Luke 10:1-24 - The Kingdom Is Near

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Good morning. If you have your Bibles, take them and open them up. We'll be in Luke chapter 10 this morning.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

We're going to continue on with our series in Luke.

If you remember, Will last week preached on a couple of things from Luke chapter 9,

Luke 9 · chapter mention

the rejection that the disciples face as they went forward with the message of gospel truth

to the Samaritan city that wanted nothing at all to do with Jesus.

And then he discussed in a roundabout way the reality of what should be of first importance to us

as his followers, as he saw many say, I want to follow you.

And he said, okay, let's do it.

And they said, well, I have to do something else first.

So that really laid the groundwork well for how we're moving this week

as we discuss what is the mission that Jesus is calling these people to.

He had to be serious about it.

Jesus is getting pretty intense.

He understands what is on the threshold for him

and what is the fight that's set before his disciples and his followers.

So let me pray for us.

We have a lot of text this morning.

We're going to cover chapter 10, verses 1 through 24.

So I'm going to try to break it down into a couple different segments.

But before I do, let's pray.

Father, we desperately need you.

You've given us your word, your communication to little minds of the great things that you are about,

of your perfect love and your perfect character,

your perfect joy and your perfect happiness,

and the gift of your son to ungrateful people like us.

We pray that we would sense the reality of your mission.

We pray that we would sense anew the nearness of your kingdom

as we hear about your son and read about him working in the world and using people,

little human vessels as actual agents in the world to bring about your kingdom in it.

I pray for myself as I'm not fit to preach this.

So I pray that the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts would be glorifying to you.

And I pray that we would be open, as Ron said,

to the message that you are bringing of hope and of salvation.

In the name, the great name of your son, our King Jesus. Amen.

Military things run in my family.

My grandfather always said that I should have gone to the military before going to college.

He was right. I did not.

But I'm interested when I see stories, and a lot of them these days are tragic.

I was reading one recently of Army Captain William Swenson.

He's a Medal of Honor winner,

and he and an Army partner of his were assisting an Afghan security team,

as well as 12 Marines and a Navy corpsman.

And they were doing a walk to a location that was about 10 miles outside of Pakistan in Afghanistan.

I can't pronounce the name of the town, so I'm not going to try.

And as they were walking, the intention was to go and meet with the town's leaders,

to have some tea with them,

and discuss what it would look like to assist them in rebuilding a mosque that was there.

Basically, you know, goodwill relations.

And as they're on the road, they get ambushed.

And they're flanked on three sides by insurgents.

And Captain Swenson called for backup, but they declined him.

The forward base Joyce that was there on that side of Afghanistan declined it,

saying they were too close to a civilian population,

and they couldn't provide them with anything.

So here's this man and his partner who were kind of in charge of this mixed force of people

getting ambushed and in the midst of a giant firefight.

And the story of Captain Swenson is nothing less than amazing,

because this guy's love and passion for his men,

and even the people that weren't his men,

was unmatched on that day as he ran to the front over and over again,

pulling back men who were dead,

pulling back men who were wounded,

constantly putting himself in harm's way to try to execute the retreat.

And he fought for hours.

He was trained for war,

but the Afghans and the Marines and the Navy Corpsmen around him

desperately needed his leadership in this situation.

And with all he could muster, he fought,

and he loved, and he tried.

He tried to save.

With where we are in our text here with Jesus,

his intensity and his intention is really starting to peak.

He knows the road laid out before him,

and he needs to equip his followers in the fight for eternity.

The idolatry of self-motivation that Ron was speaking of earlier

needs to be replaced by being motivated by Christ.

And hopefully our text today will help us understand

what it meant for the followers of Christ in Luke 10,

as well as what it means for us to be able to declare

the kingdom of God is near.

You see a three-point outline on your bulletin,

and I've broken it down to three sections.

The instructions will try to cover verses 1 through 9 of Luke 10.

So look down at your text or look on the screen behind me as I read.

After this, the Lord appointed 72 others.

After this meaning, after what Will preached on last week,

there doesn't seem to be a time break there.

We're just moving right along.

After this, the Lord appointed 72 others and sent them ahead of him,

two by two, into every town and place where he was about to go.

And he said to them,

the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Therefore pray.

Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest

to send out laborers into his harvest.

Go your way.

Behold, I'm sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.

That's good news.

Carry no money bag, no knapsack, no sandals,

and greet no one on the road.

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'll return to you, better news.

And remain in the same house,

eating and drinking whatever 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.

72 are sent out, two by two.

Fairly customary in that time,

two by two for multiple reasons,

not the least of which,

two people constituted a valid witness.

So they're sent two by two out to go

to places that Jesus is going to go.

And he gives them the authority of himself.

When they are going, they are going as him.

It doesn't make you feel great when you're these people.

You may remember I preached a few weeks ago

on when he sent the 12 out and told them,

hey, good news for you too.

You're going to be fighting demons

and stuff like that in my name.

No, you're not prepared for it.

But it's what's going to happen.

The fight is real.

Your day-to-day lives are over.

You've been called by me.

You are followers of me.

And this is where we're headed.

And he tells this group,

don't take money.

Don't take a backpack.

Don't take sandals.

And that doesn't mean they can't wear sandals.

It means don't take an extra pair of sandals.

Don't carry things with you.

Don't even talk to people while you're going there.

It's urgent.

We need to get there.

We need to do this.

There were itinerant preachers

that preached any number of things

that would carry around their knapsacks and money

because they were trying to raise money for themselves.

And he's saying,

no, you're not going to go with anything like that.

You're going to go and simply bring the shalom,

the peace of God to these people.

And sons of peace will respond with that.

Those who are not sons of peace

will not respond to that.

And here are my simple instructions for you.

First thing we see there in verse two,

pray.

Pray.

Why?

Because the harvest is many,

but the laborers are few.

Sending out 72 of you,

we need the laborers to be multiplied.

Pray.

You can't go forward on your own.

Pray.

It focuses you on the things of mine

and of the kingdom,

the nearness that you're bringing forth to people.

Pray.

In verses three through eight,

he goes on to discuss several things

that have to do with going.

Go your way.

Behold,

I am sending you out as lambs

in the midst of wolves.

There's not encouraging news.

Carry no money bag,

no knapsack,

no sandals,

and don't talk to anybody.

That'll take too long.

When you get to the house,

tell them peace is with them.

And whatever they put in front of you,

eat it.

This is a little bit counter-cultural.

What's happening in verse four?

You have your lambs going out in the midst of wolves.

Talk about having to trust God and trust Jesus.

That doesn't come naturally.

I'm afraid that most of us don't know

the everyday reality of the chance of being killed

or something of the sort for going out.

And Jesus may be talking about that,

but he's more than likely talking about

their need to rely upon him

and the dangers that they'll face

as they go out to be self-sufficient,

as Ron was talking about.

I talked about how it was counter-cultural for them

to not have anything with them.

This doesn't make sense.

They're going to be dirty.

They're going to be smelly.

If a sandal breaks,

you leave it on the road.

You don't have an extra pair.

And yet you're going forth with the kingdom.

Verses five and six is a beautiful picture

of what they hope to encounter.

When you say, peace be with you,

if a son of peace in there,

your peace will rest upon him.

But if not, it'll return to you.

Peace resting upon someone

is not that you walked in

and suddenly they were transformed.

It was that the kingdom of God,

that they're there to proclaim

the nearness of the kingdom of God,

is being taken by them

and embraced in the heart.

They're embracing the kingdom of God.

And people who don't embrace the kingdom of God

will reject them.

And he tells them,

you're going to be rejected.

It's going to happen.

My sovereignty works in both of these ways.

In seven and eight,

he talks about eating whatever is set before you.

The dietary restrictions of the Jews

is pretty significant.

These people didn't eat certain things,

but they were ministering in an area

where you had Gentiles and Jews around each other.

It was hard to tell where you were going to go

as you walked into different houses

and different towns.

And Jesus says something

that was probably a little bit mind-blowing

to some of them.

Whatever they put in front of you,

eat it.

The fulfillment is happening in front of them.

The fulfillment of the Old Testament law.

Foods are clean.

You can eat it.

You're on a bigger mission right now.

You're on a mission to bring my kingdom

near to these people.

So they were to pray.

They were to go.

The third part under instructions.

They were to declare.

Look at verse nine.

Healing.

