Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. Isn't that awesome? Yeah. I'm
going to ask you if Brent and Bethany would make
their way up on the stage here with little Vera.
They got James in tow as well. Amazing family.
If they can come around to this side. They don't
want to see me. They want to see you all. So
we want to get you up here. But we are honored
today. Vera was born 12 -26 of 2024 and continues
to be pure joy. to her parents and to her family
and friends that are here. And it's so good to
have them here. Children are amazing, aren't
they? They're awesome. It really is true. They're
an amazing gift from God. They're amazing to
watch, to observe, to be with the moment they're
born until they grow and be adults, you know,
and leave the home. It's an amazing thing to
watch children just change and go from stage
to stage to stage. That first year in particular.
And it is the baby moments that are particularly
incredible. How they use their entire bodies
to yawn and stretch, right, is an amazing thing.
The first time they laugh out loud, we just go
crazy. We do, right? The first time they look
up with that trust in their eyes to mom and dad,
and just you can see it in their faces. The first
time they crawl. And, you know, all those first
moments. And Brent and Bethany, God has blessed
you. This beautiful little girl and giving you
so many of those moments and we'll continue to
do that. So today, Brent and Bethany are acknowledging
that these moments are from God and that Vera
was in God's hands long before she was in theirs.
Today is a public declaration. It's about dedicating
Vera. back to God. And that's what they're doing
here today as parents. Children are a gift from
God. The word of God tells us this. They're on
loan to us. In Isaiah 40, 42, it says, thus says
the Lord who made you and formed you from the
womb, who will help you and keep you. Fear not.
It is the Lord who formed Vera in the womb. It
is the Lord who will help Brent. And Bethany
continued to aid them in forming and shaping
her character and who she sees God to be. And
we read this in several accounts in God's word
that God knew us, right, before we were even
born. God speaks this to Jeremiah in Jeremiah
1, verse 4. It says, And the word of the Lord
came to me, saying, Before I formed you in the
womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified
you. I ordained you a prophet to the nations.
The Creator knows us before He even forms us,
and He knows what He's ordained us to do, and
He's done that for Vera. He knew before she was
a twinkle in your eye, before the plans were
made, right? He knew before you were longing
to have another child. He knew before either
of you even thought of all this, before you had
any idea who Vera would be and what she would
grow up to become, right? God knew Vera, and
God saw fit to place her in your loving and caring
arms and hands. He's trusted you, right? The
plans that he has for her, he's trusted you to
unfold that. The plans for her to grow up and
what she's going to become is entrusted to you
to help her develop and know that, right? The
things that she walks in and the things that
she will one day do. And the beautiful part of
all this is that he has picked you two to help
her discover that and to help her walk in that
path. Also, children are a gift. The word of
God tells us that. In Psalms 127 .3, children
are a gift from God. They are a reward from him.
Remember that when Vera is screaming at three
in the morning. She's a gift from God. You just
got to say it, right? Just keep mumbling it to
yourself. Just say it over and over. She's a
gift from God. She's a gift from God. Remember
it a few years from now when she sasses back
for the very first time. She's a gift from God,
right? When she's in junior high and she looks
at you like she knows far more than you ever
have or ever will know, right? She's a gift from
God, right? When she drags some boy home to meet
the parents and you're thinking, just leave that
back at the curb wherever you found it, right?
She's a gift from God. She's a gift from God.
Say it because it's true. Say it because it's
what you prayed for. And say it because God has
gifted you today with his amazing children, right?
Say it out loud. So that is the, and here's the
thing about a gift. The amazing thing about a
gift is a gift is meant to be received, which
you have received this amazing gift, but it's
also meant to be given. So one day when she's
grown, you're going to give her back to this
world so God can use the gifts and abilities
in her. Just kind of really feel prompted with
that. And today that God's going to. Give her
gifts and abilities, and you're going to get
to witness that and give that back in her life.
So today I'm going to ask you to publicly respond
to this commitment that I charged you with by
answering the question with we do. Do you recognize
that Vera is a precious gift given to you from
the Lord, and do you stand ready to dedicate
her back to the Lord's work so it can be manifested
in her life? And if you're there, just say we
do. All right, we do. You're doing a great job,
Dad. All right, he's juggling up here, right?
