Harvest is Plentiful, the Laborers are Few - Old to New - Matthew S4E3

Amen and amen. Hey, if you got your Bibles, I hope you do. Matthew chapter nine is where we're gonna be. We're gonna start in Matthew chapter nine, verse 27. We're gonna go all the way through the end of Matthew 10. It's, listen, you're gonna love the first part of this, man. You're gonna just lean into the first part. There's gonna be miracles, everybody's happy. It's gonna be awesome. Jesus is gonna do good stuff. Everybody loves it when Jesus does good stuff. You're gonna love that part. And you're not gonna like the second part, so I'm warning you now. So I know we have parking problems. We may not have parking problems next week. We'll see who comes back. This is one we call a space maker, so we'll see. But I just wanna remind you, man, I don't make this stuff up, okay? I'm just the mailman, I'm just here to deliver. So Jesus is on a miracle healing spree. We've been studying this for five weeks. Just healing after healing after healing. He cleansed the leper, he healed a centurion servant from a long ways off. He heals Peter's mother-in-law and several other people in Capernaum. He casts out demons, he calms a storm. He heals two men possessed by demons

that were living in a tomb. He heals a paralytic that were carried in by his four friends and they tore off a roof. He heals the woman called daughter. We ain't gonna call her the woman with the issue of blood. He kills the woman called daughter and he raises Jairus' daughter back to life, right? Praise God. Are you not excited about that? You're gonna really hate the back end then. And this is crazy, he's still doing miracles. During that time, over the past five weeks while we have been studying these texts, just at our services, 609 people have been rescued out of darkness and brought into his marvelous light. Praise God. 210 of those stood up in front of everybody last week and claimed Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Praise God. And we baptized 661 people while Jesus has been healing all these people. And he ain't stopping now. He's gonna keep healing, man. And then it's gonna turn a corner. So I'm just warning you. And everybody loves a good healing. But you may not love what Jesus requires of us there. So here we go, we'll do the fun part first. Verse 27, and as Jesus passed from there, he was at Jairus' house,

the little girls just come back to life. And two blind men followed Jesus, crying aloud, have mercy on us, son of David. Oh, that's a good prayer to pray. If you don't know how to pray, just call Jesus who he is. They use this title, the son of David. This is a messianic title. They see him for who he actually is. He will be the king that comes from the line of David that will rule on the throne forever and ever and ever. They see him for who he actually is. And they don't try to make a deal with him. They don't say, Jesus, if I come to church three times a week if I pray enough, if I put a little something in the giving box, if I do my part, will you do your part? That's not what they do. They simply ask for mercy. Mercy is when we do not get what we deserve. And by the way, if you are a Christian, it's by the mercy of God that you got saved. Don't ever get over that, man. And when Jesus entered the house, this is kind of mean, I think. Jesus hears them and doesn't even talk to them. And somehow, that mean they can't see. And they gotta follow him to the house. But they're persistent, they're resilient. And when Jesus entered the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus said to them,

do you believe that I am able to do this? So let me ask you, do you believe that Jesus is able to open your eyes? And they said, yes, Lord. And he touched their eyes saying, according to your faith, let it be done to you. Now faith is, I mean, it's powerful. Without faith, we can't please God. It's a really big deal. But faith is kind of a confusing thing when you talk about it because faith is a gift of God. See, Ephesians chapter two, that we are saved by grace through faith and not of works that no one boasts. But the faith that we have, we did not create it in and of ourself, that God gives us the gift of faith. And this is good news. And it's not the amount of faith that you have, it's the object of your faith that matters. See, Matthew chapter 17, Jesus says, even if you only have a tiny little mustard seed size faith and you put it in the almighty, everlasting, all powerful God that is exponentially more powerful than putting all of your trust in your temporary circumstances. So faith is a gift of God and it's the object of your faith that matters. But faith without works is worthless, see James chapter two. See, in Acts chapter three,

Peter and John are on their way to the temple and there's a guy begging there and then Peter hears this guy. He says, hey, I gotta get some money. And Peter very famously says, he basically says, bro, I'm in ministry, I got no money. Silver and gold have I none, but what I have I give unto you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Stand up and walk. He doesn't walk yet. The next thing that Peter does is he put action to his faith. He reaches out his hand and it is in the reaching out of his hand that strength happens in this man's leg and then he gets up and walks. You see, Peter acts as if Jesus can actually do what Jesus said he would do. So I know a lot of people believe, but they just don't put action to it and I wonder how many miracles are still sitting on the sidewalk because you thought a thing, but you didn't do a thing. Because according to your faith, let it be done to you. And their eyes were opened. And Jesus, this is crazy. And Jesus sternly warned them, see that no one knows about it. But they went away and spread his fame through all the district.

