"The Harvest Is Plentiful, But the Workers Are Few” | Luke 10:1–20

Show Notes

Episode 737: 
In this episode, we dive into the intriguing concept of what it would be like if Jesus had his own podcast, focusing on some of his most famous sayings. Our discussion centers around a powerful passage from Luke 10, where Jesus sends out 72 disciples to spread his message. He instructs them to pray for more workers in the harvest, emphasizing the urgency and importance of spreading the Gospel. We reflect on the significance of teamwork in ministry, as Jesus sends the disciples out in pairs, highlighting the safety and encouragement that comes from working together.

What is The Bible Guys?

Whether you’ve been following Jesus for years or you’re just starting to ask questions, there’s a seat for you here.

Join Jeff and Chris for honest conversations about Scripture, faith, and the everyday stuff we all navigate. With humor, personal stories, and plenty of back-and-forth, The Bible Guys explore what the Bible says and how it connects to your life.

Subscribe, bring your questions, and get to know the Bible one conversation at a time. Head over to TheBibleGuys.com for more information!

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Buckle up, folks, Wow, buckle up. I'm feeling it today. Okay, it's gonna be a good one. Jeff is raring to go. Yesterday you got rouled up? Yes man, oh man. Yeah. So we're we're in the middle of a series, ladies and gentlemen. Uh, what if Jesus had a podcast, he would be talking about, most likely some of his most famous sayings. Yeah, that's right. We're just taking his most famous sayings and pretending like it's his podcast. That's right, that's right. So that's what we're doing. And before we get into that, we have a segment that Desiree has pieced together that's actually something I don't think we've ever done. Yeah, so that today is it's a dad joke showdown, but we're putting a little twist on it. So instead of using preapproved, professionally awful dad jokes that Desiree usually gives us what. She wanted us to do, she asked us to She gives us great ones. Sometimes she told them. To each of us to ask chat GPT for the worst dead jokes that could possibly generate. And then find the absolute worst one. So essentially, what she's doing is she's outsourcing the. Cringe, outsourcing the cringe. There you go, all right, here we go. It's a race to the bottom right here? Are you ready? There? It is? Do it all right? Why can't you give Elsa a balloon? I don't know, because she'll let it go. Let it go. Yeah, it's terrible, and it's terrible. It's really bad. Okay, why did the tomato turn red? Why because it's the salad dressing. Oh, that's actually decent. That's a good one. I'm giving you the worst ones in me too. Okay, did you hear about the restaurant on the moon? No great food, no atmosphere. That's a good one. Okay. What do you call a fish wearing a bow tie? What sophisticated? That's a rough one. I used to play piano by ear, but now I use my hand. I got that one too, did you? Yes? Wow, I used to play the piano by ear, but now I use my hands like a normal person. That's what I said. Yeah, I get another one. That's really GPT is doubling up well, hey, that's okay, okay, all right. Why don't skeletons fight each other? I've heard this one before. Oh they have no guts. I didn't have the guts. Yeah, you've heard this one too before. Why did the golfer bring two pairs of pants? I don't know, because you get a hole in one? Okay, okay, okay. I told my wife she was drawing her eyebrows too high. She looks surprised. That's the one that was you got one? I was going to read you this. Oh wow, yeah, it sent that way. Now this one I actually liked. Okay, Yes, what's orange and sounds like a parrot? I don't know a carrot? Okay, stupid? Okay? Why didn't I know that one? How do you organize a space party your planet? Yeah? Was that on yours? Too? Yes? Oh wow, so so chet GPT doubled up? Yes? Okay, How about this one? I only know twenty five letters of the alphabet. I don't know why. That's a good one. That's really good act. Why don't eggs tell jokes? Why? Because they'd crack each other up and scramble the punchline. That's a rough, that's rough. That is rough. Okay, this is a bad one. Okay. Why did the math book look sad? I don't know. It had too many problems. If they made a movie that you'd cry at it would I yeah, animated half. Books, so many problems, Billy, there you go. Uh what did the oceans say to the beach? I don't know nothing. It just waved. Oh wow, what do you call what do you call a cheese that isn't yours? Not to cheese? My last one is why did the scarecrow win an award? Why? Because he was outstanding in his field? Wow? That's a rough Okay, Well I have one more. I have one more. Did you hear about the guy who invented life savers? He made a mint? So there you go. That's all tan of mine. Hey, I actually have my own that my daughter told me that that I've not used on the air before. I actually liked this one. Okay. Did you hear about the weasel who walked into a bar? A weasel walks into a bar and the bartender says, wow, we don't get many weasels in here. What would you like to drink? Pop? Goes the weasel. No, it's great, that's terrible. Okay, well if you groaned, we did our job. Yeah, that was that was what I think. That was her goal today was just was to create as many like just please stop kind. Of groans right as possible. And so, hey, you're welcome everybody. But those were really really bad dad jokes. So and by the way, so I need to work at it. Some dad jokes are great. Yeah, I still like my Harry Potter one. Yeah, that was a good one. Yep, we need to