“Praying For Our One”
(Luke 10:1-12)
Series: WhosYour1 (1/5)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
- Take your Bibles and join me in Luke’s Gospel, chapter 10.
I’m going to be reading the first 12 verses and I want to encourage you to listen for what Jesus says to some disciples He’s sending out to talk to people about the gospel, the good news.
- Stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
1 After these things (most recently his statement about the cost of discipleship) the Lord appointed seventy (some translations 72) others also, and sent them two by two before His face (before Him) into every city and place where He Himself was about to go.
2 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.
3 Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.
4 Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road.
5 But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’
6 And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you.
7 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.
8 Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you.
9 And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
10 But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say,
11 ‘The very dust of your city which clings to [n]us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’
12 But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.
- Pray.
Before we study this passage, I want you to check out a video clip of the president of our Southern Baptist Convention, JD Greear of Summit Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. We had a little trouble last week with the volume. It was a little weak. Let’s be sure it’s loud enough we can hear it. Good? Great, let’s check it out:
[VIDEO CLIP: 1:00]
Who’s Your One? Imagine if every believer could answer that question with the name of one person, a person for whom they are praying and with whom they are seeking to share the gospel. That’s the goal of Who’s Your One!
We are joining today with churches all over the nation who see the need to work together to bring people to Jesus Christ. Again, imagine if every member, every Christian in this room were to have one person for whom they are praying over the next several weeks, looking for opportunities to share about Jesus—bringing a daily focus on one person, one meaningful interaction for the Lord.
For five Sundays we’re going to bring a laser focus on how each of us can reach one—each one reaching one person for Jesus. This Sunday we’re going to talk about “praying for our one.” Next week’s sermon is “the power to reach our one,” the following sermons: “going all out for our one,” “the reality facing our one, and finally “love for our one.”
Today is “Praying for our one.” By the way, you should have received when you came in a daily prayer guide and bookmark. Looks like this. I want to be sure everybody got one. Some of you may have slipped in and you didn’t get one. So let’s be sure each one has one. If you didn’t receive one, would you raise your hand? We’ll get one of our ushers over to you. Just keep that hand up. Thank you guys. Everyone have one? Great.
Okay, I’m not going to talk about the prayer guide right now, but I do want you to see something about that bookmark. You’ll see that there is a place for you to write down the name of a person. See that? Later on, I’m going to invite you to write down just the first name, the first name of someone you know is far from God, someone in your neighborhood, or at school, or in your family. Someone who is not in church, not baptized, not following Christ. Think about who you can write down on that bookmark. Okay? Some of you will have a name immediately—comes to mind just like that! You have been praying for someone or sharing with someone. And so you already have a name in mind. But think about your one person that you can write down. And later on I’ll invite you to write down their first name on that card. Just the first name of the one for whom you can be praying. Alright?
Alright, let’s set those aside for the moment and take our Bibles again and look at this passage, Luke chapter 10. This passage is about Jesus’ sending out the 70 or the 72 as some translations have it. Don’t get hung up on that. It could go either way.
This sending out of the 70 occurs only in Luke’s Gospel. You won’t find it in Matthew, Mark, or John. Luke is a very missional apostle. His reporting of this event points forward to the Great Commission at the end of the Book of Luke as well as in the first chapter of Luke’s second volume, the Book of Acts, Acts 1:8, where Jesus says, “You shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth.”
Every Christian is a witness for the Lord. Every Christian is to point others to Jesus. Every Christian praying and sharing with others.
That’s our commission; our great commission from our great Savior. Now, the beauty of this passage is that uncovers a few characteristics of real-deal Christians, the people God uses to get the gospel out to others.
Real Christians, not people who say they are, but real believers who take seriously the great commission, real believers who want to see their friends come to Christ, their neighbors, co-workers, family members, come to Jesus. Here are a few distinguishing characteristics of disciple-making Christians. First word:
- Concern
Jesus says in verse 2, “The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Verse 3: “Go your way; behold, I send you out as lambs among wolves.” In other words, the enemy will be working against you! Satan does not want you to pray for a lost person or share with a lost person! Satan doesn’t want you to be concerned about the lost—he wants you to be unconcerned.
