Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. Welcome to Lifehouse. Good
to see you. If you're with us online this morning,
it's good to have you there as well. It is good
to be in God's house this morning. And how many
know that we've been talking about reaching people?
I don't know if you realize that or not, but
last week we started this message series on Salty.
And I just kind of want to reiterate. what they
said earlier in the announcements, we've got
these green balls up here. And what this is,
is this accountability. Look at these two. This
is accountability. If you invite someone to LifeHouse,
if you invite them to know Jesus, what we want
you to do, stop at the connection station. They
got a magic marker out there. Get a green ball.
Put their initials on there and the date and
put it in this aquarium because we want to pray
over those we invite to LifeHouse, right? And
if you happen to lead someone to the Lord, I
want you to put their name on there. And when
you put an orange one in here, I want you to
gather a bunch of people because we're going
to celebrate, right? Somebody comes into the
kingdom of God. kingdom of God celebrates, we
celebrate. So that's what these are for. We're
going to be talking about this all week long
and actually all month long, going in to four
to five weeks here. And we're praying that God's
word penetrates your heart. And I started this
mess series last week and I started to talk about
becoming salty. Turn to somebody, say salty.
Now, listen, when I say become salty, I don't
mean salty in the normal sense. How many know
you can get salty and that means you're frustrated
with somebody? You're aggravated. Thank you.
Thank you. I got a witness. I got two witnesses,
all right? Aggravated about a situation, right?
Or a person, don't look at him right now. Or
a circumstance, right? And you're salty about
that situation. But that's not what we're talking
about here at LifeHouse. We're talking about
being salty for Jesus. We're talking about being...
actually salt and light for Jesus. And we want
to live out what Matthew 5, verse 13 says, 13
through 16. It says this, you are the salt of
the earth. Say, I'm salt. I'm going to get this
in your spirit. I'm salt. You are the salt of
the earth. But if the salt has lost its taste,
how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no
longer good for anything except to be thrown
out and trampled under people's feet. Salt and
light. in the right combination to reflect our
Lord Jesus, our Savior, right? Salt and light
that causes others to see God's work in us and
not glorify us, but glorify Him. Kind of deflection.
I want you to be deflectors for Jesus. You do
the good works, they see it, they begin to glorify
God, and the glory goes right to God, right?
We kind of want to redefine the meaning of salt
life. How many like the salt life? How many beach
people we got in the house? Yeah, a whole bunch
of you, right? We want to redefine that, and
we want you to live salt life here at LifeHouse.
And last week, we determined this. This is all
going to take place. This is all going to happen
with us as a culture and as a church. And a couple
things we need to get in place to do that. First,
you got to decide. You got to decide. How many
know change does not come unless you make a decision
about something? You've got to make a decision.
It starts off with a decision. It all starts
with a decision. Secondly, you've got to get
in step with the Holy Spirit. We don't want you
going out and trying to reach people on your
own. That's a scary ordeal. We want you to reach
people with Jesus in step with the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, when
he's guiding you, when he's directing you. So
one, you've got to make a decision. Two, you've
got to get in step with the Holy Spirit. And
three, you need a plan. You've got to have a
plan. And that's what salty is all about. Not
just the word salty, but the acrostic salty.
S -A -L -T -Y. Salty, right? We're going to use
this word all month long, and it's an acrostic
to help you remember the plan. You got to know
the plan that God has. You got to go out there
with a plan to reach people for Jesus. So this
morning, today, we're going to start with the
letter S. S, right? Which stands for start a
conversation. Look at the person beside you,
tell them, I'm going to start a conversation
with you in just a little while. I'm going to
do it. I'm going to start a conversation with
you in just a little while. It's good to warn
people, right? Start a conversation. You got
to start a conversation. We can't tell someone
about Jesus if we're not talking to them, right?
If we're not willing to speak to them, if we're
not willing to get in a dialogue with someone
else. And a dialogue is a conversation where
somebody is speaking and another person's listening
or somebody's listening and then somebody's speaking.
