string(7) "m-66998" Burnt Hickory Baptist Church

Sermons

← back to list

Mar 14, 2021

Andrew: People Need Jesus

Andrew: People Need Jesus

Passage: Matthew 4:18-20

Speaker: Matt Petty

Series: The Twelve That Changed The World

Category: Sunday Sermons

Keywords: jesus, sin, gospel, share the gospel, good news, disciples, saved, forgiven, andrew, the twelve, be saved, find salvation, forgiven of sins

Andrew | The Twelve | Matt Petty | Burnt Hickory As we continue looking into the lives of the twelve disciples, we study Andrew and learn some takeaways that should impact everyone around us on a daily basis. Pastor Matt also shows us how easy it is to share the gospel with someone simply by sharing how Jesus changed your life. From scripture we are challenged to bring people with us on our faith journey and know that God has created us to lead others to Jesus. Is there anything that would keep you from giving your heart to Jesus right now? Do you want to know more about what it means to have faith and be saved? Then take the next step with us and ask any question you’d like – burnthickory.com/next

It was 10 years ago, that Pastor Matt first led the students on a mission trip to Nairobi, Kenya, and into Kabira, the largest slum in all of Africa. We made connections and established a relationship with Peter Abungu and began a journey to make a difference in the lives of children and families in Kenya. While also on this trip, Pastor Mike saw pastors and church leaders struggling, and his heart went out to those who were dedicated to preaching the gospel but didn't have the formal training and teaching tools we take for granted here in the US. With both of these initiatives formalized in our pastors’ minds, we've continued to build relationships and set tangible goals to make an impact in Kenya. We sponsor and support teen girls in a purity program that helps keep them in school and healthy. We help lead a vacation Bible school for hundreds of young children each year, sharing the gospel and hope of Christ. We have dug wells and purchased a water truck to bring clean water to Kabira. We started a pastor training program to help meet the practical and educational needs of teaching pastors all across Nairobi and surrounding areas. God has continued to bless all our efforts in Kenya. And we've seen countless people come to the saving knowledge of Jesus. As we look to the future for what God is doing through us. We are increasing our commitment by purchasing land and building the Kenya Ministry Center. Our goal is to establish a base where our ministry partners can be trained and sent out to impact the community of Kabira. The center will provide a place where teen girls in the purity program can be discipled in an after-school program, as well as a hub of distributing food to needy families. The center will provide a large enough space to host even bigger VBS programs for children. It will establish a base for the pastor training program to continue to grow. And most excitingly, we will begin a church plant along with Peter to create a sanctuary of worship and preaching in the community. Won't you consider making an impact in the lives of families in Kabira by donating to the Kenya Ministry Center today.

You know, all week long I've just thought and prayed and struggled through how to just express what you just saw and what this can mean in the life of this church. Over the last 10 years we have seen God really do some incredible, incredible things in Kenya. Over 200 of the people in this church have stepped on to that country, with this church to serve there. Over the years, we've seen 1000's come to know Jesus as their Savior. We've seen 1000's that have been ministered to by our partner, Peter and through the love and support of this group over the last 10 years. And we've seen one whole generation of students now become adults, leading their families into what it looks like to walk in Jesus. But here's where I'm at this morning. I think our best days are in front of us. Now that doesn't say anything that the days behind us weren't good, that's just saying that I think God has called us to something bigger. I think that he's pointing us to something that now we can make a difference generationally in the lives of so many people in Kenya, right outside of Nairobi, Kenya. But here's the question this morning, how? You know, we've really felt like every time we've been on the ground in Kenya that we need a place and a location that can be a central spot for ministry to happen with Peter and Swahiba Ministries. And we've really tried to run away from it a bunch of times, but God won't let us. So, here's the ask this morning, we need you. We need you to be involved with this process, because it's expensive. It's just expensive. You wouldn't think that it really is being in the location that we're going, but it really and truly is going to be a pretty big price ticket to make a dent like we're going to make. But here's the good news. God has all the money he needs. But we have it. You know, I'm just going to ask you this morning because I don't know any other way. I'm going to ask you to jump on in and be involved with this project. I don't have a slick PowerPoint presentation. I don't have a whole lot other than the fact that we're about to step into somewhere in the realm Have a 400 to a $450,000 project, to plant a church, to have a resource center that can feed 1000's, that can train pastors, for another generation to come, that can reach this community in the purity program of the 1000 girls, that are already walking and being discipled and being trained how to function. But I need you, I need you to be involved, this church is gonna invest in it heavily through your tithes and offerings that you've already given in years past that God has blessed us with, we think it's the parable of the talents that we need to invest what God has already given us. But here's my challenge to you this morning. My challenge is for you to pray with your family, to see how you can be generous, how you can go over and beyond, in what would giving look like to your family to where you begin to give and notice it. And notice it. You know, one thing hit me this week, and that's a whole lot of us are talking, especially in this community about the stimulus check that's about to come out.

