Listen Well, Think Right, Talk Straight, Travel Light, Part 3

Today, from Chuck Swindoll. Those who serve in full-time ministry understand the weight of responsibility that comes with the disciples to lead a life of simplicity, authenticity, and integrity.

Our study in the book of Matthew continues now, in chapters 9 and 10. Chuck titled today's message, Listen Well, Think Right, Talk Straight, Travel Light. 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.

He had this deep feeling for the crowds. Why? Look at what it says. Because they were confused and helpless. Now keep reading. He said, here they are stepping out of the shadows. He said to the disciples, the harvest is great and the workers are few. Then he gives them a command. Pray. Pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send more workers into his harvest fields. The very ones he asked to pray, he wound up sending.

Isn't that often the way it is? Jesus called his 12 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 12. 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.

Originally, please. They were none of the above. They were just ordinary men.

Force yourself to believe that. Now, 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 5, Jesus sent out the 12. 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. 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. 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 12 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? 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 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. We must 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 said 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 are the islands of the sea all over. They weren't. They were to go only to the Jews. In this initial thrust into the harvest was the apostolic message to the apostles. Go to God's people, his lost sheep.

Look at what they were not to do. Verse 9, don't take any money in your money belts. No gold, silver, or even copper coins. You know there are those who take it literally and believe that you're more spiritual if you go out with no money. There are those who don't carry a traveler's bag or a change of clothing or sandals or even a walking stick.

They don't hesitate to accept hospitality because those who work deserve to be fed and on and on. This is for the apostles. This is for that era.

In fact, one man makes it clear. Listen to Douglas Sean O'Donnell as he writes in his work on Matthew. There's a difference between the apostolic age of Christianity and our age. A difference between the apostles' powers and ours. A difference between the signs of a true apostle, mighty works of healing, signs and wonders, and the permanent qualifications for the Christian leadership listed in the pastoral epistles for elders and deacons. So the first difference between them and us is that they had apostolic authority, power as they preached and healed.

The second difference is perhaps more obvious, the scope and severity of their mission. Meaning what? Only to the House of Israel. Only to the Jew. To the Jew first. In this case, to the Jew only.

So in their initial mission, they were to meet up with and minister to Jews only. And you will observe the details. Look at this. Verse seven, announced to them the kingdom of heaven is near.

Keep reading. Heal the sick. Raise the dead. Cleanse the leper. Cast out demons.

Give as freely as you have received. Be careful when you read the scriptures. Not every line of scripture is for you by application, or I should say by interpretation. It all has application, but interpreted correctly, we must read it with discernment. He says certain things in certain eras or dispensations that are meant for a certain period and a certain need, but it is not meant for all times. As the gospel is revealed and as it is received or rejected, the Lord broadens the message and then speaks to all of us, especially in the letters of the Bible.

Now, I love the list because it's very clear for them, and they could take notes on it and do exactly what he told them to do. You and I cannot heal the sick. You and I are not able to raise the dead.

We've not been empowered to do that. So understand that I'm not taking away a thing from scripture. I'm trying to keep you from being confused. Very helpful when all of this began to make sense in my own life.

This is written to the apostles who were given apostolic authority and then sent on an apostolic mission. Now, how does it apply? Let's go there before I finish. Here are some important principles for them and for us.

Remember this. We have similar motives and methods. We too are moved with compassion. We too are to pray to the Lord of the harvest. We are to have compassion for those who are harassed and beaten down. Our method begins with prayer.

Everything starts there. Second, please remember the reaping of the harvest is done by the same two groups. There are those who are called to be goers, and then there are those who are called to be givers.

Goers need the givers. If you are not called to be one of the workmen in the field, we would call it vocational Christian service, then you are to give that there might be the carrying out of the ministry. But let me camp on one other, if I may, what we are to model.

That's the character and commitment of Christ. If I were to boil it down, I could put it in three words, authenticity, simplicity, integrity. Authenticity, all of us regardless of the era in which we live are to be real, not phony. We're to be free of hypocrisy.

We're to suffer without complaining. We're to serve with a pure motive. All of that is intent, is authenticity. Simplicity, there is to be a lack of greed. We don't do what we do for the money we make out of it. There is to be an absence of pride.

We don't do what we do to make ourselves known or famous. And there is not to be an agenda. Simplicity is living a life without agendas. And third, there is to be integrity, trustworthiness, unselfishness, morally and ethically pure. Let me say this through the words of another. It is very easy to fake Christianity. It is very easy to be a fake in ministry.

And I don't know of anything that turns the message off quicker than a phony who is found out. Eugene Peterson, in a fine work titled Working the Angles, puts the cookies on the lower shelf. Three pastoral acts are so basic, so critical that they determine the shape of everything else. They are praying, reading scripture, and giving spiritual direction.

Besides being basic, these three acts are quiet. They do not call attention to themselves and so are often not attended to. In the clamorous world of pastoral work, nobody yells at us to engage in these acts. It is possible to do pastoral work to the satisfaction of the people who judge our competence and pay our salaries without being either diligent or skilled in them. Since almost never does anyone notice whether we do these things or not, and only occasionally does someone ask that we do them, these three acts of ministry suffer widespread neglect.

None of these acts is public, which means that no one knows for sure whether or not we are doing any of them. People hear us pray in worship, they listen to us preach and teach from the scriptures, they notice when we are listening to them in a conversation, but they can never know if we are attending to God in any of this. It doesn't take many years in the business to realize that we can conduct a fairly respectable pastoral ministry without giving much more than ceremonial attention to God.

