Come and See | HER Night Spring '26 | Pastor Jessica Amsler

Every single woman in this room, we have one thing in common. We all have a return pile. You know exactly what I'm talking about. It's either in the chair, in the bedroom, it's hanging in a bag by the door, it is on the floor. Just honestly, it's been there longer than you want to care to admit, right?

We order it online. Here's what happens. We order it online, we get it in, we try it on, we maybe, I don't know, maybe like it. And then there it lives. And there it lives for a really long time.

The tags are still on. We'll even go as far to print the return label, but it ain't going nowhere. There it sits. And you're not the only one who notices this pile. Your husband, God bless him, he notices the pile and he brings it up often.

He's helpful like that. My husband likes to do that. Bless him. He is very committed to noticing the pile. And I just want to send a carrier pigeon to every husband represented in the room tonight.

We see you. We see the pile. We are going to get to the pile eventually, right? Because here's the thing about return piles. Return piles, they happen.

Not because we didn't like it, not because we didn't want it. But somewhere between the purchasing and the putting it on, life happens, right? Life happens. And now it's a decision that is sitting in a pile waiting for us to step into it. And I think that sometimes a lot of us can do the same thing with our relationship with Jesus.

At some point in our life, we said yes to Jesus. Maybe it was at camp, maybe it was at a church service, maybe it was at a connect group. Like you said. Yes, you went all in, you got baptized, you raised your hand. But somewhere between that moment and right now, it all ended up in the chair tag still on, meaning to get back to it.

You see, by the time that we arrive in John chapter one, Israel had been waiting a very long time. I'm talking about a long time. 400 years of silence. They have been waiting 400 years without a single word from God. 400 years without a prophet, without a king, without a burning bush moment, without somebody saying, thus says the Lord.

400 years of generation after generation just trying to stay faithful. Silence that had gone on so long that it just seems normal at this point. And maybe some of you can relate to that. Like you've been praying and it feels like your prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling. You feel like you've been doing everything right, but then nothing seems to be moving or happening.

And so it is in the middle of this context of 400 years of silence in John, chapter one, where we meet John, John the Baptist. John the Baptist, who is preaching this message all about preparation. And what he's saying is, get ready. Something is about to shift. I know you've been living in silence for a long time.

I know it feels like nothing has been happening and no one has been hearing you, but something is about to shift. He said the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And while he's preaching, John suddenly looks up and. And he sees Jesus walking towards him. And when he sees Jesus walking towards him, he says, look, the Lamb of God.

Now, he could have said anything when he saw Jesus, and a lot of things would have been true that he said. He could have said, look, there's the teacher. Look, there's the miracle worker. Look, there's the king. But he didn't say that.

He said lamb. Now, every single Jewish person standing nearby hearing what he just said, would have associated the word lamb with sacrifice. And they would have thought, that's really odd. Like, there would have been a lot of confusion in the air. What does this mean?

Why is he associating this man with sacrifice? Who is this guy? And why is John calling him the lamb man? What's going on? They were waiting for a king.

Remember, 400 years of silence, Not a lamb. And standing in the crowd that same day were two men. One of them was named Andrew, and the other, we're not sure who he was. So for all other purposes tonight, we're gonna call him Tito. So we got Andrew and Tito both heard John point to Jesus and say, lamb of God.

And so instead of ignoring it and just kind of brushing it off, as sometimes we do, and we hear things that are a little different or filing it a way is weird. Things that I heard today, they didn't. You see, they just stare at Jesus. They keep looking at him. And eventually, Jesus, he begins to go on about his day.

He walks away, and they follow him down the road. Now, have you ever been minding your own business and you get the feeling.

And you skip out? You're like, this is kind of weird. I feel like you look back and then, you know, nobody's moving. And they kind of. Jesus, he has the suspicion in this moment.

He turns around and he sees them following. And he asks what every mom has said today at least 12 times. What do you want? He says, what do you want? Now notice he doesn't ask them, what do you know?

What are you all about, about who do you know? What do you do? He didn't ask them any of those questions. No. He said, what do you actually want?

