We are wrapping up a series today that we have been in since July. And I'm sorry it's been this long. I'm also not sorry. This is the longest series that we have ever had. It's been called A King in His Kingdom. It's been a series just about the teachings of Jesus. Every Sunday since July, we have just examined something that Jesus has said, and we've and it's we've never had a series this long. Last week was the 21st message in this series. And Julian, who interns here and he manages the podcast for us, he made a joke last week, like, ah, this series can drink now. 21. Here we go. And uh and I think before this, maybe like 10 or 12 was the highest we'd ever gotten to. And I was like, man, has it really been 21 weeks? It's it's flown for me. But this is gonna be week 22, the final week of this series. And then we're never gonna talk about Jesus or anything that he ever said again, because we will have covered it. No. Like we will never be done talking about Jesus. Can't stop talking about him. But it's been such a blessing and such a honestly a challenging experience and a really positive experience for me, week in and week out, to say, okay, I'm gonna talk about something Jesus said. All of Scripture is powerful, all of Scripture is God breathed. But then it's like Jesus said that. You better not misrepresent Jesus. You know, there's been a little bit of extra pressure for the last 21 weeks. But but what Jesus says is powerful. You know, God speaks the world into existence. That's how the scripture story begins. And in John chapter 1, it says that Jesus is actually like the author. He's like the paintbrush that God used to create the world, that he was involved in that. And so when Jesus speaks, we should listen. Even by the way, if you're not a Jesus follower, I recognize that not everyone in the room has decided, yeah, I follow Jesus. You gotta admit, the guy's a big deal. I mean, there came a point in history where whoever had the authority to make these decisions said, you know what, let's let's reset the clock, and from now on, we're gonna measure time based on before this guy came and after. That's like a big deal. Can you imagine that ever happening again? Like someone comes onto this earth who is so significant that everyone just says, you know what, we're resetting the clock. And from now on, this is this is number one. This is year one, because it's all changed. That's what happened with Jesus. There's never been anyone like him. And so for us who call ourselves Jesus followers, man, when he speaks, we should just say, we should hang on every word. And for the last 21 weeks, we've been doing that. And today we're gonna look at a teaching that's really important for us personally. I also believe it's very important for us in terms of where we are as a church. And we're gonna talk about it from both of those angles today. It's Luke chapter 14, verses 15 through 24. If you have a Bible with you, you can turn there. If you have our mobile app, that's what I'm reading this off of. Obviously, it's on the screens. Hearing this, a man sitting at the table with Jesus exclaimed, What a blessing it will be to attend a banquet in the kingdom of God. Jesus has actually just finished teaching, and he's used being at a banquet as an illustration in a teaching. And so this man takes that and goes, Man, I can't wait to sit at the banquet at the kingdom of God. That there's a lot of scripture that actually speaks to feasting in heaven. And so if you're worried about the food in heaven, don't. It's gonna be it's gonna be top, top choice. Jesus replied with this story: A man prepared a great feast and sent out many invitations. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, come, the banquet is ready, but they all began making excuses. One said, I just bought a field and must inspect it. Please excuse me. Another said, I've just bought five pairs of oxen and I want to try them out. Please excuse me. Another said, I just got married, so I can't come. I love that. It's awesome, by the way, those of you who are single, if you if you decide to get married, uh, you get to use your spouse for excuses for everything. It's the best. Like I I would, but you know, Megan, she's not gonna let me go. I do that a lot. I would love to, but I don't think so. The servant returned and told his master what they had said. His master was furious and said, Go quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and invite the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame. After the servant had done this, he reported, there's still room for more. So his master said, Go out into the country lanes, behind the hedges, and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full, for none of those I first invited will get even the smallest taste of my banquet. There's a lot here, like all the teachings of Jesus. We could spend, we could spend a month on this and not really even scratch the surface. But I want us to highlight a few things. Number one, what kind of meal is it that the master, who clearly represents God the Father, what kind of meal is it that's been prepared? Is it a snack? Is it an appetizer? Is it like heavy hors d'oeuvres? No, it's it's a banquet. It's a banquet. The master has prepared a feast and then invited people to come and partake. There's this lingering misconception about God that He is He is a God who restricts, that He's a God who wants to take. He wants to limit. If you fully surrender to God, watch out, because He's gonna limit your ability to enjoy life. That God wants us to be people with repressed emotions, with repressed experiences, and nothing could be further from the truth. But it's