Phil Prettyman: All right, take your Bibles and join me in Luke chapter 9.

And that is what the Lord is asking for today, volunteers for Jesus.

The call has already been given.

As Amy Carmichael referenced her call to the ministry, it was simply those two words, go ye.

And that’s what God’s calling us to do is to go.

And then as we go, the Lord promises to lead us.

You don’t need any unique calling.

That is the calling.

And it’s confusing to be waiting for a cloud formation or some special unique circumstances to line up.

God says, I’m asking you, you count the cost.

You consider if you love me enough to do what I’ve called you to do.

Now, you know, some things are just logical as we heard in the session right before.

You know, with all those different graphics that we looked at, how many people in unreached regions.

You know, God will allow you to use your own mind and say, you know, it probably would make more sense to go there.

That’s okay.

But God is looking for volunteers.

And that is our longing and our cry to you today.

Who will be one of those volunteers?

And my goal is just to allow the Word of God and to allow the Lord Jesus to appeal to you and to convince you to do that.

if I convince you and maybe use emotional strategies and things like that, you might change your mind between now and the time of your going.

But if you are convinced of the Spirit of God and if somehow by the Spirit’s power you will hear the echo of Christ in the words that I speak

to you, then I think something very real could be done this afternoon that will have a definite actual result that is more than just sentiment and romantic missionary notions.

And that’s my goal.

That’s my desire, is that God would speak to your heart today as somewhat of a culmination of some of the things that we’ve been hearing and that it would result in you saying, I want to do what the Lord has me to do in serving the Lord in a foreign mission field.

And, you know, that wonderful large picture that we received from Pastor Gilmore was amazing.

I hope that you’re not overwhelmed by that.

That’s so helpful to be able to get a very quick bird’s eye view over the whole picture.

But it definitely starts far more simple than that.

My first trip to Uganda at the end of 2013, I realized that the mission field starts with me making eye contact with children who don’t know what love is.

And I discovered there was so much love in me that had been invested by God, by my sweet Savior, by my parents.

My eyes were like love machine guns.

And I could just look out at these children and just mow them down.

And they couldn’t resist what they felt coming out of me and toward them.

That’s the mission field, isn’t it?

Now, if that’s all you ever figured out in your work, you’d still be a good missionary.

Now, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t try to figure out everything you heard this morning in the session with Pastor Gilmore.

Those are significant things, and I’m still learning many of those things and trying to be more efficient myself.

So we should learn.

We should study.

But Luke chapter 9, Luke chapter 10, these passages, like no other, really give an understanding of why you and I should answer this call and what keeps individuals from answering this call.

And so I want you to see that.

I’m really going to deal with the main aspect of the message is what would keep you from saying, Lord, I will go and I have confidence that you will direct my steps as I go.

And that is my passion today.

In Luke chapter 9, verse number 1, Now these disciples possess the power of God to do what would be, humanly speaking, impossible.

You know, one of the first reasons why you and I should answer this call is because God is not looking for perfect people.

And that’s maybe more of an encouragement to some of you like me than it might be to others.

In Luke chapter 9, there are seven distinct major failures made by the disciples.

Now, that’s a lot just for one chapter, isn’t it?

These guys are the farthest thing from perfect.

We see their unbelief in the feeding of the 5,000 that they say, Boy, that’s impossible.

That could never happen.

We can’t even see how that would be possible.

The next story, Peter tells the Lord, You will not die for us.

We will not allow it to happen.

And Jesus looks at Peter and says, get behind me, Satan.

He doesn’t even say you’re acting like Satan or you representing Satan.

He looks at Peter square in the eyes and says, get thee behind me, Satan.

Boy, those have been hard words to take.

And then we have the transfiguration.

You have the transfiguration of Christ.

And Peter opens, you think he probably would have learned by now just to keep it shut.

But he says, Lord, I’ve got a great idea.

Let’s build three temples of worship.

Now, just think through the logistics of what I’m saying.

This is really terrible.

We’ll build a temple for you who worship you.

We’ll build one for Elijah, and we’ll build one for Moses.

And this one will represent Moses.

This one will represent Elijah.

And, boy, he was way off.

That’s terrible.

That’s like basic theology type stuff there.

I think most of us would know that’s not a very good idea.

The next story, this father is having trouble.

The disciples are not able to cast the demon out of this man’s son.

And Jesus comes down in verse number 41 of the same chapter, Luke 9.

Jesus answering and said, oh, faithless and perverse generation.

These perverted people who don’t believe, these twisted people.

And we kind of get the idea that maybe he’s talking about the people around.

