Some of you are going to make some very important decisions before this service is over, you are not here by accident. I believe God has a purpose in all of us being here. There are some of us that are going to make private, personal decisions before we leave here and some of us are going to make public decisions. And I want us to be sensitive to the Spirit of the Living God.
I read this morning from the Gospel of John chapter #1. And I begin with verse 35 of that first chapter of John. Beginning at verse 35 and reading thru the first part of verse 42. (read)
He had gone out to hear this wilderness preacher. This preacher dressed in camels' hair. This preacher with an un-godly diet of locust and honey. But it was not the preacher's dress that caused him to go out. It was not what he ate that had created this sensation around Jerusalem, rather it was the preaching of the prophet that had so aroused the
community. Andrew and his friend went to hear this prophet. On this particular day, the prophet, John the Baptizer, suddenly shifted the emphasis of his preaching, stopped in his mental tracks, and focused his eyes on an approching figure. And all at once from the lips of John came these immortal words, "Behold, the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world."
Up to that time the Jewish nation had viewed themselves as the suffering servant, but John on that day made it crystal clear- -the Lamb is a man---and that man is the man called Jesus. The God man. He was not simply one who had come to manifest God--He was God manifested in human flesh. He was not some humanized deity. He was not some deified human being. Rather He was God in the nature of deity as well as human.
Andrew was so intregued by the pronouncement of John, that Andrew followed this One called the Lamb of God.
Jesus aware there were those following Him, turned around and said to Andrew and his friend, "What do you want?" And they replied, "Where do you live? May we go with you?" And Jesus said, "Follow Me!" And they went and they sat with Him, and they talked with Him and it was an hour that changed the life of Andrew. The tenth hour, an hour in which he realized for himself the Man called Jesus is God's anointed, the Messiah, the Redeemer, the Deliverer, and he was so thrilled by that fantastic discovery---listen friends, it was more than a discovery, it was an experience, that he had in his heart.
I knew several things about the Lord before I experienced Him. ------ And I really did not get my feeling ---- until after I experienced Jesus.
You know I've run into people all my pastoral life who say to me, "Preacher, I'm going to get saved when I feel like it." That's like a person setting down at the supper table and saying, "I'm not going to eat until I can taste the food." Beloved, you can't taste it until you eat it. Amen. Pass the meat, pass the vegatables, and you say nope, I'm not going to eat any of it until first I can taste it in my mouth and then when I taste it I will eat it.
My friends, you've got to be saved before you can feel it. Amen. You can't feel salvation until it gets ahold of you. You can't experience Jesus until He comes in you.
Andrew says, "I know that I know that this Man is the Messiah, for I have experienced Him." So the first thing, the first thing that Andrew thought about was, "I've got to go home and tell my brother."
No wonder he thought of Peter, he had always lived in the shadow of Simon Peter. Bless his heart. Andrew grew up playing second fiddle. Peter was always first. First in school, first in fishing, probably first with the girls. I imagine in those days there were girls who would come around and say, "Andrew, does your brother have a girl friend." That's how they did it in my generation. I don't know how they do it now. But anyway, they would go to a friend, and I can just hear the girls saying, "Andrew, do you think Simon likes me?" And Andrew always lived in the shadow of his brother.
When Andrew was introduced to anyone they would say, "Oh yes, yes, you're Simon Peter's brother aren't you?" You say, "That's rather unfair." Well the Scripture is rather unfair then. Because in the listings of the 12 disciples, do you know whose name appears first most of the time? Simon Peter. Do you know whose name appears 2nd most of the time and I think fourth in a couple of cases, it's Andrew. And it's always, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. Now that can sometimes make a younger brother or a younger sister bitter. And resentful. But that was not the case for Andrew.
He accepted the facts of life as they related to him and he had a good relationship with his brother and the first person he thought of was, "I must go and tell my brother I have found Jesus."
Andrew may not have had the personnality that Simon Peter possessed. Andrew may not have had the perswaysive carrisma that Simon possessed. But one thing you can say for Andrew, he brought his brother to Jesus.
Now the next time you meet Andrew, Jesus has been out preaching all day long. Teaching. There's been a tremendous crowd, over 5,000 people. And the day had been a long tiring day. And all at once Jesus is aware that the hour is late, and He says, Jesus says to His disciples, "How are we going to feed this crowd?" And the treasurer spoke up and said, "Well, I've been working on my calculator and you know the cheapest hamburger we can get down at Hardies and some don't like that so we have to go to McDonalds. The cheapest one we can get without anything on it, still comes out to more money than we have got. We just don't have enough money to buy enough food to feed this crowd.
