WELCOME

Pastor Chris Paavola:

Well, hey everyone. Good morning. Good morning. Very good to be with you guys. It’s St. Patrick’s weekend actually. So hopefully you’re eating, drinking or wearing something green to celebrate unless you’re a Michigan fan, I guess then you would never be caught dead in green. No. Okay. So well, however you celebrate St. Patrick’s Day without touching green things. It’s good to be with you guys. Actually, St. Patrick, I don’t know if you knew this. The reason we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day or celebrate or just even have a day for St. Patrick’s Day at all is that he was a missionary. He is the guy who brought Christianity to Ireland, and that’s why you drink green beer this weekend, is to honor his legacy as a missionary. Actually though, I mean, that’s a perfect tie to what we’re talking about, right? Because we’re in a series called Each One Reach One, where we’re talking about how God so loved the world.

And he sent you. He sent you to reach out into the world. And it’s a sense that every one of us is an evangelist. It’s not something reserved for the spiritual elite class or something like that, that every saint is sent by God to go and reach others. We’re reached to reach. We’re found to find. We’re saved to save. And the Apostle Paul talks about it. He says, “It’d be better for me to depart. It’d be better for me to die and be with the Lord, but I remain so that I may be fruitful in reaching others and labor for him.” Martin Luther kind of riffing on that. The reformer who we have our namesake from. Martin Luther said these words, he said, “It would be best for God to take us away, take away our breath and let us die as soon as we are baptized and have begun to believe.

But he has left us to live here. In order that we may lead others to believe, doing for them what God has done for us.” It’s interesting, isn’t it? It’s this idea. It’s like the meaning of life according to Martin Luther is for you to keep on reaching people just like you’ve been reached. And so that’s what we’ve been talking about in the series. In week one, we talked about how this idea of reaching anyone begins with God’s heart for each one. It’s not about you trying to muster up the heart to reach people. It’s actually letting God’s heart beat and burn within you for the world around you. And we can become sensitive to that and we can become callous to that. And so that’s what we talked about in week one. And then in week two, last week, we talked about this idea that every saint ascent and this idea of you don’t have to go to Ireland to preach the gospel like a trip to Ireland or Malaysia.

You don’t have to go to seminary to be a pastor that everyone is sent. In fact, wherever you are is where you are sent to tell people about Jesus. So we’ve talked about this heart set and this mindset for reaching people.

INVITE ONE

Today, we’re going to talk about our lips and what we need to do and actually saying the words, saying the name Jesus and inviting people to experience him. As soon as I say that, there is this pushback. Y’all are like, “You better be really compelling today, Chris, because this is not something I do. This is not my personality type. I’m an introvert. I do not. This is not who I am.” Okay. Listen, I know that some of you are self-selecting out of this idea of inviting others because you don’t have the whole Bible figured out. You don’t know where dinosaurs fit in the Bible.

You don’t know how Leviticus fits in the Bible and you don’t know how the animals fit on the arc. You don’t know how to explain any of that. And since you can’t explain all the questions that people might have for you or that you have for you, I’m not even going to go there because they’re going to ask me something I don’t know. We just read a verse from Colossians. Always be prepared to give an answer. Well, I’m not prepared, so I’m not going to say anything. And to you, I would say, notice it’s not defend one or debate one. It’s invite one. And some of you are like, “Well, I’ve tried. I’ve tried to tell people about Jesus, but somehow the conversation gets a detour and I just get tongue tied. I know Jesus died and roast for the grave for the forgiveness of our sins and I can find life in his name by believing in him.

But when I tell it to people, it suddenly … I get so tongue tied and it just comes out like gobbly gook and I’m just not as eloquent as you are. We pay you to be the pastor, Chris. You should be the eloquent one. I am not able to articulate what I believe like you are. And again, to you, I would say it’s invite one, not persuade one or impress one. And I know some of you are also sitting there going, I get really worked up at work and I start getting really cutthroat in business and I let expletives fly. And it feels really hypocritical for me to do all of that and be the hard, tough business person. And then all of a sudden, Hey, can I tell you about Jesus? It just seems it doesn’t go together. And it doesn’t say perfect one or be perfect one.

It just says invite one. Invite. And this is my MO on evangelism. I think it’s such an invitation.

TEXAS

When I was in 1997, right out of high school, I went to the high school in college in the 1900s. But in 1997, my freshman year, I moved to Austin, Texas. And I wasn’t always a Longhorn fan, right? But my college was swallowed up by the University of Texas and my dorm room was two blocks away from the football stadium. And again, I wasn’t really a Texas Longhorn fan. I wasn’t. It happened to be the school I was going to. And this guy, I don’t know what it was like in your college experience, but our dorm room doors were just always open and people just kind of wandered around and you have like, “I have no idea who’s eating my food right now.” And if you were hungry, you just kind of wandered the hallways and figured … Anyway, so that was college.