It kind of goes back and forth. It's like a ping
pong match, right? One volley's up and the other
one returns it. And it's a dialogue. We got to
get into a dialogue with people. And right now,
this is not a dialogue. I don't know if you know
that or not. I get you to say stuff once in a
while. But this is pretty much monologue. I'm
speaking and you're listening. Unless you're
on your phone chatting with somebody, right?
You know who you are out there. I can see you
from up here, right? Before church, you were
dialoguing with somebody. Probably after church,
you'll dialogue with somebody. Maybe on the break,
right? There's talking that's taking place. Dialogue
is that meaningful conversation where you're
engaged in speaking and just as engaged in listening
with someone else. Oscar Wilde says this, ultimately
the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage
or friendship, is conversation. It's dialogue.
Listening and talking to each other. Reaching
for people, people for Jesus requires us to start
a dialogue with somebody about God. A Jesus monologue
won't cut it. I cannot engage in what I call
a Jesus monologue or a Jesus elevator speech
and expect to win anybody for Jesus. Now, first
of all, let me ask, how many of you know what
an elevator speech is? Raise your hand. If you're
online, I want you to put it in the chat. Good,
about half of you know what an elevator speech
is. If you don't know what an elevator speech
is, it's when you get in, I mean, when you get
in an elevator at one landing, and let's say
you get in at the first floor and you're heading
to the fifth floor, you got about 60 seconds,
right? Maybe a little better than a minute to
whatever you're going to say to somebody, you
got to get it said. How many know when you get
in an elevator, there's a captive audience? I
love it. It's amazing. They can't get away from
you, right? And you get in the elevator, you've
got a captive audience in there, and you've got
60 seconds. And people practice this in business
all the time. Can you get across what you want
to say in 60 seconds or less before they can
actually escape and run away from you when they
get out right of the elevator? It's true. And
we're not called to really do what I call hit
and run for Jesus. Listen, if I say hit and run
in any kind of statement, how many know that's
a bad thing? That's not a good thing, right?
We don't want to do hit and run evangelism for
Jesus. We want to really get engaged in a dialogue.
We don't want to do a 30 -second spew about something
about Jesus and just walk away. I've had this
happen to me personally. I just actually had
it happen not that long ago. I had a gentleman
who came up to me. out on the, just out on the
sidewalk. And a gentleman came up to me and immediately,
he didn't say anything. He just started talking.
And he started doing his Jesus elevator speech.
And I thought, well, okay, this is cool, right?
And he's trying to make a convert out of me.
And he just come up and he's going, you know,
he's going on and on and on and on and on and
on about Jesus stuff. And I'm like, okay. And
he didn't let me get it worded edgewise. And
I had to wait till he took a breath. I knew he
had to breathe sooner or later. Right? He took
a breath, you know, and I said, hey, I said,
I'm a believer. I'm a follower of Jesus. I'm
a Christian. I thought he'd go like, man, that's
awesome. High five, brother. Right? He didn't
believe me. He didn't. He didn't believe me.
He just kept on going. He kept, I don't know
if I look like a hardened atheist. I don't know
if I look like I've been involved in a lot of
sin at the moment. I'm not sure what was going
on, but he just kept rolling with it. And I couldn't
say anything, so I just listened. I let him practice
his spiel, right? He did his whole thing. And
you know, he didn't engage in a conversation.
It was a Jesus monologue. It was hit and run
evangelism. He just wanted to get another spiritual
notch on his belt, right? I talked to one more
person about Jesus and I'm gonna keep on going.
He didn't care who I was. He wasn't interested
in what I thought. He didn't care. He wasn't
worried about one thing I had to say. Nothing,
right? We can't approach people in that kind
of manner. They're not a project. We gotta care.
You know what? I don't know. Maybe he was afraid
of a real conversation or maybe he was taught
to do it that way. I'm not sure. But we've got
to engage in dialogue. If we're going to lead
people to Jesus, we got to listen to who they
are. We got to care about the person that we're
talking to. We got to be genuinely interested.
