Great Commission vision for FBC Franklin Youth

Matthew 9:35-10:7

Testimony

Intro with story of the boat and Joe

Calm nerves, focus on The Word of God

Turn to Matthew 9:35 is where we will be starting

Intro to Sermon

"There was an idea, Stark knows this, called the Avenger Initiative. The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people, to see if they could become something more. See if they could work together when we needed them to to fight the battles that we never could." - Nick Fury

Nike: “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world”

Google: “To provide access to the world’s information in one click”

Amazon: “Our vision is to be earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online.”

Does anyone know what all of these have in common? They are vision casting

We are to have a vision if we want to have something to look forward to. Something to strive towards, something to set our focus on. The mission and vision of FBC Franklin, according to the church website is to do all we do “FOR HIS GLORY”

My goal of this sermon is to cast a vision for the youth here at FBC Franklin, which if i had to put a title on this sermon it would be “Great Commission Vision for FBC Franklin youth.”

We are going to see this in

Matthew 9:35-10:7 “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Pray

Context

This spot in Matthew is following after the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus ministry is very public at this point. The crowds were aware after the sermon on the mount, Jesus was teaching not as a scribe, rather someone who has ultimate authority of what he was saying. He then starts the process of proving he has authority. Starting in chapter 8 we see Jesus healing people over and over again. The Leper, 8:1-4, Heals many 8:14-17, Heals 2 men with demons 8:28-33, A paralytic 9:1-8, a woman was restored to life, and another woman was healed V. 9:18-26, he healed two blind men V. 9:27-31, he healed a mute man V.32-34. Which then leads to where we are now in his ministry.

Matthew 9:35 “And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.”

Jesus is now in front of another multitude of people.

His immediate response to this crowd is going to be our first point. And that is Jesus had compassion for this crowd of people.

Have compassion for the lost V. 35-36

When Jesus looked into this crowd he saw lost people. And he had compassion for them. That word for compassion can also be translated into pity,

This verb is similar to what is expressed in modern language as a feeling in one’s “gut” or “heart” of deep empathy for another person.

One of my commentaries said this, “He was not just emotionally moved, but physically affected with compassion when He saw the crowds. Think about seeing someone you love hurting or suffering, so much so that your heart physically feels like it’s going to burst for them. That’s the kind of language used here. Exalting Jesus in Matthew

They were harassed and helpless. like sheep without a shepherd.

Sheep are not smart. Show picture of sheep.

Imagine a sheep getting attacked by a wolf. Would not go well.

Also the crowd Jesus looked out and saw separation between them and God the Father.

This sense of being harassed and helpless is the state of humanity apart from Jesus.

How are we to have compassion for them?

Realize what they are dealing with on a day to day basis.

Listen to these percentages from the CDC of a report of students aged 12-17 deal with from a report from 2018-2019. Pre COVID

15.1% had a major depressive episode.

36.7% had persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness.

24.1% had a substance use disorder.

21.6% had an alcohol use disorder.

18.8% seriously considered attempting suicide.

15.7% made a suicide plan.

8.9% attempted suicide.

Students are helpless. Regardless of what culture might say to them. The culture says that we are to find strength and to find our identity in ourself. We can not look at those numbers and say otherwise. The culture also says to follow your heart.

Look at what scripture says about the heart

Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Look at other real trends

Divorce rate is roughly 50%

I would go on a limb to say that everyone in this room has been directly involved with a divorce.

A sense of not belonging is real in this generation.

Emotional

Psychological

Students are being taught their sexual identity is what their identity is in.

We know this is not really the case. Their identity and who they is deeper than that. We are made in God’s image.

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

God did not make a mistake in creating us.

This generation is being raised in a generation of school shooting that seem to happen every week.

Constant state of being scared of what the future might hold for them.

Psalm 46:1 “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

Psalm 23 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

This next number is staggering to me. According to Impact 360 and the Barna group only 4% of Generation Z have a biblical worldview. That age range is for those born between 1999-2015

Why is this the trend?

