a lot of everything going on in our world right now, I would like to start off this morning's message and the time of prayer for our country, for our people, for our community, Many are facing racial injustice or others are facing the circumstances that come from the protests that turn into violence and others around that people in our country are facing a hurricane, There are wildfires, there's a global pandemic and oh yeah, there's an election just around the corner with so many things going on right now. I want to challenge you to do two things. One is to take a deep breath with me and then to after that breath we're gonna take our anxieties everything that's going on and give it up to God. So let's do that together, shall we? Everybody watching or if you're listening later, Still breathin here with me. Ready one 23. Let's pray God, we thank you that you are a god of justice, a god of peace, God of love for all those that are hurting right now. I want to just pray that you would give them comfort God, that those who need protection that you would be there be present God for those who have experienced loss from a natural disaster, like a wildfire or hurricane God. We pray that you would be in those situations as well. And God as our country prepares for what seems to be a very divisive election season. I pray that the church, we can come together unified under the gospel, what our country needs right now does unity and you. And while the world feels dark all around us, it's in the darkest times that your light shines the brightest and we know That you have made us for situations like these because it's in the middle of a mess that you came down 2000 years ago, lived on this earth and died on a cross and rose again, defeating death and sin and everything that comes with it. So that one day we can be together eternally with you, God, thank you for saving us. Thank you for providing comfort and a way through. And so God, as you are with us right now give us peace and give us wisdom to move forward. How you have called us as a church, it's in your son's name. We pray amen if you're just tuning in for the first time, I want to encourage you guys to actually join us online next week as we jump into a brand new series where I'm gonna be taking time to address tough questions that our community is facing right now. Things like what does jesus say about racial justice, What does jesus say about politics? How can you explain evil in the world or what do we do with the pain that we see all around us? So we're gonna be taking a look at those tough, tough and difficult questions through the lens of scripture and we're gonna try to help you and give you Biblical handles through which you can grab hold of the situations in our communities. So that's next week as we jump into a new series. But today we are going to wrap up our series entitled Everyone Together, Here we are trying to help you navigate this new normal and to get you where you need to go. In week one, we talked about how calming the anxiety within you will help you care for the people around you, just like we've modeled just now to pause and pray when you're feeling anxious, I want to encourage you to do that throughout the week. Then in week two, we shared how everyone needs someone to believe in them and how Saul had a crazy past, but when he was transformed by the good news of jesus, it was Barnabas that believed in him and paved the way for his ministry and the future of the church. And so when someone believes in you, you can turn around and actually believe in someone else and create a legacy of faith. And then in week three, we shared how everyone needs the one, I can't think of a more relevant topic right now than the gospel that everyone, what we're truly searching for is jesus, christ himself. And we see that through the story of Zakia is another unlikely character who experienced the grace of God. And then last week we talked about how everyone has a story to tell. And so the question is if everyone is telling a story, what story are you telling right now and through the lens of the woman at the Well we saw how someone's story changed when she reframed her past sheep, reframed her future and then she took harvest of the present and more people came to know him because the testimony of the woman at the well they're in the gospel of john well today we're going to wrap up our series and I want you to write this down if you're taking notes, who's your one? Yes. Our title is a question and you're gonna hear me repeatedly say this because this is the challenge for you. Who is your one? What do I mean by one, I mean this be the one to bring someone to jesus. If everyone has a story to tell, If everyone needs the one, if everyone needs somebody to believe in them, then why not you, why not you in the sense that why couldn't God use you to reach that family member, that friend or their coworker, who is one person in your life that God might be calling for you to reach and to share with the good news of the Gospel. If you have your bibles open up to Luke chapter five and we're gonna get a story where some friends bring their friends to jesus literally speaking in Luke chapter five or 17, here we go on one of those days, jesus was teaching the Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there who had come from every village of galilee and judea from Jerusalem. They're actually in an area called Kaepernick