You always have some people who say you don't have enough money. I've experienced that all the days of my preaching. "We can't do it, we don't have enough money." I learned a long time ago beloved, we ain't got no money, God's got it all. Oh, I tell myself, "I've got a little" and God says, "I can take it away, [snap] just like that." [laugh] You think you've got it. "You ain't got nothing that I'm not willing to give to you and you don't own it, I just let you use it." I'm tired of Christian people telling me, "Alright preacher I give a tenth to the Lord I can do what ever I want with the other 90%." Hogwash, it all belongs to Jesus. It all belongs to Jesus. It all belongs to Jesus.
He concerned about how we spend it all. Not just what we do with 10%.
Well, we don't have enough money, what are we going to do? Andrew says, "I've been talking to a little boy here, " Thank God for adults who have time for children. That says a lot about an adult. Andrew, he'd been out there making friends----it is hard to discieve children, they can spot a phoney quicker than adults can. But that little boy had warmed up to Andrew, because he just felt the vibrations from Andrew----Andrew is someone you can trust. Somebody who cares---Somebody who shows concern.---Andrew is friendly and it's genuine, he cares and its genuine.
The world does not care how much we know, until it knows how much we really care. How genuine we are.
I don't know what Andrew talked to the little boy about, he might have said to him, "Son, have you had a good day." "Well, mommy got me up real early and said we going to preaching today. Boy I go to preaching all the time. Every time a Rabbi comes by, my mom and dad wants to go off and sees what he says. And I told my mommy, I'm not going without some food. I know how these Baptist preachers are, they forget we got to eat. I brought me a little sack lunch, we stopped off at Long John Silvers. I got me hushpuppies and 2 planks of fish. I'm ready."
Now that I got everybody awake, I want to get to my point. Andrew, Andrews not a 5 talent man. He's just a simple, caring, loving, friendly person. But he takes what he is, and he doesn't put it under a bushel and he gives it to the Lord for the Lord to use it. He's not a Simon Peter and he knows that. And he doesn't try to be like his brother, because he's not his brother. He's Andrew. And he wants to be the best Andrew that he can be. And when he gets to heaven, God's not going to ask him, "Andrew, why were not like Simon---Andrew why weren't you like Paul--" Gods going to say, "Andrew, why weren't you Andrew?"
I'm tired of Christians saying, "Oh I do this but I can't do it like so and so." Thank God, some times you can't----You be what God wants you to be, don't measure yourself by others----you measure yourself by you know God wants you to be and do and it will set you free!
Jesus said, "Bring the boy to Me." And Andrew goes back out into the crowd and says, "Son, would you like to meet the preacher." "Yea." "He wants to meet you, bring your lunch. [laugh] And the little boy brought his lunch. Oh, how he must have trusted Andrew. He brought his lunch. And Andrew says, "Jesus, this is my new friend, and he calls the boys name, and he calls the boy's name again and says, "and this is my Master, Jesus."
The 3rd time you meet Andrew, it is the last week of the life of our Lord. And there are many people who have come to Jerusalem to worship and some have come to just be involved in the festivities of that week. Jesus is well known by this time in His ministry. Some love Him, and some hate Him. Some adore Him, and some dispise Him. He is at the center of the hurricane----There are Greeks, not Jews but Gentiles and they have come---They know some of the disciples. And apparently they learned that Phillip is one of the Lord's disciples and these Greeks go to Phillip and they say to Phillip, "Sir, we would see Jesus."
They are not Jews. And I personally believe that Phillip is uneasy in trying to know how to handle this situation. The thrust of His Lord's ministry has been to Jews, not those outside the Jewish community. He really doesn't know what to do with them. Then he thinks----Andrew----Andrew will know what to do---and he takes the Greeks to Andrew and he says to him, "Andrew, these people want to see Jesus, what should we do." And Andrew says, "You want to see Jesus?" "yes" "Sir, we would see Jesus." "Come, I will introduce you to my Lord."
Now outside of one or two other brief scriptural references that's all the information we have in the Gospels about Andrew. But all 3 major times, he's doing the same thing. Bringing people to Jesus! Andrew is not the quarterback, he's a lineman. He doesn't get all of the praise, he doesn't get all of the publicity. Andrews don't preach pentecostal sermons, Andrews don't write any New Testament books. Andrews don't give the invitation and see 3,000 flood the aisles.
