Summary
Pastor James walks through Luke 10:1-9, emphasizing that Jesus calls all believers to be sent out into ministry, not just the apostles. He highlights the importance of prayer for the harvest and encourages the congregation to actively seek opportunities to serve those around them, both locally and globally. The sermon stresses that sharing the gospel should be central to all acts of service, as true ministry involves building relationships and penetrating the darkness with the light of Christ.
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If you have your Bibles, we're going to go to Luke chapter 10 this morning. As I said, I'm going to show at the very end. As I said last night,
really it was earlier middle of this week, the Lord began just dealing with me. I had everything ready for where I was going to speak at this morning and the things that I've been studying through.
Last night, the Lord said, I think you need to go in a different direction. I told Allie, I said, I don't know what I'm going to do tomorrow. She said, it's Saturday night, James.
What do you mean you don't know what you're going to do? I said, well, I know what I would want to do.
I said, but I just think the Lord's leading me in a different direction. She said, well, it's probably best to follow the Lord, James. You know this.
You've got a good wife helping me out. I went out in my building, just started writing some stuff down. These are some of the thoughts that I had last night. I may not be long this morning. I may go an hour and a half. I don't know.
We're going to read Luke chapter 10, verses 1 through 9. I've entitled the message sent to serve and sort of how we can be a church that serves other people. So let's stand. We'll read Luke 10, 1 through 9, and we will jump into what God has for us this morning.
The Bible says, after this, the Lord appointed 72 others, and he sent them ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself was about to go.
He told them, the harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers in his harvest. Now go, I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. Don't carry money bags, traveling bags, or sandals.
Don't greet anyone along the road. Whatever house you enter, first say peace to this household. The person is peaceful there. Your peace will rest on them. But if not, it will return to you.
Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they offer, for the worker is worthy of his wage.
Don't move from house to house when you enter any town, and they are welcome to you and eat the things that are set before you. Heal the sick who are there and tell them the kingdom of God is near to you. Father, we love you.
We thank you for the reading of your word.
Help us to honor you in everything we do. Help us to be sent out from here to reach our community, to reach those that are around us, help the funds that we send on our mission opportunities to reach those missionaries and to be able to bless the ones that are around them. We love you in your name we pray. Amen.
You can be seated. Amen. Jesus doesn't merely call us into ministry. He calls us to be sent out into ministry. This past week, as we just shared, we had the privilege of serving in Nicaragua. We distributed food.
We preached in churches. We encouraged pastors. We ministered to expected mothers, and we helped those who were the lowest of the low in the poverty status.
It was incredible to see these things and to be a part of it, and you're going to see some pictures here in a moment.
Being Planted in Our Community
But this is the picture of what each and every one of us are called to do.
We are all called not only just to board a plane and to go somewhere, but we're called to be planted where we're at here in North Carolina and say, God, who are the people around me that are struggling?
Who are the people that are around me that are difficult in nature that I can begin to reach out to, that I can begin to reach out to my family members, that I can begin to share the gospel with those that are around us?
In Luke 10, we get this story that Jesus sends out 72 ordinary people into the surrounding cities to simply become a messenger of who he is.
Now, we understand if we look at this that these are not apostles. These are not professional missionaries. These were everyday, ordinary followers of Christ who were willing to be sent onto the mission.
These are people who just said, I'm following you, Jesus.
And Jesus says, okay, you and you, you go over there and you talk about me.
You and you, you go over there and you talk about what is going on in this world and that the kingdom of God is at hand.
As we read this passage, we discover that this is not just for the men and women that Jesus sent out in this day, but it's for us as well. Jesus is giving us instructions on when we go on mission, how we are to do this.
So the first thing, if you want to write some of these notes down, you can. If you want to find an old bulletin and just jot them down, you can.
But the first thing I want us to look at is that we should be praying for the harvest that Jesus is planting for us.
The harvest here, he says here in verses one and two, the harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Jesus doesn't simply begin with going. He begins with saying, pray for the harvest that is going to happen. Pray for what you're about to do.
One of the things we, we prayed, me and our family, we prayed every day leading up to our mission trip. We prayed while we were there that God would lead us. As Allison shared, she said,
Lord, if I have an opportunity to share, help me not to say no, to say yes. And I told him, I told Brody and I told Allison, you're going to get opportunities. They're going to happen. Well, I can remember the, the,
what was it? The first day we were there, the first second day we were there, we were taking a bed to a family and Lee goes, Hey Brody, you're going to pray for us.
And he's like, what? I'm going to pray. How do I pray? They don't understand what I'm saying. And so Javier stepped up and translated. And I've got a picture of Brody praying. I've got a video of it as well. And Javier translating this beautiful prayer of, of them just praying for God to work in this family.
