SPEAKER_00: Well, church, as I mentioned, Luke is written so that you might know.
SPEAKER_00: You know, one of my one of the things that I love, one of my favorite things to do is just to hear how other people came to saving faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And just to hear, how did Jesus save you?
SPEAKER_00: What was your life?
SPEAKER_00: What were you doing?
SPEAKER_00: What was your life like?
SPEAKER_00: And then how did Jesus bring that about?
SPEAKER_00: And to just hear those stories, it brings like this encouragement to me.
SPEAKER_00: And what I realized, and what I seen, and you probably see this as well, is how amazing God works.
SPEAKER_00: How amazingly He works in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And we, just being people, we have our thoughts and how we would do things, and God almost never does things the way we would do them, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like we would just, we'd start here, and then we would do this thing, and we have this idea.
SPEAKER_00: And God doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_00: He just, he does this things that we would never imagine.
SPEAKER_00: And there's just stories after story in this room where you can talk about coming to faith this way, and this person shared this, uh, shared the gospel this way, and this happened, and just all these stories.
SPEAKER_00: And there's no explanation other than, man, God is just sovereign over this.
SPEAKER_00: He just works.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think about my own family, my own, my own family.
SPEAKER_00: My mom came to faith by just these pastors going door to door, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just going door to door, knocking on doors, praying for people, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's just how that's how the Lord worked, right?
SPEAKER_00: And and nobody really does that anymore, right?
SPEAKER_00: My dad came to faith because then there's a church praying for him and praying that if need be, everything would be taken away from him, right?
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord took almost everything away from him.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord worked.
SPEAKER_00: I remember talking to a guy, and he was he was um just a a complete rebel, didn't want anything to do with with God.
SPEAKER_00: He really didn't want anything to do with people.
SPEAKER_00: He was his plan was just to live up north in Canada and just kind of live by himself.
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't have any money, typically, because he didn't want to be around people.
SPEAKER_00: And so he was hitchhiking to get over to uh the West Coast in Canada.
SPEAKER_00: And he was telling me this story, and this is back when people hitchhiked a little more often than they do now, and he was just saying that three times in a row, you get in a car, someone share the gospel with them.
SPEAKER_00: Pray with them.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you know, you're you know, they're giving you a ride, so you gotta be polite, or you just can't, like, you know, shut up, I don't want to hear it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he's like, okay, get out.
SPEAKER_00: Um, so he's respectful.
SPEAKER_00: Second time, happened again, third time, gets in, someone just shares the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And that was it.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't like repent and believe right then, he just got out and went on his way.
SPEAKER_00: And within a few weeks, he the Lord saved him.
SPEAKER_00: And those people, they didn't know.
SPEAKER_00: To this day, they probably have no idea, but they remember and picked up a hitchhiker and prayed with him.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you just, there's so many ways the Lord works, and we just can't even begin to comprehend and the way he does things.
SPEAKER_00: So we must be careful that we don't take God and put him in a box and say he can only bring about salvation in this way, or you can never use these means to reach people with the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: There's just, there's so many stories like this.
SPEAKER_00: Even if you are born into a Christian family, raised in a Christian evangelical family, like they believe the Bible, they follow the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: Statistically, the odds of being born in a family like that are 2.5%.
SPEAKER_00: Those are your odds, right?
SPEAKER_00: Not great odds.
SPEAKER_00: And so you might think, well, I was raised in a Christian family, and all the all my friends at church are raised in a Christian family, and this is just the norm, and this is kind of boring, but it is, you know, our testimony, it's the boring testimony.
SPEAKER_00: Statistically speaking, you are an anomaly.
SPEAKER_00: It's so rare that you would be a Christian in an evangelical family, a family that believes God's word.
SPEAKER_00: This is God at work.
SPEAKER_00: How amazing is it how he works and how he moves.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing how patient he is with us.
SPEAKER_00: He's very patient.
SPEAKER_00: This morning, as we look at this long text, Luke 9.37 through 10.24, I want us to see primarily two things.
SPEAKER_00: The ordinary means or the ordinary tools that God uses to do extraordinary things.
