Invest, Influence and Invite

Introduction

Twenty-seven years ago on December 3, 1992 they way you and I communicated would be forever changed. On that December day, engineer Neil Papworth sent a text to friend Richard Jarvis saying “Merry Christmas”.

With one message of “Merry Christmas” the idea of text messages overtook the world.

In the same way, the message of “Jesus Saves” began with 12 men and overtook the world. Some of it through sermons that literally saw thousands respond to follow Christ, but for the most part it has been the result of one person sharing their faith with another.

This morning I’m excited to share with you how we can do that by focusing on three words; Invest, Influence and Invite.

READ SCRIPTURES AND PRAY

English Standard Version Chapter 1

4 I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers, 5 because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints, 6 and I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ.

Invest

One of the things we strive for here at Renovation is to build authentic community our church. We want to people to become connected and attend reGroups, serve within the Dream Team and build relationships with those they serve with. We want to be a family and have some of your most important relationships happen here.

This is what Paul commends Philemon for here in vs. 4-5.

Philemon loved his brothers and sisters in Christ. I am sure that he participated in all of the church gathering that they had going on.

There is also a danger that we can have when when it comes to our relationships within the church, because we have to be careful that they are not the only relationships we have.

Exp: - I have a tendency to go all in on something. When I read a book I am obesessed with it. I read all the time. I become interested in a subject I will find other books on the same topic to read on. Every year around the first of the year I become the most dedicated gym rat, obsessed with calorie intake and calorie burn....for about two months.

We can be the same way with our church relationships. We get involved deeply in our church relationships, which is good, but we soon find out that we only have “Christian friends”. The problem with this is that we grow in our relationship with Jesus but we don’t have others to share it with.

This is part of Paul’s prayer for Philemon in vs. 6. His prayer was not just that Philemon would have a growing relationship with those in the in the church, but that he would have relationships outside the church to share his faith.

God has placed people in your life that you may be the only one who can reach. I know that sounds over-dramatic, but I believe it is true.

Think about it for a second. Think of family members who do not know Jesus. What about friends - maybe friends that you’ve had since childhood. What about your neighbors? Co-workers? Besides you, how many Christians are there in their lives?

Luke 19:1-9

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 19

He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 There was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but he was not able because of the crowd, since he was a short man. 4 So running ahead, he climbed up a sycamore tree to see Jesus, since he was about to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.”

6 So he quickly came down and welcomed him joyfully. 7 All who saw it began to complain, “He’s gone to stay with a sinful man.”

8 But Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord. And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much.”

9 “Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.”

b. Zaccheus was a hated man. He was Jewish but he worked for the Roman government (who was oppressing the Jews at the time).

Basically Zaccheus had a small business charging taxes. According to Roman law Zaccheus could charge whatever fees he wanted to as long as Rome got their tax. So basically, he was exploiting his own people.

Vs. 6 - Sinful man = tainted or marked by.

Vs 10 - lost = ruined or destroyed

People looked at Zaccheus as a lost cause. He was tainted, ruined and destroyed in everyone’s eyes but Jesus. He saw him as someone worthy of investing in. He saw him as someone needing salvation. He saw it worth the time and effort to see him go from lost to found.

We can’t be afraid to invest in relationships with people who are are different than us.

I think that often we are afraid there are those who are different than us is going to influence us.

Since I first became a believer I have had warning from well meaning Christians who would say things like, “Be in this world but not of it” or “Good company corrupts good character.” This is true and we should be wise and not put ourselves in compromising positions, but we must remember there is a balance to it as well.

We can follow Jesus example:

He did not engage in sin. - We can not put ourselves in positions where we sin or are tempted to sin.

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 4

You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God

You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God

What does James mean when he says “friend of this world”? Is he saying that we can’t be friends with anyone who is not a Christian? Not at all! James is saying that we can not embrace the sinful actions of this world that Jesus died to set us free from.

Christian Standard Bible. (2017). (). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.

In other words, we don’t engage in sin in hope to engage someone with the Gospel. We can’t say, “I’m going to go to the bar and knock a few back in hopes to win someone to Jesus”, or “I think I’m going to date a non-believer because I think I can win them over.” No missionary dating allowed!

