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I thank God for every multi-talented person in this church. I mean, in our church, if you think about it, we have someone who can sing. and help in Master's Club and play the piano or some other instrument. We have some who can do carpentry and plumbing and block work and teach. We have others who sing in the choir and lead a ministry or go to the nursing home. We have some who go soul winning and work in the nursery or clean the church. We have others who handle finances and another ministry in the usher. And some handle more than that. We have a lot of multi-talented people at Mount Zion Baptist Church. The rest of us are plain, ordinary, one-talented Andrews. Look in your text again and you'll see in verse 16, Simon and Andrew, Andrew. We do one thing and that's about it. I'd like to encourage all of the one talented folks. We need you to be faithful in doing what you do. Do it to the best of your ability, but by all means, do it. This morning we want to study, we want to examine one talented Andrew from the Scriptures. And I want to give you just three brief points. It will be simple, nothing earth shattering or anything, but it could be a big help to someone. Number one. To be used of God in his talent, Andrew first came to Christ to follow Him. He first came to Christ in Mark chapter 1, there you can see it, in verse 16 through 18. He came to Christ. Now, some people come to church and they try to turn over a new leaf. All of a sudden they're just going to start to become religious and find out how Christianity works and what the lingo is and how do I join the club. First of all, it's not a club. This is not about being a part of a club. You don't just come, pay your dues, and you're a member of the club. That's not what it's all about. They try to be better people. They try to do good works and try to look Christian. But none of those approaches, well listen to me, will take care of step number one. Step number one is for Jesus Christ to save your soul. None of these things will change your life. None of this turning over a new leaf, or becoming religious, or performing good works, or learning what Christianity is about will satisfy the innermost of your soul. None of those things. When Jesus extended the offer to them to come to Him and follow Him, Andrew immediately forsook what he was doing and came to Jesus. And I believe that will work today. We need to hear about Jesus, forsake what we're doing, come to Jesus. And the scripture teaches us to repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I'm asking you this morning as we begin to learn about Andrew and using your one talent for the Lord, I wonder have you repented? Have you come to Jesus Christ? Or are you just trying to blend in and just be a church goer? If that's it, you're never going to get what God means for you to have on the inside of your soul, and it's not going to take you to heaven either. Good works will never do that. Have you forsaken what you're doing to come to Jesus? Here it is. We have all sinned. This is the problem. Because of our sin, the Bible very clearly says that we're condemned to hell, we're going to go to hell, we deserve to go to hell. There's a price tag on our sin. We have a sin debt before God. Jesus came to the earth for the purpose of paying our sin debt by dying on the cross and shedding His blood and rising the third day. Any person can be rescued from hell, the penalty for sin, and have a reservation in heaven, that's amazing, go from hell to heaven, if he comes to Jesus repenting of his sins and believing Christ to save his soul. Because that's what the Bible prescribes. That's exactly where the story starts for Andrew. Andrew, who wanted to be used of God, started by receiving Christ as Savior. Have you started yet? You want to be used of God in your dreams and your thoughts and your wishes and wants. I wonder if you want it to be real between you and God and you want God to use the talents that you have. Do you want that? If you do, it all begins by you first repenting of your sin and receiving Christ as your Savior. If you haven't done that, you need to take care of that this morning. That's ground zero. That's step number one. The first thing Andrew did was come to Jesus. Now turn with me to John chapter 1, and the second of the three points is this, that Andrew was an ordinary person. Andrew was an ordinary person. No mighty sermons were recorded from Andrew. Did you ever think about that? No mighty sermons. Born to a common man named John, or the scripture also calls him Jonah, he was a fisherman along with his brother Simon Peter. Their hometown was Bethsaida. He's just an ordinary guy from a hometown who had a job and Jesus called him and he followed him. Look in John chapter 1 and verse 35. Again, the next day, after John, he's talking about John the Baptist here, John stood and two of his disciples, And looking