The Mission

This morning, we continue our study of Luke as we take a look at our mission, what our mission is to share God's message.

In just a few minutes, Tobin's going to unpack a little bit for us on Luke chapter 10, verses 1 through 16.

Luke 10:1–16

As we continue preparing our hearts to receive that with song and spoken word,

I'm going to invite you this morning to read the scripture with me as opposed to just following along.

So if you would stand in the honor of reading of God's word.

This morning, the words will be on the screen, so please follow along and read with me now.

Go, behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes.

And greet no one on the way.

Whatever house you enter, first say,

Peace be to this house.

If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him.

But if not, it will return to you.

Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they give you.

For the laborer is worthy of his wages.

Do not keep moving from house to house.

Whatever city you enter and they receive you,

eat what is set before you.

And heal those in it who are sick.

And say to them,

The kingdom of God has come near to you.

But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you,

go out into the streets and say,

Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet,

we wipe off in protest against you.

Yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.

I say to you,

it will be more tolerable in the day for Sodom than for that city.

Woe to you, Chorazin.

Woe to you, Bethsaida.

For if the miracles had been performed in Tyre and Sidon,

which occurred in you,

they would have repented long ago,

sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon

in the judgment than for you.

And you, Capernaum,

will not be exalted to heaven, will you?

You will be brought down to Hades.

The one who listens to you listens to me.

And the one who rejects you rejects me.

And he who rejects me rejects the one who sent me.

This is the reading of God's word.

Just continue to worship with us.

Okay.

So the lottery tickets are waiting out back.

And, you know, whatever you...

We're trying to make one of that more specific to our culture here.

That's definitely...

But have you ever been in a me church?

That was a joke, right?

That's not what we're shooting for.

Just to make sure of that, okay?

That was a joke.

But sometimes we struggle with whether we know that that's true or not.

How you guys doing?

Good?

Good.

Okay.

That's the most positive response I've ever received.

That's very good.

We want to welcome you to Watermark Church.

We are...

We're on a journey.

We're talking about the book of Luke.

It seems like we've been in it for at least a year and a half, off and on.

And we are only at chapter 10.

And so we're going to look at chapter 10.

Now, remember, Luke is one of the four Gospels.

And it was written by a physician, a very intelligent man.

He probably uses some of the best Greek in writing the language that the New Testament has.

And Luke is basically writing to his friend.

His friend's name is Theophilus.

We don't know much about Theophilus.

We know that he was probably a very wealthy and powerful individual in the Roman government.

And Theophilus came to this struggle in his life.

And he wanted to ask Luke, was Jesus real?

Was Jesus really who people said he was?

Did Jesus do everything that the disciples are talking about?

Is he God?

Is he worth giving my whole life to?

Those are the questions that he was asking Luke.

And those are the questions that Luke is trying to answer for him.

And as I think about that, those are some of the same questions that you and I ask today, right?

I mean, is Jesus really the only way?

I mean, is he really doing all those things?

And was that just back then and he doesn't do them now?

I mean, is he really worth giving my life to?

My job to?

Can I really trust him?

Is he good?

And those are some of the things that Luke is writing in his Gospel to share with his friend and us about Jesus.

Luke 10 is a very interesting passage.

I was going through it this week, the last couple weeks.

I felt like if I, to do it justice, I probably would have to talk for about three hours on it.

Going through, because there's so many stories and pictures and nuances.

And the words are very specific.

They have a very specific meaning.

But I'm not going to do that.

So you're kind of going, whew.

But I want to talk about this idea of what does it mean to be on mission?

What does it mean for us as a church to exist?

As I was praying through this message, I was reminded of this story of Hudson Taylor.

Hudson Taylor was one of the great missionaries to China.

And the story goes that Taylor was on this boat from Shanghai to Ningpo.

And as he was on this boat, this junk, he was sharing with some friends.

And he was sharing with this very elegantly dressed Chinese man named Peter.

Peter wasn't a follower of Christ, but Peter was very interested in what Hudson Taylor had to say.

And Hudson Taylor could tell that he was being convicted by God's Spirit to ask more and more questions.