We have to care about someone enough to engage
in authentic, I care about you, Jesus conversation
with them. A dialogue that's taking place. And
if you don't really care about that person, if
you don't really want to be there in a conversation
with them, they'll pick it up. How many of you
can pick up when someone's not really there to
not engage with you whatsoever? They'll let you
know that. They just came out of a teen youth
camp. It was teen and juniors together, youth
camp. And I'll tell you, I used to work with
teenagers and they... Adults, y 'all as adults,
you're very kind, right? If somebody's doing
something that you don't really care for, you're
pretty good about like just playing it off and
like, and then you go away and talk about them
later. Teenagers don't do that. They'll tell,
they'll let you know right up front, right? When
you're not being authentic, they know, they'll
pick it out. We gotta use words. When we wanna
reach people for Jesus, we gotta use your words.
Say, use your words. We tell little kids that
all the time, right? Little kids who run around,
they're grunting at people. They're going, uh,
uh, uh, right? They're grunting at what they
want. How many know, right? Two, three years
old, going, uh, uh, uh, uh, right? And parents
going there, use your words. Use your words.
I say it all the time here at church, right?
Use your words. That's what they're doing, you
know? The kids going, uh, uh, uh. You can't do
that. You can't run around grunting and grumbling
and groaning underneath your voice, right? Huffing
and puffing your way through life. And then,
oh, by the way, I wanna talk about Jesus. You
gotta use your words. You gotta get in a dialogue.
You gotta start a conversation. Jesus did this
all the time. He started conversations. He started
conversations when it was socially acceptable.
and when it was not socially acceptable. He started
conversations at an expected time, and he would
start conversations at an unexpected time. He
really would. He'd do it in all kinds of places.
He'd do it with all kinds of people. He'd do
it with tax collectors. He would do it with sinners.
He would do it with religious leaders. He would
do it with beggars. He would do it with thieves.
It didn't matter. Those who were in great authority
and those who had no authority at all and had
nothing to offer him whatsoever, he started conversations.
And on a particular day, he starts a conversation
with a Samaritan woman, which in his day was
taboo socially. If you've got your Bibles, turn
to John 4, verse 1. It says this, Jesus is on
the move, right? He's leaving Judea. He's heading
to Galilee. And he's got to go through the area
of Samaria. And he came to the city of Samaria,
which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground
that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now, Jacob's
well, this is a physical well, like a well you
get water out, right, was there. Jesus, therefore,
being weary from his journey, sat thus by the
well. It was about the sixth hour. And a woman
of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to
her, give me a drink. This is the conversation.
He starts speaking, right? He gives her words.
Give me a drink. For his disciples had gone away
into the city to buy food. Jesus is doing what
he did. He traveled. He was an itinerant, what
you would call preacher, speaker, rabbi, right?
Undercover son of God at this point in time.
And he's traveling from Judea to Galilee. And
he stops in the area of Samaria at the well of
Jacob. And while he's there, the disciples go
to get food. And this is probably about a 17
mile trek. He's probably in about 17 miles when
he gets to this point. And they're there for
a respite. They're there for a rest along the
journey. journey. And this conversation begins
with a Samaritan woman, which is taboo, but it's
how he starts the conversation. It's super interesting.
He looks at this woman and he says, give me a
drink. That's it. Just give me a drink. Now,
honestly, as I looked at this at first glance,
I thought, well, that's an interesting way to
start a conversation. Maybe even just a little
bit awkward, right? I thought to myself, what
if I was standing at a soda machine and I was
spanning, right, all my choices and I'm getting
ready to spend that two bucks. It used to be
a buck, but now it's two bucks, right, to get
a soda or to get a drink of some kind. And I'm
deciding whether to do Mountain Dew or should
I get vitamin water? You know, should I get something
healthy? And I'm standing getting ready to make
a decision and somebody walks up behind me and
says, give me a drink. I mean, I don't know what
I'd do, right? I only got two bucks. right? Give
me a drink. And some of you would probably just
ignore him like, oh, they're on their Bluetooth
talking to somebody else. I don't know, right?
