John Gunter: Well, I am so thankful to have each and every one of you here this morning. If I haven't gotten to meet all of you, see some of you brought your family with you, glad to have you guys. We're so so thankful that you would be with us before we get into the lesson today I want to mention August 16 is going to be when we start the story August 9, we will have a a sermon that kind of leads up into it and and kind of tells you, alright, start reading. In August 16, we are going to be in week one chapter one of the story and so I've been saying in class and and trying to say it here. We're gonna do a book order for that.
The the adult books are $5 The kids books are either 10 or 12. I cannot remember, but I can get you that information and I'm gonna make that order this week. So, if you need if you need a copy, please let me know. We've also had a couple of people just very generous put money towards that and so if you can't afford a copy or you know of someone who needs one, I just can't don't have the money for it. Let us know.
We've had people give towards that because we see it as a very important thing that we're gonna go through the the the story of god together, okay? And this is gonna be, I think it's thirty eight weeks, thirty eight, forty weeks, something like And so when we come together, the kids are studying the same text. Class and adults were studying the same text. The sermon will be over the same text. And so when you leave here that day, you can talk to anyone in here that has been in class or the sermon about what has happened because we've all covered the same thing.
Now, we might not have covered it in the same way but we've all covered the same thing which is a fun thing to do, okay? And this is also one of the questions I get asked is I wanna read scripture more. How do I do that? Where do I start? This is a great place to start.
It's not the entirety of scripture. It's kind of more of a a higher level. We're gonna we're gonna pick some things and and show kind of what god's doing but it's a great place to start. Alright, I wanna start studying the word of god more. It's a great great thing to do.
So, just wanna encourage you to do that. So, to prepare for that, we are starting this series as you see on the screen called The Invitation. We are preparing our hearts for the story. And so, as the name implies, we want to, as as we come into contact with the word of god, with our savior, hopefully, what we're not doing is saying, what I wanna do is keep that for myself. Because what we do in life is when we find something that is exciting to us or that we enjoy or that changes our life, what do we do?
We share it, don't we? If you go and have a fantastic meal at a new restaurant, what do you do? I'm just not telling anybody about this. That way it's not busy. I can get back there and it'll be okay.
What you do is you go tell somebody, man, I really enjoy that you ought to check it out. That's one thing I really love about our small group as we found out, Clint doesn't need much urging but if you if you start talking about fried chicken, he might head to Oklahoma to his favorite chicken place after church. He would do that. If you will go, he will get in the truck, won't you, Clint? I know you would.
But that's what we do. When things change our life, we enjoy things, we share them. Favorite movie, TV show where my group's kind of nerdy. Yeah, y'all are welcome to join it. You don't have to be a but but we like different TV shows.
We like different series and we share those things and and so that's what you do. You you invite and you share and as people who follow Jesus, that's what we should do, right? If Jesus has changed your life, say amen. Amen. Amen.
Do you want Jesus to change someone else's life? Amen. So, we don't keep that to ourselves. We go out and share and we invite and so, I think what we do a lot of times is we put too much pressure on ourselves. We believe that that that invitation has to be some kind of, I don't know, perfectly executed thing that we've planned out but how many times when when again, going back to those little frivolous things, a restaurant or a movie or or or whatever it is, Do you think about that much or you just say, hey, you gotta come see.
Right? You don't think about, well, I need to have all this information down and ready for em so I can convince them. All you do is say, hey, this is awesome. It changed my life. That that steak dinner or whatever.
Why don't you come and see? And so that's what we're talking about this morning. We're not doing this out of like obligation or guilt and and not really trying to put pressure on ourselves but we do want to invite and say, as we understand, god has changed my life. I want god to change your life and so we invite and so we're gonna be in John chapter one today. That's that's where the majority of our scripture's gonna be.
If you wanna turn to it, I will have it on the screen for you. But the the invitation this morning starts with this authentic encounter with Jesus. In John one starting in verse 35, it says the next day again, John was standing with two of his disciples. So two of the people that were following John, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, behold the lamb of God. The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
That is no small thing. In a culture where you it's an honor and shame culture, I'm glad that I've got so many followers. We can kinda relate to that too, younger people on social media. Right? How many followers do I have?
How many likes did I get on that post? We collect those things, and it makes us feel a certain way. But John the Baptist, as he's going along, says, behold, not me, behold the lamb of God. His disciples left him and went to follow Jesus. Somebody say amen.
Amen. Because that's who we need to be following. Not a person, not a preacher, not anything else. We come to follow Jesus. And John throughout his ministry constantly has to defend, it is not me.
