The Power of Invitation
Tammy Giffen · Tidal Church Moncton · November 12, 2023
Tammy Giffen centres on Jesus and Zacchaeus in Luke 19, sharing how one invitation to Alpha changed her life. Jesus sees each person with steadfast love, and we are encouraged to pray for and invite others to meet Him.
Topics: Love, Relationships, Mission & Outreach
Transcript
[0:00] Well, good morning everyone. See, in my church I only have to do this, but here I feel like I have to do the whole wave of the, of everyone. It is so great to be with you today. I'm honored actually to be invited to share with you today, and I just wanna tell you that I'm actually really excited for what God is doing in Atlantic Canada. Things like this where I get to come and share with you, and I know Pastor B is someone else sharing with another congregation today. This is something that is happening across Atlantic Canada where churches are coming alongside of each other regardless of denomination. And we are linking arms for the good of Atlantic Canada and to bring more of the kingdom wherever we go.
[0:51] And it's a really exciting time to be part of the church in Atlantic Canada. And so if you haven't experienced that yet, I wanna share that with you today. From Nova Scotia to New Brunswick, we're excited for what God is doing in our midst. Today I wasn't able to bring my family with me because we have two, we just launched our second location and so everyone in my family is working at a location today. Like that's, it's that gritty kind of church planting atmosphere that exists in our family. And so they're all somewhere doing something today to make sure that services happen at Groundswell. But I'd love to introduce them to you a little bit. This morning I brought a picture with me.
[1:39] This is my family. This is my whole world in a picture. I have three adult children. Taylor is 26. She actually works on staff with me at Groundswell. My son Wesley is a theater major and my daughter Maya, she's been a student at Acadia for the past two years. And we, I am just like so blessed by them. I don't know how many of you have adult children in the room, but it's a very challenging time because they, you know, they still want you to be their parent, but they don't want your input all the time. And you have to navigate that. You, those of you laughing, you understand what I'm talking about. You have to navigate that season.
[2:27] So it's a fun season for us. My husband Peter and I have been married for 28 years. I know you're looking at me and you're like, how is she old enough to be married for 28 years and have kids that old? I know, I know. It's a shocker. But it's true. We got married very young. We were high school sweethearts actually. And that's, they are like the joy of my life. But arguably there is someone missing from this photo, and that is my mother-in-law. And she's a really important part of our family. So for the past 23 years, we've actually lived with my mother-in-law. Now I know some of you're thinking, yikes, 23 years living with your mother-in-law.
[3:15] I'm not sure I can tell you it's been a joy. She is a phenomenal woman. But the way that we ended up coming to live with her is tragic. My husband's father passed away suddenly of a heart attack unexpectedly, and we ended up moving in with her for a while. The intention was that we would move in with her and we would help her a little bit with the yard and the house and all the things that she didn't typically look after. And that turned into us staying over time and renovating the house and putting on an apartment for her. And so we have lived together for 23 years.
[4:01] For the first year and a half or so, we actually lived across the hall from each other. So it was my husband and our two young children and our dog. We all moved into this 1100 square foot house with his mom living right across the hall from us. It was kind of challenging at times, but we made it work. My mother-in-law is a really devoted Christian woman. And she prayed for her kids, she prayed for her family. She just, she was a prayer warrior for us. And so as we lived with her across the hall, there came an opportunity in her church to invite people to Alpha.
[4:46] And so she invited us to go to Alpha. And since we lived across the, literally like in the same home, we slept in rooms just across the hall from each other. It was really hard to say no. I wanted to say no, but it was very hard to say no. So I devised a plan, and the plan was that we would go to the first one because at the first one, you know, they were talking about this great dinner and we would do the dinner and we would watch the video, and then we would politely tell them that we were good and we were good. We wouldn't be coming back because I really had no interest in the church. Like, I had very much formed my opinions and my views of Christianity, of church.
