Untitled Sermon (2)

Who’s your one????

NAMB

NAMB

Southern Baptist

Each time I preach over the next couple of months

Focus will be evangelism… specifically who’s your one?

How important is just one? I’ve told this story before but its such a wonderful story that needs to be shared again.

A story about a Sunday School teacher named Ed Kimball.

He won a young fellow to the Lord and got that one stirred up. The new convert got the secret of the Lord’s power upon his life. He became the well-known D. L. Moody.

The story says that after evangelizing America, D. L. Moody started on England. There in England Frederick B. Meyer heard his message. One of the illustrations that Moody used did not at first stir Brother Meyer. Then one of his Sunday school teachers came to him and said, “Brother Meyer, the illustration that that preacher gave in our church the other day stirred my girls so much that there has been a lot of weeping, confession and testimony. We are sure that the Holy Spirit has come among us; and we have had an experience in our class that you won’t believe!”

F. B. Meyer was so affected by the testimony of that teacher and those girls that he got off by himself, and soon it began to grip him in the same manner. His ministry began to open up and spread, and as it did, he was invited to come to America.

He came and went to Furman University to preach. One young fellow in the student body had decided to quit the ministry and go back to a secular job. But the message by F. B. Meyer was given with such fervor and flame that the young fellow stepped out, came forward and renewed his vow to his calling. He became the great R. G. Lee.

Then F. B. Meyer went on to preach at another location. In that service a young fellow caught fire and began to evangelize. His meetings spread out all over the areas of New England and the mid-Atlantic coast, until they were bulging at the seams. J. Wilbur Chapman, set on fire of God through the preaching of F. B. Meyer, began to stir up the whole northeastern coast.

Then, because of Chapman’s preaching, he was invited to speak at a certain place. His ministry was changing, and he needed someone to move in on those citywide crusades that he was holding. Someone said, “The man you want is the young convert, Billy Sunday.”

Billy Sunday, influenced by J. Wilbur Chapman, got into the ministry and went to Charlotte, North Carolina. There a group of laymen got so inspired and so stirred up that they organized a committee to invite other evangelists back. One invited was Mordecai Ham from Louisville, Kentucky. He preached in a meeting, and Billy Graham got saved. Billy Graham became a renowned evangelist around the world—all because Edward Kimball—one nobody—won one other nobody and started a series of dominoes falling that ended up with millions saved in Moody’s ministry, hundreds of thousands in Meyer’s ministry, hundreds of thousands more in Chapman’s ministry, hundreds of thousands more in Lee’s ministry, and hundreds of thousands more in Graham’s ministry. All because one fellow won one soul to Christ!

It is certainly possible to change the world via the avenue of simply sharing your faith and inviting another human being to come to Jesus.

All of you folks are here today because you have a little of Edward Kimball in you. You feel led of the Lord to witnesses for Him and His glory. As a result, the Lord has placed you in a tremendous position. A position in which you will have the opportunity and the privilege of sharing your faith with men and women who need Jesus as their personal Savior.

Now do you see how important one is?

Let see how important one was to Jesus.

Open your Bibles to Luke Chapter 15.

1.

We all know this story.

Jesus was willing to leave behind 99 sheep (church members)

To chase after 1 unrepentant person.

Do you see the importance of one? Jesus did

2.

Woman stopped everything right then because the coin was valuable (day’s wage).

That one coined belonged to her and she wanted it back..

3.

3. 📷What about2

o Prodigal son returns home.

o 📷What a beautiful display of the gospel.

o 📷The son turned from God

o Went his own way. Trying to find happiness

o Hit rock bottom.

o Turned around. Repented

o The Father had compassion

o 📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷📷Had love for his 1 lost son. (He ran, threw his arms, kissed him)

o Then there was a celebration (feast)

o 📷Restoration (robe, ring, and sandals) new clothes

So Jesus clearly shows the importance of one.

Shouldn’t that be important to us? To you?

Not one person in this room that wants anyone to go to hell. Not even our worst enemy.

But reality is…….. a lot of people are…

Does it bother you that millions of people are going to be spend an eternity in hell?

It should!

Now I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I’m concerned because most people in church are not active soul winners. That’s tragic.

Adrian Rogers said this in one of his sermons.