You know, but it was kind of awkward. It was
a little bit, it was a little strange response,
but Jesus knew exactly what he was doing in this
conversation starter. He really did. He, first
of all, he knew that he was talking to a Samaritan
woman. He knew that was taboo according to society
that day. Jews had no dealings. with Samaritans
and Samaritans with Jews, they were actually
considered almost enemies of one another. They
had deep differences that was very historical
in nature that went back many, many, many, many
years. And there was this divide socially between
the two. And he knew the social biases he stepped
into this conversation. He knew what she was
thinking. He knew that this was not a thing that
normally took place. And he also knew that it
was just not good in general for a Jewish man
to speak to a woman, let alone a Samaritan woman.
And Jesus breaks all those social barriers and
he starts a conversation, not with chitchat like
we normally do, right? But he asked for a drink
from the well. Now you gotta understand, this
Samaritan woman, you gotta think about what's
running through her mind. She's like, why is
this guy talking to me? Why is this Jewish man
even speaking to me? And she's got two choices
at this point. She can either engage in a conversation
with Jesus. She either has to, because Jesus
said, made a kind of a demand on her, right?
Or she can walk away. and just pretend he didn't
even say anything. She's only got two choices.
And Jesus knew because he kind of placed the
demand, she was probably wondering, why is he
speaking? She might even been a little aggravated
about the whole thing. Why is he talking to me?
Why is this all happening? What in the world's
going on? She's probably thinking, this doesn't
happen. This isn't supposed to happen. And Jesus
knew this was gonna lead. He said something that
was gonna start a conversation, even if it was
a little bit awkward at the beginning. And in
verse nine, the woman responds. It says, the
woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that
you, being a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan
woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritan.
She points out the obvious. She points out that
this is messed up. This doesn't happen. We don't
do this kind of thing, right? And it's on. The
conversation's engaged. This conversation, right,
was so out of the norm. And Jesus says something
and she's got to respond. She's thinking, this
is not good. Why is this happening? And she states
it. And Jesus answers her. The conversation starts.
This is no longer a monologue. It's a dialogue.
And Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew
the gift of God and who it is who says to you,
give me a drink, you would have asked him and
he would have given you living water. He starts
the conversation with a request, almost a demand,
right? Which results in a question from her,
which piques her curiosity to all this and why
this is happening. And then Jesus flips the script.
He says, if you would have, if you had known
who was talking to you, you would have asked
me for a drink of water and I would have given
you living water. Curiosity peaked. intrigued,
engaged completely, right? They're on their way
to have a conversation. And listen, if you can
get somebody intrigued in your conversation,
you're gonna have a conversation. If you can
say something that helps that person realize,
you know what? There's some kind of hidden gold
here. I don't know what's going on in this conversation,
but there's something under the surface and I
wanna know what it's about. If you can get somebody
engaged and they're like, you know what? They're
talking about something I really need, right?
Living water. Where do I get living water? her.
You know, he, Jesus, he spoke and she was in.
Curiosity was piqued, right? Interest was piqued,
and this conversation was on. And Jesus drew
conversation, something, he started with something
that we all want. We want to know what the gift
of God is for us. Amen? I do. I want to know
what the gift of God is for me. I want to know
where I can get living water, living water that
can be inside of me and continue on in me. I
want to know that. Living water. It's what I
want. I want that. I do. I think some people
check out of our conversations sometimes because
we never pique their interest. Right? We never
get in a conversation where they're interested
in what we have to say. I think sometimes we're
afraid to say something that's life -changing
in the moment. Something that might grab them
in the second, right? And pull them in and draw
them into a conversation. But Jesus goes right
into it. And he makes it intriguing. Makes him
intriguing. Now, this whole message series is
about you getting out there and getting in conversations
and starting a conversation. So here's what I
wanna do. I wanna get you to practice this right
now, just for a second, right? And you might
be thinking, well, how in the world am I gonna
do that? I want you to get the person beside
you intrigued. Now, this is gonna be okay if
you know the person beside you. If not, get ready
for a very awkward moment, okay? But I want you
to turn to the person right beside you right
now, and I want you to smile at them. Go ahead
and do it right now. And keep smiling at them,
like awkwardly smiling at them. Come on. Just
keep smiling at them. All right, come on. Wasn't
that a little weird? Now, you did it because
I told you to. But if somebody did that to you,
do you know what you'd be thinking? You'd be
thinking, why are they smiling at me? What in
the world do they got going on in their head
right now? It might be a little awkward, but
you'd get a little bit intrigued, right? They'd
just keep grinning at you and grinning at you.
