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The speaker talks about the influence and impact of five influential evangelists, starting with D.L. Moody in the 1800s and ending with Billy Graham. These men, including Wilbur Chapman, Billy Sunday, and Mordecai Hamm, were used by God to touch millions of lives and bring them to faith. The speaker emphasizes the importance of reaching out to young people, as statistics show that a majority of people come to faith between the ages of 4 and 14. The speaker also challenges the notion that only famous pastors and leaders are used by God, highlighting D.L. Moody's humble background and how he came to faith. Good morning everybody. Glad to have everybody here with us. Glad to have Mr. Josh back here today. I'm sure I've missed him. Everybody's missing him. So we're going to be looking at, if you want to turn in your Bibles, it's going to be a little bit before we get to it, but we're going to be looking at 2 Timothy, the first chapter. We'll be looking at a couple of verses. But before we do, I want to talk about, hopefully I don't butcher this because it's got a lot of history involved. I'm going to be looking at, most everybody here should be familiar with Billy Graham. Everybody here pretty much heard of Billy Graham? Anybody not heard of him? He's an evangelist. Just an amazing gift and ability in being used in that way, God used him to speak to so many millions and millions of people. I think in one thing that I read, it was estimated in those meetings, maybe over 215 million people. And that's just it that attends these big auditorium meetings and stuff. I mean, you can still watch him on TV today. And so who knows how many more, even after his death, that he's still touching in that way that God's using him still to speak. And I think even as far as confirmed conversions that attended these meetings is over 3 million something. There's different reports as far as that, but somewhere around 3 million people, 3.2 million or something people. And again, those are just ones that came forward in these big meetings and confessed their faith and crossed and stuff. Again, how many more could that number possibly be of people that's been touched even through the TV ministry, watching old sermons and stuff with him speaking. There's, what we're going to talk about a little bit today is there's, because of Billy Graham and who he's been to us in our age, that there's like this thread of men, evangelists, there's five of them, that links all the way back, the first one being D.L. Moody. Anybody heard of D.L. Moody? So D.L. Moody lived in the early 1800s, died late 1800s. He was an evangelist. In the early days, after accepting Christ as Savior, he got into children's ministry. It was used a lot in YMCA, and this would have been again in like early 1800s. So he did a lot with working with the poor kids that come from poor backgrounds, poor families. He went on, and progressionally he went on to do even greater things, being used to start the Moody Bible Institute, and also traveling around different parts of the country and parts of the world as an evangelist and speaking engagements and stuff, and just used in just another tremendous, mighty way, very comparable to, say, Billy Graham in our day and age. During his time in making these tours and stuff, there was a man named Wilbur Chapman. Now, although it's not that Moody was there, as far as his conversion, Chapman's conversion, he was using counseling and talking to him personally, aiding him to understand in a private meeting about, helped him to realize his salvation. Sometimes we get saved as kids, and then later as teens or early young adults or something, you kind of start to question, well, I was pretty young. So sometimes somebody speaking to us can help us to confirm that moment that we had in accepting Christ, but now that we're just a little bit older and have understanding. It says that Moody did, in fact, speak with Chapman in this way to help him better understand in the certainty of his salvation. And then, so Wilbur Chapman, again, an evangelist, used to be used speaking all over the place. His ministry grew tremendously, and at times I think that there was things that Moody and him actually did together and jointly in some ministry ventures. Later on, still in the 1800s, there's a man who's a professional athlete, ball player by the name of Billy Sunday. Billy Sunday went from being a professional athlete to getting saved, and then ultimately he ended up, instead of signing on with a contract, I think it was going to be like $3,000 a month, he ended up signing on a contract for $80 a month to work at the YMCA, which is something that Moody was a big part in, and then starting that youth ministry or working into that youth ministry and stuff. So he, at that point, had changed from wanting to be a professional athlete to being used in ministry. Later to become also an evangelist that would go and speak at these auditoriums and stadiums, and was quite successful in the crowds that were drawn from that. I think in one place I read that he had been said to have had maybe 20,000 of these big stadium-type meetings, and of course him being a professional athlete was the initial draw for a lot of youth and young people, or even just sports fans and stuff. Again, this is in the 1800s. Now, while Billy Sunday did not come to know Christ through Chapman, he later assisted Chapman in some of his ministry ventures, and I think it would be at the least to be expected that Chapman probably had some mentoring effects on Billy Sunday in his going forward and being used in ministry. It was also Billy Sunday that was used to start a club. I can't remember, and I didn't make a note of