| Ben's Message
given to Youth Group on 23-02-2008
Acts chapter 1:15 and 2:41 tell
us that the early Church went from 120 believers to 3,120 believers
overnight. But that's not all. Acts 2:47 tells us that "each day the Lord
added to their group those who were being saved. “The number of Christians
grew daily!
And Acts 4:4 says that many of the people who heard the disciples' message
believed it, and the number of believers totalled about 5,000 men, not
counting women and children.
So, how many people are
we actually talking about here?
Conservative estimates at this point, put the number of believers around
20,000.
In the first year after Christ’s death, the number of believers grew from
120 to 120,000.
So tonight we are going to picture the church twice as big.
If the church is twice as big, were about are you in a church with 500
people.
Are you in the corner hiding, are you on the stage singing, are you in the
hall playing table tennis, are you in the kitchen cooking and cleaning or
outside in the car park chatting.
Will you be active in a church with 500 people?
When was the last time you prayed for the church to double the number of
people?
Someone said “don't pray for rain without first opening an umbrella”.
Often, we pray for God to do something; yet, we are not prepared for it to
happen.
And if we personally are not prepare to love, care and nourished new
believes then
why are we praying?
Why are we even in church?
Church is not a place for Christians to hide but a place to learn, grow and
bond.
When we have outreaches, its one thing to have visitors come now and then,
but we're talking about change (in lifestyle), were talking about
commitment.
If God is leading you to do something big, don't invite 3 or 4 people;
invite thousands!
Galatians 6:7 tells us,
"You will always reap what you sow".
If you invite 5 people, don't expect anyone to show up.
But if you invite 1000 people, there's a good chance you might fill up the
place!
Focus all your efforts on every Major Outreach event.
So how do you invite that many people at once?
Word of mouth. The No. 1 way to invite people is by word of mouth.
And the cost for word of mouth is zero.
The biggest invasion of people results when your friends bring their
friends, who bring their friends and so on.
That's why some churches can grow by a 1000 people in 1 week when it might
take them years. The larger a church grows, the more important word of mouth
becomes.
We also can invite them by E-mail, flyers, posters and SMS.
The harvest is plentiful but the labours are few.
So for the remaining week leading up to our first Outreach.
I want to guys to open your mouth, email and sms everybody.
I what you guys to share your story of how Jesus Christ changed your life
and maybe just maybe your friend will be saved.
So how do we do it?
Give out a flyer, spread the word.
Here’s an example of how I use to do it!
So you come up to your friend.
Hey Johnny, how are things going?
What you up to next week?
Can I share something with you?
You know how I lost my job; well it has been a depressing period of my life.
I go to church now, you know.
Really!
Yea, well, church is not all boring; I found that Jesus Christ was real. I
mean his real because, I accepted him at my lowest point in my life and he
came and help me.
Thiers a guy coming to our church next week, to talk about Jesus Christ if
you want to know more?
I heard his a really good speaker.
Maybe we can ask him questions about Heaven and Hell, what happens when we
die, that kind of stuff.
You keen to go with me and find out.
The greatest witnessing tool you can use is yourself.
Turn your bibles – I am going to give you guys a Revelation tonight.
Say out loud – I want a Revelation tonight!
The Workers Are Few
In Mathew 9:35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in
their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every
disease and sickness. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them,
because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37
Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are
few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his
harvest field."
2000 years ago, how many people do you think was on the earth?
What was the population at the time of Jesus birth?
Google - estimated the world population at 0A.D to be 300 million.
So listen up –
Why on earth did Jesus say to his disciples that the harvest
is plentiful.
When the population was only 300 million?
Then Jesus said this
“Ask the Lord of the harvest,
therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
What does that mean?
Lord of the harvest –
who? –
Who is lord of the harvest?
God!
Therefore to send out workers into the field – who? The 12 disciples, the
120 disciples?
I want you guys to keep this in mind as we study the word of God.
Let’s Pray!
Turn your bibles to Ephesians 1:5
Ephesians 1:5 tells us God predestined us, from the moment he determined to
create the earth that man would populate it, and no other beings but mankind
should become his children.
"Blessed [be] the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly [places] in Christ: According as
he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good
pleasure of his will, To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he
hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Eph. 1:3-6)
[predestinate means = Established, laid down, already made]
So before the world was even formed. We were already living. WOW.
We were already living.
Think about this?
How can that be?
Ba-rack O-ba-ma - In his book ‘Dreams from My Father’ wrote that he used
alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine during his teenage years. to "push questions
of who he was out of his mind".
Is it me or am I crazy when I sometimes feel, like I don’t belong here?
Like I have lived before….
I am not even 30 yet but somehow I feel that I have seen everything the
world has to offer.
I have seen Mount Everest, even though I have not climbed her.
I have been to the moon even though I have never entered a rocket.
I have even been to America and Europe even though I never left Australia.
How?
Through TV, internet and movies.
So in such a short time I have seen it all and know it all.