And I’m sitting there and this guy knocks on my door as he walks in and he’s like, “Hey, I got two tickets to the Rutgers game.

You want to go? ” And I was like, “Sure.” Now he didn’t say, he didn’t say like, “Hey, maybe perhaps if you have a little bit of time and is not too much trouble, then maybe if you don’t have any plans, you might consider possibly maybe going to the football game with me. ” He was excited. He was just inviting me, right? “Hey, I’m going to game, you should come. “And he also didn’t get into the history of Texas football and say,” Let me tell you about the history of all of this. “And Darryl K. Royal on the advent of the wishbone offense, he didn’t get into any of that. He just said,” Hey, you want to come? “And he didn’t get into a debate about which team is better than which team and the dangers of being an Aggie fan or following the sooners and the supremacy of the Longhorns.

He just like, ” Hey, you want to come? “I was so much more relaxed, right? And so I went on this beautiful fall day and September, perfect football day and Longhorns beat Rutgers and man, it was like I was swept up in the pageantry of the songs and the cheers and the cheerleaders and the colors and I was hooked. Today I have autographed jerseys in my office because somebody was like, ” Hey, you want to come?

“That’s it. I got some tickets. You should come. And when we’re talking about faith, I have a theory that when we get worked up and we get anxious and nervous about this thing of inviting people and talking to people about Jesus, we’re making about something other than Jesus because all you’re doing is being like, ” Hey, you should meet him. “Jesus, Bob, Bob, Jesus, you guys should talk. That’s what you’re doing because … And the reason I can say that is if you open the Bible and you read any of the biographies of Jesus, that’s what people are doing.

JESUS

 I love the succinct example we get in this book called John and right very early in Jesus’ ministry, he describes how Jesus is walking around in the wilderness and talking about the kingdom of heaven and telling people about God and what he came to do.

And he’s doing some miracles and he gets this little ragtag band of people who start following him and he kind of looks around and he’s like, ” Oh, I got some people. I got a crowd here. “It’s not big yet, but people start talking.

41 The first thing Andrew did was find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (That is the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.

                                                                                                                                                  John 1

And there’s a guy named Andrew. And take a look what it says about Andrew. The first thing Andrew did after he experienced and encountered Jesus, “The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him,” Hey, I’ve got two tickets. You want to go?

“We have found the Messiah that is the Christ and he brought them to Jesus.” You want to go? You need to come meet him. Simon, Jesus, Jesus, Simon. And whatever happens after that is between the two of them. You’re just introducing them and he can respond for himself.

45 Phillip 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.”

                                                                                                                                                John 1

And then two verses later, there’s another guy. His name is Philip. And Philip meets Jesus. He’s enamored, immediately captivated and awestruck. He’s like, ” I think this is the Messiah. “Check scripture, reads it. It’s like, ” This is the guy. I think this is him. “First thing Philip does, Philip found Nathaniel. Like Andrew found Simon. Philip went and found Nathaniel. He’s like, ” I got to go tell Nathan. “And he says,” We found the one Moses wrote about in the law about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. “So Jesus, from Nazareth, that town, Joseph’s son, him, that guy, I think it’s him.

I think he’s the Messiah. And then Nathaniel goes,” Nazareth, can anything good come from Nazareth? “I’d be like someone saying,” Battle Creek.

You ever been to Battle Creek? What? “All the Marshall people know. There’s a rivalry thing going on here. And actually though, this is like family feud stuff. This is clan tribes, warring stuff and a lot of history and they’re like Tire and Sidon and Capernaum don’t like the Nazarites. I mean, Nazarenes, and it’s just a thing. And so they have this little rivalry kind of stuff. And it’s actually kind of heated, a little bit of prejudice going on. But Philip doesn’t take the bait. He could have sat there and talked about the history of how things got going and like the history of the wars and who was at fault, but he doesn’t. Philip could have started defending of why the Jews did this and why the Jews didn’t do that, but he didn’t. He didn’t really even get to the history of the Bible and he didn’t have to explain any of that.

He just said,” I love this. Come and see. “I don’t know about all that, Nathaniel. You should come and see. Decide for yourself. I love it because really, if you think about it, this is exactly how anybody in the Bible who was in the crowds that followed Jesus, this is exactly how they got there in the first place. Somebody invited them to come see for themselves. I’m going to go see this Jesus. You want to come? Because not everybody in the crowd that followed Jesus was a follower. There were Pharisees in that crowd with their arms crossed. This guy’s a magician. He’s a charlatan. He’s just duping the crowds. I don’t know. But let’s go see. Let’s go watch this for ourselves. There were Roman soldiers there. There were prostitutes and Publicans, tax collectors and tax evaders, young old male, female, rich, poor, black, white, Asian, European, African, everybody you can imagine, religious and irreligious.