Family and church, do you stand ready to support,
and are you willing as a family and a support
system for Brent and Bethany both to support
them in every way as they lead Vera to follow
God's path? If you are, say, we're willing. All
right, so I'm going to ask you, church, to stand,
and as you stand. Tim, if you would come. Team
Wheeler is coming. Tim's coming for a couple
reasons. One, he's grandpa. What do they call
you? Pap. This is Pap. Say hi, Pap. All right.
This is Pap. Pap's coming because he's Pap. But
he's also a minister of the gospel of Jesus.
And he's going to make a few comments as Pap
and then pray a prayer of dedication over here.
Well, children, indeed are a blessing. Thanks
for your words, Kip. Those are excellent. Really
appreciate those reminders about our responsibility
before the Lord, but the great blessing that
these children are to us. And the multiple children
that we have and grandchildren, and it's a blessing
to be a part of God's plan in being able to just
live lives before them. That will be a testimony.
Yeah, absolutely. All right. Church, if you would,
I want you to extend your hand this way. And
if you would, Tim, lead in prayer of dedication
over Vera. Father God, we... come before you
now and we give, first of all, just great thanks
to you for this little one. For Vera and her
life, for all that is in the future, we thank
you. And Father, the words that I think of is
your spirit just gave these to me this morning,
Lord, to remember. Lord, my prayer is that you
would bless her and that you would keep her.
Oh God in heaven, lift up your face on her. And
be gracious to her. Gracious with the gift of
salvation, with the calling, with the drawing
through the Spirit of God. That she would come
to know you. And then that she would continue
to grow in grace and the knowledge of who you
are. Father, that you would lift up your countenance,
your being, and turn towards her in relationship.
And that in that relationship, Lord, that you
would give her peace, that shalom. that complete
fulfillment of life. May she be a blessing to
those around her, to her parents, to all of the
family, to the church. And Father, for those
of us around her life, for mom and dad, for James,
as they live before her every day, for great
-grandparents and grandparents, for our church
family as we live an example, for... pastors
and teachers that will impact her life. God,
give to us what we need to be a blessing and
to help this young lady grow into all that you
have planned for her. And all this we pray in
faith. Spirit, thank you for the gifts you give
us. And all this we pray in the name of our Savior,
Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you
so much. That's awesome. Can you give him a hand?
And at the same time, he may be seated. We do
have a little something that we love to give
the parents each and every time we do this. And
this is important to me because it represents
really what the love of God is all about. And
it's three roses. I'm going to give these three
roses to you. And if you see, they're different
colors. First, there's the white rose, which
represents the love of Jesus, our Savior. And
really, there's no greater love that anyone can
experience other than the love of Christ in our
lives. The second one is a red rose, and that
represents the parents' love. And in conjunction
with Jesus, you work and live and move to be
a part of Vera's life, which is the pink. It's
a mixture of the two, and to raise her up. So
we love and appreciate your family, and we want
you just to have this as a representation. You're
going to do this, man. He's got two hands. I
told you, he's going to juggle it all. Also,
we have this Beginner's Bible. We love this Bible.
There's actually great stories in here, stories
of the Bible that are at a level for a child.
So we want the Word of God to be first and foremost,
which I know you both care about that deeply,
and then also a certificate to commemorate the
day. So thank you for being a part of this. Thank
you for doing this. as an example. And we just
love and appreciate it so much. So would you
give them a hand as they return back? Love these
families. Absolutely. God's so good. Again, love
the opportunity to be a part of something so
amazing and being a part of families and being
a part of this. And I appreciate the family and
all the support that came along. They got a whole
section. They got a cheering section back there,
which is awesome. We love that and love seeing
that and that support because that's what it
takes. It really does. We believe in community
here at Lifehouse. It's one of the things we
strongly talk about. So appreciate you all so
much. Well, listen, this is the last week of
a message series that I have called Salty. Say
salty. Salty. All month long, as this is week
five, you've been learning about what it means
to personally share the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And we use this acrostic, this word salty, hopefully
so it sticks in your spirit. Hopefully this is
something you can put in your pocket, take with
you and pull out anytime you're thinking about
sharing the gospel. And it's really this. They're
going to put it up on the screen. S is start
a conversation. Say start a conversation. Come
on. You're going to ask good questions. You're
going to L. You're going to listen to understand
and not just respond to somebody. You're going
to understand the person that you're talking
to, right? And then last week was tell. We're
going to tell the story of Jesus. We're going
to thread God's story through our story or through
whatever we're speaking. We want to make sure
that we're conveying in the conversation Jesus.
