Workers in the Harvest Pt 1

Good morning. Would you all stand? I want to welcome you to Calvary Chapel this morning. Those of you online, Facebook, all that kind of stuff, we want to welcome you all too. Would you join me in prayer? Father, we just thank you for this opportunity to gather this morning, to worship you in song, and to study your word. And the other ways that we're allowed to worship,

we have the privilege of worshiping you, Lord. Lord, as we're gathered here, Lord, speak to us by your Holy Spirit. Strengthen us with your might. Impart your spirit of wisdom to us in the revelation of the knowledge of you, Lord. And encourage us to lighten the eyes of our understanding and the calling you've called us to, Lord. We thank you for that.

Yes, Lord, we do come this morning just as we are.

We hold our hearts to you this morning. We thank you. It's because you first loved us that we can love you, Lord. It's what you did, Lord. We're but weak vessels, Lord, and nothing without you, Lord. We need strength to do everything. In our weakness, Lord, we know you're made strong, Lord. You do a work in our hearts as we yield ourselves to you. Realizing, praise you.

He's so good to us. He loves us. Praise you, Lord.

Lord, as we wait for that time that you take us, may we serve you and love you just as we are.

Good morning. Glad you could be here this morning. If you would locate your seats. If you would locate your seats and grab a bulletin, we will go over some announcements.

Over on the left-hand side of your bulletin, spots to get plugged into throughout the week. A couple of things to pay attention to in the middle section of your bulletin. Well, one of them is in the middle section. The other one I just have to announce. Marriage and family study kicks off tonight. So the theme this year, or for this next six, eight weeks, or whatever it is, or six, eight sessions,

is going to be prayer. In particular, praying for our family. So they're going to be looking at prayers in Scripture and how we can apply that to praying for our family. So dinner's at five, and then study follows immediately after dinner. The other thing is that, did we get the video working? No video. Okay, no problem. We are putting together a new church directory that will have pictures in it.

A lot of people have come to me and said, you know what would be really nice is if we had a church directory with pictures. And I'll say, you know what? I'll say, that's a great idea. Do you want to see if you can put that together? Well, finally, two people said, we will take that ball and run with it. And I just, I handed it off, and they're rolling. So Glenn Bliss, who is a photographer and does a fantastic job, and her mom, Julie,

are going to be putting this church directory together. So what they want to do is we'll have the next couple of weeks to sign up for some time slots. And then for the next few weeks after that, there's going to be a new church directory. The picture is after service. So there will be a couple of Sundays where there will be, you can sign up for a time slot for after first service or after second service.

And so they can get you signed up for a time slot. And then if Glenn can come at second service and we can get the video going, then maybe you can get more information that way. All that to say, Julie Davis is going to be at a table in the back after the service to get people signed up. And she can give you any other. Details that you need at that point in time.

So pretty excited about that. It ought to be a lot of fun to be able to go. Hey, who was that again? Oh, yeah, that's right. I do know their name. I just forgot it. So everybody's got COVID brain anyway. So we just forget things all the time. And it is what it is. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced.

And for our unison reading, because all of my buddies keep leaving or getting sick, we are going to be in Psalm 150. Psalm 150. We'll be looking at the New American Standard just so we all sound the same. If you need one, there should be one in your row. As you are turning to Psalm 150, if you would stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.

Psalm 150.

And again, since it's a unison reading, we will all be reading at the same time. So join with me. Psalm 150. Praise the Lord. Praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in His mighty expanse. Praise Him for His mighty deeds. Praise Him according to His excellent greatness. Praise Him with trumpet sound. Praise Him with harp and lyre. Praise Him with timbrel and dancing.

Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe. Praise Him with loud cymbals. praise him with resounding symbols let everything that has breath praise the lord praise the lord and father we do thank you for who you are i just want to praise you for for being god almighty lord for being the creator of the heavens and the earth the sustainer of the heavens and the earth the sustainer of life and lord our meaning for life so lord we thank you for who you are and we praise you for who you are and just ask now that as we spend time here in your word talking about what it looks like to proclaim who you are to the to the people around us lord may you prepare our

hearts to be the workers in the harvest that you called for us to be in jesus name amen you may be seated and if you would open up in your bibles to the gospel of matthew chapter 10 matthew chapter 10. as we move into chapter 10 it sort of starts a whole new little section in the book of matthew at least there's a theme for this entire chapter and the theme for this entire chapter is workers in the harvest so there's three aspects of that that we're going to be looking at we'll talk about those three aspects in just a second but to build a little bit of context we remember that in chapters eight and nine jesus had been performing miracles of healing and matter of fact that's what

we themed all of chapters eight and nine is stories of healing and so jesus was out doing the work of ministry we were given that summary statement at the end of chapter nine that he went about teaching in their synagogues proclaiming the kingdom of god and healing all those that were sick and as he was doing so we were given this little commentary of jesus at the very end of chapter nine in verses 36 through 38 where it says seeing the people he had compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd they were dispirited and distressed and so as jesus viewed the people there in the land of israel in the nation of israel that were around them he allowed his heart to be open to

the situation that was taking place and his heart was broken and he had great compassion for the people because he saw just how desperately they were in need of a savior and we said that that's kind of something for us to pay attention to because it reminds us first of all that that's god's heart for us that for me as an individual believer in jesus christ he saw that i was distressed and dispirited and because of that he took action and he saved me and he saved me and he saved me but we were also reminded that that's god's heart for people even the people we're annoyed with god has a great deal of compassion for them and and he loves them and he cares for

them and that's the kind of heart he wants us to have for people even though it's hard for us to have that kind of a heart that's what god wants to work in us and then as we saw this heart of jesus we ended chapter nine with this statement of jesus to his disciples when he said the harvest is plentiful but the harvest is plentiful and the harvest is plentiful and the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few therefore pray that the lord would send out workers into his harvest now that's an important segue into this next chapter because in this next chapter he's going to talk about what it looks like to be a worker in the harvest as a matter of fact he's going to commission

