Sent Out
Inside Out • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 11 viewsSometimes God expects us to participate in the answering of our own prayers.
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The Problem
The Problem
Culture has shifted. People are much more comfortable in the world than in community with God’s people.
Gathering/interaction has shifted. No longer do people have to come to the house of the Lord to fellowship.
Acceptance of God’s Word has shifted. New ideas, popular people with wise sayings are the new rage.
The church has not moved to address modern issues. It seems irrelevant, and out of date, an artifact from the past.
The church leaders instead turned inward, focusing on the funds coming in instead of meeting the needs of the people around them.
This is not a description of the modern church (even though it sounds like it), rather it is a description of the religious system in Jesus’ time. And it was also the problem in Isaiah’s time!
Isaiah 49:6
6 he says: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
It is too small a thing to sit back and watch a church die. It is too small a thing to simply tend the flock we have. It is too small a thing to bury that talent to give it back someday. It is too small a thing, so God is going to do a new thing!
Isaiah 43:16-22
16 This is what the Lord says— he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters,
17 who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.
20 The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen,
21 the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.
22 “Yet you have not called on me, Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, Israel.
This was the problem in Isaiah’s time…God was doing something new and the Israelites couldn’t be bothered by it. Ezekiel also commented about this!
Ezekiel 34:2-12
2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock?
3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.
4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally.
5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals.
6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
7 “ ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:
8 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock,
9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord:
10 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
11 “ ‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.
12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.
God is saying, “If you aren’t going to look after the needy and the lost, I’m going to take you out and do it myself! I WILL BE THE GOOD SHEPHERD!”
The Solution
The Solution
We’re now in the time of Jesus and things have not changed much. The Pharisees are abusing the flock spiritually, the Sadducees are abusing the flock morally and financially. So look at Matthew’s description of the situation and Jesus’ response.
Matthew has just shown us Jesus being the good shepherd. There are 9 miracles in the chapters leading up, Jesus healing and protecting, and raising the dead. HE IS THE GOOD SHEPHERD!
35 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
Jesus assesses this situation and sees that all these lost and hurting people are longing for something, and it’s something that only the Kingdom of Heaven can give!
These people are ready to encounter God, to be a plentiful harvest! But the SHEPHERDS OF ISRAEL are doing nothing about it!
So Jesus commands his disciples to as God to send workers to go harvest. THAT’S NORMALLY WHERE WE STOP! But Matthew doesn’t end the story there. Next VERSE!
Matthew 10:1
1 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
Matthew 10:5-8
5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans.
6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.
7 As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’
8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
Did you catch that? Jesus says pray that God sends workers, and then he sends the 12!
The 12 are the answer to their own prayer!
Most of the time we act like the Shepherds of Israel: "Here I am Lord, send someone else!"
But God isn't calling someone else, he's calling us. How will we respond?
How are we doing?
How are we doing?
Can we honestly say we have an “inside out” approach at East Side where we use the “inside” as a launching point to “go out” into the world and harvest? Are we using this time together to empower our own missionary efforts in Snyder?
Are we Outward focused, or Inward focused?
Our Savior calls us into a messy world to bring order to it through sharing his story. How are we going to answer his call?