“Missionary
Susie Hobert believes that one of her main responsibilities as a mother is to
instill in her children a burden for their lost friends. And she has done a good job.
Ten-year old Ryan was driving imaginary racecars with his friends.
Several minutes later he came bounding into the house and yelled, "Mom,
you've got to come quick. Isabelle
wants to accept Jesus into her heart."
Skeptical
of the child's sudden interest in spiritual things, Susie asked, "Ryan, I
thought you were playing race cars?"
"We were, Mom, but our cars wrecked. The accident was real bad so I asked Isabelle if she would go
to heaven if she died. She said
she didn't know. I told her how
she could know and she wants to ask Jesus into her heart."
Strategic Evangelism: Go out and get them, storm the gates of hell.
Growing through intentional steps to go forward in reaching the lost.
This is the Andrew Award: flexing
your spiritual muscles.
What are people hungry for today?
I believe that people are hungry for some meaning to life.
We have found it, now will we give it to them. Why should we? Jesus
commanded that we go to all the world. Yet
many times we stay home. We know
that there is no other name whereby men must be saved and that without the
Lord in their life people are going to die.
Yet we don’t tell anyone. We
have been blessed with multitudes of spiritual blessing.
Yet we don’t share them with anyone.
When I was growing up Dad bought a 1976 Dodge Colt that I was allowed
to drive. It wasn’t as nice as
the red Chevrolet Camero my roommate had, but it was good enough to get me
going where I wanted to go. I
wanted to buy one of those foot shaped gas pedals to make it go faster, but it
never materialized. I was able to
put in an eight-track player and some speakers.
I was thankful for it. It
got me where I wanted to go.
What will it take to get the church going?
Will God put his big foot on the accelerator of our spiritual lives to
get us to bring them into Jesus?
What can God do to get us going for him?
What will it take to get you going out to get others?
Scripture
Text:
John 1:37 (KJS) And the two disciples heard him speak, and they
followed Jesus. 38 Then Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto
them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, (which is to say, being
interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou? 39 He saith unto them, Come and
see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day: for it
was about the tenth hour. 40 One of the two which heard John [speak], and
followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41 He first findeth his own
brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messias, which is,
being interpreted, the Christ. 42 And he brought him to Jesus. And when
Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be
called Cephas, which is by interpretation, A stone. 43 The day following
Jesus would go forth into Galilee, and findeth Philip, and saith unto him,
Follow me. 44 Now Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45
Philip findeth Nathanael, and saith unto him, We have found him, of whom
Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of
Joseph. 46 And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of
Nazareth? Philip saith unto him, Come and see.
1.
He needs an accelerator. So,
Here He is. Jesus is the
accelerator. God put his big
foot on the accelerator of our lives when He came to us.
Jesus got these men going in today’s scripture lesson. Does he need to step on the gas of our life today?
What will it take to get you and me going again?
We all need something to get us going.
Here is story of two men named Philip and Andrew who met the
accelerator. He got them going.
His name was Jesus. Have
you seen Him?
2.
He wants to give us the power.
Have you heard him speak and have you followed Jesus?
We need the power. Have
you been experiencing power failure in your life?
How many folks have you brought to the Savior?
How many have you told about the Lord?
How many have you invited to Christ?
How many have you told that you are a Christian?
Do you have the power? The
power to go is the engine of God within an individual.
Do you have the Lord? Have
you heard and have you followed?
What do you want from Him?
Do you want to live with him, forever?
Let Him put the gas in your Ford and get you running with the Lord to
bring them in to Him. He puts the
Spirit of the one true living God in your tank.
He is more powerful than a tiger.
He puts the Word of God in your and creates in you a burn.
Then you are burning and pouring it on with the Lord.
3.
He wants to give us the drive, the gas, and the opportunity to burn
rubber with the Lord. I
enjoy occasionally watching a stock car race on TV. One of my favorite parts is the victory lap taken by the
winner. He slowly comes in front
of the grand stand and then he burns rubber in dounut form in front of the
crowds. This shows the tremendous
power of those cars. God has
given us the power to burn rubber in the spiritual world.
The devil can’t stop us when we get going with God.
He is the power of all creation. Have
you been victorious with him? Will
you go with him to see where he lives?
Would you want to live with Him?
Where does Jesus live? Have
you seen Jesus riding around in some of the cars with the Jesus license plate?
Is he in there? Does he
live down the street at the trailer court?
Does He live in your life and in your house?
When I was growing up Dad would always go by the
house of my aunt to pick her up and take her to church.
They didn’t have a car so we would take her to church with us.
