Hope Church LV Sermons
The Power of an Invite
Amen. Well, that's the second time I've heard it. Wow. Awesome time of worship. Is it just me? Yeah. Man, it was great. Such great truth. Hell within that song from the word of God about our God. And so today we're going to kick off. Well, actually, we're not going to kick off. It's actually only a one. This message stands alone. So you got to listen close. You can't come back next week if you missed it. Well, you wouldn't have been here anyway. But today we're going to talk about the power of an invite. We have a couple of weeks coming up. Pastor Travis just talked about the Lord's Supper next week. And then he talked about Easter coming up. We're in that season now. And we're really sensitive about what it means to help our people, our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers, our classmates, our family who don't know Christ, man, this is the time where everything just kind of shines way up shines the Easter Bunny. But our Jesus is alive and we come every Sunday to celebrate that. And so today we're going to look at John chapter one. If you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and turn there. John chapter one, we're going to look at quite a few verses today. We're not going to preach straight. I mean, I'm going to read straight through, but I'm not going to preach every single verse. But today, what we want to talk about is the power of the invite. I was listening online a few years ago, three or four, maybe five, I don't know, to pastor Vance, I wasn't here at the time. But he made this statement here. He said, "Every Christian knew another Christian before they knew Christ." I mean, we get really excited about the song and it's an amazing song. I mean, there's great truth within it. There's great theological meaning and significance, but also practical for our lives. I mean, I saw a lot of you, I'll turn around and just watch you worship. Man, the significance of Jesus coming out of that grave and what he accomplished in that in our lives, we realize what that means. Maybe not totally. Some day we'll understand it a whole lot better, but I think we understand enough to know to be thankful for that. But sometimes I think we not forget that's not the right word. We're not sensitive to other people who don't know the truth that we know. I mean, we almost take the attitude that they should know, you know? I mean, they have access to it. But as we sit here and we worship God, especially in that last song, really, a lot of the time, the only thing we can say is, "Wow, wow, what a God." But what about the people who can't say, "Wow, what about the people who believe that Jesus isn't who he said he was or that there is no God at all? What about the people who are caught up in religion? What about the people who claim Christianity because they don't want to go to hell, but they really don't want to give their lives to Christ? What about that? Every Christian knew a Christian before they knew Christ. What impact can you have on the lives of people? Let me just throw out a couple names just as great examples here. How many of you have ever heard the name Billy Graham? Raise your hand, Billy Graham. Anybody ever heard of Billy Graham? Is it just me? Right? Billy Graham, you know, kind of a well-known guy. How about this guy? Mordecai Ham. Mordecai actually preached a sermon where Billy Graham gave his life to Christ. Not many people know Mordecai. Awesome guy. I've got a feeling, but he just had the book. Well, Billy Graham, now we know, right? How about this name? D.L. Moody. Have you ever heard of D.L. Moody? One of the great preachers of history, really. How about this name? Edward Kimball. I don't see any hands. It's a little odd. You know why? He was actually, and you knew, Stan, you knew I was going to throw this in somewhere. He was actually D.L. Moody's small group leader. How about that? Let him to Christ. Nobody knows Edward Kimball, but somebody knows D.L. Moody. In fact, lots of people know D.L. Moody. How many of you know Bob Pittman or have heard of Bob Pittman? That's Pastor Vance's. If you don't know, it's Pastor Vance's dad. How many of you know Vance? Praise the Lord. It's not a trick question, right? Pastor Bob was led to Christ. To be honest with you, I don't even know the deacons' names who led him to Christ. They were just doing some witnessing one weekend, and they came across Bob when he was just a young boy led him to Christ. And now we have a pastor today because of two men that we don't even know their names. Do you understand? Do we understand the impact that we can have on somebody's life merely simply by opening our mouths and telling them about Jesus? We're almost convinced they won't say yes, but all of these men that I just mentioned, all these people that we just talked about, somebody opened their mouths and told them about the good news of the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody's life was changed because of the work that Jesus did on the cross, but you had to hear about the work. Let me give you a couple of statistics today to kind of solidify some stuff here. Today in our world, there are 4.5 billion people on planet Earth who do not have a relationship with Jesus. Now mind you, there's just a little over 7 billion people on the Earth. So I like there's 80 billion. There's 7 billion people on the Earth. I'm a little more than that, but 4.5 billion are not followers of Jesus, and that's a conservative estimate. It's probably higher. Of that number, there are 1.7 billion people who've never heard the gospel. Of the 4.5, the reason that 1.7 of them for sure haven't given their life to Christ is because they've never even heard what we sang about this morning. In our city, we know that there are a little over 1.9 million people who are lost. That's 95% of our city. In our neighborhoods, if there are 100 homes in your neighborhood, only 5 of them will contain a Christian. In the video that you should have received this week from, that Pastor Vance made from us, in our current invite campaign that's going to be going on for the next 2 or 3 months, 3 or 4 months, Pastor Vance said this, here's the next statistic. 