Charlie Loften: Hello, and welcome to The Grove Church podcast. I'm Charlie Loften, the lead pastor there, and we are so glad that you're joining us. Whether you are a member and you're just catching up on a sermon that you missed or you're someone who's brand new, we are really glad that you are joining us. And if you are new in some way, and I know that a lot of people will do that, we'll listen to sermons first before they visit. I want you to know that we would love to meet you at any point.
You can join us live in our services on Sunday, nine and 10:30 or our streaming service at 10:30. Either way, we would love to be able to get to know you. And regardless of why you are here listening to this sermon today, thank you so much for joining us. Hey, good morning. Hey, if you are new, I'm Charlie.
I'm the lead pastor here, and we are just incredibly glad that you're here. Really excited for all the new people that are here today. Very much glad that you're here. And if you are new, we would love to know that you are here. Actually, I'll be in the back after the service.
I'd love to meet you. I'd love to just find out how you found us, figure out any way that we can help. I know that finding a new church can be challenging, and you may have other churches you want to see, but if there's anything we can do to help you, support you, get you connected when you're ready, we would love that. I know we have quite a few college students here. Welcome, welcome to our community, to our church, to go Hogs.
And if you come here long enough, I mean, you'll get it. I like the hogs. Anyways, so we're really glad that you're here, and I know especially you're in a new town, looking for churches. That can be difficult. May have a couple other you want to see, but if you think, okay, I think I may like this.
We would love to have your name, your number, and help you get connected to the college stuff that's going to get launched up here in the next week or so, and so we'd love to be able to help you get connected to that. We're a pretty chill church. We want you to be as connected as you would like to be. We want to make it as easy as possible. So you can find me, little forms back there in the back.
We'd just love to meet you, anything that we can do to help. And you found us on a week where we're kind of finishing up just a little short three week series where we're just kind of reviewing our mission statement, reminding some of us, telling some of us for the first time, hey, this is the thing that God has called us to do. This is who we are, and as we kind of launch into a new school year, this is who God has called us to be. And with each week, we've kind of had an action item, kind of a goal for us as a year. But first, we'll just kind of look at the mission statement again, and it is this, that God has called us, and we are inviting Northwest Arkansas to know Jesus, pursue meaningful relationships, and to share His hope with the world.
So three things. First, to know Jesus, and kind of have two different meanings for this. One is we want people who don't know Jesus at all to be able to come here and find Him. We want this to be a place where no matter who you are, what your background is, how little or how much you've been involved in church, if you've got stuff in your past, stuff in your present, that this can be a safe place for you to learn about the saving hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so that's why we want you to know Jesus.
But in addition, those who have found Jesus, we want you to know Him. We want to grow in our knowledge of Him. We want to grow in our relationship with Him. So with that, two weeks ago, we put the action item up there, and Spencer mentioned it a few minutes ago, where we are getting on the Bible app, the YouVersion Bible app. You can set The Grove Church as your church.
There's a QR code that'll be going through the slides at the end, or you can just go and search for The Grove Church and find us. And we're reading through the New Testament together. And so we're making a commitment. We're going to learn more about who Jesus is, the way He lived, the way He behaved, the theology, heart, the passion. So we're going to go through that.
It's just a little bit each day, and we can grow in our knowing of Jesus. But beyond that, once we know Jesus, we really want to grow in our faith, and we believe that the best way to do that is within community, with people. And so this idea is that we want to build meaningful relationships. To build meaningful relationships, you do that by you find your people. And so the way that we talked about this last week, we offer all sorts of small groups, ranging from ones that are very study focused to those that are very community focused.
But what we want you to do is to find people that you know will have your back, people that can help you, support you, where you can grow together. So our goal is we want you to find your people, not just friends, not just people you go to church with, but people who can be your people. So encouragement there is this, is that to make a commitment for semester, regardless of maybe how on the fence you've been or how weird it might seem or uncertain you might be, make a commitment this semester to give it a full semester's try of joining a small group here at The Grove. And there's people out at the Connect desk, Mark there in the back, lots of ways to help you get that on ramp. And so would love for you to do that.
And then the last one is this. I know Jesus, I'm growing in these meaningful relationships, and now I take this, I want to repeat the process. I want to help others do the same thing, so I want to share the hope of Jesus with the world. I know Jesus. I'm growing, building meaningful relationships.
I want that for other people, So I want to share that hope that God has given me with the world. So we're going spend some time today kind of talking about what that looks like and some really practical ways that we think that we can do that, but we have a great opportunity here today to kind of, as we're introducing this topic, there is a guy in our church, and it is difficult for me, even though I'm not his dad, to say we have a man in our church who was not a man when I met him, who's been a part of our church for a long time, he's kind of grown up here, who is going to spend a semester starting next week, a week from tomorrow, he's going to spend a semester in The Middle East. And he is going to God has given him this great mission he's going to be able to do. So I want to invite him and his dad, Brandon Powell Freeman and Mark Powell Freeman up here. So dude, like, a week from tomorrow, and you do, and then boop boop boop, you're gonna be in Middle East, which is really, really cool.
And what Brendan is going to be doing with some existing missionaries that are there, he's gonna be helping teach English and just kind of making relationships in the community so that there can be people there who don't know Jesus at all, very far from Jesus, and just cultivate these relationships to build a long term work. And so he's still in the process of raising money for his semester, and he's going to be there, again, all the way almost to Christmas. This is just again, I'm a little sentimental. Know. I've randomly selected one of our elders to come up here as well to to pray, and and and I know that he is really sentimental as well.
I just came out. I think I speak, man, we're proud of you and really excited to hear what God's doing in both financially, relationally, spiritually, in every possible way. We want to support you and let you know that you are loved and will launch you out well. And so Mark, would love it if you would just pray for us and just kind of join us as we pray and commission Brennan.
Mark Freeman: Oh, father, I just wanna begin with the the confession that you are you are worthy. You are you are worthy of our commitment. You're worthy of our love. What you have done in making redemption possible through your death and resurrection, King Jesus. You are you are worthy.
It's worthy that that story would be told in every place to every people. And, father, it's it's amazing and awesome to see what you've done in Brennan's life, the way that you have drawn into yourself, the way that you have communicated your love to him, and the way that your power and love in him is uncontainable. And I look around this room, and from Grove Kids to Roots to opportunities to go to Camp Barnabas and be involved in ministry. Father, you have just used the people in this room and this community of faith to grow him. And now we get to be a part of supporting and sending him from a distance, praying and believing and watching what you're gonna do.
And so, Father, would you would you just go ahead of him, prepare the way, protect him, fill him up with your power? Every conversation that he's gonna have, every meal that he's gonna have, every transportation that He's gonna take, just trust you to protect Him, trust you to be with Him, very present with Him in all of those decisions and all of those conversations and all those lonely moments. Father, would you please just be with Him and use Him for Your glory? Amen.
Charlie Loften: Was also proud of you, dude. Now I know what some of you may be thinking that, hey, we're gonna have an application point here about how what it means for us to share the hope of Jesus with the world. And the first thing I do is I bring up a guy who's going to spend a semester in The Middle East. And you're thinking, I think I am a few steps removed from that, and I understand that. And I would imagine that if you went to Brennan two years ago, three years ago, five years ago, seven years ago, he would also have said he was very far from it.
That sort of heart and passion is cultivated over time. He spent several summers, both in the youth group and as a leader of the youth group, involved in Camp Barnabas, a camp that serves and loves on special needs kids. He's been a roots leader, loving on the younger kids in the youth group since he got out of the youth group, even when he was in the youth group. As a high schooler, he was the guy that you could always count on to just love the younger kids well. God has been cultivating him over time an incredible heart to see more beyond just what what what can I get?
What is in this for me? What do I want? What do I want to grow? What do I want to learn? God has been cultivating him over a course of years, a heart to look out of sight of himself, and how can I take the hope that God has given me and share it with the world?