Now what you're gonna see is over and over and over, Jesus is gonna tell people after he heals them, don't tell anybody about this. So why? Well, either it's the best reverse psychology marketing campaign ever, or what I think, and I learned this from one of Gretchen's devotionals, is that when Jesus would heal Israelites in the Hebrew land, they were so steeped in the sacrificial system that he understood that they would not understand him as the suffering savior until he died on the cross for our sins and was resurrected on the third day. Then they would see that he was the lamb that was slain for the forgiveness of sin because he wanted them to know he did not primarily come to be a healer, but to be a savior. But when he's working in Gentile land, they primarily work with like a power ethos, like they're worshiping Zeus and Thor and that kind of goofy stuff. And so when he would demonstrate his power over the darkness, they could understand who he is. And then the healing continues. So why stop now, right? And as they were going away, lo and behold, a demon-oppressed man who was mute was brought to Jesus. And when the demon had been cast out,

the mute man spoke and the crowds marveled, saying, never was anything like this seen in Israel, but the Pharisees. And again, man, if the gospel was at a soundtrack, it'd be like, meh, meh, meh. But the Pharisees said he cast out demons by the prince of demons. And like I've said, they're the HOA of religion in the first century. Like, you're not doing it right. Here's what the Pharisees are. Pharisees are the jealous girl, the insecure girl. And everybody else is like, look at Kathy. She's lost so much weight. And the one girl's like, it's probably only a zempic. Like, come on, man. Give Kathy a break. She's trying. All right. I probably shouldn't say that goofy stuff. It's all you remember. Don't even remember the Bible. Okay, here we go. So why the healings? So why is Jesus doing all these healings? Here's why. If you go all the way back to Matthew chapter four, I told you, this is what Jesus does. It says, and Jesus began to preach. And here was his sermon.

Repent. That means change your mind. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so now what he's going to do after he declares the gospel, he's going to demonstrate the gospel. He declares that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, and now he's going to demonstrate it. So none of these miracles are accidents. They're all revealing God's redemptive plan. Why? Why would he heal a leper? Because there are no outcasts in the kingdom of heaven. Why the faith of the centurion? Because this is for Jews and Gentile. I mean, heck, even mother-in-laws and people that they don't even name are treated like VIPs. That there is no more oppression of darkness in the kingdom of heaven. There's no more storms in life. Christ rules. Chaos does not. There's no more dwelling in darkness. And for the man that can't walk, he says, get up and walk. Why? Because you're going to need those legs, because one day you're going to be walking on streets of gold.

With a woman that they call the woman of the issue of blood, he heals her and calls her daughter, because in the kingdom of heaven, nobody is defiled and nobody is helpless, but we are called sons and daughters. That there's no more death. There's no more mourning. There's no more pain. Oh, your eyes don't work? You're going to need those eyes, because one day you're going to stand in the presence of the almighty Jesus on his throne, and he wants you to have eyes to see so that you can behold his glory. Oh, and your mouth don't work? You're going to need that too, because you're going to join with the angels and sing holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty who was and is and is to come. This is what Jesus is doing You want some of that? Well, I got some good news. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is within our grasp. It's here. It's at hand It's not just one day when you die up and to sweep by and by it is supposed to be here and now so Jesus Has declared the gospel. That's the sermon on the mount Now he has demonstrated the gospel the long list of miracles And now You ready for this Consumeristic American evangelical church people And now he is going to dispatch us He's going to deputize us

to go and do the exact things that he did not a miniature version Jesus has the audacity to say you will do even greater things than I have done. Oh My gosh, you know how many times standing out there in the lobby You know, there's lights and shadows to everything I stand in the lobby after the sermons to meet you to pray for you to do all the things What I'm not there to do is take requests The line will be half as long tonight, that'd be great. Okay today The Number of times people come to me, you know what the church should do Scooter who do you think the church is? It's all of us. And if the Spirit of God has put this burden on your heart He's probably calling you to go do the thing man Let me tell you a wonderful example is my man Mike Dragas. You know him the blue-collar brawler Y'all look him up if you've ever been on YouTube and saw that weird guy with no sleeves and jacked and barefoot wrestling alligators He goes 1122. Of course he does He served as a Marine he gets home from the Marines he gets home from the Middle East and All of his buddies are killing himself His marine buddy he's just burdened this has to stop and he didn't come to me and say you know what the church ought to He came to me and said this is this is what I feel like God is calling me to do and then what we do As a church has come alongside and just fan the flame that the gift that God has put inside of him To do what God has called him to do. What do I know about Marines? Here's another one, okay For all of you that are like the church needs a singles ministry Listen, man, I'm here to pastor a church not run Christian tingle. You understand All right, so single people ready here it is single guys listen to me if you're a single male and You love Jesus and you're ready to stand firm and act like a man and You're ready to put away all that junk and be the kind of man

