Green Eggs and Ham is one of the most popular children’s books ever written by Theodor Seuss Geisel.  In an interview, Dr. Seuss (his pen name), said he wrote Green Eggs and Ham to hopefully get rid of the montonous reading books of Dick, Jane and Spot that many of us over the age of 40 grew up reading in school.

If Sam had been your typical Christian from your typical church than when his friend said, "I do not like them Sam-I-Am, I do not like green eggs and ham." then Sam would have said, OK. No problem and that would have been the end of the story. Sam would have happily gone on his way and his friend would never have experienced the joy of eating green eggs and ham. But no, Sam wasn’t content to take no for an answer. Luckily for his friend, Sam wasn’t like a typical Christian in a typical church, he wasn’t worried about offending his friend or driving him away. All he knew was how important it was that his friend make the decision to try green eggs and ham.

Sam I Am wanted his friend to try green eggs and ham. Why? Because he liked his friend and he felt like his friend was missing something in his life, in this case it was green eggs and ham. But he cared enough that he not only asked his friend but he continued to ask his friend. His friend mattered to him.

Wasn’t Sam I Am great, talk about not giving up. He obviously hadn’t heard the admonition, "If at first you don’t succeed try ,try again, but don’t make a complete fool out of yourself."

If you were to look in the dictionary under persistence you would find a picture of Sam-I-Am. If we are going to see people come to our church through our invitations then it will be because of persistence. Just because somebody can’t come out to church the first time you ask doesn’t’ mean that they won’t come the next time you ask, right? I mean maybe their hair really did fall out after the hot oil treatment. We’re not asking them to cut off their ear we’re just inviting them out to church. And in most cases you need to invite people cause they aren’t going to invite themselves.

Jesus – “Go out into the country lanes and behind the hedges and urge anyone you find to come, so that the house will be full.”                   Luke 14:23 (NLT)