And as they were talking and as the boat was going on, it hit a lurch and Peter fell overboard.

And he sank like a rock.

And Hudson Taylor, to his surprise, looked around and no one jumped in.

No one threw a life thing.

No one stopped anything.

And he started yelling, man overboard, man overboard in Chinese, because he could speak Chinese very well.

And no one stopped.

And so finally he ran up and he cut the rope on the sails of the junk.

So the sails collapsed and the boat effectively stopped.

And he jumped in the water and he dove and he dove trying to find Peter.

And he came up and he was yelling for help, yelling for help, help, help, help.

There's a person drowning here.

I need help.

He looks over to the side of the shore and there's some fishermen in their boat fishing over there.

And he yells to them, can you come help me, my friends, in the water?

He's drowning.

I need your help.

Bring your nets right now.

We can save him.

And the fishermen looked at him and go, we're busy.

We're too busy.

We're working.

We're catching fish.

We can't do this.

And Taylor was screaming at them and finally said, how can I get you over here?

And the guys go, pay us.

And so after a couple seconds of bartering, Taylor empties his pocket and he says,

if you could have all of this, if you come right now to help me with my friend.

And immediately the fishermen lifted up their nets and they came over and they dragged their net.

And within less than a minute, they pulled up Peter's body.

But it was too late.

Peter had drowned.

And Taylor stood there in disbelief.

And he couldn't believe how people kept working.

And were more concerned about their money and their livelihood than the drowning man.

How do you feel when you hear that story?

When I first heard it, I was so angry.

I was so frustrated.

I had experiences like that before.

And I was so condemning.

I wanted to condemn those men.

But I realized that as I condemned them,

I condemned myself.

Because often I am just like them.

I'm busy at work.

I'm busy doing stuff.

I'm busy living life.

And all around me, people are drowning.

And I think it's all about me.

And I don't want to help them.

I don't know if you guys ever felt that way, but I have.

Especially as I started preparing for this sermon.

The hard things about sermons sometimes is

God really uses them

in the pastor's life to really hit us over the head

and ask us hard questions.

And so if today you feel like there's a finger pointing at you,

realize that there's about a billion of them

pointing back at me and at my heart.

As I pray for us as a church,

why are we here and what are we doing?

The passage in Luke 10

is a very interesting passage.

It says in verse 1,

now after this, what after this?

You look back in verse chapter 9

and you see that Jesus has done miracles.

He's healed people.

But at this point,

he basically turns his face towards Jerusalem

and he's going to go to the cross.

And so whenever you see in the New Testament

his faces towards Jerusalem,

what you automatically understand

is it means sacrifice and the cross and death

and pain and separation for us.

And it says that the Lord appointed,

and basically he gives them a task in Greek,

70 others.

And this is a very interesting word.

It's 70 is a very specific,

some of you might say 72.

We're not going to get in a discussion over that.

But we'll talk about it later.

But 70 was the number of nations

that when you read Genesis 10 and 11,

when they were building this big tower called Babel

and God came down to confuse their language

and they separated it,

that the scripture says it's 70.

70 nations went out from there.

And so Christ appoints one evangelist

or one lay person

because these aren't professional people.

They're just you and me.

And he appoints one person per nation

and it says he sends them out in pairs,

which is also very important,

I think for a couple reasons.

One is that it's scary doing it by yourself.

But two, the scripture says

that wherever two testify to something,

then it is true.

And in a court of law,

one person's testimony could not stand,

but two had to be done.

And so Jesus pairs up these people,

these 70 you and me.

And as he's about to send them out,

he looks out over the fields

and he says these words.

He says,

the harvest is plentiful,

but the laborers are few.

Now he's using farming language.

And we've already established it.

I think I'm one of the only farmers around here.

But he's talking about this huge field of grain

and the grain heads are so heavy

that the grain is drooping.

And he looks out there

and he sees this amazing harvest.

And what he's talking about is spiritually.

He's talking about people's lives.

He's talking about people who don't know Christ,

but they need to know Christ.

He's talking about people who don't know Christ,

but they're asking questions.

And he's looking out at all these places.

And he's saying there's people everywhere.