his disciples to be workers in the harvest now there's something interesting to pay attention to and that's that as i allow my heart to be open to people i begin to see the work that takes place i begin to see the work that takes place i begin to see the work that takes place i begin to see the need for workers in the harvest and as i begin to see the need for workers in the harvest i then begin to pray that god would send workers that's what jesus said to do but you know it's always kind of funny if i am first of all willing to open my heart enough to see the needs around me and then i begin to pray that god would meet the needs around me you know what he has a tendency to do

commission me to go out into the harvest to meet the needs that are around me we can have a little problem in the culture that we live in now and the problem in the culture that we live in now is this little problem right here that's not my job my favorite picture that i ever saw on a bulletin board in a place that i worked was the winner of the it's not my job award and in this picture perhaps you've seen it a couple of you are laughing perhaps you've seen this picture it shows a dead squirrel in the middle of the road somewhat flattened much like we see around here right now and over top of this dead squirrel in the middle of the road are two painted yellow lines

now notice i said the paint was on top of the squirrel why because somebody looked at the dead squirrel and said that's not my job my job is to paint the yellow lines not to move the dead animals now it's super funny when it's a picture like that and we're like oh my gosh the people who say it's not my job it's a whole other thing when we do that as believers in jesus christ and we see the hurt in people around us and we see the needs not only within the body of christ but of the body of christ and we say but that's not my job that's not my job my job is to show up on a sunday morning so the pastor knows that i care no once you become a part of the body of christ

no one is a spectator everyone has a job within the body of christ we are all to be workers in the harvest and so he says we need to pray for god to send out workers in the harvest and then as we come into chapter 10 we see jesus begin to his disciples for these workers in the harvest and so as we look at chapter 10 there's three ways that i see this kind of breaking down we're going to first of all see the definition of the workers or we'll just call it the workers the second thing that we're going to see is the instructions and then the third thing that we'll see is the warnings because there is a cost to serving god so the first thing that we're going to look at we'll look at those first two this morning the

first thing that we're going to look at is we're going to look at the workers and so we start in chapter 10 verse 1 and this is what it says jesus summoned his 12 disciples and he gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness now the names of the 12 apostles are these the first simon who is called peter and andrew his brother james the son of zebedee and his brother philip and bartholomew thomas matthew the tax collector james the son of alpheus and thought and thaddeus simon the zealot and judas iscariot the one who betrayed him now the first thing i take note of with this aspect of the workers is the call that god has on these workers lives perhaps you noticed

it in verse one as well it says first of all jesus summoned his 12 disciples and then he gave them authority so the first thing he did is he called them now this call was a process it started off with him individually sort of reaching out to these different ones they all came to jesus in a little bit of a different way if you did a survey of the gospels you would find that each of these disciples came in a little bit of a different way some came because they had been disciples of john and they heard jesus teach and they found their hearts drawn towards jesus because that's who john had been pointing people to some came because others brought them other of the disciples brought them some came because jesus specifically reached out

to them and said follow me and be my disciples they all came in a little bit of a different way but in each of their ways their process of being some and started with a call of jesus on their hearts and isn't that kind of interesting i would venture to say that if we took a quick survey of all of you and the different ways that you ended up coming to faith in jesus christ i bet the stories would all vary just a little bit some of you perhaps had a friend that was sharing the gospel with you over and over again and finally the holy spirit got of you a hold of your heart because a friend had been sharing with you over and over again some of you may have had an experience where

you just knew you needed something and all you knew to do was call out to god and god slowly but surely pointed you in the right direction to where you found a church that was teaching the bible and you really understood what salvation looked like you're all here for different reasons and you all came to faith for different reasons and in different ways but it was all the work of god in your heart he just used different instruments but once they had been called and were called to faith they were actually followers of jesus christ now the specific commission the specific summoning of them to do a job began to come about in their lives and so it says jesus summoned his 12

disciples and notice what it says he did he gave them authority he gave them authority over every unclean spirit over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease heal every sickness essentially jesus shared his authority with them over these things now they would not be able to usurp the authority of jesus or even go beyond the authority of jesus but he says as you are followers of me and disciples of me you will have this kind of authority to do these kinds of things in the lives of people now there's usually one of two ways that this verse ends up getting handled in current culture today on the more conservative side we would say well that was something that was specific to that time and

doesn't still exist today that was only sign gifts for the disciples to prove that they had been with jesus and that they were really apostles of jesus christ and i don't know that i could fully go along with that because i don't think god has stopped doing things like healing and casting out demons now there is the more charismatic side that would say therefore everywhere you go you should be able to heal anyone you want to and cast out a demon anytime you want to i don't know that i can go that far either because jesus is still the authority and he ultimately is the one who determines when those things take place and how that takes place in the lives of people so i like to take what i pray is a biblical balance

to this and say can this still take place today amongst god's disciples yes i absolutely believe it listen i have seen someone that was on death's doorstep get prayed for and then be healed from it i have seen individuals say i had a cancerous spot someone prayed for me and now the doctors can't find it i've seen those things happen and so i know that god can heal because ultimately whether god chooses to use an individual laying hands on and praying or whether god chooses to use medicine he ultimately is the one that has the authority to heal and he uses his disciples to do so and so we must remember that we have to be able to heal and we have to be able to these things can still take place today we just must do so in a godly way where we don't make

the gift the emphasis but we make jesus the emphasis and we'll get to the instructions in just a minute where that balance kind of comes into play now after he has called his disciples and given them authority matthew takes just a moment to give us a little commentary on the disciples and so he names him so i'd like to spend a few minutes in verse two talking about the apostles and so it says now these are the names of the 12 apostles so let's go through these these names and talk a little bit about them because if it were you and me and we were choosing what we might call the spiritual dream team we would probably not choose who jesus chose we would have chosen much differently we would be wrong but we would have chosen differently

