Berean Community Church Sunday Worship Service 12/08/24

00:19:47.320 | glory. ♪ ♪ You take all that you see and let your light shine. ♪ ♪ I see the way that's right. ♪ ♪ I know how your heart is set. ♪ ♪ You serve and serve and serve me. ♪ ♪ You are God and we are God. ♪

00:20:16.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we will follow. ♪ ♪ You take all that you see and let your light shine. ♪ ♪ I see the way that's right. ♪ ♪ I know how your heart is set. ♪ ♪ I see the way that's right. ♪

00:20:23.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪ ♪ I see the way that's right. ♪ ♪ You serve and serve and serve me. ♪ ♪ I know how your heart is set. ♪

00:20:27.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪ ♪ I see the way that's right. ♪

00:20:28.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪ ♪ I see the way that's right. ♪

00:20:29.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪ ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:33.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:47.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:48.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:49.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:50.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:51.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:52.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:53.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:54.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:55.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:56.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:57.320 | ♪ Christ our wisdom, we adore you for the beauty of your glory. ♪

00:20:58.320 | 10 verses 1 through 4. Now after this the Lord appointed 70 others and sent them in pairs ahead

00:21:04.480 | of him to every city and place where he himself was going to come and he was saying to them the

00:21:09.680 | harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to

00:21:14.000 | send out laborers into his harvest. Go behold I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves

00:21:19.920 | carry no money belt no bag no shoes and greet no one on the way. Let's pray.

00:21:26.800 | Father we pray for understanding. We pray for conviction as you are the potter and we are the

00:21:32.800 | clay mold us as you have ordained. Help us Lord God to lift our eyes to Christ and that we would

00:21:38.880 | hear from you and that your sheep will hear your voice and follow you in Jesus name we pray amen.

00:21:44.320 | We're our church is uh headed into our 28th year anniversary in maybe about four or five months

00:21:55.120 | and so we've been around again compared to other churches obviously a little bit longer

00:22:00.240 | but the temptation that I notice as we see churches kind of you know that's been planted

00:22:08.240 | for a long time is that you forget the reason why the church was planted and then it becomes a church

00:22:14.560 | where you just a church gathered together and this is where you do life together this is where you

00:22:19.520 | raise children together but when you first plant the church almost every church has the same goal

00:22:24.880 | which is to reach the lost and so usually the church plants are the ones who go out and invite

00:22:30.240 | people they're out on the street inviting people to hear the gospel they're the ones who have events

00:22:34.000 | to to to reach the the people around them but the if we're not careful we can kind of settle into

00:22:41.440 | just a church like this is what church is supposed to be and we forget our ultimate calling the text

00:22:47.520 | that we're going to be looking at today is Jesus is calling to the harvest when we think about the

00:22:53.440 | great commission we usually think about Matthew 28 right before he ascends he calls his disciples to

00:22:59.520 | say go make disciples of all the nations right baptizing the name of the father son of the holy

00:23:03.600 | spirit teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you and we know what that calling is

00:23:07.840 | it's called a great commission because that's the last thing that he told his disciples before he

00:23:12.640 | left but he didn't spring that just out of the blue he didn't just all of a sudden at the end

00:23:18.480 | now that your training is over this is how i want you to apply it he said from the very get-go when

00:23:23.760 | he called them follow me and i will make you fishers of men so from the very beginning everything that

00:23:31.280 | he did was to train them get them ready so that when christ is done with his earthly ministry

00:23:37.200 | that they would continue to go and make disciples so all he was doing at the great commission before

00:23:42.880 | he ascends was to remind them what jesus was doing for all those three years and the primary thing

00:23:48.720 | that he was trying to do more than any anything else more than technique was to reveal to his

00:23:54.080 | disciples and to people who he was so that's why at the end when he's begin to head to the cross

00:23:59.680 | he doesn't say are you ready now to do the work he says no who do you say that i am who do you say

00:24:06.320 | that i am he wanted to make sure that they properly believed who he is that they were genuine

00:24:12.880 | followers of christ and everything that they're going to do and the building of this church he

00:24:17.920 | says upon this confession i will build my church and so from the beginning from the time of christ

00:24:26.000 | until today the mission has not changed he has called us to the harvest the text that we're

00:24:31.120 | going to be looking at today i want to i want to describe in these four verses four characteristic

00:24:36.560 | four things that that i want us to take a look at about the harvest and and why this is so important

00:24:42.480 | number one every single person all of us has been called to the harvest you know sometimes i think

00:24:50.080 | maybe it would have been easier if he didn't call us right and you think about all the distractions

00:24:55.520 | and all the infighting and and the things that have happened in the church and how the church

00:25:00.160 | has gone astray and there's a period in the church where you know people who wanted to

00:25:04.720 | just read the bible would get persecuted and burned at the stake wouldn't have been easier

00:25:09.600 | if god just kind of didn't involve the people and just himself just opened up the heaven and

00:25:14.960 | and just used his god voice to say believe instead of trying to engage people who are always

00:25:22.320 | distracted always tempted coveting and constantly constantly having to regroup them refocus them

00:25:29.440 | to do this work one thing that i think we need to understand is the engagement of god's people

