SPEAKER_00: Well, church, I will begin reading in Luke chapter 8, verses 26 up to the passage that was read by Jimmy.
SPEAKER_00: Then they sailed to the country of the Garrisons, which is opposite of Galilee, when Jesus had stepped out on land.
SPEAKER_00: There met him a man from the city who had demons.
SPEAKER_00: For a long time he had worn no clothes and had not lived in a house but among the tombs.
SPEAKER_00: When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
SPEAKER_00: I beg you, do not torment me.
SPEAKER_00: For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man.
SPEAKER_00: For many a time it had seized him.
SPEAKER_00: He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles.
SPEAKER_00: But he would break the bonds and be driven by the demons into the desert.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus then asked him, What is your name?
SPEAKER_00: And he said, Legion, for we for many demons had entered him, and they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.
SPEAKER_00: Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these.
SPEAKER_00: So he gave them permission.
SPEAKER_00: Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
SPEAKER_00: When the herds saw what had happened, they fled and told in the city, told it in the city and in the country.
SPEAKER_00: Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed in his right mind.
SPEAKER_00: They were afraid.
SPEAKER_00: And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed.
SPEAKER_00: Then all the people of the surrounding country, the Garrisons, asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.
SPEAKER_00: So he got into the boat and returned.
SPEAKER_00: The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus sent him away, saying, Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.
SPEAKER_00: And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
SPEAKER_00: Now when Jesus returned, the crowd welcomed him, for they were all waiting for him.
SPEAKER_00: And there came a man named Jarius, who was a ruler of the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: And falling at Jesus' feet, he implored him to come to his house, for he had an only daughter, about twelve years of age, and she was dying.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus went, people pressed around him.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a woman who had a discharge of blood for twelve years.
SPEAKER_00: And though she had spent all her living on physicians, she could not be healed by anyone.
SPEAKER_00: She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately his discharge of blood ceased.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said, Who was it that touched me?
SPEAKER_00: When all denied it, Peter said, Master, the crowds surrounding you are pressing in on you.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus said, Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.
SPEAKER_00: And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling and falling down before him, declaring in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well.
SPEAKER_00: Go in peace.
SPEAKER_00: And while he was still speaking, someone from the ruler's house came and said, Your daughter is dead.
SPEAKER_00: Do not trouble the teacher anymore.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, on hearing this answer, excuse me, Jesus on hearing this answered him, Do not fear, only believe, and it shall be well.
SPEAKER_00: And when he came to the house, he allowed no one to enter with him except Peter and John and James, and the father and the mother of the child.
SPEAKER_00: And all were weeping and mourning in mourning for her.
SPEAKER_00: But he said, Do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping.
SPEAKER_00: And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.
SPEAKER_00: But taking her by the hand he called, saying, Child, arise.
SPEAKER_00: And her spirit returned, and she got up at once, and he directed that something should be given her to eat.
SPEAKER_00: And her parents were amazed.
SPEAKER_00: But what but he charged them to tell no one what had happened.
SPEAKER_00: And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal.
SPEAKER_00: And he said to them, Take nothing for your journey, no staff, no bag, nor bread, nor money, and do and do not have two tunics.
SPEAKER_00: And whatever you whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart.
SPEAKER_00: And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.
SPEAKER_00: And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: We have this text about people being perplexed, Herod being perplexed, and the feeding of the five thousand.
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting about this passage, there's a lot going on, this narrative, these kind of different scenes, different stories.
SPEAKER_00: But something I want us to see this morning is how Jesus was sent by God the Father to save sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to rescue.
SPEAKER_00: He did this for us, he did this in this passage as well.
SPEAKER_00: And what an amazing thing.
SPEAKER_00: What amazing news.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the man possessed by demons.
SPEAKER_00: Think about the guy whose daughter is dying.
SPEAKER_00: The woman who's been sick and cannot be healed.
SPEAKER_00: How perplexing that the Son of Man, the creator of the universe, would come to heal them, to deliver them, to free them of these things, to save their lives.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if I'm honest, I think oftentimes we go through our life, and maybe you're like this, and you understand Jesus came to save sinners.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus came to save me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus died for my sins.
SPEAKER_00: This is wonderful news.