Healing.

Heal the sick in it.

And say to them,

the kingdom of God has come near to you.

Healing.

It's a big deal.

We don't do that a lot nowadays.

We pray for it.

We've seen it miraculously happen recently

in our congregation with Michael Calhoun.

But generally speaking,

there's not a lot of average people

walking up to somebody and healing them.

It was the same back then.

And here you have average people coming

and healing people in the name of Jesus

and declaring to them through that,

the kingdom has come near to you.

This is a hard passage to relate to you and I

because most of these things just aren't us.

We're not granted similar authority

as is granted here to these

or to the apostles in chapter nine

or to what we see in Acts,

Luke-Acts being one volume.

That's not what we're called to do.

But what are we called to do?

What's the difference between the two things?

Well, I can assure you these instructions

still make absolute sense to us.

Pray.

Do you care to pray?

What do we pray for?

Parents, do you teach your children to pray

and that it's important?

Empty nesters, now that your kids are out of the house,

do you still pray?

Husbands and wives, do you pray together?

Singles, do you pray?

That's your first question.

Do we even do it?

Then the question is for what?

What are we praying for?

Kingdom nearness is a big deal to Jesus in this section

and hopefully it becomes a bigger deal to us

throughout the morning right now.

But are you praying for you

and for things that are motivated by you?

Or are we praying for things that are brought on our hearts

by the message of Jesus Christ?

The urgency of the end is now.

And you don't have to be someone suffering from a terminal disease

to understand that and be convicted by that.

And to Jesus, he's drawing our attention to that.

The end, the kingdom being big.

Colossians tells us that Jesus is bringing

and reconciling all things to the Father.

That's what he's doing through everything that we do.

Pray to that end.

What does it look like for you to participate in that?

What does it look like for your children to participate in that?

How do we think bigger than ourselves

about the work that Christ is doing?

But there's an obvious thing here

that the go is less go for most of us.

Some of us do go to other places,

like hungry for nine years and serve with your family.

But a lot of us are just going to be called to work tomorrow morning.

Or going to be called to lunch with some friends,

maybe to small group tonight.

The go for most of us has already happened.

We're already living the go all the time.

How do we pray that the go we've been called to

would impact the kingdom?

What does that look like for me and for you

on a day-to-day basis?

I get paid to do it.

But it's still hard.

I don't remember to pray for these things.

I have day-to-day activities.

I have things, people I need to meet.

Boxes I need to check off on a list.

I'm the one being paid for kingdom activity.

We're all called to it, though.

And we're sent and we're already going.

What are we doing in those moments?

What does it look like for you to declare peace at work

with your boss who's a jerk,

with a fellow employee who's being put down,

at home with relatives who don't get along

and who actively seem to be trying to destroy your family?

With siblings who seem to have everything in their lives

set against you smiling ever?

We go from small places.

We go to big places.

And God has sent us all out for a reason,

to declare his kingdom,

to be a taste of the kingdom of God

in the world that we live in.

And that's the declare.

Is declare every time you're in your lunch break

walking to someone else and saying,

here's a tract, let's talk.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure that's the most winsome way to go

about declaring the kingdom of God.

I think it's actually more in the way we go.

And so we have instructions.

They're pretty simple.

Pray, go, declare.

Be a taste of the kingdom.

Be conscious of the people around you.

Souls around you.

Because the warnings are stark.

And let's go into those now.

The warnings in chapter 10.

We'll be reading verses 10 through 20.

Whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you,

go into its streets and say,

and this isn't randomly running up and down streets.

It's go to the main part of town and say,

even the dust of your town that clings to our feet,

we wipe off against you.

Nevertheless, know this,

that the kingdom of God has come near.

That's bad news now.

The kingdom of God has come near and you've rejected us.

You've rejected it.

I tell you,

it'll be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town.

Woe to you,

Shorzene.

Woe to you,

Bethsaida.

For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon,

they would have repented long ago sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

But it will be more bearable in the judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you.

And you,

Capernaum,

will be exalted to heaven?

No,

I don't think so.

You'll be brought down to Hades.

The one who hears you,

hears me.

And the one who rejects you,

rejects me.

And the one who rejects me,

rejects him who sent me.

And the 72 went out.