um and if you want a little bit of a historical context, Kaepernick um is really on the north side of Galilee or the sea of Galilee and that was actually the hometown of Peter. So chances are they're either in Peter's house or they're actually in another house nearby and on the same street or in the same village. And so Jesus had been healing these people and preaching and doing some incredible things. And so now the Pharisees and teachers of the law were curious, okay, they wanted to test this guy out and see if he was for real. So they came from every village there and now let's pick it up and the power of the Lord was with him to heal and behold. Some men were bringing on a bed a man who was paralyzed and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before jesus, let's continue on but finding that there was no way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles in the midst before jesus now positive for just a second, how crazy is this? That we have a house filled with the religious elite, it is a pastor's conference or a group of highly educated individuals who are there to listen and question, jesus and you have some everyday folks who have a paralyzed friend and they say, you know what? It's crowded. They don't think, you know what, I'll come back later. Instead they break the roof, that's not their house. They were willing to take the risk and break the roof of someone else's house in order to lower their friend into a face to face experience with jesus. It's wow! And so he says, but find no way to bring him in because of the crowd. They went up on the roof. See right here, I would have just said, I would have just gone home. Well, we tried maybe next week, maybe next month. But no, these guys were persistent. They had a plan, They were creative, They were courageous. And so they break the roof and they let down their friends through the roof. Can you imagine the scene here and when Jesus saw their faith? He said, man, your sins are forgiven, you and the scribes and the Pharisees began to question, saying, who is this? Who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins? But God alone? And when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answered them, why do you question in your hearts, which is easier to say your sins are forgiven you or to say rise and walk, but that you may know that the son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you rise, pick up your bed and go home and immediately he rose up before them and picked up what he had been lying on and went home glorifying God and amazement seized them all. And they glorified God and were filled with all saying, we have seen extraordinary things today. Mhm. So Jesus to demonstrate that he has the power to forgive eternal spiritual sins, physically healed a paralyzed man and told him to rise and walk. And I love I love that when he told him to rise and walk, he also said, take your mat and go home everything that you have been putting your weight on, everything that you have been depending on. Take that with you because you don't need it anymore. And if anything that matt that he was lying on became the testimony and the message that he would then share with the rest of the village, Jesus has the power to heal. Jesus has the power to save. And the friends of that paralytic man knew that. And so they helped their friends so that Jesus could heal their friends. They shared with their friends so that Jesus could save their friend. So what exactly did the friends have in order to do this? We had three things. First, they had faith. The whole reason that they took their friend to see Jesus because they believed that Jesus had the power to change things. If they didn't believe that jesus had the power they would have turned back when they hit an obstacle, but instead they overcame that obstacle and because of their faith, they were willing to risk their reputation to do what was needed to get their friend to jesus, which really leads to the second thing they had, they had love, they had love for their friend. If they didn't care for the person who was paralyzed, they could have just left the person alone or at least when they encountered an obstacle, just go back home and say, well we tried because of their deep faith in jesus and because of their deep love for their friend, they were able to take that risk and their friend was saved and was healed. So the friends, they had faith, they had love and they had courage. One of my favorite movie quotes comes from the movie, we bought a zoo with matt Damon, have you ever seen it in there when he was trying to encourage his kids to be brave? He's told them that all it takes is 20 seconds of insane courage and I promise you something great will come of it. That's what those friends had when they hit the obstacle they thought of a plan and they took a step of courage and they climbed up the wall onto the roof, removed the tiles and lowered their friend down before a crowd and before jesus, these three things are what we also need today, you need faith in jesus to go and share with others. If you don't truly believe that jesus saves, then you're not gonna go out and share the good news with other people, but at the same time if you believe that jesus offers eternal life and forgiveness of sins that is going to motivate you to share with the people around you. And then when you love people the way that jesus loved us, then you get to