But you hear me today, before there can be a Simon Peter, to preach those sermons, and give those invitations, and write those books---FIRST, THERE'S GOT TO BE AN ANDREW! Not a 5 talent man or woman, just a woman or a man who care about the souls of lost people. And who can love and that love comes thru as genuine---the longer I live the more I come to realize the truth of God's Word when it says, "The greatest gift is the gift of love."
We forget the Andrews. But the Kingdom of God is built on Andrews. The world will always hear about Charles Hadden Spurgeon. His sermons will always be preached. The world will always know that he was a great preacher. But do you know the Andrew that led Charles Spurgeon to Jesus. That name forgotten in the dust of time. He was a subsitute preacher, on a snowey, wintery morning. The regular minister could not be there and this man simply stood in that Sunday morning. Such a bad morning, weather wise. Just a handful came, in fact Charles Spurgeon, as I read the story, was on his way to another church. But because of the weather conditions, he stopped off at this church. And that subsitute preacher that morning, saw that young boy, Charles Spurgeon, and said to him, "Young man you look miserable---you need to look to Jesus". And Charles Hadden Spurgeon looked to Jesus and was saved.
Now some of us, all of us, have heard of the man, Billy Graham. And a few of us may know of a man who was an Andrew in Mr. Graham's life. A man who at one time lived in Louisville Ky. Mortiky Ham.
I could go on. John Knox, a great theologian, a great preacher of Scotland, the Queen once said, "I fear the prayers of John Knox more than I do a mighty army." And the world will always write about John Knox. But there will only be a few who will think about the Andrew that introduced John Knox to Jesus Christ.
You could be an Andrew, if you really wanted to be. Now I have a story I want to tell. I visited a church in 1979 and heard a story told by a revival preacher. After the meeting, I was so taken by the story, I asked the preacher if he would tell it again so I could write it down. And his name is Bob Wain. I believe Bob Wain is the pastor of a Southern Baptist Church in Indianapolis now, the last time I heard about him, he was in that area. I ask him if the story was true and he said it was and to write it like he told it.
He said, "For serveral years I was pastor of Emmanual Baptist Church in E-town Ky. Bob Wain, pastor of Emmanual Baptist Church in E-town, KY. He said, in that town we had a man that was somewhat retarded. He could not talk clearly. He did not have a great deal of intellengence, his name was Henry Cunduff. Henry Cunduff. At the time that this took place, Henry was about 40 years of age. He made a little money by selling newspapers. It would be raining and Henry would stand out and let the rain drops fall on him and somebody would say, "Henry, it's raining. Move back under the canvas of the store. And I do not mean to make fun, but Henry would say [hair lip], "Well, it is raining, I'll move back." Bob said, One day I passed Henry out walking--just walking as fast as he could walk, and I stopped my car and said, "Henry, do you want a ride?" He said, "Bob, no, I'm in a hurrry, I'll just walk."
I want you to kind of get the picture of his mental aptitude. Well, Bob said people knew him in that town and one day I saw him on the street and all at once he said to me, "Bro, brother Bob. I'm going to come Sunday and join your church." Bob said, "I wasn't too pleased about that." Because Henry had been a member of almost every church in that town. And after he joins and the first things he does after he joins the church is he joins the choir. And Henry knows nothing about music. The only thing he knows about music is to sing loudly. And you can imagine. He get into the choir and he didn't know what pitch was, I don't know what pitch is, I just hear people talking about it. And he didn't know the tune and he'd just say his words---some beats behind---he'd be behind and sometimes he'd be ahead, but he'd just drown out everybody. So finally you know the musician or pastor would have to go to him and say, "Now Henry, we just can't have you singing in our choir."
So that Sunday morning, Bob said, I was looking out my pastor's window in the study and all at once I saw Henry walking just as fast as he could, coming toward Emmanual Baptist Church. And I said, Oh, my Lord, what am I going to do. I don't know if any of you think pastors have these problems that we don't have any answers for. I hope that doesn't shake you up. But there are times I just don't know what to do about some situations. The other day somebody called and talked for about 20 minutes and then said, Pastor, what do you think I should do. And I said, I don't know. I didn't want to act smart when I wasn't smart. Cause I can't be smart when I am smart, much less pretend I am smart when I'm not smart. Okay, I just don't know.
