Man, the title of my sermon tonight is The Value of One Person.
The Value of One Person.
The Bible has these illustrations here beginning in verse number 4, Luke 15 verse 4.
What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine
in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost until he find it?
And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbors, saying unto them,
Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.
I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more
than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance.
Either what woman, having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, did not light a candle
and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?
And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbors together, saying,
Rejoice with me, for I have found the peace which I had lost.
Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner
that repenteth.
Go, if you would, to Mark chapter 5, the importance of one person, the value of one person.
Over and over again, the Bible emphasizes this.
While you're turning to Mark 5, Jesus said in Matthew 10, Are not two sparrows sold for
a farthing, and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father, but the
very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear ye not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
So we see that God cares about the individual.
Even though there are 7.4 billion people on this earth, God still cares about each individual,
the very hairs of our head, our numbers.
He's not just this distant God or just only dealing in giant numbers, but he actually
deals with every person on an individual basis.
And we should have the same attitude where we see each person as important, each person
as valuable.
If we're out soul winning, we don't want to just be in a hurry just cranking out the doors,
just cranking out the soul winning, and just in a hurry to get to the next person.
Each person should be dealt with as if they matter because they do matter.
I like to say you should witness to that person as if you were witnessing to your loved one.
If you were witnessing to your mother, if you were witnessing to your father, your brother,
your sister, your friend, how would you witness to them, do a good job, care about that person,
and don't just be in a hurry and just on a mass assembly line.
You need to understand the value of just getting one person saved, just the value of
not only getting a person saved, but if you can disciple one person or help one person,
the individual matters to God.
Now there's so many examples in the Bible of Jesus stopping and just taking time with
one individual.
We see him singling out Zacchaeus and saying, I'm going to dine at your house today.
We see him with blind Bartimaeus.
We see him with the woman at the well.
I mean, just over and over again, we see Jesus taking time and caring about the individual.
Yes, he's preaching to a large crowd.
He's got 5,000 here, 4,000 here, an innumerable multitude here, but he always cared as well
about the individual and an individual has great value to the Lord.
Look at Mark chapter five, verse 13.
Well, actually, before we jump into verse 13, let me just explain to you the story.
Jesus comes and this guy is a demoniac.
He's filled with devils and he comes out.
This guy has been hanging around the graveyard, cutting himself.
He's violent.
He's naked.
And Jesus ends up casting the devils out of him and the devils besought Jesus that he
would cast them into the herd of swine that was there.
So that's where we pick up the story in Mark five, verse 13.
And forthwith, Jesus gave them leave and the unclean spirits went out and entered into
the swine and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea.
There were about 2,000 and were choked in the sea.
And they that fed the swine fled and told it in the city and in the country and they
went out to see what it was that was done and they come to Jesus and see him that was
possessed with the devil and had the legion sitting and clothed and in his right mind
and they were afraid.
Now how much do you think a swine costs?
How much is a pig today?
If I were to purchase a pig, how much would a fully grown pig cost?
What do you think, honey?
You've got to know the answer to this.
Five hundred bucks?
So now think about this.
Okay.
If a pig is worth about 500 bucks and you've got 2,000 of them, that's a lot of money,
isn't it?
Am I wrong to say that that's a million dollars?
I mean, that's a lot of money, right?
I mean, look, this is just a million dollars off the cliff.
You're frowning.
Am I getting the math wrong or no?
You're just double checking me?
All right.
You know, a million dollars go off the cliff.
You know what?
God's trying to show us something here that he loves people, that he cares about the individual.
And if there was any guy that you would look at and say, that guy has no value, it would
have been this guy.
I mean, this is a rough guy.
He's demon possessed.
He's naked.
He's a menace, is what he is.
But to get a guy like that saved and clothed in his right mind, Jesus is willing to just
throw a million dollars in the trash, just send it off a cliff.
Not only that, what about the destruction of animal life?
Every little piggy just choking in the sea.
I don't know.
I was trying to make a sound like pigs dying or something, you know.
Nope, doesn't care.
