Jesus Sends Them

Campbell Chapel Free Will Baptist Church

Ironton, Ohio

Campbell Chapel FWBC of Ironton Ohio - Pastor Bob Bradley

A Church that cares about you.

Copyright © 2006, 2007, 2008
All Rights Reserved.

Campbell Chapel
Free Will Baptist Church
1709 Campbell Drive
Ironton, Ohio 45638

Contact Webmaster

Jesus Sends Them Out

April 23, 2008

Bob Bradley

_________________________

The thing about God is that He will never let us down. He will never do that. People let us down. Family lets us down. Husbands let wives down. Wives let husbands down. We let our children down. Our children let us down. We can go on and on with that. However, you can count on one thing, God will never let us down. He will be faithful. He will do just exactly what He said He would do for us if we will just be faithful to Him. We do have a wonderful, wonderful Savior tonight. It is good to be saved.

Mark 6:7-13

7 And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;

8 And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse:

9 But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats.

10 And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place.

11 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

12 And they went out, and preached that men should repent.

13 And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them.

We continue on tonight. We have been studying through the book of Mark and some of the great things and great miracles that Jesus has been doing.

7 And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;

Do you remember back in chapter 3? If you have your Bibles, turn to chapter 3 of Mark in verse 13.

13 And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.

14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,

15 And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:

…then he goes ahead and names who he calls here. As you look at what he does here, there are some things we want to look at in chapter three because it is going to make a lot of sense to us here as we look at what happens here in chapter six.

Jesus called. The Bible here uses the word “called.” It means to pick, or to pick out. When He goes on the mountain here this day in chapter three; there is no doubt a whole crowd of people there. There were more than just twelve. There were probably hundreds, maybe even thousands of them around there, but He picked out, or He chose these twelve. The Bible says here, “…whom he would…” In other words, he just didn’t pick them at random. He just didn’t pick men here sporadically, but He chose these men. There was a reason for what He was doing. It just was not a random thing. God knows what He is doing. When he calls men to preach His Word and to carry forth His Word, then he knows exactly what He is doing.

Not everybody that preaches has been called of God. I know that sounds like a harsh statement. When you look at peoples lives and when you look at the credentials or qualifications for preachers in the scriptures; we know that when someone says they have been called to preach and do not match up with the qualifications that God has put down in His Word, then we know that they have not been called of God. Grandpa may have called them. Grandma may have called them. Their wife or someone else may have called them but God did not call them. When God calls men to preach then he knows men have the ability to do that if they will just trust Him. When God calls men to preach then He will enable them, instruct them, and empower them to be able to do that. The Bible says here, He calls whom He would.

As you come on down through here in chapter three, He appoints them, He calls them and the Bible says, “…they came unto him.” So they separated themselves…

There is something that I want you to look at.

13 And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him.

He is calling these men here in the beginning of His ministry and He is going to teach them. They come unto Him. They came to where He was at. When you read that in the original, it tells us that they come close to Him and it tells us and will teach us that as Jesus calls them and as they come unto Him; then He is going to teach them. They are going to be close to Him. He is going to teach them. He is going to instruct them. He is going to show them what they need to do and how they need to live. They are going to watch what Jesus Christ does. There is a great lesson for preachers today. If we are going to be someone that is effective for Jesus Christ…

Jesus knew that He was going to go away; He knew that He was going to die. He knew that He was going to leave these twelve here behind. He knew that it was going to be left up to them to take the gospel message all over the known world. He wanted instruct them or prepare them so that when He was gone, they could carry on the message. The only way that they could be instructed or prepared is that if they stayed close to Him. They came to Him and stayed close to Him.