It was not secretive. - Everything Jesus did to reach Zaccheus was out in the open.

If we only put ourselves around people who are like us we will never have an audience to share the Gospel with.

It is ok to know people who don’t vote the way you do. It is ok have relationships with those who think differently than you do.

It is those people who need to hear the Gospel the most! Your church friends don’t need to hear it.

When I say invest, please hear me, I don’t mean see people around you as projects but be in genuine friendships and relationships with them.

Never forget the people God has put in your life who don’t know Him that he has given you the opportunity to invest in. Think about it: Who are those friends, neighbors, co-workers, classmates?

Influence

It is after we have invested ourselves in the lives of others that we earn the right to influence them.

Other wise we come across as people who are quick to point out only what someone else is doing wrong. I think this is largely why non-believers are all too aware of what Christians are against instead of who we are for.

In order to be a person of influence we first have to earn a position of influence.

Exp: When I was a freshman in high school I had a basketball coach that scared me to death because I could never please him. All I ever heard was what I was doing wrong and never anything I did right. To this day I can still hear him screaming, “Hawkins, you are going to kill somebody out there!” He was brutal. After the season was over he got me and another guy out of class and surprised us to watch one of the March Madness basketball games in his office with him. I could not figure out why he picked me to join him because I seriously thought he hated me. It was confusing to say the least. During the game he said to me, “Hawk, you were one of my favorite players to coach this past season. You work your tail off (he actually used more colorful language to describe “working my tail off”) and you think like a basketball player”. You know what? That compliment meant nothing to me because I didn’t respect him, and to be honest, by the time the season was over I had already decided I didn’t like him.

At that point, coach would never have a position of influence over me because he never took the time to be a person of influence to me.

Had my coach invested in me he would have earned the right to influence me.

Whether we realize it or not, when we invest in those who don’t know the Lord we are earning the right to influence them. Let me explain:

W

When the see us go through difficult seasons in our lives and see how we look to the Lord they will take notice.

Then when they go through trying seasons in their own lives, they will look to us for hope.

When I first moved to St was working in a factory until the church could afford to bring me on full time. It was hard work and some days we worked twelve hours a day. Everyday I worked across from the same guy and we became friends. However, he not only did not like the fact I was a pastor but he hated that I was a Christian. Numerous times he told me how he grew up in the church and was now an atheist because he realized the Bible was, as he put it, “The best selling fiction book of all time”. One day as we were working he was telling me about some things he was going through and he shocked me. He asked me if I would pray for him and the situation he was going through. I saw this as a huge victory because here is an atheist asking me to pray for him! After investing in my friendship with him I earned the right to influence him.

Colossians 4:2-6

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 4

Devote yourselves to prayer; stay alert in it with thanksgiving. 3 At the same time, pray also for us that God may open a door to us for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains, 4 so that I may make it known as I should. 5 Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.

c. We live in the argument culture. We love to debate. We love to fight. You need no further proof than to go to social media. It can get pretty ugly on there sometimes. It is ironic that we call it “social” media because sometimes it is anything but social and hospitable.

Rather than going toe-to-toe with someone who thinks or even believes differently than us maybe we would be wise to find common ground where we can see eye-to-eye with them

I Peter 3:15

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 3

in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, ready at any time to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. 16 Yet do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience,

Listen to what Paul is saying here:

Regard Christ as holy in your own hearts.

Live like you say you believe. Be different. Let others see Jesus in you

Be ready to share the hope that is in you.

When you live for Jesus, people will see Jesus in you.

Do this with gentleness and respect.

You don’t have to be arrogant about your faith. When you treat others with gentleness and respect, they will respect your faith.

Big splash or a constant flow?

If you have been around Renovation you know we believe in outreach because we believe it has a HUGE impact. Every year we invest resources, time and manpower in things like the Block Party, Movie Night, mission trips, and even our Overflow events.

We want to make a big splash in our community and beyond with the Gospel. However, if we are serious about people knowing God, finding freedom, discovering purpose and changing the world it is going to take more than big splash events. It is going to take all of us being committed everyday to invest in our friends, family, coworkers, neighbors and classmates in order to influence them.