Million dollars worth less than the value of that one person.
Two thousand animals, kill two thousand animals to save the one man, amen?
So we see here that Jesus is showing how important one person is to him.
Now this guy was a great guy for Jesus to spend time on because watch what this guy
ends up doing.
Look down at your Bible there in verse number 16.
When they saw, when they that saw it told them how it befell to him that was possessed
with the devil and also concerning the swine, they began to pray him to depart out of their
coast.
They don't want Jesus around.
They should have made them want Jesus to stay, but instead they want to send Jesus on his
way because they have the wrong priorities.
Instead of being impressed that this guy got saved, they're just afraid or maybe they're
just upset about losing all of the wealth, but they want him to leave.
And when he was coming to the ship, so you know he's getting on the boat, he's going
to leave.
When he was coming to the ship, verse 18, he that had been possessed with the devil
prayed him that he might be with him.
How be it Jesus suffered him not, but saith unto him, Go home to thy friends and tell
them how great things the Lord hath done for thee and hath had compassion on thee.
And he departed and began to publish into capitalist how great things Jesus had done
for him and all men did marvel.
So look, by Jesus just getting this one guy saved, he's actually getting the gospel all
throughout Decapolis because this one guy that he got saved ends up preaching and publishing
it everywhere he goes in a whole region of Decapolis.
So getting one person saved can actually result in getting a lot of people saved.
If you actually take your time and have the compassion and get that one person saved and
care about that individual.
Go if you would to Acts chapter 8.
Acts chapter 8, we see another story about an individual or God taking special time out
in order to reach the individual.
Acts chapter number 8, the famous story with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch.
So in Acts chapter 8, first of all, you know, we're introduced to Philip and in chapter
6, they chose deacons and one of those deacons is Stephen.
He's highlighted in chapter 7.
And then when we get into chapter 8, there's a lot about Philip and his teaching.
And the Bible talks about how Philip was preaching in Samaria and he was having great success
when he preached there.
Look down if you would at your Bible there in verse 12.
But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, it's
chapter 8 verse 12, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women.
Then Simon himself believed also and when he was baptized, he continued with Philip
and wondered beholding the miracles and signs which were done.
Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of
God, they sent unto them Peter and John who when they were come down prayed for them that
they might receive the Holy Ghost.
So we see that Philip is having great success, men and women are being baptized.
It's such a big deal about Samaria receiving the word of God that the word of it gets down
to the apostles.
So then of course, Peter and John come up and they pray for them and anoint them with
the Holy Spirit and so forth.
So I mean this is a big campaign.
I mean he's preaching to big crowds, people are getting saved, people are getting baptized.
But then jump down if you would to verse 25.
It says, and they, when they had testified and preached the word of the Lord, returned
to Jerusalem and preached the gospel in many villages of the Samaritans.
And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip saying, arise and go toward the south unto
the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert.
And he arose and went and behold, amen.
So you know he's preaching to crowds, he's preaching to a whole city, he's getting a
lot of people saved.
But then God pulls him out of that and actually just takes him out to the middle of nowhere,
out to just the desert, just out on a lonesome highway that's empty.
And it's really just so that he can preach to this one guy, okay?
Just amen is there.
Amen of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who
had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning
and sitting in his chariot, read Isaiah the prophet.
Then the spirit said unto Philip, go near and join thyself to this chariot.
And Philip rammed thither to him and heard him read the prophet Isaiah and said, understand
as thou what thou readest.
So we see that Philip is just as enthusiastic to preach to the one person as he had been
to preach to the crowds in Samaria.
He's running toward him.
He is motivated.
He understands the value of getting one person saved.
Getting one person saved is a great accomplishment.
And you know what?
Especially if that person's you.
You know, I heard somebody say, you never understand why Jesus would leave the 99 to
go seek the one until you're that one.
You want the 99 to be left and you want to be sought, okay?
When that's your loved one, when that's you yourself, all of a sudden that becomes very
important.
We need to understand that every single person in this world has value in the eyes of God.
And if we can get one person saved, then that's a great accomplishment.