You say, “But, Pastor, I give my money.” I don’t care how much money you give. If you’re not endeavoring to bring souls to Christ, you’re not right with God. You say, “Well, I teach.” I don’t care how eloquently you teach. If you’re not trying to bring souls to Jesus, you’re not right with God. You say, “Well, I attend faithfully.” I don’t care how much you attend. If you’re not trying to bring souls to Jesus Christ, you are not right with God.

📷📷📷📷Andrew Murray said, “There are two classes of Christians: soul winners and backsliders.” You are one or the other. If you don’t have a passion to see people come to the Lord Jesus Christ, I wonder if you know the Jesus I know.

So today’s message and this series is geared around Who’s your one.

Here’s the reality…. We are not winning souls to Christ. In the church globally and locally.

That’s the problem….

Now today I want to help come up with a solution.

📷“How can I be a faithful soul winner?”

Not successful…but faithful.

The Bible has all the answers….

I believe in order to be a faithful soul winner we have to honestly answer 5 questions…

Turn with me to today’s text. .

📷Read2.

The story we are introduced to a man named Andrew.

We don’t know much about Andrew in the scriptures

But this story tells us how Andrew went to go get his one.

This passage can show us how to be a faithful soulwinner.

📷Look with me in verse 37.

📷What did Andrew do? He followed Jesus.

1. ��Do I have a personal relationship with Jesus (follower)

o All throughout scripture Jesus tells people to follow Him.

o If you follow someone, you should know that person well.

o Are you a true follower of Jesus?

o Fruits of a true believer…

§ Love for God

§ Hunger for His word

§ Repented of your sins

§ Continiual prayer

§ Obedient to Him

§ Willingess to love and serve others.

· It’s hard to be a soul winner if you don’t know who you’re winning them to.

· You have to be saved in order to share what you believe.

· Do you really know Him? Or are you like millions of lost people in this world today that think theyre a Christian because they grew up in church? Or parents did?

o But most importantly does He (Jesus) know you?

o 📷What a sad day that’ll be when Jesus may look at you and say depart from me I never knew you.

· If you have been saved. You should be able to share your testimony.

o I’ve heard grown men get in front of the church sharing their testimony and say

§ “Well my wife made me come to church years ago”

§ “Well I’ve always gone to church”

· The question is…..Do you really know Jesus? Are you a follower? Not just a church member.

2. Do you have a burden for the lost?

a. Look at verse 41.

· What was the 1st things Andrew did after he followed Jesus.

o He first found his brother Simon.

o First thing he did. He didn’t wait…

o 📷“I’ll talk to him later”

o 📷📷No he realized that there was no time to waste.

o He knew tomorrow wasn’t promised.

o Do you have that same urgency?

§ 📷📷Or do you constantly say maybe tomorrow

o The population of Pulaski Co in around 11,000 people

o 📷📷📷Do you realize that as we are sitting here right now in this church in Pulaski county (1 of about 30 churches). And let’s say each church has 100 people in it (weekly avg). (not likely) but lets say they do. That means There are approximately 8,000 people right now in our county. That are not in church.

o The time is now…..

o Do you realize the urgency?

o SNAP YOUR FINGERS

o Do you realize that 150,000 people die a

day. That’s approximately 1 every 2 seconds (snap fingers) dead

o If there are 30% of the population Christian.

§ That means that 105,000 people are dying each day and going to hell.

§ And we cant even reach one?

§ And there’s no second chance

§ Catholic funeral

§ �7-

· And just as it is appointed for people to die once, and after this—judgment.

o The urgency is NOW!

3. Do you have a right view of Jesus?

a. Vs 41b. “We have found the Messiah”

i. VS 36 “the lamb of God”

ii. The promised one. The Christ.

b. 📷You have to have the right/correct view of Jesus

i. 📷📷Virgin Born (Not born of Adam)

ii. 📷Sinless life (The only way he could be a sacrifice)

iii. His death (was atonement for our sins)

1. Wrote a check. Paid for our sins

iv. His resurrection (defeated Satan, sin and death) (this means the check cleared)

v. His ascension (to intercede the Father on our behalf)

vi. His return (He is coming back for us.)

c. You don’t have to know everything about the Bible but I believe these things are essential to a follower of Christ.

d. Look at the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses. They claim to be Christians but this is what they believe.