Can I just put a challenge in front of you if your job wasn't affected over the last months, and your family didn't see anything from that job? Why not let that be the seed money for you to give and to watch how God blesses it over these next few weeks. You know, Pastor Mike and I can't tell you how many times we've spent in this place, his family has come to us kind of hearing about this and what we're doing. And they want all of the monies that he had in his Pastors to Pastors Institute, they're already giving it towards this project, to be a sustainable message of where his heart was. We already have a donor this morning that's going to match every gift that's given this morning, in the name of Jesus this morning, and I can't wait for April 18, when Peter Abungu, our partner stands on this stage with me, and for us to look into his eyes and say, here we go. Let's go do this. We have just funded this ministry. Would you pray with your family this week, you can jump on the app and give you can give in all the other ways, you go onto the websites. You'll be getting a communication this afternoon. But here's what I know. When this Corona thing goes away, and we all get to travel again. Amen, right? And when we're standing on the ground in Kenya, and we get to experience what God does through this moment. I can't wait to celebrate the impact that you and I combining with what the Lord wants to do. Can't wait to celebrate that in that location. Lord Jesus this week, God challenge us this week. God challenge us as our families of what does it look like for us to give? What does it look like for us to offer up what's you so so graciously given us? And God right now I'm praying that we fully 100% fund this project in the name of Jesus. In this one month. Lord, we love you, we thank you for opportunities like this for we know you're speaking. And God, I just ask that everybody in this place is generous. And they see how this is them being investing into your community Jesus. It's in your holy, holy name we pray. Amen. Amen.

I can't wait to see the difference that we're going to make. And speaking of making a difference, I want us to jump into the word this morning. If you have a copy of Scripture, I want you to go to John chapter 1 with me and we are in I think it's like week eight of a series of looking at the disciples, as well as today is mission Sunday. Every time change Sunday, we kind of make a specific focus into what it looks like as our church and what it looks like as individuals to make a difference. missionally. We do that on the time change that we like in the fall, and then we do it on the time change that we're in right now. Amen. I'm already hungry, and it's gonna be a long message. But here's what I want to do this morning. We're going to stay on theme. But we're also going to look at what it looks like to live a missional life. We've been walking through some of the lives of these disciples and in looking at the fact that God has called these ordinary people to follow Him and to make a difference on this earth. And we've said every week and we're so thankful that God has done this, because he's freed us up because we're all just normal people. Walking out of normal live. And when we look at the disciples, they're not superheroes. They're people that just God has called and walked with. And we've seen Philip, just kind of step up the apostle Philip and say, you don't have to have all your answers just step out in faith, sometimes. We saw John say it's a balance of truth and love and following both of those we saw Peters say your failures are not fatal. In fact, we just sung about that very message. We looked at Thomas saying, look even though you may have had a moment of doubt, don't let that disqualify you from being served. And then last week was the tragic moment of looking at Judases life. And last week, Judas would just say, don't miss opportunities with Jesus. You see, every week, what we've done is we've looked at these disciples, and we've pulled out kind of a tagline from their life. But I want you to know that this tagline is not something that's written down somewhere, it's not something that anybody gave us. The tagline that we're pulling is really just a reflection of who that disciple was, and maybe just maybe one of the central truths that God has taught us through that disciples live? Well, I want you to know that the lines that we're pulling isn't just this kind of random statement. The line is kind of who they were at their core. And it's very specific, and I love how God has shown us so many directions from so many of the disciples. But I also want you to notice that over the last weeks, every disciple that we have looked at, we have focused on their vertical relationship with God. You see, we have two kinds of relationships in our life, we have a vertical relationship, that is my relationship with the Father, it's my relationship with Jesus. And it's me, honoring him, me living for him, me wanting to know who he is, but we also have a horizontal relationship. And that is my relationship with other people. Well, for six weeks, we've looked at disciples, and we focused in on this vertical relationship with them and God. Well, this morning, what we're going to do is we're going to look into a horizontal relationship from a disciple that gives us a goal of how God wants us to be an interaction with other people. Because here's what I want you to notice about the disciples. You see, the disciples shared this common ordinariness, I guess, we can say.

