(Part I)"

Please take your Bibles and open them, if you would, to Luke chapter 10.

Luke chapter 10. And my text for this morning is verses 1 through 16. So I want to read those verses to you. Luke chapter 10 verses 1 through 16.

After these things the Lord appointed 70 others also and sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go. Then he said to them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way. Behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.

Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals and greet no one along the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, Peace to this house. And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it. If not, it will return to you.

And remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give. For the laborer is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there and say to them, The kingdom of God has come near to you. But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, The very dust of your city which clings to us, we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you. But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that day for Sodom than for that city. Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!

For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted in heaven, will be brought down to Hades.

He who hears you, hears me. He who rejects you, rejects me. And he who rejects me, rejects him who sent me.

Now, that's God's Word. That is His Word. His Word, written down, inspired by the Holy Spirit, of course, where they would not be His words. And they are His words to us.

Now, you know that for most of Jesus' ministry, He had a huge following. I don't know that I say you know that. Maybe we don't know that. At least we know that initially, that Jesus had quite a number of people following Him. In fact, the Bible is always talking about multitudes and crowds and so forth. And really, throughout the majority of the time He spent in ministry, His three short years of ministry on this earth, He had large crowds that followed Him. They followed Him everywhere He went.

And in fact, it's clear also from Scripture that He barely even had any time to Himself. Jesus attempted in a number of places in Scripture to carve out a little time where He could be alone.

He could be alone not only for Himself and to pray, but also alone with His disciples. And I'm sure that He spent some time alone with them, but it was very difficult because He had large numbers of people that followed Him everywhere. And I would say to you that the makeup of these crowds was quite varied.

I think we could safely say that the crowds consisted of four categories of people. people. There were those I would call the contenders. The contenders. That is, those who were part of the religious leadership and they would follow Jesus around. We're talking about the scribes and Pharisees, leaders of Israel. And many of them followed Jesus around not because they were interested in what He was teaching, but they were specifically interested in looking for ways to trap Him and to discredit Him.

And, you know, to condemn Him in some way for what He was preaching and teaching and claiming. Then there were what I would call the curious. The curious ones. Those who were interested in Jesus and they were interested in what He had to say, interested in what He was doing, very interested in these things, but they were not true disciples of Christ. They were not true followers of Jesus. That is, they were not true believers.

And the proof was their unwillingness to deny themselves, to take up their cross, and to follow Jesus as Jesus had instructed. And I think we met three of these kinds of people at the close of chapter 9.

And then third, a category I would call the committed, the truly committed. And that would be the ones who were willing to and ready to forsake all to follow Jesus.

And these were typically referred to in Scripture as disciples. We know there were some called disciples who were not true disciples, but that's a pretty good designation for them.

They were disciples, true disciples. And relative to the crowds that followed Jesus everywhere, I think this number was quite small. And then finally we had the called.

That would be the fourth group. And prior to Luke chapter 10, this would simply apply to the apostles. The Bible refers to them quite often as simply the twelve.

They were the called to this point. As we get on into chapter 10, we're going to see another group that are called. Those are the four groups, really, I think, that made up the crowds that followed Jesus everywhere he went, at least initially in his ministry.

Now, it is this third group, then, that I've called the committed. This third group that Jesus, the Bible says in verse 1, appointed 70.

He appointed 70. These are disciples, true disciples. Some versions I know have 72, and you're wanting me to tell you why there's a difference, and I'm just not going to do it this morning.

You'll have to study that for yourself. There is a variance in the scriptures, and whether it's 70 or 72 really doesn't make any difference in regard to what God is wanting to say to us out of this passage.

All right, so he selected 70, or if you wish, 72. And then he sent them two by two, the Bible says there in verse 1. 35 pairs of people, or 36.

And he sent them before his face. Now, that's kind of unusual language. That's a literal translation, but it really just means he sent them on ahead, on ahead of them, of him, rather.

And he sent them on ahead of him into every city and place where he himself was about to go.

All right, so these were his instructions. He appointed 70, sent them ahead of him into every city and place, and that would be in Judea, by the way. He's finishing his, has effectively finished his Galilean ministry, which took up the majority of his time here on this earth.