That is a good lesson for you and me today. Any preacher, any pastor, or any body today, any teacher, anyone that is instructing people; if they are going to be effective, if they are going to carry on the work that Jesus Christ expects them to carry on, then they will have to be close to him. It is impossible for us to live far away from Him and yet learn anything from Him. He is the pattern. Jesus Christ and His life is the pattern for you and me tonight. If we are going to be able to teach, preach, and to lead people unto Him, then we are going to have to be taught by Him. The Seminary is great. Education is wonderful. I think we need more of it. However, the greatest thing we need is to stay close to Jesus Christ and to be taught by Him; listening to His voice, listening and reading His Word. If we will do that, then we can be effective witnesses for Him. If we do not ever read, if we do not ever pray, if we do not ever seek His face, if we never submit our self unto Him, then we will never be able to teach or preach or do anything that is going to bring glory to Him.

I have heard all of my life, if God calls you all you have to do is open your mouth and He will fill it. That is stupidity. That is what that is. He does fill it a whole lot of times, but it will be with hot air. The reason I tell you that is because I have been there before.

He called them. He ordained them. They came unto Him. It says something else here that I want you to catch. He ordained them.

Mark 3

14 And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach,

In other words, He called them. They came unto Him. He ordained them. He set them apart. He is going to teach them for a while. Then after a while, He is going to send them forth with some great power and great authority from Him.

I think this is important in the day that we live. The Bible says that He sent them forth to preach. Did you ever think about what the word “preach” means? If we would explain or give the definition for “preach” some would say, “jump up and down…stomping…hollering….” That is not preaching at all. That is not what the word means. The word means “to make a public proclamation.” It also means “to make this public proclamation with gravity/with formality/with authority…”

There are two things that I want you to think about here. It uses the word—when you look at the word “preach” in the Greek—it brings up the word “gravity.” Gravity means “sincerity.” It tells us that preaching must be sincere. It is good to have fun. It is good to tell jokes and all that, but when we come here, and get here it is more than just telling jokes for thirty minutes and get everybody rolling and laughing; that is not preaching. Preaching is making a public proclamation, but it is preaching, teaching, talking about Jesus in sincerity. It also uses another word in the Greek. The other word is “formality.” Formality means “to have a form about it.” That means to have some structure about it. I know that sometimes we hear preachers that will talk in James for awhile, and then they go back to Jude, then they go to Exodus and they just jump from here to there to yonder. They never really get anywhere. I have been guilty of that before. Preaching needs to have some form about it.

When you leave here tonight, then you should know what I have talked about. I should be able to teach you something tonight and when you leave here the message should teach you something. If you will listen tonight, you should know what I have talked about. It should bring you to an understanding about something, instead of just all confused going from here to there to yonder. We use to call it “shot gun” preaching. I guess that may have its place I guess, but I never did learn a whole lot from that. You won’t either. It makes you feel good talking about being born again, Zaccheus up a tree… Those things all sound good and they are good in their place, and it makes us feel good but there has got to be some structure about what we are doing. When we do that then people can learn something. That is the key to preaching is to make a public proclamation in sincerity with gravity, in formality. …[It] is something that has authority that men will have to make a decision.

Telling jokes—you don’t have to make a decision about anything. However, when you hear the Word of God preached in authority and it has some formality about it, it is sincere; you will either have to say, “No, I’m not going to believe it.” Or “Yes, I am going to believe it.” That is for believers and non-believers. When you hear the Word of God preached and taught as it should be preached and taught, then it will make us to either accept what has been preached and it will speak to our hearts and show us the error of our way. [It will] show us some things that we need to cut off. I don’t care if we have been saved a hundred years. It does that. Not only that, but it will convict the unsaved and they will have to come to a realization where they say, “I am going to believe that.” Or “I am not going to believe that.” It does us all that way. The Word of God does that.

That is why it is so important that it be done the way the Bible says it is to be done; in the power and the demonstration of the Holy Spirit of God with some formality. We are to be sincere about what we are doing. When we do that—I’m not saying that it needs to be deader than a hammer. I’m not saying that we need to get up here and read off every word that we have got. I’m not saying that all, but I am saying that it needs to have some formality about it. It needs to have some structure about it. We just don’t need to be talking about John the Baptist and leave him hanging and we go talk on someone else for three minutes, and then go talk on to someone else. It is just a bunch of confusion. We know less when we leave than when we got here. That does not get anybody anything. Does it?