And as the Bible says in James chapter five, if we can convert one sinner from the error
of his way, we'll save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins.
And that is of great price before the Lord.
There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels, the Bible says, over one sinner that
repented.
There's joy.
There's rejoicing.
It's not just, oh, ho, hum.
Here's another one.
Oh, wait.
Only one?
Is that it?
Is that all?
Now, how is this doctrine sometimes abused?
You know, when we talk about the value of one person, the value of the individual, this
doctrine can be abused.
And I've heard it abused my whole life.
Here's how it's abused.
You'll have a missionary.
He goes off to the foreign field.
He sits on his rear end.
He's lazy.
He doesn't work.
He barely accomplishes anything.
And in a whole year's time, he gets one person saved.
Even though he's full time, I mean, he's being paid to be over there as a missionary.
And it's just, it's all worth it for that one soul.
That is an abuse of this truth.
So we don't want to take a biblical truth and use it to justify laziness.
Use it to justify unfruitfulness.
Use it to justify the wrong things.
And you know what?
There are a lot of great truths.
It's sad because they're powerful truths.
They're important truths.
But then sometimes we shy away from thinking about them or talking about them because they've
been so often abused.
And this is a doctrine that is often abused where people just want to be lazy and do nothing
and slack off and then just rarely get somebody saved.
And then they're just like, yeah, this missionary was over there for five years and he only
got one person saved.
But let me tell you something, it was worth it for that one.
That is garbage.
Of course, yeah, it would be worth it for that one person.
But what about all the other people that that bozo is letting die and go to hell.
He doesn't love and care about the individual unless the individual is the one he's looking
at in the mirror.
That guy loves the individual known as himself because if he actually loved people, if he
actually realized the value of one person, then he'd go give the gospel to one person
and then he'd give the gospel to another person.
And then he'd give the gospel to another person and then he'd give the gospel to another person.
Not just like, oh, well, there's just this one guy in my whole country that has any value
and everybody else can go to hell.
See how that's a foolish turning on its head of this truth?
But I've heard it my whole life.
He used to justify people who aren't getting anybody saved.
Now look, if some missionary is out on the foreign field and he can only get one person
saved in a year, he needs to come home.
He needs to come home.
Isn't it worth it for that one person?
You know what?
It'd be worth it for that one person and another person and another person, okay?
You can't just sit there and twist this doctrine, oh, one person matters so much, I'll sit on
my butt for 364 days and then go find that one person.
No, we need to keep finding one and another and another.
If God cares about the individual, if God values the individual, yes, what that means
is that we should treat each person with care, treat each person as valuable, as important.
Not just think of them as ho-hum, here's another one.
But actually, any time we preach the gospel to that person, we should love that person,
have compassion on that person, take the time necessary with that person, do a good job
with that person.
That's what we need to learn from this, about the value of one person.
And when one person gets saved, we ought to get excited about it.
We ought to rejoice about it.
But not to use this as a cloak of slothfulness or as a cloak of unfruitfulness or being backslidden
of saying, well, it's just all about that one.
No, actually, the Bible says some bring forth 30, some bring forth 60, and some bring forth
100.
But the thing about that 30, that 60, and that 100 is that each of those 30 is a precious
soul.
Each of those 60 is a precious soul.
Each of those 100 is a precious soul, and it's worth it for that one person.
But that doesn't give us an excuse to be lazy.
The Bible teaches that we should go out and work hard, and especially if someone's a preacher,
someone's a pastor or a missionary, they need to be getting the job done or they need to
just step down from that position.
I mean, it's just like any other job, folks.
I mean, what other industry could you work in and just be a complete failure and still
continue being hired over and over again, besides politics, OK?
Of course, politicians, they just get a raise and stay in office and keep getting hired
over and over again.
But OK, outside of politics and outside of religion, this wouldn't work in electrical
work or plumbing, right?
If you just fail at every, well, it's just worth it for that one outlet I installed.
Now truly, every outlet matters.
You don't want to miswire any of them.
You want everything to be done right.
