Got Yours?
John 1:35-46
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/GotYours.html
This records the calling of the disciples of Jesus Christ. There is a sequence here that we can follow:
Jesus called John and John followed the Lord (35-42)
John reached Andrew and Andrew followed the Lord
Andrew reached his brother Peter and Peter followed the Lord
Jesus called Philip and Philip followed the Lord (43-46)
Phillip reached Nathanael and Nathanael followed the Lord
Do you see that? Each of the disciples were reached one by one! And from this noble band of men, the word of God was preached throughout the land and the Gospel message went around the world. Each one of them continued to reach one. Got yours?
[illustration from our church]
Ask yourself the question, “If I don’t reach one, can I ever expect anyone else to?” (It’s a rare privilege to be part of a church reaching many souls…but don’t ride the coattails of others…have YOU reached one?)
Got yours? I want to ask you every Sunday when you look this way if you've got yours. Got yours? I want you to ask me! I want you to leave each service and walk underneath that 'Each One Reach One' banner and know it's your duty now to share the good you have experienced with others, and to bring them back with you next time!
Throughout the history of Christianity, we see a profound effect that one person can have upon another:
Jethro (father in law) over Moses
Jonathan over his friend David
Elijah over Elisha
Daniel over his boss, King Darius of Persia
Jesus over Samaritan woman (whole village revival)
Disciples over N.T. Christians (breaking bread from house to house)
Delilah over Samson (Satan believes in each one, reach one, too! If you aren't affecting your world positively you are affecting it negatively. No neutrality. Your world will find out you're a Christian and then wonder why you're not wanting to share that with them..."it must not be very good!")
Got yours? Each one must reach one. Each of us are absolutely vital to God's program and to the ministry of the local church! We are His hands, His feet…He chooses to work thru us, He left us here for a reason!
People are not reached in masses like perhaps they once were. Most are reached just like the disciples....one person sharing his/her faith with another. And then that one sharing their faith with another...
I. EACH OF US HAVE A PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY:
John 4, Jesus said, I must go through Samaria [to witness]
Paul said, 1 Cor 9:22 I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
To Remember…
A. THE WORTH OF THE SOUL
James 5:20
Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.
Got yours?
B. THE WEALTH OF THE SAINT
All that God has done for us....He wants to do for others!…and He will do it through us if we will let Him!
We have a personal responsibility to live our lives so that others will see Christ living in us and through us!
• If there is little resemblance to Christ: there is little chance of reaching them
II. WE HAVE A PRESSING RESPONSIBILITY:
A. THE TIME IS SHORT
There's NO greater time to commit yourself than now!
If it is ever to get done, you’ll have to do it now! 2011 is the year for GBC! Got yours? Join the movement!
B. THE TRUMPET IS CERTAIN
We are one trumpet blast away from eternity!
1 Th 4:16-17 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
But God has left you here for a reason! Got yours?
We want to build this year. Build God's kingdom, and build the local church, and build each life in the church. In other words, we want to get them saved, get them into church, and get them right with God. By the way, we have to work on the latter in our own lives constantly!
ill.--the church is a hospital for sinners, not a rest home for saints. What other organization requires for membership that you say you are bad? [other than the Hell's Angels!]
There's the progression. Get saved, get into church, get right. In that order! Where are you at in the progression? If you've been saved and need to find a good church I can make a recommendation! Yes, church is often done wrong, but it CAN be done right. And you'll come to church if you are truly saved and love Jesus.
ill.--if you really love Jesus you'll love what He loves.
Ephesians 5:25
...Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Some people only go to church 3 times in their lives. When they're born, when they're married, and when they die. Basically, when they're hatched, matched, and dispatched. The first time they throw water, the second time rice, the last time dirt!
The most important thing is growing the kingdom, so many who we lead to the Lord this year may not come to our church, but if they are serious, they will end up somewhere, and sometimes we can help place them in something closer or more to their liking or demographic.
But we very much want to grow GBC, and fill this place up row by row. Got yours?
There's a lot of love here, and we want to share it with all we can. Growing churches love, and loving churches grow! We've got more wood to polish out there! In my years here we've baptized hundreds, but where are they? Many have joined the church that aren't here anymore?
Did they lose their salvation? No. They most likely never had it.
Hebrews 10:38-39
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul.
There are some who draw back to perdition. That means judgment. Now the writer of Hebrews is saying, “Those of us who are still attending, we’ve not drawn back. We’ve not failed. We are going on. We are holding fast the profession of our faith.”