He says that. He is going to send them forth. He gave them authority. Do remember when we talked about this and we had a big discussion about the power that they had over unclean spirits? They were going to heal some sick. Remember this. Don’t ever forget this. One of these days this will soak in and mean something to you. They had authority delegated unto them. They did not have the power to heal anybody. They did not, they could not go over and lay their hands on anybody and heal them. They could not do that. Jesus never gave them that authority. He gave them authority—if they went to someone and said, “Mart, you need to be healed.” The power of God was there to heal and it was God’s power that done the healing and not them. Remember that because that will be good for you somewhere else on down the road.

Since they were going to do these things, He taught them, they were close to Him, He ordained them, and He set them apart. He wanted them to follow Him and be with Him so that when He sends them forth then they will be trained, taught, and they will know what to do.

Even in our conferences, in our churches, in our denominations today, one of the greatest things that is lacking today is teaching of our young ministers and deacons what their responsibilities are. Not only that but also to teach them how that they should go about these things. There is no doubt in my mind that the Lord calls a lot of them, some of them He doesn’t, but the Lord calls a lot of them. We give them a card and send them out here to just go preach. We have done them a great dishonor because we did not take them aside and say, “Hey, we are going to teach you some things before we ever send you out here and put you out here on your own. We are going to teach you some things and if you do not want to learn anything then we are not going to send you.” That’s not popular today.

People think that if God called them then God is going to take care of them. That’s truth if God called them then God will take care of them. However, the sad part is that the things young people can be taught in four to six years, by people that have been on this way for awhile that would take them a lifetime to learn on their own.

That is the great thing about us following Jesus Christ. That is the great thing about you following Jesus Christ. That is the great thing about you living close to Jesus Christ. That is the great thing that we must have preachers, teachers, and leaders that will stay close to Him, stay close to Jesus, read and study His Word so that we can teach you something.

It is not my responsibility to go to everybody in this community and everybody in this county and tell them that they need to get saved. It is my responsibility to teach you how to go do that, to go…tell everybody that they need to get saved. That is my responsibility. My responsibility is to equip you guys, to teach you all how you should go about doing that, how it needs to be in a proper way then it is your responsibility to go. That is truth. That is the book (Bible). We have 75 to 79 people here tonight and 79 can do more than one can do. The circles that you are in, I will never be in. Where you work at and where you go to school at, and where you live at; I’ll never be there and spend a lot of time there. I may visit you, may see you, but I’ll never be there day in and day out like you are. If you know how to lead someone to Jesus Christ, if you know how to teach someone that they need to come and follow Jesus Christ; then you can do that. That is the responsibility. My responsibility is to teach you.

Jesus is going to send these guys forth. They are going to go out and we know that they are going to go all over the world, some of them are. We know that some of them are going to die here in Jerusalem, but some of them are going to go all over the world. He is going to teach them how that they should go about this thing so when they went out there to teach and preach and do what they were going to do. It would make sense and they would not look like a bunch of idiots just running around not knowing what they were doing. What they would be doing—they would lead people to Him. They would lead people to Jesus Christ. They would lead people to where they could come and hear His Word and be saved. That is the goal of Jesus calling these twelve, teaching them and getting them close to Him so that they could look at Him, follow Him, and watch how He did things. That is the reason that He is doing this.

Some time went on here between chapters 3 and 6. It gets time for them here where He is going to send them out. He is going to send them on the way.

In chapter 6, I read to you tonight, in verse 7…

7 And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;

Here they go. He is going to send them out now. They have been with Him for several months. They have watched Him. They have listened to Him. They have watched Him heal people. They have listened to His instruction through the parables and different teachings that He has had. When we read these first six chapters and we lose sometimes the sense of all that went on. We don’t have much of what went on. However, we have some things that went on. What I want you think about is this. All the things that they have done, all the things that they have been taught, all the things that they have seen; now they are going to get this thing to be put into action.

