1 00:00:00,560 --> 00:00:02,520 Grab your Bibles. We're going to learn more about this kingdom 2 00:00:02,520 --> 00:00:05,760 that's come. The Gospel of Matthew, chapter nine. We're going 3 00:00:05,760 --> 00:00:10,520 to pick back up in verse 35, Matthew 9. 35. Those of you who are 4 00:00:10,520 --> 00:00:12,720 joining us as guests, we are just going through the Gospel of 5 00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:15,120 Matthew chapter by chapter, verse by verse, working our way through. 6 00:00:15,760 --> 00:00:17,680 But this particular morning, I'm going to go ahead and confess 7 00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:19,960 to you. This isn't how I was supposed to start the sermon this 8 00:00:19,960 --> 00:00:22,440 morning. And the Lord brought conviction to me and said, no, you 9 00:00:22,440 --> 00:00:26,600 got to tell him. So I was praying this morning, and the Lord 10 00:00:26,600 --> 00:00:30,000 very clearly said, jason, that message that you wrote that you're 11 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:34,760 about to preach, it's for you, it's not for them. I'm going to preach 12 00:00:34,760 --> 00:00:37,920 to you a message that is really all about God preaching to 13 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:41,040 me, because I am royally failing in this particular message. 14 00:00:41,040 --> 00:00:44,480 I'm going to share with you. The Lord this morning was humbling 15 00:00:44,480 --> 00:00:48,320 me, bringing me back to a place of remembrance of what I bring 16 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:51,560 to the table, which isn't much, and what the Lord can do if 17 00:00:51,560 --> 00:00:55,960 I would just humble myself before him. So I struggle with what 18 00:00:55,960 --> 00:00:58,490 we're going to be talking about, and the Lord had to beat down 19 00:00:58,490 --> 00:01:00,650 my pride. He did it in multiple ways. One was during my 20 00:01:00,650 --> 00:01:03,010 time of journaling and prayer, which was meaningful. I'll share 21 00:01:03,010 --> 00:01:05,890 with that in a second. The second thing, though, was through 22 00:01:05,890 --> 00:01:10,250 a text I got from my wife as I was driving up. It was a very simple 23 00:01:10,250 --> 00:01:14,890 text, but it was a passage of scripture coming from her Bible reading. 24 00:01:14,890 --> 00:01:18,330 It's Proverbs 16:31. It says, gray hair is a crown of splendor. 25 00:01:18,490 --> 00:01:21,890 It is attained in the way of righteousness. It was just highlighted. 26 00:01:21,890 --> 00:01:25,760 That's it. Nothing else. I texted back to my wife and said, 27 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:28,880 I must be a very righteous man. She wrote, for reals. That's 28 00:01:28,880 --> 00:01:34,480 what she wrote. So God just reminded me, humbling me. All you're 29 00:01:34,480 --> 00:01:36,800 bringing is a bunch of gray hair into this thing and a Bible 30 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:42,960 and give them. Give them me, don't give them you. Here's what 31 00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:45,520 the Lord is doing. He's revealing to me an area of failure. 32 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:48,320 I don't like to admit this to you, what I'm about to admit to you, 33 00:01:49,530 --> 00:01:54,650 because I'm not supposed to struggle with this. But I don't love 34 00:01:54,650 --> 00:01:58,890 people the way I should love people. There are far too many moments 35 00:01:59,450 --> 00:02:03,850 when I view people, again, don't hold your tomatoes. I view 36 00:02:03,850 --> 00:02:09,490 people as inconveniences, intrusions and interruptions. I'm 37 00:02:09,490 --> 00:02:14,300 a Pastor, like, my calling is to shepherd the flock of God. And 38 00:02:14,300 --> 00:02:18,820 there are times when I just. People get in the way of what I'm 39 00:02:18,820 --> 00:02:23,460 trying to accomplish. You ever been driving and you're going at 40 00:02:23,460 --> 00:02:26,100 cruising speed and then all of a sudden a car pulls in front of 41 00:02:26,100 --> 00:02:28,820 you just to slow down, and then you're like, middle finger, 42 00:02:28,820 --> 00:02:31,820 stay down, stay down. Come on. No, I'm a Christian. I don't do that 43 00:02:31,820 --> 00:02:35,940 kind of thing. But that's intrusion. Like, what are you doing? 44 00:02:36,180 --> 00:02:41,180 Get out of the way. You're late to something and all of a sudden 45 00:02:41,180 --> 00:02:43,540 somebody comes and says, hey, I got this issue, Pastor, can you 46 00:02:43,540 --> 00:02:47,770 pray for me? I'm like, oh, okay, yeah, sure. Yes. How can I 47 00:02:47,770 --> 00:02:54,050 pray for you? And I view a person in need as an intrusion. And 48 00:02:54,050 --> 00:02:59,050 it's horrible. Sometimes it's my own family, my own children. I'm 49 00:02:59,050 --> 00:03:02,530 about to go out, full dress to go mow, and I'm in my shorts and 50 00:03:02,530 --> 00:03:06,570 shoes, and my beautiful daughter Jovi will run up, hey, Daddy, 51 00:03:06,650 --> 00:03:09,850 do my shoes match? You know, come on, baby. I'm about to go outside 52 00:03:09,850 --> 00:03:14,770 the door. Ask your sister, she'll tell you. It's a don't bother 53 00:03:14,770 --> 00:03:18,450 me right now, I'm busy mindset that I just carry with me all the 54 00:03:18,450 --> 00:03:24,810 time. And I just this morning the Lord said, jason, that's horrible. 55 00:03:26,250 --> 00:03:30,450 You don't view people the way I view people. And because you don't 56 00:03:30,450 --> 00:03:33,090 view people the way I view people, you'll never be able to minister 57 00:03:33,090 --> 00:03:37,290 to people the way I want you to minister to people. And he's calling 58 00:03:37,290 --> 00:03:41,500 me out and he's showing me, here's where Jesus is, here's where 59 00:03:41,500 --> 00:03:48,460 you are. And I have a feeling that as he humbles me, some of you 60 00:03:48,460 --> 00:03:53,020 in this room will be humbled along with me. Maybe I'm just praying 61 00:03:53,020 --> 00:03:56,660 for that Some of you will be humbled along with me. But we're 62 00:03:56,660 --> 00:03:59,580 gonna let Jesus do the humbling. Going back to the Gospel 63 00:03:59,580 --> 00:04:02,380 of Matthew, chapter nine, verse 35, we're gonna pick up and 64 00:04:02,380 --> 00:04:06,830 finish up chapter nine. Here's what it says. It says, and Jesus 65 00:04:06,830 --> 00:04:09,750 went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues 66 00:04:09,750 --> 00:04:12,350 and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease 67 00:04:12,350 --> 00:04:15,630 and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion 68 00:04:15,630 --> 00:04:17,510 for them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep 69 00:04:17,510 --> 00:04:20,310 without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest 70 00:04:20,310 --> 00:04:23,270 is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly 71 00:04:23,270 --> 00:04:26,750 to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. 72 00:04:27,630 --> 00:04:31,600 Alright, so here's what you got, you got Jesus now. And he's 73 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:34,920 saying, I want you to know what I've been doing this whole time, 74 00:04:34,920 --> 00:04:40,280 actually. Verse 35, chapter 9, verse 35 is the bottom slice of bread 75 00:04:40,280 --> 00:04:42,560 when there was a first slice of bread to make a sandwich. That 76 00:04:42,560 --> 00:04:45,600 came back in chapter four, verse 23, where it says almost the 77 00:04:45,600 --> 00:04:49,040 exact same thing verbatim. Jesus is saying, I came to preach, 78 00:04:49,040 --> 00:04:53,800 teach and cure and heal every disease and sickness. Says then 4:23 79 00:04:53,960 --> 00:04:56,600 says that again in 9:35. And you know what he does in between 80 00:04:56,600 --> 00:05:00,220 that? He preaches, he teaches, and he heals every affliction. Chapters 81 00:05:00,220 --> 00:05:02,260 five, six and seven are the Sermon on the Mount. He's preaching 82 00:05:02,260 --> 00:05:05,700 and teaching at the highest level possible. Chapters 8 and 9, 83 00:05:05,700 --> 00:05:08,500 he's healing every affliction, he's casting out demons, he's healing 84 00:05:08,500 --> 00:05:10,540 the sick, he's raising the dead. I mean he's doing all kinds 85 00:05:10,540 --> 00:05:14,620 of stuff. He's preaching, teaching and healing. But now in 86 00:05:14,620 --> 00:05:18,580 this passage, it tells us the reason why. And this is where Jesus 87 00:05:18,580 --> 00:05:23,560 and I get real different. Jesus was not doing this work so, 88 00:05:23,630 --> 00:05:25,990 so that people would check him out like, aren't I