And they responded, next verse, where are you staying? Kind of an odd. It's like, does anybody know what's going on here? Are you listening to you and are you hearing you? It's a little bit of an odd response.

It sounds unrelated. It's like they ignored his question completely. But what they're asking is something deeper than a home address. What they're asking is, Jesus, where are you headed? What does life with you actually look like?

Because if we follow you, we want to know what we're saying yes to. Where are you staying? And Jesus answers them, come and see. Because there are some things that must be experienced. They just can't be explained.

You see, I could stand up here and describe the Grand Canyon to you. I could talk about how large and vast and the color variations of the rocks and the way the wind sweeps through and how the light comes over the canyon and none of it means anything unless you stand there yourself. Some things have to be experienced. They can't just be explained. Tonight I believe that God wants to invite you to come and see.

He wants to invite you to experience what he's doing. And here's the good part. You don't have to have all the details. You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't have to know the end from the beginning.

He just wants you to come. And you see, this could be my favorite three word phase in the Bible. It's come close enough to know me, not just know about me. It's open up your eyes wide enough to recognize what I'm doing. And so I want to talk about some discipleship movements tonight.

And the first one that we see in the scripture is simple. It's come. How easy is that? It's just an invitation. Have you ever noticed how distance changes perception?

Like you've been driving down the road on a road trip. You're with your kids, you need to find something to eat. And you can tell there's like a sign up here and some restaurants are coming up. You're trying to make out what it is. You're like, please let it be a chick fil a. Oh, God in heaven, if it's a Starbucks, I will be a missionary in Africa.

God, I need this caffeine these kids like. And then you can't really tell what it is. But the closer you get, you can see clearly what is on the Sign. When things get closer, they become clear. You see distance, it creates distortion.

But proximity brings clarity. Jesus says come. So if God is inviting us to come close and see clearly, I just wonder what stops us from doing that? What keeps us from coming close to begin with? For me, I think that proximity requires vulnerability.

And I don't always like that. That can feel really uncomfortable for me. I like chosen vulnerability. I want to pick and choose who, when, how much I reveal. Because vulnerability is terrifying.

You know, there's some days you just don't want people to see you up close. Like the times I run in Target and I'm like, please, God, have no makeup on. You're in a ball cap. That's when you see every single person. You know, you've not washed your hair in 10 days.

There are just some days you don't want people to be up close. Have you ever noticed how those little magnifying mirrors in the bathroom, they are terrible. Why do we have those? We need those so we can see clearly, but we don't like them. Because when we can see clearly, the thing that we need to see, we don't like what we see, Right?

They're supposed to, like, help us. No, nobody ever gets those. And, like, I'm thriving. No, it's like, why are there more craters on my face than the moon? Where did all these hairs come from?

How long has that black hair been there? Why did nobody tell me that black hair was there? The closer we get, the clearer we see. But it feels very vulnerable. And sometimes I think that we assume closeness to God can feel the same way.

That closeness means exposure without love. But Jesus, he didn't come close to magnify our weaknesses or to shame us. No, he came close to restore sight so that we can see clearly. You know, I think we all feel this. We all want to be seen.

There's not one of us that wants to be hidden. We want to be seen. But I don't know if we all want to be fully known. I think we're okay with being admired from a comfortable distance. But the moment someone gets close enough to actually see us.

I'm talking about the real us, not the curated insight Instagram. Perfectly posed, filtered us. Someone gets close enough to see the real us. You know, when I was a kid, I used to get so mad on Christmas morning because all I wanted to do was run in the living room and open presents. But we could not do that until my mom had her hair done and makeup on.

And it used to drive us crazy. We'd be sitting there like, mom, hurry up. Nobody cares. It's Christmas. Let's open presents.

And then, like last year, I found myself hearing my daughter say, mom, it's Christmas. Stop being like, Nana. We just want to open presents. You don't need makeup.

You know, we don't mind vulnerability as long as it's controlled exposure. This is what I look like when I wake up. Full face, makeup, hair is curled, brushed. I'm ready, right? We want it to be controlled exposure.

