Can God truly use me in His mission, despite my doubts?
WATCH
3-2-1: A Call to Prayer, 4 of 4 from September 28, 2025
“Jesus uses leaders to help companions work together to find lost wanderers.”
Luke 10:1-24 by Michael Lockstampfor (@miklocks)
SUMMARY
This sermon develops the last part of the "3-2-1" prayer initiative, encouraging believers to pray for three people daily: a spiritual wanderer (someone who doesn't know Jesus), a spiritual companion (fellow believer), and a spiritual leader. Using Luke 10:1-24, Pastor Michael Lockstampfor demonstrates how Jesus sends out ordinary people on His mission, emphasizing that the work begins with prayer and requires complete dependence on God, with the ultimate goal being that Jesus uses leaders to help companions work together to find lost wanderers.
REFLECTION & DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
💬 When are we most tempted to forget we depend on God?
💬 What sin is a burden to us because our neighbors reject Jesus?
💬 What leaders will we pray for?
💬 What leaders will we be?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
📖 Read Luke 10:1-24
📖 The physician comes to the sick (Luke 5:27-32)
📖 The ministry continues with the power of prayer (Colossians 4:3-4)
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Hey, good morning, church. Oh, okay, never mind. Hey, I'm glad to be together with you. And we've been going through a series that we've called 3 21. And this is.
I actually was talking with somebody this week. This series has been one that's been kind of percolating in me since last summer, where another pastor friend of mine challenged me, said, hey, what if you just prayed for three lost people every day? What if you just committed to pray for three lost people every day? And I was like, ye, sure, I can do that. And as I did that, it kind of grew in me to be something different than that original challenge.
And so as we have adopted 3, 2, 1, we've given some different parameters in that original challenge, which means nothing for you, but it means something for me, right? The first challenge was pray for three lost people. And that's where we started. We wanted to pray for a spiritual wanderer. Pray for a spiritual wanderer every week.
But as I leaned into that practice, I think it gave me a helpful correction of like, thinking about the people that Jesus wants to engage with. But in doing that practice, there was part of it that felt unbalanced to me. And so I thought, you know what? Maybe if we just pray for lost people all the time, we have a focus, prayer for lost people, we might be a little bit off kilter. And so what if we also prayed for one another?
What if we prayed for people who already are trust in Jesus, but who can testify that once you start walking with Jesus, said, don't get easier, it gets more difficult, Right? And so maybe we ought to pray for one another as we're in this journey together of following Jesus. And so that's where our second person is. Praying for a spiritual companion, somebody who already has trusted Jesus. But we're all in the process, and non of us has arrived yet.
And so that's where we. That was the next phase. And then as I thought, okay, like, that's true. But there's also this thing that God's growing in us. As we talk about the Grove initiative and we talk about working together over the next 10 years to plow the ground by training up leaders and sow the seed by starting new churches and reaping the harvest by praying that the Lord would send a thousand folks that would trust Jesus for the first time, it occurred to me that, like, we can pray for the lost.
And I think that's important and necessary. We can pray for one another And I think that that's important to necessary. But there's another thing that God does in church that's really, really difficult for me to talk about in front of you, which is he uses human people to do spiritual things. And so I just. Cards on the table.
I try to live as transparently as I can before you. As I put this material together and started thinking through how we would pray together as a church, I felt a burden that we ought to be praying for spiritual leaders. And I was concerned at the front end that, oh, of course Michael put that in there because he's really trying to get everybody praying for him. And so let me just say at the outset that I am going to encourage you to pray for somebody who you consider a spiritual leader. And I do that with the assumption that I may not be the person that you're praying for.
And that's okay. This is not me trying to get a whole bunch of prayer support or anything like that. But it is giving consideration to the fact that for whatever reason, I don't think it's a great idea. I think Jesus could do way more without me if he would just show up and do it himself. But he said it's better for him to leave and put the Holy Spirit in his church and the Holy Spirit to call leaders up to lead other people.
He said that's the better way to go. And I don't get it, but I'm just gonna follow what he said I'm supposed to do. Right. And so this morning, as we close out this prayer initiative series, praying for three people at 2pm every day for one purpose. That God's will would be done in their lives.