It's ripe.

And I'm the Lord of the harvest.

It's interesting when you look at harvest time

in a farm that there's just,

in harvest time,

you only do one thing and you harvest.

I mean, everything else stops.

It's like, it's a week, two weeks,

depends what your crop is,

how big your fields are.

But everyone comes together

and they harvest and they harvest

because if you wait too long,

the crop is ruined.

That if the grain stays on the stalk too long,

that it starts to mildew.

Or the animals start to gather it.

Or the hail comes out

and it hails out your crop.

And so if you wait too long,

everything is destroyed.

And so when he uses his words,

the harvest is plentiful,

he's talking about it's the right time,

it's the right time,

it's the right time.

And so he's about to send them out

and the first thing he says to them,

and I'm only gonna share with you

a couple things that stick out here.

The first thing he says is pray.

Pray.

Pray.

He says it here in verse two

and he's saying to them,

the harvest is plentiful,

but the laborers are few.

Therefore, beseech the Lord of the harvest

to send out laborers into his field.

That word beseech is very specific.

It means to pray.

It means to beg.

It means to ask.

And when you read scripture,

I don't think we get this right

because I'm still on this journey too

about prayer and talking

and things like that.

But when we read scripture,

you never see a person praying

and they're just like this.

But in Hebrew and in the culture,

prayer was always like this.

And whenever you saw prayer in the Father,

Abba was always connected

and it was a sense that there was a child

and a reaching up to his dad.

And so when he's talking about prayer here,

I think it's something different than we think

because he's talking about beseeching,

screaming, yelling,

like a kid yells for his dad.

I remember when we had this agreement.

Okay, so guys,

you have to have an disagreement with your wives.

We had Caitlin, our last child.

And the agreement was that

I would wake up in the morning

and bring Caitlin to Christina

so Christina could stay in bed

and breastfeed Caitlin.

I know maybe it's too much information or whatever.

But I would wake up

and I would just hear our kid,

It's like there's a snake in your bed, right?

You're like,

Cat, what's going on here?

There's somebody in there

or there's a dog biting them

or there's something going on.

And the kid's just screaming

and the kid has his hand up in the air

and he's crying out.

And that's the imagery that he has here of prayer.

He says,

Pray, cry out for the Lord of the harvest

because we need him.

Because if he doesn't come through for us,

everything is lost.

I'll never forget our last time

is that we finally made this decision

to wean Caitlin.

And I walked in there

and she was just screaming,

ah!

It was going crazy.

I mean, it was amazing.

This is a true story.

Amazing.

So I picked her up.

I tried to comfort her.

I changed her diapers.

And she was out of control.

And I brought her in to Christina

and she was sucking her thumbs.

She always sucked her thumbs like this.

For some reason, she was two.

So she was crying and screaming in comfort,

sucking her thumbs.

And I laid her down.

And right as I laid her down,

she's about to get to Christina's arms.

She sees Christina's feeding mechanism.

And she turns around and looks at me

and she goes,

Thank you.

I was freaking out.

Thank you.

But here, this is this imagery here.

The imagery is that we scream out,

that we cry,

we pray,

we ask God for the harvest.

And the question we have to ask ourselves

is do we do that?

Do we cry out?

Do we pray?

Do we ask God for the harvest?

How do we pray?

Do we pray for the harvest?

I mean, we pray for our jobs

when our jobs are in trouble.

And we pray for our money

when our money's low.

We pray for our family

when our wives are out of control.

We pray for our spouse.

We pray for our future spouse

when we don't have one.

But here he says,

pray for the harvest.

Do we pray?

Do we pray for the harvest?

Do we cry out for lost people all around us?

I mean, do we pray for Bel Air

and Cyberport

and Citibank

and Belchers

and ISF

and ESF

and Hong Kong U

and Wafu

and Baguio

and Kennedy Town?

Do we pray for those people?

It's one of the reasons

we felt like God was calling us

to start this church

is we didn't want to be a church

that collected Christians

from other churches

but we wanted to be a church

that was reaching out

and praying for people

and being on a mission

and being about saving them

and being God

allowing us to use

God

allowing us to be used by God

and his power to flow through us

to reach people

who are lost.