I just come to prepare the way for this guy. And so he even says, I I I must become less. He he must become greater. John has it all right. Behold the lamb of god And the two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus.
Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, what are you seeking? What are you what are you looking for? And they said to him, rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying? He said to them, come and you will see. So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day for it was about the tenth hour.
I can't imagine what that would be like hanging out with Jesus. Right? But that's what they decided. John the Baptist ministry was thriving. We read about this in in Acts.
So, this was going and you know, he was he was doing all of these things. People were coming out to him or in Luke and and and all of a sudden, he is not pointing at himself saying, look at this great ministry. He starts pointing to Jesus and he says, the one whose sandals I'm unworthy to even, untie. But John understands his mission in this, doesn't he? He wasn't building his own following.
He was preparing the way. And so ask yourself, we had so many amens when we talked about Jesus changing our life. As you go about your way throughout the week, are you pointing to Jesus? That maybe a little tougher question. Look in the mirror because we know that.
We said, hey, god has changed my life. I'd I'd really like him to change yours. Hopefully, we all feel that way but are we going or as we are going, are we out pointing to Jesus and saying, please follow him. Come and see and I think that's what great disciples do. Great followers are always pointing others to Christ.
Now, for some reason, we've we've kinda operated with, I don't wanna tell anybody about Jesus because they might think differently about me or they might say no or I might come into there's always this, this idea of this super atheist with all the answers that we can't combat. And so I don't wanna share that. Well, that's not what it's about. It's not about having all the answers. It's just about pointing to Jesus and saying, come see this guy.
Come follow him and Jesus asked this this first, this really the first recorded question that Jesus has. He says, what are you seeking? He doesn't begin with telling them all the things that they need to know. He's he he starts with a question. What are you seeking?
Let's ask that question to to our church this morning. What are you seeking? Why are you here? He could have asked. Right?
Why are you here this morning? Because we could be here for a a myriad of reasons. Right? I came just so I wouldn't feel guilty later. I came because I know mom's gonna ask me if I came.
Right? I've been there before. And my mom is at home recovering. She's probably watching this. But I've told you before, when I was in college, I loved to stay at late gaming.
I'd sleep in and I guarantee you the Sundays that I missed, mom called me. And that was before Life three sixty and everything. That was just mom intuition. You know, something could she probably I this is how I imagine it. Ladies, you tell me if this is right.
Sitting there doing nothing, maybe having a conversation, something goes, he didn't go to church. That's how it happened, I believe. But you could be here just because of that because I don't wanna feel guilty. And so we need to ask ourselves, what are we seeking? Are you seeking something like that?
Are you seeking a relationship with Jesus? And I think that's what he's getting to. I think he's basically asking, are are you serious about this? Because you just left John. Are you just trying to follow the next great teacher?
Are you seeking something different? And so, that's what Jesus asked as he begins with this question. Some of us, as we come here, we may be seeking hope, peace, forgiveness. Anybody need that this morning? We may be seeking purpose, healing, and community, and I hope those are the things we are seeking.
And I hope that's what we're able to provide not just for us but but god provides as you come to him and so we ask ourselves, why are we following Jesus? And so, Jesus again does not say, okay, well, let me tell you all of this. He just says, come and you will see. Not a long drawn out thing, not a collection of here's my evidence. It is just come and you will see.
Psalm thirty four eight says, oh taste and see that the lord is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. We even wrote a song about that. I really like it. I don't think we we've ever sung it.
We may have. Oh, taste and see that the lord is good. Come and try it. I've given you that recommendation about that meal or that restaurant. Now, you have to step up and come and try it.
See what it's like. How many of you are here this morning? See what it's like. What do I, what do I experience when I come into contact with god's word? Oh, taste and see that the lord is good.
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. Sometimes, we expect people to kind of understand everything before coming to Jesus. And we may have people right here in this place right now that are saying, well, if only I get to this point intellectually, then I will come to Christ or if once I master this issue that I know I have in my life, then I come to Christ. You've been there before? I don't know what it is about us.
We think we're so individual. We so we feel like we have so much power because of our culture. We're going do to We're that. It. I will help you.
I will fill you with the spirit of god. If you will come to me and we're like, well, maybe later. Once I get it worked out. No, come and see. Taste and see that the lord is good.
Andrew stayed with Jesus John even remembers the hour. It says, about the tenth hour but why record the time? Isn't it interesting what scripture gives you sometimes and what it doesn't? Lot Lot of times, I'll get the scripture like, man, I wish you would have just expounded on that just a little bit. We had a a question this morning in class and we would just wait.