Like, I'll let God see this, but I don't want him to see this. Some of us are afraid of what closeness to Jesus might require. He may want to talk about that. He may want to do something about that. But I just want to tell you tonight, if he's doing, doing it, if he points it out, it's for our good.

It's for good reasons. It's for our flourishing. I think maybe another reason why we reject closeness with Jesus is because some of us are afraid of getting close because of pride, maybe a little bit of pride. And I don't think any of us would just ride out, say, oh, yeah, I'm prideful. But I feel it can show up in the form of control.

Like, I got this. I can do it. I can do it all. I can have it all. I can do it all with my kids, my home, my career, my work, my emotions, my.

My mental, my mindset. I can do it all. We can handle it all. We would rather do that than risk exposing a weakness. A weakness, right.

But it's not weakness to come close to Jesus. It's not weakness. It's recognition that he is our source of strength. You can be a strong woman and recognize where your source comes from. God, I'm nothing without you, Lord, I need you today.

God, I'm weak. And your word says that when I'm weak, you're strong. That's not weakness. That's saying, jesus, you are my strength. You know, we don't call it weak.

When our car needs gas, we pull into the gas station and we fill her up. I think also maybe some of us are embarrassed. We could be shamed by our history, shamed by the gap between who we said we would be and who we have become. We let shame get in the way of getting close to Jesus, maybe by the fact that we've been meaning to get back to this thing for years. Maybe you started five years ago, 10 years ago, and you let some things get in the way, and now you feel shame and you assume people are thinking this and that.

And now there's this gap and you feel like it's this chasm that you can't cross. And then you feel like it disqualifies you. But Jesus would look at all those excuses, all the reasons for distance, the fear, the anxiety, the gap, the embarrassment, the shame. And Jesus would just say, just come. He would say, come.

Come, get close. And here's the amazing thing, ladies. Without even knowing it, little by little by little, you'll turn around and you'll see just how far you've come. The more you're with Jesus, the more those things that you are so worried about, all the embarrassment, all the shame, the control, the vulnerability, it doesn't even bother you anymore because what's on Jesus gets on you. You ever had somebody give you a big old hug and they sprayed way too much perfume on?

And as they're walking, you're like, oh, how do I get out of this? And they just, you know, they just hold you and just give you a hug and you walk away. And you have like this old aura about you now and everyone can smell it. Or you decide to walk into Bath and Body Works and you come out smelling like country apple.

That's because proximity leaves an imprint. That's why Jesus doesn't say, study me from afar. No, he doesn't say that. He says come. He says, come.

Stay close enough to Jesus that his life starts shaping yours. And so the second move of discipleship, the movement we're going to look at tonight is stay formation, happens in proximity. And that's exactly where John 1 begins. Andrew. And the other disciple, our guy Tito, he didn't just.

They didn't have a moment with Jesus. No, they stayed with Jesus. Now John says that they went with him and spent the day with. With him. And John includes this really interesting detail that I think a lot of times you probably just rush over.

And in John 1:39, it feels really unnecessary. He says it was about the 10th hour. Now, this would have been 4 o' clock in the afternoon. Now think about this. This is fascinating.

By the time John writes this letter, it has been decades since this would have happened. He would have seen so much life, so many miracles of Jesus. He would have witnessed, he would have seen countless Jesus. He experienced the death and resurrection of Jesus, the birth of the church. He watched his friends die.

He watched the Gospel spread all across the world. So many things he could write about. And he remembers that it was 4 o' clock in the afternoon. He remembers what time it was. Now, I don't think it's because that hour was significant, but the moment was because there are four o' clock moments that you don't forget.

Four o' clock moments, you remember where you were standing. You remember what the room was like. You remember the smell. Not because the moment maybe looked particularly amazing from the outside, but because something. Something in you changed while you were there.

And here's what's fascinating. Nothing dramatic happened that afternoon. When you're reading this in Scripture, there's no miracle listed. There's no amazing sermon that Jesus told in this moment. No fire falls from heaven, no massive emotional moment.