Every bend of the conduit matters.
But don't sit there and say, well, don't you understand, sir?
You know, yeah, all I did all day was this one light bulb, but it's quite a light bulb.
You got to get out there and you got to work all day.
You got to do your best, right?
And you don't see Jesus just winning one person to the Lord and then quitting for the rest
of the year.
And you don't see Philip just getting one person saved.
You see him preaching to the multitudes in Samaria.
That's important.
And then you see him taking time for the individual.
That's important too, right?
He's got the one and he's got the group.
And it's about loving people, reaching people, valuing people, but we don't want to use this
as an excuse for people who are failing, okay?
Now you say, well, how are you a failure if you don't get people saved?
Because the Bible says, he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless
come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
Sheaves, plural, by the way, not just sheaf, okay?
Now look, I understand that different people have different abilities.
Different people have different schedules and have more or less time to invest in soul
winning and they might have different skills.
Some people are in a really unreceptive area.
Some people are in a more receptive area, but you know what?
We can all get people saved.
Put aside all the excuses and everybody can get somebody saved.
I've seen some of the most unlikely people succeed at soul winning.
Shy people and all walks of life have gone out and won people to Christ.
And you know what?
Each one of those people that you win to the Lord is a precious soul that has great value.
There's rejoicing in heaven.
We ought to get excited about it.
It's a big deal, okay?
So what I'm trying to show you is kind of the two sides of this.
The two sides of this coin.
On the one hand, when we're going out and seeing multitudes of people saved like Phillip
did in Samaria and when our church is just going out every week getting people saved
every week, getting people saved even every day virtually, okay, we don't want to get
so caught up in just the mass success that we just kind of stop seeing the individual
as the individual.
You know what I mean?
We go down to Guyana and preach in a school to 500 students or something, but you know
what?
It's just as much of a success when we can take aside that one Guyanese and just win
them to Christ on the doorstep.
That's a big deal too.
So yeah, we want to do big works for God, but we need to also remember that the individual
matters.
One person matters.
There's rejoicing over the one.
And then on the other side of the coin, we don't want to just get so into the one that
we're just like, you know, yeah, I got my one saved.
There's my prayer letter for this month.
Now it's time to tend the tulips.
And that's what the missions of most churches have become, friend.
I grew up in the old IFB listening to the missions letters about the guys who are still
praying for this one person, still praying that we'll get a chance to give them the Romans
road or, you know, it's like, what?
You know, because they're not working.
They're not soul winning, okay.
And so we don't want to abuse this doctrine and get obsessed with the number one.
We want to have a one and another one and another one and another one, right?
That's the balance of this doctrine.
So let's go back to the story here in Acts chapter eight.
So of course he goes and joins himself with this one person and he's excited, he's motivated,
he's taken it seriously, and he preaches the gospel to the Ethiopian eunuch.
Of course the eunuch gets saved and the eunuch gets baptized.
Verse 39, when they were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away
Philip that the eunuch saw him no more and he went on his way rejoicing.
But Philip was found at Azotus on Furlough and took, no, Philip was found at Azotus and
passing through he preached in all the cities until he came to Caesarea.
So we see that, yes, Philip cared about the individual, but he was also preaching in a
multitude of places to a multitude of people, right?
Get that one person saved.
Now go back to Luke chapter 15.
Luke chapter 15 is a great passage of scripture on this subject, the value of one person,
the importance of one person.
And here's the thing about this Ethiopian eunuch.
I don't think it was just a coincidence that God singled this guy out, especially to be
preached to while he was on his way home.
Because this guy had been at Jerusalem, he could have worked things out to where this
guy got the gospel in Jerusalem from one of the apostles that was up there.
But God worked this out in a certain way where this guy's on his way home to Ethiopia and
he brings Philip along with him, maybe because he knew that this Ethiopian eunuch was going
to need a little bit longer, maybe a more personalized attention.
So just get rid of all the distractions, out in the middle of the desert, Philip could
take the time, go through the book of Isaiah with the guy, go through and preach to him
Jesus out of the Old Testament.