an angle that our our enemy uses very often. We actually see this early on in Scripture. Genesis chapter 3 is the story of the first temptation, and it's often called the fall. It's where we decided not to follow God and went another way. And there's a serpent who does the tempting. It says, the serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. And one day he asked the woman, Did God really say, You must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden? It's a total misrepresentation of what God had said. We see that in Genesis chapter 2, verses 15 through 17. The Lord God placed the man in the garden of Eden to tend it and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you'll surely die. That would be like someone saying, Hey, eat all of this, everything you see, eat freely, eat as much as you want. Oh, don't eat that one, it's poisonous, it'll kill you. You would not look at that person and be like, Well, that's a very restrictive person. You know? No, what did God say? He said, Eat freely. But the serpent comes along and says, Did God say you're not supposed to eat any of this? And if you read the rest of Genesis 3, at first it goes okay. They're like, ah, nope, that's not what God said. He said, just don't eat from that one tree, it'll kill you. And then the serpent just outright lies and says, it won't kill you. It'll make you like God. He just doesn't want you to be like him. But see, the seed was already planted. God is holding out on you. God has not given everything that you deserve. He's keeping something from you. You got to take it for yourself. It's this idea that God is restrictive, that God limits. It's not true. But we as people, we don't like being told no. Even if a limit is given to us for our benefit, we're like something inside of us just wants to be like, I'll prove them wrong. You know, I've got kids, I know that that's true. And it's just human nature. We got a lot of doors in our hallway here at the church, and a lot of behind them is just like a storage room. And I know that if if I if I went to any of those doors and I put a sign on it today that said, no one over the age of 18 allowed. Even though it's just a storage room, every kid at this church will be like, we gotta find a way into that door. You know what I mean? Like they they've walked by that door a hundred times and never once been tempted to open it. They don't even know it's there, but you put that sign on it that says no, they're like, I gotta get in there. You know, because we don't like being told no. And sometimes that that rebellion inside of us that just says, Don't tell me no, it blinds us. And we fixate on on any limitation, even it's for, even if it's for our benefit. For example, we can look at another scripture, Ephesians 5.18, says, Don't don't get drunk with wine, that will ruin your life. But be filled with the Holy Spirit. Okay, now in in this scripture is God's desire to empty or to fill. It's clearly to fill. But we see that don't, and we're like, ooh, don't tell me not to do something. No, no, the heart of God is to fill us. Be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is God saying, look, don't fill up on other things because then you won't have room for the Spirit that I want to pour into you. But his heart is for us to be full. The master prepares a banquet. And we should picture something lush, something lavish. We should picture like a buffet line.

And then he says, Come and feast. We have a God who desires to fill us.

Jesus emphasizes this. John chapter 10, verse 10. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I've come that they may have life and have it to the full. Full life. We have so many people in our culture seeking fulfillment, desperately trying to find something that will fulfill them. Well, the reality is you will never be fulfilled if you're not first filled full. And God wants to fill you. He is a master who has prepared a banquet and has said, come on and eat.

We have to see him that way because that's how he is.

But I I'll be honest, I'm not I'm not always experiencing the fullness that he offers. And I think most of us would say, Yeah, me, me neither. What are the things that God wants to fill us with? Like what's what's on the buffet line? Galatians chapter 5, verses 22 through 23. The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There's no law against these things. In other words, there's no limit to how much of that you can have in your life when it comes to God. There's no limit. Like I have I have kids at home, and there's often times where we give them limits on what they can eat. Because it's like competition with them, you know, and there's this fairness thing. And so if I tell one kid you can have a cookie, then all of a sudden this other kid's like, I heard the word cookie, and he has a cookie, I want a cookie, I deserve a cookie. And it's like, fine, here's another cookie, and then all of a sudden you're just, it's like just cookies everywhere. And there comes a point in the day where I have to say, that's it. No more cookies, no more sugar, you've reached your limit. There will never be a day where God puts a limit on the amount of love, the amount of joy, the amount of peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and faithfulness and yes, self-control. There's no limit on how much of that God will give you. There's never going to be a day where he says, you know what, you got enough of that. No more for you. And how amazing would a life filled with those things be? I mean, think about that for a second. A life completely filled to the brim with all of those things? Isn't that what everyone is searching for?