They’re all there in the crowds to follow Jesus because somebody said,” You want to go see?

“And I guarantee you, there were people who were like, ” Well, I don’t know. I don’t know if the Messiah is supposed to come from Nazareth, or they were supposed to be born in Bethlehem. “And the line of David, I don’t know. All I know is what I see this guy doing. You should come see for yourself. Well, I can’t explain how the Red Sea parted. Why would I invite you to see Jesus? No, that doesn’t matter. Let’s just go see. It’s just an invitation. And again, I think if we get worked up about this, if we get worked up about getting all anxious of inviting people to … We’re making it about something other than just introducing someone to another person. We’re making it about something else.

When really, it’s just like, ” Hey, I got some tickets. You want to go? “That’s why we printed. I’m going to ask our volunteers here,” Where’d you go? Sandels, yep.

TICKETS

We printed some tickets for you guys. Go ahead and grab them there. And what you guys are going to do is you’re going to get two tickets each. Okay? They’re Easter tickets. And on the back, it’s the info for our Easter services with the correct times. It’s two tickets. The reason I’m giving you two is one, kind of the metaphor of the football game. But two, one of these is probably for the person that you know you’re going to invite already. The person that you’re like, “This is who I always invite.” And they always tell me maybe or whatever, but just … Yeah.

But the reason I want you to take a second ticket is because I want you to be available for another person. I want you to be available for someone who is one of the four knots.

4 NOTS

This is like a cue for you on who is the kind of person that you should be inviting to Easter. And this is just a cue for you to listen to. During the course of the week, over the next three weeks, as we make our way towards Easter, listen for these cues. And when you hear someone say one of these four things, that’s the person telling you, “Invite me. ” Okay?

NOT FROM AROUND HERE

First one, they say, “I’m not from around here.” When somebody moves to an area because they got a job at the battery plant or they got a job at Kellanova or whatever it might be, and they move to the area, what they want more than anything is to feel a connection.

When somebody tells you they’re new to Battle Creek, or we just moved to Marshall, or we just moved to Springfield, Ceresco, whatever. When they tell you that we just moved here, you hear, “I need to invite them because I promIse you, they’re looking for a place where they can connect with others.” And you can say, “Hey, you should come here. It’ll feel like home because it is. ” So invite them. Okay? And then when they’re here, they’ll feel a sense of connection and they’ll appreciate you for it. Here’s the next one.

NOT GOING WELL

When someone says things are not going well, when they’re telling you that their house is falling apart, their relationships are falling apart, their own body is falling apart. When they start describing really difficult seizing going on, that’s the kind of person who is open to a spiritual conversation. Why? Because when things are feeling out of control, you naturally look towards the one who might be in control. That’s why you fill out prayer requests when you have a prayer, right?

You’re looking to the person who’s in control because you’re out of control. You need help. And so when somebody tells you that their life is not going well, you hear this person needs to be invited to meet Jesus.

Last year, Nate Kares and I were getting sushi, and I just happened to have one of those business cards just as you’re invited to St. Mark in my wallet as the waitress. I asked her how she was doing and it was just like … She just started gushing of all these things that are not going well in her life. And it was just so easy. I said, “Hey, I know this is sound self-serving. I’m the pastor at this church, but we’d love to see you. ” And there’s a whole lot more we can talk about beyond this quick lunch conversation, but I’d love to see you there. And it can be that easy for you too, with your barber, your barista, your banker, whatever. When they start telling you and just gushing because they need someone to talk to, they’re telling you, “Please invite me. Please.”

NOT RELIGIOUS

All right. Third one, I’m not religious. I love this one. This is like delicious. Give, it to me. I love this one because here’s what I say every single time. I’m not either. I’m not. This is not about some kind of ritual where I come and center myself for the week and this is a breathing exercise. This is not about like I’m a part of some kind of institution or that I’m somehow better because I go through this ritual. This is not about a religion or a ritual for me. This is about a relationship. I am in love with Jesus, him. It’s his spirit that’s in my heart. It’s my Father’s hand that guides me through life. I walk with my best friend, Jesus. That’s what this is about for me. And so when people are like, “I’m not religious, I love saying me either. That’s why I go here.” It subverts their expectation, it surprises them. And it starts this great conversation that this is different than some kind of religious checkbox.

All right, so that’s a third one. When they say that, you invite them. There’s a fourth one. Anyone want to guess what it is?

