Beyond Sunday
Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the Podcast that takes you deeper into the Word of God throughout your week, with your Host Pastor Lee Day.
It's Time to Inspire, Uplift, and dig deeper. Beyond Sunday starts now!
Beyond Sunday
Appointed For The Harvest
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Tune in to this episode of BEYOND SUNDAY and see what it means to be appointed, to have the ministry of reconciliation, and to understand that God is trusting you with His plan.
What's going on, everybody? Welcome to this episode of Beyond Sunday. I am your host, Pastor Lee Day, and I pastor Christ Family Outreach Church located right here in the one and the only Amelia Courthouse, Virginia. If you're taking notes, I want you to go ahead, get your paper, get your pen or your pencil ready, get your Bibles out. Up at the top of your paper, I want you to write this one word. Appointed. Appointed. We're going to talk about that in this episode of Beyond Sunday, and we're going to begin in Luke chapter 10, beginning with the first 12 verses. And this is what the word of God says, my good friends. After this, the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way. Behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, peace be to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him, but if not, it will return to you, and remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide. For the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you. But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless, know this that the kingdom of God has come near. I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. My friends, we're gonna study these twelve verses along with additional scripture as well to see how we can apply this text, this passage, to our lives right now. Jesus, Jesus sent out the 72 to go minister. Chapter 10 begins with the words, after this, the Lord appointed. What happened before this appointment? It's found in Luke chapter 9, 57 through 62. And I want you to listen, before they're appointed, I want you to listen to what takes place. Because the title in my Bible says this the cost of following Jesus. That's right. If we're gonna be appointed, if we're gonna be anointed, we have to understand that there is a cost at following Jesus. And this is what it says in Luke 9, 57. Pay close attention, my friends. As they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you, Jesus, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nest, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. To another he said, Follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. And Jesus said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God. Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home. And Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. Wow. So the command that Jesus gives is this go and proclaim the kingdom of God. So here's the question for every one of you listening to this episode of Beyond Sunday. Does your life, here's a little spiritual inventory time, my friends, does your life proclaim the kingdom of God? Are you a living testimony to the love of the Father? Are you a living testimony to the forgiveness that God offers, that he's offered you, but also as an example that he offers everyone else? Are you a living example to the salvation of Jesus Christ that God has so freely and graciously offered you through what his only begotten Son, Jesus, did on the cross for you? Is your life a living testimony to the salvation of Christ? Now, if not, I want to encourage you, you can begin all of that right now where you are. Luke chapter 10, just the first verse. I want to read it to you again. It's so good. Luke chapter 10, one says this. After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them on ahead of him two by two into every town and place where he himself was about to go. Jesus had them go out before him where he was about to go. That's what the text says. They were going out, my friends, to prepare the way for the arrival of Jesus in the different areas. Now, with that in mind, I want you to listen closely to what Paul writes to the church in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verses 16 through 21. Paul writes, From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Now, notice, my friends, notice what Paul is telling us here. That God, and I need you to listen very care, very carefully, friends, that God has trusted us with something huge. It's amazing. That's right. God has trusted you. God has trusted me with something huge. God, and what an honor it is that God Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, has included you. He's included me in his plan. From the beginning of time, from the foundations of the earth, God has trusted you and myself with a plan. Verse 19 says that God has entrusted to us the message of reconciliation. I'm going to read it to you again. This is what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 19. Listen to how personal this is. That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us. You hear that? And God is entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So God has entrusted to you and to me the ministry called reconciliation. So let me tell you what that means. To reconcile means to make right with God. Now look at the 20th verse. It says, Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. Do you hear that? We are ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. Two things, two things that I want you to take note of here. Number one, you are an ambassador. You are a representative of God. So our job, my job, your job is to represent God. In other words, you could write it down like this if you're taking notes, to imitate Jesus Christ. Amen. Number two, God wants to make his appeal through your life. What an honor that the God of heaven and earth wants to work through you right where you are right now. God wants to work through you. He wants to speak through you. He wants to shine through you. He wants to love through you. He wants to show mercy and grace and forgiveness through you so others will come to know him and accept his only begotten Son, receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of their soul today. Have you ever considered that your interaction with someone else could be exactly what God is trying to use as the groundwork, as the framework, as foundational work so that he can come in and change their life? Have you ever considered just how important you are in the eyes of God? That God is trusting you with part of the plan. Now let's get back to Luke. Luke chapter 10, verse 2 says this. And he said to them, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out the laborers into his harvest. So Jesus gives both good and bad news here. He informed the disciples that the harvest was ready. But then he says, the laborers, they're few. The harvest is hard work. We don't see any of the disciples complaining of the work ahead. We don't see them asking for another job. No one asked to stay back and make sure everything ran well back at home. They went out and did what was asked of them. They went out and did what they were told to do. They go out and they proclaim the kingdom of God. They had to focus on the