And you'd be like, do I know you? You know, you'd
be saying something like that. Have we met before?
Right, you'd be doing something along those lines.
You can do something that intrigues people. Start
the conversation. Just walk up beside them. Maybe
get up, step and step with them. I mean, if you
walk right up beside somebody who doesn't know
you and you get step and step with them, they're
just looking over you like, what's happening
right now? And you can start off with hello.
Say something intriguing. This happened to me
years ago, many years ago. Well, actually not
that long ago, but some years back. And I've
told this story before. So if you've heard it
before here at LifeHouse, please forgive me.
I'm getting old, I repeat myself. But I was in
a parking lot and I came out of a store. It was
pretty close to closing time. It was getting
close to about 9 p .m. and the store's getting
ready to close. And I was walking to the bottom
of this parking lot. And of course, the parking
lot lights were on. And this car, as I get to
the bottom of the parking lot where my car is,
this car pulls in up towards close to the store
and they put their window down and they yell
one thing to me. I'm the only one in that aisle.
I'm the only one almost in the parking lot. And
they say, man of God. And I'm looking around
like, who's the man of God I need to be looking
at, right? And that's all they said. And they
said it twice, man of God. And two things, I
turned around, I did not recognize the car and
I did not recognize the voice. Now I had two
choices at that point, right? Hop in my car and
just pretend I didn't hear that or walk back
up the parking lot and see who's up there. I
chose to say, I had to see who it was. I was
so intrigued. I thought I might get shot and
die and go to heaven right now, but I'm gonna
walk back up, right? I'm gonna walk back up to
the parking lot. And I walked up and this gentleman
said, God sent me here to speak a word over you.
And he spoke a word over me. I was so stunned.
I never got his name and he closed the window
and drove away. I stood completely stunned. It's
only ever happened to me one time in my whole
life. In the parking lot, it was crazy. And God
met me right there, right under a light in a
parking lot and spoke a word to me through somebody
I did not know. And they delivered the message
and they're like, whew, that's over with, right?
And they took off. They left. They did an obedience.
We got to start the conversation. We gotta be
intriguing in it. And it can be just as small
as a thing. And it might not look like that at
all, right? It might not be that crazy kind of
thing that takes place, but it could be something
simple. It can be something as simple as a smile,
right? You can step in step with them, walk up
right beside them. You can start a simple, natural
conversation with someone and move it towards
the eternal as fast as you can. Move it towards
something that they need eternally as quick as
you can. Let them know what the gift is of God,
right? Hey, I... I got a gift for you. I got
something to give you, right? Make it intriguing.
In verse 11, the woman said to him, sir, you
have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.
Where then do you get that living water? The
conversation's going on. Are you greater than
our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank
from it as well as his sons and his livestock?
She's in now. She's in the conversation. She's
talking. She's pulling up history. How did that
happen? A couple of things, a couple of things.
Jesus knew where he was before he started the
conversation. He knew he was in Samaria. He knew
the history. of the peoples, right, between the
Jews and the Samaritans. He knew the social bias
that this woman would be coming from. He knew
that she knew nothing about him personally at
this point. She had no idea who she was talking
to when this conversation started. He knew he
was near water, right? And this could be a conversation
point because we all need water. He knew all
of it. He thought through. He was aware before
he started the conversation. What am I saying?