The disciples come to him and say, Lord, why couldn’t we cast out that devil?

And the Lord says, because of your unbelief.

Okay, we are the perverted people.

We are the twisted ones who simply cannot believe.

Then you get to verse number 45.

The Bible says that the disciples understood not what the Lord was saying.

It was hid from them that they perceived it not, and they feared to ask him of that saying.

They had a tough time understanding truth that Jesus was speaking to them.

Have you ever been there before?

Now look at verse number 46.

And then there arose a reasoning among them which of them should be the greatest.

So now they’re having a fight over who’s going to be considered to be the greatest disciple in heaven.

This was not a good day for these disciples.

And I have a feeling it was a pretty standard day.

Then the Bible tells us in verse number 49, John answered and said, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and we forbid him because he followed not with us.

So they have this sectarian spirit, this spirit of division.

And then their tempers are unleashed in the next story where the Samaritans wouldn’t receive Jesus.

And so, you know, the disciples, James and John, they start thinking about when Elijah called down fire And they said, boy, this is probably a good time for that.

Shall we call down fire and burn these people to the ground?

And the Lord says, you don’t even know what spirit you are of.

So you don’t understand the point that I’m getting at is that God is not looking for perfect people.

And God works on us as he uses us.

God changes us as he uses us.

And a lot of the things that need to take place in your heart and in my heart only take place in the process of serving, in the process of obedience, in the process of going where God wants me to go.

God begins to deal with me about faith issues, about understanding the word of God, about a temper that I might have, about all kinds of things.

Point is, there’s not a person in here today who doesn’t qualify.

And if you feel like, boy, I’m just disqualified, there’s just certain things about my personality, there’s just certain things about my lack of ability, I could never do this.

I hope this is an encouragement to you.

You can do this.

And I want you to see something else in chapter 10, verse 1.

The Bible says, After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place whither he himself would come.

Now, I want to encourage you to accept this because there’s a great plan.

Our Savior always operated with very specific strategy.

And the more you study what Jesus did, you figure out he was a genius.

He is a genius.

Everything that he did was brilliant.

It was not haphazard.

And, you know, our God still has a plan for reaching this world.

And we saw some of that in that session a little bit earlier.

I’m so glad to be serving on a program where there’s a clear plan.

Now just think about it.

What plan does this world have for you?

What are they going to do with their lives?

What is their plan for marriage?

What are they going to do in their married life?

What is their plan for children?

What is their plan after they come to the end of their life and they die?

What then?

Well, see, they don’t have a plan.

Our Savior has a plan that involves our lives, and it’s a great plan.

Look at verse number 2 of Luke chapter 10.

Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.

Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his harvest.

Now I want to encourage you to consider answering this call because God has given us a great captain on the ground.

Jesus speaks here about the Lord of the harvest.

And I think that he’s speaking specifically about the Holy Spirit.

The Passover was in the Exodus.

On the 10th day of the month of Abib, the lamb would be brought into every house of Israel.

And then on the 14th day, four days later, they would sacrifice that lamb in the evening.

And the next feast was a feast called the Feast of Firstfruits.

And then seven Sabbaths from that, 50 days from that, would be a feast called the Feast of Pentecost, which was a harvest celebration.

Jesus came riding into Jerusalem on the 10th day of Abib.

The lamb was coming into the house.

Can you picture that?

And then four days later, on the 14th, the lamb was slain in the evening.

Jesus died on the cross.

The very moment that that priest saw the burnt offering going up on the altar, Jesus was crying, it is finished, the day of Passover.

And then just a few days from that on Sunday was a feast called Firstfruits.

And that’s the day that Jesus arose from the grave.

Amen.

The beautiful picture is Jesus fulfilled.

Of course, he was the whole purpose for all those things anyway.

And the Feast of Firstfruits was celebrating Jesus as the firstfruits from the dead.

And then just 50 days from there, there’s a great feast called the Feast of Pentecost.

And that is a harvest celebration.

And Jesus said, I’m going to send someone who’s going to make sure that that operates just right.

And the sweet spirit of God came.

The Lord of the harvest came.

You know, if a young person had been born, say when Jesus was in his 20s, and as he’s growing up, he’s six or seven years old, and you start telling that little boy about Jesus, and the little boy would say, well, that’s amazing.

I wish I could have met him.

It would have been so wonderful to have the privilege to meet him.

You could say, well, you can.

He’s still here.

In fact, he’s 31 1⁄2 years of age.

Maybe we’ll try to find him in Galilee or Capernaum or down in Jerusalem.

He’s still alive.