You want to be a husband to a wife and be able to love her like Christ loved the church if that's you I want You to raise your hand as high as you can right now. Come on lift it up. Keep it up. Keep it up Keep it up. Keep it up Keep it up. Don't put it down This is your chance Keep it up and all of our canvases. All right, ladies. Look around. Keep it up boys. Choose your shot. This is your opportunity You're all saying I can't find here. They are just what you got to work with. Okay, keep it up. Don't put it down She might have been looking over there first Got it So ladies Good luck That's our singles ministry We're here to make dates man, we're here to make disciples So if God has called you to do a thing I want you to be about this thing here's here's what Jesus makes the turn So they have been observing Jesus doing all these things And they're like, this is awesome. Ain't it awesome and Jesus does awesome things and you are a recipient of it Well that only lasts for a little while Because the moment you get rescued you become a part of the rescue team And Jesus went through all the cities and the villages Teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom Not merely a gospel of salvation that is included in there But Jesus didn't merely preach a message that says if you'll believe with me and me you don't have to go to hell one day He says if you believe in me if you trust in me Then you get adopted into the family of God and you are a son or daughter In the kingdom and you are more than a conqueror and God has going to equip you with the Spirit of God in you To push back darkness and we well, I mean I told you when you pray This is how you pray on earth as it is in heaven That's what I'm gonna pray and God's like cool keep praying that because you are gonna be the very best by which I introduced the kingdom of heaven

to this crooked and depraved world, this is what we are about. That's his message. So he declares the gospel, and healing every disease and every affliction, and he demonstrates the power of the kingdom of heaven. And when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them. That word is splogizomai. Like, it starts deep down in here. When you hear the word compassion, you think about Compassion International, because we partner with Compassion International to sponsor 30,000 kids, praise God. The reason that we do this is because we wanna have eyes to see and a heart to feel what Christ sees and feels when he sees children trapped in poverty, and God wants to use us to help release kids from this darkness, in Jesus' name, that's what it is. Well, when you see the crowds, what do you think? Because Jesus sees the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless. That means thrown down and bruised, like sheep without a shepherd. First and foremost, if you feel beat up by this world, I got good news, Jesus sees you. He ain't mad at you. He wants to be your shepherd.

He wants to be your shepherd. He wants to feed you, he wants to guide you. King David says, the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D, that is the covenant name of God, the almighty creator of all things, the Lord of the cosmos is my shepherd. Is he yours? He wants to be. Now, let me ask you, when you see broken people, do you feel compassion or judgment? Or are you overwhelmed with grief? Or are you overwhelmed with grace? Or do you feel a little arrogant? Do you look down your nose at somebody and be like, well, they ruined their life, they get what they deserve? Because if you see people that way, you don't see people the way Jesus sees people. If you begin to feel deserving for what we have, and they are not, then I'm just telling you, you've missed the whole thing. You cannot simultaneously look down your nose at any other image bearer of God and keep your eyes fixed on Jesus Christ, the author and the perfecter of our faith. So I tell you this all the time, man, I can't get over the gospel. I hope you'll never be able to get over the gospel. I hope just every single day, your whole life will be so full of gratitude because God knows everything about me

and he saved me anyway. And the moment you ever think that somehow you deserved any of it, then you're playing for team Pharisee and you're not playing for team Jesus. He sees the crowd, he feels compassion. Verse 37, and he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. That should be shocking. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into this harvest. The problem is not the need. Anybody know a lost person? Raise your hand right now if you know a lost person. Have you been praying earnestly that God would use you to reach them? Or praying occasionally and waiting for the pros to do it? He says that we should pray earnestly. You see, our problem is that we're too comfortable being comfortable, that's our problem. Just this week, man, on Tuesday and Wednesday, my friend Matt Chandler and I, we're in a prison in Dallas, Texas, preaching to a couple hundred inmates, 220 inmates. 50 of those men surrendered to Jesus and we baptized 44 prisoners those two days, right? Praise God, yeah, praise God. And by the way, your generosity supports that. Every single one of those men watched the 1122 sermons

on the Pando app and you helped pay for that. Every time you bring a dollar to the kingdom, that's what happens. And speaking of Chandler, he's gonna be here on May 4th for a book launch called Becoming Like Jesus, which in this text, Jesus is going to say, if you're a follower of him, your job is to become like him. And that was awesome and I got the opportunity to do that. And if you begin to think that that's what I'm supposed to do because I'm a pro, but you're not supposed to do that because you're not, then you are not paying attention to the words of Jesus. The reason I get to do these kind of things is because I have just a lot of yeses stacked up on the table in front of the Lord saying, God, my answer is yes, where do you want me to go? So are you praying earnestly for the harvest? Or again, are you praying occasionally and then wait for somebody else to do it? You see, actually, in the book of Ephesians, the Bible says that I'm not in ministry, you're in ministry. That the moment I went to work for the church and had like an official title, that I went out of the ministry and my job is to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. And if you are in Christ, if you are a believer in Jesus, you're a saint. You hear that, Catholics?

