Come And See Series

But my encouragement to you guys would be this: I desperately want to see this city change. I just do. I love this city. I’ve grown up here. But spiritually it’s a dark, pathetic place. That if we believe it, statistically, less than ten percent of people in this city went to church today. Less than maybe five percent of people under the age of 35 went to church today. And out of those, how many of those are churches that are actually teaching scripture and telling the truth? I mean, it’s very, very minimal. There are a few, and I’m not saying we’re the only Christian church. There are some good churches, but it’s a pretty sad, dark place. And it hasn’t tipped yet. The majority of people don’t understand. And I’m saying that through this arrogant colonial pushing upon people, they may never understand.

I think the way Jesus did it makes perfect sense. “Come and see. Come to Bible study. Come to church. Come over to my house for dinner. Let’s just talk. Let’s hang out. Here’s a book to read. Let’s just visit.” Friendships. You guys need to look at those clusters that you wrote down. You are a connector for God. He has called you to bring those worlds together in Christ. You are a maven. You have information that those people do not know. You know about Jesus. And lastly, you are an Evangelist. It is your responsibility and your invitation to find a way to tell each of those clusters about Jesus in such a way that those little tribes get to understand who he is and how much he loves them and how he died to forgive their sin as a substitute in their place, and how he was God come down to us. That we will never be gods, and we will never escalate up to be one with God, but that instead God comes down and humbly unites himself with us and dies for our sin and rises out of deep affection and love and goes on process and journey with us. And his kindness leads us to change and to repentance. And it’s through the process of coming and seeing and living and knowing that the Gospel’s true. That’s how people will come to believe.

And so all of us here tonight are in one category of people. Somehow relationally from John the Baptizer to John and Andrew to Phillip and to Nathaniel and to Simon, Peter the story has worked its way relationally through friends, acquaintances and family members to you and me. And I can’t imagine that at any point the guys sat down around the dinner table with Jesus and said, “You know, one day late on a Sunday night this is gonna make a big difference in Seattle, Washington a few thousand years from now.” But it does. But it does. And so simple guys come to believe that story penetrates their relationships, and here we sit. And so for some of you who are here tonight, my invitation would be for you to come and see. If you do not know Christ, if you do not believe the story, if your life hasn’t been transformed by God, come and see. Thanks for coming to church. Come to a Bible study. Call the office. I’ll buy ya lunch. Get to know some people. Ask ‘em how God has come into their life, what God has done in – see the truth of what God does in human history. Come and see. Come and check it out.