Who's Your One?

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? 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.