Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.
Riverbend Church exists to lead all people to know, love, and
live new life in Jesus Christ. We hope that you enjoy this
message. Well, those of you that ask if I
was preaching this morning and I said no, I have the microphone
on just because I'm doing announcements a lot.
I'm sorry, I thought it was funny.
Good morning Riverbend. How y'all doing?
All right, you got you got to help me.
Of all people. You got to help me.
Good morning, Oakwood. Good morning.
We love you guys. We're glad that you are tuning
in with us. Those that are watching online,
drop us a note. Tell us how you're doing and how
we can pray for you. Listen, I'm excited to be here.
I don't know what that means, but I'm excited to be here.
I have had a a great time of prep this week.
I understand the gravity of doing what I'm doing.
I want you to know that. But man, at the same time,
because I've been in the word this week, God reminded me,
Scott, this could be every week. It doesn't have to be just
because I'm preparing to preach that's that's on me.
And so I thought, okay Lord. And on top of that man Satan's
been attacking Jennifer and I. We've had a long week and and
things going on with her and work and me and work and I'm
like no, no, no. Not, not today.
Not today. Satan.
We we we've got a we've got a word to proclaim.
This may be the first and last time I get to preach because
it's a challenging word, but it's something that I can't get
away from and it's something I think we all need to hear.
But I will tell you this, I am thankful for our staff here at
Riverbend Church. Man, we are blessed to have the
staff that we have. Go ahead.
And I have a new found appreciation for our pastoral
staff because you, me, I'll preach to me a lot of times I
get into just checking off boxes and I come into church and I sit
down and I sit here and I go okay, Jared Preston being
whoever, bless me and I don't take, I take for granted what
happens Monday through Thursday while they're at work.
For this all to take place. And so I'll be honest and say in
the past when I was way more immature than I am now, I would
have roast preacher for lunch. I'm sure I'm the only one that's
ever done that. But then you go to a week like
this week and Lord is talking to me and stepping on my toes and
I'm going, Lord, you really want me to say that and go through
that? And it's yes, I do, Scott.
And we have to be obedient. But I I'm thankful.
I'm thankful for our pastors. And what about Preston Graham?
Last week he did not give a word.
Preston is out of town. He's watching online.
Unbeknownst to Preston, what he preached is going to go hand in
hand. Has to be a God thing of what
we're going to do today with our time together.
We're going to take a short break.
From unfamiliar Rd. We're going to kind of do a one
off this morning. I'm going to chase a rabbit like
the camera men are going to be doing chasing me because I don't
stand in one spot. But I have enjoyed the time that
we have spent in the book of acts.
Jared, my nephew, has done a pretty good job and if I had a
dollar for every time I was asked that question, I'd be a
rich man and I'm going to keep you guys guessing.
But it's been a while since we have gone through a book of the
Bible and it to me it has helped kind of paint a picture in my
mind of the early church and what all they went through.
So I appreciate that. But it also makes me ask the
question, you know, man, why did they grow so quick like that?
Well, number one we obviously know is the Holy Spirit, but I
think it was something else that we're going to go over today
that I think we can do as a church, actively participate.
Today's not just a check off the box moment.
I want you to take notes, write a couple of steps down because
you're going to have homework and that homework is going to go
along with the three questions that Preston asked last week.
If you haven't had a chance to listen to that message, I want
you to go back and find it online and listen to it because
it'll make today click. So we're going to go over the
three questions first that Preston asked last week.
And you know, I'm not a tech savvy guy.
I don't have a cool iPad or tablet like everybody else.
I have a piece of paper or papers with an 18 font, so I I
may not have to read these. I didn't know, I didn't realize
I I put it that big. But I'm kind of glad I did.
So the questions he asked last week were, would you recognize
the voice of God? Do you trust God?
And what's the assignment? Another thing that he hit on.
That we have to I think get in our minds and or again I'm
preaching to me. So another thing that I have to
hear over and over again is God wants to use us.
God wants to use you, God wants to use you.
Oakwood if we're believers, we're.
If we're followers of Christ, God wants to use us.
I think. I think Preston said if he can
use filthy rags like me, he can use anybody.
And I feel the same way. God wants to use us, but would
we recognize the voice of God? Do we trust him after he tells
us to go? And what's the assignment?