mission, my friends. They had to focus on the mission. And they had to focus on its message rather than the lack of the laborers. We can't pay attention to what we don't have. We've got to focus on what we do have. There's a harvest out there, my good brothers and sisters. There's a harvest out there. And we've got to focus on the harvest. We can't look around and say, woe is me. There's not as many of us here as it is them out there. We've got to focus on the call. We've got to focus on the mission. We've got to focus on what God has trusted you and I with. And that is the ministry of reconciliation to bring people closer to God. That brings us back to the first verse. It says that Jesus appointed 72 disciples in Luke chapter 10, verse 1. Jesus appointed 72 disciples. One of the definitions for the word appointed means provided what is necessary, equipped. Okay, that's one of the literal definitions for the word appointed. So Jesus appointed 72 disciples. Appointed. He provided what was necessary and equipped. My friends, don't forget what Jesus said to do. He said in the second verse, after appointing them in the first verse, he says in the second verse to pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into the harvest. Now I just want you to take a minute and just kind of look around your life, look around your job, look around your home, look around your school, your college campus, wherever you may find yourself at today. If you're not already, we should be praying for each other to be the laborers that God has called us to be over our communities, over our jobs, over our homes, over our campuses. This is what we should be doing. Why? Because Jesus calls us to pray, to pray for the laborers. We've got to know and trust that God is gonna make us stronger, okay, so that we can better serve Him, so that we can have a larger impact on the world. Now, the third verse in Luke chapter 10, we're gonna press on, says this. Jesus says to the disciples, he says, Go your way. Behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Their calling, let's just be honest, their calling was a dangerous one. They were going out into enemy territory. Vance Havner, who began outdoor preaching at just 14 years old, said this. Any man who takes Jesus Christ seriously becomes the target of the devil. Man, did you hear that? Again, I'm gonna read it to you. A quote from Vance Havner. Any man who takes Jesus Christ seriously becomes the target of the devil. He then went on to say this most church members do not give Satan enough trouble to arouse his opposition. Whoa. Did you hear that, my friends? Most church members do not give Satan enough trouble to arouse his opposition. Oh, how sad that is. When I read that, it reminds me of Acts chapter 19, verses 11 through 20, when some people tried to cast out demons, and the demon said to them in the 15th verse, Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you? Whoa. Make this your goal, my friends. Make this your goal to proclaim the kingdom of God so much that Satan himself cannot stand you. And demons tremble and get angry because they know when you show up on the scene as an ambassador representing Jesus Christ, that you are bringing with you the hope of God. You've brought with you the love of Jesus Christ. Come on, can we say amen to that, my friends? You've brought with you a testimony of how Jesus has set you free and you're about to share it with everyone that's in front of you. And therefore the devil begins to shake and tremble. The demons begin to flee because they know that since Jesus Christ has set you free through your testimony, he's about to set other people free. Can we say amen to that, my brothers and sisters? Does the enemy recognize you? Oh, I hope he does. Luke chapter 10, verse 4, pressing on, says this carry no money bag, Jesus says. No knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Let me say this. Write this down if you're taking notes. Serving God takes faith. He told the 72 to take no money bag with them, no knapsack, no sandals. In other words, don't take anything extra that you want to take, because I want you to see that I'm providing for you. So don't take anything extra. It would be like me saying to you, my good friends, at the end of this uh episode that you're listening to, to go out into the world and don't worry about what you do or do not have, but whatever you do, proclaim the kingdom of God and then trust that God's going to provide for you your every need. And let me just say this isn't that what we're really supposed to do? Isn't that how it's really supposed to be anyway? That every moment of every day we're just trusting God to do what only God can do. So no matter where you are or what you're doing this week, proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and watch God provide for your life. Now, moving on in the fifth verse of Luke chapter 10, this is what it says. Jesus says, Whenever house you enter, first say peace to this house, and if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and and they receive you, eat what is set before you, heal the sick in it, and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you. But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into the streets and say, Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this that the kingdom of God has come near. I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. The seventy-two went out. They had faith in God, they went into enemy territory and proclaimed the word of God. And then there was the time for them to return home. Now, I want to take you to when the 72 that Jesus Christ sent out comes home. It's found in Luke chapter 10, beginning with the 17th verse. I'm gonna read four verses to you. Check this out. The 72 returned with joy. You see that? They went out into enemy territory, but they returned with joy. Why did they return to joy? Whew, here it is. The 72 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Wow. Let's pray. Father, in the name of the blood of Jesus, I pray that everyone listening would have this type of experience. That they go out, they share the gospel, they go out, they share their testimony, and Father, that they can come back home rejoicing. Because the truth is that every time, Father, we share your word, every time we share the testimony of what you've done and what you're doing and what you're gonna do in our life, it's like our life is a drink offering that we pour out, but yet you never leave our cups empty. You always fill us back up. So, Father, I pray in the name of the blood of Jesus that our cups would fill up and overflow today as we go out into the harvest as your laborers. Help us to stay focused as laborers. Help us to stay focused. Help us to understand that we go out into enemy territory for a powerful and a great purpose to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ and all that he's done. Father, we seek your Holy Spirit that lives on the inside of us as Christians for the strength to do so. In the name of the blood of Jesus, all God's people said. Amen, amen, and amen. I trust and hope in the name of our Lord that you have been encouraged by the Word of God today. Until next time on Beyond Sunday, stay in prayer and stay in the Word of God. God bless.