Paul, would you say just a little more? But why would you record the hour? How many of you have been baptized in here? You come to Jesus, you've been baptized. Raise your hand.
I won't see. How many of you remember that? Maybe you don't remember it as clearly as you used to but it was impactful, wasn't it? 09/18/1994. I remember.
Why? It's a life altering, life changing day. It was about the tenth hour. He remembers. It was life changing.
We we do that with weddings. You remember that day? Maybe. He didn't dance too much. We remember birthdays.
Evan's got one coming up. He's about to be a teenager. I don't know how I'm gonna react. Okay? You'll need some help with that.
He's at that point now where he doesn't doesn't even know what we should get him for his birthday. What he said, he asked me this week, what should I ask for for my birthday? I don't know what to do with that. And so if you have suggestions, please let him know. He doesn't know.
But we record those special days, funerals, baptisms, the day you came to Jesus and and we don't forget em because they are special. That's what we're seeing here. John never forgot that afternoon. And transformation always, I think, happens in these special moments, right? I remember get, I remember just leading up to my baptism.
My church always did a Sunday night, a third Sunday night singing where we got together and we sang and I love to sing. I think that's probably where it came from but I remember waiting on and we were probably singing ring out the message or something like that. We're ringing, you know, for ten minutes. Ring out the message and just waiting for that time because I was shy. You may not believe that.
I was shy and I didn't want a lot of people to be around for my baptism. But I remember going up into our church building, going into the baptistry. I remember coming home and thinking, my life has changed. In in the the I have come to him. I've expressed be my faith in this.
I am putting my trust in Jesus and so that that sticks with us and so, that's what we see here is this transforming time that John pulls out. He says, I remember it was the tenth hour. He remembered what happened that afternoon but what happens here is Andrew can't or doesn't keep it to himself. In verse 40 of John one, it says, one of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, foreshadowing. He first found his own brother, Simon, and said to him, we have found the Messiah, which means Christ.
The sent one of god. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, you are Simon, the son of John. You shall be called Cephas, which means Peter. So, the first thing Andrew does it says, I've gotta tell my brother.
Anybody have that special family relationship? I just wish I could get my brother. I wish I could get my sister. Yeah? That's that's what we should feel when we read this.
Andrew is saying, I've gotta tell Simon. And then when he does, he brings him to Jesus. And Jesus immediately says, I'm gonna change your name. That had to be an interesting conversation, right? Good to meet you.
I'm I'm, I'm Simon. No, you're not. I'll call you Cephas. Funny story, I did that with buddy of mine, our our next door neighbor. He had a friend that he brought over, and his name was Daniel.
And I said, I'm gonna call you Fred. Everyone called him Fred after that. It had no meaning. I just did it. Jesus had a lot more thought into Cephas and Simon and all this than I had in Fred.
Because we understand that that that Peter means rock and and and as we read the story, we understand, okay, we're we're building on this faith that that you have showed but Peter goes with his brother. He meets Jesus and Jesus says, okay, we're gonna do something very special here. And so, I wanna ask you the question. As we lead up to the story, who is your Simon? Who is the person in your life that you know you need to go invite and say, come see this man.
I have found the Messiah. I have found the savior. Come see. You don't have to have an elegant argument. Just say, come see.
Does everybody have somebody in their their mind? A church I know about, he, they they did a series similar to this and they called it, who's your one? And so, what I wanna challenge you to do is I want you to think about and I know sometimes that as soon as we think about that person, it's like guilt and weight. Anybody feeling that right now? Say yes.
I got, like I should have invited him a long time ago. Been there. It's okay. God knows. He can handle it, okay?
But as as we think about that, I want you to start praying for that person. Can you do that? That as that person's name comes to mind that I know I need to say, hey, you need to come see this Messiah. You need to come see this person. Again, you don't have to have an elegant argument but just say, I'd love for you to come see this man.
Just to bring someone to church, just to bring someone for an encounter. Do you notice that we don't have a lot of in scripture where somebody just gives an elegant argument that changes everything. It's always inviting people in and god changes lives. Sometimes, I think we feel the weight as if we have to do the changing. No, you invite them in.
You invite people in just like you were invited in. Yes? You are here because someone loved you and cared for you enough to bring you. Maybe that was your parents. Maybe that was a friend.