work at this more. You know what else needs more workers? Oh really, wow, that's so good. Yeah, Jesus said he needs more workers in the field because the harvest is ready. They're just enough workers. You know. That's a great quote. Yeah, yeah, Jesus said it, and today we're gonna talk about it. I'm a big fan, big fan, So so we're doing this podcast as if Jesus were taking famous comments he made and say, hey, that's the theme for his podcast for the day. And so here in Luke, chapter ten, I was. Wondering why you said, you know, we get to work on this more. I'm like, what. That's so trying to get there, I can think. So, if you're a newer listener, we're always trying to think of the worst possible transitions from the goofy segment into the things. So in Luke chapter ten, we'll just read one through ten. I believe one through twenty. Ooh, yep, good. So it says the Lord now chose seventy two other disciples. Hey, remember yesterday we talked about twelve, and then there were one hundred and twenty. Now there's seventy two. So the Lord chose them. Yep, Lord chose seventy two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places that he planned to visit. These were his instructions to them. The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest, and ask him to send more workers into his field. Now go and remember that I am sending you out as lambs among wolves. Don't take any money with you, or a traveler's bag, nor an extra pair of sandals, and don't stop to greet anyone on the road. Whenever you enter someone's home, first say may God's peace be on this house. If those who live there are peaceful, the blessing will stand. If they are not the blessing will return to you. Don't move around from home to home. Stay in one place, eating and drinking what they provide. Don't hesitate to accept hospitality, because those who work. Deserve their pay. If you enter a town and it welcomes you, eat whatever is set before you, heal the sick, and tell them the Kingdom of God is near near you now. But if a town refuses to welcome you, go out into its streets and say, we wipe even the dust of your town from our feet, to show that we have abandoned you to your fate. And know this the Kingdom of God is near. I assure you, even wicked Sodom would be better off than such a town on Judgment Day. What sorrow awaits you, Corsine and bethseta for if the miracles I did in you had been done in the wicked Tire and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. Yes, Tire and Sidon will be better off on Judgment Day than you. And you people of Capernaum. Will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead. Wow. Then he said to the disciples, anyone who accepts your message is also accepting me, And anyone who rejects you is rejecting me. And anyone who rejects me is rejecting God who sent me. When the seventy two disciples return, they joyfully reported him. Lord. Even the demons obey us when we use your name. Yes, he told them, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning. Look, I've given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk them on snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. But don't rejoice because evil spirits obey. You. Rejoice because your names are registered in heaven. There you go, man, that is. Such an obscure and overlooked verse. Don't rejoice because evil spirits obey, you, rejoice because your names are registered in heaven. In other words, like as mighty as God is in our lives and all the great miracles that He does in us and through us, don't take pride in the fact that God uses you for great things. Right, You don't have pride in that right. Right, It's just like it's a gentle reminder that you know, tells us like, for instance, a little weird to reflect on this, but in this context, everybody knows our spirit. So we just had a baptism day on a Sunday. Morning, and it was so much fun. We experienced something that very few people on this earth get to experience. Right, So our church baptized two hundred and what was it, fifty. Four, two hundred and fifty four people, two hundred and fifty four people. That was our Sterling Heights campus. The other two campuses have baptisms coming up in a couple of weeks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So so our one campus baptized two fifty four people. And excuse me, And so what is the average church they convert they experience brand new Christians baptism? What was the average church baptized a year? Oh boy, I saw that stat rate before one of our staff meetings here recently, because I looked it up again. They the average church averages one point five new believers that are not already at tenders of the church, meaning most churches baptized the children of people who attend the church. Right, and then the average church baptizes less than two non. Believers a year, right, who just you know, walking in from. All from outside? Right, and so, so all that to say, and they don't baptize non believers. They're baptized people who gave the life to crisis result of the ministry. Now they baptized them. Yeah, they were non believers right from outside. Yeah. So anyway, all that to say this, yeah. I think it's the average church baptizes less than five people a year, but I don't remember what it is. I'll look it up, let me ask. So all that to say, like you and I, because of our you know, knowledge, because you measure everything, sure, right, we're able to understand that. Wow, what a great privilege. Right, So a verse like this reminds us, Hey, don't rejoice because God does great things. Right, there's no there's no there's no pride. I want you to take in that, right, That's how