That's right, dude, we ain't gotta vote on it. You can make a necklace with your own face on it, call your Catholic grandma and be like, hey, it's St. Alfred from now on, all right? And you're on the front lines, man. What are you praying earnestly for? A good draft pick? Yeah, Jesus says, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. And some of you, again, you're like, but I don't have a platform. Have you been faithfully making disciples wherever you are and then God will just trust you with more and more and more? And then if you go to chapter 10, now just a reminder, Matthew didn't write chapter 10. Later on, some Bible folks put it so we could have some addresses so I didn't have to be like, go about halfway through Matthew so we could find these things. So this is just a continuation of thought. After he says this thing, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. And he called to him his 12 disciples. And here's what he does. And gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every disease

and every affliction. Now, these 12 disciples will be known as the apostles. Are they special? Well, they, in one sense, because they got to hang out with Jesus, yes. But in every other sense, no. They're just ordinary men, just like us. It's not because of their pedigree. And some of you say, well, do I have authority over unclean spirits to cast them out, to heal every disease and every affliction? Then how come I don't see miracles like this? Well, when's the last time you tried? When's the last time you tried to walk in the authority of the resurrected Christ? Because, repent, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The moment we put our faith in Jesus and stake our life on the good news of the gospel, he hands to every single believer the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And the things that we cast out on this world will be cast out forever, and the things we bind up in this world will be bound forever. This is the kingdom authority that he has been giving to us. I think it was Charles Spurgeon that said, every believer is either a missionary or a liar. Woo, which one are you? Now we're gonna name the apostles. I love it. The names of the 12 apostles are these.

First, Simon, who was called Peter. Exhibit A that God uses to screw ups in this world. I mean, Peter denies Jesus. Jesus called Peter Satan. Put that on your resume. Peter screws up the Mount of Transfiguration. Peter can't keep his mouth shut. He's the worst. Jesus puts him in charge. Simon, who was called Peter, and Andrew, his brother, and James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother. You know my favorite thing about John? John is known as the disciple whom Jesus loves, only in the book of John, written by John. You think John's got some personality issues? Looks like it. Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas. You know what his nickname is? Doubting Thomas. You got some doubts? Great news, you can make the list. And Matthew, the tax collector. First of all, high five to Matthew. He doesn't brag on himself. He actually is so free in the gospel that he lets everybody know, hey, just to make sure you know I'm the one that everybody in town hates. That's who he picks. And James, the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus. You know what I love about those two guys the most?

Nothing, nobody knows anything about them. I mean, they're awesome, they're part of the 12, but what do they do? And Simon, the zealot. Here's what's crazy about when Jesus is picking his team. He does not worry about chemistry. So Simon, the zealot, he would have been like a, he would have had a red hat on and said, make Israel great again, you know, that kind of thing. That would have been Simon. And then Matthew worked for Rome. It would be like, okay, and we'll pick a guy from Fox and CNN, and we'll make you best friends. That's what's gonna happen here, man. Because Jesus didn't come to take sides, he came to take over. So you got Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him, yikes. You're like, Jesus, what are you working with here? I mean, Jesus drafts like the Jags before we got Gladstone, you know what I mean? Like, what are we doing? And so is there anything special about these men? Nah, man. James says about the prophet Elijah that called fire down from heaven, he's a man with a nature just like ours. This is it, just regular people. The book of Acts will say these are ordinary, uneducated men who would be with Jesus

and they turned the world upside down. I think the reason Matthew uses this is so that we would know, these guys don't have superpowers, man. Their superpower is that they know Jesus and they're filled with the spirit. And in these 12 he sent out, remember, what Matthew's trying to do here is Matthew is writing to a Jewish audience and he's trying to remind them that Israel jacked up the whole mission, that they were blessed to be a blessing. They were chosen so that every family would be blessed and instead they turned inward on themselves. This is what's gonna tick Jesus off in a few chapters after the triumphal entry when they're using the court of the Gentiles, the place where the outsiders are supposed to meet with Yahweh and they're gonna use that to try to make money for themselves at the expense of the outsiders. So now what Jesus is saying is, listen, I don't wanna only save you, I wanna send you. The moment you got rescued by me, now pick up an oar, pick up a life raft because you are a part of the rescue team. You wanna go deep in your faith with Jesus? Cool, get real serious about the Great Commission.

Get real serious about other people discovering him. This is the mission of Jesus. And here's the instruction. Go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This is the starting point, not the finish line. This is where they're gonna start because the gospel is gonna go to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. When we get to Matthew 28, he says, you go to everybody. Verse seven, and here's what I want you to do. Verse seven, and proclaim as you go, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Sound familiar? He says, preach what I preached. Don't make up new stuff. Nobody cares about your little opinions. You just preach my sermon. Number one, declare the gospel of the kingdom. Step two, demonstrate the gospel of the kingdom. And here's what he says. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Now, is that what we're supposed to do? Yes! There's no expiration date on this word. I know milk lasts a week. The commandments of Jesus last forever.

