The Difference One Person Can Make Series

Introduction:

A. Let me start today with a story you may have heard before.

1. One day an old man was walking along the beach in the early morning and noticed the tide had washed thousands of starfish up onto the shore.

2. Ahead, he spotted a boy gathering up the starfish, and then one by one he was tossing them back into the ocean.

3. He approached the boy and asked why he spent so much energy doing what seemed to be a waste of time.

4. The boy replied, “The starfish cannot live if they are left out in the sun.”

5. Then the old man gazed out as far as he could see and responded, “But there must be miles of beaches and countless starfish. You can’t possibly rescue all of them. What difference is throwing back a few going to make anyway?”

6. The boy bent down picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled, and said, “It made a difference to that one!”

7. The old man leaned over, picked up a starfish and joined the boy throwing starfish into the water.

B. That story highlights the difference that one person can make – every person can make some kind of positive difference.

1. God has always used people to make a difference in the world, both in secular ways and in spiritual ways.

2. Some people make a huge difference while others make a small difference in comparison, but everyone can make a difference.

3. Let me mention a few names and I want you to think of the difference they have made… Abraham Lincoln…Florence Nightingale…Martin Luther King, Jr…Harriet Tubman.

4. Let’s mention a few names from the biblical record: Abraham and Sarah, Moses, David, Esther, Ruth, and Nehemiah.

5. What would our world be like today without the difference people like them made?

C. Today, we are going to look at what God was accomplishing through the apostle Paul, but before we do, I want us to consider what kind of difference that God could make through you and me.

1. If we really walked with God and made ourselves available to Him, then what might He accomplish through us?

2. The possibilities are truly unlimited.

3. There are individual people that God might want to save or bless through us – it might be someone in our family or church family, our neighborhood, workplace or school.

4. But rather than having us make a difference for an individual, God might want to make a difference through us on a larger scale.

5. God might want to use us to plant a church, or start a ministry to alleviate a pressing need, or develop leaders for the future.

D. The apostle Paul was a man who gave himself to the Lord to be used as God wished and therefore, God was able to make a tremendous difference through Paul.

1. In the section of the book of Colossians that we will explore today, Paul spends some time talking to the Colossians about his ministry.

2. Keep in mind that the Colossians were receiving a letter from someone they had never met, who was in prison and who had the reputation of being a troublemaker.

3. Perhaps the false teachers had been trying to discredit Paul and cast doubts about him.

4. And so, as Paul introduced himself to the Colossians, he shared some of the ways God was using him in ministry.

5. Today, as we move through these verses about Paul’s ministry, I want us to imagine how God might use us to make a difference in the world and in people’s lives.

I. Paul the Preacher, Sharing the Gospel (1:21-23)

A. Let’s read Colossians 1:21-23: 21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. 22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him— 23 if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.

1. So, in these verses, we notice that Paul discussed the gospel - its effects and his role as a preacher of the gospel.

2. Paul reminds the Colossians of their lost state prior to knowing Jesus and obeying the gospel.

3. In just a few verses, Paul encapsulates the warning and wonder of the gospel.

a. Because all people sin and fall short of God’s glory, then all people find themselves alienated from God because of their sin.

b. But because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, there is now reconciliation and sanctification that takes place through Him.