Isn't that what everyone wants? Is a life filled with that? God wants to fill you.

And this is a sobering reality, a challenging one that I have to deal with, and I think all of us have to deal with, is if I'm not experiencing that, I'm missing something. If I am a follower of Jesus and I'm not living the full life, if I'm a follower of Jesus and I'm not filled with all of these things, why? Because it's been offered to me. It's been promised to me, and I have learned over the years that when I am not experiencing the fullness, when my life is not overflowing with these things, it's not God's fault. It's not because he's holding out on me, it's not because he's not giving me what I need. It's because for some reason I'm not partaking. I don't always connect the dots as to why, but for some reason I'm not partaking. And we actually see that in this story. Let's go back to verse 17. When the banquet was ready, he sent his servant to tell the guests, come, the banquet is ready. But they all began making excuses. One said, I've just bought a field and must inspect it, please excuse me. Another said, I just bought five pairs of oxen, I want to try them out, please excuse me. And another said, I just got married, so I can't come. You can read through this really quickly and think it's just Jesus making silly. Jesus had a great sense of humor, by the way. You have to really read them to see it. It's subtle, but it's there. And these are kind of silly examples, but they're actually really profound and practical. The first one, I just bought a field, I have to inspect it. That's like work. And it's it's amazing how often I miss out on what God has for me, what he wants to give me just this day alone, because I'm so busy working. And I work at a church. Like, think about that. This is this is true. I have days where I don't say this out loud, I don't even think it like this, but my mindset and my heart is like, God, I'm sorry, I don't have time to spend with you today. I gotta write a message. You know? Like that actually happens to me. I work at a church and I'm telling you, work, work is good, but but if you look to your job, your career, whatever that is, if you look to that to fulfill you, it's a that's a that's a road, by the way, paved with regret. There are so many people that at the end of life say, look, don't let what's on your business card, don't let the title, don't let it define you. That it's not gonna work. I know people who have achieved the highest, the highest success in the business world, and they're not overflowing with fulfillment because they sold a company or because they they they got the bonus or whatever. That's that's good. And those of you who are like career achievers, man, keep doing it. There's nothing wrong with achieving, and the Lord will bless that. But don't let yourself be fooled into believing that that that's meant to replace God as your source of fulfillment. That's what the first verse is. I got a job, I gotta go take care of my field, I'm busy. The second one, I got some oxen and I want to try them out. That just makes me think of hobbies. I think it's the phraseology of I want to try them out. I don't have to, but I want to. I cannot tell you how many days I haven't gotten around to spending the amount of time I wanted to spend with the Lord, but I didn't miss that game. Like I made sure that that several hour chunk of the day was protected. Or how many weekends where I'm like, man, I really didn't, I didn't have a lot of time this weekend to spend significant time with the Lord in prayer and just worship or whatever and in his word. But Megan and I binge watched two seasons of that show that we've been waiting to watch. And, you know, hobbies are a good thing. It's good to have something that you enjoy momentarily, and it's good to have a distraction from the stresses of life. But if your hobbies become your source of fulfillment, and by the way, we live in a culture that is entertainment saturated, and everyone is just living for the next quick fix of entertainment, and it may keep you going for a little bit, but it doesn't fill you. Here's how you know that. Those of you who who have ever, raise your hand if you've ever binge watched a show, you know what I'm talking about. You have like, how did there are, I feel like we watched more episodes than there were hours in the day, right? You ever had this experience where you binge watch the show and it's over and there's like a deep sadness in your heart? You're like, now what am I gonna do? You know? And then you get on Netflix or Hulu or Disney Plus, or what there's like thousands of these now. Um, and and you you're like, you see the the picture of the show, but you're like, I've seen them all. And it's it's like sadness. There's nothing for me there. And you're like, now what? What's you start texting your friends. Anyone have a show? Does anyone I see people on Facebook like, we need a show to watch? It's like we're desperate. Does anyone know a show that I can watch? Because I have something's missing in my life. So you're left feeling empty when that's done, because it was never intended to fill you, it was just intended to distract you. And look, sometimes we need distractions. I got four kids at home. Sometimes we lock our door and we say, fend for yourselves. You know? Go. They're fine. And they find a way in. I don't know how. They find a way in, but like, because we just want it, we