but let's talk about these guys the first one that's mentioned is simon who is called peter now in any list of the disciples simon peter is always named first because he seems for whatever reason to be the one that had the greatest leadership role amongst the disciples again the more you know about peter the more you think that was a bad idea on jesus's part however jesus knew what he was doing it's kind of interesting when jesus first called simon peter hit peter was not a part of his name at all he says your name is simon now if you look at the name simon you realize that there's an aspect to that name it's a little bit shifty or unsettled not shifty in like a he's going to rob you sort of a way

but shifty in a controlled by his emotions sort of a way and so peter is a guy that we would say was a little bit impetuous and controlled by his emotions very passionate willing to stick his foot in his mouth willing to say what needed to be said but a very passionate individual but you know as well as i do that when someone is really emotional and passionate one moment things are going really really bad right i've worked with teenagers long enough to know that that is a real life situation so he says your name is simon unstable unsettled but i call you peter we know what the name peter means peter means rock you see when jesus called simon peter he said right now you are unsettled

and easily shaken that's who you are but i'm calling you peter not because that's who you are but because that is who by god's grace you are going to become you know what that does for me as an individual that tells me that though i look at my life and i don't always see man of god leader in a church that's what jesus sees not because that's always who i'm really good at being but that's who by god's grace he's turning me into and it's the same with you and so we see first of all simon peter is the first one who is going to become a leader in a church and he's going to be the first one that's named now the second one that's named is andrew andrew is peter's brother

now here's the interesting thing about andrew you don't really read of him doing a whole lot of great works as a matter of fact and john corson and his commentary pointed this out andrew sort of lived in the shadow of peter interestingly enough andrew was a disciple of john the baptist who actually started following jesus first and he is the one who actually brought peter to jesus and yet andrew somewhat lived in the shadow of his older brother and one of the things john corson pointed out is he said perhaps you know someone that you're very close to that is a little more charismatic of an individual that you are and perhaps you feel like you live in their shadow

but you know what andrew was known for andrew was known for bringing people to jesus that's the greatest work you see him do throughout all of the gospel accounts you don't see him do a whole lot of other things or even speak a whole lot you really only ever see andrew do one thing and that's bringing people to jesus now the third and fourth guys that were mentioned are james and john and these guys are brothers now here's the fun thing about james and john james and john earned themselves a nickname from jesus now we must understand that the james that's mentioned here is not the same james that wrote the book of james that's actually jesus's half wrote the book of james this is james the son of zebedee he was a fisherman he was actually going

to end up being the very first of the apostles to be killed for his faith but james and john earned themselves a nickname the nickname that they earned themselves was the sons of thunder now i don't know about you but when i hear the sons of thunder i think about two pro wrestlers that's what goes into my mind right i think about the bushwhackers only with sweet beards and and so and if you know 90s wrestling at all you know exactly who i'm talking about that's who i think of when i think of james and john because there was a time when jesus came into a city and the city absolutely rejected him and as they're leaving the city james and john are like hey so uh i mean what do you think called out fire on that feels like the

right thing to do to me and jesus is like whoa sons of thunder we we don't need that right now i came to show mercy not bring judgment right now and yet james and john will end up becoming first of the apostles to be killed and then john will become not only the writer of the gospel of john but the three epistles of that bear his name as well as the book of revelation as a matter of fact this john who was known at one time as the son of thunder became the most tender-hearted of the disciples and the one that wrote the most about love and you know they tried to kill him and he would not die you know why because jesus had another work for him to do this son of thunder

turned into one who was willing to give his life even if it meant living a life being tortured for christ because that's what jesus does with those who follow him as he changes their hearts to make them into the men and women that he's called for them to be the next disciple that's mentioned is philip now again with philip you don't read a whole lot about philip although he tends to be another one along with andrew that was always bringing people to jesus and then the next one that i'm going to read is philip i'm going to read the next one that i'm going to read is it's mentioned is Bartholomew. Now, Bartholomew is listed in other gospel accounts by the name

Nathanael. Now, here's the thing about Nathanael. I kind of like Nathanael, or Bartholomew, if you will, because he was what we call a skeptic. If you know the story at all from John chapter 1, you know that I believe it was Andrew that came and got Nathanael and said, hey, we have found the Messiah. He's out of Nazareth. Do you remember what Nathanael said? Does anything good come out

of Nazareth, right? It's kind of like if you tell somebody you're from Ark City, and they say, does anything good come out of Ark City? Does anything good come out of Nazareth? And so Jesus sees him later, and he says, you know, I'm Jesus. He calls him by name. He says, Nathanael, I'm Jesus. And he says, how do you know my name? He says, before you showed up, I saw you under the fig

tree. I saw you under the fig tree. I saw you under the fig tree. I saw you under the fig tree. And Nathanael's like, what? And he said, if you think that's pretty amazing, wait until you see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. And from that point on, that skeptic became a follower of Jesus Christ. And you know what you always find about skeptics is that once Jesus

gets a hold of their heart, there's no stopping them. Because as skeptical as they were about faith, they're every bit as skeptical about your unbelief. And so that's Bartholomew. The next one, of course, is Thomas. And Thomas earned himself a wonderful nickname called Doubting Thomas. And what we know about Thomas is not only did he struggle a little bit with faith, but Thomas is what we call a pessimist, right?

Do you remember the story when they're getting ready to go down to see Lazarus, when Jesus is going to heal Lazarus from the dead? And he says, we have to go down to the region of Judea. But Jesus had left that region because they were trying to kill him. And Thomas says, Jesus, I thought we left there because they were trying to kill you. And Jesus says, hey, listen, if we're

walking in the dead, we're going to kill you. And he says, I thought we left there because they were trying to kill me. And he goes, all right, well, we should probably go and die with him then. Right? Like he's total Eeyore at that point in time. And he's this absolute pessimist, which is why when the disciples told Thomas, hey, we saw Jesus alive. And he goes, I probably won't

believe till I can see the holes in his hands and feet and the hole in his side. It probably wasn't really Jesus because he was kind of pessimistic about things. And yet God still used him. So the next one that we see is Thaddeus. Again, with Thaddeus, we really don't know too much about him. I think he maybe had one line in all of the gospel accounts. If you will, he was almost

the forgotten apostle. And maybe again, that's you this morning. Maybe you feel a little bit forgotten and overlooked. God can still use you. You feel like, man, I'm the shy one. I don't want anybody to see me because I just stand back in the background and I don't know what there is to do with me. I don't know what to do with me. I don't know what to do with me. I don't know what to do with me.