And he's about to go into Judea and visit some key places there and teach and preach. And so he sends these 70 out ahead of him to these cities and places.

All right, so that's what we have in verse 1, the 70. All right, so just to make sure we're clear, the 12, the apostles, were chosen first and sent out first.

And I would say to you that they were chosen uniquely to be apostles. Theirs was a unique ministry, a unique calling. It carried with it a unique responsibility, not only while they were walking on this planet, but also at the end of things, in the future.

In the kingdom of God, they will reign over the 12 tribes of Israel, according to Scripture. And they will have their names engraved on the foundations of the new Jerusalem and so forth.

So the apostles, the 12, are unique, contrary to what some are teaching in our day. And after Matthias was called to take Judah's place, and after Paul was called to be an apostle, he said, as a man born out of season, God has not called anyone else to be an apostle.

He is not. That's done. Not in the official sense of the word. Apostle. The office of apostle. Closed with, really, with Paul.

But the third group that I mention, we'll call them disciples. Jesus specifically appoints 70 of them. 70 of them.

And so the highest rank of spiritual service would be the apostles, and God is not calling any of them today. Has not called any since.

And then the next level would be the disciples. And that's everybody else. That's everybody else. All other followers of Christ.

The fact is, we should see ourselves in this group of 70. Or 72. We should see ourselves in this group.

That's what's intended here. This passage that we're going to study here this morning defines who we are. Or who we should be.

We're witnesses to Christ in this world. In this lost and dark world. And that's the reason why we're here. In fact, that is the only reason why we're here.

I think we should think of it in these terms. In the first place, we were saved partly to enjoy fellowship. Fellowship with God.

Fellowship with one another. Right? We were saved to enjoy a very unique fellowship as a family. As a part of the family of God. We were saved to enjoy fellowship.

But our fellowship is here, anyway, is imperfect. It may be good at times. In fact, at times it's real good. Real good fellowship with God.

Real good fellowship with one another. And yet, as good as it can be here, it's still imperfect. Perfect. Our fellowship. It's not satisfying. Not for us and certainly not for God.

In the second place, we were saved to be obedient. We need to remind ourselves about that from time to time. We're saved to be obedient.

Obedient to God. Obedient to His law. Obedient to His word. Obedient to His word. And yet, our obedience is incomplete at best.

It doesn't always measure up. It always falls short. In fact, really, in terms of God's perfect law, perfect word, it falls way short. Right?

It's not satisfying. Not to us. And again, certainly not to God. In the third place, we're saved to worship.

To worship. To worship God the Father. And to worship His Son, our Lord and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? We were saved to worship.

Hope you would agree with that. But, our worship here, in this life, is inadequate. It really is.

It's not all it should be. Our worship is not satisfying to our hearts and to our spirits and to our minds.

It's not satisfying to our hearts. It's not satisfying to God's heart. So, the question is, why does God leave us here then?

I mean, just think of this logically. Why not perfect our fellowship and just take us on to heaven? I mean, after you're saved, God would just simply translate us on to heaven so we could have perfect fellowship with Him and fellowship with God's people.

Why not do that? Why not perfect our obedience to Him? Why allow us to continue to struggle with that throughout this life? Why not just perfect our obedience and take us on to heaven?

Why not perfect our worship? Bring us on to heaven so that our worship of God would be absolutely perfect, unhindered, all that it could possibly, possibly be.

Why not do that? Why not? Well, because there's one thing God's people cannot do in heaven. God's people cannot evangelize the lost.

Can we? And we can have fellowship in heaven. Perfect fellowship. One day we'll experience that. We can obey God in heaven. Perfectly.

We can worship God in heaven. Perfectly. But we cannot witness to the lost from heaven.

And that is our primary task as the church in the world. We may not be doing it. We may not be doing it as we should. Some may not be doing it at all.

It doesn't change the fact that that is our purpose in this world. That's why we are here. And so, understand this. We are to be, then, an extension of the 70 Jesus appointed that particular day and sent out in chapter 10.

We are to be disciple-making disciples in this world until Jesus comes. All right, now, if the sending of the 70 defines who we are, and I believe it does, then let's learn that definition.

