WHO'S YOUR ONE Part 2 (2)

BEING A CONTRIBUTOR

LUKE 5:17-26

Prayer

I read this quote the other day from a man by the name of Ray Goforth, he said:

“There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” – Ray Goforth

Both of those people are inside and outside of the church today. But God not only wants you to succeed in your walk with Him, but the Bible tells us in 2nd Peter 1:3 That God has given us everything we need to be successful in His eyes.

Now last week we began our sermon series called Who’s Your One because God wants us to reproduce ourselves. He wants us to reach others for the Gospel, He wants us to help others find their way back to Him.

One of the values from our mission statement here is that we are to share the message of God’s love to the world.

And while that is true sharing with the world is daunting task, but if we look at it this way:

Focusing on one person at a time it is not such a huge task. If each one would just reach one.

Last week we saw that take place as Jesus began gathering His disciples. and we said that while we can’t do everything, we all can do something to grow the kingdom of God.

For each of us to continue to reach one we noticed that we must believe that God is active in our life. We also must be ready to go where Jesus takes us. And be focused on reaching the one.

This brings us to part 2 of our series and that is BEING A CONTRIBUTOR.

There are two types of Christ-followers today those who are cheerleaders and those who are contributors. The question you have to answer for yourselves today is; are you a contributor to the Kingdom of God?

I read a story the other day of a dad and his two kids a boy and a girl. This man said that one day his son who was 6 years old grabs his daughter and tells her “Get your pom-poms, I want you to come in the backyard with me. I’m going to play some football, and I want you to be my cheerleader.” She said, “Okay.” Now the Dad told his son; “you know she can play football”. He thought that she could probably rip his head off.

The dad looked out his back window, and there’s his daughter with her pink pom poms. She’s got on a tutu, and she’s cheering for her brother. She’s like, “Go Bubba, go Bubba,” cheering. He’s throwing the football to himself, diving, catching, rolling 10 yards into the end zone. He stands up, spikes the ball, and he’s like, “It’s good.” She’s over there just cheering. She comes inside, she said, “Dad, did you see me and my brother playing football?” The dad said, “Sweetie, he played football. You cheered.”

What I’m afraid of is that a lot of us, we’ve become really good cheerleaders, but not good contributors to the mission of God. We’re really good at standing on the sidelines, throwing up our pom-poms and cheering, while others work hard on the front lines sharing the Gospel and evangelizing.

It’s my prayer today that we all would recognize that there are times when we need the cheerleaders who are encouraging others. But when it comes to building the Kingdom of God we all should be in the game and we would start becoming contributors to the greatest movement of the world and that is the mission of God.

As I stated last week it doesn’t begin with the masses. It starts with one. John the Baptist told Andrew; Andrew found his brother Simon Peter who became the leader of the church. It starts with the one. Billy Graham was one of the greatest evangelists of all time. People flocked to stadiums to hear him speak. The number of people who were saved at these events is far too many to count thousands upon thousands. His ministry continues today through his son Franklin Graham.

But you don’t often here of is a man named Mordecai Ham. In 1934 in Charlotte North Carolina, Mordecai Ham was preaching a series of revival meetings where Billy Graham was saved. (wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/faq/13.htm).

It starts with one person reaching another.

One man preached and through that preaching, he reached one young boy who gave his life over to Jesus and that young boy became one of the greatest evangelist and has had the most successful ministries that continue today.

One man invited us to church at a red light. Little did we know that this one invite would lead to several other encounters that led to us attending church. That one invite has propelled us to help so many others find their way back to God, encouraging pastors and leaders and led to thousands of people hearing the Gospel throughout the world.

When we start thinking about who’s your one, we must be reminded that it takes just one person reaching another person for the sake of the kingdom. But in order for us to reach the one, it means that we must stop being on the sidelines and we must get into the game. We must become contributors to the kingdom of God.

Therefore, If you have your Bible today and I hope that you do. If you do, open it to the book of Luke chapter 5.

Luke is the 3rd book of the New Testament. Matthew, Mark then Luke, Luke chapter 5.