The body of Christ for somebody as shy as me. God can still use you because he's used some of these almost unnamed disciples because they were willing to be used by him. The next one that we see is, oh, I skipped two of them here. Matthew, the tax collector. And of course, Matthew defines who he is. He is writing the gospel account. Again, if I was writing the gospel

account, I would try to write good things about myself. But Matthew calls him as he is. He says, I was a tax collector. I was the one who was a traitor. I turned on my own people and I'm saved by the grace of God. And we see James, the son of Alphaeus, who we again don't know a ton about. But the next one that I want to point out to you is Simon the Zealot. Now, I believe in this

particular account, it's Simon the Zealot. Let me make sure I wrote this down correctly. Uh, Simon, who is called Peter, James, the son of Alphaeus. Yep, Simon the Zealot. And some of the translations, it's Simon the Canaanite. Now, here's the thing about Simon the Zealot is the Zealots were actually a particular revolutionary group within, uh, uh, within Jewish

culture at that point in time. They were the tea party of their time, if you will. Uh, the ones who wanted to kind of deal with the government, maybe even a little bit more, uh, extreme than that, because they wanted to overthrow the, the Roman government and restore the reign of the, uh, of the people. And so it's kind of interesting that God put two very different individuals together in this because you have Matthew, the tax collector, who was a traitor to the Jewish people and went and worked for the Roman government. And he was working alongside a guy by the name of Simon the

Zealot who hated the Roman government at one point in time and wanted to overthrow them and hated anybody that would follow them. It's as if God put a liberal and a conservative in there together. And it was, it was like, this is going to be funny. Let's watch what happens, right? Like, that's kind of what takes place. So, um, one of the things that I appreciated about the series, The Chosen, is they do show how hard it

was for everybody to accept Matthew, uh, because of the role that he played. And I think that that's important for us to pay attention to because I do think that was probably hard for them because while they're disciples of Jesus, they're still just guys. So, uh, the last one that we see, of course, is Judas Iscariot. Of course, Judas is always listed last amongst the disciples in all four of the gospel accounts. And notice,

how Judas Iscariot is defined here by Matthew. Judas Iscariot into verse four here, the one who betrayed him. I think it's kind of interesting that he not only continues to get listed, but he's chosen as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Meaning that Jesus knew what he was getting into when he chose Judas, and yet he, he chose him anyway, even though he knew he was going to betray him.

And I understand that there's the prophetic aspect of it. It was, it was a sovereignty thing because Jesus was sovereignly in charge and he needed to put him into that position. And yet in his humanity, he still was willing to love him. You may remember that at the very end of the gospel of John, when Jesus began washing the disciples' feet in that last supper, Judas was amongst those whose feet were washed. It says,

having loved his own, he loved them to the end. Ryan, why is that important? Well, because at that very same meal, he was washing the disciples' feet. And he was washing the disciples' feet. And he was washing the disciples' feet. And he was washing the disciples' feet. And he was washing them all the time. All the time. And at that very table, Jesus said, one of you is going to betray me. And Judas got up and

left. Jesus could have done that part at any point in time in the night that he wanted to. He could have told Judas to go do what he needed to do at any point in time in that night that he wanted to. And yet he chose to wait until after he washed Judas' feet. Why? Because even though Judas was going to betray him, I believe Jesus still loved him, because that's what we're going to see.

who Jesus is, because he practiced what he preached, and he even loved his enemies. And so that's the list of these disciples, these apostles that Jesus is going to call. Of all the people that were following Jesus, he chose these 12 and said, I want to send you out on basically a short-term missions trip in order to do the work of the ministry, to be workers in the harvest. Now, as I was reading this and studying this, I thought, you know, there's a handful of things that sort of stick out to me about these workers in the harvest. And so from these first handful

of verses, I have come up with five characteristics of workers in the harvest, that if we want to be the workers in the harvest, these are five characteristics about us that should be true. Number one, they are learners first. Let me explain what I mean by that. If you look at the first two verses, there's two different words that are used for the 12. Did you take note of that? In verse one,

it says he summoned his disciples. In verse two, it says that these are his apostles. Now, why did Matthew choose to use those two words? Well, because those two words mean very different things. The word disciple is simply defined as a learner or a pupil. An apostle is defined as a sinner. The word disciple is defined as a learner or a pupil. An apostle is defined as a learner or a pupil.

Because that's what he's getting ready to do with them. But notice the order that those words come in. First of all, they were learners, and then they could be sent out to do the work of the ministry. And that tells us something that's true of us as well. If we want to get sent out as workers in the harvest, and I pray that you want to get sent out as workers in the harvest, you must first be

a learner of Jesus Christ. You must first be a learner for you and what he can do for other people. You see, these disciples are learners. They're learners of Jesus Christ. They're learners who have spent time with Jesus now. They've watched how he handles people. They've watched how he ministers to people. They've watched how tirelessly he gives and gives and gives to those

that are around him. But do you know what else they've seen? They've seen what he's done in their own lives. As they were learners of him, they watched him call not only themselves, but the other apostles. They watched how patient he was with themselves. They watched how much he was willing to take time to teach them the different truths of the word of God. They watched

as they saw that they were learners first, and then they could be apostles. Now listen, let's understand something. The learning while we're on this earth will never stop. We must always be learners. But at the same time, there is a period in which we must spend time being trained before we can be sent out. Quite frankly, we put that same principle into play here at Calvary

Chapel. If you want to serve here at Calvary Chapel, we desire that you stay here for six months, learning, becoming a part of the fellowship, learning the style of ministry that we have, learning the heart behind the ministry that we have, so that you can then be one that serves within the church with the same heart that we hope as the elders and leadership here at Calvary Chapel that we have not only for the Lord, but for people. And so we try to employ that same principle here at Calvary Chapel. So first of all, they were learners first. Second of all,

not only were they called by God, but they were empowered by God. As God begins to call us into areas of ministry, if your heart is prepared and you have first been a learner, the first thought that comes across your mind is, I'm not good enough for this. I don't have what it takes for this. I remember when I first came out of Bible college, I must to my shame say, I didn't feel that way. I felt like I was ready. I had said, I'm not good enough for this. I'm not good enough for this.