1 John 2:19
They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
They assumed in the New Testament times if people stopped attending the worship service, they never had been saved. That’s what they assumed. Attending the worship service was a profession of faith. It was a way of expressing salvation. It was a way of saying, “I still believe.” And when people stopped attending, they just assumed, that person may have just come here for 'fire insurance' and now have gone back to their sin. They didn’t lose their salvation; they never really had it. By the way, I've come to respect a certain segment of lost people. Those who will admit it. Who just say, "I don't want to give up my sin or change my lifestyle." At least they are being honest and not trying to have it both ways. I don't recommend their decision, but respect their honesty.
I know you know about the prodigal son, but let me tell you about the prodigal pig:
When the prodigal son got down in the pig pen, he said, “I’m going to rise and I’m going to go to my father. And I’m going to say to my father, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no more worthy to be called your son.’” And the pig said, “What’s that?” “I’m going to go to my father.” He said, “Why are you going to your father?” “O, you ought to see my father’s house. My father’s house is wonderful. In my father’s house there’s bread enough and to spare. Even the servants in my father’s house are eating better than I am down here in this pig pen. My mother’s a wonderful cook and a wonderful housekeeper, and my father is a rich, wise, and godly man. And I’m going home. I’m getting out of the hog pen.”
And the prodigal pig said, “Well, that, that sounds wonderful. Can I go with you?” He said, “Well, come along and I’ll be glad to have you." Home they went. "Mom, dad, this is my friend, the pig. He wants to come and stay with us if he can.” The mother of the prodigal son says, “That’s your pig? That’s your friend? Well, okay. You two come on in, but Mr. Pig, you’re going to have to take a bath. You’re going to have to scrub. You can’t come in my living room looking that way.” So the pig was scrubbed from top to bottom. Then it’s time for dinner, and the pig wants to put his snout in the plate. She said, “Now, Mr. Pig, first of all, we’re going to say the blessing, and then we’re going to eat with a knife and a fork, and we’re going to use good manners, and we’re going to wipe our mouth.” The pig wants to go out and sleep in the mud. She says, “No, Mr. Pig, you’re going to sleep in the house. You’re going to sleep in a bed.
After a while, the pig says, “You know, I just don’t like this. I’m not made for this. I’m going to rise and go back to my father.” And back he goes back to the pig pen.
Now there are a lot of people who are just like that. They come to church for a while, they stay in church for a while, and they say, “You know, I don’t like this. I’m not made for this.” You know the reason why? The Bible says in the book of 1 Peter, “It is happened to them according to the true proverb, the sow that was washed is returned to the mire.” It doesn’t mean a person loses his salvation. God never called one of His children a sow. And it says, “The dog is returned to his vomit.” That’s not a very elegant phrase, but have you ever seen a dog turn around and eat his own vomit? The dog will eat something that upset his stomach. He regurgitates, feels better, starts to walk off, and he looks back and says, “Hey, there’s a warm meal.” It’s disgusting. But a dog will do that.
That’s the reason that people go back once they come to the church. They stop attending. You’ll never change a pig by washing it, and you’ll never change a dog by letting him regurgitate. The dog is still a dog, the sow is still a sow. They go back to their father.
John 8:44
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
Just because a person is in church doesn't mean they are saved. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a Chicago area Best Western makes you a Wisconsin congressman! In the same way, I'm not saying that if you are out of church you aren't saved. I wouldn't assume to pronounce that judgment. But I've just shown you that God has strongly recommended that if you are out of church you seriously investigate the likelihood that you aren't truly saved. And the good news is, when you receive the real thing you'll be truly changed with new desires for good things and with God's help getting rid of the old. So please consider whether you can be sure you are saved. If your religion hasn't changed you, you'd better change your religion!
APPLICATION to the UNSAVED:
Realize 10 things:
1. You are lost
Romans 3:10
As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Romans 3:23
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
2. You are longing
Psalm 84:2 -
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Ps 107:9 -
For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
3. You need not labor
Titus 3:5
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us
Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Galatians 2:16
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
4. You belong to Lucifer
John 8:44
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
You don't have to be a bad person for the devil to still possess ownership of your soul. You must be born again into God's family for Him to become your Heavenly Father.
3 X’s Jesus called the devil: "The prince of this world"
John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11
II Tim. 2:26
…that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
Ephesians 2:2
Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
2 Corinthians 4:4
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Colossians 1:13
Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
5. You are loved
Titus 3:3
For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another. 4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared…
Jn. 3:16
6. You can be liberated
Luke 4:18
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel…he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
2 Cor 3:17
Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Gal 5:1
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free…
7. You can receive life
John 10:10
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 10:28
And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
8. You will never lack
Ps 37:25
I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. [concerned about the economy?]
Phil. 4:19
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
9. You won’t be left
I Thess. 4…but the lost will be left behind!
10. You will be lifted [at the rapture]
Even in this life:
Ps 40:2 -
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock.
Salvation: Got yours?
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/GotYours.html