This is our amendment. Literally, yes. But you know any sick people? You know anybody without hope? The Bible says hope deferred makes the heart sick. What if you bring the good news of the gospel to the hopeless? He says, raise the dead. You know anybody spiritually dead? Be about sharing the gospel with those people. He says, cleanse the lepers. You know anybody stuck in isolation? Why don't you go put an arm around them and say there's no isolated folks in the kingdom of God. You're gonna cast out some demons? You know anybody wrestling some demons? Like addiction and depression and fear? Why don't we go to war with the authority of Christ? Jesus is saying, preach the gospel of the kingdom and do something about it. And prayer is not nothing, man. Prayer's a really big deal. We pray earnestly for the harvest and we pray earnestly for the sending out of labors and we ought to be first in line to volunteer. Say, here I am, send me. This next part's gonna really bother you. Especially if you're greedy. He said, you receive without paying, give without pay. In other words, be a conduit of the grace of God,

not a cul-de-sac. You can do anything to serve it, so don't ask for anything for it. Verse nine, acquire no gold or silver or copper for your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics or sandals or a staff for the laborer deserves his food. He said, don't worry about the temporary things of this world. God'll take care of you. Now here's the problem. This is one of the primary reasons the church is ineffective today. Because this is all we chase after. See how quiet it is? Everybody's like, oh crap. Can we go back to the blind seeing and stuff? This is it, man. We spend all of our time trying to store up gold and store up silver and making sure we dress right and we have everything on and it gets all of us in trouble. perfection, all of our time and all of our energy. And we're so busy trying to take care of ourself that we're so comfortable being comfortable that we're not on mission for what Jesus has called us to do. So let me ask you, is he before all things in your life? Or has some things crept their way up to the throne of your heart? Like in your finances, do you bring your first and best

to him or do you look at first what you gotta have for you? Is he the one thing that drives everything or does he get your leftovers? With your affections and your energy and your time, are you hearing the voice of the good shepherd and obeying him or are you following the voice of this world? Where we call wants, needs, and the temporary things of this world get all of our time and all of our effort and all of our attention and all of our affection. Are you waiting like you know God has given you a burden to some ministry and you're waiting until you get everything you need to launch? Well, if you get everything you need, guess what you don't need? Faith. Faith. Peter is gonna say later, he's gonna write this letter and he's gonna say his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. In other words, if God called you to it, then God will equip you with everything you need to accomplish what he has called you to. That's what he says. Then he says in whatever town or village you enter, find out who is worthy in it and stay there until you depart. As you enter the house, greet it, and if the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it, but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to it.

Okay, who is worthy? Here's who's worthy, the one who is receptive. That's it. Because if you don't know that you are in need, then I ain't got nothing for you, man. And it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to convict you of your need. There's no word I can say to convict you of that. Verse 14, and if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. There was this Jewish custom that if you went into Gentile world, they didn't bury people the way the Jews buried people, and they were afraid that some of that dead Gentile stuff would get on your feet, and you didn't want any of that gross, unholy ground, and you don't wanna track it back into your house. That's what it was. That's why you'd shake off the dust. And so what Jesus is saying is, anyone that rejects the good news of the gospel, they're just as defiled as those dirty pagan Gentile towns that don't know God, that's what it means. Truly I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than that town. If you don't know about Sodom and Gomorrah, that's a good bedtime story for your kids. They received the judgment of God by fire,

primarily because of sexual immorality. Yeah, man, what our culture throw parties for, God throws a funeral for. Now here's the reality. Salvation is the Lord's. I don't care how hard you work and how good you preach and how many mission trips you go on, God saves, not you. And then some of you are like, well, then why do we go? Because he said to go, you dummy. And you told me he was your Lord and you do what your Lord says. And here's the thing, you're like, you and I, sometimes people ask me, do you believe in predestination? I don't just believe it, I read it in here, that's where I got it from, okay? But he's not, he doesn't just predestine the ends, he also predestines the means to those ends. He's sovereign over all of salvation. And so the reason that we go is because the almighty sovereign king of the universe has called us into his family and then given us the authority and dispatched us to go and preach the kingdom of heaven and then to demonstrate that gospel by the way that we love one another. And so that's the command, having fun yet? If you're not feeling a little convicted, I can turn it up. So now you gotta think, the disciples are like,

okay, all right, all right, we got you, yeah, we're into this. And they may be thinking, so if we do what you say, everything will go good for us, right? Like we'll live our best life now? Jesus is like, nope. Anybody, anybody, an old head like me and used to hear this thing, the safest place you can be is in the center of the will of God. You ever heard that? Have those people read the Bible? Was Jesus in the center of the will of God? It got him killed. Eternally speaking, that is very true. You go to heaven, one day it's gonna be okay. But in the temporary, it ain't gonna go good. Jesus himself says, in this world, you will face troubles of any kind. And he wasn't talking about like your wifi not working. I mean, in the Sermon on the Mount, he says. Blessed are you when you are persecuted for my namesake. So here's the pep talk that Jesus is gonna give his crew. You ready for this? Behold, I am sending you out as sheep. It's not a compliment. I'm sending you out, you're dumb and helpless. Good luck, that's what he's saying. I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. They gotta be thinking, this is the worst locker room speech we've ever heard in our life.