SPEAKER_00: So the ordinary means he uses to do extraordinary things.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at the people and the plan of God.
SPEAKER_00: How God uses these just ordinary means to accomplish extraordinary things.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus heals a boy with an unclean spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And the guy comes and he says, Listen, I asked your disciples to do this, but they couldn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: They couldn't cast him out.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you and bear with you?
SPEAKER_00: Bring your son here.
SPEAKER_00: So then Jesus casts him out.
SPEAKER_00: And the response is in verse 43, and all were astonished at the majesty of God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sees the lack of faith in his disciples, their inability, so to speak, and so he frees this boy from this demon.
SPEAKER_00: And the response is they're astonished at God's the majesty of God.
SPEAKER_00: They realized this isn't just a prophet.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't Elijah come back.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't John the Baptist raised from the dead.
SPEAKER_00: This is God at work.
SPEAKER_00: This is God.
SPEAKER_00: But these disciples were not able to cast out demons.
SPEAKER_00: This father had a very, very real and serious problem.
SPEAKER_00: His son was possessed by demons.
SPEAKER_00: I know in our day and age, with all of our enlightened thought, we don't like to think about that.
SPEAKER_00: But it's real.
SPEAKER_00: And this father went to the disciples and they couldn't do anything.
SPEAKER_00: So he took his son.
SPEAKER_00: This real problem, because if Jesus can't do this, what other option does his father have?
SPEAKER_00: Where else can he go to find healing for his boy?
SPEAKER_00: Nowhere.
SPEAKER_00: This is it.
SPEAKER_00: All the chips are in on that Jesus can do this.
SPEAKER_00: And he does.
SPEAKER_00: He mercifully, graciously does.
SPEAKER_00: He heals the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has this authority.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to keep paying attention to that.
SPEAKER_00: But we're going to move on for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus begins to tell them of his coming death.
SPEAKER_00: And he says it really clearly, verse 44 let these words sink into your ears.
SPEAKER_00: Church, let these words sink into your ears.
SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man is about to be delivered up into the hands of men.
SPEAKER_00: But they didn't understand this saying.
SPEAKER_00: It was concealed from them so that they might not perceive it.
SPEAKER_00: And they were afraid to ask him about this saying.
SPEAKER_00: And then this argument breaks out.
SPEAKER_00: It's fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember from last time, the transfiguration happened, right?
SPEAKER_00: Peter, James, and John, they're there.
SPEAKER_00: They see Jesus glorified.
SPEAKER_00: They see Moses and Elijah.
SPEAKER_00: They see this amazing thing.
SPEAKER_00: This cloud comes in.
SPEAKER_00: They hear the voice of God.
SPEAKER_00: And then they don't linger there.
SPEAKER_00: They come off the mountain quickly.
SPEAKER_00: It says, on the next day, that's what verse 37.
SPEAKER_00: So we're literally the next day after the transfiguration.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus casts out demons from this boy.
SPEAKER_00: He tells them that he's going to die.
SPEAKER_00: And what do the disciples do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, they're afraid to ask any more questions about what Jesus is talking about.
SPEAKER_00: So let's just have our own discussion over here about who's the greatest?
SPEAKER_00: Is it me?
SPEAKER_00: Is it you?
SPEAKER_00: Who do you think?
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, verse 47, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side and said to them, Whoever receives this child in my name receives me.
SPEAKER_00: And whoever receives me receives him who sent me.
SPEAKER_00: For he who sent me is among you all is the one who is great.
SPEAKER_00: Excuse me, for he who is least among you all is the one who is great.
SPEAKER_00: And John answered, Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he does not follow with us.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said to him, Do not stop him, for the one who is not against you is for you.
SPEAKER_00: And here, just already in these passages, these snippets, these scenes, you're just thinking, who, like, what are these people doing?
SPEAKER_00: They can't cast out a demon.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They're not listening to Jesus when he says that he's gonna die and he's gonna be lifted up to the sons of the hands of men.
SPEAKER_00: They start arguing about who's the greatest, and when Jesus tells them about a child, he's like a child who receives a child, they say, well, listen, there's also these other people who they're casting out demons in your name, and we try to stop them.