Do we pray for our workplace?

Do we pray for the lost people there?

Do we pray for Baguio?

Do we pray for Rebecca

and Clement

and Grandma Kwok

and Charles

and Philly

and Kevin

and Dad

and Estelle

and Donald

Jocelyn

Danis

Vincent

Howie

Haiyi

Kevin Chan

Do we pray for those people?

Jesus said

I'm sending you out

and the first thing

you got to do

the first thing

you have to do

the first thing

that you must do

is you must pray

because if you don't pray

I can't work

and it's all about God

doing it

and you realize here

in chapter verse 2

that it's God

God's the one

who sends the laborer

it's not the pastor

getting up

giving you a guilt trip

but it's God

sending you out

it's God working

in your heart

it's you realizing

what God has done

for us

and then trusting

him to be good

the second thing

that sticks out here

is verses 3 through 8

and it's about the mission

the mission that we're sent on

the mission in verse 3

is really clear

he says go

in Greek

it's an imperative

it's a present imperative

it means always be going

it means stop

do not stop

always be doing this

go behold

I send you

in the imagery

there is really clear

it's of an ambassador

so the minute

Jesus people heard this

they would have think

you're asking us

to be ambassadors

and in that culture

ambassadors were very well known

that whenever an ambassador came

he was always preceded

by the banner

of the country

or the king

or whatever he represented

and when people heard him talk

they realized

that it wasn't him talking

but it was the king talking

or the nation talking

and Jesus commissions

the 70 people

like you and me

and he says

go

I send you

and there's this huge sense

that we are ambassadors

as we go

have you ever thought about that?

now before Christina

and I got married

she always wanted to marry

an ambassador

she said it was because

of the parties

they would have

and I think she had

this romantic view of this

but I thought it would be

very interesting

to be an ambassador

because you walk into

any place

and you don't even

really represent yourself

you represent the country

that sends you

right?

I mean some of us

fake it sometimes

when we wear shirts

with our schools

and other things

and wow

you're from this school

or you're from that school

you're not really

representing yourself

you're representing the school

and here he's saying

you're ambassadors

and you're going out

and you're representing

God

and so the question

I have to ask myself

which I've been asking

all week is

what kind of ambassador

am I?

am I a good ambassador?

do I take the message

to the father

and relay it

just like he wants me to?

I mean no ambassador

would get a message

from his government

and say

you know I really want

but you know

I'm just really busy right now

I can't present that

to the other government

or you know

it's going to be

really difficult

for me to share

these things to them

and maybe I'll just

wait for a better time

or you know

maybe they're

going to not like me

but the scripture

is really clear

that we're ambassadors

and we're invested

with God's power

and his strength

in the kingdom

and we're called

to go out

and to share the word

now in this mission

we're given two warnings

which I think

are very intense

the first warning

he tells us

and it's in verse 3

he says behold

I send you out

as lambs

in the midst of wolves

have you ever seen

lambs in the midst

of wolves?