But they also shared this common desire to see people meet and love and be changed by the power and the presence of Jesus in their lives. You see, while yes, they were totally given over to the idea that I will lay my life down for you, Jesus, and I will worship You, Jesus. And I want to know you, Jesus, that was common in their lives. They also had this common theme that they wanted other people to see who Jesus was and what Jesus did in their hearts. And the result was that became ultimately the mission and the purpose of their lives. So they lived this life on mission. But there's one disciple, that when we look at this particular disciple that we're going to this morning, there's one disciple that stands out, even more than some of the rest of them when it comes to this vertical relationship and introducing other people to Jesus that we're going to look at this morning. We're going to look at this disciple, and then we're going to look at a tool on the backside of this morning of how we can follow his example. This morning, we're going to look real quickly into the life of the Apostle named Andrew. The Disciple Andrew this morning, and I love Andrew because Andrew like a lot of the other disciples, we don't really get a whole lot of biographical information, but we do get some context clues in the Bible about who Andrew is. In fact, we see first in John chapter 1:44. It tells us that Philip, like Andrew and Peter was from the town of a Bethsaida. So, we see that Andrew grew up with a lot of the other disciples. He grew up in this town in Galilee, that was right on the Sea of Galilee. And we also see that Andrew and his family were a fishing family. We see in Matthew chapter 4; we see when Jesus finally calls him into this discipling relationship. Check it out. Matthew 4:18 says, "As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers Simon called Peter and his brother, Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake for they were fishermen. Come follow me, Jesus said, and I will send you out to fish for people. At once they left their nets and followed Him." So, we see that Andrew not only grew up in this little town that was on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, but Andrew was Peter’s brother, and their family was in the fishing business. And finally, when Jesus called them to come follow Him, they threw down their livelihoods. And I walked after who Jesus was, but they never quit being fishermen. They just changed what they were fishing for. They went from fishing for fish to fishing for people. I also want you to know, super interesting about Andrew, is that Andrew was one of the first disciples that we get to read in the official list of the disciples that was a follower of John the Baptist. Now John the Baptist, I kind of to bring you up to speed. He was a forerunner of Jesus, he was actually Jesus' cousin, who was six months older than Jesus. And John the Baptist was the last prophet, he was called to kind of Herald or proclaim that Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior of the world was coming. Now, Andrew ended up following after John the Baptist, that's how Andrew got his start. That's how Andrew learned about who this guy named Jesus was. Who this guy named Jesus is going to be? And we see that Andrew met Jesus through the life of John the Baptist. In fact, Andrew was one of the first two disciples that ultimately attach themselves to who Jesus is. And I want you to see this moment in John chapter 1, when Andrew met Jesus, I love this. John chapter 1:35, it says this, "The next day, John was standing with two of his disciples, and looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, Behold, the Lamb of God!" We're going to talk about that a little bit next week, look, the Lamb of God. "The two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus." Now we just jumped into the story. Let me tell you what's happening here, because it's important. We have John the Baptist is walking, that's the John that it's talking about here. He's walking with two of his followers, two of his disciples, to the guys that we're learning from him. And he looks up and he sees Jesus in this moment. And he says, Look, there is the Lamb of God. Now, this is not the first time that John has said this to his followers, or the people that were with him. He had said it the day before, when he looked at Jesus and said, there's the Lamb of God that is going to take away the sins of the earth. So, we can fairly assume that John had been talking about Jesus, a lot about Jesus mentioning Jesus, seeing Jesus, knowing what Jesus is doing. John had baptized Jesus, they knew each other. And Jesus had been involved in ministry with John at this moment. Now John looks at his two disciples, and he says, There's Jesus. Now, who are the two disciples that it's mentioning here? Well, first, you're gonna see later on down in the story, we know that Andrew, our disciple this morning is with him. But secondly, the Bible doesn't clearly tell us who the other disciple here is. But we know by context clues, and we know by early church writers, that most likely the other disciple that was following John the Baptist, is none other than the Apostle John. It's none other than the Apostle John. If you think about it, it fits the context, right? John is writing this Gospel. Never in the whole Gospel does John ever mention himself. He refers to himself as the Disciple in whom Jesus loves, he refers to himself by the one that is close to Jesus, he refers to himself along the way, as the other disciple. Why did John do that? Because John didn't want his Gospel to be all about John. He wanted his Gospel to be all about the life and the power in the presence of Jesus. So, it's safe to assume that we have Andrew, and we have none other than the Apostle John, that we looked at a couple weeks ago, are walking and following Jesus. Check back into the story, verse 38, "Jesus turned and saw them following any asked, what are you seeking?" That's probably not how he said it, but in my mind, like it's almost a little cynical. "They said, Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?" That's kind of a weird question. "Come, He replied, and you will see.