Well, this morning I'm going to give you the assignment we're
going to pick up. We're pressed and left off, and
I'm going to give you the assignment.
It's for us to start thinking this question.
Who's my one? Start thinking now and
meditating on that during our next 30 minutes together of who
is my one? So listen, several years ago
there was a place that me and my buddies would hang out a lot of
times on a Friday or Saturday night or sometimes if if we
weren't busy doing anything with sports, it was Friday and
Saturday night. And listen, it wasn't the mall.
It wasn't Lake Shore Mall. I'm fixing to really dating
myself. It wasn't Lake Shore Mall or I
think it's called the Small now or I don't even know if it's.
I don't even know if you can call it a small now, but with
the lack of stores there. But it wasn't the arcade,
although we went there to. You might remember a place
called Planet Earth on Shallowford Road Arcade.
Man, I put a lot of quarters in those machines out there, but it
wasn't there. The place we we hang out was
Blockbuster. Now listen, young folks, if you
haven't been to a Blockbuster and experienced the excitement
of a release date. Of driving 20 minutes to get to
a Blockbuster, into rushing into that store.
And I'm, I'm telling you our we would hang out.
We would get the candy out of the bins and start eating it
right there. And we would talk and goof off
on people, watch make fun of folks and and then we would run
over to this, to the, you know, Goonies, Indiana Jones,
whatever. And we would see the box and we
go and we get the box. There's no tapes behind it.
It was checked out. Now listen, back in the day,
young people. These these movies weren't 1995
or they weren't $5 in the big COVID bin at Walmart.
They were three and four and $500 apiece.
That's why it took Blockbuster to buy 10 copies of it and to
rent it out. And so, man, the nostalgia of
doing that and hanging out was was was awesome.
But then the agony of defeat when that movie wasn't there.
So now we get to cheat. We sit in a chair.
We press a button Amazon Prime or Netflix and we get to watch
the movie. We had to walk to a Blockbuster
uphill both ways on a chance to get a movie and now you just go
click Netflix. In 2000, Netflix was struggling.
They offered to sell their company to Blockbuster for $50
million. They said we're struggling, $50
million. You can have this.
You know, we we don't know we're going to make it.
Blockbuster goes, you know what, That's a fad streaming.
That's not good. We're Blockbuster.
We're the pinnacle. We don't need you.
Fast forward to today, Netflix is worth 194 billion with a B
dollars. Blockbuster is no more.
Blockbuster failed and we have to ask the question why?
Next we have Yahoo. I wasn't a Yahoo guy.
I was an AOL guy. Didn't know much about Yahoo,
just are looking it up. And in 2016 they were.
They were a powerhouse in the Internet revolution.
In 2016 they were the sixth most visited site in the world.
Not America the world. In 2011 they were the third
largest e-mail provider. In 1998, Yahoo refused to buy
Google for $1,000,000. After all, Yahoo was the giant.
Google was the Ant. There was no need.
Hey, we're not changing. We're going to do it.
It's proven what we're doing is right.
We're going to keep on that road.
We're not going to veer off on that.
We're not going to change. There's no need for that.
But in 2002. They go, wait a minute, Google,
man, they are growing leaps and bounds.
You know what? We need to go back to the table.
Google will buy you. We'll buy you for $3 billion.
Google says Ain't no way we are growing.
We're the next thing. But you know what?
We still we'll sell, but we want to sell for $5 billion.
Yahoo goes. That's the overestimate of the
company. We don't need you.
We're going to keep going. They refused to buy Google for
five. Billion dollars Today Google is
the giant and Yahoo is the Ant. Google is worth 1.5 trillion
with a T dollars. Yahoo failed.
Why? We don't want to change.
We're going to keep going. All right.
Last down memory lane. Y'all are not listening quick
enough. Last down memory lane.
Who knows what this is. OK, yeah, just the old people.
So, all right, young people, listen.
This is a Kodak photo shack. Kodak invented or or they came
up with the They developed the first digital camera in 1975.
Kodak did young people. You would get film out of an
actual camera. You would put it in an envelope.
You would write your information down on it.
And you would give it to a young lady or a young man in this
building. I don't know how do they use the
bathroom? It doesn't matter.
So you would give them the film and they would say come back in
two weeks and you can have your film developed.