want some distraction. But it's not intended to fill you. That last one, I can't come, I got married. That that just means there's another relationship, a human relationship, that takes precedence over the Lord. And that's really normal. And and and it's sneaky, right? Because it's good, like I'm married and I love my wife. And there have been times, absolutely there have been times, where she was ahead of God on my priority list. No doubt. I got kids, and there's times where where it's like I'm so into what they're doing and just so overfilled with love for them that I'm am I actually making my children an idol? Like it happens sometimes. It's easy to take another relationship and make it your priority. But if you rely on another person, I don't care how great that person is, if you rely on another person to fulfill you, it won't. Not the way God can. It actually ends up putting a strain on that relationship that that relationship was never meant to bear. No, no person that you're in a relationship with, and those of you maybe you're just dating someone and you're like, it's the one, they're amazing. When Megan and I first started dating, I remember this. She looked at me one day and said, You're perfect. And she's never said that since. You know, like that just like that happened once. Then 15 years later, you're like, you are a mess. And I, you know. It's just how it goes. But if you make that other person your rock, your foundation, that's so unfair to them. You're you're you're asking that person to bear the weight of all your hopes and dreams. They're gonna crack under that. They're not meant to carry that weight, but God is. And so it's so vital that no matter no matter who the most important person in your life is, it's so vital that they don't outrank the Lord. And by the way, it always reminds me, we we have people who who get baptized uh every year whose story is that for years their spouse was coming to church and and they weren't. And then one day they just said, you know what, I'm gonna go with you. And then six months later they're baptized and they're excited about Jesus. And I'm always so proud of those spouses. On to be honest, it's usually women. I'm so proud of those spouses who just week in and week out kept saying, I'm gonna go and worship the Lord. And would you like to come with me? And eventually, if that's you by the way, and there's a person you love very much and they're at home right now because they didn't want to come, keep doing what you're doing. Because you have no idea. Like next week might be the week that they come, and then you're in a baptism tank with them, going, How did this happen? This is amazing. There's always gonna be excuses, there's always gonna be distractions, but what I'm telling you is that this is what Jesus is telling you is that our Father wants to fill you. So if you're a Jesus follower, you are intended to be filled full. So come to the table. Every single day you wake up and you have this mindset that says, Lord, I know you want to fill me today. So whatever I'm lacking, Lord, fill it. And don't let your plate become filled with anything that would take away from your ability to fill it with what God has for you. I mean, it's a banquet, it's like a buffet. And we've all been to buffets, right? Buffet people in the room, anyone ever been to a buffet? Good. You know, it's funny, when you go to a buffet, you know in your mind that you can go back through this line like five or six times. And yet, how many of us, the first time through the line, our plate looks like we didn't know that? You know what I mean? Your plate's just like a mountain of food, and you're like, I don't even know how I'm gonna eat this, like how I'm gonna start, just attacking it. It's just something about us as people, like, I can go through the line four or five times, but I'm gonna make a mountain out of this plate. Like, do you realize that that's what the Lord wants you to do with his blessings? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, just pile it up. But if you show up to the buffet line and you've already got a plate filled with anger and resentment and stress and worry and anxiety and fear and selfishness, if that's already on your plate, look, I gotta fit in a little bit of what God has. No, dump all that stuff, surrender that to God, say, Lord, I'm done with this, fill me. Fill me. I just want us to be a church full of people who say, God, just fill me with what you have. Fill me. And by the way, if you haven't started following Jesus yet, I'm telling you, He will satisfy you. And I I imagine there are some of us in the room who who maybe we haven't made that step yet. But we're just tired. We're burned out. We've been doing life on our own strength, and it has not worked. There's scripture that speaks to that. Jeremiah chapter 17. This is one of those tree language verses that I talked about earlier in Lord's Supper. Cursed is the strong one who depends on mere humans. And strong one there is a little bit, it's like facetious, the strong one who depends on mere humans, who depends on human strength, who thinks he can make it on muscle alone and sets God aside his dead weight. He's like a tumbleweed on the prairie, out of touch with the good earth. He lives ruthless, rootless, and aimless in a land where nothing grows. It's like a shriveled up shrub. It's just no roots, nothing to sustain it. But blessed is the man who trusts