Brokenness in the world.

After the fall in Genesis 3 we have full separation between us and God.

Romans 2 speaks of even those who are lost, know they are broken.

We are currently seeing students live in a post- Christian world. Meaning it is no longer socially acceptable to go to church.

It is no longer acceptable to see the Word of God as having full authority.

Christians are seen as unloving, and unable to accept what is happening in the culture. We are seen as to be hypocrites, unloving, caring and so forth.

How are we to have compassion for them practically?

Love them.

Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.””

No matter what a student may do love them.

No matter how a student may act love them.

John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world...

Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

If we are to be imitators of Christ, then we are to have compassion for them, love them, also we are to pray!!!

In loving them we do not accept the sin. We teach, we coach, and we hold them accountable. Just as a good father would do. Discipline from a heart of love.

10 commandments.

Pray for them which leads us to our next point. We are to....

Pray for the lost V.37-38

Jesus looked at the crowd and then have this lesson to his disciples. The harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few? What does he mean?

He is referring to the Lord’s harvest. Which is the souls of those people Jesus is looking at and seeing, and for us it is those who are walking apart from the Lord.

Jesus is insisting the disciples for God to raise up men and woman to go into the Harvest.

Joel 3:13-14 “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great. Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.”

The Lord’s harvest has a judgement feel to it. Meaning their should be an urgency of going into the field.

But Jesus gives us a step here before we go. We are to pray.

Pray the Lord brings men and woman to this church to go.

We are all called to go and share the gospel. This passage is showing and teaching us that we are to pray specifically for people to come. When we pray, we are to be expectant for God to deliver.

How can God use me?

How can God use you?

How can God use some other follower for this church, for this community and ultimately for the kingdom.

Crossings biggest summer need workers, uses all types of people. Hudson.

How are we to pray for the lost?

Pray for the lost in salvation

1 Timothy 2:1-6 “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”

Paul charges Timothy to pray earnestly for the lost.

Pray for God to continue to soften the heart of those who do not have a relationship with Him.

Ezekiel 36:26 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”

Pray for God to spark a revival in our community.

Fulton Street revival. A man named Jeremiah Lanphier began praying and seeking the Lord in 1857. This happened roughly 10 years after the massive gold rush in 1848. Men had turned from God to riches. It was exactly noon on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 1857, at the Old North Dutch Reformed Church on Fulton Street in lower Manhattan. For three months Jeremiah had gone into every business, shop and boardinghouse inviting people to pray on that particular Wednesday. But as he entered the church at noon on Sept. 23, no one was there.

Lanphier had decided upon a prayer meeting because nothing else he tried was bringing people into the church. He was discouraged, but prayer was his solace. If it encouraged his heart to fellowship with God, maybe others would feel similarly

Jeremiah Lanphier, with no theological training but a deep commitment to the will of God, sat down in the empty church building and began praying.

Finally, at 12:30 five men walked in to pray.

There was no fanaticism, no hysteria. From a human perspective, nothing extraordinary was happening, and certainly there was no idea that this would begin one of the greatest revival movements in American history. It was just six men quietly, earnestly seeking their God on behalf of their city.

The next Wednesday, 14 people attended the prayer meeting.

Within six months there were anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 men and women out of a population of 800,000 praying at 20 different prayer meetings daily around NYC.

For a period of time, it is estimated that 10,000 people were being converted in NYC each week.

They continued to meet and pray for 18 months once a week on those Wednesday nights. Within 18 months of the first prayer meeting in the Old North Dutch Reformed Church, it is estimated that 1 million souls across the United States had come to Christ.

This revival across America started with one man. One man who we saw did not have any theological training. He was apart of any ministry team. He was just a man who was doing what the Lord commanded him to do. And that was pray.

Pray over the harvest. Pray for dead souls to come to life.

Will you pray without ceasing for the lost. Pray for God to raise up men and woman to go and share gospel.

As we talked about showing compassion to students and ultimately those who are Lost on of the last ways we are to show compassion is to GO to them which is our last point.