They just spent the afternoon with Jesus and that became unforgettable. 4 o' clock in the afternoon. He writes down the time. And so let me show you what staying looks like. I wanted to make this easy for us to remember, so we're going to think of it as an acronym, okay?

S Stay when nothing feels dramatic. Now, I know that we don't like drama ladies. We're not drama girls. But we do like a little dramatic, right? We like when things are special.

We like when things are memorable. Give me an expression that I won't forget. I want to feel something. Most people assume transformation only happens in these big, wow, breakthrough, alter call, emotional service moment that you point to and says that's when everything changed. And those moments can happen.

But most transformation happens slower than that. Most transformation happens easier than that. It happens by staying consistent in pursuing Jesus, staying around people who are consistent in pursuing Jesus. You know, I think we've convinced ourselves that staying is the boring part, the thing that you have to endure until something good finally happens. And because nobody likes to be bored, we end up chasing moments, right?

It's the next big thing, the next experience. Experience. The next relationship, the next church experience. What is it? We chased moments and spiritual highs.

But staying is not the slow part. It's actually the transformative part. It's the part that changes you. Because what good is a spiritual high if you don't stay in strength? What good is freedom if you don't stay in freedom?

You see, roots are developed underground long before there's fruit. And it's got to stay there in the quiet, in the dark. Seems so boring, nothing happening day after day after day. You go back. And that's how spiritual formation works.

It feels slow, hidden, not always obvious. And I think that can be difficult for us because we like visible progress. We want to see movement. It's like, show me the movement. We want to see something happening.

We want proof that it's happening. Like, I want proof that my red light therapy facial mask is working. I'm not so sure it is, but I want to see the proof. But some of the deepest work that God does in your life, it happens beneath the surface long before it comes visible. And, and so the next letter in our acronym we have S. Stay, T. Trust.

Trust. What's happening beneath the surface. Here's what staying on a Tuesday looks like Jesus said in John 15, 5. He said, I am the vine, you're the branches. Whoever remains, whoever stays in me, I'll stay in you, and you will bear much fruit.

You see, remaining doesn't usually feel very productive, does it? And we don't like that because we want to feel productive. We are driven, we got goals, we got things to do and we are good at doing it. And if something doesn't feel productive, it doesn't feel like it's worth our time.

But Jesus is saying, fruit will grow, but you aren't the producer. Oh, I like that. And I don't like that. I like producing things. I like getting things done.

But Jesus says, no, no, no, no, you just stay. I'll produce the fruit. Staying, fruit will be produced. You see, a branch doesn't force fruit into existence. It doesn't worry its way into growth.

It doesn't have to over perform. It just stays connected. And while it stays connected, fruit happens. Touch your neighbor and say, fruit happens. Fruit, it happens.

Just stay.

Letter A. Afternoons with Jesus change everything. Afternoons with Jesus change everything. I love that John says these guys met Jesus at four in the afternoon at the close of a day. Can you imagine?

Probably a really long day, probably a stressful day. A day they weren't expecting. At 4 o' clock in the afternoon, they met Jesus. I just want to encourage you tonight it's okay to have moments of discouragement. It's okay to have moments where you wonder if any of it's working.

You know, you're not always going to hear trumpet sound in the morning when you get up and you decide, I want to read my Bible today. You're not going to hear somebody applauding you when you get your journal out and say, God, this is what I'm still believing for God. I'm still believing for a miracle. It may feel actually the opposite, a little underwhelming, but ladies, these are the days. We default to habit.

We default to habit. Make your default response, I'm going to stay with Jesus. I'm going to stay with him. Afternoons with Jesus change everything. Take a walk with Jesus.

Take a lunch break with Jesus. There's something about spending time with Jesus. It changes your perspective. And then we have why you become like what you stay near. There's this old saying that I know you have used probably on a child or a teenager, but it still applies to us adults.

Show me your friends. You know it. I'll show you your future. We've heard that a thousand times. We've said it a thousand times, but it's true.

We will always be influenced by the company we keep. You become like who you stay near. I'm just telling you, church attendance is not about an attendance record. Who cares? It's about staying connected to the vine Connect.