SPEAKER_00: This just seems like a mess, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Jesus is preparing to go to his crucifixion and to leave the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Now for a moment, we we know how it works out because we have the Bible and we know God knows all these things.
SPEAKER_00: But just for a moment, imagine you're just kind of in the mix there.
SPEAKER_00: And just like, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: He keeps talking about dying, and I don't get with that, what he means by that, he's casting out demons over here, and they're trying to figure out who's the greatest.
SPEAKER_00: And we got other people who aren't in our group, who aren't in our kind of tribe, who are also claiming to follow Jesus and they're casting out demons.
SPEAKER_00: But we can't.
SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
SPEAKER_00: What do you see in the midst of all this?
SPEAKER_00: There's just so much misunderstanding.
SPEAKER_00: They just don't know or they don't understand what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: There's a there's an inability to kind of see up, to look up and see what God's doing.
SPEAKER_00: They're just everything's down here, right in front of them.
SPEAKER_00: And how like that, how are we like that?
SPEAKER_00: That's our life, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're just going from day to day.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're the idea of eternity and living for eternity just doesn't ring loudly in our minds as we go about every single day.
SPEAKER_00: Sure, we'll think about it here or there, but for the most part, our vision, our thoughts, it's Sunday, so what's the work week going to look like?
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's November, the holidays are coming.
SPEAKER_00: These are all fine things.
SPEAKER_00: But it's just so temporary, it's so limited.
SPEAKER_00: The other thing is that they just didn't really fully grasp who God is and what he's here to do.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling them that the death that he is about to partake in.
SPEAKER_00: He's trying to teach the apostles and the followers about what it means to actually be great.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that you were up on the mountain per se, that you saw all these things.
SPEAKER_00: It's not even that you're casting out demons.
SPEAKER_00: For he who is least among you all is the one who is great.
SPEAKER_00: And you can just imagine the disciples taking that information and saying, okay, well, who's the weakest here?
SPEAKER_00: Like, who's the the least educated?
SPEAKER_00: Who's got the lowest IQ?
SPEAKER_00: It's probably that guy, you know.
SPEAKER_00: You just see them like do this calculations and trying to figure this out.
SPEAKER_00: Here Jesus is trying to teach them, prepare them for what is to come.
SPEAKER_00: And they just didn't understand.
SPEAKER_00: They just don't understand.
SPEAKER_00: And they go in they go into this village in verse 51.
SPEAKER_00: When the days draw near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And he sent messengers ahead of him who went and entered a village of Samaritans to make preparation for him.
SPEAKER_00: But the people did not receive him because his face was set toward Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_00: And when his disciples, James and John, saw it, they said, Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?
SPEAKER_00: But he turned and rebuked them.
SPEAKER_00: And they went on to another village.
SPEAKER_00: As they were going, as they were going along the road, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests.
SPEAKER_00: But the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.
SPEAKER_00: To one to another he said, Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to him, Leave the dead to bury their own dead.
SPEAKER_00: But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Yet another said, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my house at my home.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, No one who puts his hands to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: These disciples, Jesus is preparing to go to Jerusalem to be crucified.
SPEAKER_00: And this isn't just he's like dreading being beaten and hung on a cross, dying a horrific death.
SPEAKER_00: But there's also this reality, the Bible tells us in Ephesians and in Acts, that the wrath of God the Father for your sins, literally, for your literal sins and mine and those of the world are going to be poured out onto Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so he's set his face to that.
SPEAKER_00: And the disciples, they just don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: Their response is, well, should we just call down fire to burn these people?
SPEAKER_00: And there's just a lot of questions right there, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like, have they done this before?
SPEAKER_00: Was this something that they had witnessed?
SPEAKER_00: Or did they just assume that they were going to be able to do this?
SPEAKER_00: Were they concerned about the Samaritans repenting?
SPEAKER_00: Or did they just want to see judgment brought on their sins?
SPEAKER_00: Were they concerned about what Jesus was facing?
SPEAKER_00: Or do they just want to feel more powerful themselves?
SPEAKER_00: Look what we can do.