When you're going to start a conversation, with
someone, take a look around you before you start
to talk. Take a look around you before you start
the conversation. Know where you are. Know generally
who you're talking to, the general audience that
you're speaking to. Get a hold of some social
cues that are around you, the climate that's
in the room, the climate where you're at, right?
And lean into the Holy Spirit to start the conversation.
Here's a great thing you need to understand.
This does not all lean and lend on you. If you're
walking with the Holy Spirit and you breathe
the word to him, you say, Holy Spirit, I need
you right now. I wanna start this conversation.
I need your help. Help me in this conversation.
How many in this house, you've got into a conversation,
at the end of the conversation, you're thinking,
I have no idea where all those thoughts and words
came from. That was the Holy Spirit, had to be
the Holy Spirit because it wasn't coming out
of my brain, right? I just spoke those things.
Get in that conversation. I go on hospital visits
sometimes. Sometimes people will call me and
say, hey, I got a relative in the hospital and
I don't know who they are or I don't know who
they are. They know, of course, they're a relative,
right? But I don't know who they are walking
in. They'll say, pastor, would you go visit them?
And I'm like, sure, I'll go visit them. And they
don't know the Lord. Would you lead them to the
Lord? And by the way, they're about to pass from
this life to the next. So I got to walk into
a room, right, a hospital room, where the person
A doesn't know me, the family around them may
not know me, and I have no idea of this person's
bias, hostility, or anything towards Christianity,
and I got to start a conversation with them about
the most important thing in their life, and that's
if they've given their life to Christ. You got
to pray and lean on the Holy Spirit. I'm usually
desperately praying the whole way to the hospital,
like, Lord, you got to help me with this, right?
Give me the words. He's going with a plan, but
I need the Holy Spirit because I need the words.
Look at who's around you. Know where you're at.
As I was thinking about this, I was thinking
about Jesus. What if he swung into Sturgis, South
Dakota, while one of the largest Harley Davidson
rallies that's on the planet is taking place?
What if Jesus rode in on his Harley to Sturgis
and slid up beside somebody and said, give me
a drink? How many know they wanted to hand him
water? That had a whole different meaning in
that context, right? If he had came into Sturgis,
South Dakota, while there's thousands and hundreds
of thousands of bikers there, he would have had
to start the conversation different. It would
have to look like something else. He might've
slid up and say, you know what? I need a half
inch wrench. My exhaust pipe on my bike is loose
and I need a half inch wrench. You got a half
inch wrench? And they'll hand him a half inch
wrench. And he might've said, you know what?
I know the one who holds all things together.
I know the one who put it all together, right?
I know the one who can keep it bound together.
He might start the conversation in a different
way. He might say, you know, do you got some
leather softener? I've been wearing these chaps
under my cloak. Come on, I need some leather
softener. And by the way, I can give you, listen,
if life is rubbing you the wrong way, I know
the one that you need to go to this morning.
Come on. How about some chrome polish, right?
You got some chrome polish conversation starter.
I need to remove the sin, right? Chrome polish
is like, you can remove stains and sin with chrome
polish, right? Jesus is the chrome polish. He
just started the conversation in some other way.
It would have looked different. Take a look around.
Don't just go off of your IQ, which is your intellect,
but go off of your EQ, which is your emotional
intelligence, right? Pick up on what's happening
around you. See what's going on. Rely on the
Holy Spirit and start a conversation. Start it.
Don't rely on your skills, right, or lack of
conversational skills. Some of you might feel
very skilled in conversations. Some of you are
like, I hate getting into conversations, right?
But rely on the Holy Spirit. Pick up on what's
going on around you. Last thing I'm going to
give you this morning, last thing. Be childlike.