I spent my time learning, and now it was time to go and do the work of the ministry. But you know what God realized? I wasn't ready yet. Because I wasn't at a point where I said, I have nothing of myself. And so he took me through that time. He took me through that time to a point where the first time I ever taught on a Sunday morning, I tried every which way I could to not do it.

As a matter of fact, when I showed up at Calvary Chapel of Johnson County and said, I'll serve wherever you want to, wherever you want me to, but I can't teach a Sunday school class because I'm not qualified for it. I'm not good enough to do that. Why don't you put me like cleaning some toilets or running your soundboard or something like that because I'm not fit to do any of these other things just yet. And then the first time I ever taught over at Calvary Chapel Wellington, my Uncle Joe calls me up and says, hey, I'm going to be gone. I need you to come fill in

for me on a Sunday. And I said, I think that's a bad idea. I'm not ready for that. And of course, he gave that great line. He said, why don't you pray? So I did. And then I did. And it was like God said, okay, he thinks he has nothing to give. Maybe now's the time. Maybe now's the time he's ready to move into ministry. Because then once I was called by God and I said, Lord, I don't have what it takes. I was empowered by God

because I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, the only reason I was able to stand up in front of a group of people and maintain a singular, clear thought for 45 minutes, was because God gave me the power to do it. Because I could barely maintain a conversation at that point in time. And yet God gave me what I needed to stand up in front of people and teach. And I know beyond a shadow of a doubt now that the only reason I can be up here is because I've been empowered by God. And I don't say that with great pride. I say that with great

humility that if God doesn't do what he does, I don't get to do what I do. But you know what? It's true for you too. Once you get to that point where you say, I don't have what it takes to serve in the ministry. I know that maybe they need some Sunday school teachers, but I'm not good enough to teach Sunday school. Then I would say, man, you're as qualified as you ever can be. Because you know

beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only one that can do that is God. I want to help in the sound and video ministry, but I don't have what it takes to help in the sound and video ministry. Well, then you might just be qualified for it. Because God will give you everything that you need. I want to be an usher, but I'm scared to talk to people. Well, then you might be qualified for it.

Because it's amazing how God gives you the ability to do these things. I want to go out and share my faith with people, but I don't know how to do it. Me neither. Honestly, I'm not good at sharing my faith with people. I just talk. I'm just like, yep, I love Jesus. Why do you love Jesus? Because he saved me. He's my only hope I have in life. And they're like, tell me more. And

I'm like, all right. Because it's God that does the work. We give ourselves too much credit, sometimes. They're not only called, but they're also empowered by God. Number three, they are very diverse. You know what I love about all of these workers in the harvest is they're all such different people. They all came from different backgrounds. They all have different ideas. They all think differently. They talk differently. They act differently.

Their personalities are different. Their temperament is different. Some of them are shy. Some of them are bold. Some of them, everybody knew. Some of them, you have to go, that guy's an apostle. I forgot about him, right? They're all very different. Some were more liberal in their leaning. Some were more conservative in their leaning. Some were focused more on the love of

Jesus. Some were focused more on the judgment. They were all different. And you know what, brothers and sisters in Christ? So are we. You don't have to fit a mold in order to be a worker in the harvest. You don't have to fit in a mold that you think that's what a worker in the harvest looks like. Jesus is like, you know what they look like? Yes. You name them. That's what they look like

because we're all different. And God loves that. That's why God made us all very different. This is what I've disliked the most about all of the things that have happened in culture here lately is we can no longer celebrate our differences. We can no longer celebrate the fact that we are all created uniquely different. We can no longer celebrate the fact that we are all

very different. And glory in a God who thought it would be so amazing to make us all of very different colors, of very different ideas, of very different thought processes because he glories in our differences because he wants there to be only one unifying factor about us, and that's Jesus. So this is a very, in order to be a worker in the harvest, it means we're a very diverse group of people. Before, these were all very imperfect people.

Uh-oh. See, I bet you all were like, yeah, but I'm not good enough. Neither were they. I am telling you, these guys would not have passed a homeland security background check, right? I mean, these were imperfect people. These were imperfect people that the entire world probably went, what is Jesus doing? But that's one of the things I appreciate the most about the Calvary Chapel movement. Because if you look at the Bible, you'll see that the Bible is

the Bible. If you look at the ones who were the biggest Calvary Chapel pastors, they couldn't pass up. Got up and shared and they sang a song and they said it was so cool because Chuck had so much grace for people. He said he had heard that we did some music and he wanted some guys to do some music for one of his evening studies. And so he invited us to come in and share a little bit of

music with him. And he said, so we came in and we sang a couple of songs. And he said, oh, this is great. I'd love for you guys to start leading worship for me in two or three weeks. And he told him the night and he said, that's going to work perfect because he's got a little stint to finish up on a drug possession charge in prison and once he, or in jail. And

once he gets out, that'll be the perfect timing. And he said, Chuck had to have thought, what did I just do? I just put these guys in a place where they're going to, they're going to do some song. But he didn't. You know why? Because he was so full of grace. He said that what matters is not whether or not you're a perfect person, but whether or not you're called and whether or not you've repented of all of those things. And those guys had repented of all

of those things. And now they were following Jesus with their whole heart. They were all imperfect people. And so if you're sitting out there, you're watching online and you're thinking, but you don't understand. You don't understand my past. You don't understand the things I've done before. I don't need to because I know mine. And if I can be here, you can.