God, the woman who sticks with God. They're like trees planted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers, never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf. Serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season. That's what it looks like for God to satisfy you. And if you're here and you haven't given your life to Jesus, I'm telling you, He's alive, He's real. He has He's prepared a banquet, a feast of blessings for you, and He's looking at you today and He's saying, Come, the banquet is ready. Accept the invitation. Give your life to Him. Sign up to get baptized. Go all in, because He will fill you to the brim if you let Him. So do that. Just do that today. Now, I said earlier that this was not just about us individually. Every once in a while, and it's not an every week thing at all, but every once in a while, as I'm praying and preparing, God will put it on my heart and in our leadership that it's time, like He wants He wants something to be spoken for all of us. Because we are a group of individuals, we're all gonna leave here today and go to our homes, our families, our jobs, our whatever we do, our schools. But right now, we're we're connected. You may not know the person 10 feet from you. You should, by the way. Feel free to introduce yourself to them. There's no rule against that. But uh but this is family. And we're we're a church and we work together. And God's using this church in really powerful ways. And and when I look at this scripture that Jesus teaches, it's not just that the Father wants every person to come and experience the banquet, which is so clear. He wants you to be filled. But it's also that he will not tolerate the house not being full. You know, he's like, he's not okay with the fact that there's not as many people as possible partaking. Really bothers him in this in this illustration. So the servant comes and is like, hey, there's not many that have accepted the invitations. Like, well then go invite whoever. Right? He says, invite the poor, the cripple, the lame, everyone that society at that time would have left out. He's like, no, go bring them in. And when when the servant comes and says there's room for more, he's like, well, then go look behind bushes. That's what it literally says. Go out to the countryside, go behind the hedge. He's like, I don't know, if you see a bush, look behind it, see if there's someone there, and invite them, because my house will be full. There's another version of this same illustration. It's it's a little different, it's actually a little more intense in Matthew. And in Matthew, it's not just a feast, it's a wedding banquet for the master's son. And he will not settle for that banquet prepared in honor of his son not being well attended. Because his heart is for everybody. This has been a really special year for us as a church because we have seen so many people experience that fullness that God offers this year in a special way. And by the way, everybody who volunteers, everybody who prays, everybody who who just exudes the love of Jesus, those of you who give fun, everybody who does something to participate in this, I want to thank you because you you are doing an incredible job and God is using it. We have had over 160 people baptized this year so far. And that is really awesome. And uh by the way, that is more than three times the number of people that were baptized here last year. It's more than the last two years combined, it's almost more than the last three years combined. And it's it's a move of God, it's a move of the Holy Spirit. It's not like we have pushed this manufacturer, baptisms are not mandatory, okay? We're not like making people do this. And it's one thing to clap for that number, but it's another thing to remember that those are all people and they have families and lives and they come from a variety of backgrounds. It's been incredibly diverse as far as age and ethnicity and background of life. It's just been awesome to watch like all these very different people united by the love of Jesus. And so it's one thing for me to say 160, but it's another thing to see their faces. And so I want to take just a few minutes and show you what this year has looked like in terms of the number of people who have said, yes, I'm all in with Jesus. Do you have a few minutes to watch this? All right, take a look and we'll come back and finish up. Isn't that awesome? So exciting. Man, I was thinking about the fact that it's three times more than last year, and how sometimes our our vision of what's possible is very, very small compared to what God sees. You know, if if if that happened again, if let's say a few years from now, I'm like, hey, it's three times more than than before, it'd be 500 people. And then if that happened another time, like three times more, it'd be it'd be 1,500 people in a year. And we might look at that and be like, that's crazy talk. Uh the very first time that the Holy Spirit came in power upon the followers of Jesus, 3,000 people in one day came to know Jesus. And what I want us to understand as a church is really simple. Guys, there's room at the table for more here. There really is. It's interesting, a few years ago, we experienced tremendous growth, and it was both exciting and stressful. Um, because it's taken us a while to get our hands around it. It was like we grew really fast, and it was like, woo, hundreds more people. And then it was like, oh no, hundreds