00:25:38.160 | to bring the loss to christ is just as important in building the kingdom than to just bring the

00:25:46.080 | people to the church let me read it that again okay it is just as important to bring god's glory

00:25:54.640 | and to build his church his kingdom to have his children engage and have compassion for for the

00:26:02.480 | others who are not here yet to bring them so it is not only important to have the lost come to christ

00:26:10.400 | have the people who are of this fold who are not here yet to come it is equally important that the

00:26:15.280 | people who are already here is engaged in this work because what god is doing is building his kingdom

00:26:23.440 | and building his kingdom requires his people to engage in the kingdom work

00:26:28.160 | you know some of you guys who are a little bit older may remember michael jordan march 28 1990

00:26:36.560 | scored 69 points against the game against the calves that was the highest points that he ever

00:26:42.400 | scored in his in his career after he scored that you know you typically the athletes would come

00:26:48.640 | and the and the reporters would begin to ask them and and in one of the athletes that came it was a

00:26:54.400 | a rookie named stacy king you guys probably never heard of his name before

00:26:59.200 | and he happened to be at the podium they asked him how do you feel as a rookie that you were

00:27:06.080 | able to play alongside michael jordan who had a historical night tonight where he scored 69 points

00:27:12.400 | what does that mean to you stacy and his response was i will never forget the night that michael

00:27:18.160 | jordan and i combined for 70 points right he scored one point right and after that the only

00:27:29.440 | news that we heard was michael jordan 69 stacy king won and he put himself on the map because

00:27:34.960 | of that one point right sometimes i feel like that's what engagement in the harvest kind of

00:27:41.520 | feels like but for whatever the reason whatever the reason god calls us to engage god calls us

00:27:50.240 | to participate and even though it may seem trivial in the light of who it is that we're serving

00:27:56.000 | god calls all of us every single one of us the text that we're looking at

00:28:01.120 | it says he's a calling of the 70 if you remember in the beginning of matthew chapter luke chapter

00:28:08.880 | nine he calls the 12 and remember we said that the 12 calling of the 12 was an indictment against

00:28:14.000 | israel right it represented the 12 tribes the 12 leaders of israel and instead of going to

00:28:20.160 | jerusalem and picking up pharisees and sadducees the leaders of israel he picks 12 men completely

00:28:26.320 | outside of their religious norm and it was an indictment against them that the religious system

00:28:31.040 | that they set up has nothing to do with god in fact all through ministry he was trying to get

00:28:35.920 | them to repent repent bear fruit according to repentance so he establishes 12 men who are

00:28:41.680 | completely outside or even look down upon and they were the ones who were going to be the apostles

00:28:46.800 | well the choosing of the seven was not a random number either because the 70 according to numbers

00:28:52.960 | 11 16 were the number of leaders that was established to help moses to govern the nation

00:28:58.480 | of israel so in order to mimic that the nation of israel established 70 members of the sanhedrin

00:29:05.920 | the elders of israel they were kind of like the senators of israel that's where all the decision

00:29:11.040 | making and all the power lied with these 70 men so the fact that jesus chooses 70 no name

00:29:18.640 | nobody's and we don't know we don't know a single name of of any of these 70 people

00:29:23.600 | he chooses these 70 men to go to be the first missionaries to go bring the gospel to the cities

00:29:29.760 | that he was going to go again it was a slap to another step to the nation of israel that the

00:29:35.120 | system that you have established has nothing to do with me you're using my name you're reading the

00:29:40.800 | law but he says it has nothing to do with me so he is establishing a whole new system under these 12

00:29:47.680 | with these 70 people and these 70 people according to what paul says in the new testament they're

00:29:55.040 | foolish they're base they're nobodies for the purpose of shaming the people who thought that

00:30:01.120 | they were somebody's god calls every single one of us not simply the educated not simply the

00:30:06.880 | articulate not simply people who went to seminary not simply who've been christians for 20 30 years

00:30:12.640 | but everybody because god's ultimate purpose his goal in choosing us is so that he may dumbfound

00:30:21.920 | the world system we typically think that if we have senators if we have rich people who have

00:30:26.720 | celebrities that we can outdo their temptation we can outdo their power so if we have somebody

00:30:33.520 | smarter greater richer more powerful that somehow we can be more effective in preaching the gospel

00:30:38.960 | but when you look at the way jesus chooses people he does exactly the opposite

00:30:42.800 | he chooses the nobodies the uneducated the base because his goal was to challenge the system

00:30:52.960 | their paradigm of what they think is going to bring life every single one of us has been called

00:30:59.840 | you know a lot of people talk about calling as like have i been called to be a doctor have i

00:31:04.320 | been called to this or have i been called to be that the bible never uses the term calling for

00:31:10.400 | any particular vocation you've been called as a soldier you've been called to do this

00:31:15.680 | even though the meaning behind it is god is is ordaining me and he's helping me and we can

00:31:21.360 | understand in that sense but as far as the specific calling is concerned the word calling

00:31:27.760 | is used to call sinners to christ the word calling is used to call christians to be sanctified to

00:31:34.720 | live holy lives the word calling is specifically used for the church to be a witness to the world