So, they went and saw where He was staying, and they stayed that day with Him. It was about the tenth hour." Andrew, Simon Peter's brother was one of the two who heard what John had said and had followed Jesus." Now look at verse 41. If you've got a Bible, I want you to underline this verse, or if you're like digital hit that highlight button. Verse 41 look at it. It says the first thing that Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him catch this. "We have found the Messiah, that is the Christ. He brought him to Jesus." I want you to notice this in verse 41. Because verse 41, shows us the heartbeat of who Andrew is, it shows us if we strip away everything else, and we get down to the core of who this guy Andrew is, it shows us what means most to him. And it shows us what he feels like God has called him and has called us to do in fact, if Andrew had one principle for us, here's the principle put it in your notes. The principle would be Andrew looking at me and you and saying, hey, you have to meet Jesus. He changed me Andrew would say, and then he would say this, and he can change you. You see, Andrew would look at me and look at you and go look, you gotta meet this guy, Jesus. You got to know this God, Jesus. He has done a work in my life. He's changed me. He's changed me so much. I know what he can do in your life. I love Andrew. You know why? Because this is Andrew’s message. Do you know there's never a single time in the Bible that gives us any inclination of Andrew misspeaking, or Andrew betraying or Andrew doubting it never tells us any moments of him having to put his foot in his mouth. All it shows us is Andrew focused on the mission catch this, of introducing other people to Jesus. Every time we see Andrew mentioned in Scripture, this is the message we see him introducing somebody to Jesus meet Jesus, here's Jesus, you got to know Jesus. In fact, I think if Andrew were with us, he would give us three challenges from his life. And I think the first one would just plainly be this. Andrew would say wholeheartedly follow Jesus. But don't forget to bring people with you. Don't forget, he would look at his life. And he would look at what Jesus has done in him. And he would say whole heartedly with everything you have follow after Jesus. We've been saying this every week looking at the disciples, right? Why? Because it's important for us to submit our hearts to Jesus to give our lives to Jesus, to spend time with Jesus to realize that Jesus is the hope of the world, and nothing else I have anywhere comes close to that. But then Andrew checks up and says, but don't forget, just as important, is to introduce other people to Jesus. Introduce people, but here's what I know about some of us. Some of us have slipped into this mold, because this happens a lot of the farther and the longer that I walk with Jesus, the less influence I have on people who don't know Jesus.