He’s still here.

Now, of course, that can’t be said today, right?

We can’t go find Jesus on earth, can we?

Why?

Because we know he left earth when he was 33 1⁄2 years of age.

But on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit of God, the Lord of the harvest, the controller, the organizer, the planner came.

And did you know you could still meet him today?

The point being is he’s still working.

He’s still the Lord of the harvest.

In other words, he is still here.

And you read the book of Acts and you recognize this hand-in-hand relationship, this hand-in-hand fellowship that the Spirit of God was guiding his individuals, telling them where to go, directing them, taking them away from danger, and all kinds of things.

And one of my favorite little phrases is when the disciples say, it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us.

In other words, they were getting the same emails.

They were on page with the Spirit of God, and God was moving and bringing things to their remembrance.

And listen, friend, when you answer this call, I want you to understand there is still a captain on the ground who knows more than me and Pastor Gilmore, and all of the missionary strategists in the world, and you can still meet him.

Because he came on the day of Pentecost, and he hasn’t left yet.

Now, that should encourage every one of us.

We’re not alone.

Now, this means a whole lot more when you’ve been on the mission field than maybe before you’ve been on the mission field.

But the fact that the Spirit of God is alive today, and he knows what he’s doing, and he has a plan that totally involves your life, and he will guide you in that plan as you are completely committed to him, that should be enough to say, listen, let’s go.

What do we have to be afraid of?

He is still here, and he knows what he’s doing.

And that’s what this is all about.

I look at verse number 17 of chapter 10.

We are going to get back to the end of chapter 9, but I want you to see these things.

The Bible says in the 70, returned again with joy.

Now, I want to encourage you that the most joyful life that you will ever live Life yielded to the Lord in going to the foreign mission field, wherever God would have you to go.

These 70 men returned, and there was a joy.

There was a sense of, wow, this is much better than we thought it would ever be.

This is wonderful.

And notice what they said.

They said, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Most Christians will never enjoy the pleasure of coming up face to face with the devil and defeating him.

But Jesus said for those who will go on this mission, who will answer this call, I am going to give you a power that is equal to the greatest enemy that we have, Satan.

Now, probably none of you here are going to ever play Shaquille O’Neal one-on-one in basketball, and you would probably lose if you did.

or some other basketball player.

Maybe give it 20 years, and you might be able to give Shaq a shot at it, but he’s getting kind of old now.

But LeBron James, that’s probably more up-to-date.

I’ve been on the mission field for a while, so I’m kind of behind the times here.

But you understand, you’re not going to face these things, but, friend, listen, those who answer the call of God to serve Him on the mission field and to preach the gospel, God is going to empower you with a power that is the measure equal to the greatest enemy on planet Earth, Satan.

and you will win.

They said, these disciples were amazed.

They said, man, the devils are subject to us in your name, Lord.

And they said, that’s not all.

I beheld Satan fall into the canvas.

I beheld Satan falling as lightning to the ground.

Verse 19, behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Now, Jesus is talking from an eternal paradigm when he says this.

You remember that Peter heard these words and tradition tells us that Peter watched his own wife crucified before his own eyes.

And you start imagining the reality of that.

I would assume that hurt.

Peter himself was crucified upside down.

They drove nails into his body.

The Bible says that nothing shall by any means hurt you.

John was boiled in oil.

We could go on and on.

This is from an eternal paradigm.

This is from an eternal perspective that helps you and I to get out of the humanistic, this earth only kind of way of thinking and to say, you know, in the eternal perspective of things, can anything really hurt you?

Isn’t that great?

That’s called fearless living.

Nothing can hurt you.

Your eternal reward, your purpose for God, what God has for you to do in his millennial kingdom.

That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it?

It’s not about this small earthly life.

It’s not about the suffering that we face.

Apparently, in God’s economy of things, in God’s thinking about things, the crucifixion of Peter wasn’t even enough to be mentioned as something that might hurt him.

This calling must be amazing.

Verse 21, it says, In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit.

Isn’t that a neat phrasing, a neat little phrase there?

I don’t know that you find it anywhere else in the New Testament.

They made Jesus happy.

I’m putting it into layman’s terms.

In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit.

I don’t know that there really should there be anything else that we need to motivate us to answer this call than that phrase.

When God’s people answer the call, it makes Jesus happy.

Because this is why he died.

And then we won’t go into reading the next verses, but the Lord basically says that the things that I’ve allowed you to understand, I have this great man, great king that tried to understand this and couldn’t understand this.

And I’ve revealed the Father to you in a very special, unique way.

And I believe this is true.