00:31:40.160 | that we have been called to be the light and the salt of this earth so if we are not submitting to

00:31:46.560 | the calling the general calling to all christians and all believers and all sinners why are we so

00:31:53.520 | caught up in being concerned about whether i was called to be a doctor or lawyer should i go to

00:31:57.680 | this school or that school the smaller things that are ambiguous that are not specifically taught in

00:32:02.960 | scripture we're more worried about that because it has something specific to us but the calling

00:32:07.600 | that he wants us to obey before any other calling is a calling to be his witness we've all been

00:32:14.720 | called to the harvest first corinthians 3 9 it says for we are god's fellow workers you are god's

00:32:20.720 | field god's building i don't know about you but that statement alone is mind-boggling right god

00:32:27.040 | who created the universe says i'm his co-worker i'm stacy king you're stacy king right michael

00:32:35.440 | jordan has called us to be on his team that's mind-boggling why me right why me and yet that's

00:32:43.520 | what he called that's what he says we're co-workers romans chapter 10 14 to 15 how then will they

00:32:48.720 | call on him in whom they have not believed how will they believe in whom they have not heard

00:32:53.840 | and how will they hear without a preacher how will they preach unless they are sent just as

00:32:58.240 | it is written how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news he's called people the church

00:33:07.840 | to send out people and that's a mystery why he cares about us to involve us and yet that's what

00:33:15.600 | he says in fact in matthew 24 he says before he comes the second time he said he's going to give

00:33:22.160 | an opportunity for us to take the gospel to the remotest part of the world and when the gospel

00:33:27.920 | has gone to the remotest part of the world when we have completed our calling to be his witness

00:33:33.280 | and then he said then he will come and the reason why he hasn't come yet is because he's been

00:33:37.760 | patient he's been patient for us to go and he's been patient for the sinners to hear the gospel

00:33:44.560 | and to come so the scripture says his patience means our salvation so we are called we're all

00:33:54.000 | called that's number one that we need to understand that this call to the harvest is not for pastors

00:33:58.720 | like am i going to commit my life full time the only difference between what i'm doing what you're

00:34:04.560 | doing is the avenue in which we do this are you going to bring the gospel as a businessman are

00:34:10.320 | you going to bring the gospel as an engineer as a worker that's the only distinction some people

00:34:16.000 | think that going into ministry means i'm dedicating my life to do god's work and if i don't go into

00:34:20.720 | ministry it means i'm going to live my life the way i want no christian owns his own life you

00:34:27.440 | have been purchased by the blood of christ the only difference between somebody who enters into

00:34:32.560 | full-time ministry where your livelihood depends on this is the avenue in which god will use us

00:34:39.120 | but all we have all been called to the harvest

00:34:43.120 | the second thing that we see here is that he says the harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few

00:34:52.320 | harvest is plentiful the laborers are few the common question that we get especially now the

00:34:58.400 | church is growing and the concern is do we have enough leaders in order to shepherd disciple

00:35:05.280 | to raise up people do we have enough leaders and the answer is no

00:35:08.560 | and to clarify that we've never had enough leaders and to clarify even further we will

00:35:19.120 | never have enough leaders because the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few there has never

00:35:27.040 | been a time in the last 2 000 years where we had more workers than the harvest there's never been

00:35:33.040 | a time in church history where where people would say you know what i want to i want to go do the

00:35:38.560 | work of god is it but i don't know where to go because they've all been reached everybody that

00:35:44.000 | needs here's the gospel everybody that needs to be shepherded we have plenty of people and so we

00:35:49.440 | we can relax in fact the more fruitful you are the more you recognize that there is no end to this

00:35:58.960 | work there's never been a time where the harvest didn't outnumber the workers

00:36:09.200 | now i'm not saying this to say so therefore we're not gonna we're not gonna do anything

00:36:14.000 | he says luke 4 43 jesus himself says i must preach the kingdom of god to the other cities also for i

00:36:23.040 | was sent for this purpose jesus said to the people who said i'm going to follow you and he says foxes

00:36:29.360 | have hold birds of the airs have met but the son of man the king of israel the messiah has nowhere

00:36:34.720 | to rest his head part of the reason why he had nowhere to rest his head wasn't because he was

00:36:38.560 | homeless it wasn't because he was poor i mean jesus could have taken money gold coins out of

00:36:46.640 | the mouth of the fish couldn't he have just rested in somebody's home or use that money to

00:36:52.160 | check into an inn or something it wasn't because a lack of money it's because he was working

00:36:58.080 | tirelessly so he has nowhere to rest his head because he's constantly on the move constantly

00:37:03.840 | preaching the gospel that's why he was on a boat fell asleep while the professional fishermen did

00:37:10.000 | thought that they were going to die because he was that tired because the harvest is plentiful

00:37:16.160 | and the workers are few the reason why he tells his disciples if they preach the gospel and they

00:37:21.040 | reject you shake off the dust because you're not going to be able to get to all the cities

00:37:24.640 | continue to move continue to preach continue to work until when until he comes

00:37:32.320 | because when your work is done he says then i'll come until then he has called us to work