That they would be glorifying him with every aspect of their life. So if that's all new to you, we wrote a book and it's very, very simple. Like, that's literally the whole thing. I've given you the synopsis. Pray for three people at 2pm for one purpose.
That God would be at work doing God stuff. Cause God does God S stuff. And we just try to get out of the way. But sometimes it's helpful to have more words. And so that's there too, as we go.
As we move into the sermon, I'm gonna invite us to pray together another prayer that Jesus. Well, the prayer that Jesus left for us. And it's our habit to pray this as we're kind of starting. And more than the words that we say. It's the heart attitude that the Lord is driving at.
And so I'm going to ask us to just take a deep breath and let me pray for us before we pray together. Father, you know our weakness. You know how easily we distracted we are. You know that our heart is full of suspicion.
And so, Lord, we pray that you would be calibrating our heart, that you would help us to see things clearly by the light of your grace and your mercy.
And we ask that above all else, you would reign supreme. And so we do pray together. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
In the scripture, we have four different biographies of Jesus life, and each of them is written by a different author. The one we were going to look at today is written by Doctor Luke and Doctor Luke was a guy who cared a lot about details, and he cared a lot about order. And so he set out when he was writing his biography about Jesus to put everything in chronological order and to record accurately and specifically the things that Jesus said in their order. So the order in Luke is really significant. So as we turn to Luke chapter 10, I'm gonna invite you to navigate to Luke chapter 10 with me.
There's a term that happens in Luke chapter nine where the early part of Jesus s ministry, chapters one through eight, Jesus is teaching and doing some stuff at home. He travels around a little bit. But in Luke chapter nine, it says that Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem, that he'd been living life and calling disciples and teach him. But in John 9, he set his face towards Jerusalem, knowing that when he got to Jerusalem, he would be betrayed by a close friend, he would be executed and ultimately would come back from the dead. So there's this turn in Luke's biography where he makes a note like, Jesus knows he's headed towards the end.
This is the final chapter. And this journey that he's on with his disciples is a different phase of ministry than what they've done before. And he closes that in verses 57, 62, he's giving tests to his followers. He's inviting people, hey, come and follow me. And then as he invites people to follow him, they're giving him objections.
I gotta go take care of this business. I gotta go take care of that business. And he closes this, knowing he set his face towards Jerusalem, knowing this is his last, like chapter of discipleship with the boys on the road. He closes in verse 62. No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.
He says, what I'm inviting you into is a purpose that is gonna obliterate everything that you thought you did in your life before. And that's where chapter 10 starts. Does that sound like maybe something we could be interested in this morning? Okay, maybe. All right, cool.
Let's try it. I'm gonna have to turn there. I didn't realize I hadn't turned there. We're going toa be in Luke chapter 10, Matthew, Mark, Luke 10. And if you haven't made it in the blue Bibles yet, It's on page 1083.
So let's start in verse one after this. So after he says, no one who puts his hand in the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom. 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. 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. So carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road when 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. So as Jesus is set his face towards Jerusalem, he's saying, look, we're gonna leave our past life behind, and we are moving forward into God's mission. He grabs 72. Now, if I were to ask you, like before, maybe we read this morning, how many disciples does Jesus have that he's really close with?
What would we say, 12? So when we think of the disciples of Jesus, we think of the 12 dudes, right? And we call them. What's the other word for disciples? Apostles.
Now, is there anybody in here that's like, I'm feeling like an apostle today? Now, most days I'm like, man, I'm just happy to be on the cart, right? I'm at the bottom of the barrel. If Jesus is sending me out, then he's really struggling. I'm not like Paul.
I'm not like Peter. I'm not like Matthew. Like, I don't have that kind of oomph that the apostles have, right? But here, I think is interesting. He's sending out more than just the 12.
He sent the 12 in the beginning of chapter 9 and gives them some instructions. But here he's sending out 72. This is a larger group of disciples, right? And 70 or 72, the Greek isn't exactly clear how many there are, but he's sending out more than just the 12. And that's encouraging because it's not just about the people who get all the press that Jesus is at work in.
How many of these people do we know the names of?
0.