7 And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;

Did you ever think about why he sent them two by two? He could have sent them three by three, or four by four. When we go visiting and when we go out on trips and things like that…on visitation, I don’t want anyone to go by themselves. We don’t know what we are going to face. We don’t know what people are going to say. Even in the Old Testament, not only that but when you look at Matthew chapter 18, it tells us about the witness of two. In the Old Testament, under the Law, out of the mouth of two or three witnesses, let our work be established. It was about witness. It was about the testimony and so forth. Not only that but it is with companionship. It is more than just going on visitation; these guys were going to be going to different cities. They were going to be going there in what we call a missionary trip. Even though they were only going just a few miles; they were going to be staying in these places, but they were going to be going two by two. It would be a whole lot better if you were going with somebody you liked. Not only liked but someone that you had the same goals with, the same thoughts and the same objectives. Not only would it be a matter of witness and testimony, but also it would be a matter of companionship and friendship and supporting each other. We all need that. We all need to be supported.

He sends them out two by two.

7 And he called unto him the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two; and gave them power over unclean spirits;

He delegated authority. He had given them the authority that they could walk up and say whoever it was; unclean spirits come out of you. We know, when you look at the words here, the power of God was there to make sure that their requests were obeyed. That’s awesome when you think about it.

God never gave me that authority. I could go up and speak to you all I want to…

I ran into a guy today that I didn’t know exactly what was going to happen before I got away from him. He was out of his head on drugs, or something. I could have said all I wanted to—come out of him, you unclean spirits—and it would not have happened because I do not have that authority. God did not delegate me that authority.

However, these twelve here, He delegated authority. They could walk up and command the unclean spirits to come out. The power of God was there to make sure the unclean spirits obeyed. Isn’t that awesome!

Did you ever think about this? He was concerned about the spiritual side of people and the physical side of people. Wasn’t He?

These had power to do that. These guys had authority, delegated authority, they could say, “…unclean spirits come out…” and the power of God was there to make sure that they obeyed.

We talked about this in chapter three. We see so many people today and more people today than in any of our lifetimes, who are more controlled by evil spirits than anytime in our lifetime. Not anymore than they were in the days of Noah. But anytime in our lifetime we are seeing more people that are being controlled by evil spirits today, more than in any of our lifetimes. Why? [We are seeing this] because we are getting closer to the end of things. We are getting closer to the time that Jesus Christ is going to return. When you look at what Jesus said was going to come about in the end time, in the last days; it talks about the occult, it talks about sorcery and all these things that are going to be very prevalent in the last days. We are seeing that today. We are not only seeing that in people on skid row, people that are homeless, people that are addicted to drugs and alcohol, but we are seeing people today that sit in the pews that are controlled by devils and demons. We are seeing people in the corporate world that runs banks, cities, and companies that are controlled by satan. That’s truth. We don’t like to admit that. We don’t like that we have people sitting in the pews that are controlled by satan. We don’t like to admit that some preachers that are behind the pulpit are controlled by satan. We don’t like to think about things like that, but that’s truth.

We need to be very careful who we listen to. Someone told me this week, that they had been listening to some things that they shouldn’t have been listening to and it got them in trouble. Not everybody will tell you the truth. Not everybody that you listen to has got your best interest in mind. They may go to church and they may be the biggest…but they can get you in trouble. Just because you go to church does not mean that you are going to heaven. Just because people go to church does not mean that they are saints of God.

I wish we could get that across in our world today. If we could get that across in our world today then fundamental, Bible believing, Evangelical Christians would not get the bad wrap that we get today. They want to lump us all together. When we look at all the religions in America, they want to lump us all together and put us all into one big bunch. That is not true. [There are] a lot of religions, [but there is] one plan of salvation. The Baptists don’t have the corner on that. There are a lot of people going to heaven that don’t belong to the Baptist church.

He calls them. He sends them forth two by two. He delegates some authority unto them.

8 And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse:

He is going to send them out on a journey and He says here, “…you are going to go two by two…” and He commanded them—He did not say, “…if you wanted to…” He did not say this was a suggestion. He commanded them. He “…commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey save a staff only…” He says, don’t you take a thing with you but a walking stick. He says here, “…no scrip…” Do you know what a scrip is? It means a little traveling bag.