00:37:37.680 | second thessalonians 3 1 finally brethren pray for us that the word of the lord will spread

00:37:42.160 | rapidly and be glorified just as it did also with you apostle paul had a sense of urgency if you

00:37:50.320 | look at his short life he had maybe around 12 to maybe 18 years of ministry and if you look at his

00:37:58.240 | three missionary journeys even with the ferrari even with the fastest car and even if the roads

00:38:05.760 | were nicely paved and every city that he went had the nicest hotels waiting for him with the best

00:38:11.840 | food is mind-boggling how he was able to do that in that short of a period he walked most of the

00:38:19.120 | way rode horses maybe he was tired he was beaten he was put into prison and yet he kept on moving

00:38:25.040 | and preaching the gospel why did an apostle paul get burned out we typically say that if somebody

00:38:32.000 | does a little bit of work and and you're doing a little bit more work than everybody else

00:38:35.600 | usually the next thing you will hear eventually is i'm burned out or i'm afraid i'm going to get

00:38:39.680 | burned out now there's always a danger there's always caution that you're not outputting more

00:38:46.640 | than you are inputting majority of the people are not being burnt out but rusted out rusted out

00:38:55.600 | when something burns out it means that there's nothing more to burn if you're burning a candle

00:39:02.720 | eventually the candle is gone there's no more wax to burn so that's so

00:39:07.840 | so we use that term that it's burnt out the reason why it's burnt out because there's no

00:39:12.080 | more candle to burn but we don't say that of these lights we need to turn this off or it's

00:39:18.400 | going to burn out the reason why we don't do that is because what's lighting this can

00:39:23.120 | lighting this is electricity electricity and it doesn't wear out we just have to pay more

00:39:29.360 | what are we burning when we're working if what's fueling us is encouragement from men

00:39:40.560 | praise of men if these are if what we are what is motivating us to engage in god's work

00:39:47.600 | is man's efforts man's praise man's fruit then whenever that wears out when the discouragement

00:39:55.360 | comes when the accountability is no longer there then you burn out because there's nothing more

00:40:00.320 | to burn but there's reason why this man not just him but so many missionaries so many people the

00:40:10.480 | cloud of witnesses who have gone before us why didn't apostle paul while he's getting beaten

00:40:15.440 | sitting in prison he's more concerned about the people who are living at ease outside of prison

00:40:21.440 | why didn't he get burned out why didn't the apostles who took the gospel and they traveled

00:40:26.480 | hundreds of miles by foot most of the time some of them thousands of miles to preach the gospel

00:40:32.880 | and then die in hardship why didn't they get burned out because what was causing them to

00:40:42.000 | preach the gospel was not man was the holy spirit the power of god the harvest is plentiful but the

00:40:50.400 | workers are few if we are prone to use our own resources eventually you will burn out yeah

00:40:59.040 | our church has 1100 1200 people we have three pastors right like aren't you going to burn out

00:41:05.760 | and that's a common question we're concerned you're going to burn out don't pray for us so

00:41:10.000 | that oh we don't burn out right although we appreciate your prayer pray that the leaders

00:41:17.200 | of the church will be so deep in christ that we would be so deep in christ that we would have

00:41:24.480 | more than ample energy to continue to do even more than what god has placed on our plate

00:41:29.040 | because the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few

00:41:32.880 | when are when is my turn to rest sometimes i have that thought i have friends who are starting to

00:41:41.440 | retire right we're not at we're not quite there yet but we're starting to retire right and i've

00:41:46.560 | been at this for 35 years so isn't it time most of you you know work 30 years it's time for

00:41:51.360 | retirement but you know one i can't retire right i don't have enough money but aside from that

00:41:59.120 | i don't know what retiring means as a pastor i don't know what that means i can retire as a

00:42:05.600 | pastor but i don't know what it means to be to retire as a christian because i would end up

00:42:10.480 | doing the same thing until the day i die because the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few

00:42:18.560 | there will never be a time where the harvest is going to be less than the workers

00:42:24.640 | lukewarmness lukewarmness is either be hot or cold lukewarmness basically is adjusting to room

00:42:35.040 | temperature right if you leave a cup a coffee on the table it doesn't turn hot doesn't turn

00:42:42.080 | cold it just adjusts to whatever temperature that you're in lukewarmness in the church is just

00:42:49.120 | adjusting to our environment adjusting to its desires what makes them happy makes us happy

00:42:56.800 | what they're pursuing we pursue what we're concerned about or they're concerned about

00:43:02.880 | we're concerned about and we've just learned to adjust to our culture we need to recognize

00:43:09.520 | that we are not home we're supposed to be hot or cold in other words he's calling us out

00:43:17.600 | of where we're at that we don't live by the values of this world that we don't live comfortable

00:43:24.240 | just because they're comfortable that we're sojourners just passing through the harvest

00:43:29.360 | is plentiful and the workers are few therefore number three he says when you engage this harvest

00:43:35.200 | the opposition is going to come it says behold i send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves

00:43:41.520 | again a common question that we get is how come the bible says that we're going to be persecuted

00:43:46.960 | if we follow christ and we don't see any persecution you don't get persecuted simply