it. It's some kind of a club that used to meet in North Carolina, and that club's name changed a couple of times. And that same club had invited a man named Mordecai Hamm to come and be one of the guest speakers. Mordecai Hamm was known as a southern revivalist. He was kind of a hard core. He'd go into these towns and was known for picking out certain sectors of the towns and some of the promiscuous things that may be going on, or even like in Prohibition and stuff like that. He was really just real staunch about having an outstance and addressing those types of things that may be going on in that area. This was something that actually intrigued a young Billy Brown to go to one of his meetings in North Carolina. As we know, that's his hometown. And it was at one of these meetings that he attended, and that Hamm was speaking, that Billy Brown professed his decision for Christ. So all of these guys together, if you kind of knit them together, I mean, talk about a power team package. I mean, these are some mighty men of God that God used in this miraculous way. I mean, if you compile all of these guys together and over the span of whatever it is, 150 or 180 years, and all the lives, just think about all the people that they got an opportunity to be used, and a platform to speak to, to share the gospel, people that were known to come to faith in these meetings and confirm. I mean, the numbers are just staggering at the millions, all from God using these five men that can be knitted together as we just went through. And probably more so for myself, I mean, stuff like that's very interesting and intriguing. It's like, man, these dudes, you want to look at these guys. What were they doing? I mean, how could you be used in a better way? What can you learn from them? And then also statistically looking at those numbers, it's just pretty amazing. I find it interesting that a lot of those guys started out working with youth and had a real passion about the youth. If you start looking at statistics, about 83 to 85 percent of the people that come to know Christ as Lord and Savior, it says that through a study that most of those are between the age of 4 and 14. And then between 15 and 30, it's like 10 percent. Once you get past 30, it gets down to like 6 percent. So the stuff going on in the world around us right now, how they're teaching our children and the influence that they're putting on our children in schools and stuff right now is pretty tremendous. That's all about the window. Well, I don't want to get into that right now. But yeah, you can have them questioning their faith because they're being introduced to so many different ideas. It just tells us how important that young age group is. Now, looking at all these guys, these celebrities, if you will, these mighty men of God that we use in such a tremendous way, it's real easy to look at those guys and think, you know, most of God's work in speaking to others and reaching out to the lost in ministry has to do with these big name guys. Or maybe in our day and age, you know, we see, you know, Christine and I were talking about Genzel Franklin and just, you know, we have people now that God uses in such a mighty way to speak to people, you know. And a lot of churches and a lot of people, I think, typically look to the pastors or maybe some of the elders or leaders of the church to be those people that are mostly being used. And this is what I want us to confront today. Backing up, if we back up to D.L. Moody. So, how did he come to faith? You know, he was kind of the beginning of all this run of five guys that we just discussed. So, he was born into a very poor family, had a farm. His dad died when he was 41 years old. He was number six of nine children that the widowed mother was raising. He left school at fifth grade. So, he had a fifth grade education and started working on the farm. By the time he got to 17, he was pretty much done with shoveling dirt. So, I wish I would have figured that out at 17. I was getting started good on it. But anyway, he's smarter than me, obviously. So, at 17, he comes up with this plan that I'm done with this. I'm going somewhere to try to engage some other occupation and make some better money and have a better means of living. So, he had a lot of declines in places that he had inquired for employment. And so, he came up with a plan to ask his uncle who owned a shoe store. And his uncle, knowing D.L. Moody and the stuff that I read to keep him from mischief and knowing kind of the mindset of a young somebody you would expect at 17 years old, ready to kind of venture out into the world. The uncle agreed to give him a job at the shoe store under one condition. He had to attend this Mount Vernon church that the uncle attended. He had to attend regularly this church. And he said, I'll give you a job. So, D.L. Moody, he agrees and starts attending church there. In his time attending church there is a man named Edward Kimball that was a Sunday school teacher there. And I guess through the course of time and Moody going and attending, this Kimball took a bit of a shine to Moody and knew that he had not been saved and that he was probably a little bit, you know, from the mischief and whatnot. So, this Edward Kimball takes a little bit of time on a day and goes to the shoe store to see Moody, to speak with him. He finds him in the back room of the shoe store in the stockroom. And so, he sits down and starts talking to him. And D.L. Moody accepts Christ as his Lord and Savior that day. Now, I said all that to say this. We look at the Billy Browns, the D.L. Moody's, Billy Sundays, the Mordecai Hound, these superstars over the last couple hundred years and the impact that they had and how they were used. But here's