If I can serve the Lord, so can you. Because God uses imperfect people. I was just teaching some kids the other night out of the book of Hebrews. And I was telling them about Hebrews chapter 11, the hall of faith. And you know what's so awesome about the hall of faith in Hebrews chapter 11? Is that all of those individuals that are listed all had some shady pasts. They did some things

that if you read in the Old Testament about what some of these folks did, you go, how did God still use them? And yet, when you come into Hebrews chapter 11, none of that shady past is mentioned. Why? Because God remembers our faith, not our failures. And so these were very imperfect people, but they were all very much used by God. And then here's the fifth characteristic

of a worker in the harvest. They all know Jesus. You see, that was the one unifying factor that brought all of these guys together. It was the one thing, the one characteristic was very necessary for them to continue on in the work of the ministry is that they all knew Jesus. Because you see, if you're an imperfect person, but you know Jesus, then he won't leave you that

way. If you're a person who struggles in life, but you know Jesus, he won't leave you that way. And the unifying factor that they had is that they knew this Savior. And this Savior was working in their lives. And sometimes they were going to see great victories in the work of the harvest that they were doing. And probably sometimes they were going to see great defeat in the work of the

harvest that they were doing. But it didn't work that way. And so they were going to see great victory in the work of the harvest that they were doing. But it didn't matter because the one thing that mattered is that they were all followers of Jesus. And so these are the characteristics that I picked out about these disciples of Jesus Christ that he was going to use as workers in the

harvest. But now the next section that we look at is some of the instructions that Jesus has for these workers in the harvest. Verse 5.

But rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and as you go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give. Do not acquire gold, silver, or copper for your money belts, or a bag for your journey, or even two coats or sandals, or a staff, for the worker is worthy of his support. In whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it,

and stay at his house until you leave that city. As you enter the house, give it your greeting. If the house is worthy, give it your blessing of peace. But if it is not worthy, take back your blessing of peace. Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the

land of Sodom and Gomorrah. and the day of judgment than for that city. Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. Now, as he begins to give his instructions to these workers in the harvest, there's a handful of things that we'll pay attention to that speak specifically to the context of the disciples. But from that, I'll draw some principles that I think

we can apply to our own lives as we are workers. So, as he's speaking to the disciples, he first of all talks to them about their mission field. You take note, he said, to start with, I want you to only go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. I don't want you to go to the Gentiles, nor do I want you to go to the Samaritan cities just yet. Now, that sounds really bad if you don't take the Bible in full context, if you don't take the full

counsel of God. Because later, he will send them to those places. He will send them to Judea, Samaria, and then the uttermost parts of the earth. But to start with, the gospel was to go to the Jewish people. Why? Because there's a principle in Scripture, to the Jew first, and then also to the Greek. You see, the Jewish people are God's chosen people, therefore the gospel message goes to them first. And so, as it goes to them first,

it then reaches to the other people. As a matter of fact, if you remember, it's been about almost a year ago that Ryan Karp came and spoke with us with Chosen People Ministries. And when Ryan Karp came and spoke with us, he said that with Chosen People Ministries, they have a philosophy. If you reach Gentile people, then you reach Gentiles. But if you reach

Jewish people, you reach Jewish people and Gentiles. Because it's a biblical principle that the gospel first goes to the Jew, and then also to the Greek. And so, that's what he tells them to do. First of all, the house of Israel is who needs to be reached. And then later, he will give them the commission to go to the rest of the world. And so, the first thing he tells them

about is their mission field. The second thing that he tells them about is their work. Did you take note of the work that they were supposed to do? As you go, preach, saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then, heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. He tells them, this is the work that you're supposed to do. And I love the phrase that he uses there,

as you go, preach. Meaning, everywhere that you go, you are to preach the gospel. Now, I think that that's a really good word for it. It's a really good word for it. It's a really good word for us. And I'll get to that as we get to our principles. That everywhere we go, our lives should declare the gospel of Jesus Christ. And then, when necessary, we tell other people about

the gospel of Jesus Christ. But your life should be one of the greatest testimonies to the truth of Jesus Christ. It's always fun to come across someone who's a believer, and you don't know them, you've never met them, and you're sort of sizing them up, going, okay, they seem like a pretty good person. I haven't heard one four-letter word come out of their mouth yet, except get work. So, things seem good so far, and you're sort of sizing them up, and then you hear them say

something, and you go, are you a believer? And they're like, yeah. Like, I could tell, right? You know why? Because their life was preaching the gospel. It's kind of like the guys I used to work with when I worked at Shawnee Mission Park, when I was home on break for college. I remember those guys, because they took note of the fact that I didn't use any bad language. And they were like,

dude, what's wrong with you? Oh, Bible college student, trying to just change the way that I talk. Well, you know what started happening? When the supervisor had to ream somebody, you know what he would do? Hold on, we've got to go in here. Nichols is in here, and he didn't need to hear this. Because my life was preaching the gospel. Now, listen, my life was full of a ton of failures,

but hey, I kind of nailed it on that one. I felt pretty good about that, right? And so, he says, everywhere you go, preach, and then sometimes use words when necessary, but then also there was to be that work of ministry, the healing, healing the sick, casting out demons. They were to go and do the work of the ministry, just like they'd watched Jesus do. Do you notice Jesus didn't tell them to do anything different than what they had been

watching him do? It's almost like he was teaching them by example, and now he's sending them out to do the same thing. And then he gives them some instructions about their method. First of all, freely you've received, so freely give. In other words, don't make it all about the money. He said, don't acquire gold, or silver, or copper for your money belts, or even a

for your journey. In other words, don't try to take a whole bunch of stuff with you. Why? Because a worker is worthy of his support. In other words, the people will see the work that you're doing, and they will be willing to help you out when necessary, which brings us to verse 11, where they were supposed to stay in whatever home would put them up. He says,

whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at the house until you leave. As you enter, give it your greeting, and if it's worthy, bless it. If it's not, remove your blessing. And then he tells them, anywhere that rejects you, when you walk away, shake off the dust from your feet. In other words, you just say, I have nothing to do with you anymore, because you've

completely rejected everything that Jesus has to say. And he, of course, says, be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the time of judgment than it will be for that place. That's bad. So he tells them to do all these things, and then he ends with this one statement. He says, behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. So be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves. And we'll get to that a little bit more here in