And we're like awesome. And so again, anticipation,
we're waiting and because we want like any Great American, we
want that the the photos of the Great Smoky Mountains when we
went on vacation and put the quarter in the bed and then we
would the Panama City Beach. Half the crowd didn't get that.
And so two weeks later, we would drive back to the photo shack,
Kodak Shack, and get the film or get the pictures and take them
out of the envelope. They were dark, They were out of
focus. And you missed that moment.
And now you can get your smartphone.
Smartphones make us dumb, but you can get your smartphone.
You can take a picture, you can see it right then and there.
Kodak filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
And you can name other companies.
You can name BlackBerry. You can name Sears.
Man, I love Sears. You can get a tie, a lawnmower,
a wrench, a shirt all at the same store, Toys-R-Us.
Why did all these companies file for bankruptcy?
close their doors, or they're struggling today.
And I think it's because they forgot their purpose.
They forgot their purpose. They forgot why they were
founded. And they forgot why they existed
and they and they didn't want to change.
So the question has to be asked, what about the church?
An alarming rate. Churches are closing their doors
and it's. Is it because we're forgetting
our purpose? And my Sing River bends there?
Absolutely not. Absolutely not.
But I think it's important to talk about history so we don't
fall into that. So we have to find out what our
purpose is. Let me first tell you what our
purpose is. Not.
Our purpose is not to have really awesome small groups.
And I love my small groups. Groups, plural.
I go Tuesday morning to the men's group.
I don't get to stay as as much or as long as I used to because
of work driving to Atlanta Wednesday nights.
I get invited to go to the one at Long St. haven't been there
yet. Sunday nights I go to Greg's
house, Pastor Greg and Oakwood. That's my main small group.
But that's not our main purpose. Our main purpose is not to love
on people while they go through trials and tribulations, but
that's a good thing. Our our main purpose is not to
have an awesome car show on Father's Day, to reach Dad's.
Although that's a good all those things, by the way, are good
things, and we need to do them. In fact, we need to do more of
them. We need to do more of them.
But those are extras. Those are outpourings of our
main purpose. Our main purpose.
We're going to start up where Preston left off, and it can be
found in scripture. Therefore, go and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and
the Son and of the Holy Spirit. We're starting off, or Preston
left off. That is our purpose.
That is the purpose for me as a believer, as a follower of
Christ. All those other things are great
and we need to continue doing them.
The Great Commission is our purpose.
Why would God give us as believers the Holy Spirit and
expect us not to share? He wouldn't.
Why would God give us a lot to shine and us not shine it?
He wouldn't expect that. He expects us to do that.
We can't lose our focus and we can't lose our purpose because
if we do, we're not going to reach the next generation.
Some of you know what I do on a daily basis for a job with our
youth in our great state. And I'm telling you right now,
because I see it every single day, if we don't reach them,
somebody else is going to. I don't want this to be toast
up, and I want this to be challenging because I'm fixing
the to remind you that you can do this.
We have to remember who we are in Christ, because if we rely on
ourselves, we can't do it. If I rely on myself right now,
it will be done in about two or three minutes.
So you can go get in line, get something to eat.
I've got to rely on Christ. We can do this.
If we don't reach the next generation, somebody else is
going to. It could be a gang.
It could be a group of people that that we don't want hanging
around our youth. Here's the point.
We have a If you're a believer, if you're a follower of Christ,
if you said yes to Jesus, don't you realize you have a life
changing story within you? You have a story inside you that
can save a life. Now it's not that story that
saves a life, but it's that story that points them to Jesus
and they get saved as a firefighter.
I've pulled somebody out of a burning house before, but that
doesn't hold a candle to the story that I can tell to save a
soul. Not me, but Jesus.
All I have to do is point people to Jesus.
We make this way harder than this has to be.
So Oakwood, Gainesville Online. Now that we've been reminded
what our purpose is, how can we participate?
We can participate by starting and asking the question, who's
my one? Who's my 1:00?
There's importance to one. Remember what we heard on
Father's Day. One person led a person to
Christ, and that person led a person to Christ, and that
person led a person to Christ, and that person led Billy Graham
to Christ. And Billy Graham today is still
touching lives because of his story.
Is going on and on and on. Doctor James Merritt says it
like this. Pretty elementary thought here.
People who find Jesus find people who need to find Jesus.
If I have found Jesus and Jesus in my heart, I'm going to start
finding people that need to find Jesus and start pointing people
to Jesus. We're going to go through a book
or a story in the Bible today that someone much smarter than
I. Had to point out because I would
have read over the story and not got the meat out of it.
And so it's going to be in the book of John and Jesus is just
coming on to the scene. John the Baptist is there.
Preacher, a prophet. He's making the way, Preston
said last week. Making the way, getting the
spider webs out of the way. John the Baptist is paving the
way for Jesus. Lamb of God is coming.
Prepare now and so. All he does is point people to
Jesus and guess what? That person.
Point somebody else to Jesus and a chain reaction begins.
Now listen, they didn't have to go to a class.
They didn't have to learn. The Romans Rd. to salvation.
They didn't have to memorize at least 10 scriptures.
They just got involved, told a story and pointed somebody to
Jesus. And these were ordinary people.
I think we heard that last week as well.
When we hear Jesus wants to use you, These weren't pastors.
These weren't professional speakers.
Listen to me this morning. They were just ordinary people.
The first thing that we have to do is involve one.
Now listen, let's take off the pressure right now.
One. Just one.
Not ten. Not 5.
Not three. You guys.
Wait a minute, Scott. Just one.
We we've got to reach this community.
We do. But look at the number of people
in here and then the next service.
What would this room look like if everybody involved one?
And listen, here's your time frame over the next year, one
person can reach one person in a year involve 1.
You know, in January we had our annual time of prayer and
fasting and we there was a list, we made a list of seven things
that we would be praying for during those 21 days, probably
marriages, finances, jobs. But I guarantee you at least one
of those items was a person. So you may not have to think too
long to start asking the question, who's my one.
And now listen, if you want to be don't don't say 10 and this
turn into you know. New Year's resolution.
It though that 10 turned to 0. Just go after one over the next
year, guys, this is doable. And then we're commanded to do
it. Matthew 28, who is that for?
Everybody. Everybody that calls themselves
a Christian, a cross follower, A believer.
We're all command to do that. Not just pastors, not just the
Riverbend staff. Not if you're 10 years old or
nine years old or a certain level.
No, no, no, everybody. So John chapter one, we're going
to start in verse 35 and verse 35.
The following day, John was again standing with two of his
disciples. Now these are disciples of John
the Baptist. As Jesus walked by, John looked
at him and declared, look, there's the Lamb of God.
When John's 2 disciples heard this, they followed Jesus.
Now again, John the Baptist, the spokesperson, is making the way.
These two guys were Jews. They understood that language.
Lamb of God. There's the Lamb of God that
takes away all the sins of the world.
And they thought, oh, wait a minute.
Plus, they were involved with John the Baptist.
John the Baptist was pouring into them.
And like any good leader, you know what his job was, his job
was to point people to Jesus and what John the Baptist do, He
started kind of fading away in the background and letting Jesus
do his thing. The chain reaction had begun.
So what does Jesus do? How does Jesus respond to this?
In verse 38 it says Jesus looked around and he saw them
following. And Jesus, what do you want now?
This is not what do you want of 2023.
What do you want? Another way of saying that back
then is what do you want? What do you seek?
What can I help you find? What can I help you with?
Jesus was just starting a conversation.
That's all he was doing. What do you seek?
What can I help you with? How can I get involved?
Guys, we can do the same thing. And in fact, you do it on a
daily basis. And sometimes you do that with
complete strangers, you know? What are you talking about?
You asked complete stranger. Hey, you passing?
How are you doing? You may know them a little bit.
You go. Hey, how's the family?
How's your family in the South? How's your mom and them?
We do it every day. We ask people questions.
There's a pastor that when he feels that he wants to take the
conversation a step further. Now, this may be a complete
stranger. This may be somebody he's known
for for a while, and he calls them permission questions.
And his permission questions are, Hey, do you mind if I ask
you a spiritual question? Okay.
That that's the way of him, him doing it.
Or he says, do you mind if we talk about spiritual things and
then he lets that person drive the conversation?
He says Now very rarely they turn him down, but sometimes I
do. They go, you know what, that's
kind of personal that, you know, I want to keep that.
And he go, OK, that's fine. And they keep talking about
baseball or whatever it is they're talking about.
No harm, no foul. Don't make it weird.
They don't have to be. Here's the one that I use.