The harvest is ready. The Bible says, Jesus didn't say that one day the harvest would be plentiful. He said that the harvest is already ready.
There are people everywhere that we come in contact with every single day that need the hope of Jesus Christ.
And we get to look out and the Bible says that the harvest is there. It's like white fields that are ready to be harvested of cotton that we can look out and the fields are white and ready to be done. People are everywhere in Nicaragua,
in India, in Ronda, in Wilkes County, everywhere we go are desperately hungry, seeking after the Lord Jesus Christ.
They're all looking for this, this person, this thing that's going to fill the empty hole in their heart. And we have the opportunity to go and share the gospel with them.
The problem has never been about the harvest. The problem has always been the shortage of laborers. Jesus looks at his disciples and I'm sure if he'd had more than 72,
there would have been more that was mentioned here. I'm sure he would have said that 102 people were there ready to go. I sent them out, but he only had 72. And so he sent them out and he says that the harvest is plentiful. The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.
And we must be a church that is praying that God raises up workers out of our church, that we would become workers out of our church, that we would be so hungry to hear the Lord speak to us
so that we can speak to others about what he has done. And I want us to pray and ask this question before we say, who will go? Would we stop and say,
am I praying that the Lord would send me? Am I praying that the who would maybe be me?
That God, I want you to send me on mission and I want you to allow my eyes to be opened up for the harvest that's right around the corner. The ones that are struggling right around my already place that I'm at, that you would send me to be the person that reaches them.
Every revival that has ever happened in the history of America and the history of the world always began with people praying.
It always began with people on their hands and feet and saying, on their hands and knees and saying, God, we need you to work in our church.
The Role of Missionaries
We need you to work in our community. We need you to work in our homes.
And every missionary that has ever experienced the power of God in their life started with the power of prayer by saying, God, we're going to go and we're going to do these things in your name. Will you help us?
And will you give us the guidance that we need? Perhaps the greatest thing that we accomplished in Nicaragua this past week wasn't the preaching, even though I'm sure it was fantastic.
It wasn't the distributing of food, even though some of those families were just standing there waiting for this bag of food as they saw it. And a lot of those families knew this is two weeks worth of food. This is going to feed my family for two more weeks.
The greatest thing that was ever done while we were there was when we got to join in what God was already doing.
There was already a group of people there. There was already Mariano and Carlos and Oscar, our translators, who were doing what we were doing every single day of the year.
I was telling our group, our specific group, and also the larger of our group, the other church that went with us, I said, we're just jumping in to what Mariano and Oscar and Carlos are doing every single day of the year. They're going to these people's houses. They're building relationships.
They're making sure these kids are in church. They're continuing to work with these pastors. They're making the food bags. They're putting together the uniforms.
We get to come and get alongside of them and say, you know what? I want to help you this week be a blessing. I want to help ease the load that is going on in this work that you're doing. Prayer reminds us that this is God's harvest and not ours.
God has called us to go. He has prepared the people that are going to be there, and we must simply step out by faith and, number two, go with faith. We must be the people who are going to step out and say, God, I want to go and do what you've done. Look at verse three.
He starts out by saying, now go. Jesus never said, hey, you know what? Right before you go, make sure you're really comfortable. Make sure you've got your brand new shoes and your new outfits and the right bag that you've got. Make sure everything is ready and in tip-top shape. No, no. He simply says that they just need to go.
He also doesn't tell them to go when you have every answer.
Make sure that you have studied up on everything. Make sure you know that every question that gets asked, and there were some questions that were asked in our pastor's conference among the almost 20 questions that I'm like, I don't even know where to begin with this question.
Like, this is a difficult question. The language barrier and the translation over into, I'm like,
you got to give me a second. Like, I got to pray for a moment and say, God, give me the wisdom that I need. And I realized that I didn't have all the answers. I wish I did, but I didn't.
And I had to lean on Brett and Mariano and Lee and the others that were around me to help answer some of these questions. But God didn't say, once you have all the questions that are answered, then you can go.
He said, just simply go and serve on what I'm calling you to do. God is going to ask us to have courage.
Look at what he says here as he continues. Now go, I am, this is Jesus's words to these ones that are going out. I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.
I don't think this is the pep talk that I would have given. Hey, Bertie, you're going to go out into this battlefield.
You're going to be the only one out there. You're not going to have a gun. You're not going to have ammo. You're not going to have any type of, any defense. And you're going to go into a war zone where there's going to be bullets and ammunition flying at you. Go have fun.
