WHO'S YOUR ONE Part 1

Timothy Jones

WHO'S YOUR ONE • Sermon • Submitted 3 years ago

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WHO’S YOUR ONE

Part 1 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ONE

Good Morning everyone including those of you on the internet. We are glad that you are with us today and are grateful that you are spending your time with God and us this morning.

Prayer

Last week we set the foundation of this weeks new teaching series as we spoke about being Messengers of Hope.

Now that we have an understanding of what it means to be messengers of hope we can begin this new series called WHO’S YOUR ONE.

You see you must first understand what it means to be messengers of hope before you can begin to understand that significance of the one for God.

And that is what God’s Word will be teaching us today.

Imagine if you will, if every believer could answer the question; who’s your one? With the name of a person who is far from God—a person for whom they would be praying for and an opportunity to share the Gospel with.

This is the intention behind the teaching series Who’s Your One.

Now, I don’t believe that we need another method for evangelism. There are plenty of ways to evangelize, but what we need as a church and as individuals is a passion to see people who are far from God to experience the new life He offers through Jesus Christ.

Over the next few weeks, we will prioritize personal ownership of the Great Commission as we each intentionally pursue one person with the hope of the gospel.

I will caution you that at times, it may seem the mission is simply too complex and too vast for a church like ours and people like us. But listen, while we can’t do everything, we all can do something.

Say that with me; while we can’t do everything, we all can do something.

We can all take responsibility for one person. And, because of God’s power and the work of His Spirit, each of our ones can add up to make a significant impact for God’s kingdom.

John Maxwell the leadership guru said:

If you are not a part of something bigger than yourself, you aren't a part of something significant.

You know it's not uncommon to hear about people being recognized for accomplishments and a lot of publicity. Parties, speeches, awards, hugs and handshakes, "congratulations" are made in many ways and of course there are the "thank you-s" by the person being recognized. When a team or a person wins a championship there are hats and t-shirts printed and news media goes on and on about it. It’s literally a great moment in life or the lives of those people. I don’t think there is anyone who has not at some point in their life wanted to be great.

Nobody wants to be second. You never hear of anyone asking to be Robin, we get selected to be Robin, but no one ever picks it. No, we want to be Batman, No one wants to be second fiddle we want to be great. Great moments are wonderful, unforgettable events in people's lives and are talked about throughout the years as if that great event had just happened.

However, the Bible teaches us that the greatest moment a person can really have is that moment when one "comes to know by faith Jesus."

The greatest celebration over that single event is not on this earth, there are no t-shirts made, no hats made, no news stories, although there is usually a lot of joy, but it is in heaven that a great celebration takes place. The Bible teaches us in Luke 15:7 that there will be more joy in heaven when one comes to Jesus Christ.

That this is something bigger than ourselves.

We are prone to think of “one” as small or even an insignificant number. I mean; who wants just one cookie? What is the value of one dollar?

But the Bible constantly speaks of the importance of the one: One pearl of great price, one lost sheep, one wayward son. The disciples of Jesus often overlooked the significance of one and often we do as well. One invitation to church, one message of hope, one neighbor, one co-worker, one friend. The very beginning of Jesus’ ministry began with the multiplication of one.

If you have your Bible today and I hope that you do. If you do, open that Bible to the New Testament Book of John chapter 1, John 1. If you are unfamiliar to where the book of John is, you can find it as it is the fourth book of the New Testament Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John.

These four books record the life of Jesus and are referred to as the Gospels. Now we have been talking a lot about being on mission for God and about being missionaries in our own lives, sharing the message of hope that we have.

You also see this through Gayle and myself lives as we are missionaries.

We have said that being a missionary means that you are telling those people who are part of your life the good news of Christ. You are telling your family members, your neighbors, your co-workers, you are telling the person at the grocery store, the gas station, When you’re getting your nails done, your haircut, at the restaurant by the way you walk and talk, by the way you live out your life, that you are a follower of Christ Jesus and you want them to know who Christ is.

This first chapter of John is really all about that. It is about Jesus the Son of God, becoming the Son of man so the sons of man can become sons of God. Once we become the sons and daughters of God then the next thing is to find another and introduce them to Christ, so they become sons and daughters of God and then they go and tell others. And it begins just like this here in John chapter 1.