00:43:54.320 | because you say you believe in jesus right persecution comes because you're taking the

00:44:00.160 | gospel to to enemy territory right now as an example if you're if you're in this room

00:44:10.560 | right and we turn the lights bright um you say thank you because we need to see you can't read

00:44:16.720 | the notes we can't function so the light needs to be turned on because you you need the light

00:44:21.280 | to function but if i came to your house in the middle of the night 3 a.m and i flicked the light

00:44:28.320 | on would you say thank you thank you for waking me up how did you get in my house anyway right

00:44:36.320 | now you're going to be disturbed because you want to stay asleep so if you turn the light on if you

00:44:43.680 | bring the light on if you even if you turn the flashlight on a little light in the middle of

00:44:48.080 | the night of people who are trying to stay asleep they're not going to thank you only somebody who

00:44:54.240 | needs to be somewhere at three o'clock and you woke them up so that they can they don't miss

00:44:57.680 | their appointment they'll thank you a few of them majority of them will curse you what are you doing

00:45:03.520 | turn that light off the bible says that the persecution is in hardship comes because you

00:45:10.880 | are taking the light to darkness but if you want to live in comfort and safety just be a good church

00:45:19.360 | goer just stay quiet just be good to people be generous people would love you if jesus never

00:45:27.600 | preached and all he did was heal and he fed them he took care of them he would have been

00:45:36.000 | adored even by the pagans why would they hate him he's helping everybody why would they hate him

00:45:43.520 | they hated him because of what he said he was calling out the leaders to repent bear fruits

00:45:49.840 | and according to your repentance you hypocrites woe is you that there's only one way to salvation

00:45:57.440 | all your pagan gods are going to bring you to judgment you must repent and be baptized

00:46:02.320 | it was of their preaching that caused the persecution he says to go

00:46:09.120 | he says john 5 18 if the world hates you you know that it has hated me before it hated you

00:46:16.480 | matthew 5 10 through 12 blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness

00:46:23.200 | for theirs is the kingdom of heaven not only not only are we to not think and avoid it he said no

00:46:29.520 | you're blessed you're blessed because you know that you're where jesus is if you want to know

00:46:36.880 | if you're following christ see if what happened to jesus is happening to you blessed are you when

00:46:43.360 | people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me

00:46:49.680 | right not because you're a jerk not because you're selfish not because you're acting up at work but

00:46:55.280 | he says because of me because you're being my witness you're in the harvest turning on the

00:46:59.840 | light rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for in the same way they persecuted the

00:47:04.880 | prophets who were before you not only did he say you're going to be prosecute persecuted not only

00:47:11.280 | did he say he's persecuted he said even the prophets before him every single one of them

00:47:16.960 | that he sent was persecuted we live in a fallen world who are in rebellion against the only true

00:47:23.280 | god and any representative of that god will also be rejected so every prophet that came before christ

00:47:33.600 | all the disciples during christ and everyone who professes christ in the future he says

00:47:40.880 | will be persecuted 1st peter 4 12 to 14 beloved do not be surprised at the fire ordeal among you

00:47:48.480 | which comes upon you for your testing for your testing as though some strange thing was happening

00:47:56.160 | to you but to the degree that you share the sufferings of christ keep on rejoicing not only

00:48:00.800 | are you blessed so when difficulty and trials come he says rejoice so that also at the revelation of

00:48:06.560 | his glory you may rejoice with exaltation if you are reviled for my name of for the name of christ

00:48:12.640 | you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of god rest on you he said don't be worried if

00:48:20.800 | they persecute you make it difficult for you to be a christian to attend church because he said

00:48:27.040 | that's where you live you know we just happen to be in a country where christian value judeo-christian

00:48:34.560 | values have been embedded into the culture and now we live in a post-christian culture

00:48:39.360 | and the culture is turning against christianity more and more but he says when they make it hard

00:48:45.520 | for you to be a christian when they make it difficult for you to evangelize he says don't

00:48:50.080 | be surprised don't be surprised because you're not home this is not your home he said i will

00:48:59.520 | build my church and the gates of hades will not prevail against it i have called you to take the

00:49:03.920 | light into enemy territory and so if the enemy begins to act like the enemy don't be surprised

00:49:10.000 | they hated me so they're going to hate you they didn't like it when we gathered so they're not

00:49:15.280 | going to like it when you gather don't think it's strange that the world is turning against us

00:49:21.280 | this is what every christian since the time of christ has experienced it is not an anomaly what's

00:49:28.960 | happening in north korea is not an anomaly what's happening in the middle east what's happening in

00:49:33.280 | india anomaly was here in the united states don't think it's strange when they turn on you and begin

00:49:41.440 | to persecute you fourth and finally though the hope is that god is the lord of the harvest

00:49:49.120 | in luke 10 three to four says go behold i send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves

00:49:55.040 | carry no money belt no bag no shoes and greet no one on the way right

00:50:01.440 | i'm like don't raise your hand this is a rhetorical question but how many of you read

00:50:04.800 | this before you came how many of you just read this kind of skim through is that okay

00:50:09.360 | it's like they're going and he says the wolves are going to be waiting for you