The guy was obviously a very intelligent guy because he's one of the top leaders in Ethiopia.
Under Candace, he had great authority, the Bible tells us, and he's studying the Bible.
And so Philip took the time with this guy.
But I strongly believe that when it talks about this guy going on his way rejoicing
about being saved, I strongly believe that this guy brought the gospel to Ethiopia.
But I think that God was trying to get the gospel not to just this one guy, but to Ethiopia
in general.
And we know that historically there's been a lot of Christianity in Ethiopia.
There's been a lot of obviously corrupt religion and Christianity in Ethiopia, but just like
everywhere else, corruptions of Christianity abound in the US and everywhere else too.
But it's pretty obvious that Ethiopia heard about Christ very early and we see that the
Ethiopian eunuch is the guy that God used to be that first emissary down to Ethiopia
with the gospel.
And so when you get one person saved, when you reach that one individual, you could be
reaching thousands, right?
I mean, just winning one person, the Lord, and then who knows who you're reaching?
You might be reaching the next Philip.
You know, you're reaching the next Peter, James, and John.
You might be reaching the next pastor.
You might be reaching the next missionary, the next soul winner, the next godly parent
that's going to raise up somebody who's going to do great things for the Lord.
You never know.
I mean, great things are done by individuals all throughout scripture.
All throughout scripture we see men of God that are used, women of God, individuals that
do great things.
I mean, God is always using a person.
You know, whether it's Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, whether it's Joshua, Gideon, you know,
all the different judges, the kings, David, Solomon, men like Elijah, Elisha, Josiah.
I mean, he's using individual people and they do huge things.
I mean, Jeremiah, the prophet, the Bible says, preached to every nation under heaven.
I mean, this guy's traveling around the world and preaching to every nation.
So what about the guy who won him to the Lord?
Or what about the person who invested in him?
How about his parents that taught him the Bible?
Other people who discipled him and taught him, boy, they did a great thing by investing
in the life of Jeremiah.
So it's not just about getting people saved.
It's also about getting people baptized.
It's also about teaching people to observe all things that Christ commanded.
Those are the three parts of the Great Commission.
So even if we can take somebody who's already saved and just get them right with God, get
them living for God, get them soul winning, then we've accomplished a lot, amen?
Even just that one individual.
So you're never wasting your time slowing down and dealing with one person.
It's great to speak to crowds and preach to crowds, but it can also be good just to take
aside one person and invest in that one person.
Now sometimes you invest in that one person and they let you down.
But you know what?
You just keep working on it.
You just keep talking to people, investing in people, and eventually you will invest
in someone who actually pans out.
You know, I think about somebody like Pastor Dave Berzins.
I mean, he was saved for years, but not doing anything for God.
Not been baptized, not doing anything for God, but just by getting Pastor Berzins and
getting him baptized, getting him in church, getting him trained on soul winning, getting
him trained on preaching.
You know what?
Now he's reaching a lot of people.
He's winning a lot of souls to Christ.
He's teaching other people how to go soul winning, and he's been doing that for what,
a decade now?
And so the point is, you know, who's going to be that next Pastor Berzins?
You know, who's going to be that next guy or gal that you can be an influence on and
be, you know, and by the way, the opposite of this is true too.
The Bible says one sinner destroyeth much good.
And so if you can corrupt one person, you know, you may have just corrupted the person
that was supposed to do great things, and you just ruined it because you were a bad
influence, because you were carnal, because you were a bad influence on them instead of
influencing them toward doing what's right.
And so the Bible says here in Luke chapter 15 verse 4, what man of you, having a hundred
sheep if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and
go after that which is lost until he find it.
Now Jesus is using these animal illustrations and he's constantly pointing out that some
people care more about their animals than they care about people.
You know, for example, he talked about in the synagogue when a man had his hand withered
and Jesus asked them, hey, is it lawful for me to heal this guy on this Sabbath day?
They wanted to accuse him.
They wanted to actually reproach him for healing someone on this Sabbath day.