And I'll tell you, I have never ever been turned down.
Zero. It's even easier than those two.
And I'll use it last Thursday. So I'm in a store in Atlanta and
I have a birthday cake in my hand.
I'm taking it back to the office and I'm fixing to leave the
store. And I passed this lady that says
have a good day and I get about 5 or 6 paces past her and I go,
Are you serious? Lord, been there.
And she's going to think I'm an idiot.
But it's happening more and more.
I go, So I go back and I go, ma'am, you're going to think I'm
may think I'm a complete idiot, but that's okay.
Is there anything I can pray for you about?
Are you going in? Are you going through anything I
can pray with you over. And she goes, well, matter of
fact, yeah, she was probably about my my age and she said if
I got this fulltime job here. I've I'm going back to school.
I got a family at home to take care of out anxiety is built up
and I'm laughing on girl preach. You know my life right now and I
said okay you mind if I pray for you?
She said please that particular moment is not the time to catch
up on your prayer life. Remember this young lady's
working so I said a simple prayer and I got done and I said
ma'am, hope that blesses you. Have a great day.
And if nobody else tells you today, I appreciate what you do.
And I walked away. Now, did that mean something to
her? I don't have a clue.
Did she think I was a religious idiot?
I don't know. Did it?
Did it turn her day around?
I don't know. But I'll tell you this.
It was what I was supposed to do.
I recognized the voice of God. I trusted God.
And I knew what my assignment was at that particular moment.
And I did it. Now listen.
Does that happen every time? No.
I wish I could say that, but there are times where I have
something in my hands. Usually it's probably my
smartphone if it's not a cake. And I I say to myself, I'm too
busy. I'm listening to everything else
around me and I'm, I'm too busy, you know, Lord, I know you said
that, but I I got to go. I got to go back to the office.
I got things to do. I'm driving our camera people
crazy right now. It doesn't happen like it's
supposed to every time. How can I pray for you?
Are you going through anything? Isn't that showing somebody that
they matter? There's probably people in this
room. Yeah, I know for a fact There's
people in this room that is going through a battle and they
need to hear from you. Not a preacher, not a staff
member. They need to hear from you.
You know what, dude? Been there, done that.
Let me tell you what I did involve one who is my one.
So Jesus said, what do you want? That was a long point right
there. Sorry about that.
What do you want? What are you seeking?
What can I help you with? And so the reply they say,
Rabbi, which means teacher, where are you staying?
Come and see. Jesus has come and see.
You know what he was doing? He was just getting involved.
Jesus was getting involved. You know, a lot of times it is
like seeing a car wreck. You turn.
I don't want to get involved. I don't know what to do.
Or again, the phone comes out, Jesus is getting involved right
here. If we want to be a You Matter
church, we're commanded to get involved.
Who is my one? Involve one.
We've got to get off the sideline, folks.
I don't care how old you are, how young you are, what's your
level of experience? We're called to be on the field,
not in the grandstands. So back to the chain reaction.
John the Baptist says look, the Lamb of God, the two disciples
of John the Baptist that start following Jesus.
They ask where you stay in. Jesus says come and see and we
pick up in verse 40. Verse 40 says.
Andrew Simon Peters brother was one of these men who read what
John said and then followed Jesus.
Andrew went to find his brother Simon and told him we have found
the Messiah, which means Christ Andrews first reaction was to go
tell his brother. Andrew asked the question who's
my one? And Andrew goes my brother some
of you. When I said who's your one, you
automatically thought of a family member.
A sister, a brother, a mom, dad, sisterinlaw, brotherinlaw, aunt,
uncle, your spouse. For some of you, it could be a
neighbor. It's going to be somebody that
you have lived near or next to for years.
It could be a coworker. And again, we feel like, Oh my
God, it's going to make kind of weird.
It's a coworker. I've been with it for 10 years.
No people are searching in 2023. This is the easiest time to say
what can I pray for you? Over and with?
We've got to get out of our comfort zone.
That's what it boils down to. There was a book written in 2012
by Bill Hybels called Just Walk Across the Room.
That book was purchased for me by secretary when I worked at
the fire department years ago. Listen to part of the
description of the book What If You Knew?
That by simply crossing the room and saying hello to someone, you
could change that person's life forever.
Just a few steps to make an eternal difference.