Here is what I mean by there being a big splash or constant flow:

A big splash is immediate, like the Block Party, in a three hour period we have the opportunity to engage thousands of people at once, but after that it is over. Yes like any big splash there is a ripple effect. For us as a church we see a couple hundred people who actually come to a Sunday morning service and we see that as a huge win.

But a constant flow is different. You don’t see the immediate results but over time it has a huge impact.

I was visiting with my sister last week and she was telling me how the water line to her refridgerator had a small leak and unknowing to her it went into her basement. She was shocked to find that this small flow of water nearly flooded her entire basement. For weeks she had no idea what the impact this small but constant flow of water was having.

The same is true with us when we invest and influence those around us. We may not see immediate results, but we are having a huge impact.

Decide today that you are going to have a position of influence because you are committed to being a person of influence.

Invite

This last component is the most bold, and maybe for some of you the most intimidating. After you’ve invested in people who don’t know the Lord and after you have influenced them with your life of following God…I’m going to ask that you be willing to invite them to the truth that you posses.

Sometimes the thought of this brings us a ton of anxiety. We think:

What if they ask me something about the Bible I don’t know and I realize that I forgot to go seminary?

We don’t have to be Bible scholars to share our faith. Remember what we read earlier? We just have to share the hope that is in us. All we have to do is share our experience with the Lord.

We can take the route of the blind man that Jesus healed when he was being questioned.

John

Christian Standard Bible Chapter 9

24 So a second time they summoned the man who had been blind and told him, “Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner.”

25 He answered, “Whether or not he’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!”

How can I share my faith with those who know best like my friends and family who know my flaws? I will feel like a hypocrite.

As many of you know I lost my mother this year. Believe it or not, even though I am a pastor, I struggled for years to share the Gospel with her for that very reason.Not only did I know that I wasn’t perfect, but she knew I was perfect. She knew when I blew it and I felt like a hypocrite. There were even times when I was a teenager - young in my faith, that she would tell me I was a hypocrite. A couple of years ago she began to ask me about heaven. She had heard a preacher on TV talk about heaven and he had recently wrote a book on heaven. So Kim and I went to the Christian bookstore and looked at the book. It seemed solid so we bought and mailed to her. For the next year when we talked on the phone we talked about the book and I finally got to share the entire Gospel with her. When she passed away in February it was devastating, but I was at least comforted with the knowledge that I shared the Gospel with her - the hope that was within me - and that she too could have that same hope. When we invest, we earn the right to influence and when we influence we are welcome to invite.

If that sounds too intimidating I would encourage you to begin by inviting someone to church.

I heard a statistic this week that said nearly 80% of people invited to church will actually come if they are invited by someone they know. And of that 80% of those who come, nearly 85% of them over time will surrender their lives to the Lord. Never underestimate the power of an invitation of those you have invested and influenced.

Conclusion

Think of the movement that began with the first text message that simply said, “Merry Christmas”. That began a movement that would change the world. Imagine a movement that could happen in our city if we took the time to Invest, Influence and Invite others with a simple message that said, “Jesus loves you”. Our city might not ever be the same

As we wrap up today I want to challenge you with two things:

First, I want you to take your cell phone out. We are going to bring the lights down for a minute. If you are here today and you know Jesus because another Christian, whether it be a friend, family member or someone else took the time to invest, influence with their lives and invited you to a relationship with Jesus, would you turn the flash light on your phone and hold it up for a second. Look around and see the impact investing, influencing and inviting can have. You can have an impact.

Second, in your chair in book marker that says “Who’s Your One?” There is a place on there for you to write the name of a specific person. Would you be willing not only to write somebody’s name on there and pray for them for the next 30 days? And as you are praying look for opportunities that the Lord might make for you to invest, influence and invite that person.

Maybe you are here today and you don’t know Jesus. Can I be maybe one of the first people ever to tell you that Jesus loves you? That He died for you so your sins could be forgive and that you could have a relationship with Him? You can walk out of this room today knowing Him. I

I am going to ask our prayer team to come up here now. If you do not know Jesus they would love to tell you about him. Or maybe you want someone from the prayer team to pray specifically for the name that you wrote down. What ever the need, this invitation time is for you.