So be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Like Christians are not to be pushovers or clueless. We're supposed to be faithful and fearless. And he says, beware of men for they will deliver you over to the courts and flog you in their synagogues and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake to bear witness before them and the Gentiles. And all of these things happen. Judas bails out, hangs himself. All the other disciples are martyred. They tried to kill John, he wouldn't die, and then they put him on the Isle of Patmos until he wastes away. It's still happening. There were more Christians, more Christians are being killed right now for their faith than any time in the history of the church. Did you realize that? Right now, today, it averages about 13 believers a day in this world are killed because of the name of Christ. Sociologists say 2025 was the deadliest year in Christian history. 5,000 people were martyred for their faith in 2025. 3,400 of them were in Nigeria. You don't hear it on the news, do you? Because it doesn't fit whatever narrative somebody's trying to entertain you with. And here's the thing, most of them were beheaded. There's only one religion that tells people to behead Christians.

It's Islam. Not just that, there were 12,000 people in England this year arrested for conservative social media posts. England, man. Y'all know where we came from? You know where some people wanna take us? 20 preachers in England this year were arrested for preaching the Bible. Yeah. Sometimes people are like, Pastor, you get so political. What, you want the pagans to run everything? If you were a believer in Jesus, if every believer in Jesus would just do their part as a citizen, then this place, we would be salt and light to this crooked and depraved world. Verse 19, and when they deliver you over, don't be anxious. What? How do you do that? The only way I know to do that is Philippians 4, 6, and 7. Be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and supplication, make your requests known to God, and the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. So when the enemy makes you anxious, you just take that anxiety, and you take it to the Lord and pray. And when they deliver you over, do not be anxious. How you were to speak or what you were to say

for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the spirit of your Father speaking through you. So here's my question. Do you have your eyes open for the harvest when you go to work? And you're like, I don't know what to say. That's neat. If the early disciples could trust God to give them words in a court of persecution, can we not trust God to give us words to talk to Tammy in the cubicle next to us? But it's hard. Yeah, man, if you wanna do easy, don't be a Christian. We're called to do hard things, and nothing will keep you on the sideline of advancing the kingdom of God like comfort and the fear of man. And most people in most churches in America this weekend are living for those two idols, comfort and the fear of man. They are at odds with the gospel. It gets worse. Brother will deliver brother over to death, and father, his child and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. Listen, man, some of you have lost family members. Some of you are getting baptized at beach baptism, and your mama's mad at you about it, and you are going to do it anyway.

And Jesus says, don't be surprised. Now listen, this is not the norm in our community because like it or not, our whole culture was founded upon Christian principles, and they're still kind of the residue of that. But in many countries, this is the norm and not the exception. How about this next line? And you will be hated by all for my name's sake. You sure you want to be a follower of Jesus? And the question you may want to ask if, well, if the world loves you always, you might want to check whose team you're playing for because you may be indistinguishable from the world. It says, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. And I got good news, the saved will always endure. Verse 23, and when they persecute you in one way or another, and when they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. You don't just have to stand there like a dummy and take a beating. For truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the son of man. and comes. What most commentators believe is that the Son of Man is a messianic title from Daniel, and in 70 AD, about 40 years later, Jesus' judgment came back upon Israel. That's what happened there. So I imagine some of the disciples are like,

yeah, boss, this isn't fair. Jesus is like, don't worry, I'll go first. You see, when you become a Talmudin, a follower of a rabbi, you didn't merely learn what they taught. You were gonna become who they are. By the way, that's what Chandler's whole book is, Becoming Like Jesus. You should come check that thing out. So Jesus goes, I'll go first, and he's gonna go all the way to the cross, and then Jesus, in verse 24, says this. A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher and the servant to be like his master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they malign those of the household? Look, man, Jesus said, they hate you because they hated me. Look, man, I got some hate this week. Comes with the territory. If I don't have a few darts coming from the enemy, man, that must be that I am no threat whatsoever to the enemy. But dude, a couple of mean tweets or an angry video compared to what our brothers and sisters are enduring around the world, if that's all I have to put up with, bring it on, man. Listen, the birthmark of the Christian is a bullseye. In Revelation chapter 12, the revelator says, and they, talking about the church,

and they will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony because they love not their lives even unto death. Verse 26, so, based on the butt-whooping you are going to endure if you follow after Jesus. How about this line? So have no fear. Why? I'm terrified. Are you gonna fix all the circumstances? No. He says, have no fear of them. For nothing is covered that will not be revealed or hidden that will not be known. What I tell you in the dark, say in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim on the housetops, and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Here's the thing, man. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And I know a bunch of you love Jesus, but you might not have the fear of the Lord. The awe of the matchless name of Christ. And here's the thing, the fear of the Lord doesn't mean that you're afraid of him because here's, if you don't understand the majesty, the power, the holiness of God, then you won't understand his grace and his mercy because the very one that has the ability