NOT BEEN TO CHURCH IN A WHILE

So, when someone says, “I’ve not been to church in a long time.” Yesterday I saw a guy at the hockey rink and he was like, “Oh man, it’s been a while, pastor.” I was like, “What are you doing, man?” And I hear this all the time. “Well, we just got busy. “And he didn’t say these words, but it’s like you start trying to fit worship into your life instead of fitting your life around worship. And he’s like, ” We looked up and it’s been a few months since we’ve been here. “And I was like, ” I get it, man, but come on back tomorrow. I’d love to see you. “It’s that slow drift that happens when we’re not intentional. And when someone says that, they tell you that there was a season where this was a pillar in their life and they were alive and it’s gone dormant.

It’s not this nefarious thing like they ran away from the faith. It’s just a slow drift. And what ends up happening so often when someone like that returns, it’s like their heart just comes alive and they’re like, ” Oh, you ever take a drink of water and you didn’t realize how thirsty you were? “You’re like, ” Oh my … I just drank that whole bottle of water. I didn’t realize how thirsty I was. “That’s what it’s like. So often you come back in, you’re like, ” Oh, I missed this. What am I doing? We got to get back and making this a routine for us. “And that person is telling you, ” This used to be important to me and it can be again. “And so when they say,” I haven’t been to church in a long time, “you say,” Great, love to see this Easter.

“Those are the four knots. And when you hand them this card, this sounds gimmicky, it’s not my heart. I just think sometimes when we use a period, it closes us, it feels transactional like you should come to Easter, period. It’s much better to use a question mark, right? It invites this relationship and conversation like, ” Hey, I’m going to the 8:45 service. Do you want to come?

“Or,” Hey, do you have any plans for Easter? “And now you’re in a conversation with them. It’s much easier to be like, ” I’ll think about it when you just give a statement. “But when you ask a question that it brings it into a conversation. So whoever this person is for you, whoever pops up in your week, in the next couple weeks here, just ask them the question and hand them that card.

NEWCOMERS

Now, I get the distinct honor and pleasure of going to our monthly newcomers lunch. We hold it once a month. You guys who are regulars, you hear us say this all the time. You could give the announcement when we announce it like, ” If you’re new or newer to St. Mark, we’d love to connect with you and hear about the history, vision values of our church and have lunch with Pastor Christ.

“We don’t say it for you. We say it for the person who’s new or newer, the person who’s here for the first time or praise God the second time. We want them to hear about this thing called Newcomers Lunch so that they can come and connect with us. And I get the distinct honor and joy of meeting these people. Here is a picture of the newcomers that have come to our newcomers class in the last year. So just in the last year, we couldn’t put them all on one screen. So one year. Every time we have a newcomer’s lunch, I get to meet these people and these people are baptized now. They’re serving in ministry. They’re singing here on Sunday morning. They’re handing out bulletins, they’re joining small groups. And every time I meet one of these newcomers, we ask the question,” How’d you hear about St. Mark? “”What do you think the number one answer is?

“SOMEONE INVITED ME”

“99 times out of a hundred, that’s the words I hear. And they’ll say, “Tammy invited me at work.” They’ll say, “Sierra invited me at Burn Bootcamp.” They’ll say, “Jack played hockey with me and told me about it afterwards.” That’s what we hear every single time. Someone invited me. There’s not been a newcomer’s lunch that we’ve ever had that I didn’t hear those words and I love it because it’s not marketing, it’s not a slick website or Google SEO campaign or it’s not even good preaching or good music or whatever. It’s you. It’s you. You invited them.

I thank God for that. On April 12th, we will have another newcomer’s lunch. That’s the Sunday after Easter and I guarantee you, guarantee someone will be in that class and that lunch and will say these words. I’m here because someone gave me a ticket. Thank you guys for inviting one more.

PRAYER

Let me pray for us. Heavenly Father, we love you so much and we are sorry, God, for all of the ways that we have fallen short, including being so private and quiet with this great news. Make us unashamed, Lord. And this week, these next couple of weeks, for everyone who can hear the sound of my voice, everyone in the room, everyone watching online, everyone listening later on, I pray that you tune our hearts to hear the four knots, that someone who says that they’re not from around here, or things are not going well, or they’re not religious, or they’ve not been to church in a while, that when we hear that, prompt us with your Holy Spirit to hear them saying, “Please invite me.”

And then God give us the boldness to say, “Hey, I got tickets. You want to go?”

God, thank you for just the way that you invite us. You were separate from us. We were in darkness. You were in your kingdom and we were outside the walls and you threw open the door and said, “Come.” Thank you for inviting us into your kingdom through the work and life and the death and resurrection of Jesus and help us to do the same for others. And we pray now the prayer Jesus taught us to pray saying together:

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name,

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven,

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us,

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil,

For thine is the kingdom,

And the power,

And the glory,

Forever and ever,

Amen.