it's not good

I mean it's ugly

and the scripture says

that you and I

are sheep

and Christ

is sending you

and I out

as lambs

in the midst

of all these wolves

and the message

is clear

the message is

the people

that we go to

won't like us

and they won't

like the message

we send

and I always

struggled with that

because I just

thought maybe

if people's lives

were terrible

they would love

to hear the message

of God

who loves them

who cares for them

who has a plan

for them

who died for them

that has to be

incredibly good news

but the scripture

says no

they're going to

hate that

what he's saying

here is

what they would

rather hear you

say

they would rather

hear you say

something sexy

like hey

you know

Christianity

is about a bunch

of rules

and if you do

all these rules

you're okay

and if you follow

these steps

you're good

and if you work

hard

you're okay

and you know

God helps those

who helps himself

doesn't he

and at the end

of the sermon

if I give you

five points

everything's going

to be perfect

if you complete

all those points

and if we preach

that message

people would love us

I mean the church

would be packed out

with people

more than we have

now

we'd have a mega church

I mean that's what

every other religion

preaches

do this

do that

don't do this

do this

don't do that

if you do these

things you're okay

you pray this way

you're okay

God is there

you do what you

need to do

God does what

he does to do

everything's great

but Jesus says

that's not the

message of the

kingdom of God

he says we preach

a gospel that's

full of grace

and helplessness

Jesus says we preach

about lostness

and darkness

and people walking

blindedly

we talk a message

about if they don't

go through Christ

they have no hope

at all

the gospel

and Luke says

that Jesus says

to his disciples

to you and I

that when we go out

and we share that

message to people

they're not going

to like it

they're going to

hate it

and chances are

they might hate us

he gives us

another warning

in verse

verse 4

he goes on

he says

carry no money

belt

no bag

no shoes

and greet

no one

on the way

circle greet

no one

on the way

I think it's

amazing

it's a story

and the minute

Jesus listeners

heard it

they would understand

exactly what happened

it's from 2 Kings 4

so tonight

when you go back

read 2 Kings 4

it's an amazing passage

Elijah is the prophet

of God

he's wandering

he has no place

to stay

and God sends

this woman

to take care of him

but this woman

has no kid

her husband

and her are barren

and so Elijah

prays for this woman

and God allows them

to have a kid

and she has a kid

and this boy grows up

and one day Elijah

is no longer with them

and she sends message

to Elijah

my son is dead

my son was working

in the fields

his head got too hot

he had this

overstroke

heat

whatever

and he's dead

and Elijah takes

his staff

and he hands it

to his assistant

and he says

take the staff

you're going

to dead people

you're going

to a mom

who's grieving

take the staff

and run

as fast as you can

get to that woman's house

because her son

is dead

and she needs you

and when you walk

in that house

you put that staff

on that boy's forehead

and when you do that

the kid's going to

come back to life

and oh by the way

don't greet anyone

on the way

what he was saying

to his servant

is the message

that I'm sending you

on is so important

that you don't want

to get sidetracked

that the greetings

in the Middle Eastern

culture can become

so elaborate

that you talk to somebody

and you just have

to talk to them

and sometimes a greeting

can last a whole day

and Elijah was saying

to his servant

the message

and the mission

that I'm sending you

on is so important

you don't have time

to waste

because there's

a dead person there

and Jesus says

the same to us

he says be careful

because as you go

on this journey

you're going to be

distracted

and it's going to be

easy to become

distracted

and you don't want

to be distracted

because there's

dead people all around

you

and they need to

hear the word of God

you ever been

distracted

I think it's really

easy in our world

to be distracted

isn't it

there's just so many

things around us

that call and cry out

for us

and ask us to say

put your attention here

and before you know it

you've forgotten

your mission

and you're about

building your own

kingdom

and making your

lives comfortable

and worrying about

your next vacation

I'm talking about

myself

but Jesus tells

his disciples

that when you go

be on track

be on mission

because what you're

doing is you're

bringing dead people

to life

and it's easy

to be distracted

and you don't

want to be distracted

because people

need to hear

and they need you

beside them

the next thing

that sticks out

to me really quickly

here is in verse 9

and it's the message

he says

whatever city

you enter into

you've received

you eat what is

set before you

and we can come

back and talk

about that

there's a lot

of cultural issues

going on there

because they're

going into

non-Jewish cities

they're going

to all the cities

that Jesus is going

to visit before

he hits Jerusalem

and there's

pagan cities

there's Jewish cities

and the guys

are worried about

what they're going

to eat

and Jesus says

don't worry

