Reach one reach many-Do any and every thing possible

Reach one reach many-Do any and every thing possible

1.     God did not give us a small commission, but a great commission, "go into all the world and preach the good news of Christ's love and grace to all."

1.      If you think the church is too big, your love for people is too small.

1.      We should do anything short of sin to reach the people who don't know Christ. To reach the people no one is reaching, we will do things no one is doing.

2 Timothy 2:2 NLT [2] "You[second generation] have heard me[first generation] teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people[third generation] who will be able to pass them on to others.[fourth generation]"

2.      He knew that if he would reach one person effectively it would have dramatic and global effect forever.

1.      We are faith-filled, big-thinking, bet-the-farm risk taking believers here at CWC.

2.      I refuse to insult God with small-thinking or safe-living.

1.      This sermon is about all three of our values or principles of behavior.

2.      To Value God, Value Others, Value the Mission of Jesus Christ, and reaching people who are far from God, God is all about it.

3.      Mark 2; Jesus calls Matthew, who was a very sinful tax collector, to follow him.

1.      To the shock of all the religious people, this sinner not only follows Jesus, but throws a party at his house and invites, some other very questionable characters.

2.      These highly religious offended Pharisees are like, "Why does He eat with such scum?"

1.      That's how religious people say it.

3.      Why does he eat with those sinners?

1.      I'm wondering why if these religious cared so much why didn't they invite someone to their house or favorite restaurant for dinner instead of just ridiculing Jesus, oh I remember because that's what religious people do...

4.      Jesus' response was so shockingly controversial, like jaw-dropping, unbelievably, insane to the Pharisees.

Mark 2:17a "When Jesus heard this, He told them, "Healthy people don't need a doctor, sick people do."

5.      Then His next line would have totally thrown the Pharisees off kilter, unbelief, and just heresy.

Mark 2:17 NLT [17]b "I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners."

2.      He came to call sinners.

1.      When I see sinners struggling or a unbeliever sincerely searching for God I'm captivated.

2.      I'm inspired.

1.      Someone else might see them even struggling and think or say, "Our church didn't do much good for that guy, did it?"

3.      What I see is totally and completely different.

1.      It moves me because I see an image of a guy who probably made some bad decisions early on in life and got trapped in a sinful pattern.

2.      But he is searching for something.

3.      I see him looking, seeking, questioning God.

4.      I can see this spiritual battle going on, that he's being drawn toward what's right, but he's being held back by what's wrong.

1.      This makes me very emotional because that guy reminds me of me 21 years ago.

4.      I want to tell you, and I hope you'll  understand, this might be controversial to some of you, but following the voice of God's call and commission to Ukiah we sincerely came with sinners in mind.

1.      Honestly, I envision every week that someone will come to Christ who is far from God.

2.      I see it in my spirit so strong.

5.      Jesus did not come for those who have it all together.

6.      He came for the sick, the broken, and the confused.

7.      I made so many bad choices that the weight of my sin started to infect me, I was doing very bad things and was still seeking Jesus.

1.      Jesus came for the unrighteous, the skeptics, the doubter, He came just for me.

2.      Just one.

3.      And when I realized what He did for me, I had no other options but to go all in, I was like, "He did that; for me?"

1.      My only reasonable response was to give Him my whole life.

1.      I'm telling you, it was no partial, weekend warrior thing. It was a full-on I'm-in-this-thing. I'm following Jesus with everything I've got.

3.      I believe God is calling us to reach people who are far from God and lead them to become fully-devoted followers of Christ.

Mark 2:1-5 NLT [1] "When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that He was back home. [2] Soon the house where He was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While He was preaching God's word to them, [3] four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. [4] They couldn't bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. [5] Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, "My child, your sins are forgiven."

1.      Now, before Jesus heals this man, he goes for his biggest need first and forgives his sins.

1.      We will do anything short of sin to reach people who don't know Christ. To reach people no one is reaching, we will do things no one is doing.

2.      How true is this for your life?

1.      If you rate yourself, scale of 1 to 10, 1 You're uninterested about people far God, 10 You're super passionate about it.

1.      Don't put 10, unless Billy Graham is here today.

1.      Billy, if you're here, you put 10.

2.      If you're going to score yourself high like that, let me tell you what's true of you.

1.      You've probably led someone to Christ last week.

2.      You've probably led multiple people to Christ over your lifetime.

3.      You are praying for a bunch of people by name, people you love who are far from God.

4.      You've probably brought someone to church with you last week or this week.

5.      You probably took someone to lunch or had them over for dinner this week with the prayers and hopes in mind to minister Christ to them.

1.      You know who you're going to invite next week.

2.      You're up there.

3.      Very passionate, you care deeply about people who are far from God.

3.      Maybe you're on the other end of the spectrum.

1.      You haven't met an unbeliever and befriended them in, can't remember when.

2.      Remembering last week, you weren't praying for hardly anybody consistently to find Christ.

1.      Too caught up in our own little deal.

3.      It's been a long time since you brought someone who wasn't a Christ follower to church or, perhaps, you've never done that before.

4.      I'm not here to try to make you feel guilty, but Christianity is honest.

1.      What do our actions say we believe?

3.      I don't just want to bring people to Jesus, we have to bring people to Jesus because we know who He is and what His life really means.

4.      Number 1, I believe God calls all of us to bear some burdens, to care for those who are in a place of hurt or in need.

1.      Notice they didn't just say, "Hey, guys, I heard Jesus is going to be doing a big concert, you ought to get a ticket and get a cab."

2.      They got involved in his life and said, "Man, we're going to get you there. If we have to carry you, it may be 5 miles, I don't know how hard this might be, but we care about you enough to do this."