Be childlike in starting a conversation. We should
be childlike in starting conversation. Well,
what do I mean by that? Well, let me read you
Matthew 18, verse one. It says this. At that
time, the disciples came to Jesus saying, who's
the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? This is
the disciples. These are the very mature disciples
of Jesus. Who's the greatest? And calling to
him a child, he put him in the midst of them
and said, truly I say to you, unless you turn
and become like children, you'll never enter
the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself
like this child is greatest in the kingdom of
heaven. Disciples are arguing. Who's the greatest?
Who's the greatest disciple ever? It's what happens
when you get a bunch of guys together, right?
And Jesus pulls out a child and sets him on his
lap. And he says, boys, unless you get like this,
unless you get the humility of a child, you're
not even going to see the kingdom of heaven.
Start every conversation from a position of humility.
Start with humility. I see more than my fair
share of Christians come into a conversation
and they come in acting like they're the greatest
in the kingdom of God. They come in acting like
they got all the answers and you don't have any
of the answers. They don't come in listening.
They come in with this spiritual pride or arrogance
or whatever you want to call it into the conversation.
right? And there's no humility there. Listen,
if you want a good thing to do before you get
in a conversation with somebody about Jesus,
you need to stop and you need to ask yourself
to remind yourself of something actually, right?
I need to remind myself that I'm a sinner saved
by grace. And it's only by the grace of God that
I'm here, right? That I was lost and by the grace
of God, I'm found. You got to remind yourself
that I got nothing. I have nothing to give you.
I have nothing to give anybody else outside of
Jesus Christ. I have nothing of eternal value
within me that I can spew out into you. I don't
have anything. It's all him. It's God's grace.
It's his sacrifice. He paid a dear price for
all this, right? With his blood. You remind yourself
of all those things and who you are and what
God's done for you before you start to go into
a conversation. And you'll come into that conversation
with humility. Understand this. Humility is not
weak conversation. Humility is not timid conversation.
Humility is not mindless conversation. It is
not low self -esteem conversation. It is the
power of God within you. It's humility. It is.
It's the power of God in the conversation. Humility
takes me out of the conversation and moves the
conversation to him. Amen? It's true. It's true.
the worship team would come. Jesus heard these
disciples, right? They're getting all fired up
about who's the greatest. And he said to the
two -year -old, a child, I don't know if it was
two or three or what it was, but he said to the
child in front of him, my two -year -old granddaughter.
is at the house. She'd come up to stay with us
for her Maisie, Mia and Maisie. Mia's two and
Maisie's four. And they've come to our house
to stay for a few days. And Mia, she's only two
years old. And she never, you know, I've got
into conversations with Mia and they're very
short conversations because she can only say
one or two words at a time. But do you know what
I never get from Mia? Mia never, well, there
she is. She knew I was talking about her. All
right, she's crying. All right. but she's two
years old and I've never got into conversation
with Mia and thought, you know, I just don't
know what this kid's motives are when they're
talking to me. I'm not sure about this person,
right? I don't talk to Mia and I'm thinking,
you know, I think there's a lot of pride built
up back in there. Two -year -olds don't do that.
They'll come to you humbly, they'll come with
arms open or they'll scream their head off because
they don't like you and run the other way. But
it's all from a place of humility. Now, if you
get in a conversation with a three -year -old,
that's a different story. But two -year -olds,
this is how they do it, right? We come into the
conversation with humility. We come in just all
pride set aside, knowing who I am, knowing that
I'm redeemed, right? That my hope, can I tell
you, there's no way to come into a conversation
somewhere between pride and humility. I don't
know if you know that or not. There is no way
in between. You're either gonna come into a conversation
with pride or you're gonna come into it with
humility. As a matter of fact, try to find a
word that actually describes the in -between
state. Some people are like, oh, pastor, you
know, I have some pride, but I have some humility,
and I'm kind of both. What is that, pride -ility,
you know? I don't know. What is that? There is
no word for that. You're either coming in in
pride or you're coming in in humility. Even Jesus
started conversations from a posture of humility.
As the team gets ready to play, I wanna read
you one last scenario where Jesus starts a conversation.