And the 72 returned with joy 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,

don't rejoice in this,

that the spirits are subject to you.

But rejoice that your names are written in heaven.

And this section gives a stark warning to two groups of people.

The first group being the unrepentant.

And the second group being the repentant.

To the unrepentant,

let's define repentance.

Because I think a lot of times we conflate repentance with confession.

We're happy to get together with our accountability group,

or with another group of people,

or something of the sort,

and say,

hey,

I did this thing.

And most of those guys or girls love you,

and they say,

I'm so sorry.

Hey,

I'm thinking about the chicken salad.

Have you had that here?

Is that good?

We throw it out into the ether as though telling one another that we're sinners is going to be the end of it.

Repentance is something different than just naming the fact that you've sinned.

Repentance is actually actively striving against that sin.

Primarily by turning to Christ.

Your sin is not supposed to leave you with guilt and wallowing in shame.

It's supposed to turn you towards your Savior.

That's the primary action.

I think Westminster Confession is helpful with this because it says,

oh, by the way,

saying that you've turned towards the Savior should probably be followed up by you actively doing that.

You've been given grace to do that.

Repentance is turning from your sin to Christ

and then striving by all the grace given to you

to continue on that path away from sin.

So to the unrepentant,

it's not embracing kingdom nearness in the heart.

And it's a difficult thing to see here

because we all know

what we think of when we hear some of these names.

But the declaration has been made.

They entered the town and they weren't received.

So they said,

even the dust of your town that clings to our feet,

we wipe off against you.

Nevertheless,

know this,

that the kingdom of God has come near.

They came near.

It came near.

And they were rejected.

Then he goes through all the cities.

I'll tell you,

it'll be more bearable on that day

for Sodom than for that town.

That town is a random town.

He's just giving them instructions as to what they're to do

when they are rejected.

But he's talking about in this whole passage,

hospitality.

You're entering the town.

You declare the kingdom.

A son of peace will accept you.

A town of peace will accept you.

They will show hospitality to the kingdom of God.

And then he compares it to Sodom.

And I think most of us,

when we think of Sodom,

think of one particular sin.

And this passage is laying out relatively clearly

that that sin is only the tip of the iceberg of the problem.

Because Sodom actually didn't embrace the kingdom

as it came near.

And that's the bigger problem.

But the comparison here is not necessarily

apples to apples

because Sodom is not a city

who knew the nearness of King Jesus

and his followers

who had been authoritatively sent forth.

We see the other comparisons.

Shorazin and Bethsaida.

Mighty works have been done in each of you.

These are Galilean towns

that Jesus and his disciples have been in

doing this crazy healing stuff.

Preaching the kingdom.

Casting demons out.

Stuff you just don't see every day.

And those towns said,

no.

We don't want any part of this.

And then he goes to the big one, Capernaum.

And you, Capernaum,

will you be exalted to heaven?

You'll be brought down to Hades.

That is not something you want Jesus saying about you

because he's serious.

This isn't Jesus telling you to go to hell.

This is Jesus declaring

that rejection of the kingdom

results in your judgment.

The warnings are stark

because these people have been taught

the promises of God

through their religion for a long time.

And then the fulfillment

of all of the Old Testament prophecies

came to them.

And they pushed it away.

It's funny.

As I was looking at this,

it's not funny,

but as I was looking at this,

I couldn't help but think to myself,

man, does that sound like us.

Man, does that sound like people

I know in Huntsville.

It's in the air here.

We've all,

there are churches everywhere.

We have giant,

massive churches on this street,

right down the street,

over on Whitesburg.

There's gonna be another one

put right across the street from us.

The gospel is here

and being taught

and teached in many different ways

and proclaimed around our city.

And yet,

it makes me wonder,

has it ever been embraced

from the heart?

For all of you tennis fans,

Federer won in straight sets this morning.

For all of you who aren't tennis fans,

you may have heard of another guy

called Bernard Tomic.

He is an Australian player

who was actually born,

I think,

in Croatia

and now lives in Monaco.

I don't know how these things work.

His name is Bernard Tomic.

And after losing

in the first round of Wimbledon

on the 6th,

July 6th,

this was the quote

he gave to a reporter afterwards.

This might sound familiar

after you hear it.