Groups are so important because it matters who we process life with. You become like who you stay near. When you look around, are your friends life giving? Are they pointing you to Jesus? Are they fueling you with scripture?

Are they texting you on a hard day and say, don't quit, don't give up?

Who speaks God's word over you when you want to throw in the towel? When you become like who you stay near. And so we have movement number one. We have come discipleship movement number two, we have stay. We've got our acronym so we remember.

And then movement number three bring watch what happens to our two guys. Our two friends Andrew and Tito are doing some cool things tonight. After they spent the afternoon with Jesus, Andrew goes and finds his brother, who just so happens to be Peter, the guy who walks on water. Peter in verse 41. And he says, bro, we have found him.

He could not keep this to himself. He had to go tell Peter. Because real encounters with Jesus naturally overflow into conversations about Jesus. They naturally overflow. You know, before I had kids, I used to be so frustrated at all the mamas who had to talk about their kids all the time.

Like, give me the ick. You know, like, I love that you love your kids. That's great. I love how much you love them. And I love that you think that I love them as much as you love them.

But I don't love them as much as you think I love them. And they just had to talk. They didn't tell me everything. They didn't tell me what time they woke up, how many times they woke them up in the middle of the night, how many ounces of flight formula they're drinking, how many diapers they change a day, what they like to eat. Right now the words are saying, it's so cute.

And you know, I would be polite and I'm just like, I do not care. Do you not have a life? You have anything else to talk about? Until I had kids. And then I just know that you love my kids as much as I love my kids.

And I'm gonna tell you, you would not believe. Avery said her first word, it was trees. And she said tweeze and she pointed out a little piece of broccoli and she thought a broccoli was a tree. And then I begin to do the same thing. Because you cannot help but talk about what you love.

It overflows out of you. You see, Andrew did not leave that afternoon carrying a strategy with Jesus. He didn't walk away with a five point strategy. No, he left carrying joy. He left carrying an experience with God that he could not keep to himself.

Joy is contagious. You see, somewhere along the way, I think we turned bringing people to Jesus into a high pressure, high stakes obligation rather than just something that bubbles up out of us when you get around us. And look, I get the pressure. Like, what if they ask me a question, I don't know the answer. What if they ask me a theological question?

What if they have like church past, church history and hurts and I don't know what to say and we put all this pressure on myself. But I just love Andrew's approach. He just says, peter, come and see, come and see. That's all you got to do. And here's something that might surprise you.

Sometimes your spiritual formation becomes dormant because it's too siloed, it's too personal. It's just between me and the Lord. My relate. No, it's not. It's never meant to be just between you and God.

Your relationship with the Lord is meant to overflow into every single part of your life, your inner world, your thoughts, the way you treat people, the way you love your family, the way you serve your spouse, the way you serve your community, the way you show up at the grocery store, the way you get in the car line. It's meant to overflow into every single part of what you do. Bringing people on the journey with you actually accelerates formation inside of you. It accelerates it. So Jesus said, I'm the vine, you're the branch.

If you stay in me, you'll bear much fruit. Bringing people on the spiritual journey with you is miracle grow. It's miracle grow. They bring something out of you that you couldn't bring out of yourself. Another side of Jesus, what God is doing in you.

The Bible says iron sharpens iron. You have to be close enough to get sharp. So Come, stay, bring. And the last discipleship movement we're going to look at tonight is see. Jesus says something that reframes the entire passage in John chapter one, and it drives us to our point tonight.

In verse 51, he says, you will see the heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of man. You see, what Jesus is doing here is he is bringing up an Old Testament story where a guy by the name of Jacob, he is running for his life. This dude had a crazy life. He was a manipulator. He manipulated his dad, he manipulated his brother, he lied, he burned through relationships.

And so now he is out in the wilderness running from his life, I'm sure exhausted, afraid, not knowing what to do, full of regret, I'm sure. And that night, Jacob has a dream. And he sees this ladder connecting to heaven, and he sees these angels ascending and descending on it. And then it says he sees God standing at the top of the ladder, just reminding him of his plan and his purpose for his life. And when Jacob wakes up from the dream, he says, surely the Lord was in this place and I didn't even know it.