00:50:12.960 | carry no money no belt no bag no shoes and greet no one on the way does that make sense

00:50:20.640 | i'm going to send you out to danger so you would think sharpen your knives that's what i would

00:50:27.680 | think he would say carry some money you're going to need that right get yourself ready

00:50:34.000 | but why does he tell them wolves are there you're i'm sending you into danger

00:50:40.080 | but don't carry any money no belt no shoes and just be in a hurry to get the gospel out as much

00:50:47.840 | as possible of the kingdom he says the same thing in luke 93 to the disciples he said take nothing

00:50:54.320 | for your journey neither staff we talked about that for your protection if the wolves are coming

00:50:59.840 | shouldn't you take the staff nor bag nor bread nor money or even a second tunic it doesn't make

00:51:08.080 | any sense if you're going to go fight war and he said don't take your shoes don't take your weapon

00:51:12.800 | just go empty-handed and just do what i say this is the same principle that he's been teaching over

00:51:20.160 | and over and over and over again throughout israel's history to the early church and even

00:51:24.960 | to this day he said because our fight is not against flesh and blood that if you try to

00:51:32.080 | engage the world with the same weapons that they are using you will lose because we're not people

00:51:38.160 | fighting people he says we're fighting against dark forces spiritual forces we're heading into

00:51:45.840 | enemy territory a christian who is gifted upright maybe well educated well well read very experienced

00:51:59.440 | who's not dependent on god is useless in the kingdom of god

00:52:05.520 | is useless in the kingdom of god because our enemy no matter how smart you are is smarter than you

00:52:15.120 | our enemy no matter how strong you are is stronger than you he knows more than you he's

00:52:20.880 | more powerful than you so we cannot engage the harvest by our own power you know we have a

00:52:30.480 | tendency to think that if we have a celebrity somebody who's adored you know and if he becomes

00:52:37.520 | a christian can you imagine the impact that he will make maybe a senator maybe if trump actually

00:52:42.560 | became a christian maybe if some of these celebrities maybe if lebron james genuinely

00:52:48.560 | repented then there will be revival because people would take him seriously that's what we tend to

00:52:54.080 | think but the bible says but the bible says the very reason why he chose the unnamed the base the

00:53:03.440 | foolish is because that system that we think that by our power that we're going to overcome

00:53:10.240 | we are deceived that somehow we're going to battle them we're going to do better than that we're going

00:53:14.960 | to have more money than them we're going to be more educated so we get into debates and we want

00:53:18.960 | to show you who knows better is your argument better my argument better and the only thing

00:53:23.120 | that you have done in that argument is i'm smart and you're dumb and you didn't win a single person

00:53:29.040 | to christ our goal is not to show the world we're not dumb we're not stupid oh you call me stupid

00:53:37.120 | i'll show you who's stupid you're stupid he called us to win the harvest you can't get somebody who's

00:53:44.960 | dead in their trespasses and argue them to life to show them your intelligence and then they're

00:53:51.360 | going to somehow wake up it's so foolish to think that somehow the church is going to attract people

00:53:57.120 | by entertaining them and when the church tries so hard to be entertaining it just looks so lame

00:54:06.880 | because they have billions of dollars with the top talents of this world who've given their life

00:54:14.720 | for their craft so that people would pay hundreds sometimes thousands of dollars to come and watch

00:54:20.480 | them and somehow we're going to three years of seminary education right you with a bunch of you

00:54:29.120 | guys that we're going to put production up here and somehow we're going to outdo them

00:54:36.000 | and we just look foolish we look so lame

00:54:39.200 | we cannot fight and reach the harvest by our own power that's why he says beseech the lord

00:54:48.960 | of the harvest the word beseech doesn't simply ask it means to beg to be desperate

00:54:55.040 | you don't be see you can pray but you don't beseech until you are desperate and every single

00:55:01.360 | one of us knows what it means to beseech the lord every single one of us knows how to pray

00:55:06.880 | when we're desperate when we're desperate when you're desperate you don't need to go you know

00:55:13.840 | what i'm so desperate there's something emergency happening in my life but you know i want to take

00:55:17.520 | a class today i want to take a class of how to worship and i want to you know go through the

00:55:23.920 | acronym of you know thanksgiving and supplication and no when you're desperate you just pray

00:55:31.600 | the most effective prayer is when you pray when you're desperate and you know what that feels

00:55:37.120 | like whether someone is sick exhausted all the possibilities and you come before god in

00:55:42.400 | desperation you're not articulate you don't need a contact you don't need people you just pray

00:55:48.560 | because something inside of you is urging you to pray because you're desperate

00:55:54.560 | but the problem is when our external circumstances in our personal life

00:55:59.520 | doesn't remind us of the desperateness we have a hard time praying

00:56:04.560 | because it's just something too it's just another religious thing to do

00:56:10.000 | you know at least if you read the word that you gain something and you can say i can quote the

00:56:16.000 | bible and i can give sermons and teach people and disciple people there's something i can gain but

00:56:20.000 | if you pray whether you prayed an hour you fasted for four or five days you don't have anything to

00:56:25.600 | show for other than to go and tell people that you did it but when you're desperate you pray