upon Jesus as He walked, He saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, John the Baptist, is pointing His two disciples to the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. And the two disciples heard Him speak, and they followed Jesus. Or in other words, instead of them staying disciples of John the Baptist, John's job was to get them over to Christ. They became Christ's disciples, these two did. In verse 38, And Jesus turned, and saw them following, and saith unto them, What seek ye? And they said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was the tenth hour, tenth hour counting from six in the morning about four o'clock. One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone. Now we'll stop our reading right there. Notice that verse 35 tells us that Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist. He was an ordinary, common man. But God uses ordinary, common men and women. God is pleased to use ordinary people. We sometimes feel like, well, if I can't pastor, I'm not able to do anything. Or if I can't be a deacon, then I'm not doing anything. If I can't be a big cheese or some leader in the church, I'm not contributing at all. But that's not so. Don't believe that. God uses common, ordinary people. God wants to use you. Think of this. One talent, Andrew's brother, was multi-talented Simon Peter. Follow me. Peter, you'll recall, was the one who preached on the day of Pentecost. And how many received Christ? Three thousand. That was his brother. Andrew was always in Peter's shadow. In verse 40, look at it there again, John 1, 40, He's often called by this name, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. We find that similar phrase in four other passages in Matthew 4.18, Matthew 10.2, Mark 1.16, and John 6.8. All say the same thing about him. His name is associated as Simon Peter's brother because everybody knew Simon Peter. Nobody knew Andrew. He was always in Simon Peter's shadow. Andrew was not famous. Andrew was not dynamic in Christian circles. How could ordinary Andrew stand this pressure to live in his brother Peter's shadow? Simon Peter multi-gifted, multi-used of God. How could Andrew stand in his shadow? I want to give you the theme of the message. He knew his one talent and he used it faithfully. Andrew could stand it because Andrew knew his talent and used it faithfully. It'd be wonderful if we quit comparing ourselves among ourselves. We talked about this in Sunday school class about comparing our sons and daughters with each other and all of that. We need to get out of that. That's not wise. It's not wise in the church. It's not wise in the family. It's definitely not wise for us to compare ourselves with brother multi-talent and sister super-servant. And we just need to do what God's enabled us to do. And find a fulfillment in it. And find a joy in serving Jesus like they sang. Every person is saved by the Lord for the purpose to serve. What are you doing? We're saved to serve. After you come to Jesus, you need to find your niche. and use your gifts and talents and abilities for the Lord. Find your place of service and quit making excuses. I'd do something, but it wouldn't amount to much. Do it anyway. If everybody who thought it wouldn't amount to much would do it, it'd all add up to a whole bunch. We need to quit saying things like, if I do it, it wouldn't be like he'd do it. I won't do it as well as he could do it. Yes, but he's not doing it. So you can do it and do it the best that you can and it will glorify God. One talent, Andrew, was an ordinary person. But thank God that God can use ordinary people to accomplish His will. Andrew never wrote a book. You ever think about that? John did. John wrote all kinds of books in the New Testament. Paul did. He wrote more than anybody. Luke did. He wrote Luke and Acts. We know that Peter did. Andrew's brother wrote two books. We know that. Andrew never wrote a book. He never wrote or I should say preached a message that's recorded. Now Peter did. Numbers of other people did in the Bible. He was one of the disciples so he went out And it's quite possible that he preached, but evidently it wasn't noteworthy enough to put in the scriptures. Andrew was just an ordinary guy. He never performed a miracle. All the disciples went out, and he probably had a part in something there, but he wasn't a guy like Peter that we read about, or Paul that we read about, that performed some kind of a miracle. He was Mr. Ordinary. but God give me a church full of Mr. and Mrs. ordinaries who are willing to use their one talent for the Lord. What talent do you have? What could you use for the Lord? Let's see, so far we've learned that first, Andrew came to Christ. And that's the first thing that you need to do if God's going to use you. Be saved, be born again by faith in Jesus Christ. Number two, Andrew was an ordinary person, just like most of us. Number three, there's only three points. I