Maybe that was someone who thinks you're gonna be their in laws at some point. Right? You never know how you're gonna get an invite. But someone cared about you enough that you were you were their Simon. I've gotta tell this person.
I need to bring this person so that they know about the same person. They experienced the same thing in their life. Andrew shared what he knew. He shared, we have found the Messiah. And that's all he had to say.
Come on, come see. And notice what he didn't say. I think that's important as well. I have all the answers. Sometimes we feel like I need all the answers.
He didn't say, let me explain everything or wait till I've studied more. I've got a whole, you know, handle on this situation. He said, come and see what I have experienced. I think one of Satan's greatest holds on us, one of Satan's greatest lies can be, I don't know enough. And so that keeps us from even inviting someone to experience it.
I don't know enough. They may ask me a hard question. I remember getting to teach a, an adult bible class for the first time. I was scared to death because I just knew those people were gonna ask me a hard question I couldn't answer. Now, years later, I have a Masters of Divinity degree, which is a seventy two hour Masters.
And I get asked questions all the time that I can't answer. And what I've learned is, I don't know all the answers. And whether I stay with this degree or I go get a doctorate, I am never gonna have all the answers because what all of that training teaches you is you don't know a lot of stuff. I was ignorant about stuff I didn't know. Right?
And so if that's what you're doing, if that's the pressure you're putting on yourself, let it go. Because even if you go get a a a doctorate degree, you're gonna sit there and somebody's gonna ask you questions that you don't know the answer to. But that is not the point. The point is, is that we're all sinners in need of a savior. Boy, that was way too low for that statement.
We are all sinners in need of a savior. Amen. Yes. Because once you figure that out, it releases the pressure of, oh, I need all these answers. I need all of this.
No. I am a sinner in need of a savior and I know you are too. And why don't you go come and experience our savior and have your life changed as well? The lion that changed everything was he brought him to Jesus. Andrew might not have had any power or any wisdom that would change hearts but he knew, I found the Messiah.
He can do everything. Just come see him. Just come talk to him. In first Corinthians three verses six, Paul says, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
So allow God to work. Find your Simon and just bring him to Jesus and watch God work. Because we think about, boy, I just don't have it. I wish I was convincing. I wish I could, I was more eloquent in my speech.
I wish I could sing better. I wish I was a better teacher. All of these things that keep you from doing the the the most simple thing and just saying, I found Jesus, come meet him. It says, neither he who plants nor he who waters anything but only god who gives the growth. I I thought we went over the same scripture in class this morning.
How many of you, are gardeners? You ever plant anything? Katie says she has a brown thumb. My garden would look like I have the same thing this year. But we can we can set up everything perfectly for those seeds, can't we?
You plant from seed, You can plant, you can do everything but then at the end of the day, you're just watching and waiting, hoping that god is gonna give the increase, right? That god is gonna give the growth. I think there's something very humbling about that because we are we are very empowered people, right? I can do a lot. I take pride in what I can do.
If I can't do it, know somebody who can and we just kinda get things done. But at the end of the day, god gives the growth. You don't have to feel pressure. God gives the increase. God gives the growth.
We plant others water but god handles everything. But Jesus immediately changes Simon. He even changes his name as we mentioned just a little bit ago but he sees Peter as Simon and he sees his potential and I I can't imagine what that looks like with Jesus to look on you and and and see this but he sees, okay, we can do something here and so we don't ever need to underestimate what Jesus can do with that invitation. You know, sometimes what we do is we don't invite everyone or maybe that first person that comes to mind is like, yeah, well, they need to fix this and so, for some reason, we end up looking for the perfect family or the perfect person that fits. Well, who are we to judge who fits like that, right?
Or who are we to judge what god can do in their life? How many of you had god show up in a moment in time that completely changed your life? You didn't do it. You weren't even maybe you weren't even looking for god in the moment. But god has the power to change lives.
All you need to do is walk through that open door and invite. Never underestimate what Jesus can do with that invitation. And so we introduce, we bring people to Jesus, and he does the changing. When scripture mentions Andrew in John one, John six, and John 12. Every single time, Andrew is bringing people to Jesus.
Ain't that interesting? You know, Andrew is like a footnote in the Bible, right? You don't think of Andrew much. But every single time that Andrew is showing up, he is bringing people to Jesus. And that's who I wanna be.
I wanna I wanna walk through that open door. I wanna bring that person that came to my mind. I want to let god change them. So, what is keeping you from doing that exact thing? In verse 43, the next day, Jesus decided to go to Galilee.
He found Philip and said to him, follow me. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, we have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nathaniel said to him, can anything good come out of Nazareth?
