Get In The Fight
Who Have You Given Up On?
August 23, 2026 | By Karl Romeus
Somebody is waiting for you to stop waiting.
There's a name you keep putting off and God hasn't quit on them yet.
The whole Christian life can feel like it's about the crowd: the service, the numbers, the movement. But when Philip heard one voice tell him to run, he left the crowd behind and chased down a single man on a desert road.
This message is about the one, the one person God keeps putting in front of you, the one conversation you keep avoiding, and the one name you can't seem to write down. Whether you've convinced yourself they're too far gone, you're afraid of how the conversation will go, or you just stopped noticing them years ago, this is your nudge to stop inspecting the soil and start walking toward them.
In this message you'll discover:
Why the one matters more to God than the crowd
What Philip's "run" reveals about how God actually reaches people
How to stop prejudging who's reachable and start the conversation
A practical way to pray for and pursue your one person
Key Scriptures: Acts 8:26-40, John 3:16, Luke 15:4-7, 2 Peter 3:9
Karl Romeus
August 23rd, 2026
// Bible References: John 3:16, Acts 8:5-6, Acts 8:26-30, Acts 8:34-39, Matthew 13:1-23, 1 Peter 3:15
// Community Question: Have you ever had a conversation or encounter with someone that seemed small at the time but ended up meaning a lot to you? What impact did it have on you?
// Discussion Questions
- Karl opened with the story of the Dallas Mavericks searching for a one-of-one rookie card and then connected it to John 3:16. In that passage, Jesus says, 'For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.' Pastor Karl emphasized the word 'whoever' — meaning any one person. What does it mean to you that God sees every person as a 'one of one,' and how does that change the way you think about the people around you?
- In Acts 8, Philip was in the middle of a genuine revival — crowds were responding, lives were changing — and yet God told him to leave and walk down a desert road. Philip's response is described simply: 'He rose and went.' What does Philip's immediate obedience say about his trust in God, and why do you think it's so hard for us to obey when we don't know the full plan?
- Karl introduced the idea of being a 'soil inspector' rather than a 'seed scatterer,' drawing on Jesus' Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13. He argued that we often decide someone isn't ready to hear about Jesus before we've ever had a real conversation with them. Why do you think we fall into the habit of prejudging whether someone is open to faith, and how does the Ethiopian eunuch's story in Acts 8 challenge that habit?
- In your own relationships, have you leaned more on living it out quietly or on actually talking about your faith? What's one conversation you've been avoiding that might be worth having?
// Challenge: Karl asked everyone to write down one name, one person they're committing to pray for, invite, and not give up on. He was clear that you can't control what that person does, but you can control your own faithfulness. What does it look like to 'fight for your one' over the long haul, especially when you see no results and the person seems completely uninterested?