love you so much and so thankful for all that you have done for for us and provided for us and Lord as we as we enter into creating culture where we are asking people to come and hear the good news of the Gospel all that you have provided for them Father I just pray that you would begin drawing hearts drawing people to yourself Lord that could be through any other Church in in um the city that's totally fine Lord praying our church that our church gets to experience the joy of believing in what you have called us to do what you've entrusted to us believing that if we cast seed and cast Nets and people come and hear the gospel that they'll get saved that they'll get saved and there's nothing greater for us to celebrate and partake of and participate in than that Ministry alone so father just as we need the word to be able to preach we need you to be able to move and act and so we're praying we're praying for you to do that Among Us it's in your name we pray amen