And of course, he turns around them and says, okay, so which one of you, if his ox or his
ass falls in the ditch, isn't going to pull it out on this Sabbath day, you hypocrites?
And it says he looked on them with anger.
You know, the Bible doesn't record Jesus being angry a whole lot of times.
There are a few instances where we see Jesus get angry.
You know, we see him when they're selling things in the house of God, he gets angry,
he makes a whip.
This is one of those instances in the book of Mark where the Bible says he looks on them
with anger.
Jesus becomes angry at the fact that here's a guy whose hand has withered up and they
don't want this guy to be healed, but oh, if their donkey falls in the ditch, they'll
pull it out.
They care more about money, they care more about animals, they care more about everything
else than a human being, than a person.
And so that's why he uses these animal illustrations here in Luke 15 as well, saying, well, you
know, if you have a hundred sheep, you're going to go look for that one lot of sheep.
You're not going to say, well, 99's enough.
Look, I guarantee you that if you ask someone who's an actual shepherd, if they have a herd
with a, what is it, not a herd, a flock, right, shows how much I know, but you know, it's
like Brother Eric up on the Navajo reservation, right?
You know, I think last time I checked, he had like 120 sheep and goats up there, up
on the Navajo reservation.
And you know, I guarantee you that if he's missing one, he's going to go hop on a quad
or something, or you know, he's going to hop in the truck or something.
He's going to go looking for it.
And he's going to seek it, he's going to go into the mountain, he's going to go where
he needs to go to find it.
He's not just going to say, oh, well, it's all right, I still have a lot of sheep.
I got enough.
He's going to look until he finds it.
He's going to hopefully get to it before it just becomes a corpse from some wild beast
tearing it apart.
He wants to go back and bring it into the fold, okay?
And so he's saying, look, if a shepherd cares about his animals, then he'll go out and seek
the lost sheep.
You know what?
The Bible says that we should seek and save that which was lost.
Jesus said, I've come to seek and save that which was lost.
And it's not just one person that's lost, right?
It's millions of people that are lost.
So we got to go out and seek that one, and then go seek another one, and then go seek
another one, and then go seek another one.
But if we care and love people, I mean, we'll go and find them.
And if you never do any soul winning, if you're never witnessing to anyone, or if you're rarely
ever even opening your mouth to talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ, rarely ever knocking
the door, rarely ever explaining the gospel to someone, then you know what?
It's pretty hard to believe that you love people.
If you know that people are headed to hell, and you don't want to do anything to warn
them, you know, how hard is it to be a silent partner?
How hard is it to show up to soul winning and be a silent partner and encourage somebody,
be a part of that team, and get out soul winning?
And you know what?
Eventually, nobody will have to force you to do the talking.
Eventually you'll be shoving that guy out of the way and say, hey, it's my turn.
The door's mine, okay?
So we see here that he uses this illustration about the animal.
Hey, you'll go after your lost animal.
Why don't you go after the lost souls that are going to go to hell?
And then he uses this parable of the lost coin, right?
He says in verse 8, either what woman having 10 pieces of silver, either what woman having
10 pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, does not light a candle and sweep the house
and seek diligently till she find it.
So look, if you lose your money, you're not just going to say, oh, who cares?
I have enough money.
You know, you're going to search for that money.
I mean, you're looking under the bed, you're looking at the mattress, you're digging around,
you're yelling at the kids, I know this money was here, where is it?
What if you took it?
You know, and you're searching and searching and searching.
But why?
Because apparently money matters to you.
So if your animals matter to you, if your money matters to you, how much more is a person
worth?
Well, more than a million dollars.
We calculated earlier, more than a million dollars, more than 2,000 animals, more than
2,000 swine.
So it says that she will diligently seek for that one missing piece of silver.
And then, of course, we roll into the parable of the prodigal son.
And in the story of the prodigal son, he has two sons.
The one of them stays and does what's right.
The other one goes off and becomes backslidden and goes astray.
But you know what?
The dad still cared about that backslidden son.
He's excited when he gets back.
He rejoices when he comes back.
And he says, you know what?