82% of the people would attend a worship service if they were invited. Now before I move on, understand that I don't want them just to come to a worship service. There will be people who have attended lots of worship services who are going to die and go to hell. Can I just be that blunt? Coming to a service won't do it, but don't tune me out before I finish today. But think about it, 4 out of 5 of your friends who are lost, who don't know Christ, who don't have a relationship with God, would say if he or she would just ask me, I would go. In the video, Pastor Vance also said that 98%, this might be the saddest of all, of us will never invite a single person to one of our services. We're not chastising you or punishing you or telling you how bad, listen, this is kind of a nationwide issue, not just here, we may be lower than that. But think about it, if only 2 out of 100 of us invite someone or, and listen, inviting is the easiest thing we can do. Hey, would you come to a service? That's the easiest thing. What we really want to do is invite them to Jesus. We're not trying to give them religion, we're not even trying to give them the hope service. We want them to have a real relationship with a real God. These statistics that I just shared with you, they're overwhelming, but they're also heartbreaking. The fact is, is if Jesus Christ returns today, and I hope he does, there are going to be a lot of people who will spend eternity in a place called hell, separated from God. As much as we just believed what Pastor Teddy and Pastor Scott just sang, just got ready for us, and man the choir did a phenomenal job, and we were all moved, and there was emotion in that. Where is our emotion for the fact that these people are going to spend eternity separated from Jesus? And listen, I'm not just preaching to you, I'm preaching to me. Where's our passion for that? God has you where he has you for a reason on purpose. It's not just circumstantial, it didn't just coincidentally happen. God has placed you where you are strategically to be an influence for him for the gospel, so that people wouldn't have to spend eternity separated from God. So with that, let's go ahead. I know you're probably thinking, that guy, he's angry. That dude, he's mad. To be honest, I'm a little bit, but it's mad at me as anybody else. Let's look at John chapter 1, verses 35 through 51, and I'm going to read all of them, so they're going to be on the screen if you don't have your Bible with you today, but just follow along with me as we read the Scripture from this holy book. John chapter 1 verse 35, the Bible says again the next day, John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked and said, "Behold the Lamb of God." The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus, and Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, "What do you seek?" They said to him, "Rabbi," which translated 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 10th hour, it's about 4 o'clock. One of the two in the afternoon, by the way, one of the two who heard Jesus speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He found first his own brother, Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah," which translated means Christ. He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon, the son of John, you shall be called Cephas," which is translated Peter. The next day, he purposed to go into Galilee, and he found Philip, and Jesus said to him, "Follow me." Now Philip was from Bethsaida, one, excuse me, of the city of Andrew and Peter from the same place. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law," and also the prophets wrote, "Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathaniel said to him, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" Great question, right? Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and said of him, "Behold, and is your light indeed, in whom there is no deceit." Nathaniel said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathaniel answered him, "Rabbi, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel." And then Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the son of man." Now, what I want to do is, like I said, not go through this whole passage and preach every word, every verse, necessarily, but what I want to do is I want to kind of set a platform for what it means to look like, to look at somebody else and say this. Will you come to Jesus? Maybe not in those terms, let me invite you to a service and hope. Maybe that's how it starts out. I'm not sure, but we want to give you kind of a standard, kind of a template, if you will, to be able to say, "What is my part in this? And then what do I do? Who am I looking for? And what is God going to do in their lives?" So I've got a sentence and just like all good Baptist preachers, what you do is you break it up into three different parts, okay? So it's one sentence with three segments, so let's just hit them first, all right? Number one, God wants to use you to invite others. As we rolled down this passage, you saw a number