I read that. That's right, that's right. And what do you say you didn't do it? Hey? You want to you want to get excited over something, Get excited over the fact that guess what your name is registered in heaven? Like there's the miracle, right, right, that's the miracle. You could brag on That's the miracle you can find pride in. That's the miracle you should brag about, not the other things that God uses you for and get, you know, let you experience. That's the way that I take that because that is translatable in my you know, in my life. Because after all, think about it, he's talking to the seventy two who are going out and doing incredible things. Hey, you're gonna be able to walk up on snakes and you're gonna be impenetrable, right right, nobody's gonna harm you because I'm sending you out as these incredible you know, people on mission who are gonna go from town to town and you're gonna do incredible things. You're gonna heal people, You're gonna heal the sick. Right, You're gonna do all these great things. But the only thing you should really take pride in is the fact that God has saved your soul. They were like, Jesus Man, we were casting out demons in your name. This is awesome, and he just goes, yeah, I saw Satan fall from heaven. Just side note. Yeah right, it wasn't you, But it was the power of my name that did it. That's what he's saying there, which is is so funny, But we get excited about those things. Sometimes you ever get around people who get like super spooky, it's all they want to talk about, is like demons and miracles and stuff. All the time. Right, And this is what Jesus is saying, is, hey, there's more important things than that this idea. Rejoice that your name is registered in heaven. I wonder if our listeners knew that there are multiple times in the Bible that talks about this book where our names are registered. The Lamb's Book of Life is what it's called, and it says those whose names were found in the Book of Life entered into heaven, and those whose name was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into outer darkness. Right yeah, and it talks about that second death is what it's talking about, talking about eternity without Christ and hell. So the Lamb's Book of Life, that's really it is. If your name is in it, you're on your way. If your name's not in it, you're not. And that's what he's he's making a big deal about. So do you think that when somebody trusts crist that's when their name goes in. Yes, yeah, me too, me too. Yeah. So anyways, I just looked it up, by the way, a minute ago. It says that large churches average thirty eight baptisms per year, medium churches average twenty two, small churches average eleven, and very small churches average four baptisms. Now, the average church in America is only sixty nine people. And then it says thousands of churches see no baptisms in a year. Right, so it looks like the average on average, larger churches baptized more people obviously just because they have more people. But the small churches typically it's about four is what the average church in America. And we have the potential to see probably upwards of maybe what six or seven hundred. Yeah, I think we will baptize over six hundred this year for sure. Yeah, we're heading in that direction. But which is wonderful. Yeah. So you see God do something special and then you go, oh, look what we did, and Jesus, hey, Jesus, we cast our demons the name. Yeah, I saw Satan fall from heaven. Yeah. So he just has a great way of putting in perspective. But you cast out a demon out of some drunkard in town. I was there when we cast Satan out of Heaven. Yeah yeah, and I did it. I did it. Yeah right. That's just such an amazing, amazing turn on these guys. It's cool, but one interesting. Let's go back to the beginning of it. I think it's really great. Cho when you said, before we get away from this thought, you said, have you ever been around somebody who's like super spooky? Oh? Yeah, and they all they want to do is talk about spooky things. I remember one time when I was in youth ministry, I set up a sound system in the fellowship Paul, and we had this big event, and it had a bad cable, right, it had a bad cable, and sometimes it would work and sometimes it wouldn't. And I said, I said, man, we need to pray this thing works. And so the church secretary or whatever the you know, administrative assistant comes over and she puts her hand on the soundboard and she goes, I pray the sound demons come out of this board, and the demons would be cast out of this soundboard. I'm like, okay, I'm pretty sure that it's just a bad cable, But okay, if that's the way you want to if that's the way you want to pray. Yeah, yep, anyway, I just if the devil's gonna get into anything, he'll get into the sound, saystem I'll tell you that, or he'll pinch a baby in the service, right right, those are those are the two things he loves to do. Anyways, So Jesus is sending these seventy two out. That's sometimes a surprise to people that didn't realize. They thought it was just twelve disciples. The twelve were like his inner circle, and then his inner inner circle was Peter, James and John. Right, so but he has he chooses these other seventy two, and I love it. He sends them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. So these teams were Hey, by the way, Jesus is coming. Do you ever wonder why the crowds are so big? Jesus planned for big crowds, right, that's what's happening. Right. So every once in a while, you know, you and I will get criticized for working hard to figure out how to capture people's attention, how to draw a crowd, all these things. It's not a mystery. While