There’s a fellowship to those who answer the call, that God brings them into intimate knowledge with Him, and there’s things you understand that other people don’t understand.

And that’s just a blessing, isn’t it?

Well, what could keep you and me from answering that call and serving God?

Well, I want to spend the final moments that I have here talking about that very thing.

I believe there are three cages that we could get trapped in that will prevent us from doing this.

And they’re very real.

They’re all mentioned at the very end of chapter 9.

As you know, Jesus recruited 70 others in chapter 10, verse 1.

But this is after there were three individuals who maybe represent for us three kinds of problems who did not go.

Now look at verse 57.

And it came to pass, this is, I’m sorry, Luke chapter 9, verse 57.

And it came to pass that as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.

Wow, that is a great thing to say, isn’t it?

Now, we would encourage everybody here to say that.

It just sounds like a wonderful commitment.

He says, Lord, I’m telling you, there are no restrictions.

There are no limitations.

I will go wherever following you takes me.

Not a bad thing to pray.

It would be wonderful to have some here today who pray that same thing.

Anywhere, God, wherever you want me to go.

Now, he didn’t know where Jesus was going.

Verse 51 tells us where he was going.

It says, it came to pass when the time was come that he should be received up.

He steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem.

So Jesus was heading for the cross.

And this man didn’t know that, didn’t understand that.

So he claims, wherever.

Listen to the response of the Lord in verse 58.

And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.

Now if you’re taking notes, here’s our first cage.

It is the cage of personal security.

The cage of personal security.

This is a strange response, isn’t it?

the man says Lord I’m willing to go with you wherever and Jesus rather than saying hey great jump on in with these other 70 that’s going to be really good he says foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but me I’m the son of God I don’t even have a place to lay my head doesn’t seem like a very good advertisement for this campaign almost seems kind of discouraging

And it is.

It’s very clear that this man did not go.

And Jesus compared this man to foxes and birds.

Now, a fox is a member of the wild dog family, but it has a uniqueness.

Unlike all the others, the wolves, hyenas, jackals, and so forth, who are transient, a fox lives in one set place.

And foxes are very difficult to hunt because they have all kinds of entries and exit points that no one knows about.

And they’re instinctively skilled at running and hiding from danger.

They just know how to do it.

And just when you think you got that fox cornered, it will outfox you.

Okay, you’ve heard that before.

That’s the whole point.

They’re just slippery creatures.

They will outfox you.

And then a bird has what is called a nesting instinct.

And we’ll talk a little bit more about that.

But the idea is that that’s home and that’s a place of safety.

And what the Lord was saying to this man is that somehow over years of time, you have cultivated instincts that will make it impossible for you to follow me.

That is, you have cultivated an instinct for safety, for security.

And yeah, I know what you’re saying.

I’ll follow you wherever you are going.

But I know that in your heart, something has taken place that will never make that possible for you.

Yeah, you may want to serve me.

And I think it’s clear that he did.

And he made a wonderful commitment to the Lord.

But there was something that had taken place in his life that when the cards were laid on the table, He would not be going.

Now, I don’t have to give anybody the statistics here about how many out of every 100 missionaries who are called and answer the call, this many answer the call.

And out of that many, these many go on deputation and make it through deputation.

And out of that many, those that actually make it through deputation go on the field.

And out of that many who go on the field last longer than two years.

You understand, you’ve all heard those statistics.

It’s very small.

And those are the individuals who would fit into this first category who may want to serve the Lord, But over time, they have developed, they have cultivated instincts that they know how to run from danger.

That’s their very nature.

They know how to get away from something that’s not safe.

You know, I hope with all the negative things you guys hear about Generation Z, and, you know, evangelists always like to use Generation Z and the millennials, you know, and they always go through all those things and, you know, make you guys feel terrible.

I hope that you guys will surprise people.

that the least expected generation of people who have been inundated with this security and this comfort and surrounded themselves with protection will be the ones who shock everybody and go and do it.

Praise God.

Amen.

And get out of the nest and abandon the holes and to say, I’m going to follow Jesus.

I am not living the rest of my life in this cage.

Amen.

If you’re going to follow the Lord, You will have to escape.

And friend, don’t just think this is fancy preaching.

The more you think about it, you will recognize this is an incredibly true thing.

There’s many benefits that you and I have in our families and the protection.

And all that’s good.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

But it can create a nesting instinct.

You know those eagles, those mother eagles, when they’re giving birth to their young, they go up to the cliffs and the mountains.

I was just in the Rocky Mountain National Park and bald eagles.