of people who were listed, right? You saw John the Baptist, you saw, actually you don't see his name, but he's in there, the apostle John, aside from John the Baptist, the apostle John was following John the Baptist, if you will, with Andrew. Those are the two apostles or the two disciples who were following John the Baptist. John the apostle sometimes likes to keep himself out of the limelight, so he didn't list his name, but he is actually in this verse. Along with Andrew, the brother of Peter, Peter's in these verses, right? Then you see Jesus, you see Philip, then you see Nathaniel. And so let's just look at each one of those guys and let's just see what kind of person that God uses, because here's what I want you to know. And this is not just for the outspoken, the extrovert, which most people in our society are introverts. Believe it or not, I'm one of them. I really am. You, you can be used by God. God wants to use you to invite other people, so let's just look at them there together. The first one is a prophet, John the Baptist. I mean, this is kind of an odd God. I don't know what kind of person you are, if you're an odd person or not, but he was an odd person. He ate really weird food. He wore really weird clothes. He was the first cousin of Jesus, just six months older than Jesus was, and he came proclaiming the way of the Lord, right? Saying this is, this Jesus is the real deal. He's coming. This is who he is. God used him. God used him. He was an odd guy. He was strange. He was an adventurous guy. He was a very manly man, but God used him anyway. I mean, think about just the pastors that are all over our country. I mean, think about our own pastor and pastor Vance, a man from Alabama. I don't know why he all laughing. I'm just saying he's from Alabama. Listen, a guy who grew up in a pastor's home but didn't have to be a pastor himself, but just a guy. All the pastors that have ever, you say, Tom, but prophets and pastors, of course, God's going to use those guys. Prophets and pastors were all one time and still are to be quite honest with you. Well, we're not normal people, but we're just regular folks. Are you a regular folk? What about the other guys listed here? You got John. You have Andrew Peter Fisherman, right? Just an everyday hardworking guys. I mean, Andrew kind of a quiet manly focused, devoted guy. John, he was a teenager. Any teenagers in the auditorium this morning, teenagers raise your hand. I see you, right? Here's the deal. God used him. Did you know that one of 12 disciples was a teenager, probably 13, 13 to 16 years old, this man John. Now, at the time he wrote the book, obviously he wasn't, but when he began to follow Jesus, he was. And one of the reasons he can give us so much detail is because he was there and he wrote it. Peter, loud, leader, foot in the mouth kind of guy. Anybody? No, don't raise your hand, but you know what I mean, right? Outspoken. You don't really care what you, God used Andrew. God used John, but the God used Peter too. And then there are some people that are not even in this text that I just, as I was studying this week, getting prepared and getting ready and wanting to really emphasize this point that God brought to mind who were also disciples. I mean, think about Matthew. He was an outcast. He was basically a traitor. Everybody looked at, I mean, Matthew was Jewish, but he had kind of sold out, if you will, to the Roman government. And now he's a tax collector. He would actually collect more than the Roman government actually wanted. He would keep it for himself and he just wasn't accepted. I mean, there's even a place in the scripture in Luke chapter 5 starting in verse 29 where you'll see this feast or this party that Matthew throws for Jesus and he's wanting to invite his friends to know Jesus and the only people who show up are other tax collectors. You know why? Because he was hated. Like, he was looked at as an outcast. In fact, he was so much of an outcast that he wasn't even involved. He had been kicked out of church. He couldn't worship in the synagogue. But Jesus looked at him and said, "I want you. I can use you. You can be used by God." There was another one. There's nothing really that much known about him from scripture. But because of how he's described, we know a lot about him. Simon the zealot. That's not one that you usually do a paper on, even in seminary, you know, so you don't know much about him. And there's very few things written about him. And the one thing that we know probably more than anything else, he was a zealot. There were four kinds of people in Jewish society. There were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, another group called the Essenes, and then there were the zealots. They were really the first century equivalent to terrorists. What they did was basically as they would go around and they would set on fire, communities, or places of worship they didn't like, and they wanted to make sure they got rid of the Roman government. And they were all about, I mean, basically a political activist gone wild. But here's what God did. Jesus looked at Simon and said, "Follow me." Are you with me? Is anybody here? You understand what I'm saying here? Hey, listen, listen, here's what I want you to know. God uses all kinds of people, messed up people, really messed up people, right? Matthew, Simon the zealot. Listen, now another thing we know about Simon is the disciples kind of paired off and kind of had a buddy system. You know who his buddy was? Judas. I mean, God looked at these guys and said, "I can use you." And here's what I think today. God looks at this crowd and says, "I can use you." Listen, if you're not a follower of Jesus, I get it. You don't get why this is important. I get that. But if you claim Christianity, let me challenge you. Why are other people not on our radar? Even Paul, a devout religious Pharisee, a legalist, if you will, a persecutor of the church, and yet God used me, a man from a town in Tennessee that I'm almost for certain there are less people in my town back home than there are in my neighborhood. God could use me. He could use you. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to do something really weird. And some of you all are going to, the very introverted are not going to do this, okay? But I want you to anyway, just let's just do it together. I want you to look at the person sitting beside you, pick a person, all right? And say this, God wants to use you. Do it. God wants to use you. Listen, listen, when somebody looks at you in the face, you may say, "Well, that was kind of silly and that felt kind of weird. Here's what I want you to know. I want somebody to look at you and say that. And I want you to say it to somebody. God wants to use you to invite other people to Jesus ultimately. But if you want to invite them to a service, man, we are giving you prime opportunity to do so. Give the gospel. Help them to know who Jesus Christ is. And before I move into my second point here, I'm not leaving out any Christian in this room. And here's why. Because every follower of Jesus in this room has a person in their life that's lost. That is the on purpose intentionality of our God to place you where you are to do what you're doing for him, for his glory with this gospel, okay? So point number one, God wants to use you to invite others. Number two, God wants to use you to invite others in your circle of influence. That's basically what I just said, right? There are actually three different stories within these verses from 35 to 51 that kind of detail are getting more specific about who these people were. The first story we find in verse 35 through verse 37 is the story of John the Baptist, John the Apostle, the disciple and Andrew. John the disciple had two disciples who were following him, John the disciple and Andrew. I'm not trying to get confusing and I'm sure I already have made you a little bit confused. But it's the Bible's fault because it's just John, okay? John the Baptist got two disciples. Here's what he did the whole time. He kept telling them Jesus is coming. Jesus is coming. If you'll go back and read just the verses right before this in 29 through 34, what you'll see is Jesus being baptized and God saying this is my son who I'm well pleased. That's kind of that time. Jesus comes walking by the next day the Bible says, John the Baptist looks at Jesus and he looks at two guys and he goes, that's him. Look at him, behold him, the Lamb of God. This this Messiah we've been talking about, this Messiah we've been waiting on. This is him. I've been telling you he's coming. This is him right here. Here's kind of how I would label these two disciples, okay? With John the Baptist. They're his co-workers. They're his co-laborers. They were in this thing together. And here's what John the Baptist wanted them to know. It's not about me. It's about him. Where do you work? You say they're meantime? They're some of the meanest people. They don't love God. They taunt me. They test me. They make fun of me. Jesus said that was a good thing. He did. He didn't say it would feel good. He said it'd be an honor though to be accounted with him. Don't be weird to them, okay? But don't ignore their lostness either. God has placed you there as the light in the darkness. John didn't say, hey, follow me because listen, the truth is he had a big following. He never kept the limelight for himself. He always said, there, there's the Lamb of God. This is who it's about. Listen, I hope that you're making a difference in the lives of the people that are around you. Like you're different from a good standpoint. Like you give mercy and you're a person of grace and you're someone who loves and you're someone who's patient and is kind. And now they're waiting to hear why that is. Don't ignore their lostness because those co-workers that you have, those co-laborers need him, not just co-laborers, but for all you teenagers who raised your hand just a moment ago, what about your classmates? See, you think that you go to the school that you go to, it's purely coincidental, but it isn't coincidental. We believe, and I believe the scripture teaches that wherever you are, there is a reason for that, those people in your circle of influence. You say, Tom, it's hard. I know I was there and you can ask any adult in here. We were there. It's difficult. But here's what I do know. They're lost. They're lost. Are you pointing your co-workers, your classmates to Jesus? Over these next few months, we're going to give you ample opportunity. We want you to invite those people who are, who are lost in your life to come and experience not just the service, but experience Jesus. We want you to, and we're going to give you some, some tools to ultimately help you in, in, in leading them to Christ and in helping them to understand more about the gospel. We're going to give you that, but we're going to give you opportunity over these next few months. Listen, bring them in, come and see. Now, if you're a student, students that you just raise your hand just a moment ago, we actually have something tonight at five o'clock in the family ministry building. So students and parents of teenagers, listen up, invite night is tonight. I don't know if you invited your