SPEAKER_00: They were missing the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: They were missing the kingdom in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: They're missing what God is doing, what Jesus is saying, what the kingdom looks like.
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's this upside-downness of the kingdom, where it's the least become the great.
SPEAKER_00: Those who come to serve, serve.
SPEAKER_00: No, they're not doing it just for this era, for this lifetime, for the praise of man.
SPEAKER_00: They're doing it for the life to come, for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: They miss the fact that Jesus has come to set all things right.
SPEAKER_00: And you see this in our own life where people want the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: They don't want the king.
SPEAKER_00: They want to be the blessings, they want all these things, and I'll follow you, Jesus, but first let me fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone has one of these things, like, this is what I want to take this with me and follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Let me at least do this one thing.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus isn't, listen.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not, you're either all in or you're not in at all.
SPEAKER_00: It's all or nothing.
SPEAKER_00: You put your hand to the plow, then put your hand to the plow, you're going straight ahead.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to look back to figure out where to go forward.
SPEAKER_00: This is what we're doing in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: We're not getting caught up in the things of this age.
SPEAKER_00: They're missing the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: They're missing it.
SPEAKER_00: But it's amazing, though.
SPEAKER_00: This is just ordinary people.
SPEAKER_00: This is what people do.
SPEAKER_00: This is what you and I do.
SPEAKER_00: We miss the kingdom so often, we just miss what God is doing.
SPEAKER_00: We're going about our days and our busyness, and we just miss what the Lord's doing in our lives, what he's trying to do in the lives of people around us.
SPEAKER_00: We miss it.
SPEAKER_00: We get caught up in the things of this age.
SPEAKER_00: Sure, we all have to do laundry, right?
SPEAKER_00: Gotta make dinner, gotta cook breakfast, gotta pay your bills, gotta pay taxes.
SPEAKER_00: All these things.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, sure, you gotta do that.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what you're living for.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You're living to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You're a part of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And yet the Lord uses all these things, doesn't he?
SPEAKER_00: He uses them in your life, he uses them in mine, and we see a glimpse of this here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is still using these followers.
SPEAKER_00: He's using their brokenness, their confusion.
SPEAKER_00: He's using it.
SPEAKER_00: He's teaching, he's reaching, it's working.
SPEAKER_00: So we see just this ordinariness.
SPEAKER_00: I think we we even as we become Christians, sometimes we just expect that everything is gonna change about us.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're all gonna become like super smart and super healthy, and we're gonna make all the best choices, and it's just gonna be amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Like we're Christians now.
SPEAKER_00: We we have the Holy Spirit in us, and we're not gonna make a mistake, right?
SPEAKER_00: Which is wrong.
SPEAKER_00: Um, if you haven't noticed, it's wrong.
SPEAKER_00: So the thing is, in the midst of our brokenness, our ordinariness, our inability to see things for how they are, to look up, see the kingdom, to have a long view.
SPEAKER_00: Just we're looking from day to day.
SPEAKER_00: In the midst of all that, the Lord's working.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You go and you have this interaction with a coworker or some random person, and you just share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you have five minutes to do it, maybe you have 50 seconds.
SPEAKER_00: You don't know what the Lord's gonna do with that, but you knew that that was there and you just want to walk and be faithful, and you and you did that.
SPEAKER_00: And odds are for most of us, we messed up somewhere along the line.
SPEAKER_00: We we didn't say what we should have, or we we missed handled the right words or the right passages or something, but the Lord still uses it.
SPEAKER_00: You know, we think that life is made up of these monumental moments.
SPEAKER_00: There's maybe a handful of these monumental moments in your life, and that defines you.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is your life is defined by just everyday moments of faithfulness, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just faithfully in the Word, day after day after day, praying for one another, serving your family, loving your children, confessing your sin.
SPEAKER_00: They make up your life.
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's the extraordinariness of it, is how ordinary following Jesus really is.
SPEAKER_00: So we look at this, the rest of chapter 9, and we just see the the humanity here, the lack of understanding, like people just not getting what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: And then this kind of crazy thing happens, right?
SPEAKER_00: The disciples are they're not doing well with uh being on track with what Jesus is teaching.
