Do You Like Mushrooms? Part 1 Of 2 Series

Do You Like Mushrooms? Part 1 of 2

Hebrews 11:35-40

Pastor Ryan Akers

(Inspiration for this message came from Erwin McManus’ The Barbarian Way)

Me- Cell Phone- never wanted one- always got annoyed with people who drove with them. Now I can’t live without it.

VH1 TV Show- I love the whatever (70’s,80’s,90’s)? Show different pics of products that have gone from beginning to now. From this to this pics

Have items on hand- cell phone, ipod, mini hard drive, video games- Atari to Nintendo DS.

In just the last 50 years there has been incredible innovation in technology. We have so many items in our home that we take for granted that really make our lives easier. TV remotes, microwaves, refrigerators, garage doors.

All of these things had to be invented by somebody. Some of the greatest inventors have been considered crazy.

Edison tried 50,000 times before he perfected the light bulb.

George Washington Carver- development of the peanut- over 300 uses from axel grease, to peanut butter.

Men and women who achieved what everyone else thought was impossible. Through all their adversity they stayed true to accomplishing their task. They were willing to risk failure because they knew that eventually they would discover the answer and when they did they were no longer seen as crazy but as genius. And without their drive and passion for innovation, their willingness to take risk we may not have hundreds of the amenities that we do today.

We- Maybe you have never invented something that could help all of man kind but I think all of us have at one time or another dreamed of doing something or becoming something that would help with the greater good. Everyone wants to be known for something and to at least once in our lives stand out in the crowd. We want to be noticed for doing something special. To do something that nobody else has done.

And unfortunately most people usually have the attitude, “Well I’m just one person, what am I supposed to do that is so great? How am I supposed to stand out with everyone else? I’ll just let someone else do it and then I’ll follow them. ?”

But I want to try to prove to you today that the people who have stood out the most in history, those who have made the greatest impact are those people who you’ve never heard about.

You see we enjoy some great things around us but if it wasn’t for people like Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby we wouldn’t be able to function on a day to day basis. They invented the microchip which is in every piece of technology imaginable. Or how about tim burners lee who along with a group of others invented the internet. Or Martin Cooper who invented the cell phone.

There are so many great men and women of innovation that we don’t know about yet we are influenced by their work on a daily basis. And what these people have done is great but the truth is that what they invented will one day be replaced with something better. Technology is always changing and someday they will be totally forgotten.

These men and women were amazing innovators but their innovations and desire to take risk when nobody else would doesn’t hold a candle to those people that the bible calls the others.

God’s word is also full of stories of people who weren’t innovators in the sense that they created something. The innovators and risk takers that we read about are the ones that were willing to risk anything just because God asked them to obey. When everyone else thought they were crazy and ridiculed them they obeyed.

Noah- big boat

David- Goliath

Moses- Staff and miracles

Abraham- kill his son

Disciples- left everything for Jesus

Jesus- believed he was God

We read about these people all the time but the ones we read about are far out numbered by the people we don’t know. These are the others. These are the people who were willing to go against the status quo of society and stand up for what they believed about God and about Christ.

They put their lives on the line so that you and I can have this word so you and I can know what it means to have salvation. Their lives are different from these men and women who have created technology because 2 thousands years later we are still talking about them. We don’t even know the man’s name that invented the cell phone 30 years ago.

If we want to leave a lasting impact on this world then don’t think it has to be done by inventing something. Our impact will be left by being willing to obey God till the end. Those are the true innovators those are the ones that will be talked about for hundreds or thousands of years. And most people won’t even know their names. They will be the others.