If you are there in John Chapter 1 follow along with me from verse 35. This is God’s Word and it begins like this:

Again the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. 36 And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”

37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38 Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?”

They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?”

39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).

40 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ). 42 And he brought him to Jesus.

Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).

43 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, “Follow Me.” 44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, (side note here the name of this city means house of fishing and it is) the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

46 And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Philip said to him, “Come and see.”

47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!”

48 Nathanael said to Him, “How do You know me?”

Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.”

49 Nathanael answered and said to Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

50 Jesus answered and said to him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And He said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

Our scripture this morning records the calling of the disciples of Jesus Christ. There is a sequence here that I want you to pay specific attention to, because it is a sequence that we can follow. This is my hope and prayer is that the picture we see here can be reproduced, we can follow this sequence as we answer the call to become messengers of hope in our own lives.

Scripture shows us that: Jesus called John and John followed the Lord. John reached Andrew and Andrew followed the Lord. Then Andrew reached Peter and Peter followed the Lord. Then Jesus called Phillip and Phillip followed the Lord. Phillip reached out Nathanael and Nathanael followed the Lord.

Notice with me that each of these were reached one by one!! And from this band of men, this unlikely band of brothers, the Word of God was preached throughout the land and the Gospel message went around the world.

Each one of them continued to reach one. In fact, throughout the biblical history we see the effect that one has on another. God reached Moses, which he led over 2 million people by foot out of the captivity of Egypt.

Moses was reached again by his father in –law Jethro and it had a profound affect in Moses’ ministry.

Elijah over Elisha, Jesus over the Samaritan women at the well, the result of that one being reached was the whole village was in revival.

The New Church; disciples from over all over the known world were breaking bread from house to house.

Paul reached out to Timothy and then to Titus.

Everyone is reaching one!

Even when our one friend invited us to church all those years ago has a profound effect on the kingdom of God by reaching so many others.

We cannot deny the importance of the one.

Which brings us to our take-home truth:

The take-home truth today is this:

Each one must continue to reach one.

If you want to know what the antidote to reaching and changing our culture, reaching to others on mission, the cure to loneliness, the cure for sicknesses, the cure for the pain we have in our lives, the cure for churches closing their doors, the antidote for a church to reach out to the world?

The way to give purpose to others is through Jesus.

If you want to know the formula by which we can reach our communities, cities and the world for Jesus it is each person of the church reaching one person.

Each one, reaching one.

Because the cure for every person is Christ Jesus.

You see the cure is Jesus! Amen?

On a wall in the Museum of Natural Science in Chicago, Illinois there is a checkerboard with 64 squares. In the lower left-hand corner is one grain of wheat. The display includes this question: "If you doubled the amount of wheat as you move from square to square, how much would you have when you reached the 64th square? A carload? A trainload? The answer they say is that you have enough wheat to cover the country of India six feet deep."

That is the power of exponential growth. It is the power of multiplication one at a time.

Suppose for a moment that on the first day August there is only 1 born-again believer in the world. And suppose that one shared the Gospel with one other person. And then on the following day the two believers share the Gospel with two others. Now if each person accepted Christ, there would be 4 believers on August 3rd. Suppose then on the 4th, each of the four shared their faith, and so on. There would be 16,384 believers on August 15th. If that continued, the entire population of the world would be reached by the fourth day of September.

Now let’s look at it in our context: if we have 70 people here today and each person reached one person for Christ, we would have 140 people, but then if that next week those 70 new people reached 70 more, we would have in two weeks 210 people added to the kingdom of God. It wouldn’t but a couple weeks to go from 70 to over 500 added to the Kingdom and have abundant growth. This is the significance of the one.

You see, each of us are absolutely vital to God's program of multiplication for the kingdom of God and to the ministry of His church!

We are His hands, His feet! He chooses to work through us, He left us here for a reason! People are not reached in masses like perhaps they once were. Most are reached just like the disciples....one person sharing his/her faith with another. And then that one sharing their faith with another.

Can I tell you that the reason that Billy Graham was so successful? It was when he was going into an area His team and local pastors would pray for the lost and tell others to invite the lost and thousands of people would get saved in one night. It is the significance of the one.

Today I want to share with you what it takes for each one of us to continue the example that we see in the Bible to reach one.

Now these three truths are what is needed by each of us to reach one person, but also many more.