I couldn't care less

if I make a fourth round

at the US Open

or if I lose in the first round.

To me,

everything is the same.

I'm going to play another 10 years

and I know that after my career,

I won't have to work again.

He's 24.

Even with losing

in the first round at Wimbledon,

he's ranked 59th in the world.

He was as high as 17th last year.

And catch this,

playing tennis,

he's won $5,142,239

in career prize money

by being 168 and 153.

Average 500 tennis player,

59th in the world.

Don't get me wrong,

that's incredible

as far as skill level goes.

But this guy is not playing

from a passionate place

with tennis.

He has a skill

that he's honed

and he's working

from the outside in.

He's been making,

I think he turned pro

in 2008,

nine years,

$5 million,

he's been making

about $570,000 a year.

It's an okay living,

playing a game,

right?

He's got sponsors.

Well, he lost one sponsor

after the statement.

But he has sponsors

that pay him.

Idolatry takes many forms

for us.

But sin is a result

primarily of a binary choice.

You heard Ron talk about earlier

and I'm going to talk about now.

And the binary choice is this.

Are you motivated by Christ?

Or are you motivated by yourself?

What motivates you?

To put it in a different way,

are you motivated

from the outside in?

Or are you motivated

from the inside out?

And I think that's

an important question

for people like us

who have been raised in

and around the church

and the gospel

to ask ourselves.

Because a lot of us

have no problem

going to church

on Sunday morning,

12 or 13 times a year.

A lot of us

have no problem

being members of a church

because we're in the south

and if you're not a member

of the church,

that's a problem.

We don't have a problem

passing the peace of Christ

on to each other

because we don't.

We send our kids

to Christian school,

we do all of the right things

that we're supposed to do

because that's how

we've been brought up.

Nothing wrong

with being brought up

that way, by the way.

We're charged

to bring our children up

in the nurture

and admonition of the Lord.

But at some point

it gets to a reality line

where we become consumers

of the Christian faith

as opposed to those

who are driven by

the reality of the Holy Spirit

in our hearts

and in our lives.

This thing of

wiping the dust

off of your feet

is not a pre-cross thing.

This is the same thing

that happens to

Paul and Barnabas

at the end of Acts 13.

They have a successful time

in the synagogues

in Antioch

and the people

want to hear more

and they want to hear more

and you know what happens.

They're so on fire

for the gospel

that the Jewish people

who run the town

work up

a lot of people

against Paul

who are also Jewish people

and they go to kick

Paul and Barnabas

out of the town.

And the same phrase appears.

Paul and Barnabas

dusted their feet off

and said,

we tried to come to you

with the gospel

and now we're going

to those who don't know it

because you've not embraced

the kingdom from the heart.

and we do other things

like think that

if we get rid of a petty sin

or if we live

just in a certain way

that that will also show people

that we're better than them.

I think that's where

the idea of Sodom

comes in as a very

poignant thing for us

because in our minds

the one sin we associate

with Sodom

is reprobate in our eyes

and we would never

participate in it

and we would never

condone people who do

and we are better

than them.

And it doesn't stop there.

It goes across the board

with whatever your thing is.

I don't smoke.

I don't chew.

I don't go with girls who do.

Whatever the little thing is

that you're better

than somebody else about

is an idol

that you are trying

to improve yourself on.

I have them.

I guarantee you,

you have them.

And the question is not

do they exist inside of us?

The question is

what motivates you

towards that?

Is it because you need

to look good

from the outside

or is it because

Christ in you

is actively pushing you

against sin

which should result

in some humility

when dealing with

a situation like that?

haughtiness from the outside

is a completely

different thing.

And if you walk

into church

every Sunday

or every other Sunday

or whenever you can get here

woe be unto you

if you're not embracing

the kingdom from the heart.

if you hear the message

over and over again

and your heart is cold

and your heart is stone

and you're not turned

to the one

who came to save you

it's terrible news.

It is judgment.

That's the end result.

people come flying

down that hill

all the time.

Terrible results

can happen like that.

And all of a sudden

you're there

to what Jesus is intense

and fighting for

and equipping his people

for eternity.

Because you can fool me

and you can fool

the people around you.

You can fool

the people at work

who think you're pious

and that you're good.