more people, you know? And literally, if you have been a fly on the wall, if you had in the last three years at the staff meetings that we have every single week, you would not have heard, I don't even think you would have heard one conversation about us growing in number as a church and saying, hey, how do we get more people? We haven't talked about that. Because our focus has been 100% on how do we take care of the people we have, how do we meet their needs, how do we help them grow, how do we invest in their children, how do we come alongside them, how do we impact our community? That's everything that we talk about. And we've experienced tremendous, like deep growth as a result of that. And that's been the birth of community groups and classes and all the outreach that happens. And by the way, our community groups all do outreach together and go out in the community and serve, and it's it's just it's amazing. And clearly we see with the lives that have gone on with Jesus this year that God is moving. And so we have this responsibility where it's like, okay, Lord, you're doing such amazing things. Is there room here for more? And the answer is unequivocally yes. There is there's absolutely room for more. We are ready as a church to grow. I believe that. And the need is real. I don't know if you know this or not, but in Cherokee County, and I know by the way, we have people from Cobb County here. We even have Pickens County people. That's that's awesome. You guys make a drive, but we're glad you're here. But Cherokee County alone, there are 250,000 people that live in Cherokee County. It's actually the fastest growing county in the Atlanta area. And on a typical Sunday, and this isn't, these are numbers that we know because myself, other pastors, we get together, this is something that like research has been done. On a typical Sunday morning, out of the 250,000 people in Cherokee County, 35,000 are in church on a Sunday. Yeah. And if you have this idea of like, no, no, no, no, no, it's gotta be. I drive on the streets, I see those bumper stickers on cars of people who go to church. You know, every time you see one of those bumper stickers, we don't have bumper stickers yet. We're gonna we're gonna have like whole car decals. That's gonna be our approach as a church, like the whole car wrapped in a chuff show. Um I'm actually really good friends with a couple of the bumper bumper sticker church pastors, and I tease them on that. But like, I say that I'm not ready for my church, I don't know if we're ready for that, because I if we get in like a fender bender or we cut someone off, I don't know if I want people to see, like, ah, you know, it's one of those people. But uh one day maybe. But every time you see one of those, look around that car and find how many cars you see without something like that. I mean, it's it's actually drastic. That means, guys, there are hundreds of thousands of people. That's not an exaggeration. Hundreds of thousands of people who live in our community, in our neighborhoods, we work with them, we shop next to them, we're around them. They're not living connected to the Lord. They're not, they're not experiencing that banquet that our Father has created for them, and we can't stand for that. Because the Father won't stand for that. It breaks his heart, and it should break ours. Because Jesus is not this little nice addition that we add to our lives and he makes everything shiny and better. Jesus is everything, he's the source of life. And if we really believe that, if we really believe that he's the one who sustains us, that he's the only one who offers life, then it should break our hearts if we we realize that thousands upon thousands of people around us, they're not experiencing that. And we can't control whether or not they will, but but shouldn't we at least invite them to the table? Shouldn't we at the very least say, hey, I've I've tasted it, it's good. Not not church, Jesus. But if you can come to church and not find Jesus, something's wrong with church. Right? So, like, we're ready for more. That's what I'm saying. And God's made that really clear going into 2020. We're ready to invite more people to experience the love that God has shown us. We really are. And and how does that happen? It's really simple, and I do see the clock, and we're gonna finish really fast. A couple things. A couple things are necessary, and they're they're both really minor, but but but also major. Number one, it's the power of an invitation. What does the master keep saying to the servant? Go in and what? Invite. Have you ever been offended by an invitation? Like, has there ever been one person that said, hey, I want to invite you to something, and they and it's maybe something you would hate, and you're like, I can't even believe that this person invited me. Like, no, I've I I have been invited to stuff that in my like I am nice and I'm like, oh, thank you. And I'm my heart, I'm like, never gonna happen. Not gonna do it, not interested, couldn't pay me to go. Um, but I'm not offended that I was invited. I'm actually, usually it's it's actually it's a blessing. Studies have shown this, and this is statistic, statistically proven, like 45% of people who don't go to church say that they are, they would be willing to go if a friend invited them. 45%. So you think about that in terms of the numbers in Cherokee County, you've got hundreds of thousands that are not