just a moment. But isn't it kind of an interesting picture that he gives these guys? Because what he'll move into in the next section, the next section about the warnings is what that means, that they're about to be sent out as sheep amongst wolves. I don't know if you ever paid attention to this or not, but wolves are scary, right? They have big, sharp teeth,

and they have big, sharp claws. You know what sheep are not? Scary, right? They have no, no big teeth. They have teeth made for eating grass. They have the intelligence of a box of rocks, and that may even be a bit much. And all they've got is these hooves, right? Like, they can't fight. In other words, Jesus goes, I'm sending you out as sheep in a really, really dangerous place. Therefore, you must be shrewd as a serpent. In other words,

you must use great wisdom, and yet at the same time, you must be harmless as doves. Now, when Jesus is sending these guys out, he's sending them out for the first time on a very short-term missions trip, and he will change some of these instructions when he sends them out later, but the principles will remain the same. He was speaking directly to their context of what they were about to do, and yet from this, I feel like we can derive some principles for being sent out. So, I would refer to these as principles for disciples. Number one,

minister to the ones God sends you to. Minister to the ones God sends you to. It seems as though within the body of Christ, we each have our little people that we can reach the most, that we seem to have the most in with, right? Think about it. When you look at the book of Acts, Peter was the apostle to the Jews. Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles. Now, if there was anyone that you would have chosen to be the apostle to the Gentiles,

would not have been Paul because Paul was one of the most orthodox Jews known to man. And yet God sent him to the Gentiles and that was who he was supposed to minister to. Every time he would try to speak to the Jewish people, they'd try to kill him. Why? Because he needed to minister to the ones that God sent him to. You will find as a worker in the harvest that you have greater rapport with

some people than you do with others. Oftentimes it has to do with who you can speak the most clearly to. Who can understand you the most? Perhaps similar backgrounds, things of that nature. Minister to the ones that God sends you to. And if you find yourself going, but Lord, I don't want to be sent to those people. Well, then it's time to start all over again and say, okay, Lord, give me

the right heart for the right people because that's who I need to be sent to. One of my favorite stories is the story of Amy Carmichael. I remember reading a book about her when I was a little kid. Amy Carmichael ended up being a minister to the Indian people. She had brown eyes and her heart was broken that she had brown eyes when she was a little girl because all the pretty little girls, in her opinion, had blue eyes.

She was very sad that she had brown eyes until God called her, sent her to minister to the people of India who all have very brown eyes. She found that she could do things to her skin to make herself look a little bit more like the Indian people. Because of that, she was able to minister to them in a way that she wouldn't have been able to any other ways because she was sent to minister to people and that's who she was supposed to minister to. So, minister to the ones God sends you to. Number two, declare the truth and serve people. Now, what I oftentimes find is that we

want to do one or the other, but it's hard to put both together. Some of us want to just tell people things. Well, this is what you need to do. This is how you need to believe. But they've never seen a servant's heart in us, so they don't care what we have to say because they don't know how much we care, right? And so, we only want to tell the truth. And then some people don't want to say

anything. They just want to serve people. Can't I just serve and just hope that my life speaks the gospel and I never have to use words? Well, that's wonderful, but eventually you may have to get to the point of the truth because as much as our lives can minister the gospel, and I absolutely believe they can, sometimes you do actually have to talk and you have to share the truth with people.

And so, those two things should always be going together in our lives. We should always be looking for ways to be the hands and the feet of Jesus. But we should also, as we're looking for ways to be the hands and the feet of Jesus, look for ways to insert the truth of the gospel into the lives of people because when it comes right down to it, I could send you to hell with a full stomach and no flat tires, or I could do all that work of the ministry and also tell you the truth of the gospel. And I fear sometimes within the church, we only want to feed people's bellies and never give them the truth of the gospel. And so, we have to declare the truth and serve

the gospel. Number three, travel light. Isn't that kind of what Jesus tells them here? He's like, hey, freely you've received, so freely give. In other words, don't make it all about how much money you're going to make or whether or not people are going to pay you for what you do. A worker is worthy of his hire. In other words, it's not wrong to take support,

but at the same time, don't carry a whole bunch of stuff with you. Travel light. Now, I don't want to turn this into a work. I don't think, I read this book one time called Seven, and since then, I've been reading it. I've been reading it. I've been reading it. I've been the lady that wrote it has turned herself into a crazy liberal who doesn't even really believe the

truth of the gospel anymore. So, don't read the book Seven. But it was kind of an interesting book because it said, basically, you should cut down all of the things that you own to seven of every category at the most. And I thought, that'd be really hard. Seven t-shirts? I own a lot of t-shirts. Some of them say fun things, and I like them. I don't want to get rid of some of those

t-shirts. Well, do I really have to do that? And maybe you're sitting here going, I own a farm. I can't travel light, right? Like, if I get rid of the farm, then how am I going to support my family? Listen, traveling light, yes, in some ways means that we need to clear our lives of clutter. I think that we, as Western culture Christians, own way too many things. And I'm one

of them. I can be way too materialistic. I like to own things, and if I don't own that one thing, I think, well, I should probably own three of those things, right? And so, yes, we can cut down on materialism. But I think the biggest way that we can travel light is to hold all of our possessions of the world with an open hand. Because I think that's what Jesus really intends when he talks

about traveling light. See, I think sometimes our grip on this world is so tight, and we don't even realize how tight it is, that if we started losing some of the things of this world, it would alter our lives so much that we would feel like, maybe I can't even minister the gospel anymore, because all the things of this world. I think I've told you this story before. Heard it on the radio.