amazing? Look 89 00:05:25,990 --> 00:05:30,430 at me. He wasn't doing it for self glory or self attention. He 90 00:05:30,430 --> 00:05:35,710 was doing it out of love. It says that Jesus saw the people and 91 00:05:35,710 --> 00:05:38,270 he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless 92 00:05:38,270 --> 00:05:41,830 like sheep without a shepherd. By the way, that phrase harassed 93 00:05:41,830 --> 00:05:45,670 and helpless is an idiom in Greek. You could probably best translate 94 00:05:45,670 --> 00:05:50,640 it. He saw them. They looked chewed up and spit out by the shepherds 95 00:05:50,640 --> 00:05:54,160 who should have cared for them. In other words, life was so 96 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:58,400 broken, so heavy, so out of control that they were just, they 97 00:05:58,400 --> 00:06:02,280 would just spit out on the floor, half dead, hopeless, helpless, 98 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:06,760 overwhelmed, at the end of their rope, nowhere to turn. He looked 99 00:06:06,760 --> 00:06:10,640 out and that's what he saw. He didn't see intrusions and inconveniences 100 00:06:10,640 --> 00:06:13,840 and interruptions. He saw people and he had compassion for 101 00:06:13,840 --> 00:06:17,410 them. By the way, that word compassion in Greek, it's an interesting 102 00:06:17,410 --> 00:06:22,370 word. It's born from the Greek word bowels or intestines. It literally 103 00:06:22,370 --> 00:06:25,650 means he was sick to his stomach over the pain that he saw. 104 00:06:25,650 --> 00:06:28,970 When he looked out over them, it hurt him in the deepest level 105 00:06:28,970 --> 00:06:33,010 of his gut to look at them. We would say it broke his heart to look 106 00:06:33,010 --> 00:06:36,170 out there and see them harassed and helpless and broken 107 00:06:36,170 --> 00:06:42,210 and suffering on the floor, chewed up and spit out. That's what 108 00:06:42,210 --> 00:06:48,290 drove Jesus to do what he did. And I look at how I view people and 109 00:06:48,290 --> 00:06:52,770 they get in the way they slow me down. I got things I'm trying 110 00:06:52,770 --> 00:06:57,090 to accomplish. And I realize how dissonant my view is of the people 111 00:06:57,090 --> 00:07:00,570 around me and how glorious Jesus view of people around him was. 112 00:07:02,250 --> 00:07:05,650 But God is trying to give you and me a gift, because I have a feeling 113 00:07:05,650 --> 00:07:09,120 there are some of you in this room, maybe a little Type A like 114 00:07:09,120 --> 00:07:13,440 I am as well. And you got your mission, you got your vision, you 115 00:07:13,440 --> 00:07:16,400 got your goal. You're after it. And either the people are helping 116 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:20,520 you or they're in the way. Did you ever notice how interruptible 117 00:07:20,520 --> 00:07:26,320 Jesus was? Here's the savior of the stinking world, and he stops 118 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:28,360 for a bleeding woman who touches his garment and say, all 119 00:07:28,360 --> 00:07:32,840 right, stop the whole parade. Someone touch me. Always interruptible. 120 00:07:32,840 --> 00:07:36,410 Why? Because the people were the mission. He looked out there 121 00:07:36,410 --> 00:07:38,490 and saw them harassed and helpless. They weren't in the way. 122 00:07:38,490 --> 00:07:43,450 That's why he came. And he says to us, here's what I want you 123 00:07:43,450 --> 00:07:47,890 to know. People, my people, my disciples, as I have loved them, 124 00:07:47,890 --> 00:07:51,930 I want you to love them, too. He's about to do something. This 125 00:07:51,930 --> 00:07:55,370 is a hinge point in the whole Gospel of Matthew. So up to this 126 00:07:55,370 --> 00:07:58,610 moment, Jesus has been doing all the work. He's the one doing 127 00:07:58,610 --> 00:08:01,840 the preaching, the teaching, and the healing from chapters five 128 00:08:01,840 --> 00:08:05,040 all the way to chapter nine, the very end of it. Now he's about 129 00:08:05,040 --> 00:08:09,000 to say, I want you now to pick up the mantle and do what I've been 130 00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:10,960 doing. I'm not gonna accomplish this mission on my own. 131 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:15,200 I'm handing it off to you to pick up the reins and to do what 132 00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:18,280 I've been doing, preaching and teaching and healing every affliction 133 00:08:18,280 --> 00:08:23,000 and every disease. I want you to do what I've been doing, and I 134 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:25,640 want you to love how I've been loving. I'm gonna give you three 135 00:08:25,640 --> 00:08:28,840 points this morning. Here's the first point. It's the gift of 136 00:08:28,840 --> 00:08:33,280 compassion. Compassion allows us to see people as harassed and 137 00:08:33,280 --> 00:08:39,440 helpless and not as intrusions or inconveniences. He's trying to 138 00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:44,680 give you and me a gift through compassion, to look out and actually 139 00:08:44,680 --> 00:08:47,720 see people the way they are. And I want you to know all around 140 00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:50,160 you are people who are harassed and helpless, chewed up 141 00:08:50,160 --> 00:08:53,760 and spit out. It's that grumpy neighbor who always seems angry. 142 00:08:53,760 --> 00:08:56,550 And what you don't realize is that one of his children is suffering 143 00:08:56,550 --> 00:09:00,030 with cancer right now, and his whole life is shattered. And you 144 00:09:00,030 --> 00:09:03,270 think he's just grumpy, but he's harassed and helpless, and you 145 00:09:03,270 --> 00:09:07,230 get angry with him or you can go love on him or that kid in the 146 00:09:07,230 --> 00:09:10,750 school who keeps on bullying somebody else. That a parent. You 147 00:09:10,750 --> 00:09:13,390 just want to go tell that little kid and his parents what to 148 00:09:13,390 --> 00:09:15,710 do. You don't realize that his parents just got divorced and his 149 00:09:15,710 --> 00:09:20,030 whole life is in shambles, and that little boy is harassed and helpless 150 00:09:20,030 --> 00:09:21,670 and overwhelmed, that he doesn't know what to do with it. 151 00:09:21,670 --> 00:09:25,160 So he bullies somebody else. So we can look at them and we can 152 00:09:25,160 --> 00:09:27,880 see intrusions and complications, interruptions, or 153 00:09:27,880 --> 00:09:32,840 people who are harassed and helpless. And Jesus says, look at 154 00:09:32,840 --> 00:09:36,280 them with compassion, see their brokenness. This is what I 155 00:09:36,280 --> 00:09:42,240 stink at. I confess to you. I don't look at where people are and 156 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:45,160 why they're hurting. And therefore, my heart doesn't love. 157 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:50,130 And if my heart doesn't love, I don't do the mission of God. He's 158 00:09:50,130 --> 00:09:55,730 calling us out this morning. Look at them the way I see them and 159 00:09:55,730 --> 00:10:00,050 love them. And then he's going to tell them in just a moment and 160 00:10:00,050 --> 00:10:03,570 take up my mission to them. But he starts in an incredibly simple 161 00:10:03,570 --> 00:10:07,370 way. He starts with prayer. Did you notice that? He says. And 162 00:10:07,370 --> 00:10:10,250 he said that after his heart is breaking over them, after he's 163 00:10:10,250 --> 00:10:12,970 feeling the gut of his stomach, he says, calls the disciples, 164 00:10:12,970 --> 00:10:15,130 says, therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest. By the way, 165 00:10:15,130 --> 00:10:19,080 that's Almighty God the Father. And ask him to send out laborers 166 00:10:19,080 --> 00:10:22,320 into the harvest. He said, the harvest is already plentiful. Send 167 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:26,560 out laborers, workers into the harvest. And I believe this is something 168 00:10:26,560 --> 00:10:29,360 that we're supposed to take literally. Now, we could wait until 169 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:31,600 Wednesday to do it, but I don't want us to wait until Wednesday. 170 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:35,240 I want us to do it right now, to actually take Jesus literally. 