friends, but listen, you need to get on the phone when you get home. Hey, it's okay. If your parents say it's okay right now, text them right now and tell them they're coming with you tonight at five. All right. We want to give you opportunity because we don't believe that you work where you work by coincidence. We don't believe that you go to school where you go to school by coincidence. We believe that you have a huge part in the life of somebody else. So that's co-workers, schoolmates. The second influence that I really see in these verses starts in verse 41 and through 40, 42, and it was the influence of family. Listen, most of us who sit in this room. In fact, probably all. You know more about the spiritual condition of your family than anybody else in your life. There are a lot of my people and a lot of people in my family who are safe people, but everybody in my family isn't a Christian. I am one of 16 grandchildren. We're all not Christian. I have seven sets of, excuse me, six sets of aunts and uncles we're all not Christian. I have second cousins and now I even have third cousins. My grandfather did give his life to Christ before he passed away, about four years before he passed away, but he was even in his 70s and I don't know all the ins and outs of it. I just know this. I know I have people in my family who are lost and I would be willing to say all of us do. Here's what you saw in verse 41. As soon as Andrew found out this was the Messiah, guess who the first person on his radar was? His brother. And listen, just like with the guys, I mentioned the first deal, Moody and Pastor Bob and Billy Graham, the other guys you're going to know much about. Well, we know a whole lot less about Andrew than we do, Peter, right? Listen, Andrew led Peter. Peter didn't know. Andrew said, the Bible says he went and found him, like searched him out, like, like moose stuff out of the way. Maybe he didn't know. I mean, maybe he had a location where he was, but the Bible said he went that day and he did it. Here's what John MacArthur says about that. The news was too good to keep to himself talking about Andrew. So Andrew went and found the one person in the world whom he loved the most, whom he most wanted to know Jesus and he led him to Christ. Who is the one person in your life? Maybe it's your husband or your wife. Maybe it's a parent. Maybe it's a child. Maybe it's a grandchild. Maybe it's an uncle or an aunt. Who is it in your life? Who's that one person that you love that you know when you look in the casket? This is not going to be good. Can I just tell you? I had those thoughts about my grandfather for more than 25 years. I gave my life to Christ when I was 11. But before I was a Christian, I knew my grandfather was lost. My granddad didn't have, he didn't want anything to do with Christianity or God. And I remember I said, if I could just share the gospel with him one time, I feel good after that. Like, he'll know and he's rejected it. So if he rejects it, even after I say it, then I feel pretty good. But what I found out was, is that after I shared the gospel with him, I still felt bad because he didn't accept Christ. And listen, not just one time, multiple times in my life. I mean, I would take pastors with me. Pastor Vance, when he was my pastor in Tennessee, he actually went with me one time. My grandfather didn't give us off to cross then. Who is the one person? We all have them. Co-workers, schoolmates, family members, and the last influence, the influence of friends. In verse 45, the Bible says Philip did the same thing that Andrew did to Peter. He found Nathaniel. He found him. He said this, we have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. You got any friends that are lost? Do you got any friends who need Christ? You don't work with them. You don't go to school with them. Maybe you did it one time. Maybe they're in your neighborhood. Maybe they lived beside you. Or maybe they did. Maybe they're in another state right now. But you know they need Christ. Who are these people? The Bible, the Greek language here, gives us a nugget, if you will, of truth. It appears that Philip and Nathaniel had been talking about this. Maybe they had looked in the Torah or they had looked in the writings of the prophets and they had seen where the Messiah was coming, right? And so when Philip finds out, which by the way, Philip was also known as the evangelist. That was his nickname, by the way. He became just a beast of an evangelist for God. It appears that they had talked about this before because in the Greek language, the first word of a sentence is usually, well, is the most important word in the sentence. And they took this word, this one word, they crammed it right to the front of the sentence to say, this is the most important thing you need to know. And you know what the first word is? Rote. What was written? What the writing is, the thing that we've been looking for, the thing we've been studying, listen, these were educated men. God used them. And Philip said, listen, Nathaniel, what we've been looking for, I've found it. The Son of God. He's here. Who are your friends? You say, Tom, I mean, I feel kind of held back here. I won't bring people to Jesus because I'm afraid of rejection. I'm afraid of being pushed away. I'm afraid I can't answer the questions. I'm afraid they're going to label me as some holy ruler or weird or even self-righteous. And Philip said, okay, here's the deal. Listen, maybe your reaction is what Nathaniel's reaction is. How can that be? Nothing good can come from Nazareth. You say, Tom, that's exactly how they'd react to me. How can this