The Deletha Word Story: What Can I Do To Rescue People Who Are In Grace Danger?

Introduction

Reports say that it all began early one Saturday morning in 1995 with a minor traffic accident in Detroit. It all ended with the body of Deletha Word floating lifelessly in the waters beneath the Detroit River Bridge. Witnesses say that after this minor traffic accident, three men pursued Miss Word, cornered her on the bridge, and then began to vandalize her car. When they tired of that, they turned her attention to her, pulled her from the car, began to assault her, and then at this point the reports become sketchy. Either in fear for her life, she jumped from the bridge, or, according to some, was thrown off the bridge by her three assailants. It was a horrific crime. But as investigators dug into the details, there was another grim reality that emerged.

There weren’t just four people on the bridge. Estimates are that there were about 40 bystanders who came upon the scene and stopped and got in their cars and observed the assault. Nobody knows how many drove past the scene and passed by on the other side. We just know that Miss Word was not alone on the bridge that day, that there were a lot of people there, and nobody intervened to help her and stop the crime. And so what began as an awful local story about barbaric, how barbaric some in our culture have become, morphed in August of 1995 into a national story about how apathetic many more of us have become. I don’t know about you. But when I hear a story like that, there’s a part of me that wants to say that if I had been there, if I had been on the bridge that day, if I had come upon this scene, things would have been different.

Don’t you like to tell yourself that? I wouldn’t have just stood there. I would have done something. I wouldn’t have just driven by or run my car right up in the middle of that. I would have intervened. I would have done something to rescue this woman. I couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. Do you say that to yourself?

Of course, it’s really a moot point, isn’t it? I’ve never been to Detroit. I wasn’t there that day on the bridge, and so there isn’t anything that I can do, could have done to help her. But our protests do raise an interesting question about what we will do to help the people that we can help who are in grave danger. Can I go back to the lesson of Bible class and remind you about two indisputable realities that every disciple of Jesus absolutely needs to come to grips with? I press the button and it doesn’t happen. There it goes. The first reality is this there are countless people around us who are in grave danger. Not like Miss Word was that day on the bridge. Worse than the bridge.

People who have not heard the gospel, who have not been persuaded to respond to the gospel, people that are apart from Jesus and will forever be, as we said in Bible class today, unless someone intervenes, unless somebody helps them. They’re facing a spiritual catastrophe. And the second thing we need to be convicted of is that God wants us to do something about that. In fact, you’ll notice I didn’t put on the slide that God wants us to do something. He commends us to do something about that. We made the point in class. I don’t think you can be honest with the text and not conclude that. Jesus said to his disciples, go preach the gospel to every creature. And Acts is the record that they were obedient.

They went everywhere. Preaching the word. When people started dying, they went everywhere, preaching the word, even with their very lives at risk. Why? Because they were being faithful to the mission. We have people around us in grave danger. And God says, go rescue them. Which brings us to the question that I want us to think about for a little while this morning. What can we do about these people who are lost? I’ve wondered if there were some people that day on the bridge who asked the same question. What can I do to help her? Maybe there’s maybe there’s one guy looking at these three thugs and says he’s not from Texas, he’s not packing. And so the question is, what am I going to do to help her?

I’m one against three. I wonder if there are some people on the bridge that day that wondered about that. I will tell you, I know that there are disciples that wonder about that. I have never encountered a Christian who said, I just don’t care about lost people. And I’ve encountered almost no disciple who said, I don’t think I have a mission to reach lost people. I just don’t talk to Christians like that. Do you know anybody like that? I hear exactly the opposite. Hear people say, I’ve got this co-worker. We’ve worked together 20 years. She’s become my good friend. And I just am riddled with guilt. I’ve never talked to her about her soul. I really want to do that. I don’t know what to do.

I don’t know how to bring it up. I don’t know how to get started. We’ve lived next door to these neighbors. My daughter is dating this boy. My husband, my wife is not a Christian. I want them to hear and obey the gospel. Those are the people that I talk to. Their question is, what can I do? I will tell you something. We need to have discussions like the one we had in Bible class today that kind of hit us between the eyes and say, we need to do better. But if that’s all we ever do is beat people up about neglect when it comes to evangelism, listen, we’ll feel guilty for a few days, but I promise you, if the lesson in Bible class bothers you’ll be over it by next Sunday.