The definition of a true disciple. Let's examine this definition. And there are five parts to the definition of a disciple, I think, revealed in this passage.

Revealed in the appointing and sending of the 70 there in chapter 10. Five parts to the definition of a disciple. We'll see four of them this morning.

I'm going to save the fifth one until next week because it is very, very significant. We need to take an entire sermon to do that. So, four of the five definitions of a disciple.

Let's see them. The first one is the disciple's perspective. The disciple's perspective. And we see that in verse 2.

Then he said to them, this is Jesus, of course. He, Jesus, said to them, that is the 70 that he's about to send out. He said to them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.

That's his perspective. That's his perspective. He looks out upon the world and says, the harvest is huge.

It's great. But the laborers are few. That's his perspective. And true disciples must have that perspective.

That perspective. When it comes to how we view the world. Not just around us, but the world globally. The harvest is great.

But the laborers are few. And that is the perspective that motivates us. Or should motivate us.

And by the way, this is the second time Jesus used these words. If you turn to Matthew chapter 9, you don't need to. I'll go ahead and just point it out to you.

Matthew 9, 37. Just before Jesus commissioned his apostles. This is Matthew's account of the commissioning of the 12 apostles. Just before he commissioned them, he said to them, the harvest truly is plentiful.

Plentiful. That's how New King James translates it. That is, it's great. Huge. But the laborers are few. Very same words.

So he used the same words when he commissioned the 12 apostles. And he used those same words when he commissioned the 70. The harvest is great, but the laborers are few.

So what can we conclude about that? Well, this was very much on Jesus' mind. About the harvest and about the laborers. The harvest is huge and there are not enough laborers.

This was very much on the mind of Christ. But this was more than just simply an observation about the situation. This was more than just simply an assessment.

Jesus' informed assessment of the situation in the world. It's far more than that. And we know that because if we'll go back a verse in Matthew chapter 9.

I know I didn't have you turn to it. You'll just have to look at it some other time. In verse 37, he said, the harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. But when you go back a verse, he says this.

But when, or the Bible says, but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them. Because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no shepherd.

He was moved with compassion. Now that's not the first time we find that in Scripture. He was moved with compassion. Did you know that that's just one word in the Greek text?

It's the word splagnitsomai. This big, long Greek word. And it refers to the bowels. You probably have heard this before.

In fact, quite often the word compassion is from a form of this word. It refers to the bowels of a person. Not a very pleasant part of our bodies.

We're talking about the guts. And so the idea here is, you know, to the Jews and to the Jewish culture, in their view, the bowels was the place where a person experiences love and pity and compassion.

And so we could say it this way. Jesus' concern and compassion for the masses of lost sheep was gut-wrenching to him. That would be in our vernacular today.

It would be kind of an equivalent of it. It was gut-wrenching when he saw all the multitudes who were like sheep without a shepherd. They were lost. And it was then that Jesus went on to say to his disciples, The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

You see, this is the missing element in our evangelism. It's not training that's missing.

Though I'm not against training. It's not training that is missing. It's motivation. To be soul winners, to be witnesses, to bear witness of Christ, And to give a testimony of the saving name of Jesus Christ, What we're missing is motivation.

And it is a motivation that comes, I think, from having the same perspective on the world that Jesus had. Has.

And that leads us to something else that is, I think, closely related. A second part to the definition of a disciple. First, the disciple's perspective. And then, this is very easy to see in the passage, the disciple's prayer.

The disciple's prayer. Let's just finish what Jesus said in verse 2. The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Therefore. Therefore what? Therefore pray.

Pray what? He even tells us what to pray. Pray. And by the way, that's a very specific word for praying.

It means to fervently pray. Earnestly pray. In fact, it is even sometimes translated, beg. Plead. Plead the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

That's the disciple's prayer. Now, a couple of things here. What is this harvest? It's not what you're probably thinking.

The harvest is not souls for salvation. It's not a harvest of souls for salvation.

It's a harvest of judgment. Final judgment. Matthew 13, 24.

Jesus told that very famous, very well-known parable of the wheat and the tares. And in that parable, the wheat represents, because Jesus tells us what it represents, it represents the sons of the kingdom.

