August 1, 2025 • 17 mins
The concept of Kingdom Ambassadors perfectly captures the heart of Matthew 10, where Jesus transforms his disciples into apostles—sent ones—commissioned to represent heaven's reality on earth. Pastor Brandon unpacks this pivotal moment when Jesus grants his twelve followers supernatural authority while simultaneously preparing them for the inevitable opposition they'll face.
Walking verse by verse through this challenging chapter, we discover how Jesus never sugarcoats the reality of kingdom representation. His striking words, "I am sending you as sheep among wolves," and his statement about bringing "not peace, but a sword" reveal the inherent conflict that comes when light enters darkness. The gospel, by its very nature, challenges our way with God's way.
What emerges is a profound encouragement for modern believers facing resistance in their own witness. When sharing your faith feels difficult, when living for God seems to create tension rather than harmony, it might not indicate failure but faithfulness. As Pastor Brandon powerfully observes, "Sometimes when we face difficulty and challenges, it might be a very good indicator that we're doing something very right." The life-changing commission hasn't changed—we're still called to announce "the kingdom of heaven is near" through both word and deed.
Whether you're feeling weary in your witness or seeking clarity on your calling as Christ's representative, this episode provides a compass for navigating opposition while maintaining both wisdom and innocence. Remember, as kingdom ambassadors, we're not called to flex spiritual superiority but to extend an invitation: "I'm not any better than you, I'm just better than I would be without Jesus... come, join me."
Hear this transformative message and discover your place in Christ's continuing mission. How might your perspective shift if you embraced your identity as heaven's ambassador today?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon.
Today, matthew chapter 10, andtoday's title is Kingdom
Ambassadors, kingdom Ambassadors.
I don't know if you are awareof this I'm sure you are, but in
most countries they have thesepeople called ambassadors who
(00:22):
will represent them in othercountries all over the world.
And when we think about thekingdom of God, especially in
this chapter, one of the mostinteresting ways to think about
us as Christ followers is God'sambassadors sent from heaven to
earth in order to display thekingdom of God.
(00:42):
And we're're gonna get into allthat today and really challenge
ourselves with when Jesus sentout the Apostles.
It wasn't the only time he didthis, but it was a pattern, as
we see how he is continuallysending us out today.
So, if you have your Bibleswhen, open up with me to Matthew
chapter 10 while you're doingthat, as always, if you're new
(01:03):
around here and we'll take justa moment like share and
subscribe to the YouTube channeland the podcast, make sure
you're sharing the YouTubechannel and the podcast with
everybody you can.
We just want to continue tojust spread this community to as
many people as possible.
Leave us a five-star review onthe podcast.
It really does help and makesure you're going to the Bible
Breakdown Discussion on Facebook.
(01:23):
There's an amazing group ofpeople doing a wonderful job and
, as always, the more we dig themore we find.
Well, as you are getting readyto join us in this if you've
been with us over the pastseveral days, if you remember,
(01:43):
the overall idea of the Gospelof Matthew is talking about
Jesus as simply, but notsimplistically, as the king.
Now, what I mean by that is ishe starts off right out of the
gate in chapter 1, telling theJewish nation that Jesus is the
rightful king of Israel, andthat's what those you know
father of this and son of thisand all this kind of stuff is
what it was all about was saying.
At the very least, jesus has aclaim to the earthly throne of
(02:04):
Israel.
But then he spends chapter 2through 28 saying, however,
jesus is so much more than justan earthly king.
And that's a pretty big deal,because the nation of Israel at
the time, they knew theprophecies of the coming Messiah
, but they thought the comingMessiah was going to be an
earthly king, and what Matthewis telling them is oh man, jesus
(02:26):
is so much more than a earthlyking.
He's the king of kings and theLord of lords, and throughout
the chapters he's talking aboutwhat that looks like.
And we saw in Matthew 5, 6, and7, jesus just lays out the
manifesto of the kingdom andhe's taking this upside down
world and turning it right sideup again.
And then in eight and nine wesee how Jesus then shows what
(02:50):
the kingdom of heaven looks like.
And now, as we get into chapter10, we see Jesus answering the
question, because at the end ofchapter nine he says you know,
when I look around me it's likelooking at a harvest field.
