WHO ARE YOU BRINGING? - MARK 16:15
-what’s happening next week? [Back To School Bash]
-why are we having the Bash next week?
-it’s not because it’s fun. Hey, I like to have fun, but I would much rather have one of you have a party and me show up there. We could all have fun at your house.
-we’re not celebrating you going back to school. Who wants to go back?
-we’re not having fun because it’s the first Sunday night of the new school year. For Drink Deep I’d much rather worship and talk about God with a few games.
-we do it for one reason. So you can invite your friends.
**Mark 16:15 -> 15And then He told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.” (NLT)
-that would be Jesus speaking.
-we’re supposed to tell every single person about the Good News. Well, what is it?
THE GOOD NEWS
-here it is. Jesus loves you. But if you just run up to people “Jesus loves you!” and run away it doesn’t explain much.
-first we have to realize that we need Jesus.
**Ro. 3:23 -> 23Everyone has sinned and is far away from God’s saving presence. (GNT)
-our society teaches us that we don’t need anyone. That we can do it on our own. The American Dream. That no one is really “wrong”, you’re both right with different points of view. And that idea works, until you mess up and wind up in court.
-people won’t go looking for a Savior because a lot of them don’t know they need one. Now, don’t go running up to people, “You suck, sinner!” It’s one of those things that a lot ofpeople need to figure out for themselves. And surprisingly, most have, they just don’t know to turn to Jesus.
**Acts 15:11 -> 11We believe that we are all saved the same way, by the undeserved grace of the Lord Jesus. (NLT)
-the Good News is we deserved to die for our sin, but Jesus died in our place, and since He is the placeholder, He decides who His sacrifice is for, and He has decided it’s for everyone who asks. But, we have to ask, we have to start that relationship.
-Jesus wants to make us whole, forgive us and live with us forever in heaven! Pretty good news.
WHY ME?
-so why do I need to do it? Why can’t someone else tell people about Jesus?
1. WE’RE TOLD TO
-it’s not a matter of choice, Jesus told us to do this.
-the verse we started with, it doesn’t say, “And Jesus asked, ‘please, would you like to…’ “. He said do it.
**II Cor. 5:18 -> 18All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between us and Himself, and God gave us the work of telling everyone about the peace we can have with Him. (NCV)
-who did God give the job to? Us.
-God wants us to tell everyone about this Good News. He could do it any other way. He could write it in the sky. He could have dogs speak, and all they would ever say is “Jesus loves you” between barks. He could make billboards grow like trees. But He chose you.
-from Jesus’ own lips, talking with God about His job to tell people:
**John 17:18 -> 17Just as You sent Me into the world, I am sending them into the world. (NLT)
-Jesus is sending us into the world to tell people about Him.
-we are told to share the gospel with people.
2. WE’RE THE MOST EFFECTIVE WITNESS
-where else do you think people are going to see Jesus?
-do you think your friends will one day turn on the TV, flip to LeSea Broadcasting, see some preacher TV show, the guy up on stage in a really expensive suit and go, “Wow, Jesus does love me, I want to be like that guy.”
-do you know what percentage of people who go to church come because of a televangelist or crusade? .0001%. So out of 1 million people who see an evangelist on TV, 1 will go to church. That’s not good odds.
-1 or 2 out of 100 would come out of a stranger coming up on the street and sharing the Good News. That’s ten thousand times better than the TV, but still not great.
-2 or 4 will come because of a good church program. So that means if we went to the high schools and told all your friends who don’t go to church about our great Student Ministry here, 1 out of 50 might try it.
-there are better odds of someone driving by and thinking, “hmm, look a church, I wonder what they’re like.” than there are of me making an add campaign. Actually, double, 4 to 6 out of a hundred will try a church just because over the 2 to 4 that actually know about the program.
-then there’s me. I go to the school. I talk to your friends, or try to. I sit up on the stage like a dork waiting for someone to say “hi”. 6 to 8 out of 100 people will come to church if I’m nice enough.
-you know who will come to church because of their friends and what they see in them? 3 out of 4 people. Think of 4 friends you would like to see come to church. If you were to take the time to be nice to them, pray for them, actually invite them, 3 of them will probably come.
-and I know what you’re saying, my friends don’t come, I’ve tried, etc.
-but I want you to think. Have you actually invited them? You may have said “I love Jesus”. You might have said, “We have fun Sunday nights.” But have you actually said, “I’m going to church Sunday night, you want to come with me?” or even “I’ll pick you up, we could do something before hand on Sunday afternoon?”