The tares represent sons of the wicked one. It's not a view of the church, as some have preached. It's a view of the world. There's the wheat and the tares.

And Jesus said, let both grow together until the harvest. The harvest. That's judgment day. And at the time of the harvest, he went on to say, I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.

And then Jesus explains the parable in verse 41 of Matthew 13. He says, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend.

And those who practice lawlessness, that is, they're disobedient to God's word, and will cast them into the furnace of fire, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Terrible. Then he said, but I like this part, and you should too. Then the righteous, that is, the born again, redeemed ones, will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

Praise his name. The harvest. Then there's a passage in Revelation 14, in verse 14. You can turn to that if you want. If you can get there quick enough, I'm going to go ahead and start reading it.

Revelation 14, 14. Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud. And on the cloud sat one like the Son of Man. It's a reference to the Messiah, to Christ. Having on his head a golden crown, and in his hand a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, thrust in your sickle and reap, for the time has come for you to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

So he who sat on the cloud, thrust in his sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped. Then another angel came out of the temple, which is in heaven, he also having a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out from the altar, who had power over fire. And he cried with a loud cry to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, And thrust in your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth.

And for her grapes are fully ripe. See, culmination of time. So the angel thrust his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.

And the winepress was trampled outside the city, and blood came out of the winepress, up to the horse's bridles for 1,600 furlongs. The harvest, what is it?

It is the judgment. The final judgment. And who is the Lord of the harvest? Well, it's Jesus. John 5, 22, the Father has committed all judgment to the Son.

And so, here, let's put this together. The Lord looks at the multitudes of shepherdless sheep, and He is literally sick in His stomach, because He knows the future.

He sees the future. He sees the horrific wrath of the final harvest, and He sees that the laborers, the gospel workers, are so few.

That's the idea here. And so, He says to His church, His disciples, Pray to Me. That's what He's saying. Pray to Me, the Lord of the harvest.

Pray, ask Me to send laborers to go out to deliver people from judgment. Essentially, to deliver people from Me.

Now, isn't that strange? It is Jesus who is the Lord of the harvest. It is Jesus who is the one who will return one day with a sword in His mouth.

It is Jesus who will bring the sickle at His return. It is Jesus who is the judge, ultimate judge. It is Jesus who is the ultimate executioner.

But it is also Jesus who will hear your prayer, my prayer, and send people to deliver those who are perishing. Now, think about the wonder of this.

This is amazing. Think of the wonder of God's redeeming grace. That the executioner is Himself executed in order to save people from His execution.

Huh? Amazing. And that the executioner commands us to pray so that the executioner will then become the source of messengers to deliver people from His execution.

Amazing. Amazing. The grace of God. The disciples' prayer. Which, by the way, should be, Send more. Send me.

The disciples' perspective. The disciples' prayer. Third. The disciples' priority. Would be the best way for me to put it.

And really, it's twofold. In verses 3 to 8, These verses present two priorities for the disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Really, it boiled it down to these two things.

Obey His commission. Trust His provision. Those two things. Obey His commission. Trust His provision.

That's it. Verse 3. Go. That is, obey His commission. Go is simply that. And this particular word is in the imperative.

That means this is a command. And again, according to Greek grammar, it is a present active verb. That means go and keep on going. Now, what more could we say about that?

Really, that hasn't already been said. Go. Go. The disciples' priority is to obey the Lord's commission. And then, as we are obeying His commission, we are to trust His provision.

That's what the next few verses are really all about. When you cut through various cultural things and idioms and such that are used there, when you cut through all of it, it's just simply, the message is this.

Trust His provision. Go trusting His provision. Notice what Jesus said to them. In verse 3, I send you out as lambs among wolves. Wow.

I'm just kind of thinking that if you want to figure out a way to get people to sign up, that's probably not it. You know. I'm not sure I would use that tactic. Although, I should if I want to model Jesus.

That's what Jesus said. He said, I just want you to know, you 70, that I'm sending you out as lambs, lambs in the midst of a pack of ferocious, vicious wolves.

And right now, in our day, in fact, all throughout the days, since Jesus built His church, established His church, the persecuted church has been out there in all parts of this world.