Jehovah’s witnesses believe this about Jesus.

1. He is not God.

2. Don’t believe in the trinity

3. 📷He was Michael the archangel

4. 📷Doesn’t believe His death was a substituatry atonement for our sin

5. Only Jesus’ soul was resurrected (his body was destroyed)

6. Jesus is not coming back. He returned in 1914 in Spirit

Mormons

1. Jesus is separate God from the Father

2. He was created as a spirit child by the father and mother in heaven

3. His body was created between a sexual union between Elohim (God) and Mary)

4. Jesus was married

5. His death does not provide atonement for our sins.

There is probably no religious group that is more faithful than the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons at getting their message out. Unfortunately, the message is full of distortions, deceptions, and false doctrine. May God open the eyes of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons to the truth of the gospel and the true teaching of God’s Word.

📷📷📷📷May God also open our eyes to urgency of sharing the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.

4. Do you even know what the Gospel is?

· Gospel=Good news of Jesus Christ

· If there’s good news, there has to be bad news.

· Here’s the bad news.

o 📷We are all sinners (fall short of the glory of God)3

o Wages of sin is death (hell/separation from God)

o We were at one time destined to hell because of our sin

📷 📷 📷

· Here’s the good news…..

o 📷📷But Christ proves his love to us while we were sinners, Christ died for us.:8)

o Even though you were a sinner Christ died for you.

· I know Bro Barry took you through something similar last week. The Romans Road.

· This is one I use to teach people the gospel.

· It’s a great tool.

· It’s called the 3 circles.

o God designed us to live in perfect harminoy with Him

o Adam sinned therefore brought sin into the world. We are cursed with it

o We are broken people trying to find the answers to life.

o Alcohol, drugs, sex, success, fame, money

o Which all leads to destruction without Jesus

o 📷But if we turn to Jesus and repent and believe

o 📷Believe the Gospel 9)

o God will then restore us as we pursue Him.

o Be restored to our original design one day.

o This is the gospel!

o 📷Know it. Share it!

o 3 Circle guides in the foyer.

5) Do you bring people to Jesus?

Vs 42 “and he brought Simon the Jesus.”

· Let me share something with you.

o What did Andrew do?

§ He brought his brother (his one) to Jesus

o I’m not saying don’t invite people to church.

o It’s a good thing.

o Just don’t let that be the only form of sharing Jesus with someone

§ I am so guilty of this.

§ It can be a cop out.

§ It’s easy. We don’t have to get too involved.

o We so often just tell people “come to church”

o And expect the pastors to be ones that share the gospel.

o In reality, it’s the pastors job to equip that saints for the work of the ministry, to build up the body of Christ.

o God has already equipped each believer in this room through the Holy Spirit.

o �8- But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

§ You have what it takes….

· Barry taught you last week how to share your faith.

o How many of you have actually done it?

· One of the greatest sins of the church is the sin of omission.

o Not doing what we should do.

o 📷📷That i28-:19-20 Go, therefore

o Go! Is not a suggestion is a command.

o Are you following Jesus’ commands?

In a minute I will pray,

· But before I do, I want to do something a little different

· As I have been preaching, I hope that one person crossed your mind.

· One Person that if they were to die today that would spend an eternity in hell.

· Or maybe that one person is you….

· If it is you get that right today.

· 📷Nobody will judge you, we’ve all been there where you are.

o Wrestling with God.

· But as you have thought about that one person.

· I’m going to ask some of my youth to come forward and hand each of you a card.

· It’s has place on it that says name……

· Write down a person’s name that you promise to pray for….. and not only pray for them but pray for yourself to have the boldness and courage to speak to them about the only thing that can save them….and that’s Jesus.

· 📷During the invitation, I’m going to ask every able body to come forward and pray for that person at the feet of Jesus. This is the first step of bringing that person to Jesus.

· 📷Then we would like for you to place that card in this bucket and over the next couple of months we will pray for that person with you.

· 📷📷📷Don’t write your name on the card.

· Just the person first name.. God knows who they are.

I can see Your heart

Eight billion different ways

Every precious one

A child You died to save

If You gave Your life to love them so will I

Like You would again a hundred billion times

But what measure could amount to Your desire

You're the One who never leaves the one behind

📷