171 00:10:35,320 --> 00:10:38,240 So we're put a little pause on the sermon, and we're going to turn 172 00:10:38,240 --> 00:10:40,320 this worship service into a prayer gathering. So here's what 173 00:10:40,320 --> 00:10:43,770 I invite you to do. In just a moment, you're gonna find three or 174 00:10:43,770 --> 00:10:46,330 five people around you. You're gonna huddle up. And I'd encourage 175 00:10:46,330 --> 00:10:50,210 you. Don't worry about wasting time on introductions. Just come 176 00:10:50,210 --> 00:10:52,930 together and start praying. And you're gonna pray for three things. 177 00:10:53,410 --> 00:10:57,250 You're asking the Lord to send workers into three places. One, locally, 178 00:10:58,210 --> 00:11:01,210 ask the Lord to raise up workers to go to the people who live 179 00:11:01,210 --> 00:11:04,650 next to you in your apartment or on your block, or people who work 180 00:11:04,650 --> 00:11:07,050 in the cubicle next to you, people who shop in the store that 181 00:11:07,050 --> 00:11:09,410 you do or go to the restaurant. This city that we live 182 00:11:09,410 --> 00:11:13,260 in, pray for God to send workers to tell them the good news. 183 00:11:13,260 --> 00:11:17,140 Of the gospel, then two nationally, don't just pray for our 184 00:11:17,140 --> 00:11:20,140 country. Pray for God to send workers to our country. Because the 185 00:11:20,140 --> 00:11:23,660 answer to our country isn't politics, it's the gospel. And so 186 00:11:23,660 --> 00:11:26,220 we need to be praying for God to raise up church planners who would 187 00:11:26,220 --> 00:11:29,900 take the gospel to more and more places in our nation, but not 188 00:11:29,900 --> 00:11:32,300 just this nation, to the ends of the earth. We need to pray for 189 00:11:32,300 --> 00:11:35,460 God to send workers to the unreached, unengaged people groups 190 00:11:35,460 --> 00:11:38,510 who haven't even heard the name of Jesus yet. So those three 191 00:11:38,510 --> 00:11:41,830 things, locally, nationally, internationally, we're gonna pray 192 00:11:41,830 --> 00:11:44,430 for God to raise up laborers. So I wanna invite you, just you can 193 00:11:44,430 --> 00:11:46,910 pop up around your house, stand around, grab three or four 194 00:11:46,910 --> 00:11:49,950 other people, and let's make this a prayer gathering. Spend just 195 00:11:49,950 --> 00:11:53,270 two or three minutes. And then when that time is over, I'll pray 196 00:11:53,270 --> 00:11:55,230 for us and lead us on to the next thing. So go ahead and move 197 00:11:55,230 --> 00:12:00,350 around and do that now. Lord, thank you. Thank you that you hear 198 00:12:00,350 --> 00:12:05,680 our prayers. Thank you that you can hear all our voices at the 199 00:12:05,680 --> 00:12:11,080 exact same time. Your word tells us we're supposed to make your 200 00:12:11,080 --> 00:12:16,520 house a house of prayer for all nations. Thank you that we get 201 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:22,040 to obey your scripture this morning. Thank you that you will 202 00:12:22,040 --> 00:12:27,560 send workers simply because we've asked. Oh, God, we praise your 203 00:12:27,560 --> 00:12:34,090 holy name in Jesus name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Praise God. 204 00:12:34,650 --> 00:12:38,570 Listen, as you make your way back to your seat, thank you. Thank 205 00:12:38,570 --> 00:12:42,090 you for letting us do this. By the way, if you enjoyed that. Every 206 00:12:42,090 --> 00:12:45,690 Wednesday night we pray and we do a lot of this kind of thing. If 207 00:12:45,690 --> 00:12:48,330 you didn't enjoy it, come anyway on Wednesday night and learn 208 00:12:48,330 --> 00:12:52,250 how to enjoy it, because it's a lot of fun. Prayer is one of those 209 00:12:52,250 --> 00:12:55,170 things that you learn by doing. And so one of the reasons 210 00:12:55,170 --> 00:12:56,890 why we don't like it is because we don't feel good at it. 211 00:12:58,170 --> 00:13:00,330 Good news is you don't have to be good because God is good. We just 212 00:13:00,330 --> 00:13:03,810 lift up our prayers, as imperfect as they are to him. And 213 00:13:03,810 --> 00:13:08,490 that that means right now, this morning, some of you lift up 214 00:13:08,490 --> 00:13:13,890 some very shaky prayers that the unshaken God will answer. And 215 00:13:13,890 --> 00:13:17,170 so we're going to see him actually raise up workers. But I 216 00:13:17,170 --> 00:13:20,290 want to go ahead and forewarn you. Jesus is a little tricky on 217 00:13:20,290 --> 00:13:23,810 this one because he has a habit of making you the answer to 218 00:13:23,810 --> 00:13:31,250 your own request. Oh, you pray for workers. How about you? In fact, 219 00:13:31,250 --> 00:13:34,210 that's exactly what he does with the disciples. When you keep 220 00:13:34,210 --> 00:13:37,290 on moving to chapter 10, what you're going to see is him say, hey, 221 00:13:37,290 --> 00:13:39,770 disciples, I want you to go ahead and answer your own prayer 222 00:13:39,770 --> 00:13:42,730 request. Look at verse 10. I mean, excuse me, verse one of chapter 223 00:13:42,730 --> 00:13:46,650 10, it says. And he called to him his 12 disciples and gave them 224 00:13:46,650 --> 00:13:49,810 authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every 225 00:13:49,810 --> 00:13:52,620 disease and every affliction. The names of the twelve apostles 226 00:13:52,620 --> 00:13:55,220 are first, Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, 227 00:13:55,220 --> 00:13:58,780 James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, Philip and Bartholomew, 228 00:13:58,780 --> 00:14:01,660 Thomas and Matthew the tax collector, James the son of Alphaeus 229 00:14:01,660 --> 00:14:04,980 and Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed 230 00:14:04,980 --> 00:14:09,460 him. These 12 Jesus sent out. I'm going to pause there for a moment. 231 00:14:10,180 --> 00:14:14,540 I can 100% guarantee you that the vast majority of you in this 232 00:14:14,540 --> 00:14:18,040 room, when you read that list, all you focus on is, is the name 233 00:14:18,040 --> 00:14:22,000 of the 12 disciples, the 12 apostles. Like, some of you are so 234 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:24,960 nerdy, you memorize the names of the twelve apostles because you 235 00:14:24,960 --> 00:14:26,960 think somehow you're going to get, like, special bonus points in 236 00:14:26,960 --> 00:14:30,160 heaven if you can name them all. We focus on the names of the 237 00:14:30,160 --> 00:14:33,320 12. And that's actually not the point. I mean, you need to know 238 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:36,080 the names. It's cool to know the names and see they're real people. 239 00:14:36,400 --> 00:14:39,080 But that wasn't what he was doing. That's not why Matthew put 240 00:14:39,080 --> 00:14:43,240 their names here. He put their names here to show what Jesus is 241 00:14:43,240 --> 00:14:46,170 doing in the turning point of the gospel. You can see it in a couple 242 00:14:46,170 --> 00:14:49,170 of ways. One of the first ways you see it is in how Matthew lays 243 00:14:49,170 --> 00:14:51,330 them out. I don't know if you notice this, but he lays them out 244 00:14:51,330 --> 00:14:55,690 in pairs. You'll see the word, and between the couplets, it starts 245 00:14:55,690 --> 00:14:59,450 off Simon, who's called Peter, and Andrew, his brother. Then it 246 00:14:59,450 --> 00:15:01,890 says James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, Philip 247 00:15:01,890 --> 00:15:05,610 and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew, and. And. And what he does 248 00:15:05,610 --> 00:15:10,330 is he gives six couplets. And here's the reason why Jesus sent 249 00:15:10,330 --> 00:15:14,350 people out two by two. These are the six mission teams that he's 250 00:15:14,350 --> 00:15:17,230 sending out. And he's telling them how they went out in teams. 251 00:15:17,230 --> 00:15:20,270 That's why he's given the names that way. Another way, though, 252 00:15:20,270 --> 00:15:23,110 that you can tell what he's doing here is not so much just giving 253 00:15:23,110 --> 00:15:25,750 his names, but sending them out is because of what they're called. 254 00:15:26,230 --> 00:15:30,750 Back in verse 2, it says that the names of the 12 apostles are 255 00:15:30,750 --> 00:15:33,430 these. That's the first time the word apostle is used in the New 256 00:15:33,430 --> 00:15:37,070 Testament, by the way. And the word apostle is an interesting Greek 257 00:15:37,070 --> 00:15:40,430 word, it comes from apostolos. That's not that difficult. Apostolos 258 00:15:40,430 --> 00:15:43,960 becomes apostle. Just a transliteration. It doesn't take 259 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:46,720 rocket science to figure that out. But in English, you don't see 260 00:15:46,720 --> 00:15:51,120 what you would see very quickly in Greek. So the word apostolos 261 00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:54,120 comes from the Greek word apostelo. I mean, that makes sense. 