SPEAKER_00: And then, beginning in verse 10, we see this extraordinary plan begin to be pushed out.
SPEAKER_00: So, what's Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: Well, he takes 72 others and he sent them ahead, two by two, into every town and place.
SPEAKER_00: So he sends them out.
SPEAKER_00: And then he gives this warning to the unrepentant cities, which is how bad it's gonna be for them on judgment day.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You're not repentant, it's gonna be better for.
SPEAKER_00: Sodom and Gomorrah than for you on judgment day.
SPEAKER_00: So we just got a snapshot of these the followers, the apostles and the followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And then in verse 10, he's now sending them out.
SPEAKER_00: And what do we see in this?
SPEAKER_00: And we talked a few weeks ago about a theology of going.
SPEAKER_00: We kind of see this again.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom's always advancing.
SPEAKER_00: God's always sending.
SPEAKER_00: He's always sending.
SPEAKER_00: He's always reaching.
SPEAKER_00: But it's wild.
SPEAKER_00: He just sends them all out.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan for reaching the world are the apostles and the disciples.
SPEAKER_00: Like this is it?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I know that we're so familiar with this story that it's hard for us to kind of grasp just how crazy this is.
SPEAKER_00: But bear with me for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: God comes to earth to save the world from their sins.
SPEAKER_00: And he's going to send a bunch of really broken, confused people who are very prideful, pretty racist, and have all these problems.
SPEAKER_00: And he's just going to send them out, and then the whole world's going to hear the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that sounds pretty crazy, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it does.
SPEAKER_00: I think it does.
SPEAKER_00: But yet that's the plan.
SPEAKER_00: And he says to them, listen, plentiful is the harvest.
SPEAKER_00: It's ready.
SPEAKER_00: So what are you going to do?
SPEAKER_00: You pray earnestly that the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers.
SPEAKER_00: So what's he saying?
SPEAKER_00: You're going to go, and the first thing you're going to do is you're going to pray.
SPEAKER_00: That's the first task you have, that's the first job you have is to go and to pray.
SPEAKER_00: That the Lord would send more workers, that more people would take the good news and then go.
SPEAKER_00: And you begin to see this exponential effect.
SPEAKER_00: Which again, how amazing are God's ways.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't have to do it this way, but this is how he chose to do it.
SPEAKER_00: This exponential reality begins to spread and the gospel begins to spread.
SPEAKER_00: They're to pray for more workers.
SPEAKER_00: Then they're given this warning.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, go your way, behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.
SPEAKER_00: Not exactly the most encouraging message.
SPEAKER_00: Now it makes sense why you're praying for more workers, right?
SPEAKER_00: The nutrition rate might be kind of high here.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, he's saying, listen, I'm sending you out.
SPEAKER_00: I'm the one sending you.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're just living for this life, if you're living for these few years, that's it?
SPEAKER_00: Well, then you probably are going to be pretty fearful.
SPEAKER_00: And you're going to be selfish with your time and your resources.
SPEAKER_00: But he's sending them out, clearly giving them the warning of what's.
SPEAKER_00: He's not baiting and switching, any of those things.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, I'm sending you out.
SPEAKER_00: Pray for workers.
SPEAKER_00: You're going out as lambs into the midst of wolves.
SPEAKER_00: Which isn't that how we have seen the pattern of those who follow Jesus, even from to Genesis 3, the very beginning when sin entered.
SPEAKER_00: Those who faithfully follow Jesus are treated as lambs in the midst of wolves.
SPEAKER_00: No, even the disciples at this point, I think we're still hoping that Jesus would somehow kick out the Romans and usher in this amazing kingdom, and Israel and Jerusalem would be glorified and it would be wonderful.
SPEAKER_00: If there's anything they missed on that, this would have corrected that.
SPEAKER_00: If they were under any illusions, they've got those corrected here.
SPEAKER_00: Sending you out as lambs into the midst of wolves.
SPEAKER_00: And on top of that, take nothing with you.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: You're not taking food, you're not taking money bags or sandals or any of those things.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to trust God.
SPEAKER_00: And when you go, you're going to say, peace to this house.
