The Power of One

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon
Sunday, August 21, 2011

No doubt, when his parents told him the plans for the day, he was less than thrilled. Perhaps he could just stay at home. After all, he was getting older but um, no, they weren’t going for that. Maybe he could stay with the neighbors. They seem like really nice people. No, they’re going to the same place we’re going. Begrudgingly, he went off to get ready, washed his face, pulled on his clothes, grabbed a bag, tossed a few things in as he got ready for one long, boring day.

At the end, he decided he might as well toss in a snack for his friends and him. Mom and Dad can fend for themselves, but he always gets hungry about midday so he tossed a few things in. Little did he know the events of that day. Little did he know the impact of his snack.

John is the only gospel writer who identifies for us the source of the bread and the fish that Jesus used to feed thousands of people, people who had come out to hear His teaching and to be healed by His touch. All four gospels tell the same account of the feeding of the 5,000 but only John mentions the boy, a boy that most of the people there didn’t know existed, a boy that 99.9% of those who ate didn’t know where the food came from, a boy who three out of the four gospel writers didn’t see fit to mention, just one boy with one kind act and it made a difference. I’m sure if you were to ask the boy if he could make any kind of impact, if he could make a difference, he’d say no, what could he do? He was just a kid. He was insignificant.

It reminds me of a quote I read this week. It’s an African saying and it says, “If you think you are too small to make a difference, spend the night in a closed room with a mosquito.” The power of one. It’s the one true God using one person, one kind act, one word of encouragement, one invitation to make a profound difference, just one.

In our world, in the numbers we’re used to, one seems pretty insignificant, especially when we think of all the issues that are around the globe or even in our own community. It’s hard for us to imagine just one. After all, they say there are 925 million hungry people in the world right now this moment. There are 15 million orphans in Africa alone. There are 23,000 homeless families in Iowa or the number that I’ve been purporting for awhile, 200,000, the number of people in Polk County alone who do not have a church home. Those numbers are staggering and when we compare that to the number one, it seems insignificant. How can one compare to thousands, tens of thousands or millions? And yet, I would contend there is the power of one, of the one true God using one person, one kind act, one word of encouragement, one invitation to make the difference for another person, a community or the world.

After all, it was just one young boy who picked up his slingshot, killed a giant, became the king of Israel. That was David. It was just one teenage girl who listened to an angel and become the mother of the Son of God. It was just one man who preached for three years to repent because the kingdom of heaven was near, one man who stretched out His arms upon a cross and took upon them the weight of all mankind’s sins. It was Jesus, the Son of God. It was just one fisherman who answered the call when Jesus said, “Come and follow me.” It went on to help establish the Christian church. It is the power of one, the one true God, using one person, one kind act, one word of encouragement, one invitation to make a difference.

But the power of one can be diffused. The power of one is diffused when we focus on what we don’t have and what we can’t do. When we focus on all the things that we’re not able to do, we focus on all the things that we don’t have at our disposal, that diffuses the power of one. It’s the issue that Jesus addresses with His disciples in the feeding of the 5,000. He wanted to change their focus because they were focused on what they didn’t have and they were focused on what they couldn’t do.

They find themselves in front of this large crowd. It says 5,000 men and so then you add the women and the children. Who knows how many there are, 10,000, 12,000, 15,000? The disciples are looking out over the crowd and as the day drags on, as the sun moves farther and further down the sky, they start getting anxious. You have to wonder what the conversation was like between the disciples. “I wonder when He’s going to wrap this up. He’s been going for awhile.” “Yeah, I know He’s been going for awhile. I thought He was going to take a break, but He just started healing people and then He started up again.” “I don’t know. Would you look at the time? What are we going to do? I’m getting hungry. They’re getting hungry. They’re going to look for somebody to give them something to eat. We don’t have anything to give them to eat. I think you should go and talk to Jesus.” “Ha, ha, I’m not talking to Jesus. You talk to Jesus.”

Finally, it gets so late in the day, they all approach Jesus. This time, let’s look at it from the gospel of Mark. It says, “By this time, it was late in the day so His disciples came to Him. ‘This is a remote place,’ they said. ‘It’s already very late. Send the people away so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages. Send them away because we don’t have anything for them, Jesus.’” They’re focused on the fact that they don’t have any food. “Jesus says, ‘You give them something to eat.’ Stunned, they look at Jesus and they say, ‘It would take eight months’ wages for each one of them to have one small bite of bread.’ In other words, ‘We can’t do that.’” They’re focused on what they don’t have, they don’t have any food, what they can’t do, they can’t earn eight months of wages to go and buy them something to eat and so the power of one is diffused. And as far as the disciples are concerned, there is nothing to do. They are paralyzed by the enormity of the situation.

How often are we diffused because we focus on what we don’t have and what we can’t do? It is so easy for us to get overwhelmed looking at the situations around the world and in our own lives, the enormity of the tasks for us to say, “But we don’t have anything to offer. We don’t have enough. We don’t have the time. We don’t have the money. We don’t have the energy. We don’t have the knowledge.” No matter what the situation is, we can come up with a whole list of things that we just simply don’t have, whether it’s feeding the hungry in the world, whether it’s taking care of the orphans in Africa, whether it’s taking care of the homeless in Iowa or reaching out to the 200,000 in Polk County, we don’t have and we can’t do.