be? And everybody knows there's not a God or how can this be? Jesus is not God. How can this be? And listen, you only have one thing to say. Come and see. Come and see. God wants to use you to invite others, but he wants to use you to invite others in your circle of influence. And then last, God wants to use you to invite others in your circle of influence today, today. We thought this would be not just appropriate, but needed to say this here. Because what we see is if we kind of look at chapter one as a whole, even the beginning of chapter two, there's an urgency here. There's an immediacy, if you will, to sharing the gospel with people who don't know. See, we think we have like this, you know, well, you know, the average age of the American is 76 and, you know, men are a little bit, but I'm still 20. You know, I've figured out 70s and 80s and 90s are getting closer. I'll be 45 this year. I thought that was old one time. Turns out it's pretty young. But there's an immediacy to it because we're not going to live forever on this earth. Our time is going to be short and the older I get, the faster it goes. Can I get a witness? It goes fast. It speeds up. You look around and it's and it's gone. So there's an immediacy. But what if you look back in chapter one, and I'm not going to read it, I mean, I'll say something about it here, but chapter one, verse 29, the Bible says the next day. Now this day that is talking about here is when Jesus was baptized, God comes down and says, this is my son in whom I'm well pleased, but then look in verse 35. And the Bible says, then the next day. So you're telling me that the day after Jesus is kind of formally put together as the baptism, this is the God, the, you know, the spirit comes down and, you know, then John says, that's him. Go get him. Yep. Yep. Yep. That's what happened. And you know what happened that exact same day? Andrew said, Oh my gosh, this is him. I got to go tell Peter. Do you sense the immediacy that the urgency with which this was? If you skip down to verse 43, the Bible says, then the following day. So you got day one, day two, day three, on day three, Jesus goes to the best seta. He looks at Philip. He says, follow me. Philip said, awesome. I'm doing that, but here's the deal. I'm going to go get in the Daniel and I'm going to tell him about you too. You sense the urgency. Do you see the immediacy? Here's what we say. We say, man, my father's lost. My son is lost. My daughter's lost. My aunt, she doesn't know Christ. My, my mom is, is, is not a follower of Jesus. And we say, man, we'll tell him someday. Next week, next year, next decade. That's not the way these guys saw it. When what was brought to their mind was lostness of people they love, they went to it. They got on it. The Bible says in James 4, James 4 14, the reason not to wait is this. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. I know you got plans. You've probably got the clothes laying on the bed. I don't know. Maybe they're already starched in the closet. You know, the meetings are set up, gas is in the car, everything's ready to roll, right? Tomorrow's going to happen, but we don't know. Listen to this. You are just a vapor that appears for a while and then vanishes away. You know, the reason for urgency and immediacy is that we don't even know if tomorrow's going to be here. I hope Jesus does come back. He might not, but he could. Matthew 24, 36 and 44 says this, Jesus speaking. He said, "But of that day and hour, no one knows not even the angels in heaven nor the sun." I mean, can you picture the angels in heaven going, when's it going to be? Whoo! Is it today? Is it today? We'll find out. We'll just wait, right? Not even the angels in heaven nor the sun, but the Father alone, 44, for this reason you also must be. You must be ready for the Son of Man is coming in an hour when you do not think he will. Today, God wants to use you today, not next week, next month, next year. Yes, when those dates are today, but today, what does that look like for you today? So as I close, let's just go back and think about this for a second. John the Baptist told the two disciples and they followed Jesus. Andrew told his brother Peter and he followed Jesus. Jesus told Philip and Philip followed Jesus. Philip told Nathaniel and Nathaniel followed Jesus. Listen to me immediately. Look what verse 48 says though. "After Jesus has this conversation," or Philip and Nathaniel had this conversation about Jesus being the Messiah, Nathaniel says back to Jesus, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Now listen, this may be the most encouragement thing that I say to you all day long. The people that you have on your mind, Jesus already thought about him. Like the people you're supposed to go speak to and talk to and share with, God's already got him in his eyes. He's already got the plan laid out. He knows exactly how it's going to happen. He knows what you're going to do. So listen, no need to be fearful, no need to think that you're going to be thrown under the bus, that you're going to be seen as weird, no need. Doesn't matter. God already has his stuff together. Nathaniel said, "How do you know me?" He said, "I saw you a long time ago." When I said at the beginning, I want to say it again. People, Christians, knew a Christian before they knew Jesus. We're not asking you to invite people to religion. We're not asking you to invite people to just a service here at Hope. We're asking you to invite them to Jesus. The only thing you need to do is figure out who and then just do it. Maybe an invite to Hope is the first step in that whole big journey. [BLANK_AUDIO]