We ought to make merry.
We ought to rejoice.
We ought to be glad.
So you know, when a lost sheep returns back to the fold, even if it's somebody who's already
saved, but let's say somebody who's saved, you know, they screw up, or maybe they just
get out of church for a while, or maybe they get backslidden, or just whatever the reason.
You know, if we can get that person back, and get them back serving God, and get them
back into the fold, we should be rejoicing about that.
Amen?
And be happy about that.
And think about the fact that that person is an individual for whom Christ died.
And not only that, one person can do a lot for the Lord.
All throughout the Bible we have people who did great works for the Lord.
And then one person can also do a lot of damage.
So we ought to care about the individual.
We ought to rejoice over the individual.
And just stop and think about what you, as an individual, can accomplish.
Because you matter.
I've never liked these sermons that say, oh, we're all expendable, we're all dirt, none
of us matters.
Who's heard that kind of preaching before?
You know, if you don't do it, someone else will.
You're expendable.
I've never liked that kind of preaching, I think it's totally unbiblical, okay?
I believe that there are works that God has before ordained for us to do, and if we don't
do them, they're not going to get done.
I don't think that you're as replaceable as a washing machine part.
I think that you are unique, that God has a plan for you, God has work for you to do
as an individual.
Remember, the very hairs of your head are numbered.
God is up in heaven thinking about you.
David said, you know, my sitting down, my rising up, I mean, look, he said that even
when he was in his mother's womb, God was fashioning him and forming him.
He didn't just do that for David, he did that for everybody.
God forms and fashions the baby in his mother's womb.
God has the hairs of our head all numbered.
God knows when we get up, he knows when we go to bed, he hears all of our prayers.
The Bible says that he collects all of our tears in a bottle.
He writes all of our wanderings in a book.
He knows what we're doing, he's paying attention, he loves us, he cares about us, and each of
us has the potential to do great things for God.
Each of us.
And you say, well, you know, you're the pastor, I'm not.
It doesn't matter if you're the pastor or not, you can do great things for God.
Well, I'm a lady, you can do great things for God.
Well, I've already screwed up my life in the past, you can still do great things for God.
If you were done, then God will just bring you home.
If you are here breathing air, then God has something for you to do, otherwise he'll just
bring you home right now, right?
He has you on this earth, there is work for you to do here on this earth.
And look, you can do great things.
You can do a lot.
First of all, you can reach one person, which is great.
But you know what?
If you actually are consistent with going out and winning souls, you can actually get
a lot of people saved.
Think about this, what if somebody just got 30 people saved per year for 50 years?
That's 1,500 people, that's a huge, let alone what those 1,500 people do, all right?
What if somebody just goes out and gets 30 people saved per year and they do that for
20 years?
That's 600 people saved.
Now, how many is 600 people?
Well, 600 people would not fit in this auditorium.
So imagine just packing this place out with people, just jam-packed with people, right?
Imagine getting to heaven and meeting the people that you want to the Lord and it fills
this whole building.
That'd be pretty amazing, wouldn't it?
How would you like to have 600 people greeting you?
Hey, thanks for giving us God's...
I mean, just to say hi to each of them for one minute.
Do the math, it's going to take you 10 hours or something, you know what I mean?
Just to sit there and just to spend one minute with each, I mean, it's just good.
People are just lined up for 10 hours, oh, thank you so much, thank you, thank you so
much.
Boy, that's a pretty big deal.
And each one of those people is worth a million dollars, you know, way more than that.
Obviously, we can't even put a price, but I'm just using the 2,000 swine as a measuring
stick.
You know, just million dollars, million dollars, million dollars.
I mean, what if I told you, hey, you can go out and earn a million dollars every week,
you know, just call this 900 number and send in a hundred bucks.
No, folks, people would line up for that, but you know what, winning a soul to Christ
is more valuable than that.
And just think, look, you don't have to be a soul winning superstar.
Just think, I think any ordinary Joe who was consistent and put in the work could win 30
people to the Lord every year.
I think that's a realistic goal.
I think that's a reasonable goal.