THE FIRST TRUTH IS THIS:

YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE THAT GOD IS ACTIVE IN YOUR LIFE.

Look back at verses 35 to 37 with me: Again the next day, John stood with two of his disciples. 36 And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”

37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

Now listen the truth is; If you are going to talk to others about who Christ in your life you have to know what God is doing your life, and you must be excited about what God has done.

John the Baptist said “BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD!” He pointed beyond himself to Jesus.

He told his disciples with excitement that Jesus was the Messiah not just once but twice in verse 29. God was active in Johns Life. After all John was born to go before Jesus and it was John the baptist who baptised Jesus the day before.

I believe that the main reason why people don’t witness to others is because they cannot see where God is active in their life.

Where God is blessing them in their life. For you to witness to others, you have to be excited about what God is doing in you and through you and what He is doing in the church as well. If you are not excited and you don’t see the Holy Spirit in the Church, you’re never going to invite others to come and see what’s going on.

If you are not excited about Bible Study, you’re never going to invite others to Bible study.

We live in a world today with economic problems, nations fighting against nations, terrorist threats, earth quakes and the list goes on and on. Everyone is seeking answers and everyone who doesn’t know Christ is either seeking for Him or seeking man for answers to this world.

We have to be excited about what God is doing in our lives and stop worrying about what others think of us.

Look at our scripture: John the Baptist told his disciples “Behold the Lamb of God” He said look,over there is The Christ. Andrew told his brother Peter “We have found the Messiah" Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathaniel said to Christ: “you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!"

They were seeking God, and were excited that they found the Lamb of God. Proverbs 8:17 says: “I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me find me.”

Part of Jesus’ mission on this earth was to seek. In Luke chapter 19 verse 10 Jesus says that “the Son of man came to seek and save the lost.” So when Christ asked the question to the first two disciples “what do you seek?” It was a penetrating question that had eternal consequences. If you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, there was a time when a person or perhaps group of people witnessed to you, shared their faith with you, opened the Word of God and said to you, “Behold, the Lamb of God.” Just like these two disciples, the ball was in your court. The time came for you to make a decision. And you answered like these two disciples in verse 37: “The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.”

When each of the disciples believed in Christ, they we so excited that they could help but to tell someone else about Him. They could not wait, they started telling people right away. Is that the way you feel?

General Mac Arthur said he could equate the loss of any campaign with the use of just two words, he said the difference between victory and losing the battle was these two words TOO LATE, He said that it wasn’t the weapons or the logistics of it all, they were just too late.

You need to know that everyone is seeking something and at some point, in their life they are going to be ready for Gospel, the question is will you be too late. If you wait for that perfect opportunity it could be too late?

Just think of those souls in the Florida condo collapse. It is too late for some of them.

Those who spread the gospel do so as a byproduct of what God is doing in their life.

THE SECOND TRUTH FOR US TODAY IS:

ONCE YOU SEE GOD WORKING IN YOUR LIFE

YOU MUST BE READY TO GO WHERE JESUS TAKES YOU TO FIND THE ONE.

We have great examples of that here this morning, going to foreign countries because that is where God took them.

We must be willing to go where Christ leads us in our loves as well. Notice verses 38 and 39.

Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?”

They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?”

39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).

So they went and saw where He was staying; and they stayed with Him that day. I want you to focus your attention on that last question in verse 38. Now, these two disciples have responded to the invitation. And in verse 38, they catch up to Jesus and we see this brief interchange. Jesus asks the first question: “What do you seek?” He probes them to find out whether they are motivated by idle curiosity or by a real desire to know Him. Remember people are seeking something in their lives. Look at the disciple’s response to His question. “Rabbi, where are you staying?” (REPEAT).

Now, don’t skip over that too quickly. Look at that phrase and think about what it means. What were they saying? You might be thinking “That’s easy!

They’re asking where He was staying!” And you’d be right. But in asking that question I also believe they were making a statement. In effect, they were saying, “Master, we will go wherever You go!” And in verse 39, we are told they went with Jesus.

It wasn’t a concern to them where Jesus was going. The only thing that was driving them was a desire to be where Jesus was.

But we don’t think like that do we? You see, we DO CARE where Jesus is going, because if He is going someplace, we don’t want to go… we simply don’t follow Him there.

We dig in our heals in and say well I’m not going there.