00:56:31.120 | but here's the challenge we have cause to be desperate every single day that we live on this

00:56:38.480 | earth because we live in a fallen world surrounded by people who are desperate

00:56:46.880 | jesus looked at the harvest and he said he had compassion for them because they were like sheep

00:56:50.960 | without shepherd they were distressed and they were harmed they were helpless

00:56:59.040 | and he said because he sees the desperateness of the people of the harvest he said

00:57:05.440 | therefore beseech the lord of the harvest to send out more workers

00:57:12.160 | the problem that we have in a rich nation

00:57:15.920 | is that day to day unless some financial emergency or unless there's some health

00:57:22.480 | crisis that's happening we don't live day to day with a sense of urgency

00:57:26.880 | we are living surrounded by people who are lost in their sins and if they continue on that path

00:57:34.320 | no matter how wealthy no matter how poor they are there's judgment at the end of this life

00:57:39.920 | and we don't feel a sense of urgency to pray to bring the light to them

00:57:44.960 | so the problem isn't our circumstance the problem is that we are spiritually dull

00:57:50.480 | the problem is that we think we're as long as our bills are paid as long as i have a home to go to

00:57:56.880 | as long as i i my life and my children are safe and my loved ones are good that we're good that

00:58:03.040 | we're just going to ride this out until we get to heaven and every single day we're surrounded by

00:58:08.400 | people who are desperately lost just in the short time that i've been in ministry

00:58:14.640 | for 30 some years i could think of all the people and sometimes even in this room

00:58:23.440 | i remember as a young pastor in my 20s and i started a council high school students and

00:58:32.880 | college students they would come and the things that they would share with me i would be in shock

00:58:36.720 | about how they were abused when they were young looking for answers and just you know i get

00:58:47.040 | punched in the gut because these are people that i care about and then i hear about what

00:58:51.440 | happened to them when they were children and looking for answers

00:58:54.800 | a few years ago we were out in india and this young mom

00:59:04.480 | in desperation asked me and asked me to come and pray for for her because you can see a limp child

00:59:12.480 | on her arms i mean no more than maybe about three months old two months old and it was a simple

00:59:19.280 | issue i forgot what the issue was and could have been easily fixed if she just went to the hospital

00:59:23.360 | with the baby but because she didn't have access to the hospital and she couldn't treat the baby

00:59:27.600 | properly and in desperation she said can you pray and i remember the baby was already grasping for

00:59:33.760 | its last breath and i remember i was praying for her and with her crying in tears

00:59:39.680 | all she needed was just access to the hospital something that could have easily just

00:59:48.720 | got in a car and taken care of in one day and she ended up losing her child

00:59:54.160 | going to the philippines seeing these young girls give their bodies to these old men who are flying

01:00:02.880 | in and realizing that they were doing this voluntarily some of them as young as 12 13 years

01:00:10.080 | years old and they're in the restaurant and they're seem happy-go-lucky but as soon as

01:00:15.840 | they go out to the courtyard you could see the face of disgust and once we realized what was

01:00:22.640 | going on this we gotta stop sex trafficking this is so bad and it is it's it's so horrible

01:00:30.080 | and realizing that many of them were doing voluntarily because that's the only way they

01:00:35.520 | could feed their family sometimes their own parents would give up their young teenage child

01:00:41.440 | because that's the only way that that family could feed the younger children

01:00:45.600 | in kenya we're driving around and i see dozens and dozens of little children

01:00:56.800 | and at that time younger than even my kids at the time three four five-year-old kids

01:01:01.520 | just walking around the street and highway the cars are going 50 60 miles per hour

01:01:05.680 | and you see a little girl with a little brother just walking alongside and just dozens and dozens

01:01:10.800 | of them and i said what's going on where are their parents they said they're all orphans

01:01:16.640 | like all of them and they're just wandering on the street so yeah he said the aids epidemic killed

01:01:24.320 | so many people that the country could not handle this so they're just kids walking around and if

01:01:31.040 | they're walking around you would think that people who but compassion for them will bring

01:01:35.280 | them into their homes and take care of them and that was happening with some in some circles and

01:01:40.960 | some of the churches were beginning to do that but many of these kids who are vulnerable were

01:01:45.680 | taken into sheds abused there's some kids that we met at the orphanage center that we were at

01:01:54.800 | and almost like nine ten years old and they couldn't talk

01:01:57.280 | and i said why can't they talk because when they were five years old somebody

01:02:04.560 | picked them up and put them in a shed and treated them like animals and sexually abused them

01:02:11.040 | this is happening all over the world

01:02:17.840 | all over the world because we live in a fallen world we try to dress up where we live and clean

01:02:26.000 | it up and make it look nice so that we're not disgusted by what we see and we're all disgusted

01:02:30.880 | about what's happening with the homeless out in la because we can see them visually but that's a

01:02:35.520 | microcosm what's actually happening spiritually all over the world because the world is in rebellion

01:02:42.000 | against god they're spiritually dead whether you see nice people nice homes or whether they're

01:02:49.040 | homeless out doing drugs all have sinned and fall short of the glory of god all have sinned fall

01:02:56.720 | short of the glory of god whether you go to hell living in a nice house whether you go to hell

