Just One

We are glad that you are here with us this afternoon. We are in the middle of this message series called “who’s Your One?” Today we are going to talk about the significance and importance of One.

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One- what an interesting number, there is one of so many things around us, there is a person, wait there are people in the room, there is a bench, isn’t there, right there are benches.

We are tempted so much of the time to focus more on a group.

Let’s watch this quick video of a commercial from a long time ago but talks about the focus on “many” is more common than the focus on one.

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See, even Frito Lay, knows we are focused on more than one, they knew you couldn’t eat just one chip

the same thing can be said for cookies, earlier this week,

I was at a gathering of other pastor’s and guess what there were cookies and sure enough what did I do I took 2 cookies and put it on my plate. I really couldn’t eat just one.. Don’t get me wrong both of the cookies I had were good..

The same can be said for Tacos- how many of us can eat just one Taco?

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One is important number, an often forgotten number, in math it is a prime number, it is an odd number

think about it, one person shared Jesus with you at some point in the past, didn’t they.

It only takes one person.

Movements start with one- one person, one idea, one action.

We see this in the world around us, late last year there was a young lady by the name of Greta Thurnberg who got a ton of attention because she organized school strikes to bring attention to climate change.

We can see another example in a christian context

Louie Giglio started a Bible study in 1985 at Baylor University

which has now become an annual conference of around 70 thousand + college age students to unite them for a spiritual awakening in their generation,

In the same way one person sharing the Gospel can lead to many knowing God.

How many times have we heard some one say

well what can I do by myself, it’s just me?

I have been guilty of saying that, however that is not reality.

One Jesus following person can make a huge difference, even in the worst of time.

I have an example her for you in scripture-

Open up your Bible’s if you brought one with you, or get out your phone and open the Bible app and go to: Matthew 5:13-16

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

14 “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.

15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.

16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

New Living Translation ()

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Here we see one light, we see one city on a hillJesus is telling us that like salt which can improve or make something taste worse we can change the situation with our influence..

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You may be the only person in your family, at your work or at school who has a relationship with Jesus, in fact many times these situations can make us uncomfortable, we may not want to be in them but God and will use us. We may think we are not capable but God can do a lot with a little.

Think mustard seed….like we see in Matthew 17:20-21

-21 (NLT)

“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

-Mustard seed and penny picture-

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Let’s look at a couple of examples in scripture that show us the importance of one.

Open up your Bible’s if you brought one with you, or get out your phone and open the Bible app and go to

The back story here is :

Here we find Paul and Silas have been sharing the gospel in Phillipi and a young woman who had a spirit in her that allowed her to tell the future,

this is how she made her money,

she followed Paul and Silas yelling These men are servants of God and are here to tell you how to be saved….

This had gone on for several days and Paul laid hands on the woman and cast out the spirit within her.

This didn’t make her boss happy so he reported them to the authorities for telling stuff that was against the law.

Lets pickup in verse 23

23 They were severely beaten, and then they were thrown into prison. The jailer was ordered to make sure they didn’t escape.

24 So the jailer put them into the inner dungeon and clamped their feet in the stocks.

25 Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening.

26 Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake, and the prison was shaken to its foundations. All the doors immediately flew open, and the chains of every prisoner fell off!

27 The jailer woke up to see the prison doors wide open. He assumed the prisoners had escaped, so he drew his sword to kill himself.

28 But Paul shouted to him, “Stop! Don’t kill yourself! We are all here!”

29 The jailer called for lights and ran to the dungeon and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas.

30 Then he brought them out and asked, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”

31 They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, along with everyone in your household.”

32 And they shared the word of the Lord with him and with all who lived in his household. 33 Even at that hour of the night, the jailer cared for them and washed their wounds. Then he and everyone in his household were immediately baptized.

34 He brought them into his house and set a meal before them, and he and his entire household rejoiced because they all believed in God.

New Living Translation ()

So here we find that the guard thought that all of the prisoners had escaped, he was ready to kill himself, but what happened,

they were all still there and he then asked what he needed to be saved, and because of what he had seen his entire family was baptized, the one who heard the Gospel shared and the rest became followers of Jesus. All because of one. This is good stuff.

I have another example for you, it is a parable that you may be familiar with. The parable of the lost sheep. If you will go to in your Bible or on the app.

Parable of the Lost Sheep

12 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?

13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away!

14 In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.

Holy Bible: New Living Translation ().

God wants us all to come to have a relationship with him over all else, here he shows us that no matter what he wants everyone to be lost. Kind of hard for us to imagine sometimes. That above all else- the mission that we are on, that God has set out on is that everyone, not some will have a relationship with him. He will do anything g to get to us. I really like the way that the chorus of a popular Christian song puts it:

There's no shadow You won't light up

Mountain You won't climb up

Coming after me

There's no wall You won't kick down

Lie You won't tear down

Coming after me

Imagine if we were willing to share with that same motivation the gospel with others.. Talk about “20 seconds of insane embarrassing courage”

I have some examples of what happens when we take the time to share Jesus

There was a shoe salesman by the name of Edward Kimball, he worked with another man by the name of Dwight, he was compelled to share the Gospel with Dwight, Dwight responded to what was shared, he committed his life to God. Edward was faithful in sharing the gospel with Dwight. Many people know Dwight as D.L. Moody who shared the gospel with millions of people and many consider him to be the greatest evangelist of the mid to late 1800’s.

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I’m going to make this personal as we look to end this week. I wasn’t always a believer, there was a point in my life, when I was in probably the darkest place I had ever been, I had struggling with mental health issues and didn’t have a place to live, I was really lost. Guess what, I had a family that was a friend of a friend. What did they do, no matter what the situation they would put Jesus in front of me. They always took every oppurtunity to share Jesus, they put not only scripture in front of me, they put the love of Jesus in front of me no matter what. They did what they did intentionally. They had the relationship that I did not, they new Jesus and knew that my life could forever be changed if Jesus was in my life. They chose to invest in just one. They planted the seed that sprouted around 10 years later when I accepted Jesus as my savior. They chose me. They were intentional. They were direct. The power of sharing with one can be unimaginable. I hope that you and your one are moving down a path to where you can share the gospel with them, so that their lives will forever be changed. Lets talk about how we can do this practically.

Casey interrupts

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Pickup lines for Jesus

Q&A Russ and Casey