And we’ve got to talk about what to do. And so, with this morning’s lesson, I’d like to do a follow-up to class and answer this question. What can we do? And what I want to do is talk about four simple things that we can do to reach lost people. When I say they’re simple things, I’m not saying we’re going to skim across the surface and talk about some things, well, that might be of a little value, but not very much. I will tell you that if every soldier in the Lord’s army would go out starting this morning and just do these four things, we generate more people to talk to about Jesus than we would know what to do with. I say they’re simple things because they’re not hard to do.

In fact, I promise you, I’m not going to talk about anything today that every disciple sitting in this audience cannot do. Every one of us can do each of these things. Not all of them will be easy, but not real tough. You don’t have to invest a lot of time in this work to do these four things. You don’t have to have a deep knowledge of complex theological issues to do these four things. You don’t have to be able to answer every point of Calvinism and explain Ezekiel 38 and Revelation 20 to be able to do these four things. You do not have to be a trained public speaker. You don’t have to have a degree in communication to do these things. There are four simple things that everybody can do.

1. We Can Make It Our Business to Shine

Let me tell you what the question is. Do I care enough about lost people to do it? That’s the real issue. So will you think with me? I don’t want to just make you feel guilty because we need to do better about teaching lost people. I want to talk about things you and I can do today to begin reaching out to them. So, what can we do? Let’s begin with this. Number one, we can make it our business to shine. Someone says, Well, what does that mean? Let me let the scripture answer. I’m going to Philippians chapter 2 in my Bible, and I hope you’re going to go there too in your Bible. Philippians chapter 2, we’re going to go down to verse number 14 and read two or three verses together.

Philippians 2, verse 14, Paul writes, do all things without grumbling or disputing, so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you what? What does your Bible say? Mine says, among whom you appear, your Bible may say, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain, nor toil in vain. Paul says that in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, you and I shine as lights. What’s that mean? Well, I just think it means that when a disciple goes out and spends his life walking with Jesus, that his life will look differently than the people around him.

Do you buy that? I mean, just in all kinds of very simple, practical, visible ways, people will look at how you live, and they will see that it isn’t how they live. I mean, just the way we talk will be different. Our values will be different. We’re working with a different rule book than everybody else is. Our priorities are going to be different. There are going to be things that are important to us that people in the world kind of wrinkle up their face and wonder why do they care about that? And things that everybody else cares about that are important to us at all. Our reactions will be differently to disappointment, to provocate. Our relationships will be different. They will be better. If you’re walking with Jesus, your relationship with your spouse will be better.

You have a different and better relationship with your kids, and people will see that and they’ll wonder about that. We appear as light. You see it? In the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Now, let me give you another text. This is Matthew 5. Go to Matthew 5 and run your finger down to verse number 13, because the second thing that I want us to see is that is exactly what Jesus had in mind for us. As he begins the Sermon on the Mountain, the first 12 verses, he lays out the beatitudes, which are basically describing the character of kingdom dwellers. There’s the path, there’s the life you live if you’re following Jesus. But then we get in verse 13, he’ll tell us that’s going to impact people around you.

So in verse 13, he says, You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. Boy, put that one on the shelf. We’ll come back and pull it off in a minute. That’s important. Verse 14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Here it is, verse 16. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Do you see it? Paul says that we shine as light in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. And Jesus says, yes, that is exactly what I had in mind. I want my people to go out to live my will in front of everybody so that they will see this difference. And not just that we’re different, but they’ll see that when you walk with Jesus, things are better. And not just that they would see that we’re different and better, but that they would be intrigued. They want to know about that. They would want to be drawn to that. Listen, someone who’s in a dead end, miserable marriage that sees a disciple who has a great relationship with his wife, even if he doesn’t say it in the back of his mind, he’s thinking, what is he got that I don’t have?

Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. Listen, you’ve got friends who will never read the Bible, but they need to read it every day as they look at my life.