[5:34] People definitely had views on church people. And I really, there was no interest on my part to learn anything new about the church, about Christianity, about Jesus. But we went, we went so that we could say we were done. And I can't actually quite remember how this all played out, but somehow my husband left early. And I was there by myself at the end. And the pastor came up to me when it was all over and he said to me, what did you think? And I looked at him and I said, do you really wanna know what I think? And he said, yeah, I do. I really wanna know what you think. And so he listened to me for probably like 20 minutes. I just sort of railed at him about all of the things, all the problems I had with Christianity, the problems I had with the church, the things that I had experienced myself from church people.
[6:32] And he just listened to me. And because he listened to me, I went back the next week and the next week and the next week and I experienced the most incredible hospitality from those people. This Alpha was held at this little tiny country church. You know, exactly what you would imagine, right? Little white church in a small community. And you know, that first night when you walked in, of course they were hosting the dinner in the church basement, right? Because that's what you do in a little white country church. And as you walked in and you walked down the stairs, there was this combination of a smell of, like, the most delicious turkey dinner and mothballs, you know, kind of that old church smell that you get.
[7:28] But the people there, they were wonderful. They were wonderful. And I literally used to say to people that if I was ever going to go to a church, I would go to that church because these people were remarkably kind and hospitable. So I kept going back week after week, I went to Alpha and I learned who Jesus was and I got some of my questions answered. And I experienced radical love and hospitality from these beautiful people. And it was through Alpha that I gave my life to Jesus. Yeah, it's awesome. I came there one night and I remember it very vividly. It was February, it was freezing.
[8:16] You know, when you have, it's so cold outside that the latch in your door won't stay shut. Like somehow you get in, but then it won't latch again. And I remember driving all the way there, holding my door shut as I drove to the church because it was frozen. But I will remember that night vividly in my mind, 'cause I just knew that God was speaking to me and that I needed to surrender my life to Him. And it was all because of radical love, hospitality, and a single invitation, a single invitation. And that's what's cool about an invitation. Like an invitation makes you feel seen.
[9:02] It makes you feel noticed, like valued somehow. Like you fit in somewhere because you were invited. And in the same way, hospitality, hospitality makes you feel cared for. Like somebody was expecting you to come and they were ready for you. They're attending to all of your needs. I can remember as a kid getting really excited to invite my friends to my birthday party. Like I was that kid who made my own birthday invitations and wrote little notes. And like, I was really intentional about it. My birthday is on March 15th, so if you wanna get your phone out, you wanna put that date in your phone, you wanna send me a gift or a card or something, that would be amazing.
[9:51] But in Nova Scotia, it always ended up on March break. And so I was always excited to invite my friends and invite people to my birthday party. But I was also always a little bit afraid because, you know, oftentimes people were away. What if they said no? What if they said no? Because somehow this idea of my invitation being rejected by someone felt like they were rejecting me too. Do you ever feel that? Like you are afraid to give the invitation because somehow it makes you feel rejected if they say no? But on the flip side, I also remember seeing other people in my class, other friends who they would come with their invitations, they'd bring their invitations to school and I'd be watching them.
[10:45] They had these invitations and I was always wondering like, would I get one? You remember those days when you're like, okay, today is the day, like they've got their invitation. Am I gonna get one? Am I going to get invited to their party? Am I going to be welcomed into their home? Will I get some of their cake and their food? And will I get a treat bag when I leave? Like there is something special about being invited in, and I just wonder, like, where invitation makes you feel welcome and hospitality helps you to feel cared for. I just kind of wonder, as we long to bring hope and joy and peace and good and the good news of who Jesus is to our families and our workplaces and our neighborhoods, I just wonder if maybe we are underestimating the power of radical love, hospitality, and an invitation.
[11:55] When you look at the life of Jesus, He came with a very specific mission to seek and save the lost. So we learn in the New Testament, which if you're new to the Bible, it's this smaller section of the Bible towards the end. And it chronicles the life of Jesus and His followers. His mission was to find people that were far from God and bring them back into a right relationship with Him. And the way He did it was actually through radical love and hospitality. As you read through the New Testament, you see that Jesus, He's always going to someone's house or coming from someone's house.