connected, and 45% of those people are like, yeah, if a friend of mine said, Hey, will you come with me? Not knocked on my door and said, You ought to be in church. You know what I mean? That's not why. Don't ever do that. You know, don't that's no. Like, hey, will you come with me? 45% say, yeah, I'd go. Like, that's tens and tens of thousands of people in our community. So it's it's just the power of an invitation. Scripture, by the way, is filled with people inviting people in and people saying yes to that. I've actually seen that. I actually had a gentleman who probably at the second service today, Nate Snow, on stage early in the year, and we did this visual illustration of the power of an invitation with Nate and all these other people. And I actually want to show it to you in a different way this morning, because when I was the youth pastor, this is something really cool that happened. And it all started with this young guy named Nate. And so let me kind of walk you through this. So we got Nate, Nate Snow, high school kid at the time, and he invited a friend of his named Jake. And so Jake started coming, and then Jake invited his girlfriend Blakely, because you know, when you're in high school, you you bring, you bring whoever you're dating. Blakely invited her friend Matt. Matt invited his girlfriend at the time, Kristen, because in high school, you bring whoever you're dating. And Kristen brought her friend Catherine. And so this has happened pretty fast over the course of like a month. Catherine invites Austin, who she is dating, and then Austin invites his little brother, Tyler. Now, Kristen and Matt break up, but it's okay. It worked out really great for both of them in the end. And Kristen ends up bringing her boyfriend, her new boyfriend, Zach. They don't make it either, but they're all doing great. Um and uh at this point in time, some significant things have happened, okay? So I want to highlight a few people on this list. So you have Austin. He ends up being a youth volunteer for us for five plus years. I love Austin Shue. He's an amazing kid. He's a kid, he's like mid-20s, sorry. Um, then you got Tyler, his brother. Tyler still is serving on our youth team. He's been doing it for eight years. He was one of our first interns. Zach ended up uh meeting another girl here at his hands, got married, they just had their second child, and check this out one, two, three, four, five of his family members have been baptized here. Six if you count his niece's boyfriend, which was recent, not technically a family member, but connected nonetheless. And then you've got Matt, and that's actually really significant because Matt, you guys all know Matt, he stands right here, he's our worship pastor. All, all of that, because Nate invited one person to church. You see that? How cool is that? Like, yay, Nate. Nate snow. Nate did not invite all those people. He invited Jake. And then Jake invited Blade. It just all kind of happened through that, and yet you see whole family change. By the way, I reached out to Zach this last week and I said, Man, it hit me. So many of your family members have been baptized here. And I said, Have you seen your family change? He's like, It's night and day. There's so much peace and joy in my home. It's the power of an invitation. And so, church, I'm saying, let's start inviting people. Invite your friends and your neighbors. And Christmas Eve would be an amazing opportunity, but every Sunday is. Just invite. Say, hey, I'm going. I don't have to go alone. You want to come with me? I know that takes courage. I know it's awkward, by the way. I get it. It's awkward. What are they gonna think? They might think you're a weird, crazy Christian, but they probably already think it anyway, and you just don't know it. So get over it and invite them to church. Right? The second thing, and this is really quick, is like the the only thing, so my my job is to lead this, and most days, I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing, uh, but Lord, please help me. The only thing that I look at and I'm go, okay, if 500 more people started coming, and I believe we're ready for more than that, but if 500 more people started coming, what would we do? The only thing that makes me go, I'm nervous, is just some of our volunteer teams need more people. It's really simple. We did some research and we've been looking at this for the last few weeks. We actually we need 175 more volunteers to be ready for over 500 more people in weekly attendance. Now, there are about 6,000 people that call his hands their home. So 175, that's not a giant number. And even in this room, 175 would not be a giant number. I know many of us in the room volunteer. I also know not all of us do. But let me explain. Some of you guys, by the way, have volunteered in the past and you're like, nope, not doing that again. And I get that. And sometimes things are for a season and you shouldn't feel pressured or anything like that at all. And sometimes you need rest, and then sometimes you need to step back up. And we've worked really hard over the years. By the way, if you volunteered years ago, it's kind of night and day because um five years ago, I think we had three people on staff here at the church, and so we were just like running around flying. It was like volunteers, like, hey, thanks for what you're doing, great, gotta go bye. And now we've been able to grow our staff to the point where our