So if we want to reach lost people, we need to shine.

And yet, you know the tough question we need to ask. If the key here is that my life needs to demonstrate in the better way, then the question you and I need to answer is, does my life demonstrate the better way? Do you remember where we started in Philippians 2 and verse 14? What verse 14 said? Do all things without grumbling and disputing, so that you can shine his lights. You see what he’s saying? He’s saying your attitude and your behavior, they impact your witness and your testimony. So, can I hit you right between the eyes with that? If you are so mean to waiters and waitresses in the restaurant that the people who are with you would not want to leave a card inviting them to the Decor Prairie Church, your grumbling is hurting your testimony.

If we gripe and complain are as miserable as everybody else around us, we’re not demonstrating the better way. It’s sort of like taking financial advice from a guy that’s been bankrupt three times. That’s okay. My life needs to say, every day, in lots of ways, Jesus has something better to offer. And so, I need to think about that. If I want to reach lost people, I need to shine. Now, if you look on the slide, you will notice that I have shine up there, and then there’s a whole lot of empty space underneath it. What’s that mean? That means I got more points coming, right? That’s a cue on. In fact, if you’re really good at this, you can sort of measure the gap and figure out how many points and how much longer the sermon is going to be.

I want you to know I’ve got more points coming because a Christian’s responsibility doesn’t end with shining. I think we’re mixed up about that. I think sometimes we have the attitude that I’ll go out, I’ll be a good person, somebody wants to know about Jesus. Well, they’ll come and ask. That’s not the end of our responsibility, and the vast majority of the time, that’s not the way this works. If you look back at Matthew 5 16, do you notice that he says, Men will see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven? My question is, how would any of your friends ever know that God gets the credit for your great relationship with your kids or your peace of mind? How would people know?

2. We Need to Speak

They won’t. Unless we make that connection for them. So I want to talk about something else. We need to go out and we need to shine. But the second thing we do as we do that is we need to make this connection for people. We’re also going to need to speak. And by speak, I just mean this. That we’re going to need to talk positively in our conversations, even with people who are Christians, talk positively about spiritual things. I think that is something that ought to happen naturally. Because we naturally talk about things that are important to us. Don’t we do that? How long do you have to be around Tony before you know he’s a wildcat fan? My objective is to work the Kentucky Wildcats into every sermon for the next four days.

How long do you have to be around someone who is a Houston Astro fan? I’ll come back and get it the other way. Or you know the people who are in politics who seem to run Fox News 24 7 at their house and give you every update on what Bill O’Reilly said. You know some people like that. I mean, it just comes out. And you grandchild people or grandparent people, oh man, not only are we going to hear about your grandkids, but you got pictures now. Why didn’t we ever teach you to use an iPhone?

You don’t have to talk about people, talk to people very long before you find the things that are important to them. So here’s my question. Who’s more important to you than God? And Jesus. Who’s more important to us than, or what’s more important to us than our relationship with them and our kingdom work? My point is if those things are what’s really important to us, more important than anything else, it’s just going to come out of the pores of our being. Just kind of all kinds of ways, every day in little ways. It’s just gonna come out. I can only think of two reasons that wouldn’t happen. It won’t happen if you’re a fraud. If I’m just putting on this show, if I show up because I don’t want the elders getting on my back, or my wife won’t leave me alone about going to church, and though I’m here and I’m all dressed up pretty this morning, I’d much rather be somewhere else.

If you’re a fraud, it won’t happen.

Or if you’re hiding your light, it won’t happen. You know, we get real comfortable gathering at enclaves like this, where we’re surrounded by other people who think like we do and talking about spiritual things. It’s a whole different thing tomorrow in a workplace setting where we’re the only one who seems to care about spiritual things. I’d like to say something real nice and gentle about that, but Matthew chapter 10 just really speaks to me about it. In Matthew chapter 10, verse 32. Jesus said, Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my father who is in heaven. What’s the point of the text?