about that

he says

when you go in

heal those

who are in it

and those

who are sick

and say to them

that the kingdom

of God

has come near you

the kingdom

of God

has come near

you

what he's saying

is that when you

go and you meet

people

you tell them

that God's

presence

God's spirit

God's grace

God's mercy

God's salvation

has come into

your midst

and the minute

someone heard that

they knew they

had to make a choice

the minute someone

in Jesus' day

heard the kingdom

of God

has come near to you

the first thing

that would come

into their mind

is okay

here's this line

what side of this

line am I going

to step on

am I going to be

with the kingdom

of God

or am I going to

be with myself

over here

and Jesus sends

them out

and he says

hey

you're going to

go into these places

and you're going

to share this word

and this word is

that God's presence

is with you

he also says

you're going to

do something amazing

that you're going

to heal people

that you're going

to take care of

people

and healing

took place

and miracles

happen

and miracles

happen

and God

still does

miracles

and he says

I'm going to

do miracles

through you

and in you

as you walk

in my name

and it's important

to remember

that these miracles

always validate

the message

of God

that whenever

you read the Bible

and you see

miracles happen

they're almost

always right beside

God's word being

preached

and God's

messenger going

out

and what these

miracles do

is say

God is real

and he's there

and this word

is true

and there's power

in God

I remember in 1989

I spent some time

in Thailand

and I was with

a Thai staff

for a whole summer

with Campus Crusade

and we saw

just weird

weird things

happening

people

people doing

just demon

possessed people

people who were

doing things

that were irrational

and unexplainable

and people

who were healing

people

but through the

power of the devil

they would say that

and one night

I got together

with the staff

and this guy

was just telling

the story

about how his

parents

who were animists

put a spirit

in his house

and the spirit

was wrestling

with him

physically

every time

he walked

into this house

and I asked

the guy

I said

how do you

survive here

what do you do

how do you

fight this type

of spiritual warfare

and the guy

told me

he said

he didn't even blink

he said

first we heal

their sick

then we cast

out their demons

then they see

that our God

is greater

than their God

first we heal

their sick

then we cast

out their demons

then they see

that our God

is greater

than their God

Jesus says

as you go out

on this mission

remember the message

and remember

what you're supposed

to do

and what you're

supposed to share

and it's about

your life

and what God

has done

in your life

and I think

sometimes

we just struggle

with this

we have a hard

time with this

but the message

of salvation

is really clear

in this passage

Jesus isn't saying

get a PhD

Jesus isn't saying

learn all your

apologetics

Jesus isn't saying

you need to have

these classes

and be this mature

before you share

the faith

Jesus is saying

you walk into

this world

you see needs

you see people's

lives who are

in distress

you meet those

needs

you serve other

people

you share with

them

and when the people

ask why do you

do that

you say

it's because of

my faith in

Jesus Christ

and I'd like to

share with that

to you someday

it's just that

easy

but sometimes

I think that I

just become so

confused and I

make sharing my

faith such a

difficult thing

and the passage

here says

basically you go

into people's

house you heal

their sick

you meet their

needs

that word heal

actually also

means to serve

you serve other

people you serve

them around you

you serve them

you serve the

sick you heal

the sick and you

tell them that

God is near

that God is in

you

that God has

changed you

and that they

need the gospel

to change their

lives

the message is

really clear

and the message

is that the

kingdom of God

is near

and God

does that

and shows that

and changes

people's lives

all around us

as we would

just talk about

it

the last section

of this passage

is harsh

I mean I've

been in churches

where people

don't even talk

about it

I mean I've

been in churches

where they

deleted these

verses out of

this passage

because it was

not sexy

it was too hard

for people to

hear

look at what

he says there

but whatever

city you

enter in

and they do

not receive you

go out into

the streets

and say

even the dust

of your city

which clings

to your feet

you wipe off

and protest

against them

yet be sure

of this

the kingdom

of God

has come

near

and I say

that you

be more

tolerable

for the

city of

Sodom

we put

that reference

in your

bulletin

for you

to read

than for

this city

woe to you

Chorazin

woe to you

Bethsaida

we have some

pictures of that

up here

I don't know

if we have

them

but they're

basically

just ruins

now

almost immediately

after Jesus

said these

pronouncements

these cities

were destroyed

and they

disappeared

and then one

day some

monks were

hanging out

in the hills

and they

started digging

and they found

this city

but the

cities that

refused to

listen to

Christ's

message

the cities

that refused

to accept

Jesus'