It has nothing to do with methods and everything to do
with taking a genuine interest in another human being.
I'm going to read that part again.
It has nothing to do with methods i.e. scripture.
I don't know enough scripture and everything to do with taking
a genuine interest in another human being.
All you need is a heart that is in tune with the Holy Spirit and
a willingness to venture out of your circle of comfort and into
a person's life. In other words, involve.
One who's my 1:00? So after step one, we go to Step
2, which is influence. One influence one we're going to
pick up in verse 43. The next day Jesus decided to go
to Galilee. He found Phillip and he said to
him, come follow me. Phillip was from Bethesda,
Andrew and Peter's hometown. Philip went to look for
Nathaniel and told him we found the very person Moses and the
Prophets wrote about his name is Jesus the son of Joseph from
Nazareth. So how does this show influence
involvement always brings influence everybody in here
under the sound of my voice in an Oakwood.
You have influence over somebody.
Is it a good influence? Is it bad influence?
Why not use our influence for the Kingdom?
So Andrew started at home while Phillip went to a neighbor.
Andrew went to his brother. Phillip went to his buddy
Nathaniel. And I say again, Scott, get out
of your comfort zone. You know, it would be easy for
me to check boxes like I mentioned earlier, I mean.
Just to be real personal here, I get here really early, before
any of you get here. I help unlock doors.
Sometimes I help with the tent. I'll make sure the the ladies
and and guys at the cafe have everything that they need.
Sometimes I have to go get the Donuts.
Sometimes I do a lot of churchy things and it will be easy for
me to go. You know what?
And I stay for the second service.
I'm here for both services and sometimes I'll stay at one here.
Then I go to Oakwood. You, Scott, are you trying to
talk yourself up? Absolutely not.
I'm telling you, none of that is my main purpose.
None of that. What's my purpose?
If I'm not careful, I can check off boxes and say, you know
what? I've done my job, but I haven't
even begun to do my job. Our job as believers begin when
we walk out of this building. We are called in here to help
get equipped. And by the way, if you're going
to get equipped by just a 30 minute message from somebody
bringing it to you, you need more equipment.
You got to spend. You got to die to self daily,
pick up the cross, spend time with the Lord.
You know, we've heard an old concept of how would your
relationship be with your spouse if you communicated with them
once a week Wouldn't be very good.
One time a week, 30 minutes on a Sunday morning is the only time
you would talk to your spouse or communicate.
And I have a great week of prep time because I'm with the Lord
and I'm saying, Lord, I've got to have you for Sunday.
Lord, I need you. And the Lord's going, dude, I'm,
I'm here. I'm here every week.
Jared's preaching next Sunday, Scott.
And you know what? Monday morning, I'm going to be
here for you again. You can still spend time with me
like you did this week. Toe stepping on me.
It had nothing to do with the sermon.
We have influence church. Our job begins when we walk out
of this building. Staff.
That means you too. Don't get caught up on churchy
things. Monday through Thursday,
ministry happens outside the walls of this church.
It's a challenge to us all. So after we involve one and we
influence one, we yeah, y'all got to hurry.
We invite one. Let's go in verse 46, Nazareth,
exclaimed Nathaniel. Can anything good come from
Nazareth? Come and see for yourself,
Phillip replied. Now, first of all, I think it's
kind of funny we we thought we invented the joke.
Alabama. Can anything good come out of
Alabama or Tennessee? Can anything good come out of
Tennessee? Sorry, Stacy, they were using
that joke way back when. But no, really.
He was using that because at that time Nazareth was
insignificant in a small village.
But history would change all that, Of course.
All of this chain reaction leads up to invitations.
John the Baptist points people to Jesus.
Jesus invites Andrew. Andrew invites Peter.
Jesus says I'm going to do this again.
Jesus invites Phillip. Phillip invites Nathaniel.
They don't get into a debate about theological questions.
Do you sprinkle? Do you dunk?
King James and I, he they point people to Jesus.
Period. We are the ones that are making
this too difficult. Should we know scriptures?
Yeah, absolutely. But a lot of times it just takes
telling your story. You know, in closing, how do we
wrap this up? What is our response?
And we think about the three things that I want to start
asking you to to think about and to pray over is involving 1
influencing one and inviting 11 matters.
One can lead to another, can lead to another.
That leads to a revival right here in this church in our city.