Don’t you guys feel like you have lived before, Don’t you guys ever long to
fly or sense somehow that we use to fly once.
Don’t you guys longed to be free.
So the question you guys should be asking is: How have we live before?
And what were we doing?
And if we were predestined, does that mean that some are predestine to go to
heaven and some to hell, some are good and some are evil.
The answer is No, we are all predestined by God as Children of God but we
also have a choice to sin or not to sin.
And this is the reason or purpose God created the Earth.
Turn to
Romans 8:29-30
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called,
them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
So God did not predestine everyone, but For ‘Whom’ he did foreknow, and Whom
he did predestinate. Not all of us have a destiny. Only those God has
called.
I want you guys to keep this in mind.
I am a person that always rans away from Gods work. Much like Jonah.
But somehow I am always doing it, in the church or outside the church.
When God has predestine you, you can not escape him.
Also remember that God will Call you, God will justify you [Defend, explain,
clear away, reason] to the things we do. And he will glorify you.
And this process will take years and years.
Are you with me? Is everyone on the same page?
Ok More proof!
If God made us or if we lived once then where is this evidence?
OK I will show you.
Turn to Job chapter
38:1 Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He
said:
[I’m so glad that this was the Lord speaking and making these statements]
38:2 “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?
38:3 Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer
me.
[Now notice the thing God said ‘Brace yourself like a man’
King James is ‘Gird up now thy loins like a man’
The loins are the pro-cre-a-tive power of the body, of the mind and of the
spirit.
And God is saying “I demand an answer from thee”.
38:4 “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you
understand.
God is mentioning Ephesians.
[Now suppose that you were Job, and you have never existed before, you have
never been on earth before, and this is the first time you have ever been
any kind of a life or a creature. And your just you ‘Job’ and never been
anything else before.
And Almighty God says to you.
I demand that you answer me these questions – Job.
I demand it.
Where were you?
Where were you, when I laid the foundations of the earth?
And you Job goes “hum ********””
And Job said “well I didn’t exist, I don’t know” - Lord
Why you ask me a question like that God, are you trying to make me seem
dumb?
Some people say that God was belittling Job to show Job how small he was.
But that was not what was happening.
That was not what God said or intended to do to Job.
He said “If you’re a man, gird up your loins and answer me, like one, I
demand it”.
Where were you?
When all these things were happening?
Verse 6 Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the
corner stone thereof;
[How could Job know this, How could Job know? About the foundations being
fastened] – Created, put together, formed.
38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted
for joy?
[Now notice that God is tieing this into a time where there were sons of
God.
“They were shouting for joy”
So let us go down the chapter to verse 21, one of the most power statements
made by God. As God beings to summarize this to Job.
Here’s what it said in NIV
After God said “Have you this, have you that, what happen here and what
happen there” verse 8 to 20
Surely you know, for you were already born!
You know it because YOU were already born.
The New American Standard Bible has it as "You know, for you were born then,
That’s what it said "You know, for you were born then,
Now if anybody has any questions about this, any questions about this verse,
you know what you do, you add the next scripture to it.
You add the next scripture.
“And the number of your days is great!
You have lived so many years!
Which means time, your time has been extensive; it means you have lived for
a long, long, long time.
What is God saying to Job and us?
Job! What is man that I have loved them?
Don’t you understand Job, you were there.
At the beginning when the foundations were laid.
You were there, when the morning stars sing together.
You were there, when the sons of God shouted for joy.
You were born then! And the number of your days is great!
No one, that has not been foreknown [Realize beforehand]
No one, that has not foreknown the Lord is predestinated.
The bible says that.
Now it clearly says, it is right there in the book of Job.
It said Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many
years!
Turn to Isaiah 40:20
If you think this is isolated to Job, its not, here’s the great prophet and
he said,
“Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the
beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?”
And we say “Well of course, we all knew that”
Do you not know? hath it not been heard? hath it not been told you from the
beginning? have you not understood the foundations of the earth?
So for 2000 years the human population has grown to 6.5 billion.
Can we now say that the harvest is GREAT?
Not counting the number of people that have died since Adam and Eve
– About 3 billion.
So Jesus knew the number of men will increase. So who are the labours?
We are, for
Romans 8:29-30 says.
“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate [to be] conformed to the
image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called,
them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
So we have been called, we have been justified and we will be glorified in
the image of his Son.
Therefore we must labour because the harvest is plentiful and we must labour
because we have been all call by God.
If tonight you feel that you have not been called, you have not been
justified, or feel unaccepted, ashamed to labour for God, I urge you to get
on your knees when you get home tonight and ask Him.
Has he predestined you? Has he laid out a plan for your life?
And does it include the church, the youth group?
Does it include an opportunity for you to labour and witness to somebody?
Before the night is near and no one can work.
Jesus said in John 9:4 As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who
sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I
am the light of the world."
We have an Outreach in a week’s time.
What must we do? Save as many as we can!
Let’s Pray.
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