And you see Andrew would go, No, no, no, you're missing it. You see those two things, following Jesus, introducing people to Jesus, are the two biggest things that God has called us to do in all of eternity. That's who God's called us to be. But yet so many of us it's almost this mutually exclusive thing, either A- we're a person over here, that is the frozen chosen, and we could care less that people are dying and going to hell. And so we just want to huddle back in with our people all the time. Or over here. We get such bad theology that we can't lead people to somewhere we're not in. But Andrew says no, follow the balance. love Jesus with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, but yet love other people to the point to where you're sharing who Jesus is. Look, as soon as Andrew met Jesus, what did he do? What did he do when he attached himself to Jesus, when he started following after Jesus? He went and found Peter. Why? Because he knew this life changing moment in his life. It was too big to hold to himself. Now, this is an interesting point. Because I don't have to tell you to tell people about big things that happen in your lives. We get to see it. You say, Matt, what are you talking about? Well, hey, look, if you lose 40 pounds, I now know about your health program. If your grandbaby is born, you better believe it, I've seen your grandbaby all the time. If you have a baby, I get to see monthly check ins with your baby, right? I mean, I get to see everything about it. If your kid hits a homerun, I get to see them standing with the baseball or the softball in their hands. If your kid makes the honor roll or if your kids have perfect attendance or if your kid drives it doesn't hit a mailbox in your neighborhood. You are posting it online and celebrating this life changing moment in your life. If your husband gets an accolade at work, if your wife does something that is incredibly good, and you have a date night together or go on a spring break together, we tell people about major events in our lives. Amen? So why is it? Why is it the one thing that is keeping us from an eternity away from Jesus? We're not sharing that one. We're not sharing that one. Andrew couldn't keep this quiet. So, what did he do? He found Peter, and this is logical. Peter was his brother, right? It was his brothers, the guy he had grown up with had lived with most of his life, he probably talked about almost everything, they worked together, and Andrew wanted Peter to meet the Savior of the world. He couldn't help but tell him what just happened in his life. For some reason, we don't live this way. And I don't know why? I'm not getting down anybody, I just don't understand why we don't? You know, I get people all the time, say things like this to me, and this is probably some of you in the room. So, I'm gonna try not to look at anybody. Matt, I just want to go deep in the word. Yeah, I know who you are, alright? I just want, I just want the depths of God, I just want to follow Him, I just want to learn every single piece about Him, and I just want to know His mysteries. Matt, I just want the depths of that. Can I just check up a minute and tell you something? Number one, I feel like most of us are educated well beyond our level of obedience already. So why don't we just live the verses that we already know? But number two, that statement is incredible, because why in the world would God take me to some extra depth that I have in my mind when I'm not living out the single most biggest, great commission that God has put on my life. And in fact, the only reason that he leaves us on this earth after he saves us, and that is to tell other people about what has happened in my soul, that it went from death to life. God, listen to me, God is never going to take you deeper in your relationship with Him when you are not living out the number one cause in your life and that is to represent Him. He's just not going to do it. But yet we feel like for some reason, we can escape the Great Commission, but just keep just learning about God. From the Great Commission, Matthew 28:18, it says, "Jesus came and told His disciples, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all commands I have given you. And be sure of this, Surely I am with you to the end of the age." Jesus is about to ascend to the Father, and He looks into the hearts and the souls of the disciples and says, Look, I have changed you and I am with you. Now go and make disciples. I'm gonna be with you. What is Andrew saying wholeheartedly? Follow Jesus? Listen, you guys know I love the word of God. But he says, bring people with you. But number two, this one's a little lighter. I promise number two. He would say trust who God has created you to be and use it to lead others for Jesus. Trust who God has created you to be. Now look, God didn't make a mistake, when He made you.