That's what Jesus is saying. You're going to go as a single little lamb into a pen, a den of wolves. They're going to come after you. It takes courage. It takes simply saying, God, I'm going to follow you. I'm going to trust you.
Following Jesus has never been about going on the easy road. This past week is we had our mission here at the church and we had our basketball camp and our volleyball camp and we served and we're going to serve families tonight.
And this mission extends far beyond what we did in Nicaragua all the way back to here.
I shared with the kids that were there and I said, you are going on a path down this road and you're going to come to a fork in this road. And one side, Jesus says, is the narrow way that is hard and full of labor, but the end is the glory of God.
And the other side is broad and it's easy. And if you go on this path, it's going to lead to destruction. And I challenged them, which path are you going on?
Jesus said, when you follow me, it's not going to be an easy road, but it's going to be a road that ends with Christ. And it's going to be a road that ends with victory. Going requires urgency. Not only does it require courage, he tells them, don't be distracted.
He said, I'm sending you. Don't take money. Don't take a traveling bag. Don't even take sandals.
And if you go, there's going to be people on this road that are going to come after you and ask you questions and don't even talk to them because you have a mission that goes. There's a people over here that you've got to go see.
Jesus said that we often will be like this where we're distracted.
And the mission is too important for us to be distracted. We must say, God, I'm going to serve you and I'm going to go with courage so that the eternities mindset of these people can be changed by me simply sharing the gospel with them.
Some are called to go across the world. We've had missionaries over the last three years come through here from India to Nicaragua. To Allison's cousin that came that's going to South Sudan, I believe.
We've had our missionary from IMB who comes, who's in South Africa. We have people that are all across the world that come in here. Some of us are called to go across the street.
Some of us are called to simply go to the person at the gas station that's right in front of us and just say, hey, how's your day going? Hey, is there anything I can pray for you about? And just simply being on mission where we're at,
the distance that we go on mission doesn't matter. What Christ is telling us here in Luke chapter 10, verses 3, 4, and 5, he is simply saying this. This obedience is what matters.
Don't carry the traveling bag. Don't carry the sandals. All you have to do is go where I have told you to go. Number three here we're going to look at is the hospitality that they have to practice in verses 5 through 8.
Practicing Hospitality
I think these next two things very clearly reflect our church's core values.
We are to practice hospitality as we have written out in our core values. And Jesus sent them out and he instructed them to do this. Enter every single home that you come into. And when they give you hospitality, receive that hospitality and you extend peace to them.
The gospel has always traveled best when it is done through relationships.
When we take this gospel that God has given us and we say, I want to help you, I want to encourage you, it's done through building relationships. It's done over a meal. It's done in your home. It's done by opening your life to the people that are around you. During our trip,
many of the most meaningful moments did not happen in the pulpit.
I shared the gospel when I preached through a grace-filled church and how to be a grace-filled pastor.
And I gave lots of talks. But it was after the pulpit, when I went into someone's house, when we sat down in a meal, when we just sat down with the mothers and the children and we had conversations with them, that is when their lives began to change. People often receive the gospel best after they know they're loved.
When you begin to sit down and say, I care about you and I care about who you are. Javier, Felix, as I call him, he's texted me every single day since we've left. He's texted Brody and Brody's had hour-long conversations with them.
We have continued to stay in contact with these people because we made a relationship with them. And Felix told us the other day, he told me, he said, I haven't met many people like your family. Who just simply love me and care for me for who I am.
I'm hoping one day you all get to meet him. He's a wonderful kid. But when we go on mission, we are simply saying, God, how can I practice hospitality?
How can I not simply just think of ministry as ministry, but saying, God, there are people in front of me and I have a reason that I want to display the love of Christ to them. Sometimes it's in the front door of your home.
Sometimes it's in the front door of someone's house. Sometimes it's in the front door of someone's heart where they say, I just need help and encouragement today. And we get to practice that hospitality.
Number four and last here is in verse nine. He says that you are to preach the word and to penetrate the darkness. Our mission statement is to preach the word, to practice hospitality and to penetrate the darkness.
And this is where this comes from. In verse nine, it says, heal the sick and tell them that the kingdom of God is near to you. Jesus didn't simply stop with meeting physical needs.
It would have been really, really easy for us to go down and make food bags and to make hygiene bags and to give them out and then to hug us and to care for us and say, oh, you white gringos are so awesome.
And you are so amazing. Thank you for this food. We're going to have food for two more weeks. And in two weeks, their food would have expired and ran out. They'd have been out.
But our mission was never to meet the needs of the people. It was to go in and proclaim the truth of Jesus. And as we come and we distribute the food and we have their attention, then we can share the gospel.
