Times Up – A | Jack Hibbs – God’s Messages

Times Up – A | Jack Hibbs

Luke 10:1-16

Today, Pastor Jack tells us that the ministry of Jesus cannot be done without prayer, by His power and through His leading. Like today many are ready to hear about salvation through Christ but those who are equipped to share it are few and far between.

This word from the Bible, amazing letters written and read.
Meaning that these are the words that Jesus spoke. Father God. May they change our lives this morning?
Give us ears to hear Lord, give us hearts to take it all in and feet, feet and hands to do what we learned.
Just like Samuel Morris that we would do what we read, do what we hear. Father.
We give you this time in jesus’ name and all God’s people said, amen. Amen.
Listen, grab your Bibles in and turn. Can you believe it? Can you turn to Luke chapter 10?
It’s even hard to say, Luke chapter 10, not nine.
We were in chapter nine for months, I think chapter 10, we made it, I could die and go to heaven right now.
We made it to Luke chapter 10.
Luke chapter 10, remember the last time together Jesus is set in his face like flint towards Jerusalem.
He has set his face to go to Jerusalem, three years of ministry with the disciples throughout the Galilee region.
Jesus has been exposing, sharing, revealing the very heart of God.
Now he heads to Jerusalem and in this six-month journey downward, there will be ministry all along the way.
But Jesus, as you remember in Chapter nine, toward the end, he’s stepping up the pace, the tempo of what he’s doing is increasing.
He’s got his heart set. I know this sounds strange, but he’s got his heart set on Jerusalem because Jerusalem is where the cross will be.
Jerusalem is where salvation will be accomplished for you and I Jerusalem will be the place.
Isn’t it amazing that Jerusalem has always been the focal point of the world.
And certainly it’s where Jesus Christ was crucified but rose again from the dead.
It’s the place from Genesis to revelation. Jerusalem.
The Bible warns that in the last days before Christ returns to earth, Jerusalem will be a burdensome stone to the nations of the world.
Is not Jerusalem, a burdensome stone of the nations of the world right now is amazing.
No airport, no river, no industrial, no oil.
There is no reason why Jerusalem should be the focal point of the world yet. God says it is.
And so does the news. As Jesus heads there, a clock begins to tick. He’s heading to the cross.
So as we look to this study, he’s going to be sharing with us the things that concern Him.
Church. Please don’t miss today. Don’t miss this message and don’t look to me about, you know, if I can hold your attention, your, your attention is your responsibility, not mine.
I want you to hold your own attention and listen to these words because it’s so very important.
So today might be really serious because it’s serious stuff.
We’re talking about a message entitled Time’s Up, Time’s up six more months of Jesus’s life and he goes to the cross soon after that, it will be heading back to heaven.
Time’s up. What does that mean?
Hey, have you noticed, by the way on, on Friday night, I went to a home Bible study that was being hosted by some of our junior hires.
There must have been 20 or 25 of our junior high kids.
That’s a one you want to want to be reminded how old you are.
Go hang out with some junior hires. And then the message we came to this issue about time.
I don’t remember how it came about when we talked about time and I asked the kids and, and remember this, all of us, I asked the kids, how is time with you?
What’s when I think when I say time, what do you think?
And they all agreed all the, all the junior hires agreed time just goes by so slow And I go, yeah, like when and they go school the school year it goes by so slow and I said, enjoy it.
Now while you got it. And in the room there was some of the youth pastors who are just really old, old guys, like 21, And they said, Yeah, you guys, you better listen to them because it really gets shorter as you get older.
And so I said, Hey, what are you talking about? I’m almost 50 years old, man.
I get up in the day’s over. Hey, come on, you’re like me, what month is this?
It’s today? Like June 3rd, right? I’m still in February, aren’t you?
You blank and the calendars flying by, I’m finding out from my secretary, you know, when can Lisa and I go out on a date?
