Listen Well, Think Right, Talk Straight, Travel Light, Part 2

Today on Insight for Living, from Chuck Swindoll. We're all unworthy. We're all unqualified.

We're all inadequate. Until the Spirit of God empowers us with a calling, giftedness, and then over time begins to shape us into one who would be a worker in the harvest. Most of us don't view ourselves as ministers of the gospel.

Preaching, shepherding a flock, evangelizing, those assignments belong to professionals, or so it seems. And yet a study in Matthew chapters 9 and 10 clearly reinforces that all of us have a role in spreading the good news of the gospel. And today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll will help us draw the correlation between an unsophisticated collection of first-century disciples and our current-day invitation to follow Jesus, just as they did.

Chuck titled today's message, Listen Well, Think Right, Talk Straight, Travel Light. We worship Christ because there is no other worthy of our worship. His message is timeless, and his death is effective for all. The oldest thing in this building is the cross that hangs high behind me. I like it that it is uncluttered.

There is no seal or varnish, no visible nails holding it, only tiny cables that allow it to be hung high. It is a symbol that represents a truth that Christians base their lives on. It was on a cross Jesus died for the sins of the world.

That includes you. He died for you. He died because even if you died for yourself, it wouldn't pay for your sins.

And sin requires a payment. And when he died, he died as our substitute. He died in our place that he might give each one of us forgiveness and the gift of eternal life, meaning a home in heaven with God. The only way you will know such a destiny is through placing your faith and trust in the one who died for you.

He died upon a cross of wood, even though he made the hill on which it stood. He is our savior, our sovereign Lord. He is our master. And you will never have peace.

You will never be free of this inner restlessness until you find your peace and rest in Jesus Christ. As we all bow for prayer, this is the perfect occasion for you to place your faith and trust in the one who died for you. He paid it all. All to him we owe. Sin left a crimson stain.

He washed it white as snow. In these days, our Father, we have a visible reminder of how pure and clean you have washed us from sin. Your son did not pay most of our sins or almost all the cost.

He paid it all. And all to him, therefore, we owe. Thank you today, our Father, for sending him for us, for giving him the mission of paying the price that had to be paid. Find us eternally grateful for him as we bow before you. To you, we're reconciled. You are not reconciled to us. To you, we give our all, including today our offerings gratefully, joyously, and generously because of Jesus who paid it all.

We pray and we give. And everyone said, Amen. You're listening to Insight for Living.

To study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll, be sure to download his Searching the Scriptures studies by going to insightworld.org slash studies. And now the message from Chuck titled Listen Well, Think Right, Talk Straight, Travel Light. The words for this message are not just haphazardly chosen. They are precisely the marching orders of the disciples.

I always find it interesting when they come out of the shadows and they're suddenly in the spotlight of the writer's attention. And that happens in the passage we're looking at today. All of it begins with Jesus engaged in his ministry. He's working with the public, if you will. And you read in verse 35, he's traveling through all the towns and the villages.

This would be up around Capernaum in the Galilean region around the Sea of Galilee. And he is teaching in the synagogue. They heard him teach. He is announcing the good news about the kingdom. They listen to the announcement.

He healed every kind of disease and illness. They saw it all. Often their observations were with mouths wide open. Some of them it took seeing it again and again to believe it.

Even to the end when he said, I'm going to leave you, but I'm going to I'm going to take care of you. They were in a quandary. They were confused. Often they were more confused than they were clear in their thinking.

Just ordinary men. Robert Coleman has written an outstanding book titled The Master Plan of Evangelism. In it, he writes about the disciples. Jesus expected the men he was with to obey him. They were not required to be smart, but they had to be loyal. This became the distinguishing mark by which they were known.

The simplicity of this approach is marvelous, if not astounding. None of the disciples were asked at first to make a statement of faith or accept a well-defined creed, although they doubtless recognized Jesus to be the Messiah. For the moment, all they were asked to do was to follow Jesus.

So they're doing that. As he traveled, they traveled with him. As he rested, they rested beside him. As he ate, they ate with him often. As he healed, they stood and stared. Now, something happens in this narrative that I find very interesting. I want you to think clearly now as we read these next words. When he saw the crowds, the he is Jesus, look at what he felt.