It is like these little bags that you see people carrying today that they keep around their waist and on their backs, and they carry them over their shoulder. It was a little traveling bag. Sometimes they carried bread in them, back in this time. It was a little bag that they would carry their lunch in it or carry bread in it.

He says take just a walking stick with you and don’t take anything else. Don’t take your bread bag with you. Don’t take any scrip with you.

8 And commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only; no scrip, no bread, no money in their purse:

In other words, they had what we call money belts. You don’t see many of them any more. They wore long garments and they went way down to their waist and it was a big floppy thing. They would take a belt and put it around their waist. They called it a purse, but it was like a money belt. It was hallow on the inside. They could put their money, coins, brass, gold or silver, whatever it was, on the inside of it. He said, don’t take any of that.

Get this. Do you think that if Jesus Christ was sending forth some of the people that we see on TV today and say you take a walking stick, you don’t take a money bag with you. I don’t think that would go over real good, do you? I don’t think that we would see too many people on TV today.

Do you know what He is telling them? Do not live above everybody else. I think we lose a lot in our society today when we want to put the congregation on this level and put the preacher on this level. We don’t need to do that. We need to respect him—absolutely. We need to pray for him—absolutely. We need to respect his position—absolutely. However, he does not need to live like a king and everybody else live like dogs.

Someone told me the other day that they paid their pastor $65,000 a year. The sad part about that is this. They have people that go to that church who are going hungry. That is the sad part about that.

Jesus is saying; don’t load your self down with a lot of worldly stuff. You take your walking stick with you. Don’t take your knap sack with you. Don’t load down with a bunch of stuff. You don’t take any bread with you. Don’t take any money with you. You don’t need that.

9 But be shod with sandals; and not put on two coats.

In other words, you have a walking stick, you have shoes on your feet, and you have a coat on your back. Don’t take two coats. Take what you absolutely need and go. Isn’t that an awesome command? These guys were going to learn that they had to trust Him. These guys had to learn that if they were going to be successful in their ministry for Him that they had to trust Him. Not only that, but they were going to have to trust the people that they were going to be going to. Get that. Not only do we have to trust Him, but they are going to have to trust the people that they were going to be going and staying with.

10 And he said unto them, In what place soever ye enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place.

In other words, what He is saying is, when you go to a certain city, town, village, or whatever it is; wherever you go the first house that you go to and you stay, you stay there. In other words, if you are going to spend a week in this town, two weeks, or a month in this town; you do not jump from house to house. You do not go and stay here tonight at this particular house and they exercise hospitality and they say come on in, you can stay with us. We will feed you. We will take care of you while you are here in this town. You go in, sit down, and eat pork n’ beans and crackers then visit around the next day in town and go over unto the other side of the tracks, in another part of town where somebody over there is living in a mansion and they want you to come over there and stay—He says don’t do that. Don’t jump from house to house. Do you know what that does? That causes problems. That causes jealousy. That causes malice. That causes a lot of different things. We see that a lot today. We see preachers taking advantage of the members. Not here, but it happens in a lot of places.

Do you know what I have heard people doing? I have heard of pastors swindling money out of people to send their kids or grandkids to college; or to pay for a house for them. They swindle money out of them.

The thing He is saying here is do not run from house to house. When you go to the city, the house that you go to, you abide until you leave that city. You stay there. Don’t jump from house to house. Don’t go here and stay here tonight and go somewhere else the next night, and somewhere else the next night. Don’t do that. Do you what happens when you do that? You start picking the upscale places and leaving the poor out. He said don’t do that.

These guys are going to have to depend upon the people that they were going to stay with. Don’t jump from house to house. Whatsoever “…place you enter into an house, there abide till ye depart from that place.”

11 And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear you, when ye depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

What do you think about that? Is that a hard statement? It really is not. Somebody told me today that they would like to come here, but we are too hard. They would like to come here, but we are too strict. That is sad. I have heard people say that they would like to come here, but we are just too strict here. I thank God for that.