[12:40] He's always eating with people, He's always sharing a meal with someone. He just moves from hospitality moment to hospitality moment to hospitality moment. And in Luke 19, there's this powerful account of an interaction between Jesus and a guy named Zacchaeus. And it says this, "Jesus entered Jericho and made His way through the town. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd." And Jesus and His disciples, and there were probably a number of other people that were following along behind them, they're on their way to Jerusalem for the Passover.
[13:32] And the Passover is this Jewish celebration. And there would've been tons of people traveling towards the city, traveling towards Jerusalem. So it would've been really busy. It would've been a really bustling sort of atmosphere. And on the way there, they have to pass through this town called Jericho. Now Jericho's a really important place. It's on the trade route, so lots of people would always be coming and going from there. But it was also known to be a bit of a, kind of like a winter retreat for the wealthy, for the elite, because King Herod, he invested a lot of money there. 'Cause he turned Jericho into this beautiful city where he and his friends could come and they could relax and just get away from the stress of the city.
[14:25] It was sort of like, I imagine it like, you know, when it's the middle of winter and we like, we're really longing for hot and tropical. My nephew is in Turks and Caicos right now and he keeps posting all these pictures and I'm just saying, I'm just a little bit jealous. But that's what I picture in my head, right? This place that's beautiful and relaxing and you step away from the busyness of life. Like that's what I picture when I picture this city of Jericho. And here what we see is we see Jesus and His disciples. They're coming through and we're introduced to this guy named Zacchaeus. Now we're told a few things about him.
[15:10] He is a chief tax collector, so that means he's working for the Romans. He's collecting the taxes from the people. Now Zacchaeus is a Jewish man and he's working for the Romans as a tax collector. So his own people really do not like him. Like they despise him because he works for the Romans and he is building wealth on the backs of his own people. The Romans are oppressing the Jewish people and here he is, he's helping the Romans take from his own people like he is very much despised by them. Now not only does it say he's a tax collector, but he's a chief tax collector.
[16:01] So that means he has other tax collectors who are working underneath him. So this guy is Moneybags, like he is seriously rolling in the cash here. He's very wealthy and he's wealthy on the back of his own people. We're also told one other thing about him, we're told that he's short. Now I don't really know exactly why that piece of information needs to be in there. And as someone who is not particularly tall, I would prefer vertically challenged to being called short any day, but maybe it's in there to help us to see that he actually needed to climb up this tree.
[16:46] He was short. He couldn't see over all these crowds of people. So he needed to climb up a tree to see Jesus. And we don't really know why he wanted to see Jesus either. Maybe he was just curious, or he had heard people saying that this Jesus guy was coming to town, and he had already heard lots about Him. And word on the street was that He had performed these crazy miracles, that many people were following after Him. Maybe he even heard that there was a tax collector that was one of His disciples. There were whispers of greatness, and he maybe just wanted to catch a glimpse. And so as we continue to read in the passage, it says this: So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.
[17:43] When Jesus came by, He looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. And then Jesus said, "Zacchaeus, quick, come down. I must be a guest in your home today." And Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great joy and excitement. Like, really, this is a pretty remarkable thing that happens here. Out of all of the people, that would've been gathered around, would've been going through the city of Jericho, all of the people who would've been on the streets, the travelers, the wealthy people, the important people, the priests, people that you would expect someone as important as Jesus to take interest in.
[18:36] He stops by a tree and He calls a no good tax collector by name. He calls him by name and He says, "I see you, I see you, I know you. Zacchaeus, come down." Arguably the most famous passage of Scripture would be John 3:16. And it says, "For God so loved the world." Now the New Testament is written in Greek originally, and you'll find love in there a number of times.
[19:22] But in Greek there are a lot of words that are used for love, and in the English language we don't really have a good representation of that. So like, I could say I love pizza and I could also say I love my husband, but clearly that love is very different. Or hopefully, right? But I'm using the same word. But clearly I am expressing two very different things. Now in most contexts for us, love is kind of this emotional response that we have towards an object or towards a person or towards a thing that brings us great pleasure.
