We all know the great commission from Matthew 28:18-20, because we have heard many messages and lessons taught from this passage throughout our lives. But did Jesus say how many is enough?
There are so many ways that we each can go and tell but I want to zero in today on just one—one that is near and dear to my heart. Vacation Bible School. I have always loved it, both as a kid and as an adult organizing or working in VBS. I love the music, the decorations, the excitement of the children coming through the doors.
We just completed our VBS last Thursday here in McNeil, Arkansas. We ended our week with a water balloon fight. In the past, we have had a contest between the boys and the girls, with the winner getting the right to throw a pie into the face of the adult teachers. This year we chose water balloons instead. We had 400 water balloons and the girls won so they got to throw them at the men teachers first then the ladies. Then the boys and girls got to throw them at each other. This year our missions project is the Zambia missions team going August 23-September 2 to complete a ladies’ conference as well as teaching/training the men who have surrendered to the ministry there. What a fun night it was, but when all was said and done, we had not had any children saved during our VBS. I always tell myself, we did what we knew to do. We taught them about Jesus and His great love for them. We taught them new songs and let them have a marvelous time. We planted the seed.
Have you ever heard that saying (normally at Easter), “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming?” Well, Sunday morning one young man came forward and told us he had been saved on Friday and wants to be baptized into the church! Praise the Lord!
Is one enough? Oh, I think so! I am reminded of a story about how Billy Graham came to know the Lord. I borrowed this article but wanted to share it and let you know that sometimes the “one” is someone God is going to use in a mighty way. Read on to see what I mean.
As of 2008, Billy Graham’s estimated lifetime audience, including radio and television broadcasts, topped 2.2 billion. That means that approximately 2.2 billion people have heard the gospel from Billy Graham’s mouth. That’s hard to wrap your mind around.
Billy Graham has shared the gospel with more people than anyone else in history, but do you know who shared the gospel with him?
It actually is a series of events that has been traced over the years and starts out with one volunteer Sunday school teacher.
“You can count the apples on the tree, but who can count the apples in a seed?” goes the old aphorism.
So it is with the influence of a single person.
Take Edward Kimball, for an example. Never heard of him? Rest assured – most people have never heard of him.
Kimball was a Sunday school teacher who not only prayed for the hyper boys in his class but also sought to win each one to the Lord personally. He decided he would be intentional with every single last one of them. Surely he thought about throwing in the towel. If you have ever taught the Bible to young boys, you know that the experience can often be like herding cats.
One young man, in particular, didn’t seem to understand what the gospel was about so Kimball went to the shoe store where he was stocking shelves and confronted him in the stock room with the importance of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. That young man was Dwight L. Moody. In the stockroom on that Saturday, he believed the gospel and received Jesus Christ as his Savior. In his lifetime, Moody touched two continents for God, with thousands professing Christ through his ministry.
But the story doesn’t end there. Actually that’s where it begins. Under Moody, another man’s heart was touched for God, Wilbur Chapman. Chapman became the evangelist who preached to thousands. One day, a professional ball player had a day off and attended one of Chapman’s meetings, and thus, Billy Sunday was converted.
Sunday quit baseball and became part of Chapman’s team. Then, Chapman accepted the pastorate of a large church and Billy Sunday began his own evangelistic crusades.
Another young man was converted whose name was Mordecai Ham. He was a scholarly, dignified gentleman who wasn’t above renting a hearse and parading it through the streets advertising his meetings.
When Ham came to Charlotte, North Carolina, a sandy-haired, lanky young man, then in high school, vowed that he wouldn’t go hear him preach, but Billy Frank, as he was called by his family, did eventually go. Ham announced that he knew for a fact that a house of ill repute was located across the street from the local high school and that male students were skipping lunch to visit the house across the street. When students decided to go to interrupt the meetings of Mordecai Ham, Billy Frank decided to go see what would happen.
That night Billy Frank went and was intrigued by what he heard. Returning another night, he responded to the invitation and was converted. Billy Frank eventually became known as Billy Graham, the evangelist who preached to more people than any other person who ever lived, including the Apostle Paul.
You could continue following this trail and see where Graham and all of us started with the ministry of Jesus. Think about how far-reaching Christ’s message has gone.
This fascinating chain of events was triggered by a Sunday school teacher’s concern for his boys.
If you are like most people, you have served in some capacity and wondered at times if you were making a real difference or not. Maybe you’ve thought about quitting because you didn’t think you were making any difference.
Next time you are tempted to give up, please remember Edward Kimball, whose persistence and faithfulness was tremendously honored by the Lord. The story would have looked very differently if Edward Kimball did not take his Saturday to seek out young Dwight Moody.
You can count the apples on a tree, but only God knows how many apples are in a single seed.
A final note from me, I heard Billy Graham preach in 1965 in the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, and that was the first time I understood that I was a sinner and in need of a Savior. I was with my mother and younger sister who had gone to sleep during the message so I was not allowed to go down to the front. Because of me not telling the church we belonged to that I was convicted but rather that I had been saved, I was dunked in the water and made a member of the church. But something was not right in my heart. At the age of 19, through some circumstances in my husband’s family and his own story of running from God’s call, I finally admitted that I had never prayed a prayer of repentance and was saved and baptized. I’ve never doubted my salvation since that day. God is so good to have given me a second chance. Billy Graham influenced my life all thanks to one Sunday school teacher.