SPEAKER_00: And if there's peace there, it'll rest upon him.
SPEAKER_00: If not, it'll come back to you, and you'll remain there, and then you'll keep moving along.
SPEAKER_00: And the message will keep going and keep spreading.
SPEAKER_00: And those will people will join you in the midst of that.
SPEAKER_00: And some will die and some will fall away, and all those things are going to happen.
SPEAKER_00: But this is a glimpse, not an exact blueprint, but very much a glimpse of the Great Commission.
SPEAKER_00: In Matthew 28, before Jesus ascends up into heaven to return at the right hand of God the Father, he sends out his people.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say, listen, go out and find a nice piece of property and just huddle there and wait till I return.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't say just like blend in and make sure no one kind of suspects you of being one of those Christians, a follower of the way.
SPEAKER_00: Be and act like a Jew, even though maybe in your heart you're a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Blend in and I'll be back.
SPEAKER_00: It's not the call at all.
SPEAKER_00: The call is to go and to take and to herald the good news.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God has come near.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom of God is at hand.
SPEAKER_00: And because of that, there is also judgment at hand.
SPEAKER_00: There is going to be a judgment day.
SPEAKER_00: So God's plan for reaching the nations are just that broken people are going to hear this gospel and receive the Holy Spirit and follow Jesus and that they're going to take it to someone else and they're going to take it to someone else.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not just that they're going and saying a message, hey, I have a message for you, you need to read it, you know, and then pass it along.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the point.
SPEAKER_00: But it's that these people have been transformed by this message.
SPEAKER_00: That the person they used to be, they no longer are.
SPEAKER_00: The way they used to live, they don't live that way anymore.
SPEAKER_00: They used to be fearful of all these things.
SPEAKER_00: Now they're acting like sheep among wolves.
SPEAKER_00: Look at them go.
SPEAKER_00: This is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: They're not packing and preserving and hoarding all these things for this day and age, they're trusting in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They're following him.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just the message that we declare, it's how we live.
SPEAKER_00: It's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: And part of that message, part of that extraordinary message, God uses through ordinary means, is that there is a judgment day coming.
SPEAKER_00: That there will be a day when Jesus returns.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone will have to give an account.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're a Christian, you will not stand before God wondering, okay, am I in heaven or am I in hell?
SPEAKER_00: That judgment is not for you because that's been taken out on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: But there is a judgment for Christians where you will give an account for your life.
SPEAKER_00: You will stand before God and give an account for how you lived, the things you clung to for security, what you put your hope in, you'll give an account for that.
SPEAKER_00: And there will be a judgment for those who reject Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Those who, for one reason or another, have said, hey, thanks, but no thanks.
SPEAKER_00: And they will stand in judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And they will not be standing there wearing the righteousness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They will stand there in their own righteousness before a holy and majestic and all-powerful God, standing in their own righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: And they will go where they deserve, where their heart truly longs, which is away from God, to be apart from him, to be away and removed from his presence.
SPEAKER_00: This is the extraordinariness of God, that he is consistently always holy and righteous and just.
SPEAKER_00: And for those who reject him and reject him and do not want him, they will not have him.
SPEAKER_00: They simply will not.
SPEAKER_00: And judgment will come for them.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus sends his disciples out to do this, to pray, and to trust, and to in the midst of wolves.
SPEAKER_00: Again, a foreshadow, a glimpse of what is to come in the Great Commission, the early church.
SPEAKER_00: But then for this time they all return.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 17.
SPEAKER_00: The 72 returned with joy, saying, The Lord, even, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to your name.
SPEAKER_00: What happened from verse 17 of chapter 10, from verse 40 of chapter 9?
SPEAKER_00: In verse 40, the Father said, I begged your disciples to cast out the demons, but they could not.
SPEAKER_00: The verse 17 here says, even the demons are subject to your name.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples are excited about this, which is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: You're kind of wondering, like, yeah, didn't you guys know that?
SPEAKER_00: Like, is this new news that the demons are subject to the name of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: That he has authority and dominion over them?
SPEAKER_00: But they come back and they begin this report.