So let's let's let's dial it back. Let's just dial it back a little bit to first principles, because it is unlikely that very many of us will ever spend an entire semester somewhere overseas. The other thing is, actually, there are quite a few of us probably who will. We have had the great opportunity over the years that we've been here to send dozens of people to short, medium, and long term roles in serving places all over the world for a semester, for a year, for years, for just a summer, for just a couple of weeks. We just got a group that went and came back from a mission trip to Costa Rica to help people learn about Jesus and to help them have clean water.
There's lots of opportunities like that, but let's just go back. Like right now, as I'm really kind of just even beginning a journey of what it would look like for me to be someone who is a carrier of hope. God has called me to share his hope with the world. What will it look like? So we're gonna look at a passage today in John chapter one.
And in John chapter one, kind of in the in the first part, a little preamble for the whole book, talking about who Jesus is, the power of Jesus and the person of Jesus, and how awesome He is, and how worthy He is of worship, His relationship with the Father, and the fact that Jesus is fully God. And it's talking about all that. And then we skip the birth narratives that you get, no manger, no Bethlehem, and straight into Jesus starting to recruit His disciples. He's already recruited a guy named Andrew, and probably one that you're more familiar with, a guy named Peter. He's recruited them, and now we find ourselves in verse 43 of John chapter one, and I think this is such a just a really cool, on the surface, it can seem like just kind of a relatively small story, but it's actually, I think, a really cool and really significant story, especially when we think about what would it be, what would it mean for us to be people who believe that God has called us in small but significant ways to share his hope with the world.
So we'll go here. John chapter one starting in verse 43. The next day, Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, follow me. Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida.
Philip found Nathanael and told him, we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law and about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Nazareth, can anything good come from there? Nathanael asked. Come and see, said Philip. When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.
How do you know me? Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you. Then Nathaniel declared, Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel.
Jesus said, you believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that. He then added, very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. In a very short period of time here, we see the impact that Jesus can have, did have in the life of Philip, and then the way Philip reaches out to Nathaniel, and then what Jesus does in the life of Nathaniel. And I think it provides us, I think, again, some really basic principles that can kind of help us as we are going to grow and develop in this area of being someone who shares the hope of Jesus with the world.
And it starts really with Philip's encounter with Jesus, and we'll say it this way, that an encounter with Jesus will change your life. Now all we really have here in this verse is something very simple. Finding Philip, he said to him, follow me. Now what did they what happened? Like, whatever happened in just that moment and the parts of that story that are unsaid led Philip to immediately go find his friend and say, you've got to come meet this guy.
We don't know what happened. And this, in some ways, and I've mentioned this before, is kind of one of my least favorite aspects of movies,
Mark Freeman: where
Charlie Loften: it's like they leave something vague or unexplained, and you're supposed to fill in the blanks for yourself. I'm not trying to fill in the blanks. Just tell me what happened. Put some text up there or something. Just tell me.
Oh, no, no, you're supposed to think about it. Listen, I didn't come to the movie to grow. I didn't come to think. I actually came to see things get blown up. That's why I'm there, right?
And so now you're trying to make me learn and think and grow and become a better person. But here's the thing that I do understand, even if it's not what I'm looking for in a movie, that in literature and even in visual media as well, kind of leaving something uncertain or unknown actually kind of makes you stop and go, I wonder what happened here. What did Jesus say to Philip? We get a lot more interaction of what happened with Nathaniel, but something happened. The way that Jesus presented himself, the way he encouraged him, the way he talked to Philip, the things that he knew about him, something happened that remade Philip to immediately becoming I gotta go get a friend, to being one of Jesus' disciples for the entire time of Jesus' ministry, to be one of the people that you see in the book of Acts that is spreading the hope of Jesus all around the known world, and ultimately to die for his faith.
This very simple, small encounter that Philip has with Jesus remade him into something into someone very different than who he was, and that's what happens when we encounter Jesus. Now I remember for me, I mean, I grew up going to church. We were there all the time. I learned a lot, read the Bible, went to Sunday school. It was in Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
Well, I was there a lot, and I learned a lot. But when I think about the question, when did I really encounter Jesus for the first time? And this has kinda got me a little nostalgic here, knowing that the U of A is starting back up and college students are pulling out, pulling into our town. I mean, I think about my freshman year. And I was in this Bible study, and in a little bit, I'll tell you kinda how I ended up in this Bible study.