We’re just gonna have to stir ourselves up with some courage and be willing to speak. Because sometimes we deny them with not with what we say, but with what we’re not willing to say with our silence. Well, so as not to leave any stone unturned, what should I say? I’m supposed to go out in a workplace setting surrounded by people not interested in Jesus. What kind of stuff should I say? How about how about mentioning God’s word? Do you ever pick up in your conversations with coworkers troubled relationships, troubled finances, people who don’t have peace, people who are having different problems in their life? You know, folks, you don’t have any friends who have problems that don’t ultimately have connections back to the Word of God.

So someone’s having a battle with their kids. Could you find a little piece of wisdom in your Bible? A verse you could write on a card? Drop it on their desk tomorrow. You’re talking about this problem you’re having with your teenage son. I found this in the Bible this weekend. I thought I would share it with you.

And frankly, I don’t care. If they throw it away, they throw it away. I did my best. If they say, What is this? Tell me about it. I’ve got an open door. I’m just going to try, whether they receive it or not. Could you do that? Could you give God the glory for good things in your life and go for a parent teacher conference and the teachers just bragging on, you know, your child is the best child I’ve had in class in my 38 years of teaching? And what do we do when they say that? We pretend to be humble. And we say, oh, well, you know, that’s so nice of you to say. Who gets the credit? The ones who didn’t deserve it. Listen, I only had good kids growing up because God was helping us.

If I didn’t I have to do this by ourselves, it would have been a disaster. A train wreck. How about saying that to a teacher? So it says, Oh, you got great kids. So, well, we couldn’t do it without God. I don’t know what’s going to happen next. They may never compliment your kids and because they’re going to say after your God. And got religious dog means they’ll bring that up again. Or they may say, I never heard that before. What do you mean God helps you raise your kids? What’s that called? It’s called an open door. You see? Can you say that? Don’t know how I’d do it without God. Can you tell folks you’re praying for them? How easy is it to do that?

I mean, the most ornery friend you have at work, if his mother’s sick in the hospital and you say, you know what? When I pray tonight, I’ll pray for your mom. Who’s going to get mad at you for that? Can that make a difference?

Years ago. I have a friend, Wesley Jr. worked with a guy named Pete.

Pete had a daughter who was sick. Wesley said, We’ll pray for her. I’ll pray for him. He said, in fact, I’m going to have my daddy announce to the church tomorrow night, Wednesday night that your little girl is sick. Well, our whole church will pray for her. And we did. And so two weeks went by, and Pete’s little girl got better. And he comes up to Wesley at work and he said, My own church didn’t pray for my daughter. You people don’t even know me. And you pray for her. I will be at your church next Sunday. And Pete came. He came with his wife and his two little girls, and they worshiped that Sunday, and Wesley got a hold of them. Which meant Pete wasn’t getting out of the building until he agreed to a Bible study.

Even if it meant staying until the evening service, there was going to be an agreement for a Bible study. And they did the next week, they had a Bible study, and the one the week after that, I’m not sure how many studies it took, two or three, and one evening after the study, Pete and his wife obeyed the gospel. Which led to a study with Pete’s sister who obeyed the gospel. And then a couple of years later, these little girls had grown up, and Pete’s children obeyed the gospel. And three months before I moved from the Dowin Road Church to go to Birmingham, we appointed Pete as one of the deacons of our congregation because somebody said, We’ll pray for your little girl. Can we do that?

3. An Invitation to Come and See

Just speak positively about this great church and how encouraged you are to be part of this spiritual family. Do you feel that way? Tell someone. Say the little things. Lord willing, we’ll see you tomorrow. No, I can’t go to the mall on Wednesday night. That’s the night we have Bible study. How about Thursday? And by the way, if you’d like to come to Bible study, now I’m introducing my third point, okay? Because as we’re going out and we’re speaking positively about spiritual things, what you want to do is just take that one extra step and tag along with that, an invitation to come and investigate. I want you to see something in the Bible with me. Go to John chapter 1. I love this little exchange between Philip and Nathaniel.

This is in John 1 and go down to verse 45.