There's people all around whoare ready to hear about the
gospel, but I need someone tohelp me who is going to spread
(03:11):
the good news.
Well, in chapter 10, he tellswho it's going to be, and it's
going to be these 12 disciples.
And eventually we find out inMatthew 28 how he is saying I am
sending all of you into all theworld.
So this is a precursor of whathe's eventually going to do to
all of us.
So let's read this and let'ssee what the marching orders of
(03:32):
Jesus is to his disciples.
So here we go.
Matthew, chapter 10, verse 1says this Jesus called his 12
disciples together and gave themauthority to cast out evil
spirits.
And Now, by the way, thedifference between a disciple
and apostle?
These are used interchangeably.
A disciple is a learner, anapostle is a sent one.
(03:59):
That's what apostle means asent one.
So he is saying he's taking 12of his disciples and he is
sending them.
That's why they change namesfrom disciple to apostle.
So here are the 12 sent ones.
First, simon, also called peter, andrew, peter's brother.
James, the son of zebedee.
John, his brother, philipbartholomew.
(04:21):
Thomas, matthew the tax we readabout him recently James, son
of Alphaeus.
Thaddeus, simon the Zealot, andJudas Iscariot, who would later
betray him.
Jesus sent out the twelveapostles with these instructions
Don't go to the Gentiles or theSamaritans, only the people of
(04:42):
Israel, god's lost sheep.
Go and announce to them thekingdom of heaven is near.
Heal the sick, raise the dead,cure those with leprosy, cast
out demons.
Give freely as you havereceived.
Don't take any money in yourmoney belts, no gold, silver or
even copper coins.
Don't carry a traveler's bagwith a change of clothes and
(05:05):
sandals or even a walking stick.
Don't hesitate to accepthospitality, because those who
work deserve to be fed Wheneveryou enter a city or village,
search for a worthy person tostay in their home until you
leave town.
When you enter the home, giveit your blessing.
If it turns out to be a worthyhome, let the blessing stand.
(05:26):
If it is not, take back theblessing.
If any household or townrefuses to welcome you or listen
to your message, shake its dustfrom your feet as you leave.
I tell you the truth the wickedcities of Sodom and Gomorrah
will be better off than such atown.
On the Judgment Day, look, I amsending you out as sheep among
(05:47):
wolves.
So be shrewd as snakes and asharmless as doves.
But beware you will be handedover to the courts and will be
flogged with whips in thesynagogues.
You will stand trial beforegovernors and kings because you
are my followers, but this willbe your opportunity to tell the
rulers and other unbelieversabout me.
(06:10):
When you are arrested, don'tworry about how to respond or
what to say.
God will give you the rightwords at the right time, for it
is not you who will be speaking,but it is the spirit of your
father who's speaking throughyou.
A brother will betray hisbrother to death, a father will
betray his own child, andchildren will rebel against
(06:31):
their parents and cause them tobe killed.
All nations will hate youbecause you are my followers,
but everyone who endures to theend will be saved.
When you are persecuted in onetown, flee to the next.
I tell you the truth the Son ofman will return before you have
reached all the towns of Israel.
Students are not greater thantheir teacher and slaves are not
(06:55):
greater than their master.
Students are to be like theirteacher and slaves are to be
like their master.
And since I, the master of thehousehold, have been called the
prince of demons, then themembers of my household will be
called even worse names.
But don't be afraid of thosewho threaten you, for the
members of my household will becalled even worse names.
But don't be afraid of thosewho threaten you, for the time
is coming when everything thatis covered will be revealed and
(07:18):
all that is secret will be madeknown to all.
What I tell you now in thedarkness, shout abroad.
When daylight comes, daybreakcomes.
What I whisper in your ear,shout from the housetops for all
to hear.
Don't be afraid of those whowant to kill your body.
They cannot touch your soul.
Fear only God, who can destroyboth soul and body in hell.
(07:42):
What is the price of twosparrows?
One copper coin, but not asingle sparrow can fall to the
ground without your fatherknowing it, and the very hairs
on your head are all numbered.
So don't be afraid, you aremore valuable to God than the
whole flock of sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges mepublicly here on earth, I will
(08:05):
acknowledge also before myfather in heaven.
But everyone who denies me hereon earth, acknowledge also
before my father in heaven.
