In Luke chapter 14 and verse 23, Jesus said, “Go out in the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” So I wanna leave you with that thought, just those few words, “compel them to come in.” Who are you compelling to come to God’s house this Sunday? Who are you going to compel to be in church this fall? As we think of harvest time, this is the time to reach people. And what a blessing it is to go out, knock on doors, and invite people to church.

I love this thought about the invitation. There’s all kinds of invitations in the Bible. “Come unto me all you that labor.” Revelation tells us in the spirit of the bride say, “Come.” And so as Jesus said, “compel them to come in,” I like to take a gospel track. Now this is a large track from our class tabernacle. But if it’s a smaller track or a larger track like this, I like to knock on the door. And pastors taught us to use that friendly knock. Alright. It’s effective, I guarantee it. It’s not like the police are at the door, right? So use that friendly knock.

A lot of times they’re inside the house saying, “Who is it?” And I’ll say, “It’s John and Joel.” A lot of times Brother Metcalf is with me. We’re just dropping off an invitation. I like to use the word “just” because it tells them I’m leaving, okay. And I don’t want to bother them. I said, “I’m just dropping off an invitation.” They come to the door thinking, “What kind of an invitation is this?” And I, they come to the door, I get my hand out there to them. They have no idea I’m from North Valley at this point. And I see brother Aaron’s right here. I’m recording. And I say, “Here it is. This is an invitation. I just want to invite you.” I wait till their hand grabs it. And then I pull away to church.

“I want to invite you.” Now I’m backing up to North Valley Baptist Church. “Do you attend church?” So my body language and the words that I’m saying, or I’m getting ready to leave. I don’t want to disturb them. And I’m reading them the whole time. Are they interested? Are they not interested? If they’ve got a question, they’ll say, “Oh yes, I go to church.” And I love to ask them, “Where do you go?” ‘Cause half the time they don’t even know where they go to church. And they’ll answer the question. And then I’ll say, “You know, more importantly than going to church is knowing you’re going to heaven someday.” And I’ll just walk right into the plan of salvation.

It’s amazing how the Spirit of God will use that, but compel them to come in. I tell them what a great church we have and how they need to come and see it for themselves. And I compel them to come to our Sunday school class, our Bible class. So I wanna encourage you today, compel them to come in. Who’s gonna be at church this Sunday? Because you invited them. Who’s gonna be in your class this Sunday? Because you invited them. And ultimately, who’s gonna be in heaven someday? Because you invited them.

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John Evertson

John Evertson, GSBC Campus Pastor

In June 2000, after graduating from Golden State Baptist College, John Evertson answered the call to pastor West Valley Baptist Church in Woodland, California. After 19 years, God moved Pastor and Mrs. Evertson to Santa Clara. Pastor Evertson is instrumental in the church and serves as the Campus Pastor for Golden State Baptist College to help guide the future servants of God. Pastor & Mrs. Evertson have four children — Josiah, Jeremiah, Joy, and Joshua.