SPEAKER_00: But we can forget how amazing this is.
SPEAKER_00: We can forget the seriousness, the gravity, the miraculous news that Jesus has come to save us.
SPEAKER_00: He's come to offer us grace and mercy.
SPEAKER_00: If that news doesn't seem like good news to you, then I would just say you're probably not aware of your condition.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, we should be aware that we need a savior.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the Bible tells us that we're sinners and we need saving.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we realize when we just look around the world.
SPEAKER_00: Man, there are some broken people, there's broken situations.
SPEAKER_00: There's got to be someone out there who can fix this.
SPEAKER_00: And there is.
SPEAKER_00: It's Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus was sent by God the Father to save sinners, to bring reconciliation, to heal, to be compassionate, to show mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And likewise, as Christians, we are to then go.
SPEAKER_00: We are now sent, if you will.
SPEAKER_00: You look at the Great Commission, Matthew 28.
SPEAKER_00: Look at Jesus here, just a snippet, sending his disciples out.
SPEAKER_00: All of the New Testament is this big grand story of people who've received grace and mercy being sent to those who have not.
SPEAKER_00: And for some, they go far away to different lands and different languages.
SPEAKER_00: And for others, they're just sent across the street or to their coworker.
SPEAKER_00: But no Christian can get out of this idea or this design that we are to receive the good news of the gospel and then take it to others.
SPEAKER_00: So as we look through these passages, my aim this morning is to give us a theology of going.
SPEAKER_00: First, we see that Jesus goes.
SPEAKER_00: They go to a different country.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the few times, looking at verse 26, where Jesus actually leaves Israel.
SPEAKER_00: He goes to a foreign nation.
SPEAKER_00: He goes to the Gentiles.
SPEAKER_00: To do what?
SPEAKER_00: To share the good news.
SPEAKER_00: The first steps off the boat, and he meets this demon-possessed guy.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not a Christian, you might think, man, what a coincidence.
SPEAKER_00: How convenient.
SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt.
SPEAKER_00: We just see how the demons respond to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They know who he is, they rightly identify him as the Son of God, most high God.
SPEAKER_00: Demons have great theology.
SPEAKER_00: They know who God is.
SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt, though, if they had it their way, those demons would not be there.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: They would have been somewhere else.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gets off the boat, the first person he meets is a man possessed by demons.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus does what?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doesn't say, hey, I know life can be difficult.
SPEAKER_00: I know there's the stress of the finances, and there's kids, and there's big decisions and political upheaval.
SPEAKER_00: But let me offer you a little bit of peace of mind.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give to you another kind of tool in your toolkit for life of how you can navigate things and make good decisions.
SPEAKER_00: How unmerciful would that have been of Jesus?
SPEAKER_00: How unloving if he would have just showed up in this scene and said, You got a lot going on, and there's probably a lot of things that could be helpful, but I could also help you.
SPEAKER_00: Here's some tricks or here's some tips and stay away from these things and don't go on these internet sites and kind of do this with your money and these five steps.
SPEAKER_00: Not only would the demon-possessed man have despaired, if possible, but everyone else would have looked around and be like, Jesus, you know he's possessed by demons, right?
SPEAKER_00: His problem isn't his personal finances or his marriage.
SPEAKER_00: His problem is he worships the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_00: He belongs to the wrong master.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus comes to bring what?
SPEAKER_00: Good news.
SPEAKER_00: The good news is that he's God, Son of the Most High, that he can deliver this man, and that's what he does.
SPEAKER_00: He delivers.
SPEAKER_00: What's interesting about this story as well is the demons are begging for mercy.
SPEAKER_00: They don't want to be destroyed.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, knowing what ultimately happened to the demons, even here, he allows them to go into the pigs.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of weird, right?
SPEAKER_00: All these demons go to the pigs, pigs go fall off the cliff and drown.
SPEAKER_00: It's an odd story, no doubt.
SPEAKER_00: What we see, though, is Jesus bringing good news, and you see a transformation happen.
SPEAKER_00: You see someone who was not just inwardly in bondage, in chains, not inwardly, as the Bible would say, a slave to wickedness, slaves to sin, as Romans says, which is true of all people without Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Without Christ, everyone is a slave to sin.