and the just right to kill your body and soul in hell, instead of doing that, he sent Jesus to save your soul and bring you unto himself forever and ever and ever and ever. This is how the Apostle Paul, from prison, can say in the book of Philippians, to live is Christ, to die is gain. By the way, he also said, and I have learned the secret of being content in every situation. You can't divorce those two things, man. He realized that the secret to being content in every situation was Jesus. And now Jesus is gonna finally give us a little bit of comfort. He's gonna say, I got you. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? They're really cheap. And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father, but even the hairs of, I should point here, even the hairs of your head are all numbers. Fear not, therefore, you are more valuable than many sparrows. The Bible says that you were bought, you were not your own, you were bought at a price. You know how valuable you are to the God of the universe? He paid for you with the blood of his son, Jesus. That's how much you mean to him. So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge before my father who is in heaven.

But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny before my father who is in heaven. That scare you? You ever deny Jesus before men? C.S. Lewis says, I can no more deny Christ than I can deny the son. It's not that I see it, I see everything by it. The person that has the spirit of Christ dwelling in them and you know what eternal life is and you know what you've been saved from are looking and praying earnestly for the opportunity to share that good news. And then this isn't popular teaching. This one never gets talked about. Do not think that I have come to bring peace to earth. I have come not to bring peace, but a sword. The sword would be to divide. God is very binary. He's gonna divide righteous from wicked, saved from loss, righteous from unrighteous, forgiven, condemned, alive from dead, heaven and hell, this is what he came to do. If you come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, he didn't have to say that. They'll usually just work that out themselves. And a person's enemy will be those of his own household. Check this out. Whoever loves father or mother more than me

is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Here's what he's saying. If he's not first in your life, your whole life's gonna be out of order. If you love your family more than you love Jesus, here's the problem. You will heap a weight upon them that they cannot bear and you will crush them. But if you first love Christ, then the love of Christ through you compels you to rightly love the people that God has given you. C.S. Lewis says some version of this, if you get first things and second things out of order, you'll lose everything. But when you love first things first in Christ, you'll gain everything because then you'll be able to enjoy it as a good gift from God. He says this, and whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. To be a follower means you go where the leader goes and Jesus went all the way to the cross. So what it means to be a follower of Jesus is we move from self-fulfillment and self-satisfaction to self-denial. He says whoever finds his life will lose it.

You remember VH1 behind the music? Anybody remember that? Sorry, 1825, my illustrations are all 30 years old because I got too much, I can't, what am I gonna do, watch TV? It was all the like behind the scenes of all the hottest rock bands and everyone is the same. They're so famous, they're so popular. You mean their life is terrible? Say it ain't so. Over and oh, everyone was the same. I mean, don't you know people that got everything the world has to offer and they got nothing? Because that's all this world can offer. Whoever finds his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. It's a call to come and die, to die to self and to die to sin and die to temporary satisfaction and the crazy thing is, is when you die to yourself in Christ and you are resurrected to freedom and wholeness and complete fulfillment, this is what he offers. And then finally, there's a reward program. Now, it's not Cadillacs and cotton candy. It's not name it and claim it and blab it and grab it and it's none of that junk. He says, whoever receives you receives me

and whoever receives me receives him who sent me. Hey, little theology 101, you cannot divorce God the Son from God the Father. Anybody that denies Jesus, God the Son, they do not know God the Father. That's what Jesus is saying. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive the righteous person's reward and whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. You don't earn it, you receive it by grace and then you spend the rest of your days living it out because you love him because of his great love for you. So here's application. Application. It's not enough to just beat you up for an hour. I mean, I don't mind it. So what you gonna do? The harvest is plentiful. That's an us problem. The laborers are for you. Pray for you one more, pray earnestly. Don't give up. I prayed for my dad's salvation for 30 years, 30 years. You know what I get almost every week from my dad? Dad, if you're listening to this week,

you need to do it again. Now he sends me a text. Hey, bud, great sermon. If you'd have told me seven or eight years ago that my daddy would be worshiping with his own line in Kilmarnock, Virginia and just doing Bible study with me, I'd tell him, you crazy, but I got good news, man. If the tomb is empty, anything is possible. Don't you give up on a God that's never given up on you. So do something. If you've gotten saved and you've never been baptized as a believer, sign up for beach baptism. And it's not gonna be enough for you to sign up. I would sign up and go. And I want you to tell all of your friends and I want you to invite all of your friends to come and hear you proclaim that you renounce the sins of this world, the sins of your past, the ways of this world and anything dark or demonic. And you are pledging all of your allegiance to Christ and Christ alone. I want them to hear you say, Jesus is my Lord and Savior. And then I want you to go another step. I want you to say, I'm getting baptized. Will you come with me? And then when they go, of course I'll come, go, do you know Jesus? Because you can come out there, why don't you get baptized with me?