messengers

the city

that refused

to accept

the word

of life

they were

destroyed

and they

disappeared

if all the

miracles that

had performed

in Tyre

and Sidon

which occurred

in you

if they had

done these

things they

would have

repented

they would

have come

to faith

they would

have been

sitting in

sackcloth

and ashes

but it would

be more

tolerable for

these cities

these Tyre

and Sidon

which are pagan

cities in the

judgment than

for you

for you

Capernaum

you will not

be exalted

to heaven

this is the

base where

Jesus did all

his miracles

and ministry

it was the

Jewish town

and they

thought they

had a special

right because

Christ was

there and

Christ says

no because

I was there

and you

didn't listen

to me I

spoke and I

did miracles and

it didn't

change your

heart I

did all of

these things

and still I

was not lord

of your life

and you

chose to say

maybe tomorrow

maybe tomorrow

what he's

saying here

is there's

people in

our church

right now

and you

don't know

Christ

and you're

saying you

hear these

messages and

you go that

sounds really

cool maybe

some other

time or this

religious thing

is kind of

cool well I'll

think about it

but the

passage says

that by

rejecting the

message you're

not rejecting

me or the

people who share

it with you

you're rejecting

Christ and

you're not

really rejecting

Christ but

you're rejecting

God and if

you reject God

things are going

to be bad

have you ever

amen

have you ever

heard someone

say that to

you

have you ever

told somebody

they're in

trouble

have you ever

told somebody

hey if you

keep going

down this

path you're

mocking God

the creator of

the universe

and I don't

need to do

anything because

God can take

care of himself

have you ever

heard that

said something

like that to

somebody

Christ says

it very

carefully and

very concisely

the one who

rejects the one

who listens to

you listens to

me and the

one who rejects

you rejects me

and he rejects

the one who

sent me

sent me

and what he's

saying here is

as ambassadors

the message that

we have is

eternal

the message that

we hold on and

we're afraid to

share the

message that we

share with people

and they mock

us

the message

that we know

is the only

message that

people need to

have to hear

and to change

and to enter

into eternal

life that the

repercussions for

not following that

message are bad

bad

and that's why

God has us here

as his church

God has us here

as his church

as ambassadors

to this part of

Hong Kong Island

and beyond

and as we walk

every day in the

proudness and the

strength of knowing

that you're God's

ambassador and that

you have the only

thing that people have

and need to change

your life his word

and that you have the

ability to step into

people's lives that are

out of control and to

serve them and to take

care of them and to

help them and to heal

them and to tell them

that the kingdom of God

is near

and Jesus says if you do

that God does

everything else

God opens eyes

God opens ears

God changes hearts

not our words

last year when we

started off we brought

this stretcher out when

we were talking about the

story of the men being

brought to Jesus to be

healed and we had a

challenge and we wrote

down all the names of

people up here that we

felt like needed to know

about Christ people that

were in our world that

didn't know God people

that we were praying for

and we wrote these names

down there and this

stretcher basically has

stayed in our storeroom for

six months to a year

when it came time to find

this stretcher and to

bring it out as an object

lesson and to use it we

couldn't find it

last night we were texting

where is that thing we

didn't know where it was

it's easy to get distracted

isn't it

it's easy to forget about the

names we put on there

it's easy to forget about

the people that we walk

and we touch and move and

rub shoulders with them

wherever we are it's easy

to forget that they they

need the message that we

have it's easy to forget

that we're ambassadors

who's praying for the

harvest

what I would like to do is

ask Katie to come up with

the worship team and we're

just going to have a couple

minutes of reflection

want you to pray about the

message you heard

we're going to ask Charles

and Josh they're going to

hold this banner right here

and what we would like to

do is we want to continue

this

and as you pray and as you

think and as you think of

the harvest and people that

you pray for we have

markers here

and we would like for you to

come up

and we would like for you to

write these people's names on

it

as a testimony

that you're an ambassador

and God has sent you to

these people

and we're going to pray for

them

this year

the Lord of the harvest

would send people into their

lives maybe us

who meet their needs

who share God's word

who encourage them where

they're at

so spend a couple minutes

reflecting

and then when you're ready

if you want to

you don't have to

there's somebody on your

heart

we want you to come up

and just write their name

down here

and we'll bring this out

and continue to pray for

those people

and I'll come up in a

little while

and I'll close this

to

Exactly