262 00:15:54,120 --> 00:15:57,960 You can see the connection. An apostolos is somebody who has been 263 00:15:57,960 --> 00:16:03,480 apostelo Ed. Well, apostelo means to send. So literally, if you 264 00:16:03,480 --> 00:16:07,000 were to. You were to translate it in verse 2, the names of the 12 265 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:11,660 sent ones are these. And then he gives the 12 names. And then in 266 00:16:11,660 --> 00:16:17,580 verse 5, it says, and these 12 Jesus aposteloed he sent out. So 267 00:16:17,580 --> 00:16:20,140 often we focus on the 12 and think about their position like the 268 00:16:20,140 --> 00:16:24,100 12 pillars of the Church, the foundational ones. But did you know 269 00:16:24,580 --> 00:16:27,340 that his main point in here wasn't to show us who are just set 270 00:16:27,340 --> 00:16:30,300 apart to be the pillars of the Church? He's telling us how he's 271 00:16:30,300 --> 00:16:32,500 passing off his mission. And by the way, he doesn't stop with 272 00:16:32,500 --> 00:16:35,300 these 12. You go to the book of Luke. He sends out 72 people, 273 00:16:35,740 --> 00:16:38,820 two by two, to go do the exact same mission. By the time you get 274 00:16:38,820 --> 00:16:41,220 to the end of the Gospel of Matthew, he sends out all his disciples 275 00:16:41,220 --> 00:16:46,660 and says, go make disciples of all nations. He's ascending God and 276 00:16:46,660 --> 00:16:50,020 he's sending them out. Did you know that there are people in the 277 00:16:50,020 --> 00:16:53,780 Bible who are called apostles? Who are not these 12? There's at 278 00:16:53,780 --> 00:16:57,100 least four where the Bible calls them apostles. Paul is probably 279 00:16:57,100 --> 00:17:00,260 the best well known, calls him the Apostle Paul. But Barnabas was 280 00:17:00,260 --> 00:17:03,640 also called an apostle. Sometimes the ESV is tricky. On this 281 00:17:03,640 --> 00:17:06,240 one, it'll call it a messenger instead of apostle. But the Greek 282 00:17:06,240 --> 00:17:11,960 word is apostolos. He's called an apostle. You also have Titus, 283 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:14,920 who's called an apostle. And you have Epaphroditus. All four of 284 00:17:14,920 --> 00:17:17,440 those are called apostles. Which shows us he wasn't just talking 285 00:17:17,440 --> 00:17:20,840 about the 12 original ones. He was talking about anybody who was 286 00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:24,440 sent. His point here is the function. They are being sent out 287 00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:29,009 to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why it actually says 288 00:17:29,009 --> 00:17:32,329 that he calls them. In verse one, interesting. Verse one, it says, 289 00:17:32,329 --> 00:17:35,849 and he called to him his 12 disciples. What's so intriguing to 290 00:17:35,849 --> 00:17:39,529 me is that it sounds like there are all these disciples out 291 00:17:39,529 --> 00:17:43,889 there somewhere. And he goes, okay, I pick you, and I'll pick you, 292 00:17:44,209 --> 00:17:48,249 and I'll pick you. I'm calling you to me. But actually, the 12 were 293 00:17:48,249 --> 00:17:51,689 already with him following around, he had already been bringing 294 00:17:51,689 --> 00:17:55,820 them to himself. Every scholar I studied believes that this is actually 295 00:17:55,820 --> 00:18:00,100 referring to a more technical like commissioning service, a calling 296 00:18:00,100 --> 00:18:04,020 service where Jesus has these 12 and he lays hands on them and 297 00:18:04,020 --> 00:18:06,220 commissions them with his authority. That's why it says, and 298 00:18:06,220 --> 00:18:08,900 he gave them authority to do the very miracles that he was doing. 299 00:18:09,620 --> 00:18:12,340 He's calling them to go out. By the way, I want you to know this. 300 00:18:12,740 --> 00:18:17,940 No rabbi in Jesus time did it this way. Every rabbi had a pattern. 301 00:18:17,940 --> 00:18:20,780 It's kind of like getting a PhD. Like you gotta do your years, 302 00:18:20,780 --> 00:18:23,350 you gotta write your dissertation, you gotta, you got 303 00:18:23,350 --> 00:18:25,950 to defend it. And then when you've done all that, then you are 304 00:18:25,950 --> 00:18:28,190 given the mantle. You can go out and teach and do your thing. 305 00:18:28,190 --> 00:18:31,670 That's how rabbis worked. They would call apprentices or disciples 306 00:18:31,670 --> 00:18:34,270 to them. Those disciples would have to memorize everything that 307 00:18:34,270 --> 00:18:37,630 that rabbi taught. He would have to show that he has been trained 308 00:18:37,630 --> 00:18:40,750 well and he would just sit and spectate the whole time. And at the 309 00:18:40,750 --> 00:18:43,390 very end of all of his training, if he had everything memorized 310 00:18:43,390 --> 00:18:46,190 and he passed all the tests, then that rabbi would send him out 311 00:18:46,190 --> 00:18:50,750 to be a rabbi. Jesus has a commissioning service at the very 312 00:18:50,750 --> 00:18:53,910 beginning of his ministry and he calls them out when they have 313 00:18:53,910 --> 00:18:56,190 no idea what they're doing and says, good luck, take my authority 314 00:18:56,190 --> 00:19:01,630 with you. That's how he does it. Which means these poor trembling 315 00:19:01,630 --> 00:19:05,230 disciples have no idea what they're doing. They're like, are 316 00:19:05,230 --> 00:19:10,310 you sure? I'm a hillbilly from backwoods Galilee, Jesus, I don't 317 00:19:10,310 --> 00:19:13,910 know what I'm supposed to do. Alright, it's okay. You got my authority. 318 00:19:14,400 --> 00:19:18,000 Just go. Here's what I want you to understand about Jesus. Here's 319 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:22,240 the second point I want you to write down. Jesus doesn't send us 320 00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:25,600 out when we're ready. Jesus makes us ready by sending us out. 321 00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:31,600 It's completely opposite of what you would normally think. Oh 322 00:19:31,600 --> 00:19:34,560 no, if I want to go share the gospel with somebody, I got to be 323 00:19:34,560 --> 00:19:37,760 trained better. I'm going to go on a mission trip. I got to go 324 00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:39,920 to seminary or something like that. I got to memorize my Bible 325 00:19:39,920 --> 00:19:41,680 a bit more. I didn't even memorize the Sermon on the Mount. 326 00:19:41,680 --> 00:19:45,030 Jason, I can't go on a mission trip. I can't share my faith with 327 00:19:45,030 --> 00:19:47,030 somebody. They might ask questions too hard. I'm not ready. 328 00:19:47,830 --> 00:19:50,070 Jesus doesn't send you out when you're ready. He actually makes 329 00:19:50,070 --> 00:19:54,710 you ready by sending you out. So if you feel completely unqualified, 330 00:19:54,870 --> 00:19:57,470 praise God, you're right where you need to be to be sent out by 331 00:19:57,470 --> 00:20:00,630 Almighty God. That's exactly what he does with these disciples. 332 00:20:00,710 --> 00:20:03,830 Bunch of hillbillies from backwoods Galilee. And he says, I'm 333 00:20:03,830 --> 00:20:07,190 sending you out. That's verse five through 15 is their first mission. 334 00:20:07,190 --> 00:20:10,600 They go out onto being the answer to their own prayer immediately. 