He felt compassion on them. Before we go any further, Matthew uses a word that is colorful, maybe a little indelicate. The word literally means entrails and bowels. I told you it was a little delicate.

We call it generally the gut. He had this deep feeling for the crowds. Why?

Look at what it says. Because they were confused and helpless. The word means harassed, distressed, and the other word means burdened, even on occasion, down and out.

You know what I think? I think he saw people who had been taught only by Pharisees and religious officials who learned from the Pharisees. They were under the load of shame and guilt, the constant demands. You must do this.

You must not do that. The judgmentalism of those in authority. They were beaten down. They were burdened. They were like sheep without a merciful, loving, gracious shepherd. They were lost.

Now keep reading. He said, here they are stepping out of the shadows. He said to the disciples, isn't that interesting?

He doesn't speak to the general public and tell those people who have an interest in others what he has on his heart. He looks at the twelve. He says, man, the harvest is great.

The workers are few. That's the statement that every church could give. The needs are enormous.

They're overwhelming. The numbers of people who are harassed and beaten, those who were lost far outnumber those who were saved. Man, the harvest is great, but the workers are few. Then he gives them a command. Pray.

Look at who was in charge. Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send more workers into his harvest fields. The Lord our God is the Lord our God over this whole world.

He made it. He is not wanting anyone to perish but all to come to repentance. So he says to his twelve, you see how great the harvest is?

You see how few the workers are? Pray. Pray that there would be more who would work in his harvest field. The very ones he asked to pray, he wound up sending.

And isn't that often the way it is? Jesus called his twelve disciples together. Notice what he did. He enabled them for that particular era to be one of his workmen. He gave them authority to cast out evil spirits. He gave them authority to heal every kind of disease.

He gave them authority over the illnesses. And here are the names of the twelve. Now, I know, I know, centuries have passed since this occurred and we've had enough time to put them all in plaster of Paris or stone and give them the name saint. Saint Andrew, Saint Matthew, Saint Peter, all the saints. And in our minds, they wear halos and they wear long white robes.

And they stand about five or six feet taller than anyone else in these statues. Originally, please, there were none of the above. They were just ordinary men.

Force yourself to believe that. Matthew, Simon. Simon is always listed first. And then Andrew, Peter's brother. Then James and his brother John.

Just ordinary guys. These guys are fishermen, worked for their father, Zebedee. Then there's Philip and Bartholomew and Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector. James, Thaddeus, and then Simon and finally Judas. I wonder how they felt when he said, I'm going to send you. In fact, he gave them specific instructions. Verse five, Jesus sent out the twelve. Sometime ago, I was sent a very interesting and cleverly written fictional letter, written to Jesus from the Jordan Management Consultants.

It's addressed to Jesus, Woodcrafters Carpenter Shop, Nazareth, Galilee, 25922. Dear sir, thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests. We have not only run the results through our computer, we've also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant. The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully. As a part of our service, we make some general comments for your guidance, much as an auditor will include some general statements.

This is given as a result of staff consultation and comes without any additional fee. It's the staff's opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education, and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept.

We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability. Simon Peter, for example, is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morals or morale.

We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew has been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau. James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic depressive scale. One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He's a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He's highly motivated and ambitious. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man.

All the other profiles are self-explanatory. We wish you every success in your new venture. Sincerely yours, Jordan's management consultant. You and I would have written the same kind of letter back in the first century. Now why do I take your time to listen to an imaginary fictional piece? Because I want you to have hope.

I want you to be encouraged. You don't need a halo to work in his harvest. You don't need to look pious to be one of his workmen or women. You don't need to have that supernatural look about you as though you have never known fault or failure. You, with all of your nature raw and real, are just as qualified as any one of them.

The difference is a number of centuries have passed between he chose those individuals and today's world. And I think there are many who hold back from being one of the workers in the harvest because so many are overwhelmed with their own unworthiness. My friends, my dear friends, we're all unworthy. We're all unqualified. We're all inadequate. Until the Spirit of God empowers us with a calling, giftedness, and then over time begins to shape us into one who would be a worker in the harvest.