But everyone who denies me hereon earth, I will also deny
before my father in heaven.
Don't imagine that I came tobring peace on earth.
I came not to bring peace, buta sword.
I have come to set man againsthis father, daughter against his
mother and daughter-in-lawagainst his mother-in-law, her
(08:45):
mother-in-law.
You are not worthy of beingmine.
If you cling to your life, youwill lose it, but if you give up
your life for me, you will findit.
Everyone who receives youreceives me, and everyone who
receives me receives the Fatherwho sent me.
If you receive a prophet as onewho speaks for God, you are
given the same reward as theprophet.
(09:07):
If you receive a righteousperson, because they are
righteous, because of theirrighteousness, you will be given
a reward like theirs, and ifyou give even a cup, wow.
Well, I read that whole thing injust kind of without
interruption, because I wantedus to get the overall idea of
(09:29):
what Jesus is saying.
The bottom line of what Jesusis saying is is I am sending you
as a representative of thekingdom of heaven into a world
that doesn't know me.
And notice how he was sayingthat.
He said I'm sending you aslambs among wolves.
In other words, it would befoolish for us to expect that
(09:51):
we're going to go into our worldand not face opposition.
As a matter of fact, jesus evensays I want to tell you that I
did not come to bring peace, buta sword.
Now, by that he is not sayingthat I've come to bring violence
upon the world.
What he is using is remember acouple of chapters ago, how he
used hyperbole.
He's using that again to saythat when you go and you
(10:14):
represent me before the world,it's going to cause conflict.
That's one of the things that Ithink is unfortunate, but at the
same time, it's part of theworld we live in, and that is
that we say that as Christians,we are supposed to only be the
bringers of peace, and of coursethat's the goal.
But at the same time, thegospel is offensive.
(10:35):
Because the gospel says this isthe right way, not your way.
And while that is not sayingthat we should be getting in
physical altercations withpeople, it's to say that when we
proclaim that the good news ofthe gospel is that we are
sinners and we are destined forhell without Jesus, but with
Jesus we have hope and eternallife, that's offensive.
(10:56):
Not everyone's going to agreewith us.
Now, the response of this is notthat we fight back and are
violent with people none of thatbut it is that we endure,
understanding that they're notfighting against us.
They're fighting against thissinful desire in them that wants
to rebel against God.
And so we just stand in the gapthere and say, hey, listen, I'm
(11:18):
telling you, god's not mad atyou, but you're going to hell
without Jesus.
That's a hard message andthat's why Jesus is warning them
.
He's saying I'm giving you thekeys to life, I'm giving you the
gospel that changes people'slife.
It changes their, their eternaldestination, and there's so
many great things, but noteveryone's going to accept it.
And so he's telling us, beforeyou go, it's going to be hard.
(11:42):
It would be like if I were totell you all of the wonderful
things about running a marathonI had an opportunity years ago
to do that and I were to tellyou all about crossing that
finish line and how wonderful itwas and how accomplished it
felt.
And if I just told you aboutthat and then you set out to go
run a marathon, wouldn't you bereally upset with me If I forgot
(12:04):
to tell you that?
Oh, by the way, it's 26.2 milesand it took me, you know, three
years basically to train for itand it was one of the hardest
things I ever did.
Dude, shouldn't you have toldme that?
All you did was tell me aboutcrossing the finish line.
You didn't tell me how hard itwas along the way, and all I
would be able to say is oh yeah,I forgot.
Well, what Jesus does is hetells us.
(12:25):
He tells us the joy of sharingthe gospel with someone else.
He tells us the joy of sharingthe gospel with someone else,
the joy of being somebody else'smiracle, because you're able to
tell them about the life,giving good news, that you don't
have to live in sin anddestruction and brokenness, but
you can find life in Jesus, butat the same time, there's a cost
(12:48):
that you're going to have towalk through difficulty, you're
going to have to walk throughpeople not understanding, you're
going to have to walk throughspiritual warfare, and you're
going to have to stay the courseand to realize that not
everybody's going to agree withyou.
Thank goodness for Jesus, thankgoodness that he reminds us
that way.
When we have people who don'tagree with us, when we have
(13:10):
folks who don't understand, andwhen it gets difficult, we're
not surprised, but rather we go.