why Jesus crowds are so big. One he was taking sack lunches and feeding thousands of people at a pop, right, and he was raising dead people back to life. Those two things will draw crowd. That'll draw crowd. But then if you want to maximize that and don't want to lose out on the momentum, you go recruit seventy two of your other disciples and say, hey, I'm going to go to these ten towns. Go and tell him I'm coming. That's what he did. And then did you hear about that guy that fed everybody with a sack lunch? Yeah, you hear about that guy that raised the people from the dead. Yeah, he's coming here. And then do miracles in his name, yes, and make sure that he gets the credit. That's right in Jesus name, right right. And so so this is why the crowds kept getting bigger and bigger. Is Jesus planned to have bigger crowds. Now, it was exhausting. We saw this a couple different times. We'd have to leave the crowd. He'd go out and get on a boat or whatever. You know, and leave. But he was sending the subject and I think a lot of people have never thought about how intentional Jesus was about getting the good news to as men people as possible in that short little window of time that he was doing ministry. He was so intentional that he knew whether or not it was the time, right, he says, all, my time is not yet come. Sometimes he would reveal himself as the Messiah and say, well, don't tell anybody just yet, you know, don't, don't don't go to the highways and the hedges, you know, kind of thing. And then and then when he wanted it to happen, then it happened. So so all that to say, think about how absolutely incredible his intentionality was, right right, I mean his first miracle. Remember what he told his mother it's not my time yet, yeah, right, So he he knew exactly when he wanted his message to go out, yes, which is yeah, which is great. So then he sends him out two by two, which I love. I love the fact that he's not saying, go do this alone. God, God always wants us to be working in teams. The importance of teams. I think there's a real danger when we become kind of lone ranger leaders or lone ranger Christians, we're out there just doing ourselves. We kind of become our own heroes a little bit. We think that we start believing our own press, we start doing those things. But when you know there's something about working together, we keep each other humble. And I think that. God desires a plurality of leadership. You read it through the book, through the writings of Paul. He's always writing to the elders plural at the different churches, and there's something about this. So even in this when they're going out, they go out in pairs to all the towns and places. There's also some safety in that. You know, whenever the executive leaders at Heritage Church travel anywhere, we always make sure that we're going in groups. Right, a couple of people at the time, and it's way more expensive. I'm getting ready, I have to shoot over for a quick meeting in India, and you know that by itself's not quick. It takes two days just to get there. But I'm grabbing somebody else and they're going with me. And it's because we've had times when we're in our hotel room and some lady comes up and knocks on the door. You never know what's going to happen right, right, And so for the sake of our own testimony, you know, having Chad in the room or me being in the room, when somebody tries to pull something, we're able to one encourage each other to do the right thing too, we're able to vouch for the other that hey, yeah, no he slammed the door. He didn't. You know, do these things. It's safer, it's better. And then I'm just gonna be honest, it's way more fun. So I had a long layover. I was traveling somewhere and Chad and I had a long layover. He was with me, my executive pastor, and we had like an eight hour layover in Paris. And so it was the morning when we landed, it was like eight in the morning. So we leave the airport, we go downtown, we run around, we get some pictures, we get some great food, go the stuff, we get on the thing. We come back laugh, have all this fun to get things. About three months later, I fly through Paris again and I had a nine hour layover and I just stayed in the airport because I was by myself. I was meeting people. They were picking me up in the country. I was going to So I was still traveling in a group, but I just wasn't in that moment on that flight, I was by myself. I was in one of the great cities of the world, and I didn't leave the airport. I just stayed in the airport. It's not fun to do, right, right, right, Yeah, And so it's there's all these things. There's a lot of safety, there's a lot of encouragement. One one person's discouraged. There have been times when I got sick, or when Chad got sick, or you got sick or somebody, and we were able to help each other. But then it's just way more fun to do it. And that's how Jesus sent them out on this mission. Yeah, I agree. And you know, we went to the Dominican Republic. I was just there last week. Yeah, yeah, and working with the Transformed. One, working with Transform one and which is a ministry that does. What Yeah, we're working with Transform one, which rescues underage girls from sex trafficking. Yeah. And as you can imagine, there's you have to be with somebody. There, yes, right, Yeah, you can't be in. That type of ministry by yourself, right, And so I'm with the founder, Jeff Jones, and I'm with my son. So Steven went with us this time. And we were walking up. And down and Stephen is my son, Yeah, is six, and so we want to take away with you. That's correct. So he's a man, he's he's a man. And we were walking up and