share what you love about God with the people that you love. I talk about my family all the time, I talk about sports all the time and things that interest me, it's natural to talk about the things that you love. So let me ask you, do you talk about God now I'm gonna be real here and say that I'm not telling you to go be awkward, right? Like oh how's the weather today? Do you know where you're gonna go, when you die? Like don't don't like scare the person, okay? But when you have an opportunity or you can ask questions like for example, we shared last week how the college students at Hope Church in Tempe go out and set up gospel appointments with people that they meet where they listen to the person's story, they share their story and then they share God's story. So can you have a spiritual conversation or ask questions with the people that you interact with to see what they believe. So that in turn you can also share what you believe. So when you have deep faith in God, deep faith and love for the people around you and just you take that moment of courage when you combine those three things together and it's amazing what God can do. In 1963, Israeli, archaeologists dug up and excavated remains around Herod the great's palace in Masada. One of the most interesting things they found was that they actually came across a jar of seeds. These seeds were dated back to around the time of Jesus maybe a little bit BC or a little bit a. D. But roughly 2000 years ago. Now that jar of seeds sat somewhere safely for about another 40 years. Until one day a group of scientists and botanists decided to plant those seeds and to see what would happen. And so they planted these 2000 year old seeds. And lo and behold actually these judean date poems grew And now to date as the latest I heard was that the tree is over 10 ft tall and bearing fruit and reproducing. So a seed that was found 2000 years or created 2000 years ago is still able to produce fruit and that's because it's known as an orthodox seed, there are two types of seed in tree life. There is unorthodox seed an orthodox seed Unorthodox seed is regular seed that cannot sustain or survive difficult situations or surroundings. So for example, most unorthodox seeds cannot survive in temperatures that are below 10°C or in extreme heat or an extreme droughts. Orthodox seeds, however, Can survive all those things, can survive extreme cold, can survive drought and apparently can last over 2000 years and still produce fruit. Why do I share about the judean date paul? Well, it's because it represents your faith. The seed of faith is an Orthodox seed because when you so that in your life it can survive global pandemics. It can survive the injustices of this world. It can survive droughts in hot temperature and cold temperature and it can last for centuries, ultimately leaving a legacy of faith for generations to come. And so here at Mission Grove Church, our vision is that we exist to help every man, woman and child experience, jesus, We want to plant Orthodox seed or the seed of faith into your life and into the lives of the people in our community so that we will create generations and legacies of faith and change in our community. I want to see a party up in heaven because the people of Mission Grove went out and brought their friends and coworkers and neighbors to jesus. And so here's the challenge, who's your one, who's your one, Can you think of one person in your life, who you can help take that next step of faith because here's what I want you to do, Commit to helping one person take their next step of faith this fall. That means before the end of 2020, it starts in a moment but reach out to a friend and take that next step of faith. Maybe that's just sharing the gospel with them again, you're not responsible for their response, you're just responsible to share. Maybe it's somebody who is curious about church but would like to visit online or in person when we can do that. Hopefully here soon. Maybe it's somebody who's curious about the faith, but you can actually walk them through a discipleship process which I'll tell you more about in just a moment, wherever somebody is on their faith journey, you always have another step to take. Imagine how our world and our community could change if every single person watching right now or listening right now on the podcast would commit to reaching one person in the name of Jesus before the end of 2020 to help share the heartbeat behind this challenge, I want to share with you a video from Pastor J. D. Greer who pastors a church called Summit Church in north Carolina. Go ahead and check out this video. We pastors dream about big numbers and we should but a daily focus on one meaningful interaction for christ. That's the true difference maker, one friend, one family member, one coworker, one person at a time. We want to see God moving our nation like we have never seen before. But it all starts with one in our church. We've learned that there's nothing that we can do that is quite as effective at reaching people as simply equipping our members security, the gospel to people outside of the church. It's not programs that reach people, it's not mailers that reach people. It's not sermons that reach people, it's people that reach people and it is individual people. Um, having a relationship with one person that they're using that relational bridge to, to share the gospel with them and live the gospel out in front of them. That is the heart of the great commission. It's multiplying disciples, making multiplying disciples. So my one is a guy that is one of my high school daughters teachers and we just really hit it off. He's not from the United States. Uh, he's new to Christianity, but he just got a ton of questions and in the last six months or so he's accepted two of my invitations to come and I come to one of our church services. I invited him recently to begin reading the Gospel of jOHN with me, which he, he said, I sat down to read the Gospel of john just a chapter two, he said by the time I got up from my chair, I read the entire thing and he showed me these pages and pages of notes and questions and he said, I can't wait to discuss. He's agreed to start coming to church regularly now. So I'm praying that the day will soon come when I will see him express faith in christ, I've got my one And now I'm challenging you and your church to join us and to find yours because ultimately the only number that really matters is one who's your one? My favorite quote from that video is when he says that God uses people to reach people and to make disciples. That means that God uses ordinary people like you and me to reach the people that are around us with the good news of jesus. Who is your one? Are you willing to commit To reach one person Before the end of 2020 in the name of Jesus here, we want to help. In fact, here's some resources that gets you started. Number one, I want to encourage everybody watching or listening right now to visit Mission Grove church dot com slash one on that web page. We are going to have both snippets of this video as well as resources for you to take that step and to help somebody else take a step in the name of jesus number two, I want to encourage you to download your free 30 day prayer guide. They have a 30 day prayer plan that works with the u version bible app if you're familiar with that, there's also an online link to where you can view that prayer guide right there on your mobile device or you can download it as a pdf and even print to have on hand, so that here in the month of september you can take the next 30 days and pray for the one person that you want to reach with the Gospel. And then last I want to let you know that there is training available when I say that we are called to share our faith, the typical push backs I get from that is that either I'm afraid or I don't know how Well first if you are afraid remember the friends in the story of Luke five, they had faith, they had love and they had courage, have faith that jesus is working in the lives of the people around you and preparing them to have a conversation with you have love for the people around you and have a loving conversation about God. You don't have to force the issue, you don't have to yell at someone, You don't have to make it a 30 30 seconds passed by a question and you don't have to make it awkward in the relationship. But look for ways to have honest open conversation about what people believe and then you share your life transformation story and you learn how to share the gospel and actually on this page we have provided evangelism training tool and that we will actually be updating this page throughout the month of september with additional tools to help you or equip you to grow and how you can share your faith and help somebody else in their journey. So if you're feeling afraid, pray to God and look for opportunities and if you're feeling ill equipped, we have resources like evangelism training and even our experienced jesus discipleship training course available free for you right now on our website, church, what are you waiting for? What are you waiting for? Who's your one movements of God start in moments with people. Let us pray together, that may be your moment could happen here in the fall of 2020, be the one who brings someone to jesus and if we do this church revival is gonna break out right here right now, let's pray dear heavenly Father. Oftentimes we pray big prayers, But right now I want to pray a very specific one that everybody watching will think of one person that they could reach with the good news of jesus, one person that they could disciple or walk through our experience, jesus discipleship training online, one person that they could maybe invite to a church service or a bible study or encourage them to get baptized or take that next step God, whoever that one person is, whoever that next or whatever that next step is, I pray that you would move and the hearts and minds and the lives, if each person watching this or listening to this right now, When we pray for our one because thankfully we were the one for somebody else. Somebody shared it with us. Somebody reach out and trained us. Somebody believed in us and loved us and had faith and had courage. And so just as someone shared with us, when we have the faith and the love and the courage to share with another, we need your power, We need your spirit, God. We ask that you would come and move. Yes and the mighty, but also in the one. Thank you for being the one. So let us go and be the one for someone else this year. It's in your son's name. We pray amen. If you want to reach your one, let us know about it, comment on whatever platform you're watching right now or fill out a connection card so that we can be praying with you and for you have an incredible week. God bless.