God's Purpose for You

Luke 10:1-16

Luke 10:1–16 NASB 95

1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come. 2 And He was 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 harvest. 3 Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way. 5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’ 6 If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; but if not, it will return to you. 7 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. 8 Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you; 9 and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ 10 But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, 11 ‘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.’ 12 I say to you, it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. 13 “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. 14 But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the judgment than for you. 15 And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will be brought down to Hades! 16 “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.”

Prayer

Message

The question is always asked, “what is God’s plan for my life? What is my next step? Where is He leading me? What is my purpose here while the Lord has alloted me this time on earth?”

Everyone of us have asked these questions time and again.

But for someone to say, “I do not know what I should be doing”. That is not a biblically sound statement. Time and again God commands His children to be His disciples. What is not totally clear is the “how”. Because each one of us have been fearfully and wonderfully made and made different, God instills in us different ways to accomplish His will for our lives due to the unique resources He has afforded you.

Notice the slide background. Notice that we are looking ahead with obscurity, not in full focus, but desiring to know what the future holds.

The reason we know the direction to look is because God’s Word provides daily direction for living. The reason that He does not provide us every answer to life is that we would end up living life independent of Him. He wants us to depend on Him and He wants to guide us as we journey with Him.

In our text this morning , Jesus is well on mission. Time is imminent. Jesus’ days before facing His death in Jerusalem are drawing near.

Last Sunday you will remember that we studied the cost of discipleship. Jesus had three conversations with three different people about what it entails to be His disciple. We learned that discipleship comes with a cost. We learned last Sunday that salvation is a simple act for us. Salvation is free. It did not cost us anything, but cost Jesus everything. Discipleship on the other hand comes at a great cost.

Jesus’ army is multiplying and He is sending out yet more of his disciples.

God does offer us a plan of action if you will, a starting point in living out the Christian life.

1. Plan of Action V. 1

Luke 10:1 “1 Now after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.”

In order for Jesus to complete the mission He set out here on earth to accomplish, He chose to use His followers, us believers to spread His message of salvation.

There were twelve apostles, but we know symbolically they represented the twelve tribes of Israel, the twelve patriarchs, and the twelve leaders of each tribe from the OT. Furthermore, in our study this morning, Jesus sent out 70 to be His disciples. Some translations state seventy two, others seventy. Again, a real number, but a symbolic number representing the seventy nations spelled out in Genesis 10. The point of the symbolism is that the Lord desires that His people reach the entire world for Christ. Jesus desires that all men might be saved.

1 Timothy 2:4 “4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

When we are reminded of Matthew 28:19-20 “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”” , our aim each day is to live a life that reflects Jesus in everything we do.

Two matters we need to consider in fulfilling His plan for our lives each day.

Firstly, life is lived in partnership

You nor I are to live life as islands.

When God created man, God Himself stated that man needed a helper in the early Genesis account.

Genesis 2:18 “18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.””

God does not want you to go it alone. If He intended that we serve Him independently, He would have never given us the church.

Secondly, we prepare the soil

God’s Word states that “we plant and He harvests”. Notice what the text states. The seventy were to go ahead of Him and He would following behind them.

I want you to deeply consider an important aspect of your life in Christ.

Jesus pursued you. Jesus wooed you into falling in love with Him. Jesus sought you to call you His own.

But note another important detail of your life in Christ.

He appointed you once you came into relationship with Him to be His disciple.

Appointed-anadeiknymi (Key) an-ad-ike'-noo-mee

to proclaim any one as elected to office

to announce as appointed a king, general, etc.

to lift up anything on high and exhibit it for all to behold

Appoint-to lift up anything on high and exhibit it for all to behold.

I’m missing something Brother Luke. From everything I read about this text, Luke the physician is speaking of evangelizing and leading others to Christ. But as we fulfill that duty in the Christian life, apply the definition of appointing. As you lift Him up, He lifts you up. As you elevate Christ to others, He elevates your influence in this world. It is the reward system. We know that to be true in the story of the parables.