But if your motivation

is from the outside in

you have no place

with our Heavenly Father.

And that's a terrifying

terrifying thought.

And you're not left there.

you're not meant

to be left there.

The fact that you're here

today

hearing a message

about the gospel

of Jesus Christ

is proof of God's love

for you.

It's proof of his

pursuit of you.

It's proof of him

saying one more time

this is serious.

The end result

is very,

very serious.

I love you.

Embrace

my kingdom.

Come to me

the way

that I am coming

towards you

because I want you

to be there.

For the repentant

this says a lot of

really good things.

I thought it was neat

to read

some of the stuff

that people were able

to say to him

when they came back.

Lord,

even the demons

are subject to us

in your name.

And then Jesus says

something that's not

a remembrance,

it's something of

a prophetic utterance

or a vision.

He says,

this is happening.

You went out

in my name

and Satan

is falling

from heaven.

It's happening now.

The fulfillment

is now.

I am conquering death.

I am conquering

all of this

and you're a part

of it.

And then he reaches

back into some

thoughts of the

Old Testament.

I gave you authority

to tread on scorpions

and serpents.

That's something

back from

Deuteronomy 9

and even if you

think about serpents

that can take you

all the way back

to what is said

in Genesis 3.15

the proto-evangelium

the first time

that God says

I'm not through

with you

I'm going to crush

the head of the serpent

and I'm going to

chase you down.

Is he chasing you

down today?

Hear it.

This is good news.

It's the beginning

of the end

for Satan

but then the best news

comes there

in verse 20.

Nevertheless,

don't rejoice in this.

the power of the spirits

are subject to you

but rejoice

in the fact

that your names

are written in heaven.

I've equipped you

to fight

but the battle's

won for you.

You're there.

In Luther's

commentary on Romans

in the preface

he says

faith is a living

daring confidence

on God's grace

so sure and certain

that a man

would stake

his life

on it

a thousand times.

This confidence

in God's grace

and knowledge

of it

makes men

glad and bold

and happy

in dealing with God

and all of his creatures

and this is the work

of the Holy Ghost

in faith.

Hence,

a man is ready

and glad

without compulsion

to do good

to everyone

and to serve everyone

to suffer everything

in love

and praise God

who has shown him

this grace

and thus

it's impossible

to separate works

from faith

quite as impossible

as to separate

heat and light

from fire.

And so the same

question is posed

to us who are repentant

what motivates us?

Is it coming

outside in

or inside out?

It's more of a question

of identity

if you're repentant

than it is of anything else.

What about contentment?

What does that look like?

We fight for a place

America man

this is a great place

to live

Huntsville

a great place

in America

to live.

you can get content

very quickly

and the things

we talked about

and the instructions

leave us quickly

because life

is kind of okay.

My wife and I

get along

and our kids

are insane

but they're

generally okay.

I can be content

in that.

The passion

for my neighbors

and the passion

for my work

and the passion

for everything

God has set

before me

in terms of go

leaves

because I can be content

in what I have.

And Jesus

is throwing in our faces

once again

no judgment

is awaiting souls.

Don't be content

there.

And then there's

the idolatry

of fear

the special

dispensations

that we see

given to these

followers

and some in Acts

are not normative

for us

and so when things

work against us

we operate

from a place

of fear.

And the reality

of the gospel

of grace

is that our names

are written

in heaven

and when things

come at us

on earth

we've been given

the Holy Spirit

and Christ

to stand in the gap

to fight against them.

Our sins

are not inevitable.

Don't hear me

saying that you're

perfect.

That's not what

I just said.

I just said

your sin

is not

inevitable.

You can fight

against it.

We're not slaves

to sin anymore.

We've been given

the power

of Christ

living within us.

Do you trust that?

Do I trust that?

Listen to me.

Your name

is written

in heaven.

Fear

does not

have to be

the answer.

Hard situations

come on us

all the time

and our faithful

God

the same one

who pursued us

and guarantees

that our names

are written in heaven

is ready to stand

in that gap

for us.

Fighting our battles

for us

so that we may

be his righteousness.

That's a great

thing to be able

to trust in.

We make hard

decisions all

the time

and we don't

know what the

outcome is going

to be

so we get

paralyzed

or we run

away from it.