But how many people does God know the name of? He knows all of them. And so I'm just saying, if Jesus is inviting you into his mission, and if he's sending you out, he knows your name, whether anybody else in the world does, and he cares about what he's sending you into. Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to lead us, and the Holy Spirit sends us out to others. But the mission begins with prayer to God to send laborers.
Did you see that? When he starts, he says, hey, look up. The harvest is plentiful. There's a lot of work to do, but the laborers are few. There's a lot of work to do, but there's not a lot of people that are willing to put their hand to the plow and do the work.
And you're like, okay, well, then let's get to the work, right? Who else is like, all right, if there's a lot of work to do, I'm here to do it. Let's just tell me what to do. Let's go. I know who you are.
I'm not going to point you out, right? There's some of you that are like, oh, there's something that needs to be done. I volunteer for all 12 jobs. I don't care what they are. I'll just do them, okay?
He's like, hey, this is killing you. Maybe you should. No, no, no. I can't share. I got to do all the things, right?
Jesus says, before you jump in, before you tackle whatever the problem is, stop and pray. The mission begins with prayer for God to send more laborers. I know that you can do a lot. I have seen what God has done through this body. But he says, even when you feel the call to Ministry, even when you know what your task is that Jesus is asking you to do, he says, start that work by praying for more partners.
Start that work asking that the Lord would call up more leaders.
And this, too. Every time I come to this passage, I'm reminded of it, and I think it's helpful. And so let me just say it. Don't mistake the harvest for the enemy. How many of us, as we like, look at the news today, we're like, these people need Jesus, right?
And then we're like, they are the enemy. These people need Jesus. I can't believe that they would say that. I can't believe that they would believe that. I can't believe they would talk to people like that about that in that situation.
They are just so disgusting. And we mistake the harvest for the enemy, and we begin cutting down what the Lord intends to reap. And so when you see that the harvest is white, when you see that there's a lot of work to do, when you walk into the break room and everybody's doing all of the things that unsaved people do, talking about each other and all those kinds of things, when you see how they're taking advantage of the clock, when you go into the school and you realize that everybody else is cheating on the test, we can look at the harvest and go, those people need Jesus. And then the enemy will let us convince them that they are the enemy. But don't mistake the harvest for the enemy.
Pray that the Lord would raise up more workers to work together with you. But did you notice how he tells these 72 to go, this is crazy to me. Only Jesus can get away with this kind of thing. He says in verse four, carry no money bag. Like, leave your wallet at home.
No sandals. Greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter first, say, peace be to this house. Hey, you're just going to be homeless for a while and just show up and say, hey, peace. Can I stay here?
And whichever SAP says yes first, just stay. Don't do an interview and figure out who's got the best cooking in town. Just eat whatever. Eat whatever they serve you. Well, I'm going to need the Holy Spirit for that.
Especially if I'm cooking at my house. Like, y'all coming over like it's going to be ramen and I can fancy it up. I put some turkey in there. A youth group knows ramen, ramen, and ramen.
As he sends us out on his mission, he says, I just want you to remember whose mission you are. Don't forget that you need me on your mission. Have we heard that we must choose God dependent in both easy and hard times? That whatever it is that God's calling us to do, he's not asking you to go do it all by your lonesome. That when he sends out us and we read it every weekend, Go therefore in.
Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I've commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. He's sending us out and saying, I'm coming too. We must choose God dependence.
I don't think. Did I do anything? Yeah. Have you ever gotten to the front of it? Like, you're trying to get on an airplane and they've got like, these baggage limits that make no logical sense.
Like, so if I've got two bags, I get two checked bags, but they both have to be like, under 40 pounds, whatever it is. And if I have 42 pounds in one bag and 38 pounds in the other bag, I literally have to move the two pounds from one bag. They're both going on the plane. I do not understand, but Jesus says, check your baggage. Like, when you go, don't take your wallet with you.
Don't take an extra pair of shoes. Go depending on me for what I'm asking you to do.
But there's no greater mission than the one that God is doing in the world. And there's no purpose that's more fulfilling. He says, stay focused. Stay focused. He says, don't greet anybody on the road.