SPEAKER_00: This ability, this authority, this power has been granted to them by Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And so often people want to take the name of Jesus and they want to use it as some kind of token, some kind of leverage tool to get what they want.
SPEAKER_00: Well, if you just declare the name of Jesus over that, it could be yours.
SPEAKER_00: You just gotta declare Jesus over that, and it can be yours.
SPEAKER_00: As if it's some kind of a genie in a bottle or some kind of thing that you just make two wishes and wave the wand the right way, and then boom.
SPEAKER_00: You said Jesus, and now you've got to be healed, or you've got to pass your class, or you've got to find your spouse, or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: But see, the kingdom of God is about glorifying God and redeeming his people.
SPEAKER_00: And absolutely, there is power in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen?
SPEAKER_00: There's power in that.
SPEAKER_00: But not power for your glory, not power for your benefit, not power so that you can just wield it around and say, hey, look at me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty tight with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It's for God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is quick to remind them of this in verse 18, chapter 10.
SPEAKER_00: I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Behold, I have given you authority to tread over serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this.
SPEAKER_00: In that the Spirit are subject to you.
SPEAKER_00: Don't rejoice in that.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Brother, sister, are you rejoicing?
SPEAKER_00: Have you rejoiced?
SPEAKER_00: When was the last time that you rejoiced that your name was written in heaven?
SPEAKER_00: How easy it is.
SPEAKER_00: Just like the disciples, we would be.
SPEAKER_00: How easy to say, this is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Like I've got some power here, and of course I'm gonna use it for God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: But this is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: Like I can cast out demons, I can do these works, nothing's gonna hurt me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is telling what's what's the most amazing thing?
SPEAKER_00: What's better than all those things is that your name is written in heaven, in the Lamb's book of life.
SPEAKER_00: God is the giver of these abilities and this authority.
SPEAKER_00: He's the grant of salvation.
SPEAKER_00: As amazing as it is, that the disciples can go and do these kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: Likewise, it's amazing what the Lord's given us to do.
SPEAKER_00: It's amazing that the blessings that God has given to us.
SPEAKER_00: That we can gather as Christians, and we have the freedoms we have, that we can go and find a spouse who loves the Lord and follow the Lord faithfully and serve and just all these different things.
SPEAKER_00: It's endless.
SPEAKER_00: You just keep listing them off.
SPEAKER_00: And they're good.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they're blessings from God.
SPEAKER_00: They're tremendous blessings from God.
SPEAKER_00: But even that, all those things can be taken away from you.
SPEAKER_00: All those things that we are tempted to put our identity into, this is who I am, this is what defines me.
SPEAKER_00: Can all be taken from you, stripped away from you.
SPEAKER_00: But what is as Romans 8 tells us, the thing that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing can take us out of the hands of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: We're his, we belong to him.
SPEAKER_00: We serve him, we honor him, and nothing, nothing is going to change that, church.
SPEAKER_00: So we trust in Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We follow him faithfully.
SPEAKER_00: So we don't rejoice in just these temporary things.
SPEAKER_00: We rejoice that our name is written in the Lamb's book of life, that we belong to Him.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus praises the Father.
SPEAKER_00: I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, verse 21, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Father, of such was your gracious will.
SPEAKER_00: All things have been handed over to me by my Father.
SPEAKER_00: And no one knows who the Father is.
SPEAKER_00: No one knows the Son except, excuse me, no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
SPEAKER_00: What a phenomenal statement that Jesus is revealing about the Trinity and their relationship.
SPEAKER_00: And how from beginning of before time began, the world was created, the relationship between God the Father and God the Son and God the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And the revelation that God is revealing himself to his creation.
SPEAKER_00: That God's revealing himself to you isn't by accident.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't by mistake.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just, it didn't just kind of happen, you know.
SPEAKER_00: Statistically, you're going to be someone who re who understands, or who God reveals himself to.
SPEAKER_00: Not at all.
SPEAKER_00: But God has revealed these things to his people.
SPEAKER_00: And then he turns to the disciples and he says to them, Blessed are the eyes that see what you see, for I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see and did not see it.
SPEAKER_00: And to hear what you hear and did not hear it.