Because the longer you've been a Christian, the crapper we are at this stuff, man. We just think being a disciple has been like 19 Bible studies and we don't ever do anything we learned. Can you imagine just going to film session all year and never getting on the field? Jesus said, get on the field. Next week is a one more weekend. I won't be as mean. Maybe, I don't know, I haven't written a sermon yet. Cash, so next week at this part of the sermon, I'm going to give an invitation for you to surrender your life to Jesus. If you've got a one more, cash in all the chips for next weekend. Do whatever, lie to him. It's okay, I checked in the Bible. Seriously, promise him. Hey, you want to go to lunch, you want to go to dinner and just pull in here. Like, oh, I've never written. Yeah, that's great, man. Just come on in. Like, what is this? I'll take it from there. Get him here. Go on a mission trip, man. Be a part of the advancement of the kingdom around the world. How about be a missionary?

Seriously. Somebody's like, not me. Yeah, you keep telling God what you're going to do with your life after you said you surrendered it to him. Well, I can't do that, I have kids. They'll go with you. Pray, pray hard. Plant a church. We need to plant churches all over this world, all over this world. I need you to tune in to the voice of the good shepherd and do whatever he tells you to do because in that, you are going to find what you have been looking for. The harvest is plentiful. Whatever that ministry idea is that God has given you, go. Whatever that thing is that he has called you to do and you've been ruled by fear, man, choose faith over fear and go. You could be scared, just do it scared. And if you're like, y'all, I don't know what I'm doing. Trust me, you're perfectly positioned for God to use you in a magnificent way. I'm just an over-educated redneck from Dillon, South Carolina that thought I was gonna be doing youth ministry forever. You know what's great about youth ministry? They don't know nothing. And if you're a student in here, one day you'll know I'm exactly right, okay?

God called me to this, so I just said yes. So look, we're gonna close like we close. And we're gonna pray. And Jesus said, pray earnestly. It's hard to pray earnestly if you're heading to the car first. Pray earnestly. And I dare you to pray what Isaiah prayed. Here I am, Lord, send me. What do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go? Who do you want me to talk to? Pray, pray like everything depends on it because it does. And we're gonna bring our first and our best, our tithes and our offerings, because every single time we do, we use that to equip the laborers to take the good news of the gospel. The reason that every prison in America can worship with 1122 is because you bring your first and best. The reason that we can do beach baptism and all the things that God is using to make disciples is directly tied to that. Be radically generous, because you're telling this world, you don't get to tell me who I am. And we're gonna sing. And we're gonna sing a song of victory. And I picked this song. Maybe we hadn't sung this song in a long time.

Song is called Let It Echo. Starts out this way. We've only scratched the surface. See, I mean, cool. It's like 600 people have gotten saved in the last five weeks. We've only scratched the surface. The harvest is plentiful. And only at just one glance, we've tasted your glory, but there's so much more. There's so much more than a church service. I mean, this thing matters like crazy, but there's more people to be saved. There's more healing to happen. There's more wholeness. There's more legacies to be changed. He says, the song says, we're standing on horizons where earth collides with heaven. You know what that sounds a lot to me like? It sounds like repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That's what we're saying. You're longing for your children to cry out for more. We cry out for more. Let it echo from this city to the nations, the sound of praise. And let the windows of the heavens open wide and let it rain. I mean, why not? Why not us? Why not now?

Why not here? God has breathed his breath of life into what we're doing right here. Not because of any of us, man, not because of any of us. I don't know, it's just by his good pleasure. We sing and talk just like everybody else does, but we earnestly seek the face of God and the spirit of God shows up where he's wanted. And the. evidence of a move of the Spirit it's not some gift of the Spirit the primary evidence, Ben Williams taught me this, the primary evidence of a move of the Spirit is when people tell people about Jesus that's what happened in Acts chapter 2 and so we go and pray Lord here I am send me and if you felt offended you should sprint down here get on your face and be like what's wrong with me and we're gonna pray with radical generosity and we're gonna sing God I want this thing that you're doing in this place to echo throughout Florida and Georgia and throughout this nation and throughout North America and throughout the entire world for your glory and God who am I that I would even get to be a part of it would you stand to your feet let me pray for you our good and gracious Heavenly Father God may we not be merely hearers of the word and deceive ourself it's so easy to be deceived when we get all these emotions and we get all fired up I yell at everybody for a while and then we walk out of here we don't do anything about it God I pray for a very clear word from you on where our role is in your Great Commission like tomorrow at work and at school and in our dorm rooms and on our campuses and on the sports fields and to the very ends of the earth where you have commissioned us to go God may we just simply say God my answer is yes now Lord what are my directions and that I got I thank you I thank you that your divine power has given us everything we need to accomplish everything that you have called us to accomplish and Lord I thank you that when we lose our life in you that's exactly what we find we find

life and we find it to the full Lord I pray for an outpouring of your spirit and Lord where there is fear I pray that we would know that you did not give us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind we pray this in Jesus name amen so we're gonna bring our tithes and our offerings because the harvest is plentiful there's a lot of work to be done we're gonna pray like everything depends on it because it does and we are going to sing we've only scratched the surface let's respond