These two disciples we see in verse 37 responded to the invitation and they left everything they knew and were willing to go wherever Jesus led them.

My question to you this morning is: Are you willing to go where Jesus leads you? Are you willing to step out in faith and say: “Master, I will go where you go? Not just to say it…but to do it?

Because that is key for you reaching others for Christ.

Shady Jacks- Had not stepped foot in a bar, great fear of being homeless. Yet that is where God asked me to go and the truth is, I would not be the man I am today without going to where Jesus led me.

If Christ tells you to go and witness to this person will you go? To reach the one, we must believe that God is active in our life. Then we must be ready to go where Jesus takes us.

WHICH LEADS US TO OUR THIRD TRUTH AND THAT IS;

WE MUST BE FOCUSED ON REACHING THE ONE.

In verses 40-49 we find this multiplication of one. We see that Andrew, before he did anything else, shared Jesus. We are told in verse 41 that “He found first his brother.” Now, notice that between verses 37 and 41, there is no mention of Andrew having gone to get a seminary education before he witnessed to Simon.

You might think it’s funny to say that, but there are a lot of people who think you cannot witness unless you have some kind of formal training, that you have to be a biblical scholar to share Jesus. Andrew had no such training. He shared only what he knew. He had heard the testimony of John “This is the Son of God.” He had followed Christ, Because of that, his life was completely changed, and he wanted to share that with someone.

You see, it was BECAUSE Simon was his brother that Andrew brought him to the Lord. He didn’t care about the possibility of offending him. He loved him, and he wanted him to have the life-changing experience he had had.

Think about this. D you have a friend or family member that is lost.? Have you shared Jesus with that person? Present him or her with the Scripture and say to them, “Behold, the Lamb of God.”

Philip shared his testimony with Nathanael. From what we can gather, the two had never met. Even so, he goes to Nathanael and tells him, “Hey Nathanael, listen! You remember the One that the Prophets wrote about? Well, I have met Him. I Know where He is. He has changed my life. Come on, I’ll introduce you to Him.”

If we trace this back, the whole process got started because John the Baptist testified to his disciples of the reality of Christ. As a result, they believed.

Then they shared with Simon Peter and Nathanael. And as we are told later in Scripture, that those two witnessed, and so grew the network of faith, all because these believers were faithful in witnessing to the truth of Jesus Christ.

Just like you came to believe because of someone else, so now someone else waits for you to tell them about Jesus Christ.

Let me outline for you three ways that we can be focused on reaching the one.

1. BE AN INTENTIONAL WITNESS.

This will require intentionality on your part. It will not just happen. You must decide who will be your first one.

Do you already know?

It will require accountability for you to stick to your commitment. You will need to have partners who join you in the mission. You will also need maturity as a disciple maker in order to persevere in the mission and point others to the life-transforming hope of the gospel. Those who accept Christ’s identity will also embrace this important mission—sharing Jesus with others.

2. GO, TELL, AND INVITE.

The Bible tells us in 2nd Corinthians 3:17-18 “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are Christ’s letter, delivered by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God —not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.”

Each disciple, Christ-follower (church member) invites one un-churched (unsaved) person to breakfast, lunch or dinner this year.

Share your message of hope, and tell the gospel story.

Invite one family in your neighborhood to your home. Choose one of your family members to tell his/her story of coming to Christ. Invite one un-churched (unsaved) person to attend church with you.

Andrew invited Peter to come meet Jesus.

Here is your challenge for this month EACH ONE - BRING ONE.

Then 3rd INTENTIONALLY PRAY FOR THE ONE.

Make it a daily prayer for that one person to come to know Jesus. Pray that God will use you and others to bring this one person to Christ and pray for them until it happens.

Because the truth is while we can’t do everything, we all can do something to grow the kingdom of God. Maybe you all ready know who that one person is, maybe it’s a family member, co-worker, friend, neighbor. The point is to find your one then pray for that one intentionally to become a follower of Jesus.

BELIEVE THAT GOD IS ACTIVE IN YOUR LIFE.

BE READY TO GO WHERE JESUS TAKES YOU.

BE FOCUSED ON REACHING THE ONE.

Who’s your 1?

Invitation.

3X5 CARD WRITE THE NAME OF THE ONE AND PLACE IT ON THE CROSS.

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