Let me get back to my story. Well, Henry was coming, Bob said, as I went out to that side door a big gust of wind just kind of pushed it out of my hand and it hit the back of the building and I said, well Henry, the wind is strong out here today. And he said [hair lip] "Boy, sure is" And I talked to him for a minute and I said, "Henry, would you hold this door open for the ladies and the people as they come in" "Well, brother Bob, I'll hold the door open" And every Sunday morning Henry would come to church and grab hold of that door and just hold it open. Rain, shine, made no difference. Wind or no wind. Boy he'd just stand there by that door and hold it with all his might. That's where he found his place. Didn't join the choir, but every Sunday morning-- holding that door open---"morning, morning."
Time went by and didn't have any problems with Henry. One day he came to me and said, "Brother Bob, do you know Willy Blair." Willy Blair, don't believe I do. "You, know, lives just down the street in a yellow house." Yow, I think I know where that place is. "Would you go by and visit him. I've been talking to him. would you go by." Alright Henry, soon as I can. One of these days real soon I'll go by and visit Mr. Blair. Come Saturday, though I could catch Mr. Blair home. Drove down the street and found that house and knocked on the door [knock]. This man came to the door and I said, Mr. Blair. Yes. I'm Bob Wain, pastor of the Emmanual Baptist Church here in the city. Do you know Henry Cunduff? Ha,ha, yow, preacher I know Henry. Well, Henry ask me to stop by and talk with you, do you have a few moments for me to come in and talk to you. Yow, I guess so preacher. Come on in. We went in, we set down and talked about a few things as we normally do---Mr. Blair, as I told you, Henry ask me to come by and talk to you---Have you ever been saved?
No preacher I never have. Can I take just a few minutes and tell you what you have got to do to be saved from God's Word. I guess it would be alright. First thing I want to tell you Mr. Blair is that God loves you. What ever you've done, what ever you are, God loves you. Henry told me that preacher. Mr. Blair, you sinned, we have all sinned. We have not all sinned alike, but all alike have sinned. We've all come short of the glory of God. Yow, Henry told me that preacher. Mr. Blair, Jesus died on the cross for our sins. He said, "Yow, that's what Henry told me." Mr. Blair, the Lord's ready to save you right now, if you're willing----to ask Him. "You know preacher that's what Henry told me, but I was not sure he knew what he was saying." Mr. Blair, he did know, and he told you the truth.
Could I pray with you and you pray right now and as I pray you ask Jesus to come into your heart and save you. Will you be willing to do that right now Mr. Blair. Then there's a pause and then Mr. Blair said yow, I need to ask Jesus to save me.
Mr. Blair was saved, his wife was saved and some of his other relatives were saved and Mr. Blair became a deacon later on in the Emmanual Baptist Church.
Bob Wain said, I stayed at Emmanual Baptist Church more years after Willy Blair was saved and in those years, other times Henry Cunduff came to me and said, Brother Bob, do you know were so and so lives. Would you go by and talk to them, I've been talking to them and they are lost. And he said, 4 times I went where Henry told me to go and 4 times I led people to Jesus Christ.
Now if Henry Cunduff can be an Andrew, don't you sit there and tell me you can't be an Andrew. If you can't be, it's your own fault. All you've got to do is love. All you've got to do is care. All you've got to do is be willing to take a risk
Our biggest need is not for more wealthy people, our biggest need is not for more educated people, our biggest need in our church is for ANDREWS! Some say all that preachers want is money, no, I want Andrews.
Andrew, Andrew, where are you. There's people where you work who need to meet your Jesus. Andrew, where are you. There's people who go to your school who need to meet your Jesus. Andrew, Andrew, where are you? There's people in your own family, in your own neighborhood, who if they would die tonight, would bust hell right open. They need Jesus.
Angels can't do it. God does not call angels to do it. The human factor---the Andrews---the Andrews-- the Andrews
Let's pray... Father, Father, Father, help me to be a better Andrew, Oh my, help me to be a better Andrew. God I pray that we will trust you. Lord I pray that the Spirit of God will so convict us. I just want to be an Andrew---[whisper] just want to be an Andrew-- bring people to Jesus---I may not teach to large crowds, but maybe I can be an Andrew and bring a teacher to Jesus who can teach the large crowds. I may not even be able to stand up in front of a small crowd and sing a song, maybe I can be an Andrew and bring a soloist to the Lord who can stand and sing. Maybe I'll never be able to preach in a church to any size crowd--but maybe I can be an Andrew to bring somebody who will become a preacher to the Lord. I may never go to a foriegn field and be a missionary-- -but Lord, maybe I can be an Andrew and bring that missionary to you---Lord just help me to be a better Andrew and bring those You need to You. Help me Lord, help me. In Your name I pray. Amen