And this week is the last one, which is the why,
which is you. You. Take a finger right now. I'm
gonna let you do something that your parents
told you don't do. You're gonna point, all right?
Anybody's parents ever tell you don't point at
people? Yeah, mine did. All right, I want you
to point at yourself. You can do it, this is
legal. Point at yourself and say, you can do
this. You can do this, come on. You gotta encourage
yourself like David in the Lord. You can do this,
right? You can share the gospel with Jesus Christ.
You can lift up his name because God told us
to do this because Jesus commissioned us to do
this. And if he told you to do something, he
will empower you and he will enable you to do
it. Philippians 4 .10 says this, and this is
a familiar piece of scripture, 10 through 13.
It says this, and Paul wrote this, the apostle
Paul says, I know how to be abased, which means
to be brought low. And I know how to abound.
Everywhere in all things, I've learned both to
be full. and to be hungry, both to abound and
to suffer need. That means in all conditions,
right? I can do all things through Christ. That's
the key right there, who strengthens me. You
can do anything in Jesus. If it's his will, if
it's his purpose in your life, if you believe
in faith, you can do whatever God calls you to
do. So if you walked into this place this morning
with zero confidence that you could share the
gospel one -on -one with somebody confidently,
right? If you've walked in and you're thinking,
there's no way I can ever do this, I'm just gonna
listen to the message, come back next week, hopefully
he's preaching about something else, right? Well,
if you're in that place, I'm here to say awesome.
Because you're in the perfect spot, you're in
the perfect position for God's strength to come
alive in you. Because 2 Corinthians 12, 7 says
this, and he said to them, my grace is sufficient
to you for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
It's in our weakness where God works the strongest.
Amen? How many are happy about that? I am, right?
It's in our weakness. I can do nothing in me,
but I can do everything in him. And when Jesus
walked this earth, he gave us everything we need
to do everything he called us to do. He provided
salvation through a sacrifice at the cross. He
sent the Holy Spirit to empower us. He gave us
living examples in his word of how we should
walk things out. He gave us the keys to literally
overcome in every area of our life, physically,
mentally, socially, emotionally, financially,
relationally, spiritually. He's given us the
keys. And Hebrews 12, one. confirms this. It
says this, Jesus is the author and he is the
finisher. of everything we need. He is the beginning.
He is the end. He is the alpha. He is the omega.
He is the bright and the morning star. He did
not miss a thing when he empowered us to serve
him. Nothing in him is incomplete. provided everything,
the finished product for all that we would need
at the cross and at the resurrection. It's everything
that we would need to experience life, everything
that we would need to step through and do what
he has asked us to do. We have an all -inclusive
package in Jesus, all right? How many of you
have ever had an all -inclusive package in something?
How many of you have ever done an all -inclusive
vacation? Maybe an all -inclusive order of some
kind that you got, right? I got to tell you,
more than once, I've needed this in my life.
I've shared this many times from this platform
that my cooking skills and my baking skills are
highly limited, okay? That's being generous,
actually, all right? They're weak, to put it
truthfully. I can cook mildly, just a few things,
right? And here's the thing. My wife's an amazing
cook. She's an amazing baker. She's incredible
at it. I'm the recipient of all that. I love
every second of it. But here's the problem. She's
also a tax preparer. She has her own tax business.
And in tax season, I don't see her for a couple
weeks. She's knee deep in paper, actually head
deep in paper and numbers, and she's gone. And
if my children and my in -laws, if my son -in
-laws don't take pity on me, sometimes they do.
They bring meals during that time, which is amazing,
right? I will eat anything that's left over,
anything, right? But for those few occasions
that they can, they have this thing called HelloFresh.
Anybody ever hear of that? Yeah. It's an all
-inclusive meal package. I love it. It comes
with all this stuff. It has instructions for
dummies like me, right, that tells you every
little thing to do. And I can actually cook something
that's edible if I have a HelloFresh meal because
it's all -inclusive. It's ready to go. I can
prepare that. You can do this. Jesus has given
you everything you need to be salty in the world
that's around you. You can do this. He's provided
everything that we need in every kind of way.
