Influence Series

August 25

Influence

Acts 3:1-10

A life that is surrendered to Jesus is a life that makes an impact for Jesus.

Making an impakt for Jesus is:

1. As you go v.1

“where I live, work, and play.”

2. As you look for needs. vv.2-4

Most people are filled with fear and despair.

3. As you’re willing to help vv. 5-6

4. As God is glorified vv.7-10

(bumper video is a domino effect video with great music behind it)

Do you know who Edward Kimball was? In 1855, a shoe salesman in Chicago by the name of Edward Kimball witnessed to a young man who came into his shoe store. He led the young man to faith in Jesus. The young man’s name D.L. Moody.

D.L. Moody became active in ministry and then began to preach and as a result of his preaching, 100s of thousands of people came to faith of Christ.

One of them was a man named J. Wilber Chapman who later became a pastor and a hymn writer. Chapman was instrumental in leading a major league baseball player by the name of Billy Sunday to the Lord.

Billy Sunday was a fire-brand itinerate preacher who preached around the country in tents and meeting houses. One of his converts was a young man by the name of Mordecai Ham.

Mordecai Ham caught fire for Jesus and saw as many as 300,000 people come to faith in Christ. He was preaching a revival in Charlotte, N.C. in 1934 when a young man responded to the gospel and surrendered his life to Christ.

The young man’s name: Billy Graham, of whom it is estimated that he preached live to over 215 million people in stadiums from 1948 until 1998, plus countless millions on television. Talk about a domino effect. All because a shoe salesman screwed up the courage to talk to a young man about Jesus.

Turn to Acts 3:1-10 We are in a series entitled impact. It’s about the impact Jesus made on the world and the impact we can make for Him. In the book of Acts there are five actions we can take if we’re going to make an impact for Jesus. The 1st one we discussed last week was to Follow. Jesus calls us to follow Him. A life that is surrendered to Jesus is a life that makes an impact for Jesus. Repeat We discussed the difference between fans and followers. Fans only follow when it’s within their comfort zone, when it’s convenient for their schedule, or when it doesn’t cost that much. True followers are empowered by the Spirit and captivated by the call. Followers of Jesus have been making an impact on their world and THE world for 2000 years. We stand on their shoulders (pic). From the moment the Holy Spirit came like a mighty rushing wind to give birth to this thing called the church, men and women, boys and girls have been making an impact for Jesus. And we stand on their shoulders. The question we were left with last week was: Who will stand on our shoulders? Because a life surrendered to Jesus makes an impact for Jesus.

READ Acts 3:1-10 (on screen)

v.1 I’ve been to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Temple is no longer there. As Jesus predicted it was totally destroyed. Titus did it in 70 A.D. But the southern steps are still there and some of the foundation blocks are still there (pic). Each of these weighs 80 tons! On the Eastern side of the Temple, the foundation is exposed, called the Wailing Wall (pic), where Jews come and pray and place their prayer requests in the cracks (pic). We’re going to Israel this May… a trip of a lifetime.

v.6 A name carries authority with it. Went to the Ballpark Wed night for my birthday. Watched it from a suite in the upper deck. Talk about an awesome way to watch a game; food, drink, A/C! To tell you the truth, we couldn’t get up there except that some friends of Sue’s from high school have a suite. We could only get up to that level and in that suite because they gave us tickets in their name. Flashed the ticket: Warren Spann suite. The name on the ticket got us access. There is a name that is above every name. There is a name of someone who is more powerful than any disease, any addiction, any struggling marriage. His name is Jesus.

v.8 The text says that he jumped up. The better word here is that he leaped! Yahoo! Yabadabado!!!! I can walk, I can jump. I bet he even boogied (!). Now look what happened as a result…

Because of the name and the power of Jesus, many, many people were impacted for the sake of Jesus.