If anytime we get out of this book [Bible]; show me. I want them to show me because if we get outside this book then we have erred. I want to correct it. I want to get back inside the book. Do you know what people don’t like? They just don’t like the simple truth. They don’t like living by the simple truth. They want to live by their own set of rules. They want to live by their own set of guidelines.

They don’t want nobody to ask them where they are at, why they are not coming. I have had people here that use to come here when they would not come to church; I’d call them up and say where are you? They would get upset because you had called them. I thought that was my job. I didn’t know. Do you know why people do want to be asked that? [They don’t want to be asked that] because they don’t want to make up any excuses. Many times people don’t want to come just because they don’t want to come.

He says whatever house you enter in, you stay there until you leave. In whatever city or town that you go into, if they will not hear you or receive you when you leave, shake off the dust from your feet. What He is saying here is that you go to the city, the first night you stay in that house, wherever it is, you stay in that particular house all the time that you are there. If people will not hear you or receive you, shake off the dust from under your feet for a testimony against them. The shaking off dust, or hitting the shoes together and knocking off the dust was symbolic of contempt, great contempt. In other words, Jesus is telling them, if you go into this city, whatever city it was, and the city does not receive you then you hit your feet together—in the Greek it means that we are not going to have anything else to do with you. Get that! Let that soak in.

It is very important that we understand how important it is for us to receive the Word of God. Jesus Christ himself was sending these guys forward. They had been trained by Him. They had watched Him. They had listened to Him. They had participated in things with Him. He is sending them forth and giving them authority—delegated authority. He says, you go to the city. If they will not receive you and if they will not receive your preaching, teaching, authority, when you leave there tell them that’s fine. You are rejecting them, and Him. Here is the sad thing about that. When we reject the Word of God, when we say we don’t believe that and we are not going to believe that—sometimes we say that we can take it or leave it. The Word of God is not like that. Jesus Christ puts people in our lives, puts people in our path, and puts people in our space to tell us, to warn us and to teach us the truth.

Years ago, before I got saved, I worked with people that would mention to me about getting saved. I worked around people, and there were people in my community, some of my family, I would be around them from time to time; they would say, you need to get saved. You need to change your life.

The sad part about this whole thing is that there comes a time in my life and in your life; do you know what is going to happen? We are going to have the opportunity to listen and to change for the last time. Do you know what these guys done? Do you know what Jesus commanded them to do? Shake off the dust and move on.

When we talk to our family sometimes it breaks my heart. I know it does some of you. When you talk to your family and they don’t want to get saved. They don’t want to repent. It does break your heart. Do you know what we cannot do? We cannot stop there. If we would allow people to stop us because they don’t believe us, then the people that are out here that wants to hear us, we will never get to because we let this group over here that did not respond to us keep us from going over here to get this group that will respond to us. Do you see what happens? We cannot let people that will not receive us upset us.

Think how Jesus would have felt. He would have been crying, He would have been carrying a bath towel around all the time. Wouldn’t He? If they are not going to receive Him, if the masses did not receive Him do you think they are going to receive me and you? They are not.

However, there are some that is going to. There is some out there that are going to listen to us and are going to respond to the truth. Those are the ones that we have to find. Those are the ones we have to go to. We may have to go a hundred, or we may have to go to a thousand to find that one that wants to listen, but one soul—how much is it worth? How much is one individual escaping the lake of fire; how much is it worth? It is worth everything that you and I could ever do.   If every one of us here, in our lifetime, would just lead one soul to Jesus Christ that would be seventy-five more people that would escape the lake of fire. Just one! I know some of us lead more than that. If each one would just lead one to Christ, just one that would be seventy-five people that would escape the lake of fire.