And I know somebody here needs to hear that this morning. Because you're struggling. Can I tell you God did not make a mistake when He made you? He made your personality, He made your giftedness, He made every idiosyncrasy about you. God has given you a uniqueness about you. Listen to me, don't try to be someone else. Never fall into the trap of trying to be somebody else. You be who God has called you to be. You know, when you see the story of Andrew reaching Peter, doesn't it seem like that this is the backwards thing to do? I mean, think about it. If I was in charge, and I was God, which we're all glad that I'm not. I would have waited for Peter first. Why? Because Peter is the leader, right? Peter is the outspoken one. Peter is the one that can get a crew around them. Peter is the one that can lead people, right? But I love how God was like, No, that's not what I'm doing. I'm gonna reach the guy over here that all we know about him is that he just introduced people to Jesus. And I think he did this for a couple reasons. This is just me taking a stab at it. I think God uses this moment right here to even more drive this series home that God just loves individual, ordinary people that just submit to God and just watch God take over, but also believe that God is showing us right here that everybody doesn't have to be a big, loud preacher boy out there. That we don't have to have big ol flamboyant personalities to be used by God. You know that Andrew knew at the moment that Peter came onto the scene that Peter would have all of the limelight. That was just his personality, right? But Andrew understood who he was, he was a background guy. He was a support role guy; he didn't care about the prestige. He didn't get in the fight about who's gonna be on the right and who's gonna be on the left. No, we don't see any occasion of him being rebuked for wanting his pride to pop up. Andrew, listen to me, Andrew just shows that you don't have to be a big, upfront personality to be used by God. He shows us this. But I do want you to know, that Andrew completely understood and appreciated what the heart of another person looks like, and why they need to come to Jesus. You see, I feel like for some reason, a lot of us have disqualified ourselves from being used in the kingdom and sharing the Gospel of Jesus. Because we think, Oh, I just don't have that personality, or I just don't have that outgoingness and I just don't have that extrovert personality. Neither did Andrew. He just wanted people to meet Jesus. I mean, remember back, look at verse 41 again. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon, and tell him, we have found the Messiah. And he brought him to Jesus. You know, every time we see Andrew in the New Testament, this is exactly what he's doing. John chapter 6:5, we see that Andrew is the one who introduced the boy with the fishes and the loaves to Jesus. He said, Hey, you gotta meet this kid. He's got five fish and some loves Andrew is the one and John chapter 12, that introduced the Greeks, the Greek gods to Jesus when they had some questions after the triumphal entry, and Jesus spoke to the Gentiles. That was a big deal. And I just want you to see this because Andrew, is an incredible, incredible example for all of us that literally don't speak in front of people. You know, we never see a time in all of Andrew’s ministry in the New Testament that he spoke in front of masses of people. We never see him giving a sermon in front of crowds. He didn't write a gospel, he didn't write one of the letters in the New Testament, we don't have a whole big ol message about what it looks like for his missional moment. His name catch this Andrews name is not even mentioned in the book of Acts, other than the whole list of disciples in any of those occasions. Why? Because he was a guy who just wanted people to one-on-one meet Jesus. I’m not saying he didn't do that, but it wasn't pointed out. But I want you to see something he impacted 1000's of people. How? Well, he introduced the boy with the fish and loaves, right? What did Jesus do? He multiplied it. And almost 15,000 people heard the name of Jesus because this one guy introduced this one guy to Jesus. He's the guy who introduced Peter to Jesus. And I want you to catch this; Peter preaching at Pentecost when 3000 people came to the Lord in this incredible fruitful day and the church was born. Listen, that was an incredible fruit of Peters life. But I need to tell you every single piece of fruit from Peter's ministry is also a piece of fruit from Andrew's ministry. Why? Because Andrew led him to the Lord. He showed him the Lord. Listen, you don't have to be a pastor, a teacher, a preacher, a speaker, you never know what happens when you submit to say, God, you have created me to be this person. And when you submit to be that and give that to Jesus, listen to me, the Holy Spirit can move in your heart and life and do incredible work. Incredible work. We're all called to share Jesus just not necessarily doing what I'm doing right now. We're called to share, which leads me to number three. Remember, he would say, most people meet Jesus, through the influence of an individual person. An individual person.

We saw it in the story, right? Can I tell you that most people meet Jesus, through a believer just like you that chooses to love them enough to invest in them and talk about Jesus? Most people don't meet Jesus through a big old program, or somebody like me. They may Jesus because you sat over coffee with them. You sat in the truck with them. You were on a sports team with them. You sat in a cubicle with them. You had lunch with them one day and you went, Hey, can I just tell you something, what God's done in my heart and life. But we don't why? Two reasons. Number one fear. We're afraid. We're afraid of rejection, which I can just tell you don't worry about that because they're not rejecting you, they're rejecting Jesus. But number two, we don't do it because we just don't feel like we're prepared. We just don't feel like we know how to do what God has called us to do. We just don't feel like we know how to get there. Well, here's what I want to do just for a couple of minutes this morning. And I promise you, I'm not going to give you the best of this because we don't have time. I want to give you a way that you can share the gospel with anyone. With anybody you come in contact with. I want to give you a tool this morning to show you how you can do this incredibly quickly, but incredibly proficiently. But number one, you got to be willing. Number two, you got to ask God to speak and put people in your life. And number three, you got to turn any conversation into a spiritual conversation. All right? You got to turn it somehow. Usually that happens when there's a problem, or there's some kind of issue, or there's some kind of opportunity, or when somebody just says, Hey, can I talk to you for a minute? And you're like, yeah, you can talk to me for a minute, because I'm going to get this conversation to Jesus somehow. But let me give you from that point on what you can do to speak the gospel into somebody's life. And it's three circles, I want you to think about the first circle is just the circle of God's design. It's the circle of God's design, every person that comes to you, and you have a moment with them. You can explain the fact that when God created this earth, that God wanted a relationship with them, and he wanted a relationship with me. And when God created this earth, it was perfect. And we had 100% access to God. And that's how God wanted it. But there was a problem that happened. And that problem is called sin. And when sin entered the earth, sin is just a churchy word that means that we departed from God's plan. What happened to the perfect Earth was that brokenness. Brokenness entered the earth. You see, not a single person that you ever talked to doesn't understand brokenness. You know why? Because they've tried to fill it. They've tried to fill their brokenness with things like family, or maybe things like alcohol, maybe things like drug abuse, they tried to fill their brokenness with things like trying to stay busy, or all these other things, but they can't fill that brokenness. And that's why they're talking to you in the first place. That's the hope that they don't have. and at this point, you can say, Hey, listen, I understand what you're going through. I know where you're at. But can I tell you this, that God does not want you to stay there, he wants you to realize something. That Jesus has come to take your brokenness, and to move you back to God's design.