I was in this Bible study, and this guy had said, Okay, we got this week, we have an assignment, and he gave us a little sheet of paper, it had 31 really small passages on it, maybe one to three verses each. I want you guys, for the next thirty one days, he called it to taste and see, which is a phrase from Psalms, I want you to to experiment for thirty one days. I want you to read these verses. I want you to answer these questions about them and spend a couple of minutes praying. I mean, this other guy who lived down the hall from me, his name was Steve Minette, he and I made a decision we were just going to do this together kind of for accountability.
We had an off period at the same time, and we would just meet up, and we would do this together. And after two or three days of this, it became the highlight of our day. We could not wait. Like, we would see each other earlier in the morning. Hey, are you going to be there?
Yeah, absolutely going be there. And then we would meet up, and we would do this. And I just remember just spending a few minutes reading God's word and just really thinking about these questions about how it impacts my life, and then praying together, and then doing it here with this friend. I mean, suddenly something something really different happened in me. Suddenly, this freshman who was on a fairly self destructive path had been remade, and it became the highlight of my day.
And in the this is in the spring of nineteen ninety one, so almost thirty six years later, we are probably at the point now where I have invited thousands of people to do this. Most recently, approximately ten minutes ago, you guys should read a little bit of God's word. Just learn a little bit about Jesus. See who he is, what he did, his character, his acts, what it means for you. Because I was remade in that moment.
And when we step outside of organized religion and we step outside of checking a box for church involvement or attendance, and we really have those encounters with Jesus. They they they remake us. Philip was a completely different he had no idea at that moment in his life where his life was headed, but it was that moment that changed him. And what was his first reaction? The first thing that he had to do.
I gotta go tell my friend about it. And he goes to Nathaniel, and we'll say it this way. An encounter with Jesus will change your life. And then what happens is you're compelled. I must invite those.
You invite those you love to know him as well. That's the first thing he does. I've got to go tell Nathaniel about this. My life has been remade. You know who would really enjoy this?
You know who would really benefit from this? Nathaniel. Immediately goes and tell him, hey, you got to come see this. And it's actually a really interesting story. He's like, man, you got to go see it.
There's this guy. He's the guy we've all been waiting for. We've been waiting for this for generations. He's the one. His name is Jesus.
He's one the prophets talked about. He's the one that Moses talked about. His name is Jesus. He's from Nazareth, and he's the son of Joseph. And Nathaniel's response is incredible.
He's like, sorry, Nazareth? He's from Nazareth? And you may not feel that, but how many of you, when you talk about where you grew up, the town you're from, you know it's inconsequential? I mean, it's not just a small town, but it's you've probably never heard of it. Or if you have, you probably don't feel great about it.
It's great not place. Some of us are from those kinds of places. And so I read this, and I feel called out. Like, I'm from Nazareth. A lot of us are from Nazareth.
Like, nothing good's going to come from there. I mean, you escape there. But you know what I mean? Nothing good can be made. Like, you can leave.
Like, no, Nazareth? And then Philip's response to his skepticism is amazing. Come and see. Just come and see. Oh, you don't think so?
Come and see. Then you'll know. He didn't feel this weight, this pressure, that I've got to convince him in this moment. And you can be skeptical all you want. Why don't you just come see?
And when you see Jesus, you'll see it too. A simple invitation. Philip's life is remade. And a simple invitation to Nathaniel is like, this thing that God has done for me, I want that for you. And really, it is kind of just simple invitations that happen to us.
Some of the most consequential things that ever happened in our life came from a simple invitation. So I already mentioned in the spring of 'ninety one that I was in this Bible study. In the fall of nineteen ninety, it was actually just a little bit before my birthday, I was 18, almost 19 years old, I was making some self destructive kind of decisions. Things just kind of happened into my heart that were kind of moving me in a path that certainly I was not raised to be and what I thought I was going to be, but I'm really starting to drift. But I can't give up church.