what I want to draw our eyes. It's real easy to focus on that and how God's working in these five men in this mighty way. But all of it goes back, traces back to this. Kimball, Edward Kimball, a simple Sunday school teacher, Merle, that took the time and God compelling his heart to speak to this young man. And so, he goes out of his way to make this trip to a shoe store to speak to this young D.L. Moody. And his life changes in that day, accepts Christ as his Lord and Savior. Look at the impact and how many millions and millions of confirmed conversions, but even ten times that of millions of lives that have been exposed to the gospel that these men had that came after that, that the impact that happened. You know, a lot of us like to think that, you know, it's only these people that are pastors or leaders of the church that are used in this greatest way. But really, if we look at even, let's say Peter, let's look at the disciples. You know, who was it, Peter was the first one to get up and power by the Holy Spirit to preach that first sermon where three thousand people accepted Christ as their Savior that day. Which is tremendous, that's awesome. But how did Peter get to know Jesus? It was his brother Andrew. You know, Andrew was part of that inner circle. We hear a lot about James and John and Peter. Andrew's name is always kind of thrown in there. But we don't see a lot else at the time, you know. To me, I look at Andrew, so I'm similar to this Ed Kimball, you know, these guys that don't get near as much recognition, but it was Andrew, after meeting Jesus, who runs to his brother Simon and says, hey, we found him, and takes him back and brings him to Jesus. A lot more people, while we see these superstars and all these people and these mighty moves of God, these people used in such massive ways in ministry, while it's intriguing and exciting to see that kind of movement, the majority of the people that come to know Christ come to know that from individual people, such as Andrew's, speaking to somebody one-on-one, such as Edward Kimball, just like with JL Moody, taking a little bit of time out of his day to go and share that gospel with this young man. So, you don't have to be some kind of superstar to have place and purpose in God's plan. How do we know that Merle's not out there raising up the next Billy Graham? Or the next JL Moody? How do we know that? How do we know that y'all's music, that y'all get up here and play, is not going to have some impact on some young individual? Or at your homes? How do you know that you don't, if you've got kids at home, how do you know that one of those kids is not the next Billy Graham? We don't have any idea what God's plan is. But one thing I want to encourage is that it doesn't necessarily take some superstar for God's plan to have tremendous effect. This was just a simple man, Edward Kimball, that was a Sunday school teacher, that was being devoted to God's calling on his life, took a few extra minutes out of his day to intentionally get up and go and have this conversation with this young man. Look at how we can link all these millions of lives now intact for the kingdom because of that dedication of one man taking a few extra minutes. I want to read out of 2 Timothy. I'll just start in verse 3 and we'll read down a few verses. Paul's writing in Timothy, he says, I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors with a clear conscience, as I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy. I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Louise and your mother Eunice. And now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Fan into flame the gift of God. In some translations, I believe it's in the King James, it says, stir up the spirit of God that is in you. Today, I feel compelled to stir us up in our hearts about the spirit that is in us. Now, to insinuate and write to fan into flame, he would say that there's basically an ember of course already lit. Each of us has. He tells you to fan it into flames. Set it on fire. There needs to be a greater desire, and I pray for us, that God will put in us a greater desire to have thoughts of those in the world around us. And it doesn't take a superstar, a Billy Graham, to be that. I think that each one of us that knows Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior has been given that ember. So, if we allow God to stir up in us, to fan the flame in our heart, that we will have compassion on the world around us. We know we're good. We know where we're going. But don't we have a love in our heart for our Lord out of adoration for what He's done for us to show that love to the world around us. To be concerned about the people around us and whether they have a relationship, a personal relationship with Christ or not. And if they do, many times we're used to help inspire, to encourage the growth and maturity of others around us. Maybe they've lost their way. Maybe they're struggling. Maybe they're questioning their faith. There's so many areas that we can be of assistance. You know, there's kind of a step in process that they say, for somebody to come to faith, one of the very first things and first steps would be is building relationships. In order for somebody to have a trust in you, to confide in you, to even speak to you in matters concerning their faith and spirituality and how they believe, they first must have some sort of a trust in you. And the only way to gain trust is to build a relationship. A lot of times we're just walking through our lives, our everyday lives, and if we're trying to live out what God's doing in our life, then this can speak out to other people's lives. And then we just simply build relationships around us. There are a lot of places