SPEAKER_00: Not only is that a reality inwardly, but outwardly.
SPEAKER_00: It's clear this man has no ability to control his life, to help himself.
SPEAKER_00: And yet Jesus is compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: But this never would have happened if Jesus didn't go.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus would have said, hey, I came for the Jews, and so I'm just going to be here for the Jews.
SPEAKER_00: And that's it.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus went.
SPEAKER_00: The disciples who were despairing.
SPEAKER_00: And the next story is that they're sailing again.
SPEAKER_00: These disciples who almost drowned, and then Jesus calms the storm.
SPEAKER_00: What do they do?
SPEAKER_00: They go back into the open waters to a foreign land with Jesus to share the good news.
SPEAKER_00: And then what Jesus does is he transforms this one individual, one convert.
SPEAKER_00: And then he leaves.
SPEAKER_00: Now, part of this, the story tells us everyone in the town was afraid.
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's easy to look at this story from a 21st century Western lens and just say, man, Jesus only had one convert.
SPEAKER_00: What a shame.
SPEAKER_00: He went on this big missionary journey.
SPEAKER_00: They packed up the boat, they sailed across, and he got one convert.
SPEAKER_00: I remember going on a mission trip one time, and we were going to England to do missions, to evangelism to them to a bunch of Muslims, because Muslims from every place in the world come to the UK.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's an amazing opportunity to evangelize and share the gospel with people that if you're to go to their home country, you'd probably be imprisoned, kicked out, or even killed.
SPEAKER_00: So we share the gospel and share lots of gospel conversations and interactions and prayers.
SPEAKER_00: We come home and we we're telling our church, there's just a group of us and what happened, and they're like, but were there any converts?
SPEAKER_00: We're like, well, no.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, not that we could see, but we we planted seeds and we had these conversations and you know, all this stuff, and we were excited about it.
SPEAKER_00: And there's this feeling of, well, there weren't converts.
SPEAKER_00: You guys, you guys sound like you like you took a vacation to London and we paid for it.
SPEAKER_00: You know?
SPEAKER_00: I just was so discouraged by that.
SPEAKER_00: That thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus here goes to a foreign land and he converts one person.
SPEAKER_00: Does one miracle?
SPEAKER_00: It's a big one, but it's just one.
SPEAKER_00: And everyone else freaks out.
SPEAKER_00: They're afraid.
SPEAKER_00: And then this man understandably says, Look, can I go with you?
SPEAKER_00: Like, this is amazing what you've just done.
SPEAKER_00: Can I follow you?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus, you know, we know that he's a compassionate God.
SPEAKER_00: Knowing that this brother, this new, cleansed, made new brother, he just wanted to go with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he wanted.
SPEAKER_00: But what's Jesus say?
SPEAKER_00: Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus realized, I'm gonna now send this brother.
SPEAKER_00: He's the one who's now going.
SPEAKER_00: He was dead in his sins, he's now alive.
SPEAKER_00: He was a slave to sin, he's now free.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus now sends him.
SPEAKER_00: Go, return to your home.
SPEAKER_00: In town, declare how much God has done for you.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, think about a theology of going.
SPEAKER_00: Always should be going and sending and promoting those things.
SPEAKER_00: We're not looking for a certain kind of numerical fruit, we're looking for faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus sins.
SPEAKER_00: So first, though, we must go.
SPEAKER_00: The only reason that you're a Christian is because God the Father sent God the Son to come and pay the price for your sins.
SPEAKER_00: And in God's design, there would be these Christians, and that what they would do for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years is they would just keep going.
SPEAKER_00: They would just keep going.
SPEAKER_00: Generation after generation, they would go into new lands.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes they get kicked out and they go back into those lands and across mountain ranges, across oceans.
SPEAKER_00: They would go and they would go and they would go.
SPEAKER_00: By God's grace and God's glory, to God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: We're Christians because people have been doing this.
SPEAKER_00: They've been obeying God, so we must go.
SPEAKER_00: We see the transformation that happens when we go.
SPEAKER_00: The second thing we want us to see is that we're to minister to all.
SPEAKER_00: We have these two stories.
SPEAKER_00: A ruler, a very powerful man whose daughter is dying.
SPEAKER_00: Interesting situations.