Matthew 6:33 “33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”

As I think about young Solomon that was to become King after King David passed away. Solomon wanted wisdom to be able to discern good from evil. He wanted to lead Israel in making sound decisions that would be pleasing in God’s sight. In other words, Solomon desired the things that God wanted for Him to desire and thus God added all the rest of those things people desire. He provided him powers, prestige, prominence, etc. Did Solomon abuse all the blessings? He did, but God rewarded Him because Solomon initially desired the things God desired for Him.

1 Kings 3:7-10 “7 Now, O Lord my God, You have made Your servant king in place of my father David, yet I am but a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in. 8 Your servant is in the midst of Your people which You have chosen, a great people who are too many to be numbered or counted. 9 So give Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people to discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?” 10 It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.”

God blessed Solomon because He wanted the things God wanted.

Do you want to know God’s plan for your life? Begin moving around and serving Him and He will serve you. He will direct your path.

We find His path for life by moving, not vacillating.

Listen dear brother or sister, I am not advocating a prosperity gospel this morning. I am simply giving understanding to what the text means. When we choose to elevate Jesus, He elevates us.

Ask yourself this question. Is Amy Cantey a bookkeeper to be a bookkeeper for livelihood or is she there at McInnis to influence 100’s of children for the kingdom and 100’s of parents? Do you believe there have been days when single parents come into Amy’s office frazzled by the demands of raising a child by themselves and they need a word of hope?

Do you imagine that Amber gives MRI’s as a technician only to eat or pay the power bill? Do you not believe that when people are lying in the machine in fear, God has placed her there to offer peace in the midst of the storm? I could go on and on, is Barbara teaching music lessons solely, or does she have opportunities to impact young people with life lessons?

When we elevate the Lord, He elevates us. If we elevate Him, He wants to expand our territory to serve Him.

Jabez Prayer

1 Chronicles 4:10 “10 Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!” And God granted him what he requested.”

The book taught various points from this text.

Lord, expand my territory.

He will appoint you, He will lift you up as you lift Him up. Amen.

Listen, as we serve Him, God clears the focus as to how He wants us to serve Him.

“before His face”-do you feel alone? Well, maybe you have chosen that path of feeling along because you have chosen isolation. Isolation is not biblical. But, notice something important. You are not alone. The seventy that He appointed went out before His face. He was right there with them in Spirit. And the Lord is right here with you right now. He loves you and He is always with us. Amen.

2. Pray to be a part of His Answers V. 2

Luke 10:2 “2 And He was 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 harvest.”

Jesus states that as we live this life, the fields of blessing, the fields of harvest, the fields of opportunity are plentiful. Crops are ripe, they just need someone to pick the crops. Oh dearly beloved, get out and shake the trees of this life.

Crowns are not gained on the couches of life. Crowns are gained in the Community for Change.

John 4:35 “35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.”

Ill. I was at an interstate rest stop yesterday and I like this gentlemen I was watching, were both waiting for our wives to get out of the rest room. When the spouse of this other gentleman walked out of the rest room, he said, “daylight is wasting, what took so long?”

As Jane and I made our way to the car to continue on our journey, the couple was walking laps around the rest stop-I assume to get in a certain amount of exercise for the day.

So many people today have Fitbits, apple watches and they count the number of steps in exercise. The new threshold people speak of today is 10,000 steps a day or I guess around 4 plus miles per day walking. We know others that count carbs or calories.

May I challenge you to count conversations. Count how many conversations you have this week about Jesus. Notice I did not say, how many a day because for many of us that do not have day jobs anymore our world has become smaller and we are not guaranteed to come in contact with others every single day of the week. But I do challenge you as you challenge me, how many conversations a week have you had about Jesus?

Notice whose harvest it is? We are to pick up the crops of life that He has appointed us to pick. Our aim each day when we wake us to seek where He would have us go, who would He have us talk to, who would He have us invest time in.