[20:11] You know, the way we love our husbands or our wives, our children, our family, it's this. It's this emotion that we feel towards them, and it's a beautiful gift from God. And everyone who breathes on this planet longs to be loved. It's this natural emotion. It's an affection towards something that brings us great pleasure. But that is not the kind of love that is being described in this passage. The word for love here, the Greek word, is agape. Now, agape love has little to do with emotion. It has little to do with how we feel about something. And it has everything to do with loyalty and steadfastness.
[21:02] It's a demonstration of our commitment to someone, and it's shown by how we act towards them, whether we feel feelings of love and affection or not. It doesn't matter. If you look at the story of God and His people, what you are going to find is this steadfast love of God, the unconditional drive that is not based on emotions for us, but is based on a covenant. It's based on a promise, it's based on loyalty, on fidelity. It's based on this unconditional love that exists in the heart of God.
[21:53] And Scriptures tell us that God is love. God is agape, that the divine heartbeat of God beats the rhythm of agape, agape, agape. It's not a love that's conditional, it's committed, it's promised, it's steadfast, and true agape is when God Himself, He looks into your heart and sees you in all of your frailty, in all of your brokenness, your woundedness, and He responds with, "I see you, I see you, I know you, and I love you."
[23:05] Jesus sees Zacchaeus. He doesn't just acknowledge him, He sees him, and He looks up at Zacchaeus and He delivers an invitation to him. He says, "Quick, come on, come down. Come down from being an outsider. Come down from a place of curiosity and observation. Come down." He invites him into a place of hospitality, of intimacy and relationship. He says, "Come on, let's go to your place. Let's have dinner together. Let's sit around the table. I want you to get to know Me, and I wanna get to know you."
[23:52] Special things happen when we sit across the table from someone, when we engage in conversation, when we enter into their life and we invite them to enter into ours. But not everybody likes it. And that's what happened in this story. It goes on to say, "But the people were displeased. He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner." They grumbled. Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, "I will give half of my wealth to the poor, Lord. And if I have cheated people in their taxes, I will give them back four times as much." Jesus responded, "Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham.
[24:47] For the Son of Man," He's talking about Himself, "came to seek and save the lost." See, these people who are grumbling, they couldn't see Zacchaeus as anything but a no good tax collector. They couldn't see him as anything other than a person that they hated. But Jesus could see something different. And I wanna ask you today, how do you see people? When you look out at people, when you look at someone, how do you see them?
[25:35] Do you see them as someone who is on the opposite side of a political issue than you? And you're like, "Hmm." Do you see them as someone who is just kind of difficult and contrary all the time? You're like, "Hmm." Do you see them as someone you clearly would never agree with? So you're like, "Hmm, I'm not gonna waste my time on them." How do you see people? 'Cause Jesus looked at Zacchaeus and He saw something different in him than anyone else could see. He saw his potential. And I wonder, like, do we have this kind of imagination for people?
[26:22] Like, could we look at someone and wonder who they could be if Jesus grabbed a hold of their life, if their life was redeemed by Him, if their shame was lifted off of them by Him, if He used them, used their gifts and their abilities, the things that He had placed in them, if he used them to further His kingdom, what could their life look like? Do we look at people with the same kind of imagination as God, with an imagination for if God released their gifts, deployed their destiny, how could they be used to help even more people come to know who Jesus is?
[27:13] Like, do we look at people and wonder who could they be in His kingdom? The church history tells us that Zacchaeus went on to be the bishop, a bishop in the early church. So this notorious tax collector was turned into a significant church leader because of radical love, hospitality. And an invitation, an invitation from Jesus to come down from the tree. One invitation changed Zeke's life, changed his life completely. And I know what that feels like.
[28:01] See, when I got invited to Alpha, I was a stay-at-home mom with two kids. And I loved it, I loved it. But when Jesus got ahold of my life, I went to university. I got my master's of divinity. I became the pastor of that little white country church where I met Jesus. It's wild. I went on to plant Groundswell five years ago because I had a passion.