Philip said to him, come and see. I think he said it just like that. He was very snarky in that. K? Nazareth, when you, break down the word, it's kinda like Stick Town.
I'm from Stick Town. Anybody else? I grew up in Stick Town. My Bellevue used to be Stick Town, didn't it? And he says, can anything come out of that little hole in the wall?
And Nathaniel said or or Philip said to him responding to Nathaniel, come and see. I think that's how he said it. We read it too flatly sometimes because I think Philip that he already knew. Alright, you're going to be changed by this. And so, Jesus calls Philip.
Philip finds Nathaniel. You notice in the pattern? You encounter Jesus, you invite. You encounter Jesus, you invite, you bring. No pressure, you don't have to feel guilty about that, but John is showing us over and over.
This is what happens. That when I meet the savior, I meet the Christ who changes my life, I bring people to him. People will always have questions. You know that? People always have questions.
What good can come out of this stick town? You don't have to worry about that. Philip doesn't panic. He doesn't, throw a fit or anything like that. All he says is come and see.
Experience for yourself. I, there was a show I liked and I tried to get my friends to watch it and it was on Apple TV. And Apple at the point, I don't know what it is right now, but Apple was $5 a month. And all I said was, if you don't like it, I'll give you $5 back. Come and see.
Let's put something on the line because I believe you're gonna really enjoy this. Every person that I challenge that, I didn't pay a dime because I was right. You know, that's what say. But that's that's what we do. Right?
We we experience and we invite. And so that's what we see over and over again. In John six verse 66, after this, many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So, Jesus said to the 12, do you want to go away as well? And Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of God. Say amen. Andrew invited his brother, and not long down the road, this is Peter's response to Jesus. To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know.
Remember, Andrew didn't do any of this. Jesus did. You don't have to prove any of this. Jesus will. We have believed and have come to know that you are the holy one of god, the one sent by god to change all of this.
The Christ, the Messiah, lord to whom shall we go? So, John begins this gospel with an invitation. Not a fancy program, not a building to say, hey, come look at our awesome building. He starts with this invitation, not a strategy, but inviting people. And so someone invited you, someone made sure that you came and experienced Jesus.
Someone refused to give up on you and whether you know it or not, I promise you, someone was praying for you. One part of this church that we have just made a habit of over the last few years is praying for people that we do not yet know. And whether you knew it or not, some of you this morning were those people. We did not know. Because we don't know how god's going to work everything out, do we?
But if we have faith in him, we trust that he's gonna handle it all. And so our responsibility is to encounter the savior and invite. John pointed Andrew. Andrew brought Peter. Peter ends up preaching at Pentecost.
He anybody ever done ancestry.com or anything like that? Anybody like family trees? I know Scott Duh. I want you to think about for a moment. I love seeing that laid out.
It's like, oh my goodness. My mind can't even really wrap around it. I don't think I would have survived 200 ago, anybody else? I'm too soft. I need my air conditioning.
Right? I wouldn't have made it, but I love seeing that. What I want you to to try and visualize for just a moment is there is a family tree that leads to you spiritually. Somebody invited somebody that invited somebody who invited somebody. Two thousand years of that, and here you are.
Can you imagine that? When I see my my ancestry, my physical ancestry, I look back and think, my I'm I'm so glad those people, you know, lived. I would have died probably. I don't know. I'm glad they they lived so that I can live.
And and you think about it that way that someone encountered Jesus and invited, and that person encountered Jesus and invited. And here we sit this morning. How many people do we have in here this morning, miss Sue? You know? Have you counted?
99? Praise god. Say amen. Amen. There are 99 people here this morning that have that.
I wish we could see it, right? Visually. That'd be a good exercise. Go home and think, boy, how did I get here? And it's because someone love, they encountered Jesus and they said, oh, this is gonna change your life.
You need to come. And so, that's what I'm gonna ask you this morning. Again, think about who is your Simon? Who can I invite? Who needs to encounter Jesus?
Because it's not just about us, is it? Think about fifty years from now, a hundred years from now. Your invitation will impact generations. Do you understand that? Because their invitation impacted generations.
Has Jesus changed your life, church? Invite someone else to have their life changed. If you need the prayers of this church, we're gonna offer a time of invitation. If you haven't been baptized into the name of Jesus, why not right now? Allow him to fix all that is broken.
Allow him to make the changes. Don't let pride or whatever it is stand in your way of coming to Jesus and having your life changed. Would you come as we stand and as we sing?