Now if you read the Gospels in the New Testament, you’ll notice that Jesus is going around from place to place, this is in the beginning stages of His ministry. He goes around from place to place, He constantly has encounters with teachers of the Law, and Pharisees. These are religious leaders of the day. These people are the reason that Jesus came, and most of His teachings went completely against them. They had put unnecessary weight on the people of God, through the additions of law for salvation.

Jesus comes and He pits Himself against them, and He says, The way of salvation is through Him and Him alone. Chapter 5 begins with the calling of the disciples as Jesus was walking along the shore and called for Simon Peter, James and John saying to them “from now on you will be fishers of men”

Then in verses 12-16 Jesus was going through a town and a man with a skin disease asked for healing and Jesus healed him.

In verse 15 Luke tells us that that “the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities.”

Which leads us into our scripture today.

If you are there in the book of Luke chapter 5 follow along with me from verse 17.

This is the Word of God and it begins like this:

“Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them. 18 Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. 19 And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.

20 When He saw their faith, He said to him, “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”

21 And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Side note; They new Jesus was acting as God when he said your sins are forgiven. He was not hiding that fact that He was God.)

22 But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, He answered and said to them, “Why are you reasoning in your hearts? 23 Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Rise up and walk’?

Let’s stop here for a minute because what Jesus is doing is handling the issue that if a person has infirmity like blindness, leprosy, paralysis the sicknesses where do to sin. This was the issue by Jesus saying your sins are forgiven, he really told this man that his sins were forgiven that he was healed. You might think that that is strange, however, if you think deeply about sin it does cause sicknesses, not all sicknesses, but if you are a drunkard you can get cirrhosis of the liver. A drug addict can get all kinds of disease to include killing one’s self by overdosing. The ultimate penalty of sin is physical death. Therefore, Jesus is essentially saying this man was healed because his sins were forgiven. Jesus knew what the religious leaders were thinking so He goes on to say in verse 24

“But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins”—He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

25 Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. 26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!”

This is the theme of many of the stories of Jesus healing people. People heard of a man that could heal afflictions and illnesses so the people flocked to Jesus. They did not come for spiritual renewal or because He was the Son of God, not for forgiveness, they did not believe in that.

They came simply because Jesus was seen as a healer. When Jesus healed and feed of the 5,000 they came back only to be fed again and when Jesus pressed them they all left.

If you look at what Jesus does in the Bible, He met the needs of the people so that a few would have faith and that the disciples would grow in faith.

Biblical people then, really if you get to the heart of it, they only cared about themselves and isn’t that what a lot of people think about their salvation?

Think about this Jesus in Luke chapter 17 encountered 10 leapers and they asked Jesus to have mercy on them and Jesus did so. The Bible tells us that “while going, they were healed”, and “one of them when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at His feet giving thanks. and he was a Samaritan.”

Jesus said in chapter 17:19 “get up and go on your way. Your faith has made you well” The other nine did not thank Him at all. However, there is something different in this miracle than the nine others, it impacted his life to worship Jesus.

Back to our scripture; Jesus not only sees the willingness of the paralyzed man’s friends, but He links the healing, the forgiveness of his sin based on the other the men’s faith.

Notice with me verse 20 in our scripture it says “When He saw their faith, he said to him, man, your sins are forgiven.”

Jesus saw their faith and the result of their faith his sins were forgiven and he was healed.

WHICH BRINGS US TO OUR TAKE-HOME TRUTH:

THE TAKE HOME TRUTH IS:

YOUR FAITH IS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR TO OTHERS FINDING JESUS.

This is what we see in this story of healing by Luke. He teaches us that it was through the faith of the mans friends that brought the paralyzed man to Jesus his sins were forgiven and ultimately, he was healed.

They believed that if they could just get him to Jesus, then he healer Jesus would change his life forever. And here is the thing, they would do whatever it took to get him there.

These men were contributors of not only this man getting healed, but also for the forgiveness of his sin. Jesus said to the man because of your friend’s faith you are healed inside and out.

Folks this should be something that should be tattooed in our brains.

Now let me say this your faith cannot bring a person to faith, but your faith puts them in position for it to happen. AMEN?