Which sounds rude to me, but in their culture, it would not be uncommon for the people that you greet on the road to. Then you get bogged down into a conversation, and then you have to go and help them with their problems. He says, I want you to stay focused. Don't get distracted by a bunch of good things that you could do on the way. Get to where you're going and do what I've asked you to do.
There are tons of opportunities, but not every open door is the Holy Spirit. The enemy can open doors, too. He disguises himself as an angel of light, and he can give you things that look good but are less than what God is calling you to do. So stay focused. The greetings may be good, but they also may be distractions from the mission.
So go and then grow where you're planted. Preach where ears are open. This is hard. How do I figure that out? Because it's clear to me that God's planted me where I'm at, but the ears are not open.
He says here to these folks, whatever house you enters first say, peace be to this house. And if the Son of Peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house.
Wherever you enter a town and they receive you. Eat what's set before you. He's saying, like, just stay where you are and work where you are. If there's opportunity where you get to where you're going, just stay there. As long as ears are open, I don't even know where I'm at in my notes.
So we'll figure out as we're going, though, like, just where are we most tempted because these things come out. Where are we most tempted to forget that we depend on God? Where are the things that, like, you're pretty sure you got it handled. Jesus brought you onto his team so that you could contribute this. Where are we most tempted to forget that we depend on God for every step of the way?
But this work is work. Did you see that? Like, this is not an easy thing. It is work. And he says, a laborer worth is worth his wages.
Evangelism and leadership is work and worthy of compensation. But the ministry continues. The ministry perseveres through the power of prayer. We started with prayer, and we continue with prayer. One pastor writes in the letter to the church in Colossee.
At the same time, pray for us also that God may open to us the door for the Word to declare the mystery of Christ. On account of which I'm in prison, that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. Pray for me that as I speak, it's clear what I'm trying to say.
But there are both in this leaders and supporters. There are the leaders who are coming into the town, and then there are people who are supporting them as they come. But remember, and it gets goofy. It's not as though there are different tiers of faith. It's the same faith.
Like, what God is doing is unified. But every part of the body belongs even before they function, right? We saw that. That as Jesus brings us in, we each have a level of maturity and we behave according to our maturity. You remember last week I said it would be great if I had a chart.
I had a chart and I didn't know it. This is from a book that I read from Jim Putnam where he actually does Put on a spiritual maturity spectrum. The spiritually dead, the spiritual infants, spiritual child children, spiritual young adults, and spiritual parents where like, as we grow in our maturity, there are things that are true of us. There are phrases that we say. They are re ideas that are common to us.
And as we grow, like, hopefully we look more and more like Christ. That's the goal. But God uses the whole body. And so there are some people who are sent. They have the spiritual maturity to be sent out and to care for and to lead folks that are not yet that mature.
But the goal of parenting, oh, friends, the goal of parenting is not to raise kids. The goal of parenting is to raise adults.
And it's this weird tension of like, but I love them. And just they're so squishy. And they were so much more manageable when they were small. And he's like, yes, they are. But the heart issues that we're dealing with are going to pervade even into adulthood.
We need to be mindful that what we grow is going to continue to go. Right?
So he sends. He says the physician came to heal the sick and he sends his disciples out to the sick to provide healing and dispatches other healers. But here's, I think our big idea for the morning, if I can boil it down to this whole thing, is that Jesus uses leaders to help companions work together to find lost wanderers. When we started in Ephesians 1, it said that the church belongs to Jesus. He's the one who's in control and he gives gifts to the church.
And then he lists a bunch of leaders. So the gifts that the leader is given or the gifts that Jesus has given to the church's leaders, that their goal is not to go and do the ministry, but to equip the saints for the work of the ministry. So Jesus uses leaders to help companions work together to do the ministry so that the lost wanderers can be found. Because the wanderers today are the found tomorrow.
So does it matter? Like, this is like pep talky stuff, like, okay, I get it, it's fine. But what are the risks? There's some here. Let's look in verse 13, he's going to list some ancient cities.
I'll tell you what they mean when we get done. Woe to you, Chorazin. Woe to you, Bethsaida. For if the mighty works done in you had been done Tyre in Sudan, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and sit on than for you and You, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven.