have 75 sub-points to number three. Point number three, Andrew's one talent was bringing people to Jesus. Turn with me to John chapter 1 and verse 41. He first findeth his own brother, Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said, Thou art Simon the son of Jonah, thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone. There are several lessons for us to learn from one talent, Andrew. First, he came to Christ. Andrew didn't wait to start using his talent after he came to Christ. Did you hear me? He came to Christ, but then he did not wait to start using his talent. He immediately began to use it. I mean, this happened the same day. You don't have to be a Christian for a year before God can use you. Nobody here should be on the sidelines. He will immediately start to use you if you present yourself to Him. Let Him use you. If there's a Pharisee here, I want you to hear me clearly. You don't have to be in the church or a member of the church in order to bring people to Jesus. You don't. And it's a shame that so many have been a member of this church for so long and never had a visitor inside the walls except a relative who came to see a cantata or something. That's a shame. We need to influence people for Christ. Bring them in and have them sitting with you on a Sunday. In other words, some have lost their freshness. Some have lost the newness that's worn off. Some have lost the burden for the lost. All you have to do is go out and mingle a little bit to see there's a great need out there. If you'd have been there Friday night, your heart would just cry. Linda was dealing with somebody. And that young lady prayed to receive Christ. But even afterward, Linda couldn't, as I understand it, she just couldn't understand that this was real and that Christ really had forgiven her. And Linda said she wanted to follow up and stop by and just visit her to encourage her. And she said, oh, you could never come to our house. Lives were upside down. Unbelievable. There was a great need. You couldn't leave there. You couldn't be there without your heart just crying inside. Oh, we were happy when they were passing out gifts and there were things going on like that, preaching and lots of fun. But inside, there's a heart that's just crying for the needs of those kids. A lot of Christians have grown stale to where they don't see the need in anybody's soul. They're just closed in. They're doing their job. They've got blinders on. They don't want to be bothered. I do my job. I come home. I have my family. I have my church. I do my work at the church. And I live in my protected cocoon. never reaching out, never seeing the need, never saying a word, never giving a track, never giving a CD, never reaching out and saying something for Christ, never having anybody come and sit with you in church, but not Andrew. Andrew used his talent for the Lord Jesus and brought people to Jesus. All some have left is their longevity. and what they used to do and what they used to feel. And a lot of talk about burden, but no production of it. Shame on us. Listen, I love you. I'm a pastor that loves you. My job is not to get up here and beat you down. My job is to stir you until you will do something and be productive for the Lord again if you've dropped off. Now, who is it that you could bring? That's what you have to answer. Who is it that you have power of influence over, that you rub shoulders with throughout the week, that you could give a gospel witness to and bring them to Jesus? They need to be brought, would you agree? If they're lost, they need to be brought. Then what is hindering? We need to all of us have our eyes open to the opportunities that God is bringing our way and look for divine appointments that he brings into our pathway and make some divine appointments by going out knocking on doors if needs be. Brethren, you don't have to be saved long to bring others to Jesus. Bring them all. Bring your neighbor. Grab a friend. Tell your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your relatives, bring them all to Jesus. If Jesus is important in your life, it looks like you can convince someone else to come. Or is He really that important? if he's really that important saints, it looks like there'd be somebody that God would put in your pathway. He didn't make you an isolationist. You're not an island in a sea. You are interconnected, rubbing shoulders with the world every day. There must be somebody that you can convince enough to get them under the sound of the preaching of the Word of God. There must be. Andrew couldn't do a lot. He just came to Christ himself. But he could bring people to Jesus. He just received Christ. It was fresh. He said what he knew. I like that, don't you? He didn't know a whole lot, but he said what he knew. That's what we need to do. Could I ask you this question? When do you expect a candle to shine? When it's first lit, Or much later? Immediately, right? You light