This tells us that our faith whether big or small has an impact on others. The greater your faith the greater your impact.

Don’t miss this: Your faith is a contributing factor for others finding Jesus. For your one and others to find forgiveness and salvation we must be willing to do what it takes to bring them to Jesus.

Today I want to share with 4 factors of being a contributor that we see from our scripture today.

These four factors are what we see about these men that brought their ONE to see Jesus.

THE FIRST FACTOR WAS THEY HAD A MISSION.

They had a goal, a purpose and that was to see their friend walk- to get him healed. In verse 15 it says that the news of Jesus spread, so much so “large crowds would come to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses” They heard that Jesus was healing people so they gathered up their friend put him on a mat and carried him to Jesus because Jesus was the one person who could heal him.

So, they brought this man to the feet of Jesus. That was the mission that they were on.

Having a mission helps define us, it gives us direction, it gives purpose in our life. It gives direction in our culture, in business, in church and so on.

Jesus, listen, Jesus Himself had a mission statement, did He not? The Bible tells us in Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost.”

That was the mission that Jesus came to accomplish. What was the defining mission for the men in this passage? The men that brought the paralyzed man before Jesus which was their defining mission?

What was their vision? What was the thing that they were hoping for? I would say it was that they had a friend and they wanted to see him walk. They heard of Jesus the healer and it drove them to get him there.

It moved them to pick up their friend and carrying him to Jesus.

Let me just ask you a very simple question today.

What drives you? What pushes you? What moves you forward in life?

Is it to have a good job?

Is it to have early retirement?

Is it so you can maybe leave a good inheritance to your children? All of those things are wonderful. Those are all good things, and those are things that God enjoys you to have. That you would have a job that provides for you, and you provide for your family. And that you would be able to provide for your family for generations to come, but let me ask you, maybe in a different category.

What spiritually speaking drives you?

What kingdom dreams do you have?

What things in your life are you thinking about?

And you’re dreaming about that, are moving you in such a way that you’re not just living for the moment, but you’re living for eternity? That you’re saying to yourself, God, if this doesn’t happen, I don’t know if I could take another step.

What are the things in your life that are welling up inside of you for eternity’s sake that are driving you and pushing you forward?

Then I need to ask what are you doing about it? Aristotle once said,

“the soul never thinks without a picture”

The soul never thinks without a picture. Listen, there is a picture being painted for you, in your life right now, and you might not even know it.

There’s a picture that’s driving you. There’s a vision that moves you. There’s a mission that defines you. One pastor said,

“If the size of your vision doesn’t intimidate you, it’s probably insulting to God.”

What is driving you for the kingdom? What is it?

Better yet who is it? Who is that person? In this passage, these men, the driving force for their motivation, was their one friend. He was their one. They had a mission with an eager expectation that Jesus would do for their friend what He had done for others.

Who is your mission? What is the expectation that you have for that one person?

Is it that Jesus will do for them what He has done for you? Because He will.

THE SECOND FACTOR WAS THEY ENCOUNTERED AN OBSTACLE.

Look at verses 18-19a “Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. 19 And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd”

Remember there were so many people around Jesus listening to His teachings, wanting to get be healed, but also note who else was there, the Pharisee and teachers of the law from every village were sitting there. It was impossible to get in the door. Even if they could get in the door, the religious leaders had all the front row seats and there would be no way they could have gotten him to Jesus.

Most people at this point would throw up their hands and quit. Saying, it must be a closed door. God closed the door on us.

Listen, for most of us, an open door is just Christianese for the path of least resistance.

We want it to be easy, but if there is anything that I have learned is that when you are on the right path obstacles are always put in our path to get you to stop or change your direction.

These guys were stuck. But stuck didn’t mean giving up. Their dead-end meant to find another way around.

Listen, you are going to encounter obstacles on the way when you’re trying to share Jesus with your one, when you are inviting your one to church there will be obstacles. Don’t throw up your white flag and surrender because there’s an obstacle. Don’t let the obstacle stop you.