And this time, it's in a place where he's teaching
and he's speaking. And he's rudely interrupted
by a bunch of Pharisees because they drag a woman
into his midst who was caught in the act of adultery.
And in Jesus' day, if you were caught in the
act of adultery, you could be stoned to death.
If you were found guilty, you could be drug outside
the city and literally stoned to death. And they
drag this woman in before Jesus and they throw
her at his feet. And they're there not for righteous
reasons, but for other reasons to trip Jesus
up. And listen to the conversation. John 8 says
this. Now, early in the morning, they came again
to the temple and all the people came to him.
And he sat down and he taught them. Then the
scribes and the Pharisees brought to him a woman
caught in adultery. And when they had set her
in the midst, they said to him, teacher, this
woman was caught in adultery in the very act.
Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should
be stoned. But what do you say? This they said,
testing him, that they might have something of
which to accuse him, Jesus, right? But Jesus
stooped down and wrote on the ground with his
finger as though he didn't even hear. So when
they continued asking him, he raised himself
up and he said to him, he who is without sin
among you, let him throw the first stone at her.
And again, he stooped down and he wrote on the
ground. Then those who heard it being convicted
by their conscience went out one by one, beginning
the oldest even to the last. I'm sure he was
writing down their sin. We don't know that, but
I kind of think Jesus was just writing their
sin out, right, in the dirt. And Jesus was left
alone. And the woman standing in the midst, and
when Jesus had raised himself up and saw no one
but the woman, he said to her, woman, this is
a conversation, right? Where are those accusers
of you? Where are those accusers of yours? Where
are they at? Has no one condemned you? She said,
no one, Lord. And Jesus said, neither do I condemn
you. And sin, go and sin no more. Go and sin
no more. He didn't trash her or thrash her. He
didn't drag her outside the city. If anybody
would have been justified, it would have been
him because he was perfect, sinless. He asked
her, where are your accusers? Is no one here
to condemn you? And she says, no one, Lord. And
he says, I don't condemn you either. But go and
sin no more. Go and sin no more. Don't do this
anymore. You can stand. Eternal impact starts
with a conversation. Now, I know some of you
are thinking, well, yeah, I love to serve people.
You should. Here's what serving does for you.
When you serve somebody, It gives you a platform.
I'm standing on a platform this morning. It gives
you a platform to speak the gospel to them. It
gives you, it earns you some space, right? Earns
you some cred, credibility with them to speak
to them. But I have never served anybody, right?
And never spoke a word and then come to Jesus.
I've never served them so much that they fell
on the ground and repented and said, Jesus, I
want you to be my Lord. Never happened. It's
a combination of both. Serve, absolutely. It's
part of what we believe here. Serve, serve, serve.
But you gotta speak. You gotta tell them why
you're serving. I got a friend who lives out
in Western PA and he's a minister and he's a
really unusual guy. He was super into biking
and hiking and anything outdoors and he became
a minister and he built a church and he did the
most unusual thing I've ever seen. He put a climbing
wall on the back of the church, a climbing wall,
little climbing wall. And on Friday nights, he
would invite the public in for free and they
could come in and climb on the climbing wall.
And he would offer pizza, do all these things.
And people eventually, he would just serve them.
And eventually they would ask him like, why are
you doing this for free? And he'd say, oh, let
me tell you about that. Jesus saved me. Jesus
gave to me. So now I want to give to you. And
he would start a conversation with them. He's
still pastoring today. His church keeps growing,
keeps expanding. We gotta start the conversation.
You gotta care about the person beside you, right?
You gotta take, you gotta use some intel. You
gotta look around you, take in what's going on
around you, who's around you. You gotta ask the
Holy Spirit and then you gotta start the conversation.
Thank you for tuning in to this message from
Lifehouse Church. We pray that you were impacted
powerfully by this message. If you have been
personally affected by our ministry and you would
like to partner with us as we love God, love
people every day, visit our website at www .lifehousecog
.com.