You know, if you think, you know, if you go out and you go to a fairly receptive area
and you go soul winning for about an hour a week, you know, that's pretty real.
And then maybe take a couple of, couple of trips to the rez, couple of missions trips
here and there just to kind of give your numbers a little boost.
But you know what?
You can, you could get 600 people saved in your lifetime.
That would be amazing.
That's a huge amount of people.
But you know what the truth of the matter is?
Most Christians, and I'm not talking about fake Christians, most saved, born again children
of God will go their entire life without winning a single soul to Christ.
That's the true story.
Not even one.
I used to pray every night when I was a teenager that I would just win one person to the Lord
in my entire life because I never had and none of the people around me were doing it.
And I thought, wow, that would just be amazing to win one person to the Lord.
I used to pray that every night for years.
Every single night.
Lord, please help me to win one person to Christ in my lifetime.
I pray that every night for years, okay?
And so we need to understand that the vast majority of people, they're not fruitful.
They're not doing the work.
They're not participating in this thing of soul winning.
And so we need to understand that that person, and you say, well, you know, it's just frustrating
because we go out and knock doors and everybody says no and you know, the last two months
has just been all no.
And look, I've gone two months without getting somebody saved.
I've never gone two months without soul winning, but I've definitely gone two months without
getting anybody saved.
You know, sometimes you'll hit a dry spell, you're in a really bad area, Awatukee, or,
you know, you get in an unreceptive area, but you know what, even in Awatukee, we get
about one person saved per week there on the Wednesday.
So you're from Awatukee, too.
Yeah, there we go.
This one person, he matters.
So yeah, and that's a great point there, you know.
We go to Awatukee and yeah, you know, we bring 25 people out there soul winning and we get
one salvation.
25 people labor for an hour, 25 man hours, one salvation.
Hey, that's great, though.
If we do that every week, that's 52 people saved in Awatukee in a year just from the
Wednesday night soul winning alone.
And I know there are other soul winning times going to that same area.
So look, if at the end of the year you've got 52 Awatukans saved, that's a great accomplishment, amen.
So don't be weary in well doing.
In due season, we shall reap if we faint not.
And look, our church does focus on the more receptive areas, but frankly, we've gone to
the receptive areas near our church literally seven, eight, nine times.
We've got to knock those fresh doors.
We've got to get Awatukee done.
It's more than half done.
It's really exciting to go look at that map and see Awatukee more than halfway done, more
than halfway shaded in.
And you know, it's great to go out there and get people saved week after week.
But look, you know, you're going to run into a dry spell sometimes where you go months
of beating your head against the wall.
But you know what?
After that dry spell, when you get that one person saved, it's worth it.
It's worth it.
Every time I get somebody saved, I walk away thinking, man, this is why I go soul winning
for these kinds of people.
I go for this kind of person.
You know, this is the person I was looking for.
This is what makes it worth it.
You know, it reminds you, hey, this is why we're out here.
We're out here.
And I walk away thinking, man, just getting that one person saved.
That made it worth it.
The whole day, the whole week, it's worth it.
One soul, one person, the value of one person.
And don't forget that you have value too.
So don't waste your own life.
Let your life be redeemed and cashed in for something for the glory of God.
That your life would not be wasted.
Let none of our lives be wasted, right?
Let's all live up to the potential that we have and the value that God places on us.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and we thank you that you care about
us and love us all individually, Lord.
I thank you that you're not this impersonal God who doesn't care, but that you actually
know every thought and every breath that we take, Lord.
Thank you for loving us in spite of our sins.
And thank you so much for committing unto us this ministry of reconciliation.
Help us to care about our brother and our sister and our loved one that's not saved.
Help us to care about that cousin, that coworker, and even just to care about strangers.
And just every door that we knock, Lord, I pray that we would actually care.
That we would never just become some kind of a soul-winning machine or a soul-winning
assembly line or become some kind of a soul-winning factory, Lord.
Help us always care about each and every person that we witness to and to treat that person
as we would want to be treated or we would want our loved one to be treated.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.