6-14-2020

 Good Morning All, 

         John 1: 40-41; “One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.  He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah”

    Are you ever fascinated by some of the great preachers of the ages?  I remember as a kid watching the Billy Graham crusades and listening to him as he held the audience in the palm of his hand as he spoke to them.  I never heard Martin Luther King Jr. preach a sermon but some of his speeches, especially the “I have a Dream” speech, are some of the classics when it comes to speaking.  Dr. Oswald Hoffman was a preacher who had very few equals.  Of course, the person deemed by almost all of Christendom as the greatest preacher ever was a man by the name of John of Antioch who was born in 349 AD.  His oratory skills were so renowned that he became known as John Chrysostom with his new surname being of the Greek word “Chrysostomos” which means “golden mouth”.

    It is something to watch people who can stand in front of hundreds or even thousands of people and preach with such intensity and with such passion.  The whole audience is spellbound by their mastery of a phrase or a thought and how they can turn your thoughts and move the audience to action by their words.  It really leaves us in awe, and this can leave us frightened.  We look at our faith and look at these monumental acts and think that there is no way that we can ever do this and maybe we cannot but deep down, we really do not have to.

    Most of us will never have the opportunity to preach like that; most of us are glad for that fact but remember one very key thought, true witnessing comes one at a time and that one time can make all the difference in the world.  Peter preached his great sermon on Pentecost.  After his sermon over three thousand came to faith, how many others were there we do not know but that was quite a sermon.  Yet we often overlook that, at the start, Peter was brought to Jesus by his brother Andrew.

    Andrew was the first to go tell his brother Peter about Jesus; just think if that had not happened?  Andrew never gets a lot of credit from many in the Church but look at what he contributed; he went and told Peter, one other person.  That is all we have to do; tell one other person.  Tell your spouse, your children, your neighbor, your workmates, whomever just tell one person.  That is how the church really grows.  Preaching is necessary but often overrated.  Usually, another person comes to faith because someONE told them about Jesus and then actively brought them to church and then to faith.  One person speaking to one person is how faith really grows.  So, if you aren’t a Peter or a John Chrysostom you can always be an Andrew and speak one on one.

Father, give us the courage like Andrew and tell one person of your love.  Give us the strength to tell one person of the forgiveness that you give.  Give us the faith to trust in you to give us the words and the actions to speak to just one person.  In Jesus’ name we pray, amen

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret