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October 15, 2006
Stewardship 2006
Luke 10:1-23
Pastor Ben Berger

Don't Over Pack!

Do you remember the last time you got ready for a big trip? The night before you probably got out the suitcase and tried to decide what to bring. Did you over pack? We all do it. We're not sure what clothes to bring, so we bring something for every occasion and every season. We're not sure what shoes to bring, so we just bring all of them. We bring so much makeup and hair product and other items that we need to sit on our luggage to close it. Well, what about your daily life? Do you think that we have over packed our daily lives with so much stuff that we're bogged down and can't do our work? Today, Jesus again sends us out on the mission trip that is our daily life. As we prepare, he reminds us, Don't Over Pack! 1) Go light on the earthly needs and 2) Go heavy on the spiritual resources.

Before we head out, it's always good to know where we're going…and why. Jesus had been training the twelve disciples for public ministry (like pastors and teachers). Now he sends out seventy-two others. Who were these guys? Where were they going and why? These "guys" were ordinary people. They weren't trained pastors and teachers; they had their own jobs and families and lives. But Jesus asked also them to go out for him. Jesus described their task as going out "into the harvest" (2). Jesus was sending them ahead of himself into towns and places where they would find lost sheep without a shepherd. Jesus wanted them to look around and see that the harvest was plentiful, but the workers few. Jesus said that the harvest was ripe, the people were ripe for pickin', their hearts were ready to hear the good news of Jesus.

Do you see the harvest? Do you know any lost sheep wandering through this world without a shepherd? Do you notice hearts that are ripe to hear about Jesus' forgiveness and salvation? The people are all around you. They are the ones who sit next to you at lunch, in the office and even at your house. They shop with you and play with your kids and live next door. They are people across the world in countries like India, where the Gospel is just now being heard by many for the first time. The harvest is everywhere.

Jesus asks all of us - pastors, teachers and everyone else - to go out into the harvest…beginning with prayer. Jesus tells his new group of missionaries to ask the Lord of the harvest for more workers. And then Jesus immediately answers that prayer saying, "You, go!" All of you, in your daily life, at work, at home, at school, at play, at the mall, at the doctor's office, everywhere you go, go into the harvest. But as you go, Don't Over Pack! Go light on the earthly needs.

One of the instructions Jesus gave these everyday missionaries was, "Do not take a purse or bag or sandals" (4). Jesus told them not to over pack, especially on earthly needs. About 45 years ago a pastor prepared to take his family with him to Africa; he was the new missionary. The family had accumulated a lot of stuff during their twenty years in MI. They couldn't take it all with them. They had to choose what they needed. The rest they sold at a rummage sale. They knew that moving to a new country meant not over packing but going light on earthly needs.

Have we over packed our lives with stuff we don't need on this earth? If you're older, how much stuff are you lugging around your mission field? If you're younger, how much stuff are you trying to accumulate that will later bog you down? Do you realize that the average American paperboy makes more money than 80% of everyone else in the world? And we use all this money to buy more stuff: more clothes than we can hang in our closets, more electronics than we know how to use, TVs that hang on our walls (6, 7 or 8 of them), more cars than fit in the garage (3 car garages now), and so on and so on. No, it's not sin to have stuff. But we must constantly ask if our stuff is getting in the way of our mission to go into the harvest.

One lesson Jesus may have been teaching his 72 new missionaries was trust. Without money or clothes or extra sandals, the 72 would have to trust God to supply what they needed. Notice how God did that. Jesus said, When you go to a house and a man of peace is there, stay at that house eating and drinking whatever they give you (5-8). Perhaps you have noticed in your life how God has asked you to trust his promises to provide? And when you step out in faith, he's always sent you just what you need at just the right time.

The apostle Paul also reminds us that godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that (1Timothy 6:6-8). How can we be content? Remember Jesus. Remember that Jesus gave up all the riches of heaven to live as a poor man in our place. He had no cars, few clothes and not even a place to lay his head. But he had love - love for you and me. He loved us so much that he even gave up his life on the cross. His death pays for all of our sins, even the sins of greed and discontent. Even the times we over packed with too much stuff in our lives. His death guarantees us an eternal life of never-ending riches. And his death motivates us to go light on earthly needs. We have no need to over pack for this life, because we look forward to the next.

As we go light on earthly needs, we also have more opportunity to go heavy on spiritual resources.

It's important to remember the powerful tool God uses to bring lost sheep into his fold. It's not money. People may think that the more money the church has the more souls we'll save. That's not necessarily true. More money may give us more opportunity to share God's word, but only his powerful Word can save souls.

When Jesus sent out the 72 like lambs among wolves, he only gave them one tool - his Word. He gave them two powerful messages. First, whenever they entered a house or town, they were to proclaim "Peace" (5). Whether the people welcomed them or not, they were to proclaim, "The kingdom of God is near you" (9,11). That last bold statement proclaimed both law and gospel to the people.

To those who did not welcome Jesus' missionaries, their message was law. The kingdom of God would come upon them in judgment for rejecting Jesus as their Savior. The missionaries shook the dust off of their feet as they left those unbelieving towns to signify how Jesus would shake them loose of salvation on Judgment Day. Jesus said that even evil cities like Sodom and Tyre and Sidon would have it better on Judgment Day than those unbelieving towns. Why? Because they heard and saw God's Son in the flesh and still rejected him as Savior. Let us who have heard and seen Jesus also take heed of this warning that we are not sent into the depths of hell like the people of Capernaum!

But to those who welcomed the missionaries, the message of the coming of God's kingdom was sweet Gospel. They would come to know and believe in God's Son as their Savior. They would see in Jesus fulfillments of all the prophecies of the Old Testament. Jesus was born of a virgin in the town of Bethlehem. He spoke with authority. He performed miracles and even raised the dead. Soon they would see him suffer and die but then rise from the dead himself. They would watch him ascend into heaven and wait for him to return again to take them also to heaven. What good news!

When the 72 missionaries returned from proclaiming their message, they were filled with joy. They couldn't believe how even the demons submitted to them. Jesus acknowledged that he had given them authority over the enemy and even saw Satan fall from heaven. Yet, he did not want them to rejoice in that success. He wanted them to rejoice that THEIR names were written in heaven.

When we finish our mission work here on earth, we too will have reason to rejoice. Already we can rejoice at all the work that is being done, that the gospel is reaching so many through us. Just here at Mount Olive we're spreading the Word in our community and even to souls from other countries, like the Latinos in our ESL class. We're supporting the work of our synod as we tell the Gospel to Latinos in Phoenix or train local pastors in India or teachers at Martin Luther College. And in your daily, personal lives too Jesus is giving you opportunity to share your faith.

Yet, with so many great stories to tell, the best story is not what we have done but what Jesus has done for us. We can rejoice with Jesus, who was full of joy through the Holy Spirit (21) that he has written our names in heaven. He wrote those names with his perfect life and innocent death in our place. He sealed them with his resurrection. It is His Story that packs us heavy with spiritual resources so that we can carry His Story to other lost souls we meet in the harvest of our daily life.

Don't Over Pack! Go home this week and take stock of all the physical blessings the heavenly Father has given you. Rather than asking, "What should I give to church?" ask, "What do I need on my mission journey in this life? and How does God want me to use the rest?" Then take stock of your spiritual resources - especially your own personal story of what Jesus has done for you. Then you will not be over packed. You'll be light on physical needs and heavy on spiritual resources. God bless your journey!