Seen, Known, and Understood

Intro

People need good news. There’s bad news all around us. We all long to hear good news.

The fact of the matter is, we as believers have not just any good news, but THE Good News.

Super Summer is an evangelism training camp. We had five of our students go to Super Summer in Plainview, TX to learn how to know and share the gospel, the good news of Jesus.

This morning, I would like to share a brief synopsis of what our students and myself all learned this week as we talked about the need to share the gospel.

(Show the Super Summer Video)

Look at the image here. It’s backwards and upside down. This is what life is like for all of us until we come to meet Jesus as Savior and Lord who turns everything right side up.

The letters here stand for Seen, Known, and Understood.

What we all learned this week is that out of the nearly 8 billion people on this planet, Jesus sees, knows and understands us, and we must understand that Jesus sees, knows and understands the lost that are living around us as sheep who are without a shepherd, harassed and hurting without Christ.

Jesus sees, knows, and understands them. And as His body, He is calling us to see, know and understand them and be His hands and feet to share His good news to those around us.

Read Matthew 9:35-38

Matthew 9:35–38 (ESV)

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.”

See the People God has Placed Around Us

“When he saw the crowds”

Jesus first saw the crowds. He paid attention to the people around them and saw them. He did not allow the distractions of life to keep Him from seeing the ones He came to save.

Blind Bartimaeus

Treated like a dog who was an inconvenience to everyone around him

Zaccheus

A sinful tax collector who was treated as a rebel and had to be kept behind bars to protect him from being harmed or killed by God’s people… let that sink in for a moment.

Get rid of the distractions that keep us from seeing those who God has placed in our lives

Distractions such as:

Cell phones & headphones

Political labels

economic labels

ideologies

entertainment

fox news & cnn

moral judgments as if sinners can clean themselves up before they meet Jesus...

We love the song Just as I Am, but we forget that we’ve got to love people just as they are and know that they can’t change until Jesus changes them.

Sin does matter, but we’ve got to look past the sin to see the individual for who they are, as a person that God made and loves

Know the Person for Who they Are

“He had compassion on them.”

How could Jesus have compassion on the crowds? Because He knew them. It is hard for us to have compassion for someone that we do not know. Compassion means to “feel with.” You cannot feel with someone you do not know.

The woman who had been bleeding for 12 years

We tend to see labels rather than people

We must get to know the individual as a person made in the image of God instead of for the label we place upon them

Build a relationship with someone despite their sin and your differences and disagreements

Understand the Needs of the Lost

“because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Jesus did not just know the people, He understood who they were and what they needed. He understood that they were people who were lost and in great need of a shepherd to come and care for them.

The man at the pool of Bethesda

Jesus sought to get to know him by asking him the question, “Do you want to be well?”

Get to understand the greatest needs of people

Ask questions to see where they are at

Realize their greatest need isn’t for healing, financial peace, happy marriages and families, success, their greatest need is salvation from sin.

People need the good news. They need someone to share with them the good news of Jesus and what He has done to save us from our sin.

Know and Share the Gospel

Finally, as we see that people need the good news, we realize there is a lot of work ahead of us.

The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.

Jesus isn’t talking about the need for more pastors and missionaries and evangelists. He is talking about more followers of Jesus entering in and working in the harvest. Pastors and Missionaries are not called to do all the work. They are called to help equip others to do the work and then join in alongside them.

First we pray that God would send more workers into the harvest. This job starts with prayer. Prayer is the greatest thing we can do as we seek God’s direction and leadership in this job.

But then, as we pray, we realize that if we are a follower of Jesus, if we have been saved by His grace, then we are the answer to this prayer. You are the answer to this prayer. Christ is calling you to go into the harvest and share the good news of Jesus with those around you. I don’t know the people around you. I know the people around me. It is not possible for me to know everyone in Socorro. But you do. You see them and can get to know them and understand them in a way to share the gospel. You can share what you know.

You might ask, but what if I mess something up? I don’t know what all to say. Let me encourage you with something here. You do not have to have all the answers. You just need to take what you know and share it.

The phrase the speaker used over and again this week was, “If you know a lot, share a lot. If you know a little, share a little. But whatever you do, share!”

Yes we are called to know the gospel. But we are not making a presentation. We are having a conversation with people that we know and love and care for, knowing that God sees, knows, and understands them and longs for them to come to faith in Him as well.

The challenge was put forward for our students to know the gospel and to share the gospel.

This is not just a challenge for our youth or even for myself. This is a challenge for our church. This is a challenge for all those who have chosen to take up their cross to follow Jesus. You do not have to be an evangelist to share the gospel. But if you are a Christian, you are called to make disciples and it starts by seeing, knowing, and understanding the people around you and by sharing what you know.

Conclusion