You can do it. Point at yourself one more time
and say, you can do it. Go ahead, do it right
now. I'm watching you. I'll just wait till you're
done. Okay, you can do it. You can do it. And
on this last message, I wanna give you just a
few biblical perspectives on personally sharing
our faith, being salty. Being salty. And maybe
shift your perspective just a little bit because
our perspective always changes how we approach
something. Our perspective always shifts the
lens that we see through, the filter that we
go through in life. And if you don't believe
me in this, go ahead and experiment a little
bit with this this week. Here's what I'll ask
you to do. Walk into a place sometime in a private
setting or even a public setting completely dressed
different than you normally dress. All right.
And how many know everybody else's perspective
of you will change? It's true. It's true. I can
tell you some different things you could wear
that would change the perspective of what people
see. A few months back, I had the opportunity
to go into a rehab center. I was going for a
pastoral visit. That's what pastors do. One of
the things we do is somebody will call and say,
hey, can you go to see so -and -so in the hospital
or in the rehab unit? So I went to this rehab
unit. And usually when I go to a rehab unit or
a hospital visit, I wear a jacket, right? I try
to put some clothes on that looks like like I'm
pastoralist in nature. I don't even sure what
that is, but you're right. It's a pastor. Well,
this particular day, I didn't have a jacket and
I came into this rehab center and there was this
little lady, elderly lady, very elderly lady
behind the reception desk. And she looked at
me and I said, I'm here for a pastoral visit.
And she looked me up. She looked me down. She
looked me up. She looked me down. And I saw the
doubt in her eye. And she goes, do you have any
ID? Not driver's license, like pass or ID. I
said, well, matter of fact, I do. You know, so
I pulled out my ID and I showed her my ID and
she looked me up and she looked me down and she
almost shook her head like this. Like, I guess
I'm going to have to sign them in right for this.
She didn't believe me. And it was just because
of the way I was dressed that day. She wasn't
buying in. And she had a perspective as soon
as I came in the door. She had a perspective.
There was a lens, there was a filter she was
looking at me through. So our perspective can
shift things. And how we approach sharing the
gospel with someone, if our perspective is off.
We're not gonna approach it the right way. And
here's a couple of things that we gave you. The
first thing I wanna give you this morning is
this, sharing our faith is not a spiritual event,
but it is a spiritual investment, okay? Small
tweak, small shift in perspective, but sharing
our faith is not a spiritual event. It is a spiritual
investment. Sometimes we look at sharing our
faith and an invitation to someone like it's
an event, right? Like it's a checklist kind of
thing. Like I need to invite somebody to God's
house and I need to invite somebody to know Jesus
and I got to check it off my Christian spiritual
checklist, right? Kind of thing. And listen,
don't get me wrong. I understand that there are
spiritual events that we celebrate. There really
are. There are things here that we celebrate.
When somebody makes a decision for Jesus, that's
what these orange balls are all about over here.
And we had 12 of them this week. Praise God.
Come on, you can give him a hand for that. Yeah,
12 of them this week. When somebody, that's an
event that took place, spiritual event, we celebrate
that. We really do. When somebody takes the next
step in salvation and they get water baptized
and we, right? Come on, we dunk them into water.
We baptize them in the name of the Father, Son,
and the Holy Spirit. And we all jump up and get
happy and celebrate, right? We play music. Those
are events. Those are things. When somebody starts
stepping into their giftings or their callings,
somebody's baptized in the Spirit. These are
spiritual milestones and they're spiritual events
to take. place and we celebrate it. But Jesus
taught us that leading others to him and into
the kingdom of God is also about investment.
It's about investing in others. And a little
perspective change makes a big shift in your
approach. Instead of talking at somebody, it
becomes investing in somebody. I mean, that's
very different. If I'm talking to you, if I'm
speaking to you, that's one thing. If I'm investing
in you as I talk to you, that's a whole different
thing. Coaching and mentoring, if you come from
that perspective, if you come from that light,
it changes everything in your approach. And I
realize sometimes we don't get a lot of time
with people, right? Sometimes it's only a few
moments. And you've got to think investment even
in those moments. Even in those flashes of time
with a person, think investment and not event.
Jesus said this in Matthew 28, 18, before he
left and went to the father and commissioned
us in what we're supposed to do. He said, and
Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority
has been given to me in heaven and on earth.
Go therefore and make disciples, invest, mentor.
coach. That's what making disciples is, right?