SPEAKER_00: So he's again reminding them what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: It's not this thing where you can just see the demons being cast out.
SPEAKER_00: You can see the power of God.
SPEAKER_00: But that God has revealed to you who God is.
SPEAKER_00: He's revealed to you salvation.
SPEAKER_00: That God is the one who has done these things.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the eyes that see what you see.
SPEAKER_00: So many prophets who faithfully served God for decades didn't see this.
SPEAKER_00: And yet they've been given eyes to see.
SPEAKER_00: And in a sense, so have we.
SPEAKER_00: We've been given the revelation through Scripture of what God has done and what he is doing.
SPEAKER_00: And so we rejoice in the Father's will.
SPEAKER_00: The extraordinariness of the Father's plan.
SPEAKER_00: He's doing all these things.
SPEAKER_00: If it was left to us, we would go and find the smartest and the best and the hardest workers and all these things.
SPEAKER_00: And we would try to do that.
SPEAKER_00: But the way that God works is just so ordinary.
SPEAKER_00: And how's he accomplished that?
SPEAKER_00: Because he's amazing.
SPEAKER_00: He sends his spirit into ordinary people to accomplish his extraordinary will.
SPEAKER_00: And I think at times, I say this as a Christian, I say this as a pastor, we can forget this.
SPEAKER_00: And we don't want to trust in just the ordinary means of grace.
SPEAKER_00: That God's word and God's spirit, prayer and gathering with the saints, is just going to work.
SPEAKER_00: Like it just works.
SPEAKER_00: It's worked for thousands of years, but yet we're prone to look to other things.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to trust God's ordinary means to accomplish these extraordinary things.
SPEAKER_00: We just want a little bit more power.
SPEAKER_00: Like if I could just be in charge for a day, this is what I would do.
SPEAKER_00: Or if if I could just, if if God could just understand this situation, then surely he would do it this way.
SPEAKER_00: He would handle it this way.
SPEAKER_00: I think we feel this a lot with tragedy.
SPEAKER_00: We lose loved ones.
SPEAKER_00: Or we have loved ones who aren't Christians.
SPEAKER_00: They're not believers.
SPEAKER_00: We just can't reconcile how God's going to do all this, how he's going to bring about his plan.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to ask you, church, I want to ask you, are you trusting in God's ordinary means to accomplish extraordinary things in your life?
SPEAKER_00: Are you trusting in that?
SPEAKER_00: That in your own life, overcoming sin, walking in the ways of Jesus, the healing that you need from all the brokenness in your life, the hope that you need that that you just can't find?
SPEAKER_00: Do you trust that God's going to do just ordinary things?
SPEAKER_00: It's going to be his word and prayer and gathering with the saints.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that?
SPEAKER_00: Do we as a church believe this?
SPEAKER_00: Do we trust in God's ordinary means to accomplish his plan?
SPEAKER_00: Or are we looking to other things, to new kind of church models and new systems and new software and new lights or whatever it is?
SPEAKER_00: Are we trusting in the ordinary means of grace to accomplish extraordinary things?
SPEAKER_00: When we look out into the world, we see just the just the chaos.
SPEAKER_00: We see the chaos in our own country and our government and our leadership.
SPEAKER_00: We see the chaos in the midst of all the tragedy in the world, the slave trade with human trafficking, we see with the drug trade and all these things all over the world, people being abused, manipulated, sacrificed.
SPEAKER_00: We just see chaos and despair and darkness.
SPEAKER_00: Are we trusting in the ordinary needs of grace to accomplish God's plan?
SPEAKER_00: Because God is.
SPEAKER_00: And he calls you and me to rest in him and follow in his ordinary plan.
SPEAKER_00: That Jesus would come and die for our sins.
SPEAKER_00: That we would just repent and believe and follow him, forsaking the things of this world, having the strength and the power of the Holy Spirit in us to walk faithfully, trust him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the call.
SPEAKER_00: And so we go to our work tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: If the Lord grants us life tomorrow, we go and we just we do our ordinary jobs for God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: We share the good news of what God has done and who He is.
SPEAKER_00: We share boldly, we share joyfully, we share faithfully because we serve a faithful God.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.