Thank you, jesus, because youare reminding me that this is
all part of what it is, this ispart of the Christ life, and I'm
not doing anything wrong.
As a matter of fact, sometimes,when we face difficulty and
challenges, it might be a verygood indicator that we're doing
(13:33):
something very right, and so Iwant to encourage you today that
if you're living for God to thebest of your ability and you're
serving him the best you canand you're trying to share the
hope of the gospel with yourcoworkers and your family and it
seems like things are goingwrong, that doesn't necessarily
mean you're doing it wrong.
It might simply be you're doingit right and that there's a
spiritual enemy that's fightingagainst you.
(13:54):
And so what you do is youdouble down, you don't get mad
at people, you get mad at thedevil.
You don't rebuke people, yourebuke the devil and you
continue to be that light in thedark place.
You ever been in a place whereit's been dark for a while and
then someone turns on the lightall of a sudden.
You're thankful for the light,but it hurts at first.
(14:14):
Right, it hurts your eyes.
You go oh my goodness, did younot warn me?
And then your eyes adjust andyou're good.
Well, many times that's whathappens when a Christ follower
goes into a dark place.
Now we're not preaching atpeople, we're not browbeating
people, as they would say.
We're not talking down toanybody, we're just living for
God in front of people.
Sometimes it hurts because it'sreminding people of the
(14:39):
goodness of God, and so what wedo is we don't apologize for it,
but at the same time we say hey, listen, I'm not any better
than you, I'm just better than Iwould be without Jesus, and I'm
not here to flex in front ofyou, I'm here to say come, join
me.
And when you do that that'swhat an ambassador does is
somebody who is sent from oneplace to another to proclaim the
(15:02):
goodness of where they're from.
That's what we get to do in thekingdom of God.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you for the honor thatyou have given us to be your
hands and feet in the kingdom ofGod.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you for the honor thatyou have given us to be your
hands and feet in the worldaround us.
My prayer today, god, is thatyou will encourage some of us
today who we are weary.
We've been through a lot, we'veseen a lot, a lot has happened
(15:25):
and for some of us, we're sotired, we're tired of fighting.
We're tired of fighting, we'retired of being in, maybe, some
of these environments.
And the enemy wants to tell usthat you're doing it wrong, that
if you were really serving God,life would be easy.
Well, god, there may be somethings that we're doing that is
making life more difficult.
It's got nothing to do with you.
But for some of us, maybe it'snot that we're doing something
(15:47):
wrong.
Maybe it's not that we're doingsomething wrong, maybe it's
because we're doing somethingright.
I pray you'll open our eyes.
Holy Spirit, encourage us andhelp us to stay the course.
Today, in Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
Anyway, what God's word says inMatthew 28, verse 19,.
I wonder, do you have itmemorized with me yet?
Let's say it together Allauthority has been given to me
in heaven and on earth, and Isaid that.
Backwards Go, therefore, and
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon.
Today, matthew chapter 10, andtoday's title is Kingdom
Ambassadors, kingdom Ambassadors.
I don't know if you are awareof this I'm sure you are, but in
most countries they have thesepeople called ambassadors who
(00:22):
will represent them in othercountries all over the world.
And when we think about thekingdom of God, especially in
this chapter, one of the mostinteresting ways to think about
us as Christ followers is God'sambassadors sent from heaven to
earth in order to display thekingdom of God.
(00:42):
And we're're gonna get into allthat today and really challenge
ourselves with when Jesus sentout the Apostles.
It wasn't the only time he didthis, but it was a pattern, as
we see how he is continuallysending us out today.
So, if you have your Bibleswhen, open up with me to Matthew
chapter 10 while you're doingthat, as always, if you're new
(01:03):
around here and we'll take justa moment like share and
subscribe to the YouTube channeland the podcast, make sure
you're sharing the YouTubechannel and the podcast with
everybody you can.
We just want to continue tojust spread this community to as
many people as possible.
Leave us a five-star review onthe podcast.
It really does help and makesure you're going to the Bible
Breakdown Discussion on Facebook.
(01:23):
There's an amazing group ofpeople doing a wonderful job and
, as always, the more we dig themore we find.
Well, as you are getting readyto join us in this if you've
been with us over the pastseveral days, if you remember,
(01:43):
the overall idea of the Gospelof Matthew is talking about
Jesus as simply, but notsimplistically, as the king.