1.      Drive-by witnessing. They just kind of drive by, roll down the window and go, "Jesus loves you, dude. Go to my church." Nice ones.

2.      Rude ones, like, "You're going to hell. Turn or burn. Sinner. You're going to hell where the worm never dies and you'll be gnashing your teeth."

3.      John 3:16-say as fast as possible- boom I just witnessed. What is that?

1.      A for effort, F for impact.

3.      Here's what I love, they carried their friend to Jesus.

1.      Don't just invite people to church, bring them to church.

2.      There's a difference. "Go with me, I'll pick you up at 10:10am, and after we can grab some lunch." Literally bringing people to Jesus.

4.      What's stunning to me is to think about the picture. They're trying to get in the house, but they can't get in because it's so full of these people listening to Jesus. You can almost hear it, "Whoa, that was good. I'm taking notes, Jesus. Good tweet Jesus I'll tag you! Instagram, hashtag, "#HangingwithJC." "#Hangingwiththesistas."

1.      Literally, this is kind of ... what happens today, we're in church and there's people who are in need, we have our backs turned to them, doing our little Christian thing.

2.      We have our own little language, agenda, cliques, dances, and worship actions.

1.      Our actions shout, "We don't really care about you. You can just stay discouraged, stay addicted, stay in pain, and stay struggling, I'm here trying to get my praise on. I have too many friends and I'm not taking any new patients."

3.      Then you have those Christ followers who need to grow up and put on their big boy pants.

1.      They can tell you verbatim what they need to do they just refuse to do it consistently.

5.      Listen, we're called to bear some burdens.

1.      People are hurting, when they're crying, we're crying with them. When they have a baby, we're at the shower. When their mom passes away, we don't just go, like, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Text. Text. Text. We're there at the funeral, we're with the family, saying, "how can I be of service?"

2.      We bear some burdens, and then we earn the right to be heard.

3.      We show them His love before we ever tell them about His love.

4.      We need to be instantly ready to connect people to Jesus any time, any where, and at any cost.

1.      God will bless that supernaturally!

5.      I guarantee you're going to see people who are hurting, who need you to listen, that need help, see people at work that you didn't like and, suddenly, you find out that they're actually in the middle of the most horrible season of their life and that you can love them into a better place.

1.      We don't want to just get people to Jesus, we have to get people to Jesus.

5.      Number 2, some of you are going to like this one, God has called us to "break some rules."

1.      A lot of you, love to break the rules.

1.      I love to break the rules, man.

1.      I never waited 30 minutes after eating before going swimming in my whole life, still don't, I'm a rebel.

2.      I didn't wear a seat belt as a kid in the front seat of the car.

1.      My mama was my seat belt.

2.      Some of you remember, if we have to stop fast, what do you do? Bam, right?

3.      I have run with scissors and with a sucker in my mouth.

4.      I huffed more Magic Markers and gasoline fumes than you could ever even imagine.

5.      Hey don't do that, I did that!

2.      These four guys massively break some rules to do whatever it takes, to reach people who don't know Christ.

3.      Now, don't miss this.

1.      We have to get our friend to Jesus.

2.      Jesus is teaching.

3.      People are listening.

4.      We can't get in.

5.      Sometimes we have to fight the critics.

6.      Sometimes you have to fight the onlookers.

7.      Can't get through, go around.

8.      Can't go around go up.

9.      Let's go up on the roof.

10.We can dig through the roof.

1.      I did a little research and according to commentary, they would have beams that were about 3 feet apart and then the roof was actually made of mud, animal fat, and manure.

2.      What I love about this is these are guys who are not taking obstacles as a sign that God's stopping them.

3.      They're like we're going to bust through barriers.

4.      We're gonna dig through a little manure.

5.      We're going to do whatever it takes to get people to Jesus.

1.      I pray, believe and fast to have a church full of people that are crazy committed like this.

2.      I believe to hear story after story about how God is using different people to aggressively bring people to Christ.

1.      I have a friend who is building CWC a pull behind BBQ pit because I have a deep desire to feed people, random people because God loves them, have a great lunch may God bless you.

2.      I have a desire to do a gas buy down where we...I know times are hard, we just wanted to bless you.

3.      Outreaches and ministry that will challenge this culture, increase Christianity's influence, encourage, love and empower people! 

4.      If that doesn't excite you, you might need to get saved.

1.      We must stop just attending the church and actually be the church.

4.      "Light of the world, a place of healing, life, and overcoming."

1.      I see a church that does not judge those without Christ, but loves them into knowing Him.

2.      A church who will break some rules, and cut through some religious "manure."

3.      I envision a church full of people who know what it means to be sick, know what it means to be healed, and know what it means to be a dark, desperate sinner and knows what it means to be forgiven.

If you desire with all of your heart to reach people will you raise you hands all over the sanctuary?

Father, I thank you for a church full of people who recognize the call that you put on our lives. I pray, God, that a day would not end that we wouldn't see someone hurting, in need, and recognize that this is the moment to love someone, earn their trust and to, one day, maybe today, point them to Jesus."

God, I pray for those who have given up on somebody they love.

They think their dad could never come to faith.

They think their best friend could never come to Christ.

They think their children would never come back to Christ.

God, empower us with faith for the impossible.

You don't have to be perfect to come to Christ.

You come to Him as you are.

Jesus loves all.

Prostitutes, thieves, liars, cheats, murderers, gossips, drunkards, drug dealers, and drug doers. He loves the adulterer, the homosexual, the lesbian, and the rejected.

They came to Him, and He accepted them as they were, then they were transformed by His love, set free from their sin.

"Jesus, be my savior, the lord of my life. Fill me with your spirit so I could know you, serve you, follow you. My life is not my own. Today, I give it to you. Thank you for new life. In Jesus' name I pray."