335 00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:13,920 Let's look at the first half of it. Pick it up in verse 5. These 336 00:20:13,920 --> 00:20:17,520 12 Jesus sent out instructing them, go nowhere among the Gentiles 337 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:20,280 and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the 338 00:20:20,280 --> 00:20:23,160 lost sheep of the house of Israel and proclaim as you go, saying, 339 00:20:23,160 --> 00:20:26,840 the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, 340 00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:30,360 cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You receive without paying, 341 00:20:30,520 --> 00:20:33,280 give without pay. Now, I want to put a little pause button there 342 00:20:33,280 --> 00:20:37,310 for a moment because I want to deal with something that troubled 343 00:20:37,310 --> 00:20:41,270 me for a long time when I read this particular passage. So Jesus 344 00:20:41,270 --> 00:20:42,830 says, all right, I'm giving you instructions. You're going to 345 00:20:42,830 --> 00:20:45,910 take the Gospel. Go out there, the Gospel of Peace. Just make sure 346 00:20:45,910 --> 00:20:50,550 you don't tell the Samaritans and the Gentiles only go to the Jewish 347 00:20:50,550 --> 00:20:54,150 people. I think sometimes we read the Bible and we don't stop 348 00:20:54,150 --> 00:20:57,070 and actually consider the implications of it because we don't 349 00:20:57,070 --> 00:21:01,080 want it to bother us. But that should bother you. Like, what in 350 00:21:01,080 --> 00:21:04,400 the world is Jesus doing being so exclusionary here? Like, everybody 351 00:21:04,400 --> 00:21:06,960 needs the Gospel of peace. Why is he saying, only go to the Jewish 352 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:10,200 people? There are other times Jesus did some things that are pretty 353 00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:13,000 questionable until you understand why he's doing them. Like 354 00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:17,200 telling a Gentile woman, like, oh, I'm not. The food is only for 355 00:21:17,200 --> 00:21:22,280 the Jewish people, not for you gentile dogs. These are things that 356 00:21:22,280 --> 00:21:27,520 Jesus said, you're going, bro, what's going on? You got to look 357 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:30,640 hard at these and understand why he's doing what he's doing. The 358 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:32,800 same thing with the Gentile woman. Jesus ultimately was just 359 00:21:32,800 --> 00:21:36,120 testing her faith to see if she would still believe. And here 360 00:21:36,280 --> 00:21:39,080 he's not saying, I don't want Samaritans and Gentiles to have the 361 00:21:39,080 --> 00:21:44,800 Gospel. All this is is Jesus strategy. He's saying, I'm a Jewish 362 00:21:44,800 --> 00:21:48,240 Messiah and a Samaritan, and a Gentile won't understand a Jewish 363 00:21:48,240 --> 00:21:51,960 Messiah, but he would later go to the Samaritans and to the Gentiles. 364 00:21:52,330 --> 00:21:54,850 In fact, if you read the Gospel of John, it says he intentionally 365 00:21:54,850 --> 00:21:57,490 passes through Samaria, finds a woman at a well who's a Samaritan 366 00:21:57,490 --> 00:22:00,730 and shares the gospel with the Samaritan people. So he's going to 367 00:22:00,730 --> 00:22:03,330 take the Gospel to the Samaritans. At the end of Matthew 368 00:22:03,330 --> 00:22:05,450 already mentioned it. He said, go therefore and make disciples of 369 00:22:05,450 --> 00:22:09,250 all nations. He wants the Gentiles to have the gospel. But 370 00:22:09,250 --> 00:22:12,370 he knew if he was going to start, he had to start with the Jewish 371 00:22:12,370 --> 00:22:15,090 people. This is the same strategy Paul had, by the way. He 372 00:22:15,090 --> 00:22:18,620 said to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile, start with the 373 00:22:18,620 --> 00:22:22,860 base. Who can understand a Jewish Messiah? So Jesus says, go 374 00:22:22,860 --> 00:22:26,500 to the Jewish people first. But he also says, and when you go, 375 00:22:26,580 --> 00:22:29,540 heal the sick, cleanse the leper, cast out the demon, raise 376 00:22:29,540 --> 00:22:33,060 the dead. Why? Because they ain't going to believe you're with 377 00:22:33,060 --> 00:22:35,940 the Messiah if you don't have the power of the Messiah. You see, 378 00:22:36,100 --> 00:22:40,460 Jesus knew this. He knew that every single Jew was expecting the 379 00:22:40,460 --> 00:22:44,800 Jewish Messiah to come to earth with the power of heaven, sent 380 00:22:44,800 --> 00:22:47,960 down as the long awaited son of David, who would bring the power 381 00:22:47,960 --> 00:22:51,040 of heaven to earth. And so that's why Jesus did the miracles 382 00:22:51,040 --> 00:22:54,000 he did. This wasn't some cheap parlor trick to say, check me out, 383 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,840 I can shoot lightning bolts from my eyeballs and webs from my 384 00:22:56,840 --> 00:22:59,160 hands. Like he's. He's not trying to impress the people, he's 385 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:01,720 trying to show them I am the Messiah who's come down with the 386 00:23:01,720 --> 00:23:05,880 power of heaven. And then when he sends his disciples out, the sent 387 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:09,040 ones, he says, you're gonna have to take my power with you or 388 00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:11,440 they're not gonna. They're not gonna believe you are coming on behalf 389 00:23:11,440 --> 00:23:15,970 of the Jewish Messiah. So here's my power. Heal the sick, cleanse 390 00:23:15,970 --> 00:23:20,210 the leper, cast out the demon, raise the dead. I don't want you 391 00:23:20,210 --> 00:23:24,290 to miss what Jesus just said. He said to a bunch of uneducated 392 00:23:24,290 --> 00:23:27,970 hillbillies, you're going to go out and you are going to heal 393 00:23:27,970 --> 00:23:31,410 the sick. All they've been doing at this point is watching Jesus. 394 00:23:32,290 --> 00:23:34,930 And now he's going, you're going to go out and you're going 395 00:23:34,930 --> 00:23:39,270 to cleanse the leper. You're going to go cast out a demon. You're 396 00:23:39,270 --> 00:23:44,070 going to raise somebody from the dead. You little hillbilly, you. 397 00:23:44,070 --> 00:23:47,430 You're going to go do it because you have my authority. That 398 00:23:47,430 --> 00:23:51,030 should blow your mind that Jesus would give his authority to 399 00:23:51,030 --> 00:23:53,070 people like these first 12 disciples. By the way, one of them 400 00:23:53,070 --> 00:23:55,910 was a man named Judas Iscariot. And he still gave that 401 00:23:55,910 --> 00:24:01,030 authority. Here's what this means for us today. When you feel 402 00:24:01,030 --> 00:24:04,430 inadequate for the mission of God, praise God, because you're going 403 00:24:04,430 --> 00:24:08,090 to depend on his power, not your own power. And he's saying to 404 00:24:08,090 --> 00:24:11,330 you, I'm going to give you my authority and my power because you 405 00:24:11,330 --> 00:24:14,970 go in my name. We should expect the same thing from God. In 406 00:24:14,970 --> 00:24:18,010 fact, it's missionaries who are overseas to see the most miraculous 407 00:24:18,010 --> 00:24:20,650 work of God because they're going in the name of King Jesus. 408 00:24:21,050 --> 00:24:24,930 And Jesus himself said in John chapter 14, because I go away, the 409 00:24:24,930 --> 00:24:27,450 Spirit, the same Spirit that's in me is going to come to you. And 410 00:24:27,450 --> 00:24:32,260 greater works than me will you do when the Spirit comes. If it wasn't 411 00:24:32,260 --> 00:24:35,340 just the 12 apostles that he gave this power to, he gives them 412 00:24:35,340 --> 00:24:38,540 to the 72 later. He gives them to all his disciples later so that 413 00:24:38,540 --> 00:24:42,140 we can be his messengers, the sent ones who go out in the power 414 00:24:42,140 --> 00:24:45,860 of God. This is why we don't have to be afraid. Yes, we feel inadequate. 415 00:24:46,260 --> 00:24:49,460 Yes, we don't have answers. No, we don't know if they're gonna 416 00:24:49,460 --> 00:24:51,740 be healed or not. But we pray over them. And God does miraculous 417 00:24:51,740 --> 00:24:54,140 works. And people see the power of heaven come down and they 418 00:24:54,140 --> 00:24:58,140 believe that's the hope that we have. We have the power of Christ 419 00:24:58,140 --> 00:25:03,810 because we are the sent ones. But I do have to temper that. It 420 00:25:03,810 --> 00:25:06,410 is absolutely true. God is going to give you unprecedented power 421 00:25:06,410 --> 00:25:08,730 when you go on a mission that you would never see somewhere else. 422 00:25:09,770 --> 00:25:12,370 But that doesn't always mean when people see the miracles from 423 00:25:12,370 --> 00:25:14,770 heaven, they are going to believe. We talked about this last 424 00:25:14,770 --> 00:25:17,410 week, by the way. The Pharisees saw all the miraculous 425 00:25:17,410 --> 00:25:20,410 healings of Jesus and they still said, nope, that can't be real. 426 00:25:20,410 --> 00:25:23,410 You must come from the Prince of Demons. There are going to be 427 00:25:23,410 --> 00:25:26,810 people who don't believe. If Jesus is about to send his 12 out 428 00:25:26,910 --> 00:25:29,900 of as sheep among wolves, and he says some of you are gonna. Some 429 00:25:29,900 --> 00:25:32,540 of them are gonna believe, some aren't. So here are my instructions 430 00:25:32,540 --> 00:25:34,980 of what to do. And that's where it finishes up in verses 9 431 00:25:34,980 --> 00:25:38,780 through 15. So let's finish up the passage this morning. Picking 432 00:25:38,780 --> 00:25:43,140 back up verse nine. He says, acquire no gold or silver or copper 433 00:25:43,140 --> 00:25:46,540 for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals 434 00:25:46,540 --> 00:25:49,740 or a staff for the laborer deserves his food. In whatever town 435 00:25:49,740 --> 00:25:52,300 or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there 436 00:25:52,300 --> 00:25:55,720 until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it. And if the house 437 00:25:55,720 --> 00:25:58,640 is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, 438 00:25:58,640 --> 00:26:01,680 let your peace return to you. And if anyone will not receive you 439 00:26:01,680 --> 00:26:04,080 or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when 440 00:26:04,080 --> 00:26:08,080 you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more 441 00:26:08,080 --> 00:26:10,960 bearable on the Day of Judgment for the land of Sodom and 442 00:26:10,960 --> 00:26:16,600 Gomorrah than for that town. We're going to finish that. I want 443 00:26:16,600 --> 00:26:19,400 to go ahead and confess to you a second part I struggled to understand 444 00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:24,930 when I first read this. It was that whole thing about, go to somebody 445 00:26:24,930 --> 00:26:27,970 who's worthy, and if you find somebody who's worthy, let your peace 446 00:26:27,970 --> 00:26:31,210 rest on them. But if they're not worthy, take your peace back. 447 00:26:32,490 --> 00:26:36,850 What does that mean, to be worthy? You know, they're given an 448 00:26:36,850 --> 00:26:39,970 assignment. Don't take a bunch of money with you and all these things. 449 00:26:39,970 --> 00:26:42,330 You're gonna live off the hospitality of the people that you're 450 00:26:42,330 --> 00:26:46,250 going to be with. He says, go and look for people who are worthy. 451 00:26:47,620 --> 00:26:50,780 So it was incredibly important they understood what they were looking 452 00:26:50,780 --> 00:26:54,260 for when they were looking for somebody who was worthy. So what 453 00:26:54,260 --> 00:26:56,980 does it mean to be worthy for them? Did it mean that they had a 454 00:26:56,980 --> 00:26:59,660 big enough house where they could sit in there? They had enough 455 00:26:59,660 --> 00:27:01,380 money to put food on the table because they were supposed to live 456 00:27:01,380 --> 00:27:04,820 off hospitality? Was it wealth? Was that what made them worthy? 457 00:27:05,540 --> 00:27:09,180 No, no, not at all. Well, was it their Jewishness? I mean, if they 458 00:27:09,180 --> 00:27:11,940 were a good enough Jew, if they went to celebrate the Passover 459 00:27:11,940 --> 00:27:14,340 every single year and all the festivals and they tried to obey 460 00:27:14,340 --> 00:27:16,620 the law of Moses, it was if they were a good Jew, Is that what 461 00:27:16,620 --> 00:27:20,100 made them worthy? No, or he wouldn't need the message of the 462 00:27:20,100 --> 00:27:25,380 gospel if that's what it was. What made them worthy? It was one 463 00:27:25,380 --> 00:27:29,060 thing, actually. Verse 14 gave the clue to it that I hadn't seen 464 00:27:29,060 --> 00:27:33,500 before. It says in verse 14, if anyone will not receive you or 465 00:27:33,500 --> 00:27:37,420 listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet, and 466 00:27:37,420 --> 00:27:40,300 right there you get the clue of what it means to be worthy. To 467 00:27:40,300 --> 00:27:44,060 be worthy simply means you receive the message of the gospel 468 00:27:44,060 --> 00:27:48,620 with faith. They will listen. Which, by the way, in Greek, that 469 00:27:48,620 --> 00:27:53,260 word listen also means obey. You will let the message of the gospel 470 00:27:53,260 --> 00:27:55,660 come in, and you will obey the message of the Gospel. That's what 471 00:27:55,660 --> 00:27:58,460 makes a person worthy. He's saying, if you want the peace of 472 00:27:58,460 --> 00:28:01,340 Christ, you have to receive the Gospel of Christ, and that will 473 00:28:01,340 --> 00:28:05,300 make you worthy. But if you reject the gospel, then you are not 474 00:28:05,300 --> 00:28:09,260 worthy. Now, I want you to know this runs in the face of everything 475 00:28:09,260 --> 00:28:12,450 you have been taught in this world about what makes a person worthy. 476 00:28:13,250 --> 00:28:17,290 This world tells you the size of house you live in that makes you 477 00:28:17,290 --> 00:28:20,690 worthy. How fast your car drives, that's what makes you worthy. 478 00:28:21,170 --> 00:28:25,890 How nice your clothes are, how successful you are at work, what 479 00:28:25,890 --> 00:28:29,410 kind of extreme vacations you take, what kind of physical health 480 00:28:29,410 --> 00:28:32,370 you're in, how well your children turn out. These are the 481 00:28:32,370 --> 00:28:34,770 things that show you whether you're worthy or not. And it's a 482 00:28:34,770 --> 00:28:39,650 bunch of hogwash. Those things do not make you worthy. Now there's 483 00:28:39,650 --> 00:28:43,290 some of you smart enough to baptize some new ideas and think 484 00:28:43,290 --> 00:28:45,850 that this will make you worthy. If I go to church, that'll 485 00:28:45,850 --> 00:28:49,090 make me worthy. If I give money to the church or to the poor, 486 00:28:49,490 --> 00:28:53,530 if I serve others, if I start memorizing scripture, if I read my 487 00:28:53,530 --> 00:28:56,170 Bible daily, if I do all the spiritual disciplines, that'll make 488 00:28:56,170 --> 00:29:00,450 me worthy. If the good outweighs the bad, I'll just make 489 00:29:00,450 --> 00:29:02,970 sure that there's more good than bad in my life. Maybe that'll 490 00:29:02,970 --> 00:29:07,940 make me worthy. And I want you to know that will actually keep you 491 00:29:07,940 --> 00:29:12,540 from being worthy. The Bible calls all that effort self righteousness, 492 00:29:13,260 --> 00:29:18,660 and it says it is filthy rags in the sight of God. It is our tempts 493 00:29:18,660 --> 00:29:23,500 to be worthy that keep us from becoming worthy. Let me tell you 494 00:29:23,500 --> 00:29:26,860 the message of the Bible. All have sinned and fallen short of the 495 00:29:26,860 --> 00:29:30,740 glory of God. There is no one righteous, not even one, including 496 00:29:30,740 --> 00:29:35,100 this preacher up here on this stage. None of us are worthy. There 497 00:29:35,100 --> 00:29:38,180 is one human being who has ever been worthy on this planet, 498 00:29:38,260 --> 00:29:41,780 and his name is Jesus. The only ones who have obeyed the Father, 499 00:29:41,860 --> 00:29:45,140 done what was good, have been worthy. And the whole message of 500 00:29:45,140 --> 00:29:48,900 the gospel is that Jesus was worthy in our place. Why there's 501 00:29:48,900 --> 00:29:52,500 a baptistry that says Jesus in my place, Cristo en mi lugar. Because 502 00:29:52,500 --> 00:29:57,180 he was worthy in our place. And then we come and confess, I am 503 00:29:57,180 --> 00:30:02,100 not worthy. I have failed you, God. I have been unworthy. And I 504 00:30:02,100 --> 00:30:04,940 can never make myself worthy. And so here's what I do. I throw 505 00:30:04,940 --> 00:30:09,420 myself at your feet, Jesus. I put my unworthiness on you, Jesus, 506 00:30:09,420 --> 00:30:12,340 because when you were on the cross, you paid the price of somebody 507 00:30:12,340 --> 00:30:16,460 who's unworthy. You took my unworthiness on your shoulders and 508 00:30:16,460 --> 00:30:18,940 you let yourself be crucified so it could be paid for. And then 509 00:30:18,940 --> 00:30:21,700 you handed me in your resurrection, your worthiness. And 510 00:30:21,700 --> 00:30:25,030 all I have to do is receive it by faith. That's the message of the 511 00:30:25,030 --> 00:30:28,590 gospel. You have to be unworthy in order to become worthy. 512 00:30:28,590 --> 00:30:32,470 As Christ comes inside you, that's the only way to receive the 513 00:30:32,470 --> 00:30:39,670 peace of Christ. He says, if Somebody is worthy. If they will 514 00:30:39,670 --> 00:30:44,190 receive you and your message, then bring them my peace. But if 515 00:30:44,190 --> 00:30:46,430 they are not worthy, in other words, they don't receive the message. 