Now, what I mean by that is ishe starts off right out of the
gate in chapter 1, telling theJewish nation that Jesus is the
rightful king of Israel, andthat's what those you know
father of this and son of thisand all this kind of stuff is
what it was all about was saying.
At the very least, jesus has aclaim to the earthly throne of
(02:04):
Israel.
But then he spends chapter 2through 28 saying, however,
jesus is so much more than justan earthly king.
And that's a pretty big deal,because the nation of Israel at
the time, they knew theprophecies of the coming Messiah
, but they thought the comingMessiah was going to be an
earthly king, and what Matthewis telling them is oh man, jesus
(02:26):
is so much more than a earthlyking.
He's the king of kings and theLord of lords, and throughout
the chapters he's talking aboutwhat that looks like.
And we saw in Matthew 5, 6, and7, jesus just lays out the
manifesto of the kingdom andhe's taking this upside down
world and turning it right sideup again.
And then in eight and nine wesee how Jesus then shows what
(02:50):
the kingdom of heaven looks like.
And now, as we get into chapter10, we see Jesus answering the
question, because at the end ofchapter nine he says you know,
when I look around me it's likelooking at a harvest field.
There's people all around whoare ready to hear about the
gospel, but I need someone tohelp me who is going to spread
(03:11):
the good news.
Well, in chapter 10, he tellswho it's going to be, and it's
going to be these 12 disciples.
And eventually we find out inMatthew 28 how he is saying I am
sending all of you into all theworld.
So this is a precursor of whathe's eventually going to do to
all of us.
So let's read this and let'ssee what the marching orders of
(03:32):
Jesus is to his disciples.
So here we go.
Matthew, chapter 10, verse 1says this Jesus called his 12
disciples together and gave themauthority to cast out evil
spirits.
And Now, by the way, thedifference between a disciple
and apostle?
These are used interchangeably.
A disciple is a learner, anapostle is a sent one.
(03:59):
That's what apostle means asent one.
So he is saying he's taking 12of his disciples and he is
sending them.
That's why they change namesfrom disciple to apostle.
So here are the 12 sent ones.
First, simon, also called peter, andrew, peter's brother.
James, the son of zebedee.
John, his brother, philipbartholomew.
(04:21):
Thomas, matthew the tax we readabout him recently James, son
of Alphaeus.
Thaddeus, simon the Zealot, andJudas Iscariot, who would later
betray him.
Jesus sent out the twelveapostles with these instructions
Don't go to the Gentiles or theSamaritans, only the people of
(04:42):
Israel, god's lost sheep.
Go and announce to them thekingdom of heaven is near.
Heal the sick, raise the dead,cure those with leprosy, cast
out demons.
Give freely as you havereceived.
Don't take any money in yourmoney belts, no gold, silver or
even copper coins.
Don't carry a traveler's bagwith a change of clothes and
(05:05):
sandals or even a walking stick.
Don't hesitate to accepthospitality, because those who
work deserve to be fed Wheneveryou enter a city or village,
search for a worthy person tostay in their home until you
leave town.
When you enter the home, giveit your blessing.
If it turns out to be a worthyhome, let the blessing stand.
(05:26):
If it is not, take back theblessing.
If any household or townrefuses to welcome you or listen
to your message, shake its dustfrom your feet as you leave.
I tell you the truth the wickedcities of Sodom and Gomorrah
will be better off than such atown.
On the Judgment Day, look, I amsending you out as sheep among
(05:47):
wolves.
So be shrewd as snakes and asharmless as doves.
But beware you will be handedover to the courts and will be
flogged with whips in thesynagogues.
You will stand trial beforegovernors and kings because you
are my followers, but this willbe your opportunity to tell the
rulers and other unbelieversabout me.
(06:10):
When you are arrested, don'tworry about how to respond or
what to say.
God will give you the rightwords at the right time, for it
is not you who will be speaking,but it is the spirit of your
father who's speaking throughyou.
A brother will betray hisbrother to death, a father will
betray his own child, andchildren will rebel against
(06:31):
their parents and cause them tobe killed.
All nations will hate youbecause you are my followers,
but everyone who endures to theend will be saved.