And they just pick a perfect spot on the side of a cliff and they make this nest they have.

They’re young.

And, you know, these birds aren’t born with the instinct of flight.

The mother has to make sure that happens.

And those birds, that nest is warm.

It’s safe.

There’s a big dangerous world out there.

And every day those little birds wake up and there’s Mama with the food.

Mama, good morning.

You know, it’s a happy day.

One day, they look up at Mama, and she looks back at him, and it’s not the same look.

Those eagles have this really intimidating look.

Have you ever noticed that?

It looks like they’re, like, angry all the time.

Like Donald Trump, you know.

It’s like, what are they angry about?

I don’t know, but Mama, is everything okay?

Now, that Mama comes to a place where she understands this is a crisis.

This is a crisis.

If I don’t do something, these eaglets will die in this nest.

And you know what she does.

Now, I know there’s a fuzzy line between facts and legend, but let’s try not to trip too far over it at this point.

That mother eagle will take those powerful talons and start ripping that nest to pieces.

And those little birds, Mama, what are you doing to me?

This is the worst thing that could ever happen to me.

Oh, no, it’s not.

Just give it a few minutes.

It’s about to get really bad.

Mama starts walking toward that little eaglet.

Mama.

Mama.

And whoo.

Mama.

He’s just off the cliff, right?

And the point is that instinct of flight has to be driven into that eagle in a crisis situation where the life of the eagle will be ruined.

We have to be so careful of this that we don’t just take all these wonderful things we have and we’re just building our little nest, aren’t we?

All of our friends and all the warm and wonderful things they say about me and all the attention I get from my parents and the training and the music and the Bible college.

These are all great things unless you lose the instinct of flight.

Now we’re in trouble.

I can’t help but think about Betty Olson when I think about this.

Betty Olson grew up as a missionary kid in Ivory Coast in West Africa.

And when she was just a young girl, about eight years of age, she was sent 500 miles from her parents to a missionary school.

And it was a hard and a breaking time, as you could imagine, for an eight-year-old girl to be separated for eight months out of every year from her mother and her father, whom she loved very dearly.

When she was 14, they sent her off to a missionary kid’s school in Florida.

Now she was on a different continent.

It was very uncomfortable, very stressful and strainful.

These are real things.

You live through them and you understand.

Well, this is real stuff.

When she was 16, her mother died.

Suddenly, on the mission field, she’s there.

And she had a life of discomfort and lack of security.

Can you only imagine, right?

And she became a nurse in Chicago.

She was doing very well, had a very comfortable job.

And then God called her to go to Vietnam.

And she answered the call.

And this was during the Vietnam War.

Boy, almost like God prepared her for discomfort, huh?

Out of the nest.

You know, until you and I get out of the nest, we never experience the power of God.

That’s why this can become so dangerous.

That sounds crazy, I know.

This is the safest place you can be on planet Earth.

This, forgive me, this is one of the easiest places you could be on planet Earth.

And God doesn’t want you and me to cultivate this instinct, this ability to run from danger.

This ability to nest myself and protect myself, and you’ll develop the same type of thinking for your own children, and you’ll do the same thing to them, and they’ll do the same thing to their children.

She was captured, Betty Olson was captured by the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War.

And en route to captivity, she died.

Gladys Elward was just in church and she overheard somebody speaking about a missionary lady, Jeannie Lawson, in China.

And she’d been left alone and nobody was there to help.

And so Gladys Elward went home to her brother and she said, you ought to go to China, and he just kept hammering on him.

And one day as he was leaving the kitchen and the swinging door, as he left, he grabbed the door and he said, if you’re so burdened about those people, why don’t you go yourself?

And then let the door go.

Those words penetrated her.

She didn’t get some Macedonian vision, as in somebody appearing to her in a dream.

She was just listening to the speaker talk about the need for missions.

And there’s a lady over here who needs help.

And that’s the closest thing to a Macedonian call that we need.

She went to China Inland Mission, and she tried to get on the team, and they said, you have poor health.

You’re not very smart.

You’ll never learn the Chinese language.

We don’t think that you can do it.

You’re single.

You have no money.

It’s just not a good idea.

Gladys Elward began saving her own money.

She began working, cleaning, and so forth.

And she would stop down.

The cheapest way to get from where she was, I think in England, to China was by railroad, which is not a very good way to go, but it’s a very cheap way.

And she made installments on a one-way ticket.

Think about that.

That’s really hard for us.

We can kind of romanticize that into some kind of novel form because it doesn’t fit much with the millennial Generation Z thinking.

A one-way ticket.

Unmarried, no money, no ability.