516 00:30:46,910 --> 00:30:49,790 Shake the dust off your feet. Take your peace with them. They can't 517 00:30:49,790 --> 00:30:54,610 have it. I believe there are some of you in this room. There are 518 00:30:54,610 --> 00:30:57,250 some of you who are worshiping with us online. And you desperately 519 00:30:57,250 --> 00:31:03,370 need the peace of Christ. Your life is in shambles. I was talking 520 00:31:03,370 --> 00:31:06,890 about harassed and helpless. You're going, that's me. I'm overwhelmed 521 00:31:06,890 --> 00:31:10,170 by my circumstances, by my life, by my addictions, by my depression, 522 00:31:10,170 --> 00:31:13,650 by my anxiety, by my fears, by my brokenness, by my relationships, 523 00:31:13,650 --> 00:31:16,570 by my work, by my failures. I'm just overwhelmed by all of it. 524 00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:23,880 You have no peace of Christ. And he says, I want to give you a 525 00:31:23,880 --> 00:31:27,840 peace that surpasses understanding, the peace of Christ 526 00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:31,920 that will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Let me tell 527 00:31:31,920 --> 00:31:35,320 you how that peace comes. It comes when you finally say, I'm not 528 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:40,760 worthy of it, only Jesus is. And so I cast my unworthiness on 529 00:31:40,760 --> 00:31:43,600 him. I receive his worthiness and I invite Christ to come into 530 00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:47,200 me. And when Jesus Christ, the spirit of Christ, comes in you, you 531 00:31:47,200 --> 00:31:50,480 become worthy. The Father looks at you. He sees his son. He 532 00:31:50,480 --> 00:31:56,320 says, here's my peace. You can have it. Here's what I believe. I 533 00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:59,000 believe those messengers went into the towns, that he sent them 534 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:02,360 two by two. And they knocked on doors. And some of those people 535 00:32:02,600 --> 00:32:06,120 said, we don't want your message around here. Go away. And 536 00:32:06,120 --> 00:32:09,440 some of those people said, I open up the door, come on in and 537 00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:12,830 eat with me. And me with you. I want you to know there's something 538 00:32:12,830 --> 00:32:18,190 else. Jesus said. Revelation, chapter 3, verse 20. He said, I stand 539 00:32:18,190 --> 00:32:21,710 at the door and I knock. Whoever hears my voice and opens 540 00:32:21,710 --> 00:32:25,310 the door, I will enter into him and eat with him. And he with 541 00:32:25,310 --> 00:32:30,550 me. Jesus said, don't force yourself into those homes. If they're 542 00:32:30,550 --> 00:32:34,150 worthy, go in. If they're not, don't. And Jesus will not force himself 543 00:32:34,230 --> 00:32:37,200 into your heart, even though he's what you most need. All he'll 544 00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:40,800 do is stand at the door and knock. I believe he's knocking on 545 00:32:40,800 --> 00:32:44,200 the door some of your hearts right now. And you have a choice 546 00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:47,960 to make. You can say, not right now. Not a convenient time 547 00:32:47,960 --> 00:32:53,280 for me. Or you can swing that door open and say, jesus, come in. 548 00:32:54,480 --> 00:32:59,200 Come in and change me. Give me your peace. That baptistery, that's 549 00:32:59,200 --> 00:33:02,670 the way you swing open the door. It's a symbol of faith. The 550 00:33:02,670 --> 00:33:08,390 old you, dead and buried Unworthy. And you're raised up worthy, 551 00:33:08,390 --> 00:33:10,390 not because of you, but because Christ did it in your place. 552 00:33:11,270 --> 00:33:13,470 I believe some of you need to find the worthiness that comes in 553 00:33:13,470 --> 00:33:17,430 Christ and the peace of Christ this morning. I'm about to give you 554 00:33:17,430 --> 00:33:20,350 a moment to do it. But you're going to have to decide before I 555 00:33:20,350 --> 00:33:22,870 do. There's one last thing I want to say before we finish up. 556 00:33:23,270 --> 00:33:27,070 And here's what it is. Every single one of you in this room who 557 00:33:27,070 --> 00:33:29,950 has been born again, who has believed in Jesus Christ and been 558 00:33:29,950 --> 00:33:32,240 saved by the way. There have been so many people who've expressed 559 00:33:32,240 --> 00:33:35,160 their faith in Christ over these last few years. Many of you 560 00:33:35,160 --> 00:33:36,880 in this room have done so. Some of you have been believers for 561 00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:40,200 a long time. You've believed in Jesus. You have been saved by 562 00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:44,400 the grace of Almighty God. But there are some of you, perhaps many 563 00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:48,120 of you, who've come under the false idea. Praise God. He saved 564 00:33:48,120 --> 00:33:50,520 me. Now I'm just gonna coast through life until I make it to heaven 565 00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:54,000 in the end and completely miss the whole reason why he saved you. 566 00:33:54,720 --> 00:33:57,440 He didn't just save you for pie in the sky when you die. That's 567 00:33:57,440 --> 00:34:01,390 not why you were redeemed. You have been saved in order to be sent. 568 00:34:02,510 --> 00:34:05,750 That's your the mission is why he saved you, so he could get you 569 00:34:05,750 --> 00:34:09,150 ready and send you right back out. That's actually what verse eight, 570 00:34:09,150 --> 00:34:12,510 the second half of it was talking about. So profound a teaching, 571 00:34:12,670 --> 00:34:14,869 you miss it in the English translation because sometimes it 572 00:34:14,869 --> 00:34:18,350 talks about money, but it says literally in Greek it's four words, 573 00:34:18,350 --> 00:34:23,550 but you have to do five in English. Freely you received, freely 574 00:34:23,630 --> 00:34:26,909 give. That's what it says in Greek. Freely you receive, freely 575 00:34:26,909 --> 00:34:29,629 give. He's talking a little bit about money, but he's talking 576 00:34:29,629 --> 00:34:32,949 about so much more than that. He's saying, freely you have received 577 00:34:32,949 --> 00:34:36,029 the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the redemption that I bring, my authority 578 00:34:36,029 --> 00:34:40,069 and my power. If you have received it freely, give it freely. 579 00:34:40,549 --> 00:34:45,509 Don't hold it to yourself. And yet so many of us hold it to ourselves. 580 00:34:47,109 --> 00:34:49,829 Third last point, I want you to write down, if you don't mind, 581 00:34:50,560 --> 00:34:52,560 and it's a heavy one the Lord has been breaking my heart over. 582 00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:58,760 Here's what it is. Few things sting the heart of God more than 583 00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:03,000 people who have freely received the gospel but do not freely 584 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:10,040 give it. Few things sting his heart more. He weeps over the selfishness 585 00:35:10,040 --> 00:35:13,200 of his people who freely receive the gospel of Jesus Christ 586 00:35:13,920 --> 00:35:15,960 and say, that's enough. I don't have to tell anybody else about 587 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:21,080 it. There was somebody who took the gospel. To every single 588 00:35:21,080 --> 00:35:24,240 one of you who are believers in Jesus Christ, there was some messenger 589 00:35:24,240 --> 00:35:26,840 who was sent to you. Maybe it was a mom and dad who shared the 590 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:29,280 gospel or a grandparent who shared the gospel. Maybe it was a 591 00:35:29,280 --> 00:35:31,880 Sunday school teacher. Maybe for some of you, I got to be the 592 00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:35,000 messenger, a pastor who shared the gospel. Maybe you grew up in 593 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:37,000 a different country and there was a missionary who brought the 594 00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:39,640 gospel or a different city, a church planner brought the gospel 595 00:35:39,640 --> 00:35:44,080 to you, but somebody took the gospel to you. And how hypocritical, 596 00:35:44,710 --> 00:35:48,190 how dastardly, how horrible would it be to have somebody come 597 00:35:48,190 --> 00:35:51,070 to us with the gospel and say, thank you for changing my eternity. 