Well, you know, sometime in oh nine, maybe, you know, things are going out there. It’s crazy time is moving.
But every moment that you and I think about time, we need to remember something, it’s running out, you know, something those of you who are involved in physics, it’s pretty wild to realize that time is a physical property of this universe.
Everything physical wears out and runs out, including time.
Stanford laboratories are starting to show more and more data how light is even slowing down.
We always thought that light was a constant light is slowing down.
Everything regarding entropy or the second law of thermal dynamics is so true to the things that you and I think is constant, it’s slowing down and time is running out.
That is true as a Christian. What about our time? How much time do we have?
Yes, the Bible says that God has numbered our days.
Did you know that every one of us in here this morning.
God has a number of days that you and I will live.
You’re not gonna live one day before or after the time that God has decreed said, what’s my number?
I don’t know, we cannot know.
God knows He keeps that in his sovereign care, but until my number is up until your number is up, that’s where that term comes from.
By the way, his number was up, comes from the Bible until that time is up for us.
We need to be busy as Jesus said about our father’s business. Amen.
So let’s look to our study this morning entitled Times Up.
Luke chapter 10 verse one after these things metadata.
It is in the Greek, meaning after the things of chapter nine, this is what happens.
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.
In other words, this is a front team.
Then he said to them verse to 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 or sandals and greet no one along the road.
But whatever house you enter first say peace to this house and son of peace is there your peace will rest upon it.
And if not, it will return to U verse seven and remain in the same house, eating and drinking such things as they give you for.
The labor 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 heal the sick there and say to them, the kingdom of God is near 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 to you.
But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in the day.
That is the day of judgment actually for sodom than for that city woe to you Koracen woe to you Bethsaida.
For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tire and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.
But it will be more tolerable for tire and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you and you Capernaum who are exalted to heaven.
You will be brought down to Hades.
He who hears you hears me and he who rejects you rejects me and he who rejects me, rejects him.
Who sent me strong words? Time’s up is the title of the message for this reason.
Number one, because there’s a work that is to get done, there’s a work to be done.
Christian and God has set a timetable for opportunity.
Jesus had said earlier on that we must do the works of God while daylight is shining because night and he’s speaking spiritually, night time is coming.
When no man can work, we have been given opportunities.
Church history shows that throughout the millennium of time that God has given opportunities at certain times for us to respond.
Uh In fact, in the book of Revelation, Jesus put it this way, behold, I have set before you and open what door and that were to go through those doors.
He even says, I’ve opened it and no man can shut it when God opens up an opportunity, Christian were to seize that opportunity.
Now, this sounds so foreign and the time and the age in which we live, we need as a church.
And I’m not, I’m not saying you, I’m saying us the church around the world, we need to get hot, we need to get urgent, we need to get as it were pumped up in the spirit of Schwarzenegger pumped up about the things of God again and get very, very active.
Because why? Because every day that you and I wake up, we are one step closer to either a losing an opportunity or getting closer to an opportunity, but certainly to the end of time and we don’t have to think about some grandiose so apocalyptic event.
Just you and I are coming to the end of our time in this world.
None of us want to talk about that. But it is true.
Did you know you woke up this morning 24 hours older than you were yesterday? How do you feel?
How do you feel about that? I had an assistant pastor say last week, can I ask you a question?
Yes, of course. Do you get, are you sore and hurt in the morning when you wake up?
I said it’s been like that for years. That’s why God invented Advil and all that stuff.
Remember when we were little kids, we had those little stretchy necklaces with all the candy on it.
I’ve got one with Advil Aspirin. You’re just too on it as needed. Yes, it’s great.
Going old and great. You know what? The older we get? Heaven is all the better, huh? Bring it on.
You know, plus you stink more. I got more cologne on me now than ever.
Why the older I get, I gotta put more formal, died on my body. It’s a sick thing. Huh?
Come on. Lord, time’s up because there’s a work to get done.
Number one, this kind of work is an appointed work. God appointed the work to the believers.
Now, yes, I understand in the context of our study today and from Matthew’s Gospel, these are 70 who have been affected by Jesus.
They’ve come to faith in Jesus. He’s gonna send them out to do great miracles.
Listen, this is not, by the way, the 12 apostles, this is 70 other guys, guys and gals.
We don’t know who they are.
We don’t, there guys and gals are the old guys or some of them girls. We don’t know.
It doesn’t matter. We don’t know their names were not supposed to know their names.
All we do know is that they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. How did that happen?
Many scholars believe that these 70 people who Jesus appointed to this task because time is urgent were people who were affected by his ministry that these are people who a for example, have been risen from the dead.
Well, that ought to be quite a story to tell, knock on somebody’s door high.
Jesus raised me from the dead. It could have been those who were healed or cleansed of leprosy.
Whoever they are, their eyes have been opened, their ears have been unstoppable, their life had been changed and now they are out to serve the Lord and Jesus sends them out.
I want to suggest to you that if your life has been affected by the Lord, he wants to send you and I out also don’t this morning say gosh Pistor, that’s not for me.
That’s for guys like you to go tell people, God didn’t do anything in my life. Oh Yeah, he did.
Oh, yes, he did. Your, we listen your testimony about what Jesus Christ has done.
You need to, you got to sit down and write it down, you got to actually write it down and then tell somebody you’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs.
You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series. Just go to Jack Hibbs dot com.
That’s Jack Hibbs dot com. And for now let’s get back to our teaching once again, here’s pastor Jack.
Hey, I’ll let you in on something.
It’s not in my notes, so I’ll probably mess it all up last week.
Uh, several of us had a chance to, to listen to Wally.
Well, he came to the campus of UC Irvine and he used to be a former pl oh terrorist and he has killed people and he brought two of his friends and one guy at the age of seven years old, killed his first Jew in the Golan Heights when he was seven years old and the other guy killed 247 Jews in Israel.
In fact, because of that, he’s not allowed to come to the United States. He lives in Canada.
Now these guys were killers, Islamic terrorist killers and they’re giving their story about America and I tell you, it was very powerful.
America needs to wake up. They were saying America doesn’t understand.
In fact, the one speaker came out, he went to, uh, he went to, he went to uh in Gaza.
He went to uh combat camp at the age of three years old.
And by the age of four shot his first AK 47 at the age of seven, strapped uh C four onto, onto a sheep and lead it in to an area of some Jews and then ran away and blew up a bunch of people at seven years of age.
And this guy walked out on the stage and had a nice suit, by the way, really nice.
He came out and I said, that’s a nice suit.
He came out and he laid right on the right on the stage, laid down, what is he doing?
And he said in his broken English, this is America.
And then September 11th America got up and pressed the snooze button and went back to sleep and this is America and he went off to say how his former brothers are planning nasty things against America right here in our own soil.
And he says, you’re asleep. Listen, when the next Harris tells you, you better wake up, you better wake up.
It was very serious. But at the end two hours later, this is, remember, this is a non Christian event, U C Irvine.
It was time they opened up the microphones for questions and answers.
And this woman came up to the microphone and she said, I want to know what changed you guys from being terrorists and killers to speaking against terrorism.
What changed you? And this, this one man who killed 247 Jews leaned on his, leaned over and put his elbow on his knees.
And he said, do you really want to know?
And she said, I’m asking and he said, then I’m telling and it’s like, okay, you ready for this?
Everyone’s really quiet. And he said, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
And you could, you know, you’re clapping, but it wasn’t your clapping now, but it wasn’t much clapping then.
And who’s gonna tell him he’s wrong?
You know what’s my point? His testimony?
He said, get out there and tell people there’s one way to change the terrorist.
Tell them what Jesus has done for you. That’s what he said.
I tell you, I’m getting goose bumps thinking about it right now. It was awesome.
Only God can do that, only God can do that. Listen, there’s a work to be done.
Time is running out and God has appointed you and I as God’s people to tell our co workers our neighbors, our friends about the fact that God loves them and listen.
Yes, there’s a heaven. But let’s be honest, let’s stop pussyfooting around. There is a heaven.
Jesus came and died on the cross so that nobody would have to go to the hell that the Bible warns us about.
Let’s stop, stop trying to hide that the Bible says it’s real and it’s where people go, that reject God.
He doesn’t send anybody there. You might be thinking, I am not gonna listen, I refuse that.
Just wait before you run out of the church with their hair on fire. Listen for a minute.
He doesn’t want anybody to go there. It’s very clear.
The Bible says that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to eternal life and so valuable is your life that Jesus went to the cross for you.
And I he did that for us.
That’s how valuable you are, that God himself loved you and valued you so highly.
I I promise you this God values me more than I value me.
God values you more than you value you. And he went to the cross for you.
And I, Jesus says, take this message and tell the world.
And one of the great powerful parts about this message is to tell people what Jesus Christ has done for you has done for me.
So it’s an appointed work and that’s a wonderful thing. Number two, it’s a great work.
It is a great work. He said verse two.
And he said to them, the harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few. Isn’t that always the case?
Huh? Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
There’s some key words here that we have to touch on or else we won’t get it.
Number one is the word great. We circle that in your Bible. The word great means something monumental.
The word in the Greek means for great. Something that is overwhelming. Something that is not possible. I like that.
Jesus saying, go do it but it’s not possible. Oh Great. What are you asking me to do something?
That’s not possible. Well, then why do it? Because it is possible when God is behind it.
What is it that we’re talking about? That is impossible. But possible with God, Jesus said it in another place.
He said, because I go to the Father, you will do greater works than I have done.
Now, I’ve always struggled with that verse. How can we do greater works than what Jesus has done? He has.
He’s not saying a word about miracles. It’s about telling the world who their savior is.
When a soul like Salim or wallet is converted and comes to Christ that trumps all miracles. I’m sorry, blind.
And now you see that’s wonderful, but a soul that is anti God or lost from eternity.
That has a change of heart and mind and now will be as it were a gem in the crown of Christ, in heaven forever.
That is a miracle and that he’s entrusted to us to tell people not religion, not join this church, not sign up, not this, that or the other, not, not give your money.
It’s nothing for us to extend to them the offer of eternal life. He’s entrusted that to us. That’s amazing.
It’s an overwhelming word. And then he says to pray, it’s so overwhelming that we need to pray to the Lord of the harvest.
That is an amazing request. Jesus said, pray. We need to be praying. Oh God, open up the doors.
Let us Jesus, please let us be involved in this work to reach the lost and then send out.
I’m sorry. This is a great word. Say the word there that he would send out laborers.
This word means to thrust out or to push it is a violent word in Greek. Watch this.
Jesus is saying all right, here’s the thing I pray and uh get ready because here’s what’s gonna happen.
You got a message, you got, you got a story to tell somebody go, You know what the word means in thrusting someone out.
It implies that they are ready. They’re suited up and equipped to go.
It’s the exact same word that we’ve all seen maybe in like saving private Ryan or some military channel thing or some war movie, whether the planes flying along in the back door of the plane opens up and there’s like 50 paratroopers in the back of the plane.
You ever seen those kind of World War II stories? You know a story I’m talking about a story.
There’s some of our guys are doing this right now in real life. What am I talking about?
Door opens up and what happens?
A light turns green and there’s a, there’s a sergeant there or, or someone’s there of rank.
He’s, he’s strapped onto the airplane.
By the way, he’s got a little safety latch, he’s hooked on and there’s this two rows of 25 soldiers, they’re completely dressed for battle.
And you’ve seen the shows, you’ve seen the moments when he goes ready and they’re all looking light turns green.
And what does he say? Think about it, pray about it.
No, he says, go, go.