Then he says it straight. I don't know of any other profession in which it is quite as easy to fake it as in ours. The less personal and more public aspects of our lives are just as easy to fake. We can crib our sermons from the masters, learn to lead a liturgy by rote, write the appropriate scriptures for home and hospital visitation in our cuffs, for unobtrusive reference, memorize half a dozen prayers, to suit the occasions we're asked for a little prayer to get things started on the right note. For a long time I had been convinced I could take a person with a high school education, give him or her a six-month trade school training, and provide a pastor who would be satisfactory to any indiscriminate American congregation. More and more I could read, but I'll not. When I read that, there's a cold chill that goes up my back, because I am concerned that so much today that is passed off as ministry is phony.

And my great hope in life is to help turn that tide. Not all, you know better, it's not true at all, I just say many. Many are duped by those who fake a caring ministry, when in fact what they really want is your money or your following. Their goal is to be famous, to be known.

And so they perform all kinds of things to attract an audience. May God hold our feet to the fire in the areas of authenticity and simplicity and integrity. May he stop me every time I am tempted to do something to gain attention. May he rebuke me for caring about what I'm paid or how much I get for doing what I do.

We just read that the worker is worthy of his hire, but I am not a hireling. I am called to shepherd a flock, and more importantly to model a true message. I think as we pray for the Lord of the harvest to lead workers into his harvest fields, and we also pray that he will get hold of the hearts of those who have been sent there to guard their lives from giving in to these kind of temptations, where we learn to work the angles. And if you will, I say to my own embarrassment because it is my realm of work rather than doing what we do to make people think well of us. It is a calling, and it is a sacred calling, and one that he continues to reach out to touch lives with.

And you may be one of them. So know on the front end that when you were called to do this, you do it for the right reason, always with the right motive. We're not through. This is kind of a preview of the coming attractions. I'll go into this more next time, but I love it that when he pulls the disciples out of the shadows, he gives us an opportunity to search our own hearts and ask our own selves some pretty searching questions. So that's why you hear me speak today with such passion about this. While we certainly are not to travel without money, or it doesn't mean that we travel and never take another set of clothes with us, we're to be wise in how we minister. I'm a man of great grace, and you know that I promote it every chance I get. But it doesn't mean that grace allows us to take unfair advantage of anyone or to hide the fact that we are doing something out of selfishness rather than serving Christ.

Our Lord is the perfect example. Thank you, Father, for your grace in all our lives. Thank you for loving us, for understanding us, and for giving us, and using us by your grace. Thank you, Father, for the things that are to be learned over the years and the privilege we have of being able to share them. We realize that you have recorded the lives of these apostles and these disciples in a book that has been read and studied and preached for centuries. It seems only right that we on occasion acknowledge things we've done and from which we have learned much. Thank you, Father, for loving us through them all. In the name of Jesus, we pray these things.

Everyone said, Amen. Listen well, think right, talk straight, travel light. That's the title Chuck Swindoll chose for today's message. It's the central theme of this passage in Matthew chapters 9 and 10. And to learn more about this ministry, please visit us online at insightworld.org. Today we heard Chuck describe the importance of integrity and authenticity. At Insight for Living, we take these virtues very seriously because Jesus did. The world doesn't need a phony representation of the Christian faith nor leaders who say one thing and do another. And so we bear this mantle of authenticity not with a sense of pride but with humility and responsibility.

Gratefully, our listening audience, people like you, expect it from us. Our listeners often tell us how much they appreciate hearing the truth of God's word in a manner that's fresh, honest, and real. And in fact, we're calling on leaders around the world to go and do the same just as Jesus told us to. It's a mission we're calling Vision 195. Vision 195 is an audacious goal to take Insight for Living to all 195 countries of the world.

And most of us will never have the opportunity to travel to the four corners of the earth. But as Chuck said just moments ago, there are those who are called to be goers and those who are called to be givers. Those who go and those who send.

Reaping of the harvest is done by both groups. In this spirit, we're inviting you to join us in this effort to accomplish Vision 195. By working together with our monthly companions and anyone who financially supports Insight for Living Ministries, we're reaping the harvest God promised. So as God prompts you to join us, we invite you to give a donation by calling us. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888. Or to become a monthly giver, someone we call a monthly companion, you can easily register online at insight.org slash monthly companion. And once again, here's our toll-free phone number.

If you're listening in the United States, call 1-800-772-8888. In March 2022, Insight for Living Ministries is hosting an unforgettable journey to Israel. Carefully plan to deepen your understanding of the Bible and draw you closer to God.

Chuck Swindoll. For thousands of years, no place has been more meaningful to God's children than the land of Israel. The rugged landscape reminds us to find refuge in God alone. The fertile valleys invite us to follow our shepherd. Jerusalem's position at the very center of the world announces the good news of Christ to every nation. And now you can see Israel with Chuck Swindoll and Insight for Living Ministries, March 6 through 17, 2022. Every time I visited the Holy Land, I returned home with a refreshed heart for God and a renewed vision for the world.

Really, I mean it every time. And so I want you to have the same life-changing experience. To learn more, go to insight.org slash events or call this number 1-888-447-0444. Insight for Living Ministries Tour to Israel is paid for and made possible by only those who choose to attend. I'm Dave Spiker. Tomorrow Chuck Swindoll explains a surprising warning from Jesus. Be sure to listen Tuesday to Insight for Living. .