down the streets of a red light district and uh, you know it's kind of nervous, right, I mean, you know, it's like it's you know, there's no necessarily like no danger or anything. But but you know, when when you're around that environment, it's just. So dark into an evil place. Yeah, an evil place. It's just really dark. It feels heavy and it and it's just you know, it's just kind of you know, yucky or whatever. And uh but uh but but you know, but basically, uh, Jeff Jones, who's the founder of Transferring One, had spent the entire dinner, like two hours of us just sitting there just coaching Steven how to behave, what to say, what not to say, where to look, what not we're not to look, how to walk, you know, what to do? Right, I mean it was just so unbelievably intentional coaching and I remember thinking to myself, man, I am I am leap years away from knowing half of that, right, Like I could never ever survive right without that. All that to say, what you're saying is, you know, going out two by two, that's the way to do it, right. So this is a great model for ministry, is what we're saying. Plan ahead, figure out how to maximize the momentum. Yeah, go in pairs and in teams, all those things. And then he says, you know, I'm you need to pray that God sends more workers. The harvest is ready. The problem is if you don't have enough people to be able to harvest it all, a lot of us going to get wasted. That's the issue. So the harvest is ready, you need to be praying, and we pray all the time. God send us more workers, Send us more people so that we can go out in the field and reach more people. For you. His desire is a greater harvest, not a lesser harvest. His desire isn't just go get what you can get. He says, go get what you can get. Go in a team, get as much as the two of you can get, and then pray that God sends a whole bunch more of you because we need more. Right. So God's not just satisfied with oh, well, I did the best I could. God says, let's find every way to get as many as we can. It's the heartbeat of my life. I know it is yours as well. And so then he says, I feel like I'm sending you like lambs among the wolves. Right. You guys are so innocent, you just don't even know what's about to happen. Because wolves eat lambs. Lambs don't eat wolves, right, so it's going to be difficult. There's going to be some difficulty there. So then he gives them some instructions. It saysn't about the money, it's not about what all you have or how you're traveling with style. And then he says, instead, go find a person of peace. Ye. And it's amazing to me how often we've been, you know, we'll wade into a ministry opportunity where we wo feel like God's asking us to go to a place we don't know anybody, We're not exactly sure. I remember the first time we went into Egypt and we were trying to figure out how to do some stuff in an area that wasn't going to be super excited about Jesus' stuff. And on the plane, this young guy and this young girl come up and they go, are. You guys Christians? Like yeah, he says, my dad's a pastor. Turns out probably the only two Christians on the whole plane is this brother and sister, and they wind up bringing us to this church. We wind up meeting the dad. The dad opened up a few doors. It was amazing. You find this man a piece first, And that's what Jesus is saying. You find that man of piece, somebody who's local who can open the door for you rather than just trying to bust through and all that kind of stuff. So that's what he tells them to do. I think it's really a cool, cool way you find that man of piece. Yeah, I agree. And then it's a shake the dust off if they reject, if they reject, And so in that day that was actually it makes a lot of sense. Right, they had sandals, their feet were always dusty, which is why they did foot washing. Right, they had all those customs, and so shaking off the dust symbolically is like saying like, hey, like, there's no excuse here. You know, Jesus was in person doing miracles, and Jesus himself said, had these other wicked cities seen these types of miracles? You guys are spoiled and don't even know it, right, right, you've seen all these miracles, and yet you reject me. And so it sounds harsh what he's saying, right, like, is there going to be blessing for you? Know? There's not. You know, you had Jesus Christ himself, God himself in the flesh doing miracles, preaching the good news, and you rejected him like that's pretty. And then understand, when somebody rejects you, they're not rejecting your right when they reject your message and not rejecting you. Jesus literally said, anyone who accepts your message is accepting me, and anyone who rejects you is rejecting me. Which is why sometimes I hear you say when you when you talk about God's word, and it's a hard truth. You go, I didn't write it. I didn't write it exactly. I didn't write it. I'm just telling you, right, that's great, it's fantastic. Well go share the gospel with your friends. That's it. Take somebody with you, and then understand if they reject it, they're not rejecting you as a person, They're rejecting the message of Jesus. Yeah. So this is a great passage that says, hey, God needs his workers, you know, pray that God would say people out and and it's dangerous, but find people of peace, find a ministry partner, and go out and enjoy God's bless And if. You're not yet on the team helping make new disciples and reaching new people, we need you on the team. Jesus said, we're supposed to be praying that you'd help us out. Come on help us. That's great. Yeah all right, well, hey, that's a great place to end and hopefully we'll see you tomorrow on the Bible guys,