598 00:35:51,070 --> 00:35:55,430 Now I'm not telling anybody else about it. We have been saved 599 00:35:55,430 --> 00:36:01,670 to bear the message and we must obey. It's time for us to become 600 00:36:01,670 --> 00:36:05,630 the answer to our own prayer. We've been praying for God to send 601 00:36:05,630 --> 00:36:09,070 people to the people around us. Workers, it's time for us to 602 00:36:09,070 --> 00:36:13,730 say, here I am. Send me. I need to go tell everybody the good 603 00:36:13,730 --> 00:36:18,090 news that I found out. It's time for us to be willing. Now, here's 604 00:36:18,090 --> 00:36:20,330 what I want you to know. The moment you say yes, you're going 605 00:36:20,330 --> 00:36:22,730 to immediately feel inadequate. Now, I want to remind 606 00:36:22,730 --> 00:36:25,450 you what I said before. He didn't send you out. When you're 607 00:36:25,450 --> 00:36:29,850 ready, he makes you ready by sending you out. You just need to 608 00:36:29,850 --> 00:36:34,930 say yes. Now, one of the best ways for you to be trained by going 609 00:36:34,930 --> 00:36:37,730 out is to do it in partnership with other believers. That's why 610 00:36:37,730 --> 00:36:40,770 our summer mission trips are so beautiful. We have a number of 611 00:36:40,770 --> 00:36:45,330 mission, some on the field already in San Diego and in Puerto 612 00:36:45,330 --> 00:36:48,690 Rico. We have a whole team going to Houston this afternoon. 613 00:36:48,690 --> 00:36:53,169 And we got teams, all 322 people this summer going out on mission 614 00:36:53,169 --> 00:36:55,970 from our church. It's an incredible way. You go over there 615 00:36:55,970 --> 00:36:59,210 and you learn how to share your faith and you learn what it 616 00:36:59,210 --> 00:37:01,810 means to be a gospel presence, and you come back more prepared. 617 00:37:02,290 --> 00:37:04,890 But there are plenty of you going, well, I forgot to sign up 618 00:37:04,890 --> 00:37:10,920 for that, so maybe next year. I got good news for you. I knew that 619 00:37:10,920 --> 00:37:15,040 about 10% of our people go on mission, which means about 90% of 620 00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:18,480 you don't have that experience. And so we wanted to create 621 00:37:18,480 --> 00:37:20,880 the mission team, wanted to create an opportunity for you locally 622 00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:23,680 to go on mission this summer. So I want you to do me a favor. I 623 00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:26,240 want every one of you who has a phone to pull it out for just a 624 00:37:26,240 --> 00:37:29,840 moment. And you can either scan the Connect code on the seat 625 00:37:29,840 --> 00:37:32,800 back in front of you. Or you can just go to fielder.org connect 626 00:37:33,140 --> 00:37:34,980 it'll take you to the same place just like you see up there 627 00:37:34,980 --> 00:37:38,300 on the screen. Phil.org connect and when you go there, at 628 00:37:38,300 --> 00:37:41,300 the very top of it, you're gonna see something that says be 629 00:37:41,300 --> 00:37:45,980 sent locally. And so when you go there, you open it and there it'll 630 00:37:45,980 --> 00:37:50,220 take you to a page that looks like this. It'll have some info that 631 00:37:50,220 --> 00:37:53,700 you'll fill out, but if you scroll down, it'll give you different 632 00:37:53,700 --> 00:37:55,900 ways that you can move off. There's seven different things that 633 00:37:55,900 --> 00:37:58,910 you can do this summer with descriptions about it. And then you 634 00:37:58,910 --> 00:38:01,950 get to the bottom and then there's a list of 14 different dates 635 00:38:02,030 --> 00:38:05,870 over the summertime that you can say, I want to be sent locally 636 00:38:06,030 --> 00:38:08,910 this summer. I want to experience this with somebody else. 637 00:38:09,630 --> 00:38:12,150 Now I want to warn you, the band has come out because we're about 638 00:38:12,150 --> 00:38:15,070 to sing a song. Now I mentioned this earlier. I'm going 639 00:38:15,070 --> 00:38:18,150 to say it again. There's a great chance for hypocrisy because 640 00:38:18,150 --> 00:38:22,510 you're going to be saying, send me, send me. Then you're going 641 00:38:22,510 --> 00:38:26,150 to go, but not locally. I don't know, Lord, I. I can't do that. 642 00:38:27,430 --> 00:38:31,510 And I just don't want you to say send me and then not be willing 643 00:38:31,510 --> 00:38:35,670 to be sent. Cause that's hypocrisy. So maybe before you start 644 00:38:35,670 --> 00:38:38,390 singing this song, unless you're one of those going on the 645 00:38:38,390 --> 00:38:41,390 mission trip, I guess you're already set. But if you're not one 646 00:38:41,390 --> 00:38:45,030 of those, maybe what you need to do is to check at least one of 647 00:38:45,030 --> 00:38:48,230 those boxes. You can check all 14. And by the way, if you check 648 00:38:48,230 --> 00:38:50,590 a box, that doesn't mean you're going on this thing. It just 649 00:38:50,590 --> 00:38:53,020 means you want more information about it. So you're gonna 650 00:38:53,020 --> 00:38:55,860 get an automated email for however many boxes you check about 651 00:38:55,860 --> 00:38:58,180 that. And a leader will reach out to you to see if they can help 652 00:38:58,180 --> 00:39:00,980 you get the info you need. But maybe you need to check at least 653 00:39:00,980 --> 00:39:05,300 one box before you try to stand up and say send me. To make 654 00:39:05,300 --> 00:39:08,460 sure that you're not being hypocritical about it. And so I wanna 655 00:39:08,460 --> 00:39:11,220 give you a moment, maybe it's what you need to do and just make 656 00:39:11,220 --> 00:39:14,060 that decision and then you can join the song. But one last thing, 657 00:39:14,300 --> 00:39:16,940 in fact, I wanna invite you to stand up right now if you will. I'm 658 00:39:16,940 --> 00:39:20,480 invite the prayer team down front. There are some of you in this 659 00:39:20,480 --> 00:39:24,320 room. And as I was Talking about being overwhelmed, chewed up 660 00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:27,400 and spit out by life and circumstances and heaviness and depression 661 00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:30,040 and all that. That's you. You're saying, I feel like I'm harassed 662 00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:35,440 and helpless. I need help. I want to remind you, Jesus has compassion 663 00:39:35,440 --> 00:39:40,200 for you. He sees you. He sees your pain, he sees your struggle, 664 00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:43,080 he sees your issue, and he wants to meet it because he cares 665 00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:46,490 and he can do something about it. And we know our God is moving. 666 00:39:46,490 --> 00:39:49,250 Last Sunday, we had so many people come forward for prayer, and 667 00:39:49,250 --> 00:39:51,530 we were starting to get back reports of the miracles taking place. 668 00:39:51,530 --> 00:39:54,610 I had a sister come up to me and say that they prayed. We prayed 669 00:39:54,610 --> 00:39:56,810 for our daughter, her daughter who had cancer. And they came back 670 00:39:56,810 --> 00:40:00,650 and all the reports were, cancer's gone. Praise God. He moves 671 00:40:00,650 --> 00:40:05,650 that way. I was standing next to somebody on Wednesday night when 672 00:40:05,650 --> 00:40:08,330 we had a prayer time, and I got to hear him being prayed over. 673 00:40:08,330 --> 00:40:11,080 And the gentleman said that he. When he walked up, he couldn't 674 00:40:11,080 --> 00:40:13,160 turn his neck, prayed over him, and immediately he could turn 675 00:40:13,160 --> 00:40:18,680 his neck. God is answering prayers. Reggie was sharing. There 676 00:40:18,680 --> 00:40:21,000 was somebody who came up who couldn't lift his shoulder this high, 677 00:40:21,080 --> 00:40:23,920 prayed over him, asked him to lift it, and he lifted his arm all 678 00:40:23,920 --> 00:40:28,560 the way up. God is doing this kind of stuff, real miracles, and 679 00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:31,960 it's not a show, it's not a spectacle. He's not doing it because 680 00:40:32,360 --> 00:40:35,320 we're trying to get on YouTube somewhere. So we're doing this because 681 00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:39,680 he wants to show he's a compassionate messiah who has power 682 00:40:39,680 --> 00:40:43,440 from heaven. So if you need him to move, there's nowhere else 683 00:40:43,440 --> 00:40:47,080 you need to be but down front receiving prayer, asking for God 684 00:40:47,080 --> 00:40:50,440 to move. And we want to pray over you in whatever needs you have. 685 00:40:51,080 --> 00:40:55,720 But most importantly, if he's knocking on the door, if he's saying, 686 00:40:55,720 --> 00:40:58,480 come believe in me, trust in me, you got to open your door to 687 00:40:58,480 --> 00:41:02,040 him and say, jesus, I invite you in, and we'll help you take the 688 00:41:02,040 --> 00:41:04,040 step of baptism. Whether it's today or another day, we want to 689 00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:07,600 help you. You got to come before you sing, make sure you've 690 00:41:07,600 --> 00:41:10,600 taken your step to be sent. I encourage you to respond right now 691 00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:11,600 as the Lord is telling you.