It is important we understand that its His harvest. Have you ever been on a job and your boss became frustrated with you, not because you were not working, but because you were not doing the job he asked you to do? Usually, a supervisor in the workplace is seasoned and realizes in what order the work has to be completed to accomplish the task at hand.

Many times you will discover that you do not know why your agenda is becoming destroyed on a given day. You can not imagine why you are running into so many obstacles and roadblocks to what you set out to accomplish. Have you ever stopped to consider that your days plans were not what the Lord had set out for you to accomplish?

For you see, the Lord had a different plan for you. He wanted you to slow down and share with someone. He had placed someone on your mind that caused you to detour from your original plan.

Many times we do not even know why we stopped and we interpret as we were wasting time knowing all we had to get done. Not in God’s eyes. He had you there for a reason.

Live life going down river. Do not go against the tide dear brother and sister. When the tide changes, God is trying to divert you down another stream to offer the water of life to salvation.

3. Perceive that you are Inadequate in your own power. VV. 3-4

Luke 10:3-4 “3 Go; behold, I send you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. 4 Carry no money belt, no bag, no shoes; and greet no one on the way.”

Most all of the classes I have encountered to be a leader talks about encouraging and empowering people. To have a positive attitude.

Jesus has an interesting way of motivating these followers of Him. Jesus reminds me of Rodney Dangerfield. No respect, no respect, its a jungle out there. Jesus shares with them that you will be “lambs among wolves.” In the modern vernacular, we say today that its a “dog eat dog” world.

In Matthew 10:16 “16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.”

We have been reminded that living a life of a disciple of Christ is not easy. And the reason it is not easy is that we can not do it in our power. Jesus in this text reminds me of a drill sergeant tearing down the private so that he can build him up into what the Army wants him to be.

In verse 4 where Jesus lists the items that they were not to carry on the journey is for good reason. You nor I within our own being have the ability to save the world. We do not have enough money to make a difference, we do not have enough provision, planning, preparation, only in the power of Christ do we have anything to offer this world.

“and greet no one along the road”-what in the world! I see two reasons for that comment.

We can spend our time in fluff fellowship-talking pagan pleasantries and wasting time.

A specific mission-a particular place, a particular person, and a particular set of circumstances.

Jesus, what are you telling me? You want me to go out into the world with a partner, gee thanks. You tell us we are defeated from the get go because we are lambs among wolves, and that we are basically empty handed in any provisions or preparations for the journey, but then you tell us not to greet anyone along the journey. Lord, I just don’t get it. These are two bipolar messages.

What is Jesus saying? Here is what Jesus is saying.

I did not call you to evangelize the world. I called you to witness to those I have planned for you to witness to. I have set the table for you to share with this particular person. God chooses for you to share with people that you click with. People many times you have something in common with. There are times you can share your testimony of a similar life experience when they are going through a terrible tragedy. God has planned a specific formula of conditions for you to share your faith.

4. Peace is the Antidote VV. 5-9

Luke 10:5 “5 Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’”

You have taught somewhat of a dual message. And, I have. I have shared that this text offers us a formula to live out God’s purpose for our lives and the Scriptures accomplish that. Jesus desires that we be His disciples “as we go” in daily life as we live out the Christian life to others.

I close with this point this morning. Whether you are investing in the life of another, you are witnessing, you are attempting to figure out if you are where the Lord wants you, peace will be the prevailing sense as you share. Oh yes, the first few words may be fearful, but as you share, God’s peace and presence will come all over you and you will know you are where he wants you to be. And so goes life. Do you have a peace right now? Our Lord is the Prince of Peace and He sends messages to us called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will affirm our actions or He will cause unrest because we are not at a place in our lives He desires for us.

How is your peace today? Have you ever met the Prince of Peace?

1 Samuel 25:6 “6 and thus you shall say, ‘Have a long life, peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have.”

King David greeted Nabal with these words. God desires this for you.

Let’s pray.

5. Push back will be Awful VV. 10-15

6. Present His Absolute Being V. 16