01:03:01.280 | living as a homeless person doing drugs their fate is the same the reason why we don't pray is

01:03:10.000 | because we're not desperate we don't see the desperateness because we're comfortable

01:03:14.960 | the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few

01:03:22.160 | therefore beg the lord of the harvest to send out more workers beg the lord of the harvest

01:03:35.840 | to join the work to participate in the work these people aren't sitting next to you

01:03:42.880 | the dead people are working next to you

01:03:46.800 | beseech the lord of the harvest to send out more workers

01:03:57.200 | you

01:03:59.200 | this is why this church is planted

01:04:08.560 | this is why every church is planted this is why missionaries pack up their bags

01:04:16.000 | and head into difficult areas this is why the cloud of witnesses that have gone before us

01:04:25.120 | left their comfort safety even for their own children because the harvest is plentiful

01:04:32.080 | and the workers are few i want you to listen to keith green's song as i invite the worship team

01:04:40.480 | to come back up keith green helped me quite a bit when i was a young christian because

01:04:47.200 | you know some of you guys who know him he's no nonsense he gets to the point and

01:04:52.720 | really convicted me so i just wanted to share this song with you and then afterwards our team

01:04:56.720 | will come and lead us in our closing song

01:05:20.480 | do you see do you see all the people sinking down don't you care don't you care are you gonna

01:05:30.320 | let them drown how can you be so numb not to care if they come you close your eyes and pretend the

01:05:42.240 | job's done oh bless me lord bless me lord you know it's all i ever hear no one aches

01:05:56.880 | no one hurts no one even sheds one tear but he cries he weeps he pleads and he cares for your

01:06:06.080 | needs and you just lay back and keep soaking it in oh can't you see it's such a sin

01:06:18.240 | because he brings people to your door and you turn them away as you smile and say

01:06:29.600 | god bless me be at peace and all heaven just weeps because jesus came to your door

01:06:40.720 | you've left him out on the streets

01:06:52.960 | open up open up and give yourself away you see the need you hear the cries so how can you delay

01:07:03.600 | god's calling and you're the one but like johnny you run he's told you to speak but you keep holding

01:07:14.400 | it in oh can't you see it's such sin the world is sleeping in the dark that the church just can't

01:07:28.880 | fight because it's asleep in the light how can you be so dead when you've been so well fed

01:07:41.040 | jesus rose from the grave and you you can't even get out of bed

01:07:48.720 | oh jesus rose from the dead

01:07:57.360 | come on get out of your bed

01:08:04.640 | how can you be so numb not to care if they come you close your eyes and pretend the job's done

01:08:23.440 | you close your eyes and pretend the job's done don't close your eyes don't pretend the job's done

01:08:34.240 | come away come away come away with me my love come away from this mess come away with me my love

01:08:51.280 | oh

01:08:58.000 | church family why don't we all stand together let that song settle we're going to sing this song

01:09:06.960 | living hope that in comparison to what the world doesn't have we have so as we sing this song

01:09:13.280 | i pray that a sense of gratefulness and seriousness come upon us

01:09:22.560 | how great the chasm that lay between us how high the mountain i could not

01:09:38.880 | in desperation i turned to heaven and spoke your name into the night

01:09:50.400 | and through the darkness your loving kindness tore through the shadows

01:10:02.320 | my

01:10:08.960 | my very heart

01:10:30.480 | i'm

01:10:42.640 | where my

01:10:49.520 | has

01:10:59.040 | me

01:11:20.560 | you set me free

01:11:42.080 | me

01:11:47.600 | let's seal the promise

01:12:01.600 | so

01:12:11.120 | so

01:12:32.640 | so

01:12:54.160 | so

01:13:16.640 | so

01:13:29.200 | gracious and merciful father we thank you lord god that you

01:13:38.720 | have called us to participate and to be co-workers lord in your kingdom for the harvest

01:13:45.120 | as you saw us in the ugliness of our sins while we were yet sinners while we were rebelling

01:13:51.520 | and blasphemous and you showed your mercy and love toward us while we were yet sinners

01:13:58.080 | help us lord god to see the sin of this world and not simply be disgusted by what we see

01:14:04.960 | but give us compassion help us lord god to be desperate on their behalf

01:14:12.960 | that we would intercede that we would plead that we would go that we would preach

01:14:19.120 | help us lord god for the sake of your name to live a life worthy of the gospel that you've given

01:14:26.160 | send us lord god to be the aroma of christ at home at work

01:14:33.440 | in travel and in leisure may it all bring glory to your name in jesus name we pray amen

01:14:45.280 | they called him jesus he came to love heal and forgive he lived and died

01:15:04.480 | to buy my party an empty grave is there to prove my savior

01:15:15.760 | because he

01:15:21.920 | is

01:15:24.080 | i can face

01:15:34.480 | and life is worth the living

01:15:53.520 | just because

01:16:18.320 | blessed be your name in the land that is plentiful where your streams of abundance flow

01:16:29.040 | blessed be your name

01:16:31.120 | blessed be your name when i'm found in the desert place though i walk through the wilderness

01:16:46.400 | ♪ Blessed be your name ♪