You shall be brought down to Hades. The one who hears you, hears me. The one who rejects you, rejects me. The one who rejects me rejects him who sent me me.
God gives a couple of hypotheticals here. He's talking about cities that are common. And in fact, Capernaum in particular was like his home base. Peter's mother in law lived in Capernaum, and it seems like Jesus kind of crashed in her couch a lot. And so everywhere he went, he kind of came back to.
Capernaum was like his home base. And so Capernaum was a city that Jesus visited a lot. He preached in a lot. Presumably he healed a lot of people. There's some really famous healing stories that take place in Capernaum.
And so they have this idea that, like, well, because Jesus has selected us as his hometown, like, we must be right with God. And he says, if you're not, if you're not repenting, if you're not heeding to the message, if you're not following Jesus, like your proximity to him doesn't matter, if you're not surrendered to him as your Lord. And if these miracles had been done in old cities that you know were destroyed by God's judgment, those cities would have repented. So it's not enough for you to be close to the work that Jesus is doing. He's asking us to actually surrender to it.
And what's crazy is, like, I can give you some hypotheticals, but when God gives you hypotheticals, they carry with it the certainty of perfect omniscience. Like he says, hypothetically, if I had let Jesus do these miracles in these other cities, then they would have repented. Like, God knows that that would have happened. Which is crazy to me. I have more questions about the rest of that verse, but he does not give me any more to go on.
So I'll talk with him about it later. But here's. I think the bottom line for us is that the mission matters to those we were sent to. He's sending his disciples into these cities. And some of these cities he knows are not going to accept the message.
But he says if they do not accept the message, there are going to be consequences for rejecting the kingdom of God. Like real consequences. Now we can trust God's character. We know that even when he was judging Sodom and Gomorrah, that he was kind enough to deliver individual families who had sufficient faith. But he's dealing on terms of cities.
He says, this matters for this city, this Culture is going to have consequences if they reject the kingdom of Heaven. The mission matters for those we're sent to. Whether or not we speak up matters for the courses of the communities that we're in. When we have an opportunity to speak into policies at work that are going to shape the way that our employers deal with other employees, like that matters. When we have the opportunity to represent Christ to our classmates at the lunch table and how we care for one another, that matters because how we respond to God today shapes our habit of response.
Do you see that? How we respond to God today shapes our habit of response. If these cities reject the ones that I send, they will now be in the habit of rejecting my word. And that's going to persist.
And so what sin is a burden to you and I because our neighbors reject Jesus?
I don't think we think about it like this a lot. We think, oh, those people need Jesus, and I'm so glad I've got him. There's no overlap between us and them. But there are sins that are burdensome to me, not because I wrestle with them, but because my neighbor is enslaved.
And the mission that I'm on matters for them. And they might not ever know what it is that God wants to do. What sin is a burden to us because our neighbors reject Jesus? Jesus ambassadors. Jesus.
Yeah, Jesus ambassadors. The ones that he sent are his presence in the town that they address. Did you see that? This is crazy to me too. He says in verse 16, the one who hears you 72 that I'm sending out, here's me.
When you speak, they hear my voice. The one who rejects you rejects me. And the one who rejects me rejects him who sent me.
Jesus sends us as his body and we are his representatives on earth. Again, he didn't ask me whether I thought that was a good idea. That's just what he's doing. And I think that that changes. Like how we think about how we show up in the places.
Like when I walk into a room, bring. Do I bring the presence of Jesus? Or is everybody just kind of like, u Gosh, let's read a little bit more here. How did it end? What happened?
The 72 returned. Phew, made it. They return with joy, okay? 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've 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. And in that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, saying, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and Earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and 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. Then, turning to the disciples, he said, privately, 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, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it. So there's a refocus here, the 72. They go out, they start preaching, and they're like, whoa, even the demons are listening to us when we show up in Jesus name. Like, things are happening spiritually, and they come back and they're excited, and he's like, yeah, I saw stuff happen.
Like, I saw Satan fall down out of heaven like lightning. And I'm like, what is happening there? And Jesus says, no more. I'm like, come on, Jesus, you gotta give me a little bit more to work with. But he says, it's not even the point.
You don't need to know what was happening in the background. The thing that you should care about at all is that your names are written in the book of life.