This is what Jesus did. Jesus went into and he's teaching and he's preaching and the people are listening and he realizes the people are hungry.
And he goes to his disciples and he says, hey, go get the food and let's see what we've got so we can feed these people. And they bring five loaves and two fishes. And they go, Jesus, how in the world are we going to feed them? They're hungry.
They're going to leave. And he said this. He said, let us break the bread and let's pray of the loaves and fishes and let us feed the people physically so that I can feed them spiritually in just a moment. And he broke the bread and they went out and they distributed all among the meds. And you know the story.
And then after they were fed, Jesus continued to teach for hours because he understood if I can meet their need physically, if I can come in and I can heal their sickness, their eyes are going to want to have to hear what I have
to say. And we in the same way as we distributed food, as we encouraged pastors, as we served families, as we ministered to expected mothers, none of this was the actual mission we were going on. The mission was to simply share the gospel with what we have. Food satisfies for a day.
Probably in most of our American lives, food satisfies for a couple of hours. You eat breakfast and by lunch, you're already hungry.
And you eat lunch and by dinner, you're already hungry. And if you've got a Hudson in your house, by like two minutes after you eat dinner, you need a snack. And you're like, I'm already hungry again. Food only satisfies for a moment.
But Christ says, I am coming to satisfy an eternal need in your life, a need of salvation. And this is why our church exists, to be sent to serve others and to preach the gospel.
The Central Theme of the Gospel
The gospel must always be the central theme of what we do.
We do not simply perform good deeds as we did this week and we help with basketball and volleyball needs and we gave them a meal. After that, we begin to share the gospel and proclaim the good news because the darkness is always around us.
The darkness isn't just in another country. The darkness is in our county. The darkness is in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in our workplaces, in our homes, and in people's hearts that are away from Christ. Jesus is looking at you and me.
And he's saying, I am sending you into a dark place to share the light of the gospel. The church has never been called to hide from the darkness.
The church has never been, hey, the darkness is way over there. I'm going to go over here. I'm going to hide in a corner.
Jesus said the ones that do that are like a lamp that is out in the middle and they put a bushel over top of it. They put a box over top of their light so that no one will know they're a Christian.
We are to be called to go in to penetrate the darkness that is around us.
I'm going to show a video in just a moment of the pictures that we got to do while we were in Nicaragua. This is going to be how we close the service.
I've put a song on here that the Lord reminded me of years and years ago by a guy named Ray Bolts. Ray Bolts were a song called Thank You for Giving to the Lord. I chose this song for multiple different reasons.
There's a lot of thank you that I have in my heart. Thank you for allowing my family to go on mission together.
Thank you for the gifts that you gave us. Thank you for the opportunity for us to go. But thank you for giving to the Lord more than anything else. This song reminds us of something we often forget. We often forget the eternal impact of a conversation that you may have.
A meal that you may share with someone, a testimony you may share, as Allison and Bernie shared just a little bit, as they continue to share, as I continue to share what the Lord did. And a simple act of kindness on this side of heaven can truly change someone's life for eternity.
One day in eternity, we're going to see what God has continued to do through our ordinary actions.
We'll never know the lives that were changed, the people that came to Christ as I shared the gospel, as Bernie prayed, as Allison shared to those ladies, as the other people in our group preached and prayed and gave
a testimony. And as we watch these pictures, don't simply see what our team did. Don't simply see and say, man, I really wish one day I can go out into the far reaches of the world. But begin to ask yourself, God, what can I do right here in this church right now
so that your name can be lifted high so that we can obey what you've done for us? Let's continue to be a church that God has called us to be. We're going to be a church that God has called us to be a church that God has called us to be.
We're practicing hospitality with our hearts and with our homes. And are we taking the light of the gospel everywhere we go? You see, our mission that we just had over these last couple of days didn't end when we came back home.
For me, I had one day of rest and I barely had that. And then we started our basketball camp, our volleyball camp, and all the other things that we're going because we are constantly saying, God, what do you want me to do? How can I serve?
How can I be a mission that's for you? How can I go?
How can I depend on you? How can I share the kingdom with the ones that are around me? And Lord, how can you give me the grace that I need to have to share it with those that are around us? The mission begins every single day of our life.
When we wake up and we have breath in our lungs, as Psalms 150 says, give me the breath that I can share the gospel with those that are around us. I'm going to pray. I'm going to show the video and we'll have our time of invitation for that.
Closing Prayer and Reflection
Father, we love you. We thank you for what you've done.
We thank you for who you are. We thank you for the goodness that you've given us. Help us as we respond appropriately in our seats today as we watch what you did with a simple group that just wanted to worship you and love you. In your name we pray. Amen.
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