GO to the lost V. 1-7

In verses 1-4 Jesus gives authority to the 12 disciples. He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out and heal every disease and affliction. Matthew then names each one of them.

In verses 5-7 we then see what Jesus has in mind for the 12. He sent them out. So when Jesus saw the crowds he had compassion for them seeing them in their lost state. He then charges the disciples to pray for the harvest. And to pray for laborers to go into the harvest.

Verse 5 talks of the disciples to go nowhere among the gentiles and go nowhere of the Samaritans. What?

Jesus is NOT contradicting the Great commission

Matthew 10:18 “and you will be dragged before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them and the Gentiles.”

At this point in Jesus’ ministry he was focused in the Jewish people.

Matthew 15:24 “He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.””

Was speaking to a Canaanite woman who ended up showing faith to Jesus, and the woman had a daughter who needed healing, and through her faith Jesus healed the daughter.

Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Well, God answered the prayer to send out laborers into the harvest

Who is to go?

Everyone.

Talk about the trades of the disciples

Matthew- Tax collector.

Andrew, Peter, James and John, worked as fishermen

Simon was a zealot

God used each one of these men to change the World. He used these men to fulfill the Great commission.

Matthew 28:19-20 “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

My hope and prayer is that we pray for opportunities to go and fulfill the Great commission in all aspects of our day to day life.

What if we can not go?

Pray, encourage, love, have compassion, meet physical needs of the community potentially through donation,

I really believe each person can invest a student. May not be chasing them around, and doing all the wild youth activities. But if you see a student, seek them out.

How is it going?

How is school?

How can i pray for you?

How are we to Go?

Matthew 10:7 “And proclaim as you go, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’”

Isaiah 53:3-6 “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Share the gospel

Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Romans 10:9 “because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Romans 10:13 “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.””

If we are to go and just put on events, just give meals, just meet whatever physical need WITHOUT sharing the gospel. We are doing it wrong. I am not saying any of those things are bad by any stretch of the imagination. But if we are not telling students of their sin, telling students what they deserve for their sin, telling the separation they between God and themselves, and ultimately telling them the grace of our Good good father. That he loves us so much that he sent his Son to take the wraith and punishment we deserve to die on a cross for our sins. He was perfect Holy and without blemish, he died for us. So that we can be reconciled back with God the Father and we can have a personal relationship with the King of the universe, we have done it wrong.

Remember the Harvest we are going in to.

Matthew 9:38 “therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.””

We are not going into our own harvest. Yes the Lord uses, but it is for his good, and His Glory

We can find rest and peace in that. It is not of our own accord, but it is for the Lord. We can not save anyone, only the Lord can.

Application

Cast precise vision with numbers

Just over 3,000 students attend Simpson County schools.

Roughly 1,500 students are in middle school and high school range. That is not including home school students in the area.

Imagine if we began to apply all three of these points into our day to day life. We begin or keep showing compassion to these students, understanding what they are dealing with on a day to day basis. Meeting them where they are. If we begin to pray without ceasing and boldly that God would change the hearts of students to want and desire a relationship with God the Father. Finally what if we began going to the students of Simpson County, and we tend to the Lord’s harvest. We fully put our trust in the Lord in expecting a good work and a plentiful harvest to be done in the Lord’s name.

I fully believe that if we are serious and intentional with these 3 points, showing compassion, praying and we GO God will do an amazing work here at First Baptist Franklin. And Simpson county

Not only for while these students are here and in a youth program, but as they move off into college.

We can not do it alone. It can not just be myself, Pastor John, Brother Jackson and Mrs. Lindsay. It is going to take the whole body of Jesus to reach the students, and young families of Simpson county with the gospel.

Enter in time of reflection

Eliminate distractions

Get real with God in this moment

Unbeliever in room

Believer

Have compassion

Pray

Go

Thank God for his grace and mercy.

The alter is open, if you want to talk with myself or Pastor John, we would love to talk and pray with you. Respond how the Lord is leading you.

You have made it