Do not rejoice in this, in the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. This is crazy to me. We talked about angels and demons a couple of weeks ago. And so if you want to catch up on some of that sometimes oddness, then that sermon is on our website or in our app. But the big thing that's crazy to me is that angels investigate salvation, like our salvation.
Angels investigate because it's an opportunity that they were never given. Some angels sinned, and God saved none of those who sinned. He said, you sinned. Y'all are gone. You're now demons.
And that was it. It solidified forever. Some angels sinned, and they never had the opportunity to repent. But all humans have sinned. Scripture is clear that all humans have sinned, and God does save some of them, which is astonishing when we actually give some consideration to that, that the greatest miracle in creation is that God forgives sinners.
And most of the time, I'm pretty comfortable with that idea. Most of the time I'm like, yeah, I get why God would save me. Like, I wasn't really that bad to begin with. I was kind of a good kid. I had a bowl cut, I was real cute.
But Jesus wasn't looking at my bow cut. He was looking at my sick, twisted self serving disgusting heart that worshipped only myself and only my appetites, that wanted nothing to do with what God actually wanted to do in my life. And he said, I'm going to give that one the opportunity to trade that sin and that death and clothe himself and let me clothe him in my righteousness so that he can have life and have it abundantly. And the greatest miracle in creation is that God forgives sinners. The demon staff is whatever they're background characters.
Knowing what's happening in the spiritual realm actually doesn't change what I have to do on the daily I submit to Jesus and I pray to the Lord of the harvest and I follow in his footsteps.
And so the 72 come back with joy because they're like, oh, the demons are doing stuff. And in verse 21 in that same hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, saying, I thank you Father, Lord, in heaven and earth that you've hidden these things from the wise and understanding revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. I'm thankful, Lord. What I'm thankful for is that you used these 72 boneheads.
You didn't go and you pick out the ones that were well educated. You didn't pick out the ones that had good lifestyles. You went and grabbed a bunch of fishermen off the lake and said, come on boys, we're going to go fish for people.
I praise you God, that you are at work. You are Lord of heaven and earth, and you have hidden the mystery of salvation for humanity among foolish normal people who just have enough faith to trust that perhaps God in his mercy might love me and he might love you. And if you don't know that, I'm here to tell you he does temporary ministry gains pale in comparison to eternal security in Christ. We can do a lot of good work, and I hope we do. But anything we do together as a church, any rejoicing that we do over the next 10 years as the Lord meets us in our projects, any good stuff that we might get pales in comparison when we stand before our Lord and Jesus and we realize a we have clear insight on exactly how sinful I was and also how great his love was for me.
That he met me and forgave me the song goes. I'm not what I make I'm who you have made me to be I'm not what I've done I'm loved unconditionally I'm not loved by the measure of love that I bring I'm not who I know I'm known by the King of all Kings so what do we do?
We can look at this book and be like, man, that's crazy that God did that with those 72 boneheads. We don't even know any of their names. And we can go in, get lunch and be like, man, it's crazy stuff. Can't believe God would do that the Holy Spirit sending you.
And it would be really, I wish that he would, like, make you glow in the darker, give you like an achievement badge on your shoulder or something when he called you. And he doesn't do all that because he's designed us to be God dependent. But it's my responsibility to ask you, is Jesus sending you?
There's a section in this book starting on page 24, and this may be the reason why the book exists. I do think that we ought to be praying for one another. I do believe that we ought to be praying for the lost, think that that is the work of the ministry. But I think that what the Lord does in us as we pray is just as important as the words that we say. And so I hope my prayer is this, that as you pray for lost people, that you learn to love lost people.
I hope that as you pray for spiritual companions, that you learn to love spiritual companions. And I hope that as you pray for church leaders, well, I don't know if you should love them, but you should definitely be respectful of the battle that they're in. Maybe there's love in that, too. Again, this is awkward for me to say, but as the Lord grows in you a love for lost and a love for your companions and a love for the leaders that he's put in your life, then it may be that he's growing in you that affection because he wants for you to step in and be the answer to your prayer. As you pray that God, you would send laborers out into the harvest.