When you are persecuted in onetown, flee to the next.
I tell you the truth the Son ofman will return before you have
reached all the towns of Israel.
Students are not greater thantheir teacher and slaves are not
(06:55):
greater than their master.
Students are to be like theirteacher and slaves are to be
like their master.
And since I, the master of thehousehold, have been called the
prince of demons, then themembers of my household will be
called even worse names.
But don't be afraid of thosewho threaten you, for the
members of my household will becalled even worse names.
But don't be afraid of thosewho threaten you, for the time
is coming when everything thatis covered will be revealed and
(07:18):
all that is secret will be madeknown to all.
What I tell you now in thedarkness, shout abroad.
When daylight comes, daybreakcomes.
What I whisper in your ear,shout from the housetops for all
to hear.
Don't be afraid of those whowant to kill your body.
They cannot touch your soul.
Fear only God, who can destroyboth soul and body in hell.
(07:42):
What is the price of twosparrows?
One copper coin, but not asingle sparrow can fall to the
ground without your fatherknowing it, and the very hairs
on your head are all numbered.
So don't be afraid, you aremore valuable to God than the
whole flock of sparrows.
Everyone who acknowledges mepublicly here on earth, I will
(08:05):
acknowledge also before myfather in heaven.
But everyone who denies me hereon earth, acknowledge also
before my father in heaven.
But everyone who denies me hereon earth, I will also deny
before my father in heaven.
Don't imagine that I came tobring peace on earth.
I came not to bring peace, buta sword.
I have come to set man againsthis father, daughter against his
mother and daughter-in-lawagainst his mother-in-law, her
(08:45):
mother-in-law.
You are not worthy of beingmine.
If you cling to your life, youwill lose it, but if you give up
your life for me, you will findit.
Everyone who receives youreceives me, and everyone who
receives me receives the Fatherwho sent me.
If you receive a prophet as onewho speaks for God, you are
given the same reward as theprophet.
(09:07):
If you receive a righteousperson, because they are
righteous, because of theirrighteousness, you will be given
a reward like theirs, and ifyou give even a cup, wow.
Well, I read that whole thing injust kind of without
interruption, because I wantedus to get the overall idea of
(09:29):
what Jesus is saying.
The bottom line of what Jesusis saying is is I am sending you
as a representative of thekingdom of heaven into a world
that doesn't know me.
And notice how he was sayingthat.
He said I'm sending you aslambs among wolves.
In other words, it would befoolish for us to expect that
(09:51):
we're going to go into our worldand not face opposition.
As a matter of fact, jesus evensays I want to tell you that I
did not come to bring peace, buta sword.
Now, by that he is not sayingthat I've come to bring violence
upon the world.
What he is using is remember acouple of chapters ago, how he
used hyperbole.
He's using that again to saythat when you go and you
(10:14):
represent me before the world,it's going to cause conflict.
That's one of the things that Ithink is unfortunate, but at the
same time, it's part of theworld we live in, and that is
that we say that as Christians,we are supposed to only be the
bringers of peace, and of coursethat's the goal.
But at the same time, thegospel is offensive.
(10:35):
Because the gospel says this isthe right way, not your way.
And while that is not sayingthat we should be getting in
physical altercations withpeople, it's to say that when we
proclaim that the good news ofthe gospel is that we are
sinners and we are destined forhell without Jesus, but with
Jesus we have hope and eternallife, that's offensive.
(10:56):
Not everyone's going to agreewith us.
Now, the response of this is notthat we fight back and are
violent with people none of thatbut it is that we endure,
understanding that they're notfighting against us.
They're fighting against thissinful desire in them that wants
to rebel against God.
And so we just stand in the gapthere and say, hey, listen, I'm
(11:18):
telling you, god's not mad atyou, but you're going to hell
without Jesus.
That's a hard message andthat's why Jesus is warning them
.
He's saying I'm giving you thekeys to life, I'm giving you the
gospel that changes people'slife.
It changes their, their eternaldestination, and there's so
many great things, but noteveryone's going to accept it.
And so he's telling us, beforeyou go, it's going to be hard.
(11:42):
It would be like if I were totell you all of the wonderful
things about running a marathonI had an opportunity years ago
to do that and I were to tellyou all about crossing that
finish line and how wonderful itwas and how accomplished it
felt.