But there is work to be done. Jesus says in verse 4, “Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; This conveys that the assignment of the 70 is an urgent matter of business. There is not much time. Get to the work!
Jesus even says there at the end of verse 4, “Greet no one along the road.” It almost sounds like a discourtesy or rudeness. But the Eastern greetings of Jesus’ day were not like our greetings today, especially among men today. A guy today can run into another guy he hasn’t seen in like 20 years, they pass each other at the grocery store and see each other and just nod their heads and be like, “ ‘Sup?’” In Jesus’ day, greetings were very long and time-consuming, the taking of the hand and the kissing of the face and the long words of blessings and, “How are you?” and, “How is your family?”
Jesus is not calling for disciples to be discourteous. Rather, His sending out of the 70 and Luke’s recording it for us in his Gospel highlights the urgency and great concern of our evangelistic business. We are chiefly to be about talking about the vital things, talking to others about the Good News of the Gospel.
In the coming weeks I’ll share about how to guide conversations to spiritual matters, how to take the conversation from simple things to vital things. We’ll talk about “Bridge building” ways to get the conversation from the things that really don’t matter much—weather, sports—to thee things that matter for eternity. How do you do that? We’ll talk about that and other ways to share the gospel. Speaking of the gospel, that’s the message the disciples are to share. Look down in verse 9:
9 “And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’
Put another way: “God is here! The Good News of the Gospel is here.” So repent from your sin and turn to the Messiah, turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, your Savior from sin. That was the message then and that is our message today.
To underscore the urgency, concern, seriousness of the message, look at the consequences of refusing to heed the gospel message. To any city whose occupants reject the disciples’ message, Jesus has some harsh words for them; verses 10 and following:
10 “But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say,
11 ‘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.’
12 But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city.
Do you remember Sodom? Most of us do. Most unbelievers are familiar with the city of Sodom, a city destroyed by fire for sexual immorality and homosexuality and moral apathy and indifference toward God. Jesus says that while their judgment was great, it is nothing compared to the judgment of an unbeliever who scorns a Christ-follower, rejects him, and rejects his message of the Gospel.
Again, the stress is on the urgency of our mission, the concern we are to have for lost souls. There are souls to be saved from the judgment to come. There are people who need to hear the Good News of the Gospel, people across the world and people across the street, people across the continents, people in the Henderson community.
Our lives should be characterized by concern, concern for the lost. Another quality that marks the lives of real Christians is contentment. Second word: contentment.
- Contentment
Now look at verses 4 and following. Jesus says:
4 “Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals; and greet no one along the road.
5 “But whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’
6 “And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest on it; if not, it will return to you.
7 “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.
8 “Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you.
The instructions of Jesus here to His followers speaks of contentment. As they went about their business, going into these cities and sharing the Gospel, they were to stay in various homes. There were not a bunch of Hampton Inns out there. They carried nothing with them, their lives being marked by simplicity and contentment.
And wherever they were received into homes to spend their evenings there, they were to be content in that particular house. They were not to “shop around” from one house to the next, looking for a better situation, upgrading to a better looking house, better amenities, better food, etc.
JC Ryle, “We must beware of thinking too much about our meals, and our furniture, and our houses, and all those many things which concern the life of the body. We must strive to live like men whose first thoughts are about the immortal soul.”
Hear that again: “We must strive to live like men whose first thoughts are about the immortal soul.”
God uses concerned Christians, contented Christians. Thirdly, God uses common Christians. Third word: common.
- Common
Common, ordinary believers. Common folks. It’s interesting to me that these 70 disciples are unnamed. There’s not a one among them whose name is given.