And they understand what it means to be lambs in the midst of vicious wolves. But He's setting this up for a lesson on trusting Him.

You must trust Him. Trust Him for your safety. And then Jesus says in verse 4, Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals.

And just, in short, it means, I'm going to provide for you. I'm going to take care of you. I don't have to worry about your needs. And then He said, Greet no one along the road.

And the idea really is there, don't get sidetracked. From my commission to go, don't get sidetracked. And in this culture, by the way, to greet someone along the road meant a whole lot more than just saying, Hello, how are you doing?

Like we would say, you're greeting. Hello! Meant much more than that. In fact, it typically involved time, building a relationship with this person.

And I think in this context, He's saying, don't stop and build a relationship with someone with this idea that maybe they're going to provide for your needs. And maybe they could support your ministry.

Give you some kind of material support, financial support. That's within the context. Because you see, the whole idea is that I'm sending you, so you go with this idea, you're going to trust me with everything you need.

I'll provide the people to give you what you need. Don't get sidetracked by trying to build relationships with people along the way so that your way will be easier somehow.

Thinking that you can somehow, through them, provide for your needs. I'm going to take care of you. That's the idea here. And then verse 5, But whatever house you enter, first say, Peace to this house.

And that is, share the gospel. That's what He means. Share the gospel of peace, the good news. And then verse 6, And if a son of peace is there, that is, you find a son of peace there, your peace will rest on it, on this house.

If not, it will return to you. What does He mean by that? That means, share the gospel in that house, and if there is someone there ready to receive it, wonderful.

If not, then the message comes back to you unreceived. Move on. Verse 7, And remain in the same house, that is, the house that receives your peace, eating and drinking such things as they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages.

Do not go from house to house, what does that mean? The idea is, don't go on looking for maybe a nicer place to stay, or a better amount of provision.

You come, you share the gospel, they receive it, you stay. And don't go looking for a better situation. Verse 8, Whatever city you enter, and He kind of broadens the scope, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you.

Now that carries a whole new meaning when you go to China, India, Shane, and other places. Even Ukraine, even though it's meat and potatoes there.

Eat what's set before you. That's what my mom always told me. Now, when you cut through all of the cultural aspects of what Jesus is saying, things that were more indicative to the times, the culture, you know, the certain phrases that are used, some of the idioms that are found in the text that are culturally connected, that don't really cross over.

When you cut through all of that, then you come to this very simple application. Trust me. And so we say, what about safety issues?

And Jesus says, I'll take care of that. You're not to worry about that. What about money? What about food? What about lodging? What about clothing? All these basic needs.

And Jesus says, I'll take care of all of that. I'll take care of that. What I'm asking out of you is this. Go! Go! Go and go empty-handed in absolute trust.

That's the disciples' priority. Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Now we're talking about disciple making disciples.

That's what we're to be. And this passage defines who we are. The disciples' perspective. The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.

The disciples' prayer. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest. Send out laborers into his harvest. The disciples' priority. Go! And trust everything to me.

And then fourth, and finally this morning, we'll get to number five next week. The disciples' preaching. The disciples' preaching.

What does Jesus say here in verse 9? He says, first of all, and heal the sick there. And we're wondering about that, you know.

I must say to you, without taking a lot of time here, that this is not repeatable today. Now, yes, God still heals, but I mean giving the gift of healing.

It's not repeatable. Today's disciples have not been given the gift to healing and demon exorcism. This was all meant to validate the message.

So here are these 70 going out, and God has granted them the power, I think temporarily, to perform these kinds of miracles, healings and demon exorcisms and such, to validate the truth of who sent them and the truth of the message that they're bringing.

Because right after that, we have the very message. He says, and this is what you need to say. The kingdom of God has come near to you. That's the message.

That's what they preached. Now, this isn't the whole thing. This isn't everything they said. This isn't the entire gospel presentation. We're not to conclude that.

This is just really a one-sentence outline of what they preached. The kingdom of God has come near. And even though this is a summation, a very short summation of what they preached, it really is packed full of truth.

Because essentially, they were saying, the rule of God. That's what the kingdom means. The rule, the reign of God, has come.