It said Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, We have found him of whom Moses and the law and also the prophets wrote. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. So just understand, without giving you too much context here, Philip is really excited. He’s convinced, or sort of convinced, maybe, that he’s found the Messiah, and he’s all worked up about that. And he goes and he finds his buddy and he says, Listen, I think I found him. And in verse 46, Nathaniel’s response is, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Do you have any friends like Nathaniel? I mean, I don’t want to judge the guy, but this doesn’t sound like an enthusiastic response, right? Are you kidding me? Nazareth? Come on. What does he do next?

Do you see it? What’s Philip’s reply to Nathaniel? He doesn’t argue with him. He doesn’t say, let’s go find the scroll and debate the Old Testament prophet for us. You don’t believe me? Come and see. I think we need to do that all the time. I love that. I think that is a great evangelistic strategy. You got friends, you’re talking about spiritual things. Maybe they’re interested. Maybe they’re ambivalent. Maybe they’re even kind of negative. And so we say, look, why don’t you just come see? We need to be busy as we talk about spiritual things, inviting people to come and investigate, to get them in a setting where they’re surrounded by all kinds of very different people. This is a very different crowd of people. Who’ve all been impacted by the same message and the same Savior?

And your life’s never been the same, right? Man, I want to take somebody who’d know about that, and I don’t want to stick them right in the middle of this group of people. And let them see what the Lord has done. Working through his word in your life. I think we need to stay busy inviting people to come and see for themselves. So that we leave no stone unturned. What should I invite them to? Invite people to Bible class. I think that’s a great thing to do. You know, we kind of live in our little circle, and you probably haven’t spent very much time outside the circle in other kinds of religious groups, but I can tell you, I hear some things about that. And one of the things I hear about the religious world today is that there’s not a lot of Bible study going on.

Worship has sort of morphed into an entertainment hour. And so sometimes I’ve had people come and visit and say, you know, it’s so cool that y’all open the Bible here. I’m like, really? Isn’t that what everybody does? Oh no, man. I stopped bringing my Bible to church three years ago. Don’t need it. So there is a cut of people out there in the world that are really interested in the Bible, studying the Bible. They’re not getting that. I’m telling you’ve got some friends who, if you said, you know, Wednesday nights, we spend an hour, we go through the book of Ephesians, just kind of go chapter by chapter, looking at what God said in his book. You know some people who want that, and they’re not getting it where they’re going.

So you can invite them to Bible class. Listen, plan some sermons. Don’t make Tony do this. Make him preach something, especially with your with your friends in mind. I had a guy, I had a guy working. Tony and I have all these connections, so I feel like I’m having a conversation with him and leaving the rest of y’all out. He was working with Fenner, okay? One of the guys back at Beaumont. This guy had a question about the sin against the Holy Spirit. So they call me up. We’re trying to talk about it on the phone. And I say to the guy, look. If you will promise to come in two weeks, I’ll do a sermon on that Sunday night. I’ll be there. And he was.

You can plan, like, let’s bring a topic to Tony. I need you to preach on it and make it something really hard, okay? I got friends who are interested in this, and I need you to preach on this, and we’re going to invite him to come. Or just maybe a broad general subject that you think may be of interest to your community. Have special services. Invite people to come. Just talk about how great the worship is here. Man, y’all have lifted me up this morning with your enthusiastic singing. I know you get good teaching here. Just need to go tell people about that. Oh man, we’ve got great stuff going on at this church I’m at in Decker Prairie. You ought to come visit sometime. Y’all know we recommend all the time.

Have you noticed that? It doesn’t even have to be big stuff. You walk into Walmart and they’re having a sale on aisle 7. How many of you are picking up your phone texting somebody about that?

How about just saying great things about the church here and inviting people to come? It’s interesting that we tend to do a lot of inviting for special events. And that’s great. My question is why do we wait and just do it two times a year? How about every day? Let me make that easier. How about every week? Deciding that you’re going to scope out ten people that you can do exactly what Philip did with Athana. You’re just going to say to ten people this week, come and see. What if we could get every disciple just to do that? Just say, I mean, I’d love you to have come visit my church next week. Could you do that? Is that hard to say? Statistically, I work with a guy who’s run the statistics on this.