God delights in using common Christians. It’s like in Luke’s second volume—the Book of Acts—where he wrote about how people were struck by the nature of the disciples, that they were common and ordinary.
Acts 4:13, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
Jesus did not recruit the rabbis! He went after the common, ordinary folk. And I think one of the reasons He did so is because it illustrates that praying for one person and sharing for one person can be done by anyone. It doesn’t require formal education. Just one common, ordinary person, concerned for the lost.
Speaking of the lost, seven years ago, the Kentucky Baptist Convention released a report entitled “Lostness Indicators For Kentucky.” The report was a breakdown of all 120 Kentucky counties, using three metrics:
Percentage of people identifying as religious “Adherents,” they adhered to some kind of religious belief. Adherents. Percentage of people identifying as “Members,” members of a specific religious congregation. Percentage of people identifying as regular “Attenders,” regularly attending religious worship services.
Here’s a breakdown of the population of Henderson County [SLIDE 1]
- 57% are Adherents. They adhere or hold to some kind of religious belief.
- 38.7% are Members, members of a specific religious congregation of some kind.
- 14.2 % are Attenders, they attend a religious gathering on a regular basis.
Let’s consider that last statistic: only 14.2% of Hendersonians attend religious services on a regular basis. That means over 85% of the population of Henderson is not in a worship service today—just 14.2 %—let alone whether any of these folks are actually saved, right? Because you can be and Adherent, or a Member, or an Attender, and still be lost.
Why share these statistics? So we can see the truth. Most people in Henderson are not in a worship service today. That means there are a lot of people out there who need to hear about Jesus Christ. Jesus said in verse 2, “The harvest truly is great.” The problem is—as Jesus goes on to say—“the laborers are few.” Not enough believers are getting the message out.
When John Ewart was with us four years ago to teach us how to do REACH, he shared some alarming news about how “the laborers are few.” The overwhelming majority of churches are not growing. And he gave us some reasons why. Check out these statistics:
- Over 90% of active church members never share their faith
- Only 2% of active church members will even invite an unchurched person to church within a given year
Let’s let those average statistics sink in. Again over 90% of active church members never share their faith. Only 2% of active church members will even invite an unchurched person to church within a year. If you ask them why, many will say they are scared. Look but look at this, an encouraging statistic:
- Only 5% of the unchurched would be considered antagonistic or hostile toward the church
In other words, most people are open to hearing about Jesus. They’re not hostile. They want to hear and talk about spiritual things. They are not antagonistic. They are open. That’s encouraging! Here’s another encouraging stat:
- More than 80% of the unchurched said they would come to church if someone sincerely invited them.
- 86% of people attracted to church come because of PERSONAL CONTACT with a church member
Great, right?! So nearly 90% of the unchurched population said they would come to church if someone sincerely invited them—and, in fact—the research indicates that the majority of people attracted to church come not because of some slick marketing scheme or particular worship style, or structure of a building, but because they were personally invited to come by a church member.
Now the problem is this statistic. Last one:
- Yet more than 80% said that they have never been invited to church.
DT Niles defined Christianity in evangelistic terms. He said, “Christianity is just one beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” Who can’t do that?! One beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.
Each one reaching one. Each Christian. It begins with prayer. It begins with prayer.
Look again at verse 2:
“The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few; therefore (what?) pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. It’s His harvest. God is the Lord of the harvest. So God knows all of the “ones” who are out there. He just needs Christians to go labor in the fields of Henderson.
So we’re going to begin to pray to the Lord of the harvest.
Andrew Murray said, “The man who mobilizes the Christian church to pray will make the greatest contribution to world evangelism history.”
I’m asking you to pray daily for one person, just one person, one person for whom you are praying and with whom you are seeking to share the gospel. That’s the application of this sermon.