These newer terminology be mentoring and coaching,
invest in them, of all nations, baptizing them
in the name of the Father and of the Son and
of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe
all things that I commanded you. And lo, I'm
with you always, even to the end of the age.
Amen. That's what the word says. Jesus calls
us to invest. He calls us to invest in others,
to mentor others, to coach them, even if we get
a few minutes or we get more, right? It's not
an event in the kingdom of God. It's an investment.
And that perspective change will shift how you
approach anybody when you're going to talk to
them about Christ. I've seen this myself as an
investor, right, in others. Sometimes if you
come and you're just making an event, they're
going to run the other way. People know when
you're not investing in them. It's true. So whatever
time God gives you, whether it's a minute, right?
Whether it's a day with somebody, sometimes you
get the day with someone. Maybe it's a week that
you get to work with someone. Maybe it's a year
period of time. Whatever time God gives you in
that invest and don't make it an event because
we want to approach it. We want to be salty and
we want to come in with the right perspective.
It's true. It's true. It's true. And I understand
this in God's word. There's a pattern to investment.
Investment begins with an invitation to come
and see. Any investment always begins with the
opportunity to come and see. If I want you to
invest in something, I'm going to ask you to
come and see. I want you to come and observe.
Just come and take a look, right? It's true.
Years ago, Dixie and I got the opportunity to
go to Cabo San Lucas on vacation. And it was
not because we had money. It's because we knew
somebody that had money and they invited us to
go to Cabo San Lucas and said we'd pay. And we're
like, ding, ding, right? We're in. He said the
magic words, all right? And we went with this
couple to Cabo San Lucas and it was this five
-star all -inclusive resort. We were so out of
place. We had no idea what we were doing. And
we went to this place and it was incredible.
And once we got there, even on the way there,
we're like, how are we going to pay for things
there? Like this is a five -star resort. And
we found out that when we got there, that this
was, they had an opportunity to invest in this
organization, to invest. And they had what calls
like a timeshare thing, right? You come and see
what you can invest in. And if you did that,
you got a couple hundred bucks to spend at the
resort. resort. Like we will come and see anything.
If you're going to give us a couple hundred,
well, almost anything. All right. If you're going
to give us a couple hundred bucks. So we went
and did the timeshare. Thank God we didn't have
to produce any bank statements because we had
never got in the door. Right. This was high end.
You know, I think they started off at like $75
,000, like for two weeks to stay at this place.
Yeah, it was laughable. So we went in, but the
offer was to come and see. And after we got talking
with this guy and we sat down with him, we fessed
up. Like, there's the way. God's green earth.
We can do this. But he said, hey, it's okay,
right? You came to see. Investment always begins
with coming and seeing what you're going to invest
in. Come see what's taking place. And investment
to come and see Jesus, it starts, right, with
investment. It starts with the idea, just come
and see. Come and see who Jesus is. We invite
someone personally. We come with the attitude
and the heart. Just come and see Jesus. Here
at LifeHouse, that's what the green balls are
all about over here. This is about the invitation.
If you invite somebody to church, if you invite
somebody to life group, if you invite somebody
to know Jesus, we ask you just to fill out one
of those balls. We tell you, put the initials
of the person you invited or a symbol that represents
them, the date that you invited them, and put
that in there and celebrate. You know why we
do that? So we can pray over those invitations.
We want people to come. We want to pray over
what's taking place here at LifeHouse. We want
to respond. Come and see what it's all about.
Come and see who he is. Come and see. how he's
changed lives. Come and hear the testimony. Tonight's
revive. If you've never been to a revive, what
takes place at revive, it's not structured nearly
like a Sunday morning. When you come into a revive
worship service, we get together for an hour
and we just lift up God in praise. We worship
him. But at the end of revive, it's been our
tradition that we gather up front and we just
hand the mic around and you hear testimony of
what God's done in people's lives. It's incredible.
It's amazing. Just listening to somebody talk
about it. Come and see what he's about. Come
hear the testimony. Make the invitation a come
and see event, right? Not an event, an investment.
Come and see investment. We should give people
time to observe Jesus. We should give them time.
They need to come and look at it and test and
see God for themselves, see Jesus for themselves.
If I invite you to my house, For a meal, and
it's the first time you've ever come to my home.
How many know that's a come and see thing, right?
You're going to come and see. We all do this.