Her last payment was made by selling, she had a good pair of leather shoes, She sold her shoes and went to the equivalent of Goodwill, and they had a big basket of shoes, random shoes, and all she could find in her size was two left-footed shoes.

Gladys Howard went to China with two left-footed shoes.

On this Siberian railroad, it was stopped.

The guy said, we can’t go any farther.

There’s this war up ahead.

You’re going to have to go walk back to the next town.

She went back and she was arrested by Russian soldiers.

They thought she was a machinist.

They misread or misunderstood the idea of a missionary on her identification card.

They put her under house arrest.

They said, we got work for you.

A lady appeared to her in the middle of the night and said, you have no idea what’s just happened, but in about a day or two, you will never be heard of again.

They are going to take you to Russia.

You will never be heard of again.

She said, I’ll be back in two hours.

You be ready.

I’m going to get you out of here.

Imagine the excitement of that, you know.

Boy, adrenaline’s flowing.

Two hours later, this lady shows up and they go running.

And somehow the soldiers get wind of it and they’re chasing her.

They’re chasing her through the night.

She starts getting up onto the boat.

The Russian soldier catches up to her and he grabs the back of her coat.

He’s pulling out her coat.

She’s got one hand on the boat.

He’s pulling her like this.

She reaches in.

Some money had been given to her by somebody.

And she offered it as a bribe to this Russian soldier.

and he took the money and she fell into the boat.

She then got up and turned around and there was a Japanese captain looking down at her and said, you are now my prisoner.

It was a great day, huh?

Gladys Aylward was used of God to turn entire villages to Jesus Christ.

Entire villages burned their idols.

She led her Mandarin, the local Mandarin, to the Lord and she became his foot inspector, ideal for the two left shoes she came over on.

She took 100 children on a 30-day trek across the mountains, across the Yellow River, running from the Japanese.

You talk about losing your personal security.

That lady knew what that was about.

You know, it’s interesting to me that I’ve told three stories about 20th century missionaries, and who can tell me what is in common with those three people?

They’re all women.

if you tell missionary stories from the 1900s it’s usually about men if you tell missionary stories in the 20th century it’s usually about women and I think it’s because of what Dr.

Jim

talked about the other day this inbred selfishness of men who want to get married and settle their little home down and get their little nest all pulled around them and it’s all so comfortable and it’s all so secure and they don’t know it but they’re in a cage and until they get out of that cage, they will never know the power of God.

Now look at the second one, verse number 59.

And he said unto another, follow me.

But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

Jesus said unto him, let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

Let me just explain a few things, and then we’ll look at this second cage.

This man said that he wanted to go and bury his father.

Now, I assume that his father has not just died.

I don’t think that the Lord would have had any problem with that.

You remember Elisha requested of Elijah that he could go bury his father who had just died.

And Elijah said, that’s fine.

Go ahead.

What’s that to me?

For sure.

Then you can join me.

I don’t think that’s the case.

I think the idea is that his father is maybe coming to the end of his life, nearing the end of his life.

And the boy is thinking about the money, the inheritance that he is going to get.

And if he leaves now and his dad dies sometime in the future, he might miss out on that.

And when you think about it in that concept, it really makes more sense.

The second cage, if you’re taking notes, is the cage of priority failures.

And look with me at a few words in verse 59.

And he said unto another, follow me.

But he said, Lord, suffer me first.

It is a stop right there.

Me first.

Now, that’s a cage.

And, of course, I know the very theme of this movement of young people is like the antithesis of what this man said.

He had a me first, I do want to serve you, but me first type mentality.

And it says suffer.

That means could you allow for this?

There’s just some things in my mind.

There’s some things that I really like to do.

There’s some enjoyment.

I don’t want to miss out on those things.

And if I just answer this call and go right into the mission field, I would very well miss some of these fun things.

Is it possible that we could do this service thing, but that first we could do this, this me first thing.

I’m telling you, that is what is killing the millennial generation and the generation Z is this me first mentality.

That is why we have so many people in the wing who honestly should already be on the mission field, but they’re not because they haven’t filled up the me first meter yet.

And they are stuck in a cage.

And listen, listen, young person, this is very real.

This could be the very thing that keeps you from fulfilling God’s purpose your life and entering into the bliss of a millennial kingdom where God has prepared a service just for you based on what he asked you to endure in this earthly life.

This is a serious cage.

The me first cage.

And it’s a priority failure.

You say, well, what if this man’s

father had died?

I mean, this is incredibly serious.

This man thought his excuse was justified by the severity of the circumstance.