SPEAKER_00: Ruler of the synagogue.
SPEAKER_00: His daughter, his only daughter is dying.
SPEAKER_00: You think about you can have all the pride you want.
SPEAKER_00: You can think you know everything.
SPEAKER_00: But when someone you love is dying, you're not going to your religiosity.
SPEAKER_00: You're not looking to the culture to save them.
SPEAKER_00: He goes right to the master.
SPEAKER_00: He goes right to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: It falls down and begs him that he would save his daughter.
SPEAKER_00: He implored him to come to his house, to save his daughter.
SPEAKER_00: Here Jesus begins to move that way, and there's crowds everywhere, and this interruption comes.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is interrupted.
SPEAKER_00: Someone has come and touched him.
SPEAKER_00: And he perceives that power has gone out.
SPEAKER_00: There's this other woman, this outcast.
SPEAKER_00: She's unclean.
SPEAKER_00: If you're familiar with Jewish teaching and tradition, she would have been unclean for 12 years.
SPEAKER_00: For 12 years, she would have been an outcast, not allowed to come into the city and be around people.
SPEAKER_00: She had this disease.
SPEAKER_00: She spent her whole life savings, working to try to be healed, and nothing was happening.
SPEAKER_00: So in a moment of desperation, she breaks all the commands that were given about this, that she might go to Jesus and be healed.
SPEAKER_00: And she is.
SPEAKER_00: Peace.
SPEAKER_00: The demon-possessed man, he hadn't known peace in many, many years.
SPEAKER_00: But he's healed, and Jesus sends him in peace to return.
SPEAKER_00: See, the message of the gospel is so transformative and powerful.
SPEAKER_00: It's the only thing that you can give to somebody and endow them with any kind of authority and guarantee they'll go in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Because all the things in your life that are weighing on you, they're not real, but they're nothing in comparison.
SPEAKER_00: They're just things in this world.
SPEAKER_00: Your soul is what matters.
SPEAKER_00: It's your soul that's in peril.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus Christ has come to save your soul.
SPEAKER_00: Trust in him and go in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Because he is a good and sovereign God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus heals this woman and then goes back with getting ready.
SPEAKER_00: And then this interrupted and says, listen, don't bother them.
SPEAKER_00: Don't bother the master.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, on hearing this, do not fear.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: The last thing he had just said is to the to the woman who had the blood was go in peace.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's saying to the guy whose daughter just died, do not fear, only believe and she will be well.
SPEAKER_00: And he comes and he says this really odd thing.
SPEAKER_00: Do not weep, for she is not dead, but sleeping.
SPEAKER_00: They're in verse 52.
SPEAKER_00: Do not weep.
SPEAKER_00: Don't cry.
SPEAKER_00: She's only sleeping.
SPEAKER_00: What's Jesus mean?
SPEAKER_00: Well, you see this several times in Jesus' interactions.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying her body isn't dead.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying her soul isn't dead.
SPEAKER_00: There is this physical reality of death that happens where our bodies die.
SPEAKER_00: But more importantly than that is spiritual death, when our souls are separated from God for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus has come to bring her body back to life.
SPEAKER_00: And he says this, don't weep, for she's not dead, but sleeping.
SPEAKER_00: And they laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.
SPEAKER_00: This is the amazing thing about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He takes her by the hand and says, Child, arise.
SPEAKER_00: And her spirit returns and she gets up at once.
SPEAKER_00: They feed her.
SPEAKER_00: And the amazing thing is how the reality here, physically, physically dead.
SPEAKER_00: He brings her back to life.
SPEAKER_00: The demon-possessed man is overwhelmed by legions of demons.
SPEAKER_00: What's Jesus do?
SPEAKER_00: He gives him new life, casts out the demons, brings, gives him new life.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is compassionate and he ministers to all these people.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't make a differentiation between the wealthy or the old or the young.
SPEAKER_00: He's compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, it's wrong for us to ever, ever say, well, we're going to take the gospel to people, but we're going to do to people who are kind to us, who we get along with, people who like us.
SPEAKER_00: And to everyone else, someone else can go to them.
SPEAKER_00: You know, they don't really, they don't really deserve the gospel because of these things or those things.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus, if he's been compassionate to you, you have no right, no right to decide who you can be compassionate toward.