He said if you extend ten invitations over the course of the week, you’ll get one person to come. But you are in trouble. I don’t know where you’re going to put them. Put a big speaker up outside, I guess. What if you double the crowd next week? I don’t know where you would put them, but it’d be cool figuring it out, wouldn’t it? Someone says, I don’t think the statistic works. I don’t care whether it works. If everybody went out and invited ten people, there’d be one person that isn’t here today at least that’ll be here next week. Probably a lot more than that. I think we need to go out with that mission every single week. Who can I invite this week? Who can I say, come and see?

4. Take Care of Them When They Get There

Last thing I want to say. I didn’t even look at what time am I supposed to be done? It’s 11:30. Okay. I’m almost done. Because there is one more thing that’s really important if this is going to work, okay? It’s like, it’s like Leon Lett and the Cowboys. Y’all remember that Thanksgiving Day football game, let’s show boat and right at the end, right at the end of the, or before he gets in the end zone and he fumbles a ball and gets knocked out of the sand. Y’all remember that? What a clown. Don’t you hate when someone write about the score and they fumble the ball? Happens all the time in churches. Someone wants to fumble the ball when we’ve come this far. So when we’re busy inviting people to come and see, and they will come, the last thing we need to do is we need to be sure to take care of them when they get there.

Okay? We need to be sure that we’re kind to people when they visit. I want you to imagine. That some point in the future from today, you find yourself in Birmingham, Alabama, and because we became acquainted this week, you decided to visit the Vestavia Church where I preach. And when the service is over, because my wife is really nice, she comes to you and says, Hey, it was so good to see you again. Why don’t you guys come back for lunch or come by for lunch today? And you think, well, I can put up with banning to get a free meal out of the deal. And so you agree. And you come to the house for lunch. And when you arrive, my wife’s in the kitchen getting things ready.

I’m not there yet because I have to be the last one to leave the building. It’s just a rule, right? And so you sit out in the living room and she’s busy in the kitchen getting ready. And I come in. And buzz right through the kitchen, right through the living room. There you sit. I don’t even speak to you. I mean, it’s like you’re not there. I just buzz right through the living room, go back to the bedroom, take off the jacket, the first thing I always do. And you hear the TV turn on. There’s a game. And back in my bedroom, I pop, plop down into the recliner, and I’m back there. You can hear me listen to the game while you’re sitting in the living room.

How many of you are already offended, right? And then my wife comes out and she announces that lunch is ready, and because you’re in the living room, you’re got a better angle on the dining room table, and so you kind of get up and walk in there ahead of me and sit down, and then and then I come waltzing into the room and right up to where you’re sitting, and I look at you, and I frown. And I say, That’s my chair. Yeah, that’s what you do. You laugh because you think, surely this guy’s kidding. But I don’t stop frowning. And I just try to keep standing there until it gets really awkward. And so you get up and slide over and they let me have my chair.

And so, and so during dinner, I’m talking to my wife, we’re talking about today, talking about plans for next week, upcoming vacation. It’s like you’re not in the room. And then when dinner’s over, she gets up and she begins to clear the table, and I’m up and I walk right out of the room. I don’t speak to you. And you hear the TV, come back on in the bedroom. I’m back there watching the game. And I know you ladies are thinking, you should be helping with the dishes. It’s just an illustration, okay. And finally, you sit at the table for 20 minutes, she’s doing dishes, I’m watching the game. You guys just get up and leave. And we don’t even know you’re gone.

What’s going to happen when the car door shuts? Yeah, y’all are going to need to repent because you’re going to be gossiping about your experience at my house, right? And I’m suspicious that if you ever find yourself in Birmingham, Alabama again on a Sunday, you’re probably going to skip Vestavia. Or if you show up there and get an invitation to my house, you’re going to be busy. Right? You’re already going to have plans. Not going to want to come back. Someone said, Oh, come on, David. Nobody would ever treat someone that way at their house. And I think you’re right. But I’m going to tell you, brothers and sisters, there are searching lost souls right now in congregations of our brethren all over this country who will be treated exactly that way.