God, would you send people to work? Would you send somebody to witness and tell the story of Jesus to my lost friend? He might be like, yeah, I'll do that for you. When are you talking to them next?
It may be that as we pray for these lost people, that the Lord is going to give us opportunities to Share the good news with them. And maybe as we pray for spiritual companions, we realize, man, they're really struggling. I wish somebody would, like, get in their life and give them support that Jesus says, hey, friend, I have given you the eyes to see the need. And it may be that as you pray for spiritual leaders, you realize, hey, there's some weaknesses in the church and I have some gifts that are really natural to me, but nobody else seems to be getting it. And maybe I could use my gifts to lead other people.
I don't know.
I'm often astonished that God would use me for anything because he doesn't tell me what he's doing and he doesn't ask my permission most of the time, but he does ask me to ask you. And it does give me a responsibility to lead you.
I started, you guys know I say often, like, my default setting is cynicism and sadness, right. I started towards the church a posture of criticism. And I said to God, I said, I don't want anything to do. I grew up in a toxic home. I can or not.
Toxic home. Excuse me. Home is great. Mom's not here. Oh, she is here.
You were hiding behind Sharma earlier when I looked. Sorry. Grew up in a good home, but. Grew up in a good home. But our church culture was toxic and lots of reasons for that.
And I went away to college and I was so glad to be out of there. I was so glad. Didn't I have to deal with the gossip or deal with the people yelling at me and all stuff. Right. And I ended up at a church service where the pastor said, God's plan for saving the world is the church.
And there are nonprofits. There are. They call them parachurch, non church organizations that are doing good work in the world. He says those are fine. But the.
That the plan that God has set out is that he's going to send the church. And so what I want for you to do is I want you to pray for our church back. Pray for your church back home. And I. Those people need Jesus.
They are messed up and I don't really want anything to do with that. And that was the night where Jesus showed up and said, you can fire shots at my bride from the outside all you want, but you're not getting where I'm going on the outside. And if you have eyes to see what's wrong, then maybe I've equipped you to be able to be a part of the healing that needs to happen in the next generation. Generation.
So I understand. I have seen the worst sides of people from this seat and from other seats that I've occupied. I understand the skepticism of church. I understand all of the reasons that we can come up with, with why we should hold back and be afraid. But my friends, Jesus, this is his plan.
He didn't give us a second option. And so we've either got toa love each other the way that he said we've got to love each other there, or the world'just going, hell, it matters. And I don't have a better option. I wish I did.
And there's Let me pray. Jesus, you do what you do, Jesus. This is your church. We're your people. You are the shepherd.
You are the pastor of this church. And Lord, I'm thankful for Ryan. I'm thankful for the privilege to be called a leader here.
But, Lord, you're ultimately the one who's doing it.
And I don't know how to split the hairs between our responsibility and your sovereignty. And Lord, most days I just don't care. There's plenty of work to be done. And so, Lord, I'm just asking that you would send laborers into the harvest.
Lord, I pray.
I pray that our reputation as a church would not be, oh, that's Pastor Michael's church. But, Lord, that's Jesus church. Lord, I pray that our reputation would be all men. I don't know much about that neighborhood church over there, but, man, they sure love me, and they sure want me to know that God loves me. And I don't believe that yet, but I almost believe it by the way that they talk.
And, Lord, that's not something we can do in a weekend.
There's not a program that exists that could turn out widgets for us to have the right answers. Lord, you know, I've combed the Internet for all of those magic bullets.
And so I just suspect it's not going to happen in us unless you grow us.
Unless our spiritual infants grow up into children and our spiritual young adults become parents.
Lord, we do the work and plant and water and sow the seed and all that stuff, but it's always you who gives the growth. And so I don't know what else to say.
I pray that you would root out of us the sin that ensnares us so easily, Lord, the pride, the fear of men and reputation, the cynicism or the gossip that we're prone to, Lord. I pray that you would d root all these things out. You know we're guilty. We know we're guilty, Lord. The only confidence we have to ask for you to do that is because you say you'll forgive when we acknowledge it and agree with you.
So we set aside this time. Lord I give you however much, however time you want to deal with us one on one, before we close together and sing in, let's continue to pray.