SPEAKER_00: For he has shown you mercy.
SPEAKER_00: So first we must go, then we must minister to all.
SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus, see that we send others to go.
SPEAKER_00: He calls the twelve and gives them this power and authority over demons and to cure diseases, and he sends them out.
SPEAKER_00: And he gives them these instructions.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, don't take anything.
SPEAKER_00: No staff, no food, no bread, no money, don't do any of those things.
SPEAKER_00: No extra clothes, you're not packing anything.
SPEAKER_00: You're just heading out.
SPEAKER_00: What are you gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: That's what you're playing.
SPEAKER_00: That's the plan.
SPEAKER_00: Later on, Jesus will send them out again and he'll tell them pack your clothes, take extra food, pack your bags, get be prepared, take your possessions.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes theologians or Christians will debate these two things, like, are we supposed to pack everything up and then go, or are we supposed to forsake all and then go?
SPEAKER_00: As if it's one or the other.
SPEAKER_00: It's clear if you have, take what you have, but trust that the Lord will provide.
SPEAKER_00: But he sends them out.
SPEAKER_00: And what you get a glimpse here in this passage in verse 1 through 6 in chapter 9 is the exponential reality of the kingdom of heaven, the exponential reality as we follow Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus on the earth, one man could be in one place at one time.
SPEAKER_00: So he makes disciples, he's training up disciples to then send out.
SPEAKER_00: A moment ago, I was talking about how we got here.
SPEAKER_00: And for thousands of years, Christians have been doing this.
SPEAKER_00: They've been following Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: To follow is to do what he does.
SPEAKER_00: You train up disciples and you send them out.
SPEAKER_00: Train them up and you send them out.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of what we're doing as we gather as a church.
SPEAKER_00: We're getting in the word, we're being trained, we're being taught, we're being instructed, and then we go, we scatter.
SPEAKER_00: So we go to our homes, our workplaces.
SPEAKER_00: Some move overseas to just keep doing this.
SPEAKER_00: Keep doing it.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus sends them out.
SPEAKER_00: He's intentional to send.
SPEAKER_00: And then we come across this really interesting passage about Herod being confused.
SPEAKER_00: He's perplexed.
SPEAKER_00: He's already killed John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_00: He's cut off his head.
SPEAKER_00: So it's like, well, this Jesus person, is it John the Baptist resurrected?
SPEAKER_00: Is this Elijah?
SPEAKER_00: Is this one of the prophets?
SPEAKER_00: And Herod was perplexed.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to know.
SPEAKER_00: And something I've just seen a pattern in my life, and I think you've probably, if you've been a follower of Jesus, you've seen this in your life.
SPEAKER_00: As we do this going thing, this making disciples and going, whether that's overseas or across the country or just again across the street to coworkers, whatever, when you're living this kind of lifestyle where we are intentional to follow Jesus, people are comp they're perplexed by it.
SPEAKER_00: And some people, they kind of think it's a novelty.
SPEAKER_00: Like, well, that's kind of interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, tell me more about why you do that.
SPEAKER_00: And you you share.
SPEAKER_00: And they might be interested, but they're not invested.
SPEAKER_00: So you see this a lot where people are like, hey, man, that's great that that's good for you.
SPEAKER_00: I'm happy for you.
SPEAKER_00: Like, genuinely, I'm happy that you found Jesus, you got religion, and it's working out for you.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: It's cute, it's nice.
SPEAKER_00: But the reality is that everyone is destined, apart from Jesus Christ, to hell for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not what we've been made for.
SPEAKER_00: This is not what God created us for.
SPEAKER_00: We're created to worship him.
SPEAKER_00: Herod was created in God's image to be a worshiper of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he looks out and he sees all these things: people being fed by the thousands, people being resurrected from the dead, people being healed, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the scribes, the teachers, all being confused and made to look a fool.
SPEAKER_00: And Herod's thinking is I should meet this guy.
SPEAKER_00: We know into the book of Acts that there's this kind of tension with the religious or the Roman rulers.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted part of what Jesus had to offer.
SPEAKER_00: They wanted something that he had to offer.
SPEAKER_00: There was this confidence, this salvation thing.