a candle, you expect it to shine right away. And so believers ought to start shining and bringing folks to Christ as soon as they get saved. And it should never end. We ought to keep that freshness about us that we're continuing to bring people into the pews. Bring people into Christ first. And then if we can't get them to Christ, we bring them to the pews so they can hear about And if that were true at Mount Zion, we couldn't hold the people who our folks would bring on just an ordinary Sunday without a push. We couldn't hold the soul. We're talking about revival. What revival is, is you and I as Christians getting so stirred in our hearts that we kick ourselves and make room to give gospel witnesses. to give tracks and CDs and invite and go by and don't take no for an answer and ask them if they'll come and sit with us in the pew this Sunday and how proud we'd be if you'd just come. Invite them over for a meal. Do whatever it takes to get them under the sound of the Word of God. We've got to be careful because rigor mortis has a tendency to set in on us. Hello? I mean with stiffening up just a come to get the blessing rather than all week planning for somebody that we know that we're concerned about to get to hear the gospel. We need to care. One talent, Andrew, brought somebody to Jesus immediately. Second point under this, Andrew's one talent was bringing people to Jesus. The person that Andrew first brought to Christ, this is something now, watch this, was his brother. Simon Peter. We've read it twice already. Andrew, called the apostle of personal workers. He's called the first New Testament missionary in some books I read. He's called the first disciple to be in Christ. First called. One, a family member to Christ. Now, in this, I see two truths converging. Here's truth number one. Truth number one is that he loved his brother. You have a brother, a sister, a father, a mother, or a son or daughter that you love, a relative that you love, a neighbor that you care for, a co-worker that you care for. Is there somebody that you truly care for, but they're lost? That's one great truth. The other great truth is that He valued what he had found in Christ. And it hadn't been long, but he knew this was it. He had the truth that he loved somebody, and that he valued what he had in Christ, and he wanted those two to come together. He wanted the people that he loved to know the Christ that he valued. He wanted them to know what it was to come to Christ, to follow Christ, to be forgiven. He wanted them to know it. It looks like the same two truths ought to converge and connect somewhere in our lives too. It looks like that if there's people that we love, and there's the truth that we value, that we have come to Christ, how wonderful it is to know Christ. Can you say amen? How wonderful it is to know Christ. That if those two truths ever got together in our lives, we'd be bringing people to Jesus. Ordinary one-talent Andrew did what we describe as the hardest thing to do. He witnessed to his relative and brought him to Christ. And if he did it, the first disciple in Christ did it. You can do it. But some of us are defeated before we begin. We say, I'm so shy. I'm so backward. I don't know how I bring it up. And we go through all of this. They won't listen to me. We need to quit our psychoanalyzing ourselves and micromanaging everything and in-depth thinking and reasoning and just blurt it out. Go to them and tell them about Jesus. Tell them about heaven and hell. Tell them that you're concerned for their soul. Take courage. You can bring your relatives to Christ just like Andrew did. They don't have to go to hell. And you don't have to feel helpless about the whole situation, like your hands are bound. But you don't know my relatives. Listen, all relatives are about the same, honestly. I wrote a note to my sister one time, Nancy. I love Nancy. I value Jesus. Nancy at one time had prayed, but I want to tell you, hadn't been in church in a month of Sundays, and she was backslidden. I wrote a note to her one time, several pages, how much I love her, but we were trained differently. We were trained to go to church. We were trained to learn about Jesus, to live for Jesus. And I love you, sis. I want you to get back on the track. Oh, she got mad. Oh, she got mad. Then she got leukemia. Guess what the first thing was that she did when she got leukemia? She sought out a preacher. And she rededicated her life. And her husband got saved. And then, guess what the next thing was she did? She called mom, who had been praying for her, and me. Hello. When she had leukemia, she wanted me to be out in California with her, interceding while she's going through the leukemia. I cared for her. Brought the two truths together. Greg did the same thing with his mom and got to see her come to Christ. Honor be to God. What a joy. Now, figure out a way to get them the gospel or get them to church under the sound of the