[28:46] God placed a passion in me to see people who are just like me have the opportunity to actually meet the real Jesus and get to know Him for themselves. My husband came to know Jesus. My children came to know Jesus. My sister and her husband came to know Jesus. And I baptized them in that little white country church. And now today, person after person, after person at Groundswell has this opportunity and have come to know Jesus, all because my mother-in-law made one risky invitation.
[29:32] 'Cause can you imagine what it would've been like if it didn't all work out? And we still lived across the hall from each other. It was a risky invitation. But one invitation changed everything for me. Everything for me. And maybe you are here today because someone invited you, and that's amazing. And thank you for being brave enough to come, and you're about to start on this incredible journey with a bunch of incredible people. And if you are here today and you are exploring, I really wanna encourage you to think about trying Alpha. I've heard that it's gonna run here at Moncton Wesleyan in January.
[30:19] Try Alpha. It's an amazing place to bring your questions. You're gonna be with a whole bunch of other people who have questions too. And it's a safe and relaxing environment where you can explore Christianity. It's amazing. I really encourage you to do that. And if you're here today and you know Jesus, that you've invited Him to lead your life, that the Spirit of God is living and at work in you, I want to remind you that God is agape. That the heart of God is agape. And if the Spirit of God is alive in you, at work in you, that means that the heart of God, that agape heart, is at work in you too.
[31:14] And if you have experienced it, you have the responsibility to share that steadfast, committed, loyal love with people around you. And I can promise you that there is someone in your life that thinks that they don't need to know Jesus until they meet Him. 'Cause I had no interest in Jesus until I met Him because someone invited me. And you have no idea how one invitation could impact the life of a person or people, or your church or your community or your workplace, or your school or your family. You have no idea how much one invitation could actually mean to someone until you ask.
[32:05] Because the worst thing that could happen is someone says no, but the best thing that could happen is that you could begin a journey with someone who is on their way to meet Jesus. And what a privilege that would be for you. So I wanna challenge you today. I want you to think about someone in your life, maybe three people in your life that don't know Jesus, that you would really love for them to come to know Him. Him. I want you to think about who those three people are. And I know that right now, like instantly, there's at least one person that's popped into your mind. And take that list of three people and start praying for them.
[32:54] Start praying for an opportunity to invite them, maybe to invite them to Alpha in January. Maybe to invite them to some activity that's happening in your small group or your church. Or just pray for an opportunity to invite them. 'Cause you have no idea how much one invitation could change their life. And you have no idea what it could do for you to have the opportunity to journey with someone who is on their way to meet Jesus. Let's pray together.
[33:41] Lord, first, I wanna thank You for the people in this room. Lord, I know that in this room there are people on a journey with You in all different places. And what a beautiful gift it is to be able to come together and journey together regardless of where we are on that path. And so, Lord, I just thank You and for everyone in this room today. And Lord, I also thank You for Your agape love for us, that steadfast love for us, and for anyone in this room today that needs to experience Your love for them. Again, Lord, I pray even in these, this last song, that You would pour out Your love on them. They would experience Your smile, Your pleasure with them, that they would be seen and known by You.
[34:37] And Lord, for anyone in this room that is up in the tree kind of observing or feeling on the outside, Lord, I pray that they would hear Your invitation today to come down from that tree, to come down, to get to know You, and to be known by You. And Lord, as we think about these people in our lives, that we long for them to come to know You. Lord, I pray that You would answer the prayers of our hearts. That You would give us opportunity for invitation. You would give us opportunity, Lord, to bring people into our circle so that we could have a front row seat to watch You transform hearts and lives, because that's who You are.
[35:31] And Lord, as we pursue invitation, as we open our lives up to people, my prayer for every one of us is that in everything that we do, whether it's an invitation, whether it's discussion over a meal, whether it's serving at Alpha or inviting to Alpha, or even attending Alpha, Lord, I pray that You would move in a powerful way, that we would have this opportunity to witness the King of Kings breakthrough and transform hearts and lives. And in all of it, Lord, we will give You all of the honor and glory that You so rightly deserve.
[36:21] And I pray all these things in the strong, mighty, and powerful name of Jesus. Amen.