I can't give up church. It's deep in me, and plus, my parents were paying for school, and it was very important to them. In fact, they called me every Sunday at 01:30. It was an arranged time, pre cell phones. I know.
I've already said it's, the story's 36 years old, so just bear with me. They would call me, two questions, right? How was your week? Second question. How church, right?
How was church? How was church? What was the question? What was the question? And I was kinda getting to the point where I was gonna decide if I was just gonna start lying to them or just tell them you need to stop asking.
But I gave it one more shot. I'm at this different church, and this really sweet woman was sitting next to me, and during the say hi to your neighbor time, she introduced herself to me, got to know me a little bit, which is this story I'm telling you right now, I know some of you, you're not fooling anybody. I know some of you delay your entry into the room. I know it. I'm not dumb.
But here's why I will never stop. It was it was that moment changed my life forever. She was really kind. She got to know me a little bit, and after the service, introduced me to a guy. And he comes up to me and says, hey, I understand you're a student at Hendrix.
I'm actually going be starting a Bible study in your dorm next semester. Would you be interested? I don't know how you grew up. There's only one answer to that question. I'm not one of Some sort of heathen?
Of course, I'm interested in your Bible study. Oh, thank you for the invite. I was not interested in his Bible study, but the only answer is yes. No intentions of coming to his Bible study, but this is the quickest and best way to get out of this conversation. Don't I know if you've ever had an encounter, and I'm sitting here saying this right after I said, you should come meet me at the back.
Sometimes those encounters are a little intense, and you got to get out of it. And that's why some people, they visit, and I say meet me in the back. They go out the side door. It's fine. It's fine.
Yeah, I'll be in your Bible study. Didn't think anything else about it. Two, maybe three months later, he gives me a call. Turns out he was serious. And I I get into this Bible study, and my life is forever different.
There's who I thought I wanted to be when I went to college. There's who I was becoming, and then there's what happened when someone made an invitation. And he probably thought it was a safer invitation than what it was. I mean, here's a guy who came to church on a Sunday. He's a college student coming to church.
He came to church by himself. This guy must be really serious. Now I was desperate and being guilt tripped at home. And a simple invitation and a follow-up remade me. The kindness of a stranger, an invitation to a Bible study, and a challenge to read God's word.
And again, 36 later, here we all are together. And I think we underestimate sometimes the power that an invitation to hope, an invitation to life can really bring. God has placed you in a lot of different places. He's placed you in a particular dorm. He is gonna place you possibly in a particular Greek house.
He's got you at a certain job in a certain neighborhood. He's got you in a family. And he is surrounding you all the time with people who what they need more than anything is an invitation to hope. I found Jesus, and I think it this this place where I found Jesus could be really good for you. And sometimes there used to be maybe we still feel this a little bit, this kind of this little wall that has well, you're not supposed to do that.
Certainly, there used to be. You're not supposed and and you don't talk about two things in polite company. You don't talk about politics and religion. I don't know when the last time you got on social media was, but it seems like we've dropped at least one of those. Alright?
We're willing to say all sorts of things publicly to lots of people, so we might as well, if we're gonna drop that one, drop the other one too. Hey, I go to this church. You should totally come. And they may say to you, church? What good thing happens in church?
And then you say, come and see. You don't have to have all the answers. Can ask all sorts of, oh, you're one of those people who believe in God? What about this? What about this?
What about this? What about this? What about this? I don't have all the answers. Can just come and see.
God kind of has remade my life with these people in this environment. You should come with me. You should come and see. You don't have to have all the answers. When you get to step two, step three, step four, like, man, I wish I had a tool where I could be the one that explains the hope of Jesus to them.
Got a great one. You have to be able to draw you need to memorize one verse, and you'd be able to draw stick people. Other than that, you've got everything that you need, and it's actually a really good illustration where you could tell someone yourself about Jesus, and it would be really helpful. But in the meantime, all you have to do is just take them someplace where you know they can hear about it, and they may have all sorts of questions. They may have all sorts of skepticism.