-you guys heard of Gallup, the guys who do polls all over America? They asked 6 million people what it would take for them to go to church. You know what 5.4 million people said? “Someone to invite me.” 5.4 million people all they want is to be invited!
-which goes to the next reason we need to do it.
3. WHO ELSE WILL?
-who else will invited your friends? If you’re not willing to invite your best friend to church, how likely is someone who kinda knows them, the person who never talks to them in Algebra?
-think about it, 5.4 million people said they are waiting for an invitation to church. They want someone to invite them and no one will. So I ask again, if you won’t do it, who will?
-you’re the most effective witness. You. So if you are the best chance and you’re not doing it, everyone else will have an even worse chance.
PLANT A SEED
-not supposed to force people to believe anything, you can’t really.
-so when you’re inviting people to church, to whatever, if they say no, it’s not a failure, you still invited them. If you tell someone about Jesus and they don’t drop to their knees bawling for forgiveness right there, you didn’t do something wrong, you still told them.
-to plant a tree, first you have to plant a seed. God makes it grow.
-Paul explained this to Corinth. Paul started the church, then a guy named Apollos took over and they were asking which one of them was better.
**I Cor. 3:5-7 -> 5Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. 6I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. 7It’s not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. (MSG)
-your job is not to make converts, but you are told to tell people the Good News.
-the trick is not to try once, go, “oh well” and quit. When you farm corn, the farmer just throws out handfuls of corn. Do you think every single kernel becomes a stalk? Nope. But some do.
-you are part of the process of someone coming to know Jesus. Studies say that someone needs to hear about Jesus 24 times before they decide to follow Him. You could be #23, you could be #4. You could be #11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 21.
-but sometimes planting a seed can mean work.
WILLING TO DO WHATEVER IT TAKES
-are you? You say you want someone to know about Jesus, how badly? Bad enough to be embarrassed? Bad enough to drive five minutes out of your way on the way to church? How much are you willing to do?
**Acts 20:24 -> 24I don’t care about my own life. The most important thing is that I complete my mission, the work that the Lord Jesus gave me—to tell people the Good News about God’s grace. (NCV)
-how much is it worth? To Paul it was worth his life.
-all over the world people actually do give up their lives to tell others about Jesus. I had friends go to China and the missionary had to explain to them when and where to mention the name Jesus because if they did it on the street, jail time.
-people around the globe tell others about Jesus despite being afraid of their families being killed, here we don’t because someone might know we’re a Christian (gasp!)
-are you willing to bring someone to a night of fun and excitement to let them hear about Jesus?
-that’s:
WHY WE BASH
-why do you think we put on the Back To School Bash? To have a cool party? I bet everyone here can name something else that would also be fun. You can all come and have fun without 3 on 3 basketball. You know why we do those things? To help you. That’s the number one reason. Not for your fun, my mission as your youth leader is not to entertain you. It’s to help you grow closer to God. And one way you grow closer to God is by telling others about Him. And one way I can help you tell others about Him is by doing what I can to have a fun night like next week.
-there are many teenagers in Fishers and surrounding area who would never come to church to hear me talk, but they’ll come for Frisbee Golf.
-and then, at the end of the night, we do tell them about Jesus. We tell them why we meet every week, we invite them back, we do what we can to make them feel welcome so hopefully we can help them with hearing about Jesus time # 21, 22, 23 & 24.
-we do it so on the way home you can ask your friends what they thought, did they have fun, what did they think about what Troy and Liz said about Jesus?
-we do it so that when that point happens we talked about before that they realize they need some help, they have heard about Jesus and can see why they need Him, how He can help them.
-sometimes it’s nice to introduce people to the Savior before they realize they need Him… [PLAY SUPERMAN CLIP FLYING OVER CITY WITH LOIS LANE, HEAR PEOPLE CALLING FOR A SAVIOR EVERYDAY]
-it’s for you. God’s waiting on you. Your friends are waiting on you. You may have a hard time saying, “Hey, let’s talk about nJesus.”, but it’s a lot easier to go, “Hey, we’re having a party on Sunday, everyone’s invited, food is free, all sorts of stuff to do, if you need a ride, I can swing by there.”
**II Pe. 3:9 -> 9God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining Himself on account of you, holding back the End because He doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change. (MSG)
-the reason we haven’t seen the Book of Revelations in all it’s craziness is because God cares about your friends. He doesn’t want them to be lost, but He’s still waiting on you.