that we go in the environment. A lot of times we're just there, just building relationships with the community. And I've always said, you don't have to worry about ministry. That will present its own opportunities in time. You don't have to go looking for it. That will come to you. After you've spent enough time building friendships, building relationships, eventually, eventually if you're walking it out right, people around you become curious. That doesn't mean they're ready to run to the altar and ready to be at the church house every time Sunday doors open. But they do at least become curious and inquisitive. They may come to you and ask for questions, ask different things. And at that time you may get an opportunity to share more deeply, individually, about your faith and who Christ is to you. You may get an opportunity to invite them to church sometime. You may get an opportunity, they may call on you in a time of trouble or strife. They may think of you, out of building that relationship and that trust, to call on you to help them in their time of struggle. And from there, after they've maybe gotten curious, maybe they're ready to take the next step where they're actually looking to embrace God and to look at that more deeply. Ultimately, they get to a place where they're ready to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior and dedicate their lives to living it out with Jesus. But a lot of people get hung in those first couple of steps. They may find somebody that they kind of trust, that they believe are genuine, start building relationships. You may be kind of curious as to this Christian and why he lives his life and how he lives his life. Amy, how can you go to these places that you go and play and people are like, and Josh, I know you've been through it too. You go and you play and you're in a completely secular environment, but you guys are there playing, having fun, but you are Christians living your life in that way. That's very different than a lot of the people that are around you. You're not there to party and drink and carry on. And that causes curiosity in a lot of people. It's like, man, they're pretty cool. But they're pretty serious about what they believe. I mean, they live it. That creates a lot of neat opportunity for people to become inquisitive. And after building relationships, they may come to you inquiring about these things. The bottom line is, it's not about superstars. It's not about God's work in all of us. It's not about just using these handful of people to affect the whole world. Each and every one of us has opportunity. And more commonly, that opportunity where somebody comes to know Christ is going to come from the simple people just living their lives like an Andrew or this Edward Kimball. Like I said, we've got Merle. He's our Edward Kimball, you know. We've got Merle back there helping with the kids. And who knows how these kids that he's working with, these kids that he's working with, who knows what kind of impact they're going to have on the world around them. Look at the time that they are living in now and what they're going to see in the future that some of us that are old enough now probably won't see. And if we do see, we're probably going to wish we hadn't. You know? I mean, it's getting to the point to where, you know, there's this attack on our kids and our country. You know, when I started looking at some of those pie checks and when it was that people come to faith, and most commonly in those age groups, you know, it's like, well, no wonder our schools are being attacked and what's being taught or allowed to happen in there because that's where the majority of the people are coming to know Christ. What better place to push position and attack? And I think that we're in the midst of that right now. You can't say the Pledge of Allegiance because it's one nation under God. I mean, you've got all these different things, but they don't mind teaching about alternative religious views and they don't mind teaching about, you know, as far as our sexuality and where people may stand and view on that. I mean, they don't mind teaching a lot of these alternative-type topics. Don't mention God or Jesus. I mean, boy, you've just really, really done a good one if you say that. And I think that we're very much, you know, under attack in that way. And I think it's up to us to be attending to our homes and understanding, you know, what effect that we may possibly be having just in our family environment, just in the people that are immediately around us. And I would just encourage us to let God fan that flame or stir up that spirit that He's placed within us to have more intention about the world around us and what God's doing and maybe using us and recognizing you don't have to be a superstar. And who knows what God's plan is on how He may use you in your life. Let's bow our heads and pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we just thank You for Your Word. Lord, we just thank You for Your instruction and Your guidance and Lord, how Your Word continues to grow us, to teach us, to groom us, Lord. To fashion us to be purposed after Your will, Lord. We just thank You for the opportunity to be able to come together as a church family and body, Lord. To learn together, to worship together, to grow together, Lord. To praise You and honor You with all that we are, Lord. We just pray that You'll continue to fan that flame in us, Lord. To stir up that spirit with You that's placed in us. That we may be used, Lord. That we may have a desire to be able to fulfill Your will and Your plan on our lives and Your call on our lives, Lord. And we just thank You and love You here today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.