Why? Because the king has come. That's the good news. The king has come. The Messiah has come. And we want to tell you about him. And we want to tell you why he has come.

And we want to tell you what he has come to do. We can tell people what he came and did for us. The kingdom of God is near.

And so you see, the kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God through Jesus Christ in people's hearts and lives. And so the rule and reign of God today, in this world, is manifested in this world by those who are followers of Jesus Christ and his teachings.

That is, the rule and reign of God is you. Each one of you. If you name the name of Christ, if you're a true follower of him, the rule of Christ abides in your heart and in your life.

And people come into this kingdom, the rule of God, by submitting their lives entirely to the king, the absolute monarch of this kingdom.

The one who has the right to determine everything in your life. The one who has revealed his will on the pages of Scripture. The one who demands that his subjects, that's all of us, live in absolute submission to his word.

This is the disciples preaching. Their message. We call it the gospel. And that's what it is.

It's the good news. Which is what gospel means. And the news is good. Isn't it? It's wonderful. As one preacher put it, the news is very good.

Your sins can be forgiven. You can be reconciled to God. You can come into a relationship with God, which is blissful and joyful and provides everything we need in time and eternity.

God becomes your friend. God becomes your comforter. God becomes your sustainer. Your supporter. God becomes your very life. And God one day takes you through death out the other side into the eternal home that he's prepared for you.

It's good news. Hallelujah. Amen. Now, here is a closing question. Do you understand the good news, the good news of the kingdom, well enough to share it with someone else?

Well, we all should. There are a number of places in Scripture that contain the basic elements of that good news with the Bible or what Christians have for years called the kerygma.

You can go to a number of places. Do you know? Can you articulate the good news to someone else?

We placed in the bulletin this morning and you can take this out if you've got it there and look at it. You can see it on the screen here.

It's just a little tool that can help you, help you bear witness of Christ, bear witness of the gospel.

a way to help you to articulate the good news of Jesus Christ. It's just a little card that you, it's not folded in your bulletin but you can fold it like this, kind of like a business card.

On the front it has our logo and Highland Park Baptist Church that identifies where you're from and then on the back of that part of it you have some information about the church and by the way there's a mistake on it.

You know, a thousand of these printed and there's a mistake. You know, we had how many eyes look at this thing and we still missed it. Iwana starts at 6.30 so you can, you can make that adjustment on the card if you want to.

Some information about some of the basic times and location of our church and that can be a tool that you can use to give to someone. On the inside, of course, there is a very brief plan of salvation that's commonly called the Roman road.

God wants you to know and then there's several verses of scripture there. It doesn't reduce the gospel to some kind of formula. You know, if you just read those scriptures and they say a prayer and shazam, they're in.

No, no, no. It's God who saves. Right? And He uses and it's the Holy Spirit that touches the heart and quickens the spirit and saves the soul.

We're not the Holy Spirit. But it is through His Word that He does this work. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And so here's just a simple plan that you can share, scriptures that you can share.

Now, what do you do with a card like this? You know, you've ever been in the bathroom at some restaurant and somebody has left a little gospel track there?

Or at the restaurant, you're about to tithe, not tithe, tip. Preachers only think about tithing. But I do tip, okay?

You can put your tip inside that. Don't leave it without a tip. Can't think of anything more damaging to our testimony than to leave this in lieu of a tip, okay?

Put one in there. You probably should be generous. You can leave it anywhere. Give it to people. But if that's all you do, then you really haven't done all you should do.

You should use this thing. It actually helps it guide you in one-on-one, personally, sharing the gospel with someone you believe to be lost.

Friend. Coworker. See, it's a tool. And if used, can make an entire body called Highland Park Baptist Church be an outreach ministry of the church, which is what should happen, each of us.

And there are many, many other things you can do with this. Just a tool. We have these available on the table right outside the foyer here on this side.

And you can pick up some, but don't grab a bunch of them and then don't do anything with them. You, God's people, have paid for these. So if you take some, give them out.

Use them. And we'll make more. Print more. You know, next time we'll correct a mistake. You know. A tool.

Put them in your purse. Billful. Carry them around your pocket. Put some in your car. Ask God to make you one of those laborers in His harvest.