You see, Jacob ran into the wilderness, trying to run away from himself, only to encounter a God who opens up up the heavens even for him. Even for him, Even for the lying, manipulating, doesn't have it figured out. Running away, Jacob. And he says, come and see. He says, come and see.

I think maybe the most beautiful part of Jacob's story is that he was not searching for God when he met him. He was just running. He was tired, he was confused, he was broken. And heaven still opened. What a love.

What a love that would reach down and chase you and find you at your worst and open up for you. You see, I think some people have spent years, some people in this room have spent years assuming that closeness to God is reserved for when you get your life figured out, when you get your anxiety under control, when you get your trust issues in check, when you get a little more healed from those wounds and things that are causing the stuff and yuck. In your life, when there's the better version of you, the more disciplined version of you, that's. That's what the good stuff is reserved for. Maybe heaven will open up for me then.

And meanwhile, I believe that Jesus told Andrew what he wants to tell you tonight. He says, come and see. Come and see. I have an open sky life in store for you. For you.

The right now you, not the later you, not the more mature you, not the got it all Figured out perfect version in your head. You, you as you are. This is an open invitation that he says, come and see.

And so if we look back at the return pile, the bag in the corner, that thing that's just been sitting there, just waiting, tags still attached, return label printed. I think for some of you, the problem isn't that you're rejecting Jesus. It's that you're just keeping this closeness with him for something you'll do later. And maybe tonight isn't about deciding whether Jesus is real. Maybe tonight is deciding whether you're willing to come close again.

Maybe it's deciding tonight that you break off that shame once and for all, that you close the gap, that you let go of the embarrassment, that you decide to open up yourself to him again and reach out and touch him. And don't you know that when you reach out, his hand is already there saying, daughter, I'm here. I've been waiting. I'm so glad that you're here. The invitation has been open.

I love you.

And so I don't know about you, but I can come in moments like these and hear a word and let it speak to me in a moment. And then it's easy just to be like, okay, that was good for a minute. And I'll have all the best intentions to go home and sit in it and process it. But life does what life does, and we go home to all our responsibilities. And so I wanted to do something a little bit different tonight.

I wanted to take a minute and give us some time in this moment and invite the Holy Spirit in and say, holy Spirit, what are you speaking to me? What are some of the things that you're nudging in my heart? God. What are some things I need to let go of? God, I want to be close to you, but what are the blockades?

And so what we're going to do is we're going to put some prompts on the screen. We're going to give you a couple minutes right here in this moment. We've got keys playing. The presence of God is here. We're not going to be moving around right now.

We're just going to be in the presence of God. And I'm going to give you some options. Okay, we're going to have these on the screen right now. We're going to put them in the lower thirds. There's four questions that's going to hit every single discipleship movement that we talked about.

And as they come up, maybe you want to take your phone out, maybe you want to take something to write with and you might want to process by yourself. You might want to just sit in silence and let God speak. Or maybe you might even want to chat with a friend about it sitting next to you. Maybe you came with somebody tonight, maybe you met a new friend. Either way, I believe that the Holy Spirit wants to speak so clearly to us tonight, and I don't want to rush this moment.

So I'm going to pray and then we're going to move into this application portion. God, thank you. Thank you for the open invitation, Lord, that you have shown over our lives time and time and time again. God, we thank you that you are near than a whisper that God, even before a whisper word is on our mouth, you know it. You know our innermost thoughts.

You know when we're coming and going. You know everything about us, God, but I know that you're waiting for us to give youe the invitation to invite youe in once again. So, God, tonight we invite youe Holy Spirit. We just ask that yout would highlight some of these things in our heart. God, we just ask, Lord, that in this moment that we wouldn't leave here rushed, God, but we would leave here positioned, Lord, ready to step into the next thing.

God, the things that have been laying on the floor for far too long, we are coming back and we are stepping into it and saying, God, we're ready, God, we want to come close. God, we invite you in. Okay, in Jesus name, amen.