I told someone this the other day. A very wealthy fellow, probably worth millions and millions of dollars was talking to me about some things, a very wise fellow actually. He was talking about buying this and getting that and I said there was a time in my life that was important to me and it was and it was about having things, having money, and having bank accounts and popularity. There was a time that was important to me, but I come to realize that the most important thing in my life has got to be to live where I can make a difference in other people’s lives. If I can just make a difference in one person’s life, all of my life, if I can make a positive impact just on one person’s life then I think that life has been success. People need you and me. There is people dying everyday that would love to have somebody just to talk to them.

I went somewhere the other day just to talk to this dear individual. Do you know what they needed? They needed something to eat, and they needed a little bit of heat in their house. They needed those things. Do you know what else they needed? They needed somebody just to listen to them, just to talk to them.

Not only that, but we have folks in our families, your families, my family and in this community that is hurting tonight. Sin has gripped them and got their lives griped in such a way that they don’t know which way to turn. How many times have you talked to people that said, “I don’t know what to do. I don’t know which way to go. I don’t what to do now.” Do you know what we can do? We can point them in the right direction. We can point them to Jesus Christ if we will live as we should live. Stay close to him. Let Him use us. He may send us somewhere. He may send us to Afghanistan. He may send us to Africa, Pakistan, or Germany. He may send you across the street to your neighbor too. They are just as important as anybody. They are just as important as anybody that has ever been born is your neighbor that is dying lost.

I thank God for missionaries. I thank God that we support missionaries here. I think sometimes we worry too much about what is going on in other places and we forget what is going on in our own community. We forget about they are our neighbors, friends, family, co-workers, and people that are dying—we are worrying about what is going on and there is nothing wrong with that. We need people to go and we need people to be missionaries. We need to support them all that we can, but we don’t need to forget our home either. If we don’t take care of this, then what we do somewhere else is not going to matter…

I would encourage you tonight to just take an hour of your time and go to either one of these rest homes that we have here in town. We have two or three of them here. Just go to one of them and spend an hour. You don’t have to know anybody there. Just walk up and down the hall. Walk in a room. Walk in some of these rooms and see the shape that some people are in and it will break your heart. They put them in there and families abandon them. That is not always that case. Some people need to be there because of the situation that they are in. Some people cannot be taken care of by me or you. What I am saying is this. There are people in there that have not seen some of their family for 20 years. There are people in there that don’t know if some in their families are still yet alive or not. It breaks your heart when you walk down the halls and they say, “Come here. Are you a preacher?” and you say, “Yes.” Then they say, “Will you preach my funeral when I die?” That is the first I ever saw some of these people. It breaks your heart.

Take five minutes just to talk to some of these folks and it will make a difference in their life and it will make a difference in your life too. People need our help guys. There are folks everywhere that needs our help. We are so busy. We are so wrapped in all of our activities. Today, the biggest thing is laziness. It is not that we don’t have the time. It is not that we don’t have the ability. We just ate up with laziness. We think somebody else will do it. We think that it doesn’t really matter. You may be laying up there a whole sooner than you think. You don’t have to be old to be in a rest home. There a lot of young folks up there. If we don’t go visit some of these folks then don’t expect somebody to come and visit you. That is hard isn’t it?

The Bible says that we reap what we sow. We want to put that over here in a category. I think it’s a whole lot bigger than we think it is sometimes. If we sow compassion, hospitality, and kindness then when it comes time for us to receive that there will be people there that will do that for us.

When we feed the hungry, there may come a time—I don’t how much money you have in your 401K, or your IRAs or your bank accounts tonight. There may come a time when you will get hungry too. You take care of the poor today and when it comes that time somebody will take care of you too.

He sent them out and gave them authority to do what they are going to do here. He sent them out two by two. He told them to shake the dust off their feet.

12 And they went out, and preached that men should repent.

13 And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them .

As I said earlier, not only was He concerned about their spiritual bodies, but He is also concerned about their physical bodies. There were a lot of folks here that were sick. They anointed them with oil and healed many that were sick.

Is God speaking to your heart tonight? Jesus loves you. Jesus went to the cross, suffered, bled and died just for me and just for you. Is God calling tonight?

Back • Up • Next

EXIT to CalvinEvans.org