volunteer teams are really heavily supported, and there's people that are able to give their full attention to that team. And obviously we have room to grow in that, but but it's it's really it's amazing what God's done the last few years. Volunteering here at His Hands on a Sunday morning, it is across the board. There's a little variety depending on certain teams, but across the board, it's a commitment of two services per month. Not two entire Sundays. Because we have two services a Sunday, it's two services per month. That's it. And if we had 175 more volunteers, we would be ready to grow tremendously as a church. There's been a number on the screen, it's the same number we always use. All you gotta do is text team to get that started. And we're talking about starting in January. The people that would sign up to volunteer and start in January. I'll tell you, here's what we need. We need a hundred people to help in the kids' areas. And our elementary, and our nursery, and our a hundred, we need a hundred people. I'm just like, we we do. You guys have so many children. Um so many kids. And I've done my part to add to that. I apologize. Um but I I it really hit me, you know, I've got these amazing children, and uh they they really love the Lord. My oldest has been baptized, and my my daughter, who's the second oldest, like she's she's starting to ask us about that, and we're just trying to make sure that it's it's she's ready, that she really knows what she's doing. Um but I think she's really close, and so much of that's happened here. When we hire a babysitter, uh we pay that person, and all we hope is that our children are alive when we come home. That's that's the expectation, that they're still breathing. When you drop your child off here, you know, that person is a volunteer, and you're like, I want them to be alive. That would be good. Uh, that's by the way, we're 100% on that. Um, I would like them to have an amazing time. I want them to make great friends. I want them to grow spiritually and be connected to God and grow in their relationship with Him. And like, that's that's the expectation. And our volunteers who serve in the kids' areas, that's what they're doing week in and week out, and they do an amazing job, but we we've already grown to capacity in our kids. We need more. In the second service today, we have baby dedications. There will be 11 babies on our stage. These are 11 babies. Do you know what taking care of 11 babies is like if there's two of you? It's awful. It's horrible. We've got we've got rooms in our in our nursery, we've got rooms in the garden where there's like 23 two-year-olds in a room. That is not a good idea. That's not gonna work. But it's simple if all of a sudden we had two more volunteers step up in the two-year-old's room, that that 23 kids becomes 11. And that's a very different thing. And now those kids are getting personal attention and love. We need 100 volunteers in our kids' areas and 75 volunteers elsewhere, and we need it like, I don't know, yesterday. Um the ship is not is not sinking. God is good, and every week we find a way. But it's just really simple. If we're gonna reach that many more, if we're gonna if we're gonna continue seeing more and more people, we just need more volunteers. It's that simple. And so I'm gonna wrap up. We're gonna be done. Worship team, you guys can come out, we'll finish. But I guess I'm just I'm asking this morning. I'm asking you to number one recognize that God wants to fill you, but he also wants to fill our community. And there's a a great need. And if we have this mindset that's like, nah, Cherokee County's fine. No, no, not even. It's so many people here. They don't know the Lord, and that breaks God's heart. And so we need to be a church that values inviting people, bringing people with us. Because an invitation, one invitation is powerful, and we need we need 175 people to be like, I'm ready. I'll do it. Two services per month. And if we get that, I I have a feeling God's gonna do more than we could anticipate or imagine. Does that make sense? Are we good? Are we in? All right, all right. Well, let's pray. Let's wrap up. God, thank you so much for everything that you uh you have done in this church, Lord, watching 160-something people go all in with you and knowing, Lord, that it's not like the end. It's it's gonna keep happening next week, it's gonna keep happening the week after, Lord. Next year, I don't even I don't even know what you have in store, but I believe it's big, and I see no signs of what you're doing slowing down. And so I'm grateful to be part of this. Lord, I pray that every person in this room recognizes that you want to fill them, that they would hunger for what you have, they would surrender to it and crave it. And Lord, I pray, I just pray, Jesus, that that 175 people would step up so that we can be ready to receive more. And I also pray in your name, Jesus, that you would fill each of us with the same passion that you have for seeing people partake of the feast that you have prepared. That we would not be able to idly stand by and watch people that we love, that we care about, that we walk next to, live next to, work next to, that we would watch them flounder and attempt to do life without you. It's not worth it. It's not it's not okay, Lord, and it shouldn't be okay with us. So make us a church full of inviters. We love you, Jesus. And we ask all this in your name. Amen.