And if I just told you aboutthat and then you set out to go
run a marathon, wouldn't you bereally upset with me If I forgot
(12:04):
to tell you that?
Oh, by the way, it's 26.2 milesand it took me, you know, three
years basically to train for itand it was one of the hardest
things I ever did.
Dude, shouldn't you have toldme that?
All you did was tell me aboutcrossing the finish line.
You didn't tell me how hard itwas along the way, and all I
would be able to say is oh yeah,I forgot.
Well, what Jesus does is hetells us.
(12:25):
He tells us the joy of sharingthe gospel with someone else.
He tells us the joy of sharingthe gospel with someone else,
the joy of being somebody else'smiracle, because you're able to
tell them about the life,giving good news, that you don't
have to live in sin anddestruction and brokenness, but
you can find life in Jesus, butat the same time, there's a cost
(12:48):
that you're going to have towalk through difficulty, you're
going to have to walk throughpeople not understanding, you're
going to have to walk throughspiritual warfare, and you're
going to have to stay the courseand to realize that not
everybody's going to agree withyou.
Thank goodness for Jesus, thankgoodness that he reminds us
that way.
When we have people who don'tagree with us, when we have
(13:10):
folks who don't understand, andwhen it gets difficult, we're
not surprised, but rather we go.
Thank you, jesus, because youare reminding me that this is
all part of what it is, this ispart of the Christ life, and I'm
not doing anything wrong.
As a matter of fact, sometimes,when we face difficulty and
challenges, it might be a verygood indicator that we're doing
(13:33):
something very right, and so Iwant to encourage you today that
if you're living for God to thebest of your ability and you're
serving him the best you canand you're trying to share the
hope of the gospel with yourcoworkers and your family and it
seems like things are goingwrong, that doesn't necessarily
mean you're doing it wrong.
It might simply be you're doingit right and that there's a
spiritual enemy that's fightingagainst you.
(13:54):
And so what you do is youdouble down, you don't get mad
at people, you get mad at thedevil.
You don't rebuke people, yourebuke the devil and you
continue to be that light in thedark place.
You ever been in a place whereit's been dark for a while and
then someone turns on the lightall of a sudden.
You're thankful for the light,but it hurts at first.
(14:14):
Right, it hurts your eyes.
You go oh my goodness, did younot warn me?
And then your eyes adjust andyou're good.
Well, many times that's whathappens when a Christ follower
goes into a dark place.
Now we're not preaching atpeople, we're not browbeating
people, as they would say.
We're not talking down toanybody, we're just living for
God in front of people.
Sometimes it hurts because it'sreminding people of the
(14:39):
goodness of God, and so what wedo is we don't apologize for it,
but at the same time we say hey, listen, I'm not any better
than you, I'm just better than Iwould be without Jesus, and I'm
not here to flex in front ofyou, I'm here to say come, join
me.
And when you do that that'swhat an ambassador does is
somebody who is sent from oneplace to another to proclaim the
(15:02):
goodness of where they're from.
That's what we get to do in thekingdom of God.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you for the honor thatyou have given us to be your
hands and feet in the kingdom ofGod.
Let's pray together right now.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you for the honor thatyou have given us to be your
hands and feet in the worldaround us.
My prayer today, god, is thatyou will encourage some of us
today who we are weary.
We've been through a lot, we'veseen a lot, a lot has happened
(15:25):
and for some of us, we're sotired, we're tired of fighting.
We're tired of fighting, we'retired of being in, maybe, some
of these environments.
And the enemy wants to tell usthat you're doing it wrong, that
if you were really serving God,life would be easy.
Well, god, there may be somethings that we're doing that is
making life more difficult.
It's got nothing to do with you.
But for some of us, maybe it'snot that we're doing something
(15:47):
wrong.
Maybe it's not that we're doingsomething wrong, maybe it's
because we're doing somethingright.
I pray you'll open our eyes.
Holy Spirit, encourage us andhelp us to stay the course.
Today, in Jesus' name, we pray.
Amen.
Anyway, what God's word says inMatthew 28, verse 19,.
I wonder, do you have itmemorized with me yet?
Let's say it together Allauthority has been given to me
in heaven and on earth, and Isaid that.
Backwards Go, therefore, and
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