gospel. Give them a CD. Tell them the good things that are happening in the church. Listen. Some people are idiots. Honestly. Some people are just idiots. They think that they can talk about their church to their relatives. And criticize. I don't know what's going on. I don't know why they... I don't know this and that. And they've got unsaved relatives. And the families get together and they talk about the church. But then they want to try to win their relatives to Christ. Those relatives don't care two hoots and a holler about you or your church after that point. You tell them all the good things are going on at the church. There are a lot of good things going on. Tell them about the public school get-together this weekend and the four people getting saved. Tell them about that. Invite them to a dinner after church. You invite them to a dinner. I want you to come and sit with me in church and come to a dinner at my house after church. invite them to a special service and stress how important it is that I really want you to come please will you do this one thing for me will you come to the special service and stress it that it would really mean something for you them to come and sit with you and then keep talking to them and be persistent keep interceding and praying for them Andrew's one talent was bringing others to Christ and he sought a relative first So he didn't shy away from the relative because two truths converge. The value of Christ and the love of the people he was talking to. Thirdly, you never know what will happen when we bring people to Jesus. You never know. Andrew used his one talent and Simon Peter gets saved. Simon Peter turns around and preaches And 3,000 get saved. So if of those 3,000, I want you to reason with me. Have you ever thought about this? If Simon Peter was their spiritual father, so to speak, to bring 3,000 to Christ that day, wouldn't that make Andrew their spiritual grandfather? Or in other words, Andrew had a part in all of it. Just using his one talent, he had a big part. Remember that the mighty oak grows from the lowly acorns. One talent, Andrew, just simply did his ordinary job and God blessed it mightily. How many of you have heard of the great blind songwriter, Fanny Crosby? Have you ever heard of her grandma, whom she said And I quote, brought the Bible to me and me to the Bible. Fannie wrote the hymns. But grandma had a part in every one of those. No doubt about it. And you remember the application, don't you? You'll remember this, won't you, grandmas and grandpas? What an impact you could have on your grandchildren. Don't miss it. Don't skip it. Grandma's, this is what Fanny said, grandma, it was grandma that taught me to kneel in prayer. Use your one talent with your grandchildren. Have you ever heard of William Carey, the father of modern missions? Ever heard of him? Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh man, what a man. William Carey was impressed with a fellow at work named John War, W-A-R-R. and his godly life. Cary accepted his invitation to attend a prayer meeting. And while at the prayer meeting, Cary received Christ as Savior. You know, workers on the job, you need to keep witnessing. You don't know when a William Cary is going to come by your way. You don't know who you're witnessing to or how God's going to use them. Keep telling others. Keep inviting co-workers to church. Don't give up. Their soul is hanging in the balance. You know of D.L. Moody, don't you? Not the Bible, but history books say that he turned two continents to Christ. But thank God for Ed Kimball. Ed Kimball was the Sunday school teacher who got a burden for his class and went out and won D.L. Moody to the Lord Jesus Christ. Sunday school teachers? Boy! You need to weigh this matter of teaching very heavily. You ought to look at those souls that you have and say, man, those are people for whom Christ died. I might have one right there that I could lead to Christ. And lead them to Christ in Sunday school class. Why wait? Get a burden for your class. If I mention Billy Sonny, everybody thinks, wow, great evangelist. Baseball player turned drunk and then got saved. If I mention Mrs. Clark, that doesn't mean much to you. Who in the world was she? She was the lady at the Pacific Garden Mission who went out and found him on the curb and brought him in. And he got saved. Mrs. Clark. We know Paul, the great apostle and the writer. Boy, I mentioned Paul. Everybody's ears perk up. They know who Paul is. Not too many people know Ananias. Ananias gets lost in the shuffle of the New Testament names. But he was an Andrew. Sometimes older teens stray from what they've been taught. Older teens and those who are in their early 20s often drift as they flap their wings of freedom to see what the world is all about. And I did that. I did that. I went away to a secular college and I was weighing everything and my mind was getting confused. I came home one weekend