This guy had spent years building a business. It was his life's work. And he spent so many sleepless nights worrying about what was going to happen with the business. He said, every Sunday, I felt like the Lord's saying, you need to trust me with your business. You need to trust that with me, because you're losing sleep constantly. It's ruining your life. You need to give that

business. You need to trust that with me, because you're losing sleep constantly. It's ruining your business to me. And he said, so one night, I said, okay, Lord, it's yours. Do with it what you want to do. I'm done worrying about it. I'm done stressing about it. I'm done letting it ruin my life. You do what you want to with my business. You know what happened the next day? His business

burned down. So he gets the phone call. Hey, your business is on fire. It is burning to the ground. And he said, all I could do was laugh. And they said, sir, are you okay? Do you need to talk to me? To a counselor? Why are you laughing? He goes, because it's not my business. I gave it to God last night. His business just burned down, because he didn't worry about it any longer. That's what

it means to travel light. As we go, Lord, it's all yours. Do what you want to with it, and do what you want to with me. I'm not going to be held down by the things of this earth any longer. Number four, be where you are until God moves you. Did you notice, oh man, one of the commentators pointed this out, and I thought, man, I'm not going to be held down by the things of this earth.

I thought, man, they just totally nailed me to the wall. He said, whatever, verse 11, whatever city or village you enter, inquire who is worthy in it, and stay at that house until you leave the city. Now, the commentator that I read pointed this out. He said, when they, when Jesus said that, he meant find a place where you can stay, and don't look for better accommodations, right?

Don't look for the place that's going to, oh, well, gosh, they've got better food over at that house. That's a, they've got a pool and a spa. Hey, I think God's calling me to go stay at that house, because that looks way better than, than where I am right now. No, don't do that. Now, let's not talk about houses. Let's talk about our lives. Be where you are until God moves you. I think I've

shared this again before, but when I worked construction, I was always looking for a way out of construction, and I was trying to find a way to not do that job anymore, and I remember distinctly the day that God told me that. I was trying to find a way to not do that job anymore, and I remember distinctly the day that God told me that. I was trying to find a way to not do that job anymore, until you're not there anymore. Now, that sounds really funny, but it meant everything in the world to me, because what it meant to me is that. Be 100% where you are until I move you from there.

Some of you are in places right now, places of ministry, places of work, whatever it is, and you're looking for every way possible to get out of it, and God's going, be where you are until I move you, because you don't know who you're going to be until you move you from there. You're going to end up ministering to. Again, I was sharing a story with someone the other day, and I wanted out of construction so bad. I did not want to be there, and there was a guy that I worked with that had spent time in prison for selling illegal drugs, and this guy that I had spent time working, or had spent time in prison, I worked with him quite a bit. I loved him dearly,

but one of the most foul-mouthed human beings I've ever been around, and I thought I'm probably never going to be able to share the gospel with this guy. I was trying to make it a point to share the gospel with people that I worked with. I was trying to make it a point to share the gospel with with. One day, he and I were working on a project together, and it was just the two of us finishing up a project at a place called Engineered Air up in DeSoto, Kansas. All of a sudden, this huge

rainstorm moves in, and for like 20 minutes, just pouring down rain. Of course, we're working outside, so he and I go jump in the truck, check the radar, be out in about 20 minutes. We'll just wait this thing out. We sat there and started talking. Pretty soon, I got to lay out the entire gospel message to him. Did he go and end up making up with a guy that he had a major battle with that we were working

with at that point in time and apologized for the way that he'd acted? After I got laid off and I moved down here, he called me up, and he said, hey, guess what? I'm attending church at Lenexa Baptist. I'm going, why did I have to be where I was until God moved me? Because he needed to hear the gospel. We can find ourselves going, Lord, I don't want to be here anymore, but when we find

ourselves saying, Lord, I don't want to be here anymore. We need to start saying, but Lord, why am I here? Because I need to be where I am right now until you move me somewhere else, because until you move me, you have something for me to do here. Number five, pray for discernment. Pray for discernment. One of the most challenging things that I have to do as a pastor

is to receive phone calls on a daily basis of people that are in need, and I have to make determinations. To make determinations about who's really in need, maybe who's not, maybe who is taking advantage or who is being enabled, and I have to pray every day, Lord, I'm a sheep amongst wolves. Help me to be as wise as a serpent, because I need to be able to identify those kinds of people, but at the same time harmless as a dove, because I don't ever want to get jaded, because there's those kinds of people. I've been in both positions where I've been taken advantage of, where I have helped people when I shouldn't have helped them, because I wasn't as wise as I should have been.

I should have seen it coming from a mile away, and I didn't, and then I realized, oh man, I wasn't very wise, and at the same time, I've become jaded. There's been moments where I've thought, I'm not helping anybody for a while because I'm just so over being taken advantage of by people, and I end up not being as harmless as a dove, because you get a little bitter towards people. That's what I deal with. That's what I deal with.

That's what I deal with. You deal with the same things, because you work with people on a daily basis, and some people treat you really well, and some people treat you really bad, and you have to have the discernment to know who to continue reaching out to, especially if you are taking the message of the gospel to the people in the world. You have to know when to hold them and when to fold them, when to walk away, and when to run, right? I mean, sometimes we got to know those kinds of things as if we pray for that discernment. I fear that in the world we live in today, in the

church today, discernment is greatly lacking, because we're only interested in the next big thing. We're only interested in getting where we want to go, when we want to go there, and because of that, sometimes we lack discernment to say, ooh, something's off with them. Something's off with this. We need to pay attention, so we have to pray for that discernment. The heart of Jesus

is complete. He showed that great compassion to me by saving me, and He wants that same compassion to flow through not only me, but all of you to the world around us. So we pray that the Lord would send out workers in the harvest, but just know that when you start praying that the Lord would send out workers in the harvest, you're probably the one He wants to send. Amen? Let's all stand.

My prayer is that as we enter a new month, it will also be new opportunities tonight, not only know Jesus better, but serve Him more fully. Father, we come before You and just thank You for the time that You've given to us. Thank You for what Your Word has to say to us, and thank You, Lord, that You use imperfect people to do the perfect work of Your gospel. We just praise You, Father, for who You are, in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.

Amen. God is good all the time. God is good. Yes. Father, bless our week now. Strengthen each of us with Your might. Walk and to serve You, Lord. We thank You for Your love and Your grace, in Jesus' name. Amen. Have a great week.