"Working With Jesus"

“Working with Jesus”

Luke 10:1-9

Think of your favorite writer, or perhaps your favorite musician or artist.

Or how about your favorite historical figure.

Perhaps it is one of our founding fathers.

Or imagine the President of the United States…

Anyone of position…

And this person walks up to you, greets you heartily, and asks you to work with him or her on their latest novel, c-d, concert tour, or even to help shape the course of history.

That would be some invitation, wouldn’t it?

To co-labor with a President, or a writer of the Constitution, or a great artist!

Just imagine!!!

But, alas, most of us will, more than likely, stand un-commissioned in this kind of endeavor.

There is in my life and yours, however, a genuine commissioning that, if you think about it, far outshines any other possible call!!!

It is Jesus’ call to “GO!”

It is Jesus’ call to work with Him and for Him in order to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!!!

God has called each and every one of us to work together with God to create a new people for God’s Kingdom!!!

There is a lost world right outside our doors.

Persons are struggling under the chains of depression, hopelessness, heartache and pain and anger.

They are harassed and helpless.

But they are loved, and many of them do not even know it.

“The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.

“Go! I am sending you….”

Not only are we to pray for others to go, we are to become harvesters ourselves!!!!

And it is an important and urgent task.

There is nothing which supersedes it!!!

One of the things we noticed, a week ago, when we delivered cantaloupes to persons in the homes immediately surrounding this church is that, amazingly…

…the majority of the folks we spoke with do not attend a church!!!

These are the homes that encircle our church building.

These are homes filled with families with children, and older folks as well.

This church—You and I—we exist in this community for them!

And we are all called to “Go!”

As most of you know, we have some awesome opportunities coming up to reach out to this community with the Gospel of Jesus Christ!!!

We are collecting school supplies in order to give them away to cash-strapped parents on July 31st in the Family Life Center.

But in order for this to be a success, we must all “Go!”

There is a box in the hall to place the supplies…

…and there isn’t much in there right now.

Jesus says, “Go!”

Vacation Bible School is coming up in a couple weeks.

What a privilege and opportunity to bring new families into this transforming community of faith!!!

Invite people to come…

Jesus says, “Go!”

We will have a block party next Spring.

This is a chance for all of us to come to know one another, to have fun, and to invite our community to come to know the Savior of the world.

We will have many Evangelistic outreach projects throughout every month of the year.

This is what it means to labor in the harvest field!!!

Every Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. we meet to plan and brainstorm for these events.

And every one of us are invited by Christ Himself to be a part!!!

If you haven’t been to one of these meetings, or the evangelism events, Jesus says, “Go!”

This is the mission of the church!

It’s urgent, it’s serious, and most importantly it is a command of Christ—that we work together with Him for the salvation of the world!!!

Wow!!!

There is nothing more exciting than this!!!

Our passage for this morning indicates that the workers are few.

Shall we do our part in changing that?

This really is an amazing passage of Scripture.

Jesus appointed seventy-two persons, along with the disciples and sent them ahead of Him “to every town and place he was about to go.”

Then He gave them a number of instructions.

He told them, “do not take a purse or bag or sandals…”

Now, why in the world would He say that?

Could it be that, as Christian co-workers we are not to be cluttered up with material things?

It’s so easy to get entangled with the things of this life.

Is this not one of the main reasons that the laborers in the harvest field are so few?

We get distracted by financial pressures.

Many of us buy things we can’t afford.

We live above our means.

And as a result, we are in debt to the banks and mortgage companies…

…and that debt can take precedence over our debt to God and our freedom to do God’s will.