First time you go to somebody's house, you're
scoping everything, right? You're looking at
what's on the front door, right? As soon as the
door opens, you're peeking around. What's in
that room? What's in this room, right? You're
checking out the house. You're checking out the
yard. You're looking at the dog, right? Is it
a friendly dog? You're checking out how clean
the house is so you can decide whether you're
gonna eat the food, right? Or you're suddenly
gonna get sick and go home. You know, you're
doing all this. You come in and at a come and
see event, you come in for the first time, the
invitation, and you look. around. And then you
decide if you're coming back. We got to give
people time to learn about Jesus and to see Jesus
for the first time. Sometimes we mug them, right?
We just want to make them all make decisions,
right? No, let them come. Let them observe. The
word of God says in Psalms 34, 8, oh, taste and
see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man
who trusts in him. Let him come take a taste.
Let him see, right? Our investment in others
begins with the invite to come and see Jesus.
it let him observe let him see it starts off
with the come and see in God's word then it goes
to come and follow the disciples would say come
and see and Jesus would say come and follow you
see that in John chapter 1 and it starts with
verse 43 and says the following day Jesus went
to go to Galilee and he found Philip and he said
to him follow me Now, Philip was from Bethsaida,
the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael
and said to him, we have found him of who Moses
in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus
of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. And Nathanael
said to him, now listen, this is Philip talking
to Nathanael. Look, we found Jesus. We found
the Messiah. We found the Christ. And Nathanael
said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth?
He doesn't believe it, right? Nathanael's like,
I don't know. I don't think anything good can
come out of Nazareth. Philip said to him, what
did he say to him? Nathaniel doesn't really believe
you. He says, just come and see. Come and see
for yourself. Philip was already convinced, but
Nathaniel wasn't. Come and see. Take a look for
yourself. Check it out for yourself. Find out
what's being said, what's being done, what the
testimony is. Check out the word of God for yourself.
Check it out yourself. Investing, mentoring,
coaching, discipling others begins with the come
and see invitation. You can do this, church.
You can do this, right? It's the why and salty.
You can do it. Let them come and see and taste
for themselves. It's a little bit like going
to Sam's Club. I love Sam's Club. I don't know
if you've ever gone into Sam's Club, but I'll
go in and look for the bargain of the week. We're
there about every week to get stuff for the church.
And I'm cruising the aisles looking for the bargain
of the week. And there it is. It always happens.
Right at one of the end caps, there stands a
person, right? And they have a come and see thing
going on right there. They've got a sample of
something. It's always some kind of food. And
they got it in little itty bitty tiny cups, right?
And you come over and they're like, come on over.
over here. Come on in. I want you to see something.
And you go over and you just take a little taste
of whatever they have. Now, what they're trying
to get you to do is invest in the product, whatever
it is, right? Whatever the thing is for the day.
But I love it. They'll say, come on over and
see. And I go, hmm, that's not bad, right? They
taste that. They're hoping you're going to buy.
You're going to invest. You got to let people
come and see. You got to let them get a taste
of what it's all about. You've got to help them
understand. And once they decide to follow Jesus,
once they make a decision on their own that this
is true, that Jesus is the Son of God, he's Savior
of the world, that he loves them more than anybody
else could ever love them. Once they believe
that he is the way, the truth, and the life.
Once they experience the love of God, that it's
like no other love, right? They understand the
forgiveness and freedom that comes in Jesus.
Once they call him Lord and Savior, once they
invest, then comes and... follow. Come and follow.
It's come and see and come and follow. Jesus
said these things. I'm going to go ahead and
reread that previous passage, right? In John
1 43, the following day, Jesus wanted to go to
Galilee and he found Philip who was already convinced
and said to him, follow me. Follow me. Follow
me. Philip was ready. He came and saw Jesus previously.
He was ready. He was convinced. He was convicted
and convinced, right? He was sure that Jesus
was Savior. Philip's all in. Come and follow.
Sharing the gospel with others, becoming salty
with the invitation, right, is a come and see,
right, and then come follow me experience. It
really is. But we have to start with the come
and see. And it's investment. It's the perspective
you're coming from. Are you investing in somebody?
Do you see it as mentoring? Do you see it as
coaching? Whatever you get, everything's about
the invitation to come and see. And then the
follow -up is come and follow. It really is.