SPEAKER_00: It just seemed really cool.
SPEAKER_00: But you look at Herod, and then you look at the woman who was bleeding, and you look at the girl who was dying, and you look at the demon-possessed man.
SPEAKER_00: Herod was not aware of his situation.
SPEAKER_00: The rest of them were aware of just how desperate they were.
SPEAKER_00: They were aware of their need for a savior.
SPEAKER_00: That there's a way they could get out of this on their own.
SPEAKER_00: They needed a savior.
SPEAKER_00: Herod did not think so.
SPEAKER_00: So he was interested, though, but he wasn't ready to surrender, to follow Jesus, to commit his life to him, to let Jesus be the Lord and master of his life.
SPEAKER_00: So when we live that way, where Jesus is the Lord and the master of our lives, it confuses people, it perplexes them.
SPEAKER_00: It kind of in a novelty way interests them.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Next we see that Jesus cares for the whole person.
SPEAKER_00: But he begins with the soul.
SPEAKER_00: But look at verses 10 on through, through 17.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus feeds the 5,000.
SPEAKER_00: And it kind of surrounds that saying or that quote that people don't care what you know unless they know you care.
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple of variations, but essentially, we've got to practically take care of people, meet practical needs before they'll ever hear us share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not a bad sentiment.
SPEAKER_00: But the problem is, it's just not what the Bible teaches, nor is it what Jesus models for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so when you have pitted against one another, and they shouldn't really be pitted, is this idea of mercy ministry.
SPEAKER_00: We're just here to meet practical needs.
SPEAKER_00: And as people see that, they're going to think, wow, that's unique.
SPEAKER_00: Why are you doing that?
SPEAKER_00: And then they're going to ask us why we do it, and then we'll share Jesus with them.
SPEAKER_00: Which makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus here cares first, primarily for the soul, right?
SPEAKER_00: He's teaching the people.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't neglect their physical needs.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't just show up and say, listen, you guys, you need to repent and believe the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Go and be well fed, take care.
SPEAKER_00: No.
SPEAKER_00: He provides for them.
SPEAKER_00: They're hungry.
SPEAKER_00: He feeds them.
SPEAKER_00: It's miraculous nonetheless, but he takes care of their needs.
SPEAKER_00: I think sometimes as Christians, we can kind of fall into one side or the other.
SPEAKER_00: We want to be truth people, so we're going to show up and we're going to preach the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Now I've heard of this happening with homeless ministries and stuff.
SPEAKER_00: They say, listen, we'll do a meal.
SPEAKER_00: You're going to sit through the sermon and then you can have the meal.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, well, that's not really compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: That's called manipulation, I think.
SPEAKER_00: Feed them and feed them.
SPEAKER_00: Now you might be thinking, well, why don't we sit through Rick's preaching and then eat?
SPEAKER_00: Why don't we eat while Rick preaches?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, his compassion is to them.
SPEAKER_00: He's meeting their needs.
SPEAKER_00: It's abundantly clear, especially coming out of the story of the daughter dying.
SPEAKER_00: That what's more important than their physical bodies dying is their soul dying, being separated from God for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: That's high and above everything else.
SPEAKER_00: That's the priority, no doubt.
SPEAKER_00: This is why it's almost a wicked thing to go to someone in need and say, here's food, here's clothing, let me help you with your bills.
SPEAKER_00: And then you leave and you don't share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: J.I.
SPEAKER_00: Packer says that if you haven't explicitly shared the gospel with your neighbors, then you haven't shared the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: There's that famous Francis of Assisi saying, you know, preach the gospel always, and if necessary, use words.
SPEAKER_00: It's always necessary to use words.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, always use words.
SPEAKER_00: We are to be people who proclaim, who preach, who teach, who share the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: But then we don't just leave.
SPEAKER_00: We provide, we serve the whole person.
SPEAKER_00: We know that people need ultimately to know God.
SPEAKER_00: They need to be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_00: They need to know his love and his grace and his mercy.
SPEAKER_00: And that's our responsibility, Christian, is to go.
SPEAKER_00: Part of that is sending, raising, pulling money to send people overseas, to share the good news with others.
SPEAKER_00: Part of that is our own going.