The road to her house was so rough we couldn’t drive up to the house. So, we would sit at the foot of the hill were she lived and
wait for her to come down to go. Dad
would blow the horn continuously to let her know that we were there and
waiting patiently. Dad would fuss
the whole time worrying that we were going to be late, which was his greatest
worry. But, we waited and we
waited until she came to go. Going
out to bring others in is not the convenient way to go, but it is still the
best. God has chosen us to bring
them in to Him.
4.
He wants to give you a jump-start?
He came to get you going with Him. Have you made the discovery?
He is the messiah. The
great “I am” He is the answer. He
is the way the truth and the life. He
wants to fire you up and send you out to bring them in.
Get a jump start today.
5.
He wants us to give our brother a lift or a ride to the Lord.
Then will you go to get your brother? God
has called us to be taxicabs for him. Bring
your friends, family, and neighbors to the Lord.
Your friend and your neighbor.
Have you brought them to Jesus? Put
them in touch with the master.
Our
examples today are Philip found Nathaniel and Andrew found Peter.
“There is a sense, of course, in which every Christian has an
apostleship. We are all of us to be witnesses, no matter what our other
calling, profession or labor. A
generation ago there was a wealthy man in the Midwest who was an outstanding
Christian layman. People used to ask him what he did.
He would reply, "I am a witness for Jesus Christ, but I pack pork
to pay expenses." Your
apostleship differs in degree but not in kind from the apostleship that was
given by God to Paul.” --
Donald Grey Barnhouse
6.
We have found him. Can
you hear the excitement in their voices?
Have we lost the shine off of our salvation?
Have we grown so accustomed to having him in our lives that we now take
him for granted? Come
and see for yourself. There
is something good from Nazareth. He
is the Lord. Then go and tell
another this precious truth. Time
is running out for you and for them. Listen
to this voice from eternity. Why
should we care or worry about the others?
“A Voice From Eternity”
You lived next door to me for years
/ We
shared our dreams, our joys, our tears,
A
friend to me you were indeed
/ A friend who
helped me when in need.
My
faith in you was strong and sure /
We had such trust as should endure,
No
spats between us ever rose
/ Our friends were
alike, also our foes.
What
sadness, then, my friend, to find /
That after all, you weren't so kind.
The
day my life on earth did end
/ I found you
weren't a faithful friend...
For
all those years we spent on earth, /
You never talked of Second Birth,
You
never spoke of my lost soul
/ And of the Christ
Who'd make me whole.
I
plead today from hell's cruel fire
/ And tell you now
my last desire,
You
cannot do a thing for me,
/ No words today my
bonds will free.
But
do not err, my friend, again,
/ Do all you can for
souls of men,
Plead
with them now quite earnestly /
Lest they be cast in hell with me.
Only a few years ago Dr. Howard
A. Kelly, one of the greatest thinkers and educators in America, died.
He was one of the founders of The John Hopkins University.
He was fond of wearing a lapel button with a question mark on it. He bought the buttons by the hundreds to give to others.
It was a means he had of turning his conversation with others toward
Christ and salvation. When someone would ask Dr. Kelly what the button meant,
he would reply, "It stands for the greatest thing in the world.
What would you think was the thing of greatest concern in any
life?" Some would say, "Wealth."
Others would say, "Health."
But Dr. Kelly's reply always was, "No, the greatest in the world
is. `What think ye of Christ?'" ("Choice
Illus." W.W. Clay
pg. 50-51)
“In the late 1800's and early
1900's, Alexander Whyte pastored a large church in Edinburgh.
During that time, a salesman by the name of Rigby would travel to
Edinburgh regularly just to hear him preach. He would often invite other
businessmen to accompany him to the services.
One Sunday morning he asked a fellow traveler to go to church with him.
Reluctantly, the man said yes. When
he heard Whyte's message, he was so impressed that he returned with Rigby to
the evening meeting. As the
preacher spoke, the man trusted Christ as his Savior. The next morning, as Rigby walked by the home of Pastor Whyte,
he felt impressed to stop and tell him how his message had affected the other
man's life. When Whyte learned
that his caller's name was Rigby, he exclaimed, "You're the man I've
wanted to see for years!" He
went to his study and returned with a bundle of letters. Alexander Whyte read
Rigby some excerpts -- all telling of changed lives.
They were men Rigby had brought to hear the gospel.
Like the Samaritans who had been led to Jesus by the woman at the well,
these men "believed in Him because of the word" of Rigby.”
Paul Harvey said, "Too
many Christians are no longer fishers of men but keepers of the
aquarium."