Sometimes we get it into our mind that something is so important that we allow it to keep us from serving the Lord.

And when we do that, we are making a priority failure.

In other words, let’s just make this practical.

What is it that would keep you from today’s answering the call and saying, Lord, I’ll do it?

Knowing what it may cost.

Now, I know a big example of sacrifice.

I’ve been through difficulty.

My wife gave birth to a little baby boy in Uganda, and two weeks old, the baby got malaria.

That’s a very serious thing if you know what malaria is.

We hope the baby’s brain is working half as well as his dad’s is.

The medication you put a baby on like that is very serious.

And that could happen again.

It could happen again.

My daughter’s had malaria.

Almost all of us have had malaria.

And there’s other things that can happen and take place.

But the point is, God comes first.

So don’t think about that.

Stop thinking about what you’re going to have to pay.

Stop romanticizing and fantasizing about the American dream, and it’s about to slip away.

And answer this call.

You’ll never be sorry for doing it.

Now I’m 44, and I’ve only been at this for 22 years, so it’s not that long.

But I’m so glad I made that decision.

I’m so glad I did not live my life in that cage.

And I remember as an 18-year-old young man, when I surrendered my life to the Lord, I said, God, please don’t let me live my life on the dead things of this world.

Jesus said, let the dead bury their dead.

Now, there’s a technical difficulty with that.

Can a physically dead person bury another physically dead person?

We’re close to Halloween.

I don’t know.

Maybe we’ll find out.

In Uganda, sometimes that happens.

Dead people come right up out of the tomb, and they keep putting him back in, and he keeps coming out, and he won’t give it up.

Give up the ghost, I guess.

But you understand.

The point is this.

Look, there are lots of people who could spend their life messing with those dead things, those world things, but I’ve called you to something greater.

Don’t spend your life building the pyramids of Egypt.

Don’t spend your life helping someone’s YouTube account to keep going up in sponsorship, and so they’re making a bunch of bucks because you’re watching all of these different blogs and these different things.

Don’t spend your life building the entertainment industry of America, and the only way that you do that is just by involving yourself in it.

You see that.

And friend, at the end of eternity, that is a priority failure.

The worst one a human being will ever make.

You have been called to something greater.

This is the generation that’s going to surprise everybody.

That no one would have ever expected that these millennials, these generations, these are going to rise up and defy self because that’s the only way this is ever going to happen, friends.

And saying, I am not living the rest of my life in this cage.

Number three.

Verse number 61 says, And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee, but let me first go bid them farewell with you at home at my house.

Now, I have to assume that there is something deeper in the request this man made.

And the response of Jesus to this man gives us insight into what that might be.

Verse 62, it says, Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

This is a terrible illustration.

You might say, well, why are you going to give it?

Because it’s the best one I have for this.

So let’s go for it here.

Here’s a farmer out here.

I know nothing about farming, okay?

So if you are one of those people from Iowa and you live on a farm, please don’t critique me to pieces when this is all said and done.

Maybe this illustration is like 80 years old, okay?

Farmer John gets on his tractor, and, you know, when they plow, they want to plow straight lines.

Am I safe in saying that at least?

Okay, I think so.

So I have heard that they will get their eyes on some focal point, and as long as they keep their eyes on that, it will help them to plow straight lines.

Sounds reasonable enough, and again, it’s just an illustration.

So Farmer John’s driving along, and he’s plowing these straight lines, and suddenly he sees something happen over here, maybe an accident or something that draws his attention, and he looks over, and you always steer in the direction you look.

he looks oh wow that’s that’s amazing oh no oh that’s terrible look at that that’s gonna be really bad oh oh my word oh no that’s terrible look at that line oh no no no you get the point right

if he keeps looking behind him he’s gonna ruin the whole field somebody really liked that illustration thank you i’ll pay you later for making me feel good about myself.

I needed that encouragement.

Jesus said, no man having put his hand in the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.

You know, friend, the devil’s a master at taking your

past and using it to ruin your future.

There are Christians who never get off the blocks because of something that happened in their family, some bitterness, some unresolved issue, some terrible friend in their life, some bad influence in their life, something that just every time they say, man, I want to serve the Lord, man, I want to go forward, it’s like the devil says, remember that?

And they go, yeah, I remember that.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that’s their life.

And then they never feel that freedom that says, you know what, everything’s good.

Everything’s good.

Everything’s good with my parents.

I’m not perfect.

Everything has confessed.

Everything is right.

I don’t have any bitterness.

I don’t have any risky habits.

I don’t have any reoccurring doubts about my salvation.