But maybe it even gets down further than that. It’s not just the enormity of the numbers. Maybe we’re overwhelmed by the situation. So it’s the next door neighbor who’s going through a bitter divorce. It’s the coworker who’s battling depression. It’s the acquaintance whose husband has been deployed to Afghanistan. It’s the friend who just lost her husband and we say, “We don’t know what to say. We don’t know what to do.” We focus on what we don’t have. We focus on what we can’t do and we become paralyzed, either paralyzed by the enormity or just paralyzed by the situation itself and then we do nothing.

I equate it to those days when I come into work and my To Do list is so long that I have to start scrolling down the screen. That’s when I know I’m in trouble, when it doesn’t all fit on the monitor and I know I have to get it all done and there’s no way I can get it done. But the deadlines are right there in front of me and so I just sit and I just stare. Then I start something and I stop. And then I start something else and I stop. I am paralyzed because there’s so much to do that I can’t get it all done, because I’m focusing on what I can’t do and what I don’t have.

Do you know how to break out of the paralysis? Do one thing. The only way I can break out of that paralysis is just to pick something, even if it’s insignificant, even if it’s not on the list, even if it isn’t a high priority. If it’s something as simple as dusting my desk or just sending off one e-mail, just one thing because that one thing then would break me out of the paralysis and then I’ll do the next and then I’ll do the next and then I’ll do the next. I won’t get it all done, but I got something done. It begins with one.

The power of one is diffused when we focus in on what we don’t have and what we can’t do. We change our focus to what we do have and what we can do and we offer it to God and we watch how He blesses it.

The boy brought his lunch. He offered it to Jesus. Call it boyhood innocence, call it naïveté. He never reckoned that he was going to feed thousands of people. In fact, it probably never even crossed his mind. The only thing that crossed his mind was there was a need and so he just offered what he had, nothing more. He didn’t focus on what he didn’t have. He didn’t focus on what he couldn’t do. He knew what he could do and he knew what he did have and he offered it to Jesus. Jesus took the bread, took the fish, He blessed it and everyone ate. Everyone ate. And it’s no coincidence that 12 baskets were left over, an object lesson for each of the disciples. Don’t focus on what you don’t have and what you can’t do. Offer to God what you do have and what you can do and then watch Him bless it. It’s the power of one.

It’s the one true God using one person, one kind act, one word of encouragement, one invitation to make a difference, to make a difference that probably you will never even see the full impact of the difference, the full impact of how God will use that and how God will bless the offering you give to Him.

Case in point would be Edward Kimball. Edward Kimball gave one hour each week to teach Sunday School at his church. One hour each week, he would come in. The students would come in and he would give them the lesson. One week, a rather rough young man came in, foul mouth, outburst of anger, disruptive to everyone in the class. By every right, Kimball should have just kicked him out of class but somehow, for some reason, God laid it upon his heart to reach out to this young man. Convinced he should go and visit him, he found out where he worked. He went to his place of employment, but he says he didn’t go in right away because he had no idea what he was going to say. He had no idea what he was going to do. He just knew that God was calling upon him to reach out to this young man, so he paced back and forth.

Finally, he just swallowed hard. He walked in and in his words, he mumbled something about Jesus, His love and forgiveness. But God took what he offered and He used that to change that man’s heart. And that young boy came to faith and he looked at Jesus as his Savior. His name was Dwight L. Moody. If you don’t recognize him, he was one of the greatest evangelists of the 19th Century. He preached the gospel to over 100 million people in his lifetime. Those were the days before radio, TV, cars or planes. Because the one true God used one man, one act of kindness, one word of encouragement, one invitation.

But it doesn’t stop there. Because, you see, Dwight L. Moody in his ministry, he landed his eyes upon another young man named F. B. Meyer and God used that moment to bring Meyer to faith and so He discipled him. Meyer also became an evangelist and he went out preaching the gospel. But it doesn’t stop there either because Meyer, in his work and his ministry, he affected the life of a young man named J. W. Chapman. God captured his heart because of that ministry and convicted him that he should reach out to professional baseball players, of all people, and this is in the 19-teens, early 1920.

One of the baseball players that he touched his heart was a man named Billy Sunday. Billy Sunday, after he was done with his professional baseball career also felt the call of God. He also became an evangelist, one of the most powerful evangelists of the early 1920’s and in his ministry, he just happened to go to Charlotte, North Carolina. There he led a revival. So moved by that, the people invited him to come back. He couldn’t come back so he sent a young man he was discipling, Mordecai Hamm. Mordecai Hamm came back, led a revival and, once again, there was a young man in the audience and God used that message to capture his heart and call him to faith. His name? Billy Graham. That one you recognize.

The power of one, the one true God using one man, Edward Kimball, with one kind act, one word of encouragement, one invitation to make a profound difference. It’s the power of one.

It’s the power of one true God using one person, you, one kind act, one word of encouragement, one invitation to make a difference. You can either be overwhelmed by the circumstances and focus on what you don’t have and what you can’t do or you can offer to God what you do have and what you can do and watch Him bless it.

I’m not going to conclude this message with an invitation for you to sign up for the various ministry opportunities at Gloria Dei, as worthy as I think that is. Nor am I going to conclude by saying, “We have sign ups in the back so you can help feed those around the world or visit the orphans in Africa,” as worthy as I think all of that is. I’m not even going to issue out a call that you should invite your friends and neighbors, there are 200,000 in Polk County, as worthy as I think that is.

But this message today is one of awareness. It goes beyond all of that. In your everyday life, in your everyday walk, be mindful of the power of one. In all of your acquaintances, be mindful of the power of one, to know that one kind act, one word of encouragement, one invitation could have a profound impact. Amen.