And you know it’s true. Please don’t tell me your story. Because when I make this point in a sermon and I get done, inevitably someone comes back and says, Oh, yeah, let me tell you about what happened to me. Everybody has a story. I used to get reports from our folks when they would go visit. Okay. Literally, a lady at our church told me this story. So I went and sit out of this church. Nobody spoke to me. Everybody ignored me. Finally, one guy turns around and said, Are you visiting this morning? She says, Why, yes, I am. And the guy says, So am I. Is this the coldest place you’ve ever been?

We’re a bunch of Leon Letts. All this trouble to connect with some poor lost person, get them all the way there in the building. And we fumble the ball. Let me give you a little scripture on that. Will you look at 1 Corinthians 14? And while you’re turning there, I need to, I need to acknowledge before I’m called out on this. I know that this is not a visitor passage. It’s a spiritual gift passage. And I don’t want to do injustice to the context, but I do think there’s something said here that has an underlying principle. Will you think about that with me? This is chapter 14, verse 23. Therefore, if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and ungifted men or unbelievers enter, will they not say you are mad?

But if all prophesy and an unbeliever or ungifted man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called into account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, so that he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you. They were not using their spiritual gifts in a loving, wise way. And Paul said, when guests come in here, you know what they’re going to say? That you’re a bunch of crazy people. That is not what we want people to say about us. Verse 25, what we want people to say is this is where God is. These are his people. So how do you welcome a guest? It isn’t rocket science. You already know what to do. You do it every time someone visits your house.

And by the way, as an aside, the elders didn’t ask me to preach a sermon. Tony didn’t clue me in. We need help with this. I have no idea how you do with your guests, okay?

Shake their hands.

My name is. And I’m really glad you’re here today. I hope they have a hard time getting out of the door. Shaking all the hands. And maybe one little follow-up. What brings you to Decker Prairie this morning? Help them. Did they come in with six kids? They’re going to need some help finding Bible class, okay? It’s not clear when you walk in your door. Not as bad as where I’m at Vestavi. It’s even harder to figure out where to go. New folks need help knowing where to go. Got to go down this hallway, right? I’m assuming the classes. They need to know that. I don’t know where the high school class is in this building, and I’ve been here before. So if they’ve got kids, help them find class.

Put some materials in their hands. And when class is over and they come in, isn’t it great that y’all are so crowded? I love that. Guess what it means? Time to make some sacrifices. Let them have your seat. Isn’t it awkward when a visitor walks in and they come all the way down the aisle hoping there’s an empty spot? And everybody looks at them like they have the Ebola virus. Not getting this, buddy. I take this out a long time. I put this pew in here, mounted it to the floor. It is not your pew. It is the Lord’s pew. And he’s in heaven say, get up. You with me on that. When the service is over, we have tried to urge our folks to adhere to the 10 minute rule.

Conclusion

Listen, visitors, nine times out of ten, they are going to the door fast. So you don’t have time to visit with each other. When those closing announcements are being made, listen, nobody listens to closing announcements anyway. Look for the guest. And when it’s over, I’m not going to talk to my buddy about where we’re going this week to see the ball game. I’m not going to chit chat about the shower next Saturday. I’m going for that visitor. I can get to them. I need to get to the guest first. Ten minute rule. First 10 minutes after services are for visitors. I don’t know what I would have done had I been on the bridge the day that the lethal word died. I’d like to think I would have helped her.

But that’s not really the question that matters for me or for you. I’ve got opportunities to help people who are in grave danger. This morning, we’ve laid out four easy things that every disciple can do. The question is: do I care enough to do them? Let’s get ready to sing the invitation song. You’ve been so kind to give me your good attention today. And it may be there’s a guest sitting in this crowd. I don’t know what y’all well enough to know if there is or this isn’t, or there isn’t. But I can tell you why this is so important to us. Because there’s nothing more important than being right with Jesus. He came and died to make that possible. That’s the gospel. In a nutshell.

Jesus paid the price for your sins so that you could be saved. If you know that and you need to respond to him, you’ve got a chance to do that right now. We’re going to sing a song that’s designed to encourage you, inspire you to respond to him and come to him. If you need to do that, make your way to the front right now. While we sing together, come right now.