Instead expect it, in fact, rejoice in it. Keep trying, inviting, sharing what God is doing. Listen folks the devil doesn’t want to lose anyone. Just like how it took the 10 plagues for pharaoh to release Israel from bondage in Egypt, the enemy won’t let go easily, so don’t you give up easily.

Your mission is your one, so don’t give up on them when you encounter an obstacle.

BECAUSE THE THIRD FACTOR SHOWS US THAT THEY OVERCAME THAT OBSTACLE.

I love this part, they probably said to one another we carried him all this way and we are not going to carry him back. Right?

Wouldn’t you have said that? How did they overcome the obstacle? They took a risk. Look back at verse 19. “And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.”

In Biblical days most homes had outside stairs where the roof was accessible. The roof was a place of socializing and even sleeping in the hot time of the year.

Now Imagine for a moment, Here Jesus is, He is probably standing, there He is teaching and then all of the sudden some stuff starts falling from the ceiling. Jesus is probably at the beginning kind of just waving His hands in the air, then stuff falls in his head on His head maybe even those religious leaders. Then all of the sudden a hole opens up, sunshine comes from the ceiling, there are people are looking up and they see these guys staring down at them.

Then here comes this person being lowering down in front of him. They had to get ropes, they had to get on the roof, they had to tie off the friend, they had to remove the roof, they had to take a big risk.

Now I have seen some crazy stuff before, but never a person being lowered from the roof.

They took an incredible risk by tearing a hole in someone else’s roof. But his friends went the extra mile for his need, They put him on a litter, they carried him for some way, they were tired, the could have risked arrest for breaking a law, they climb the roof took it apart and put him in the right place, perfectly before the Jesus.

If we are called by God to love people, if we have our one then we should go the extra mile, take a risk to put them before Jesus.

Can I share with you for a moment – these guys were not easily swayed from their task. You should not be either.

I wonder today how many times that I should have taken a risk, climbed to the roof and tore it open so I could place others at the feet of Jesus.

What about you? Is there one person in your life today that you would take that risk for? That person is your mission, they are the one you don’t give up on when an obstacle is put in place, they are one you take a risk to put them in front of Jesus.

And when you do that comes THE FOURTH FACTOR: THAT BECAUSE OF THEIR FAITH THEY WITNESSED A GREAT MIRACLE.

Let’s look back at verses 24-26: Jesus said “He said to the man who was paralyzed, “I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.”

25 Immediately he rose up before them, took up what he had been lying on, and departed to his own house, glorifying God. 26 And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!”

Notice the incredible view these men had. Looking down from that hole in the roof, these men witnessed a great miracle when they watched their friend get up and walk out of that house.

Was it hard at times? YES.

Did they have obstacles? YES. Was it worth it? Absolutely!

Nothing can get you more excited than seeing God move in someone’s life. When a friend has given their heart to Christ Jesus accepted Him by faith, when you help lead someone to Jesus it’s amazing.

A famous evangelist named J. Wilbur Chapman once observed that the New Testament tells of 40 people - each suffering from the disease, who were healed by Jesus.

Of this number, 34 were either brought to Jesus by friends, or He was taken to them. Notice the significance.

In only six cases out of forty did the sufferers find the way to Jesus without assistance.

He then noted that of the vast number of people who find their way to Jesus today - most of them reach Him because their friends cared enough to bring them to Him.

Jesus saw the faith of those men because they cared enough to take their friend to Him.

They didn’t think about how embarrassed they’d be. They didn’t think about how inconvenient it would be. They just focused on doing WHATEVER needed to be done.

They contributed to their friend's healing.

They were on a mission of one, they had obstacles, the took a risk to overcome the obstacles and they witnessed God at work because he was healed.

Can I ask you something today? Will you be a contributor?

Having your one means that you are contributing to the Kingdom of God. Who’s your one?

Your mission is to get them to Jesus. You will have obstacles to overcome and when you get your one to Jesus you will see an incredible miracle of the blind being able to see, some one destined to death, but now receives life, one who was paralyzed by sin now able to walk into the Kingdom of God.

Who is your 1?

In your bulletin today you have a book who’s your one book mark. Please put the name of your one on it so that each day you open your Bible you will see their name.

Invitation