and there was my youth director and my Sunday school teacher, Willard McKinley. He directed Youth for Christ in Williams County, Ohio at that time. He asked me, listen, I'm a man short for counselors for the crusade tonight. Would you mind being a counselor for the crusade? Youth for Christ went sour and liberal and compromising after this period of time. I'm pretty old. But he didn't know my spiritual state. I drifted. But I took God's things seriously if I were put in that place. And because he asked me, I knew that I could not counsel those teenagers that were going to come forward unless I rededicated my life to Christ. And that weekend, I got my heart thoroughly right with God so that I could counsel those teenagers. And I never looked back. It was the turning point in my life. God used Willard McKinley's talent. And I'm glad that he did. God gets no glory from us sitting on the sidelines. How long will you let yourself sit and be inactive? How long are you going to let that happen? when the Lord is giving you so much. And the Lord has even told you what's going to happen. We're coming up to the awards banquet of heaven, the judgment seat of Christ. You're going to stand there and so am I, if you're saved. He's told us what's going on. What will you allow to stop you from being used of God? Bitterness? A grudge? A hurt. Maybe a burnout. You burned out. Maybe it's apathy. Envy of somebody else. Jealousy of somebody else. A habit in your life that you won't give up. And so now God can't use you because of these things. Why do you allow that to happen? When God wants to use you? Look with me one more time at John chapter 6 and verse 8. In John 6, verse 8. And of course, the message is, don't allow anything to stop you from being used of God. And if it has, push that thing out of the way, confess it, get it right, and get back on the firing line. John 6, verse 8, one of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, always called, saith unto him, there is a lad here which hath five barley loaves and two small fishes, but what are they among so many? Now this is quite a feat, to get a boy to part with his lunch. But notice that Andrew is using his one talent again. He's bringing someone to Jesus. This time it's a boy. Doesn't matter who. Bring somebody to Jesus. How do you suppose that Andrew knew about this boy? Well, he had to have been friendly, struck up a conversation, got into what was going on out there. And then everyone remembers the great miracle that was wrought. An ordinary one talent Andrew just fades into obscurity, but he played a key role. He was used of God. Keep bringing people to Jesus. Keep using your one talent for the Lord. And if you've gotten away from it, you need to get back to it. Finally, look with me at John chapter 12 and we're done. John chapter 12, verse 20. John 12, 20, and there came certain Greeks among them that came up to the worship at the feast. The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida, of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. In other words, they wanted to come to Jesus. Couldn't bring himself to do it on his own. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew. And again, Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. Interesting. The Gentiles wanted an audience with Jesus. They told Philip. Philip couldn't do it. Philip goes and gets Andrew. Andrew and Philip now go together. He had the reputation. He had the talent. That's why he went and got Andrew. That's why Philip went and got Andrew. Andrew brought them to Jesus. Together. They told Jesus and got the Gentiles their appointment with Jesus. They brought people to Jesus. So many desire to be the chief. It's not in being the chief. So many desire to be the star, the bright shining star, the head, the leader. But Andrew was destined to just be a team player. Some of you like football. On a football team, the quarterback, looks like the star. The linemen look, they go unnoticed. Let's see how long the quarterback lasts without those tackles and those guards and without the center to hike the ball to him. He can't do anything until the center gives him the ball. And we'll never have a successful church until every Andrew forges his one talent for the team. That is for the kingdom of God. Let God bless your talent. Commit it to Him again. You used to be happy when you were using it. You used to bring fulfillment. Still could. Recommit yourself to let God use you. I'm looking at Christians. Are you really fulfilled? Are you really joyful in your Christian service? Because you could be. once again. Would you bow your heads with me? Mount Zion, what we need is Spirit-filled, one-talented people dedicating themselves to do their part.
One Talent Andrew
ID kazania | 101071453290 |
Czas trwania | 41:01 |
Data | |
Kategoria | Niedziela - AM |
Tekst biblijny | Ocena 1:16-18 |
Język | angielski |
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