I'm talking to you and I'm talking to me. He still is asking us to pray because the harvest is enormous and the workers are so few. So let's look at how we instructed them. Jesus sent out the Twelve with these instructions.

Let me pause and have you think very clearly. Don't let your mind wander now because some have taken the words that follow literally and have attempted to carry out these things while these things were never written to them or to you or me. They are written and spoken to apostles. Will you notice the change from disciple to apostle? End of verse 2, here are the names of the Twelve. Apostles. It was an apostle. Among other things, they are those who have seen the risen Christ.

You haven't and I haven't. They are those who have been invested with miraculous sign gifts. Sure, we are not. They are apostles.

We are not. Nor are there apostles today. In those days, in the beginning of the ministry, in an era when these things were essential for the foundational work in the harvest, these apostles were set apart. They were chosen by the Lord or the Holy Spirit. They founded churches.

And the miraculous acts that they performed authenticated their authority. It is for them. Understand, while all the Bible is certainly to be read and revered and studied, but not all the verses of the Bible are for you or me. Let us read with discernment. When we come to an apostolic instruction or description, we need to realize in the context it's for them.

Let me show you what I mean. Verse 5, don't go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans. Does that sound like the Great Commission today? The Great Commission I read in Matthew 28 just the other day to go into all the world and preach the gospel. To the uttermost part of the earth, Acts 1-8 tells us, we are to go to Gentiles, Samaritans, Europeans, Americans, those of the islands of the sea, all over.

They weren't. We were to go only to the Jews. You're listening to the Bible teaching of Chuck Swindoll, and this is Insight for Living. To learn more about this ministry, please visit us online at insightworld.org. We're in Matthew chapters 9 and 10.

This passage is a precursor to the Great Commission of Jesus, which comes much later in Matthew's gospel. But it's the statement that has shaped our vision at Insight for Living to carry the good news of Jesus beyond our own borders and into all 195 countries of the world. In light of this command, we're inviting you to join us in the all-out effort to bring hope and light, first in our own communities, then to our country, and finally to countries far beyond.

We're calling this Vision 195. To join Chuck Swindoll and Insight for Living in Vision 195, we invite your financial partnership. Giving a donation is made simple when you use the Insight for Living mobile app, or just go online to insight.org. To speak with one of our friendly ministry reps, just call us. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888.

That's 1-800-772-8888. Did you realize each sermon presented on Insight for Living is accompanied by an online interactive guide called Searching the Scriptures? Yeah, in about 15 minutes, you can read through the key ideas of Chuck's message and the biblical text.

Should you want to dig deeper, there are plenty of questions to answer. And you can readily learn more about the historical context behind each passage, study the theological underpinnings, and explore its relevance to your life today. To access these free online study notes, just follow the steps at insight.org slash studies. And then finally, as we enter into the weekend, remember you're invited to join us online for Sunday morning worship at Stonebriar Community Church. You'll find all the instructions for streaming the live worship service at insight.org slash Sundays. You've heard him teach about the Holy Land using word pictures to make us feel like we're actually strolling through the Old City. Seeing about Jerusalem is fascinating for sure, but seeing the land of Israel with your own eyes is life-changing.

In fact, it's absolutely magnificent. And now you can see Israel with Chuck Swindoll and the gracious hosts and experts assembled by Insight for Living Ministries. Join us on an unforgettable 12-day tour, March 6 through 17, 2022. At special sites along the way, I will teach from God's Word, we'll worship at the Mount of Beatitudes, and share the Lord's Table at the Garden Tomb. In fact, we'll sail the Sea of Galilee together, and we'll visit places where Jesus walked and talked.

To learn more, call 1-888-447-0444. Just imagine walking along those sacred sites and seeing the Bible come to life before your very eyes. Mark your calendar for March 6 through 17, 2022, and make your reservation by calling 1-888-447-0444, or go to insight.org slash events. Insight for Living Ministries Tour to Israel is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. Join us again Monday when Chuck Swindoll continues our study in the book of Matthew, right here on Insight for Living.