And there is such a pure, amazing, beautiful
model of this in the early church, in the church
of Christ in Acts chapter 2. When your church,
the first church is birthed after Jesus leaves
and goes to the Father, after he instructs his
disciples to coach and to mentor and to invite.
You see this beautiful model. He sends 120 to
Jerusalem into an upper room and he says, I'm
gonna send the gift. And the gift comes, it's
the Holy Spirit who comes. Best gift ever, by
the way, right? You can't be, this kind of gift
isn't something that gets consumed, used, or
put on a back burner, or even at a yard sale
next year, right, for 10 cents. The Holy Spirit
comes to live within us. And those who follow
Christ, he comes and he resides within us in
the spirit. Spirit of the living God for each
follower of Jesus and his power and his prompting
and his teaching is ours. And we witness this
after the come and see and it goes to come and
follow. And it's so powerful. And what takes
place in that early church is when this church
is birthed, immediately. When the Holy Spirit
comes, the gift comes. Peter, who's one of the
disciples, right? One of the guys that Jesus
has been mentoring and coaching and pouring into
all along the way. He goes out to Jerusalem.
He goes out into the streets and he begins to
preach an invitational message. He says, come
and see Jesus. He preaches this message. 3 ,000
plus people decide to follow Christ. They go
to come and follow. Let me read the account for
you. In Acts chapter 237 says this. Now, when
they heard this, they were cut to the heart when
they heard Peter preaching and said to Peter
and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what
shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent and
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus
Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And
you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit
for the promises for you and for your children
and for all who are far off. Everyone whom the
Lord God has calls to himself. And with many
other words, he bore witness and continued to
exhort saying, save yourself from this crooked
generation. So those who received the word were
baptized and they were added that day, 3000 souls.
So he preaches a come and see message, an invitational
message. Then we'll look what follows afterwards.
In verse 42, it says this. Now, this is talking
about those who got saved. This is talking about
the 3 ,000 who are now following Jesus. And they
devoted themselves. He's talking about the entire
crowd here. To the apostles' teaching and to
fellowship and to breaking of bread and prayers.
And awe came upon every soul. And many wonders
and signs were being done through the apostles.
And all who believed were together and had all
things in common. They were selling their possessions
and belongings and distributing the proceeds
to all. as any had need. And day by day, attending
the temple together, breaking bread in their
homes, receive their food with gladness and generous
hearts, praising God and having favor with all
people. And the Lord added to their number day
by day, those who were being saved. They came
together in the follow, right? They devote themselves
to learning the word of God, to hearing the words
of scripture. and the words of Jesus. Now, I
can't tell you how important this is. You're
going to hear more about this. When we launch
into 2026, we've got a focus already set up.
We're going to get into God's word. We're going
to dive deep because there's incredible benefit
when you get into God's word. But this early
church, they dive in. They're learning the word
of God together. They're coming together and
learning together. They also engage in something
called fellowship. We love fellowship because
fellowship involves food. Amen. Yeah, church
people fellowship always involves food. It's
breaking the bread of life, which is the word
of God, and then breaking bread for real, like
the food we eat, the physical food. And we love
to get together. And there's something spiritual,
you didn't know this, but there's something spiritual
about eating together. It really is. About sitting
across the table and breaking bread and eating
together. Hearing the word of God, breaking spiritual
bread, and then breaking physical bread. And
listen, this happens all the time in our life
groups. I hear about all the great meals. Life
groups meet in different places. They all come
together. They're eating food. I hear about the
feast that takes place. They're breaking bread.
There's fellowship that takes place. And Jesus
knew this. It's why he instituted communion.
It's one of the sacraments we participate in.
It's the breaking of bread, and we remember the
body of Christ, and then the juice from the vine
that represents his blood. He says, when you're
eating and drinking, remember me. This is spiritual.
And then they come and follow, and they do something
else. They care. They care about each other.
And not just a, like, I care about you kind of
phrase kind of care. Not just a passing, hey,
I hope everything works out okay for you kind
of thing. This is the kind of care that comes
down to, I'm not okay if you're not okay kind
of care. That's what happened in the early church.
