We live in a world of people that want things and want them now. Everyday, technology makes this facility possible by inventing a tool or machine that does something faster, easier, and more seamlessly. The word hybrid is at an all time high where education doesn’t necessarily require traditional classroom sitting, cars do not require gas to move but can be charged as a telephone would be, even church doesn’t need to be seated under one roof to happen.
Laundry can be done in one hour or less, food can be cooked in a few minutes from scratch, groceries can be made with just your card and a click away unlike the traditional hours spent picking the best fresh vegetables and hand cut meat from the butcher. Cars that will soon drive themselves as long as someone is seated in it and giving it a command are underway. Men have gotten more and more elaborate with science and aspire to invent close to God’s creation. Would you blame such a world for needing less and less of God if their lives somewhat permits them not to have to believe in something that is above all?
As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give. “Do not get any gold or silver or copper to take with you in your belts—no bag for the journey or extra shirt or sandals or a staff, for the worker is worth his keep.
When Jesus walked the face of the earth, He came without anything glorious to him that would make a modern man wish to follow Him. The prophet Isaiah puts it well saying there was nothing attractive about Him to cause us to desire Him . The simplicity of Jesus reveals a lot about what God initially intended for His creation-mankind, beast and nature alike.
In a court of criminal law, if a suspect has been found at a crime scene at the perfect time and with enough evidence to incriminate them, the police can easily pin the matter on them and if they have no solid alibi they definitely will serve sentence for the crime whether they have committed it or not.
That instance is called a ‘tunnel vision’ investigation, whereby the concerned authorities stop looking when they have found what they think they are looking for. Many people are behind bars serving sentences they don’t deserve simply because someone did not care to look harder or longer. The same applies to our day to day life. The simpler and easier things are made available to us, the less and less we look for that which costs us waiting time although waiting produces endurance, perseverance and staying power.
Unlike today’s facility, our God is interested in a process that is supposed to bring to completion a certain work of refining in the hearts of men. In our theme scripture, Jesus tells his disciples not to take anything for their journey, to give because they too had been freely given. Who in their right mind would go on a journey without a plan, a suitcase, a schedule of their whereabouts during their stay, and worst of all no money? The instruction of Jesus Christ is often misunderstood because we tend to miss the most important part of the text ‘the worker is worth his keep’. In , Jesus tells his disciples that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.
Other versions highlight the laborers as workers and what He means is that all of us have been called and assigned a lot in the kingdom of God. If by grace I had the chance to receive Christ and become born again, it inherently becomes my responsibility to share my testimony that my neighbor may be caused to believe and receive the same bounty as I have. In a pool of non-believers, or people that have been deceived by the unfortunate falsity also present in the church, there are men who genuinely wish to learn and to believe with authentic faith. Such a man is standing in a vineyard where there is plenty of fruit to harvest.
The harvest is the man willing to hear the message of the Gospel and experience it for themselves,the man willing to taste and see, and if this man does not harden his heart, the kingdom of God is open to them. In , Jesus metaphorically implies that those who have received salvation by grace, should not keep it to themselves but share with their brothers and sisters to save their souls, and he that shares has become a worker in the vineyard of Christ.
And as every worker is paid their wage, or an employee their monthly salary, so is a worker in the vineyard of Christ paid for their labor. The currency of God is not monetary, although He is not limited and rewards as He sees fit. The currency through which these laborers are paid is to have more clarity, more direction, an intimate relationship with God through the Holy Spirit at work within them, the understanding of the mysteries of the Creator of the heavens and earth, the manifestation of God’s power and this my friend has no price.
When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God. The nations you will dispossess listen to those who practice sorcery or divination. But as for you, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do so.
When you have been called the spirit you have received becomes your guide in a world that is so unforgiving with forcing its ways down our throats. The practices of this world are called detestable to God and not because there is nothing good in this world but simply because it is ever detaching itself from its Maker. Sorcery and divination are not the magic stunts sold to us through Disney but the gangrene that has grown of motivational speaking, constant need of outward encouragement and feeble men unable to hold their thoughts captive to make them obey Christ. As a laborer, it becomes your responsibility to love as you have been loved, to give because you have been given freely and I am not talking about money but to share your testimony which was built by grace alone. If you sit in a room of non-believers and there is nothing distinctive about you that causes them to wonder why you are different, then you have failed on your responsibility as a worker in Jesus’s vineyard.
You are no different than a man who shows up daily to work but leaves without having accomplished anything in their day. To reach the place of forgiving as you have been forgiven, loving as you have been loved and giving as you have been given cannot occur to a man that is not consecrated. You will be disappointed many times you will teach and share and some will completely misunderstand you or reject you you will carry the burden from the knowledge and divine understanding given to you but Jesus says take heart, for I have conquered the world . The call is not easy, and God can never ask of us something He has not already done or thinks we are unable to bear and that is a promise.
Whatever town or village you enter, search there for some worthy person and stay at their house until you leave. As you enter the home, give it your greeting. If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet. Truly I tell you, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
When you are rejected, it is in fact God himself that is rejected. The peace which has settled in your heart is a gift you can also give through sharing your testimony as a gift of your salvation freely given. This peace is given to the person that receives the testimony of Jesus, which in itself is the spirit of prophecy and when a man refuses that peace, it returns to you the laborer in double measure. It is a promise.
If you have never given your life to Jesus Christ, and you feel that this is the perfect time, pray this prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I thank you because you died for my sins and you were raised for my glory. Today, I receive you as my Lord and Savior. I am born again. Amen.”