It's as easy as this. It's as easy as this to lead someone from God's design to brokenness all the way over. Why? Because when God looked at the earth, He said that all that He made was perfect. Genesis 1:31, right? But here's the problem. For all have sinned, Romans 3:23, and fallen short of the Glory of God, we've all sinned. So what do we do? We ended up in brokenness, but God didn't want it to stay that way. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." Because here's what God wants to do. He wants to give life. He wants to give life. Romans 10:9 just says, "if you will confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." Can I just tell you something? The Gospel is simple; it's the life, it’s the death and it's the resurrection of Jesus. When you're talking about the Gospel to somebody, it's not just you talking an ethereal language, those three things have to be present, or it's not the Gospel.

Here's what I want you to know. People are looking for a way to get out of their brokenness. And they're filling it with something. So, let's offer them the only thing that can fix it. For Jesus is the way, the truth and the life, no one can come to the Father except through Him. All He asked us to do is believe and to repent. That's it.

So, when you get to this point with somebody, they probably got questions. And then you can just talk to them. You could just have a normal conversation with the person and tell them your story of how God is taking you from death to life and how God has brought you back into a relationship with Him. And then you can ask this final question I put in your notes. Here it is, is there anything that would keep you from giving your heart to Jesus right now? You know, that's called sealing the deal. And that one question can open up so many opportunities for you to speak hope and life and grace into a person that has fallen from God's design because we've all fallen into brokenness, but now is realizing that Jesus came to live the life that I couldn't live, he died the death that I deserve to die. But now He has given me the chance of eternal life. Listen, I just drew every single one of this while talking to you guys on an iPad screen. And you can do the same thing on a napkin, you can do the same thing on a piece of paper, or you can download the app life on mission. And you can just click through this baby when you're talking to somebody about the gospel. Here's where God wants us to be fully rely on Him fully bringing people with us. Can I guarantee you that you will have this conversation with somebody, you don't have to have all the answers, you will walk out of this conversation and go, I don't even know where that came from? And you know what it is? It's the Spirit of God talking inside of you. And He will do it. He will. But here's the question church. Are we satisfied? with just this little deal that we have going on? Or to what's happened in us? Are we so incredibly radically changed, that we're being compelled to take it to others? During this moment of invitation today, I just want you to be praying God, who is it that's on my heart this week. March, we're here, we've challenged you to share the gospel with one person this week. This week, Lord Jesus, teach us to keep our eyes on you. And keep our eyes pointed in the direction of watching for opportunities that you put in front of us. Or Jesus, thank you for the example of Andrew. Thank you that we don't have to all be something that we're not, but you've called every single one of us to step into the lives of other people and share the Gospel. The good news that you have come to forgive us and to give us life. God when we do this, we will see you move. And we will see your heart shine Lord Jesus. It's in your name we pray, Amen. Let's stand and pray as you're thinking and praying during this invitation song, I just want you to know that we would love to walk with you through this. Our mission’s department has some trainings that are coming up. Jump on one of those I didn't do it justice this morning. But you have the Holy Spirit living in you and He will guide you to show other people how to know Jesus. Let us sing together.

 

Follow Along with the Message

The 12 That Changed the World

Andrew - People Need Jesus

Principle: You have to meet Jesus; He  my life, and He can change yours.

3 Challenges from Andrew:

    • 1. Wholeheartedly follow Jesus, but don’t forget to  people with you.

    • Matt. 28:18-20

    • 2. Trust who God has created  to be and use it to lead others to Jesus.

    • John 1:41

    • 3. Remember that most people meet Jesus through the influence of an  person.

 

3 Circles of Sharing JESUS:

    • 1.  

    • Gen. 1:31, Ps. 19:1, Rom. 3:23, Rom. 6:23a

    • 2.  

    • John 3:16

    • 3.  

    • Rom. 10:9

 

Final Question: Is there anything that would keep you from giving your  to Jesus