And then the rest

and I'll go

through this quickly

I'm sorry

I've taken up

so much of your

time.

I'm not sorry

I just had to say

that.

Luke 10

20 through 24

it starts

with that

nevertheless

do not rejoice

in this

that the spirits

are subjected

to you

but rejoice

that your names

are written

in heaven.

Then the Holy

Spirit comes

into Jesus

and in that

same hour

he rejoiced

in the Holy

Spirit

and said

I thank you

Father

Lord of heaven

and earth

that you've

hidden these

things from

the wise

in understanding

and revealed

them to little

children.

Then the intimacy

shows again

he repeats

his father's

name

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

who the

father is

except the

son

and anyone

to whom

the son

chooses

to reveal

himself

and then

turning to

his disciples

he says

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 didn't

see it

and to

hear what

you hear

but they

never heard

it

I'm going

to reiterate

from verse

20

it says

rejoice

that your

names are

written in

heaven

that is a

word

rejoice

that can

read

rejoicing

constantly

it's a

reminder to

you all

the time

your names

are written

in heaven

rejoice in

it

live in

it

verse 22

what does

it look

like

to rest

in the

idea

that

you're a

child of

the father

you're a

beloved

child of

father

god

that's

who you

are

verse 22

rest in

the sovereign

grace of

the father

I want to

be careful

to those

of you

who may

not be

feeling

like

you're

embracing

the spirit

from the

heart

the idea

of God's

sovereignty

is a

God

concept

that our

minds

can't

understand

we just

see it

revealed to

us in

places like

this in

scripture

if you

if you

actively choose

against the

kingdom

that is

not

an

indemnifying

thing

against

God's

sovereignty

that is

against

us

as

individuals

so the

question is

never has

God

chosen you

the question

is a very

simple one

actually do

you believe

do you

embrace the

kingdom from

the heart

the answer

is yes or

no and

then the

explanation

gets more

complicated

but it's as

simple as

starting there

do you

believe

have you

embraced the

kingdom

I pray that

you will

and then we

see what time

is it in

history

Jesus pulls

the disciples

aside and

says guys

you wouldn't

believe the

awesome folks

who came

before you

that didn't

get to see

this

you wouldn't

believe that

so after

six hours

of fighting

Captain

Swenson

was still

alive

but three

of those

marines

the Navy

corpsmen

his good

friend who

was the

other army

guy who

was supervising

and advising

the Afghan

soldiers

eight of

those Afghan

soldiers

had all

died and

the firefighting

had ended

and they'd

been pulled

out

and there's

a really

interesting

video which

was hard

to watch

but it

was one

of the

medics

that came

in on a

medevac

had a

GoPro on

his helmet

and showed

some of the

action of

him going

in and

pulling people

out

and then

the most

dominant

scene to

me is

his partner

his first

he was

I'm sorry

I don't

remember his

name but

at any rate

he picked

him up and

carried him

and set

him on the

gurney

in the

helicopter

and just

gave him

a sweet

kiss on

the cheek

and that

man succumbed

to his

injuries

a couple

months later

leaving a

wife and

three kids

I believe

behind

he was

set to

retire

a month

after that

it's

amazing

to think

of the

heroic

nature

of Captain

Swenson

as he went

through

it's no

wonder he

received

the medal

of honor

we see

that type

of love

and that

type

of resolve

out of

a man

and this

story is

actually about

the love

and the

resolve

of the

God

man

who came

for you

who died

for you

who rose

again for

you so

that your

name might

be written

in heaven

so that as

you approach

the task

of going

through the

instructions

of praying

and going

and declaring

that's coming

from actually

a place

of rest

resting

in the

reality

of who

you

are

be a

child

of God

and I

pray that

all of us

when we

go out

of here

today

can be

willing

to

declare

that the

kingdom

is near

that it's

come near

and that

Jesus is

coming

again

pray with

me

and let's

finish

up

father

god

we are

grateful

and humbled

by your

words

I pray

that you

would bless

the going

forth of

all of us

as we

leave here

today

troubled

and

confident

in the

love that

you've

shown us

I pray

that we

would

embrace

your

kingdom

from the

heart

and truly

move to

a place

of being

motivated

from the

inside

by Christ

our

great

king

in whose

name

we

pray

amen

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