We'll just come and see. And I think you will be stunned by the number of people in your life who are just waiting for an invitation. People right now are looking for hope, and they can't seem to find it anywhere. And you say, I found hope in Jesus, and I found him over here. You should come with me.
I think he will be pleasantly surprised by the response, and we're ready for him. We're ready. We're a very friendly church. Probably if you're brand new, you've probably had, unless you were very skilled, you've probably had several people come up and introduce themselves to you. And we want to be welcoming, and we're not ever going to have weird Sunday.
Oh, man, I can't believe we brought them on weird Sunday. We don't have weird Sundays, we just have Sundays. We're always ready for new people. We're always ready. The one Sunday you finally convince your friend to come will be a Sunday that I'm really this was a real it will always be a Sunday we were ready for your friends, for your family, for your coworkers, for the other students in your class.
And even an invite that ends up saying no can change somebody. Sometimes it takes three, four, seven, ten, 20 different asks to get someone to finally jump in on something, and you were asked three of nine. And that ninth person who finally gets them to come and hear about the hope of Jesus is going to be very thankful that you cultivated the ground. It is a very simple thing to do that can make a huge difference in the lives of people. And then what happens?
Jesus looks at him and is like, hey, here's Nathaniel. He's like a you're like a great guy. Like, you don't you're not a liar. You're like, you don't ever lie. You're a great guy.
And like, Nathaniel, you don't even know me. He's like, dude, you were just under a tree. And he's like, I'm sorry, What do mean? And immediately, he's like, well, obviously, you're the prophet, son of God. He's like, brother, if that's all that it takes to impress you, is that I knew you were sitting under a fig tree before you came here, you can't just wait to what God is going to do in your life over the next three years.
And that's a great thing about an invitation that brings someone to Jesus, and we'll end it with this. Jesus will show up and do the same thing for them that He did for you. He showed up and remade your life. You don't have to worry. Well, maybe Jesus doesn't really like my friend.
Maybe Jesus doesn't want my friend to have hope. Maybe Jesus has taken the day off. He doesn't take day offs, and He's not disinterested in anyone. In fact, He wants to bring hope and life to your friends and your family and your coworkers, your fellow students. He wants to do it even more than you do.
And when you make the invitation and they come with, you can expect God to do something really cool. It may be instantaneous like what happens here, or maybe something that happens over time, but your invitation to bring someone to Jesus will ultimately bring hope and life to them as well. And maybe you'll never spend a semester or longer overseas. Maybe I'll never go on a summer mission trip. But let's not talk about the ask that God may put in your life in 2028.
Let's just start right now. And where right now, God is wanting you to open your eyes a little bit, to see the world around you in a way that maybe you haven't been looking at it before, to be someone who is looking how I can carry and bring hope to the world. And with a new vision and a simple invite, you can be that carrier of hope. Let me pray. God, I thank you for Philip.
I thank you for his friend Nathaniel sitting under a tree. And God, how a very simple but powerful story changed the lives of two men, who then, through them, brought hope to thousands. And through those thousands, ultimately brought the hope of Jesus to us. And God, I pray that we would take our our our place in this seriously. Generations of people have made invitations, have shared the hope of your son with people to get us to where we are.
God, give us the courage and the conviction to continue to pass that forward. And God, we're so thankful that we can know that the power of your son, an encounter with him, God, that we know that it will change lives, that the gospel, the death, the Resurrection of your son, God, when we encounter the risen Jesus, God, we know that there's life and it is in His name that we pray. Amen. Thanks again for joining us on our sermon podcast and you can learn more about us at thegrovechurch.org. If you go to thegrovechurch.org/connect, there's a form you could fill out.
Just let us know that you've been listening. And if you wanna dig deeper on some of these topics that we cover in our sermon podcast or just another issues of dealing with culture or theology, those kinds of things, you can check out our cultivate podcast. It's on the same feed, however you found this particular podcast. So again, this is Charlie, the lead pastor at The Grove, and thank you so much for joining us.