Do It Together

Intro:

Paint the picture

Christian Me in high school

Hiding Me in high school

I went to a Christian school!

Illustration

There was a story in a magazine a few years ago, and it was mainly told by showing a series of pictures, and it started like this:

1st - It opened with a picture of a vast wheat field

2nd - A mother, in distress inside the farmhouse, in the middle of this wheat field.

In distress because her little boy was nowhere to be found…realized he had wandered into the wheat field

And he was too little, and too short, to be able to see above the wheat

Calls out and looks for him

The mother finding the father and they start frantically searching…all day long, to no avail, until nightfall

3rd - Other people, neighbors and friends, coming and joining in early the next morning, until there were enough of them to link hands together and walk through the entire wheat field connected

4th - And this picture was the heartbreaker, it was a picture of the father standing over his little boy, who had died from the cold the previous night

And underneath the last picture was this caption, “Oh God, If only we had joined hands sooner.”

Point of Illustration

See, the kid here in the illustration is the world that doesn’t know Jesus

And just like that kid, who was just playing and loving life and didn’t realize he was in danger, so is the world.

And the mother, and the father, and the neighbors and friends, they represent us, if you are a believer, they represent God’s people

Mathew 9:35-38 - Read It

You guys, you are living in a world that is full of people playing around in a wheat field

And so many of them either don’t know they are lost, or are too preoccupied to stop and think about it

And in a week and a half you guys will be walking directly into that field

And you can be like I was in high school....and one day you’ll look back and regret the opportunities you didn’t take to live for Him

I know I do: I still remember the names of those in my class that I’m pretty sure are living lives lost:

Dustin, Brady, Lisa, Jeanneane, Laura, etc.....

People I knew, people I interacted with, people that I chose not to influence with the good news of Jesus Christ

says this, “ 13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

See, what I’ve realized is that I wanted to be the salt, without being salty, and I wanted to be the light, without being lit

13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

Come on guys, that was funny

14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

And if I’ve read some of you correctly in my almost 2 years here, I think a lot of you are in the same place....and I have some advice for you that I wish I had back in the day

Do It Together

Do it together....notice verse 38 of , Jesus said to his disciples, “pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest

He didn’t call us to do this alone

It’s that whole idea of “strength in numbers”....that’s a Warriors plug for any of you nba fans

But it’s the truth!

If I had surrounded myself by the right type of people in high school, you know, not just believers, but believers who wanted to walk with Him.....how much easier would it have been to do the same?

And you guys, you’re heading back to school, (do you like how often I keep mentioning that?), and you guys have a decision to make:

Will you choose to be different this year?

And if you will, let me encourage you this way, surround yourself with believers

Make your truest and closest friends those who are truest and closest to Jesus

Do it together

You can start a Bible study together, that’s doable

You can pray for each other

You can talk about God together

Find those people who want that

But, don’t hear me wrong here, don’t do that just for yourself.

I know some of you, we’ve talked about this, how you needed to rid yourself of some friends, of some people who are bringing you down....and that’s good, nothing wrong with that

But don’t let the reason for that ever be just for yourself…that’s just selfishness

Let the reason you are living differently be so that you can reach those very ones you needed to rid yourself of

And I know that seems so illogical, but Pastor Derek you said it was good to rid myself of those friends

It was, in regards to them being your closest and dearest friends

But the whole design is to then launch out into the field and win people to Jesus

Jesus said the harvest is plentiful, we’ve talked about that already....you guys will literally be standing, sitting, and walking with people who are the boy in the wheat field....they’re lost

they won’t look lost, they’ll have it all together, they’ll be loving life even…but they’re lost, and they’ll find that out one day

And we all have an individual duty to Christ

But imagine if you linked arms with someone, imagine if this youth group, regardless of what school, imagine if we linked arms as a group and chose to walk into school this year with a mindset of finding those who are lost

I’m convinced we can do it, and I’m also convinced IF we do it…we will see God do something awesome.

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few

Will you FINALLY labor for Christ this school year?

Will you finally go into each day with the mindset that people need to hear about Jesus

Will you finally surround yourself with a solid core of believers and link arms together and make a difference in your school?

Only you can choose to do so

I will be praying earnestly that the Lord of the harvest will send out laborers…I’ll be praying for you.