SPEAKER_00: And praying for one another to go.
SPEAKER_00: Praying for one another, that our evangelism would be strong, that we'd be faithful to evangelize the lost.
SPEAKER_00: Part of that is knowing who in each other's lives we're trying to share the gospel with.
SPEAKER_00: And this is convicting for me.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this will be convicting for you, but if you have no idea among one another who you're trying to witness to, if I don't know who Dave Eaton's trying to share the gospel with or who Trent's trying to share the gospel with, if I have no idea who any of you are trying to share the gospel with, how can I pray for that?
SPEAKER_00: How can I join you in that?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, why should we be ashamed of sharing with one another who we're evangelizing?
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I have a neighbor and we talk to him and pray for this brother.
SPEAKER_00: I have a coworker.
SPEAKER_00: Could you pray for him?
SPEAKER_00: Pray for me.
SPEAKER_00: It should be a regular part of our conversations of who we're seeking to share the good news of Christ with.
SPEAKER_00: Because we are to go.
SPEAKER_00: We have as Christians have a theology of going.
SPEAKER_00: We're always going.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to ask a couple questions as we close.
SPEAKER_00: Why is this so hard?
SPEAKER_00: You read these stories in Luke 8 and 9, Jesus calming the storm, Jesus healing the demon-possessed man, healing the daughter, healing the woman with blood, feeding thousands of people.
SPEAKER_00: This is amazing.
SPEAKER_00: If we're honest, if we just look around the room and we know each other, there's testimony in this room of God's miraculous power.
SPEAKER_00: Just life after life after life, transformed.
SPEAKER_00: You're heading to death and destruction.
SPEAKER_00: You're in rebellion to God, and God takes us and changes us, and that we're following Him.
SPEAKER_00: So we know that we've read about this, we know we've seen it with our own eyes, but then it comes to our lifestyle, and this is a hard thing.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't just hard for you, this is hard for me, it's hard for all of us.
SPEAKER_00: But why?
SPEAKER_00: A couple things I want to say as we close.
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned this earlier, but it's so important, church, that we understand what faithfulness in going look like.
SPEAKER_00: What does faithfulness in going look like?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it looks like we're sharing the good news of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: We're praying that God would work.
SPEAKER_00: We're trusting in the ordinary means of grace, meaning God's word, God's spirit, as we teach and preach and God's people gathering together.
SPEAKER_00: We just do that.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you see a harvest, if you will, of thousands of people.
SPEAKER_00: Whole cities and towns and communities transformed.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes maybe you don't see anything.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's just one convert.
SPEAKER_00: And that convert doesn't even want to go.
SPEAKER_00: He just wants to stay with you.
SPEAKER_00: But when we understand what faithfulness looks like when we go, it should free us.
SPEAKER_00: So we're not sending missionaries so they can come back and say, here's our minimum list.
SPEAKER_00: We have this many baptisms and this many converts, and our church is this size, and we have these numbers going on.
SPEAKER_00: Numbers can tell us things that are not bad, they're not bad at all.
SPEAKER_00: But they're not the measurement of success.
SPEAKER_00: They're not the measurement of faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: Likewise, I think sometimes we we want to we go, we share the gospel with a coworker, you know, or we we finally build up the courage to invite a neighbor over for a meal, and in the meal, like we're kind of squirming in our sleep, but we're just like, let me tell you about Jesus, you know, or um, do you know where you're gonna die, where you're gonna go if you die, and things like that.
SPEAKER_00: When you understand this is the work of the Lord to change lives, all we're here to do is cast out seed.
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to a brother this week and he was talking about how he he met someone and just shared the gospel with her right there.
SPEAKER_00: Coming out of in the Amish community.
SPEAKER_00: She's Amish and she he shared the gospel and she repented and believed.
SPEAKER_00: And now he's gonna start discipling their family.
SPEAKER_00: Well, how'd that happen?
SPEAKER_00: Well, this brother, I promise you, he's cool.
SPEAKER_00: He's not that cool.
SPEAKER_00: He had no ability to transform her heart.
SPEAKER_00: He had no ability to take out, as Ezekiel says, her heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh.
SPEAKER_00: That was beyond him.
SPEAKER_00: But praise the Lord, he wasn't looking to her or looking to himself to do that for her.