I’m ready to go.

Now, this guy wasn’t ready, and the Lord told him that.

You got baggage, sir, and you have not dealt with it, and it has become to you a cage.

When my wife and I were first married, and we traveled as college representatives, We went to a house in Arizona, and this lady that lived there, she told us a story about this bird that she had.

It was kind of an interesting story.

It was in a cage in the kitchen hanging from a chain from the ceiling, so there was nothing supporting it underneath.

It was just kind of hanging there in the air.

And she said the bird’s name was Little Bird.

It was small.

It was a bird.

It was Little Bird.

So she said that when the bird was younger, they used to just keep the cage door open all the time, and the bird just had a real good time of just flying around and landing on people’s shoulder and just kind of an entertaining bird.

But when the bird got older, they became concerned because they also had a cat.

They were afraid that little bird would become much smaller if the cat got a hold of the bird.

So she said, from that point on, we just kept the cage shut and we did not let the bird out.

and she said years and years later we decided to go on vacation we put enough food and everything into the bird’s cage and then we left and three days later we came back we opened the kitchen door we turned left to go into the kitchen and somehow some way that very intelligent bird had found a way to get the cage door open now she was thinking the same thing you’re thinking and it was the same thing I was thinking,

where are they going to find that bird?

Or better yet, are they going to find that bird?

And she said, Phil, it’s amazing.

You know, people like to humanize their pets.

And she was kind of doing this a little bit.

She said, the bird was in the very last place we ever thought we’d find that bird.

When we turned the corner, the bird was there perched right on the edge of the cage door and it hadn’t moved.

And she said, you know, she thinks her pet is human.

She says the bird would look up at the chain and think to himself, could I climb that and get to the ceiling?

What would I do once I got up to the ceiling?

I’m not sure.

And the bird looks down at the ground and thinks to itself, oh, that’s a long drop.

and I have tiny little feet.

I looked at his feet and if I jump from here and I hit that ground, that’s going to hurt.

I might break a bone.

And then she said it hit me.

The bird had lost the instinct of flight.

The cage had been shut too long.

And in the passage of time, that bird didn’t realize, I don’t have to climb a chain.

I don’t got to jump to the ground.

I have wings.

I can fly.

The lady said we went over, we shut that cage door, and that bird died in that cage.

And that’s exactly what Satan wants to do to you and me.

Some of you this week find yourself perched on the edge of the cage door.

You say, oh, this will happen again.

We’ll cycle through this again.

Maybe, maybe not.

maybe this is your chance and you’ve been in a cage maybe a cage of personal security maybe a cage of priority failures maybe a cage of past entanglements for a long time and the cage door has swung open there’s a chance for you right now to make a decision Lord I’m not going to die in this cage now it’s comfortable in the cage don’t get me wrong you can have your own way

plan your own life do things the way you want but it is a cage don’t forget that Eric Little the Scotsman who wouldn’t run on Sunday you know the story chariots of fire he ran in the Olympics 1923 something like that Paris Olympics he ran the 400 meters which was not his bread and butter but he changed the very nature of the way that race is run by running it like a sprint.

He didn’t reserve himself at all just from the blocks.

He just took off and won in stunning fashion.

And he became an international hero just like that, legend.

And people said, man, what’s next for Eric Little?

And he said, well, I’ve got to go to the mission field.

I’m going to go to China.

You know, Eric Little was not a powerful preacher.

I’ve heard him before.

I’ve heard his actual vocal recordings.

He was very undertone.

You would not think much of his speaking ability.

And Eric Little surrendered his life to the Lord.

And there on the mission field, there was danger.

Japan was coming in, World War II.

He sent his wife and his children, his daughters to Canada, and he was captured.

And he was in an internment camp to the end of his life.

And when he was on his deathbed, there was a young girl who was supposed to minister to his needs.

And at one point in time, he stirred himself up and he was just very sick.

He was just so close to death.

And he called her, Annie, Annie.

And she came over to where he was.

And she could tell that he’s trying to communicate something to me before he dies.

Annie, it’s, and he just fell back in the bed with just no strength, and she went back over doing what she was doing.

And a few minutes later, once again, he came back up, and he said to this little girl, Annie, it’s surrender.

And he died.

You know what he was doing?

He was telling the secret of his life.

that’s the secret absolute surrender an unsaved man on that compound said this Jesus Christ used to live on this compound but he died yesterday a man whose life was used by God because he refused to live in a cage that’s the appeal that’s all I can do Oh, this is great, isn’t it?

We have been called to authenticate the Messiah to the world.

Let’s do it, baby.