Take a look at that prayer guide. This is a great resource! 30 days of praying for your one. Each day a simple, guided prayer. On the next page a place for you to journal if you’d like. Just a few minutes a day. Do you believe in prayer?! Jesus says, “Pray to the Lord of the harvest.” We’re going to pray each day for our one. Some of you will enjoy reading this devotional on your phone or tablet. You can access it through the YouVersion Bible app. There are simple instructions for you there in your bulletin, those of you who like to use the YouVersion app on your phones.
Some of you already know the name of a person at your school. School starting back this week for many of us. Others have a name in your family, at your job, or in your neighborhood who needs the Lord. You know that person by name. Go ahead right now and write their first name on the card. Just the first name. I’ve got mine right here. In a moment I’ll ask you to turn these in. So go ahead and write the first name of your one. You may need to share the pen in the pews there. We’re going to pray in a moment for our ones.
You may not know the name of your one just yet. You may not know until later today or maybe tomorrow. You know, I was convicted by a statement I once heard. A fella said that many of us know the types of cars in our neighborhoods—and we can call those cars by name—but we don’t know the drivers of those cars. Some of us may need to get the name of that neighbor, that coworker, that teacher, that acquaintance.
So some of us will need to write down that name in the next day or so and bing our cards back. That’s okay! There are a lot of folks who are not here this morning so we’ll have another opportunity next time. You may need to pray, “God, show me the one You want me to pray for and talk to in the coming weeks.” God, give me one person. Put that person on my heart right now. Imagine if every one of us in this room did that today. Imagine the effect upon our worship services if every member reached one. Each one reaching one.
Some of you this morning may not be Christians. You may be a “one” today. One who needs Christ. One who needs the gospel. The good news is that God has made a way for us to know Him and have life in Him. He has made a way for our sins to be forgiven and for us to be accepted in His sight on the basis of the work of His perfect Son Jesus Christ. We can avoid the hell we deserve and enter into heaven if we turn to Christ. Turn to Him. Confess your sin. Repent and trust in Christ. After the service, I’ll invite you to talk to a prayer volunteer in the Response Room right though these doors and up the stairs here to the left. Follow the sign and find a helpful volunteer to pray with you in the Response Room.
Okay, are we ready to turn-in our ones?
Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to pray for our ones and then I’ll invite you to come and place your one on the altar. Coming forward and putting your one on the altar is a way of acknowledging our commitment to pray, and that we leave the results to God. We can’t control the outcome, right? But we can commit to having one person for whom we are praying and with whom were are looking for opportunities to share about the Lord.
I’ve got my one right here. Got his name written down here. Says, “Dale.” Couple weeks ago we met for coffee. Just chatted and talked about a number of things, but also talked about spiritual things. And I’ll be praying for him as I pray through this 30-day guide along with you. Our staff each has a “one” as well. Last week at staff meeting they all shared their one and they too are committing this day to praying for their one and seeking to share with their one. They’ll be coming forward in whichever service they are in and are bringing their one and laying it upon the altar.
Alright, let’s pray for our ones and then we’ll bring our ones up, place them on the altar. Just place your card on the altar and then you can return to your place in the pew or stand nearby as we’ll close after our response hymn.
- Let’s pray for our ones and then I’ll invite you to come forward. “Dear God, apart from You we know we can do nothing, but with You, empowered by You, we can do mighty things. We know You are the Lord of the harvest and there are a lot of ‘ones’ all around us. We pray right now for our one. Calling his or her name to you right now. God, soften his heart, her heart, draw this soul to your side. We commit these next 30 days to this great work. Give us grace to pray each and every day for our one. Show us opportunities we have to share with our ones, inviting them to church, having gospel conversations with them. Help us do this, Lord. We dare not do this in our own strength. Not by our might, nor by our power, but by Your Spirit—save many, many ones in Henderson County. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.”
Alright, let’s stand for our hymn of Response and—as we sing—you come forward and place the name of your one on the altar. I’ll place mine down first. Let’s sing.
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back.
O come go with me, and we will follow;
O come go with me, and we will follow;
O come go with me, and we will follow;
No turning back, no turning back.
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