1 John 3, 16 says this, for by this we love because
he laid down his life for us and we also ought
to lay down our lives for our brother. But whoever
has this world's goods and sees his brother in
need and shuts up his heart from him, how does
the love of God even abide in him, right? How
does it abide in him? James 2, 14 says, what
does it profit my brother if someone says he
has faith but does not have works? Can faith
save him? If a brother or sister is naked and
destitute of daily food, and one of them says,
depart in peace and be warmed and filled, but
you do not give them the things which are needed
for the body, what does it profit? That's also
faith by itself. If it does not have works, it's
dead. I should not be okay if you're not okay,
right? If you need something. Now, I'm not talking
about catering to your wants or whims. That's
not what I'm talking about here. But if you got
needs in your life, if you need something, food,
clothing, shelter, support, right? This is where
we connect. This is what the early church did.
It was a beautiful picture of coming and following
Christ. There was word, there was fellowship,
there was care. The Bible says that they had
favor with all people, all people. Worship team,
if you'd come. You and I are salty if we come
in with the whole perspective and lens that we're
going to invest in other people. It can't be
surface, can't be checklist, can't be event.
We have to come in ready to invest. We got to
let them come and see. We gotta be invitational
and let them find Jesus and let them hear about
Jesus. And then when they come to Jesus, we gotta
invest further. We gotta go deeper in all this.
Investing in others is you inviting others to
come and see and inviting others to come and
follow Jesus with you. It's a perspective thing.
Perspective matters. Perspective matters. I read
this this week as I close. It says this, in February,
2020. BBC journalist Vicki Baker jumped on the
first Eurostar to Paris, motivated by a sudden
urge to have dinner with a friend. American Jim
Hayes had entered his late 80s and his health
was declining, yet she knew he would welcome
a visit. Jim always welcomed visitors to his
home in Paris. She was far from the only guest
wandering into his warm glow of his artist's
workroom on a wet winter's night. Inside, people
were squeezing shoulder to shoulder through the
narrow kitchen. Strangers struck up conversations,
brunch together in groups, and balancing their
dinners on paper plates. Jim had operated an
open house policy in his home every Sunday evening
for more than 40 years. Absolutely anyone was
welcome to come in for an informal dinner. All
you had to do was phone or email, and he would
add your name to the list, no questions asked.
Just put a donation in an envelope when you arrive.
There would be a buzz in the areas. People with
various nationalities, locals, immigrants, travelers,
milled around the small space. Open plan floor,
right? A pot of hearty food bubbled up on the
stove and serving would be dished out into the
trestle table so you could help yourself and
continue to mingle. It was for good reason that
Jim was nicknamed the godfather of social networking.
He led the way in connecting strangers long before
we outsourced it to Silicon Valley. At the dinners,
As the dinner peaked, Jim would welcome up to
120 guests filling his house and spilling out
into the cobbled back garden as an estimated
150 ,000 people have come over the years into
his house. The doors were always open, says Amanda
Morrow, an Australian journalist. It was a revolving
door of guests, some who wanted to stay over,
others who just wanted to say hello. Jim never
said no to anyone. Amid the outpouring of online
tribute since his death, January 6th, 2021, these
words from his son, Jesper, stand out. The only
thing that really got Jim down was people leaving.
He struggled with that. His goal from early on
was to introduce the whole world to each other.
He was almost successful. What if we were that
passionate and intentional to help people come
and see Jesus? What if we were that passionate
about people coming to experience Christ? What
if we were that passionate to not just make it
an event, but to invest like this man did? What
if we did that? What if we did that? I'm going
to ask you to stand. This is about being salty,
church, for Christ. It's about speaking. It's
about asking good questions, right? Speaking
to others. It's about listening. It's about being
intentional, investing into others. It's about
telling the story of Christ any chance you get
in any way you can. But it's also about you.
It's about you. It's about the lens that you're
looking through as you go out to be salt of the
earth. That's what the Bible calls it, salt of
the earth, light. This is what it's about. We
have to have a right. How many of you can do
the right thing and do it the wrong way? Amen?
It's true. We want to do this the right way.
It's an amazing thing. I love the, I'm hearing
about the invitations. We're hearing about the
people who are coming to Christ. We want to make
sure we're pure at heart when we go do this.
We want to make sure that we're going there to
invest. We're not looking for numbers. We're
not looking to pat ourselves in the back. We're
not looking for any of that. This is kingdom
work. This is just about getting people to Christ
so they can experience exactly what you did.
The freedom that you know, the forgiveness that
you know, right? The power of God, the Holy Spirit
in you. This is what it's for. 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.