SPEAKER_00: He was looking to the king, to the master, to the savior, to the creator of the universe.
SPEAKER_00: He understood his role, and our role is just to take the good news of the gospel and to go and to spread it, to tell others about it.
SPEAKER_00: And some people will repent and believe, other people will scorn it and scoff at it, other people will find it interesting.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't matter per se.
SPEAKER_00: Our job is to be faithful, to go and to spread, to trust the success of that to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I think the other reason that we struggle with this is fear.
SPEAKER_00: We're afraid.
SPEAKER_00: We're afraid of rejection.
SPEAKER_00: We're afraid of people looking down on us.
SPEAKER_00: We're afraid of what people might say against us.
SPEAKER_00: We're afraid of what people might do to us.
SPEAKER_00: There's just this fear.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're honest and we think, okay, if I'm gonna be in heaven forever, I'm probably gonna wish that I was more brave sharing the gospel while I was on earth.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: In light of 10,000 years, someone not liking you isn't that big of a deal.
SPEAKER_00: In light of eternity, having someone close the door in your face and said, I'm fine, thank you, go away, isn't that big of a deal.
SPEAKER_00: But we have this fear in us of rejection, and the enemy sows seeds of fear, and we just buy into that fear.
SPEAKER_00: But I think also probably the primary reason we don't do this is we like our comfort.
SPEAKER_00: We just love comfort.
SPEAKER_00: I would share the gospel, but it's gonna be inconvenient.
SPEAKER_00: It would be awkward.
SPEAKER_00: It would be uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_00: You know, there used to be this guy here in our Walmart who just walk around Walmart passing out Bible verses and praying with people.
SPEAKER_00: Really weird.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: I'm serious, he's a weird guy, and it felt weird, and the whole thing was weird.
SPEAKER_00: But you know what that guy was doing?
SPEAKER_00: He was sharing Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he was.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think he's gonna get into heaven and Jesus is gonna say, Well, man, you were kind of weird.
SPEAKER_00: I don't think it's the charge.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: He was faithful.
SPEAKER_00: It's the same, I think, with with people who who do this properly, like street preachers who actually understand the gospel and aren't trying to scare people into salvation or get emotional responses out of people.
SPEAKER_00: They're just out there in public telling people about Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And you're driving by or you're walking by, and man, that's that's that takes a lot of guts to do that.
SPEAKER_00: Or man, that's a really turnoff.
SPEAKER_00: You know, these people are just trying to live their life.
SPEAKER_00: And here he is being loud, telling them that they're going to go to hell if they don't repent.
SPEAKER_00: We can kind of scoff at that.
SPEAKER_00: We look down on that, but you know what that person's doing?
SPEAKER_00: He's telling people that you have one hope in life, and that's Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And if you don't repent, when you die, if you don't repent, you will spend eternity separated from him.
SPEAKER_00: And there is no second chance.
SPEAKER_00: There is no other option.
SPEAKER_00: There's no purgatory, there's no holding place, there's no second chance on this.
SPEAKER_00: It's one time.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and believe.
SPEAKER_00: And so they might be viewed as weird or odd or socially awkward or annoying.
SPEAKER_00: But these are people who are just trying to tell people that Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners, and his mercy is sufficient, and his grace is sufficient, and he can transform your life, he can save you.
SPEAKER_00: Repent, put your hope and your faith in him.
SPEAKER_00: This is what sent people do.
SPEAKER_00: This is why we're to go.
SPEAKER_00: But it's uncomfortable for us.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to share my the gospel with my coworker again.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to talk to that family member.
SPEAKER_00: They know I'm a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: If they have questions, they can ask.
SPEAKER_00: As Christians, it's our responsibility to go because Christ has come.
SPEAKER_00: He's displayed his power, he's brought deliverance, he's brought healing for the people in the story in Luke, but also for you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're a Christian, he's done this for you, he's saved you.
SPEAKER_00: And so our prayer is Lord, give us hearts that believe.
SPEAKER_00: As David prays, restore the joy of our salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Give us eyes to see how amazing it is that God the Father sent God the Son to deliver us from our sins, that we would then walk in obedience.
SPEAKER_00: Church, let's pray.