In our community, we don't have to have a revival service in
spring, in the fall. We don't have to have an
evangelist come in. All we've got to do is remember
who we are in Christ. That's what we've got to do.
And one matters and let me tell you why.
Couple weeks ago we had 26 people in the new members class
and 20. Three of those have already
joined Riverbend Church. Four to six more are on the
docket for next time. We have baptisms coming up I
think next Sunday. A couple of months ago at United
weekend, 3 youth got saved, 1 mattered to them.
Somebody poured into them. Last Sunday, we heard that two
people got saved at a nearby apartment complex. 1 mattered to
them, somebody shared to them. It was a share in their story.
Share your story. You know I've only got 24 hours
in the day. And my wife has to remind me
that all the time, my true accountability partner, Scott,
how are you going to do all these things that you say you're
going to do? And some of them don't even
matter. And I get all puffed up and go,
what do you mean they don't matter?
But they don't. They don't matter with this.
They don't matter for my main purpose.
I don't want to end up like one of those companies.
And if I'm not careful, I will because I'm listening to
everything else. How many of us can fall into
that category? You made it.
You may be at a place this morning where you don't feel
like you matter, that you haven't heard it or that you
haven't felt it. Let this be the place, Let this
be the starting point to know what Preston said last week.
You have a father that is running after you.
You may feel like, you know, I'm a billion steps away from God.
A billion steps. That's a lot that you walk away
from God. A billion steps.
But you are one step back in his presence because he's been
following you the whole time. One step back, if you're looking
looking for purpose this morning, here is where you're
going to find it. Pastor Greg, we're going to toss
it off to you at Oakwood to lead everybody down there.
We love you. We hope and pray that you have a
great week here. What is our response going to be
this morning after listening to this message?
It could be obviously praying and let me give you 3 prayers.
One prayer could be who's my one?
What person are you going to tell me to go after over the
next year? And we would have to have two or
three services. We'd have to open up the
overflow downstairs. Not for COVID but for
overcrowding. Who's my one?
Or the prayer could be Lord, I've been walking away.
A billion steps away this morning, I need to turn back to
you so I could recognize the voice of God, so I can trust God
and pick up my next assignment. Or the prayer is saying yes to
Jesus for the very first time. Some of us may need to come down
to this altar and pray this morning and listen.
I am not trying to bring about an emotional response.
I don't want emotion. I want relational You can pray
right where you're at. We say that all the time.
But you know what? There's just something about
coming to an altar and praying and feeling the hand of somebody
else. Pray with you.
And I'll say right now, if you come down here and pray, you
will not be by yourself. Prayer warriors, listen to me.
If somebody comes down here, hands on you.
Matter is a lifestyle. I'll wear it on my shirt as a
reminder that now I've got to live it.
So that could be our prayer this morning.
Who's my 1:00? AM I turning back to you?
Or am I saying yes to Jesus for the very first time?
You Lord? I don't know.
People are. People are going to wonder why
I'm coming down there. If we can't be real with the
people in this room, we can't be really anywhere else.
Listen, let me go ahead and take the pressure off.
We are all messed up and we are all broken.
If God is stirring move this morning let's pray.
Heavenly Father we come to you this morning only the way that
that we know how just broken and we're tired of trying to fix it
ourselves. We need you.
There could be someone in the. The the room this morning that
they need to say yes to Jesus for the very first time.
They may have a story. They may have a story like mine
that I walked down the aisle at 16 years old.
But I walked down for the wrong reason.
I did because my friends did. It took several years later to
go, oh, I'm lost. I have fooled everybody around
me. I was a counterfeit and I
wouldn't even have a real good counterfeit.
I would like a monopoly. Dollar it was out of good
counterfeit. I didn't fool you, Father.
Who's who's my one? Who's the person that I'm going
to go after to involve influence and invite over the next year,
Father, for that person that has walked away from you, that needs
to turn back around, be with him this morning.
Help them come back to you, Father.
If there's somebody here that needs Jesus, I pray that today
is the day of salvation for them.
Let revival start today for Riverbend Church only because of
who you are and what you have done and what you've done for us
in Christ. And we pray.
Amen. Let's stand together.
Thank you for listening to the Riverbend Church Podcast.
Learn more about who we are as a church and how to connect.
You can head over to our website Riverbendchurch dot Life.