This evening I have chosen several passages to read this evening, short passages, one from Matthew and several portions from the Acts. I would just recommend that you just listen along. You can follow along if you like. I will announce each passage as I go there. Matthew chapter 9, verses 35 through 38 to start, and then Acts chapter 1. Jesus went through all of the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When He saw the crowds, He had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Jump all the way to Acts 1, verses 7 and 8. And this is about 40 days after Jesus' resurrection and just probably moments before he ascended into heaven. And this is what happens. Acts 1, verses 7 and 8. He said to them, It is not for you, and he's saying this to probably his closest disciples, it's not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. Acts chapter 2, verses 41 and verse 47. Those who accepted His messages, and this is the message of the Apostle Peter right after the Pentecost, those who accepted His message were baptized and about 3,000 were added to their number that day. Verse 47, Fellowship of the Believers. And it says, verse 47, Praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people, and the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Wonderful. Acts 6, verse 7, just showing the incredible growth of the early church. So the Word of God spread. The Word of God spread, not the Word of the Apostles. The word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. Acts chapter 19, verses 17 through 20. And this is Paul in Ephesus. And what happened was others were trying to rid people of evil spirits and demons and the evil spirit or the man who was possessed by evil spirits actually turned against those who were trying to, I guess, abuse the power of God. And then this is what happens. Verse 17, When this became known, when those who were, they became beaten up by the man who was possessed. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear. And the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to 50,000 drachmas. In this way, the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. May God add His blessing to His word read this evening. if you are a clear underdog where your opponent is much bigger and better than you are, it's very easy to become intimidated to maybe even feel like giving up. The last few years we hear about Tiger Woods and his incredible winning streaks. And when Tiger Woods gets on these winning streaks, so some sports analysts have written, it seems like the other players become intimidated. They can't play as well when he gets on these incredible streaks. They feel like incredibly underdogs. Last summer, I imagine you watched, as my family watched, the Summer Olympics. And boy, was Marion Jones dominant in the short-distance races. And she got all the publicity. I would just imagine the other short-distance women runners against Marion Jones were intimidated. felt like underdogs, even maybe sometimes felt like giving up. I think that many Christians also sometimes feel like this. We hear about or we see incredible evils happening around our world, even within our own country, even supported or endorsed by our own government. And we really wonder sometimes. We hear surprising statistics, even in supposedly Christian Midwestern towns, how many people are really unsure, implying they have no personal relationship with God. Wow. These things can make us feel like underdogs sometimes as Christians. Even make us become negative. Wonder if possibly we're going to lose. It makes us sometimes scared to the point that we want to isolate ourselves and we put up somewhat of a fort, a fortress as a church, rather than a mission station. We don't need to feel this way. We don't need to feel this way for several reasons. One reason is this. God is in charge. It's up to God. It's not up to us. Acts 1, verse 7. Jesus says to them, just before He ascends into heaven, It is not for you guys to know the times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. It's not ultimately up to you, guys. The Holy Spirit will lead the way. He leads missions. He's the one who does the hard heart work. You're His workers. Keep that straight. And then we see right away the results of that. Acts chapter 2, after Peter's bold speech, about 3,000, that moment it seems like, were added to their number, or that day. Verse 47, And the Lord added to their number daily. That's the Lord added to their number daily. Not Peter and John. The Lord added to their number daily those who are being saved. The apostles, Peter the fisherman would have admitted that. It isn't our doing, guys. God, it's up to God. God is in charge. At the center of hope in Sioux Falls, we're a ministry to the underprivileged neighborhoods in north central Sioux Falls. Our motto is meeting needs and sowing seeds. And I feel very comfortable with that as a director because I know we can do that. We as Christians, we care about people, right? We can come alongside a struggling single parent, come alongside them and allow the light of Christ to shine through us. We can. We like to pray for people. We love to play with children and teach them a Christian song about Jesus. And they're receptive to it. We can do those things. We can meet needs and sow seeds, do things from a Christian perspective. But the hard work, the hard work, allowing that seed in the ground to germinate, to take root and to grow a shoot, that's God's work. Thank goodness for that. Oh, what a relief it is. It's not up to us. It's up to God, ultimately. Another reason why we don't have to be so gloomy. Feeling like such underdogs. Another reason is, it's not our own, of this world, same old human message to proclaim. It's God's, above and beyond this world, supernatural good news to proclaim. How good that is to realize. Acts 6, verse 7. So the Word of the Lord, the Word of God spread. Therefore, the number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly. Even a large number of Jewish priests became obedient to the faith. Wow. Acts 19. The name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. Therefore, many of those who believe now came and openly confessed their evil deeds In this way, the word of the Lord, not the disciples' word, the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power. In that day, people were hungering for something above and beyond the world that they lived in. Supposed human solutions. People were hungering for that. And when they heard of this good news from God Himself, A gracious message. Other than do-it-yourself theology, as they were all teaching. Other than the worthless, idle firewood. They received it and many of them came to be saved in the Lord Jesus Christ. We have just come through a century of many devastating wars. Terrible atrocities. People have been abused in incredible ways. Abused by their own government. Promised freedoms that have been taken away from them. In all these things, people are getting tired of supposed human solutions. They need something above and beyond ourselves which isn't working. Christian pastor and author and chairman of the National Prayer Committee, David Bryant, writes this, In the face of this today, increasing numbers are on a God hunt. That's a good thing. Looking for more. More faith and more spiritual reality. A survey documents that three out of five Americans hold greater interest in spiritual things than they did five years ago. And according to this David Bryan, this trend is going on all around the world today. That's good news. It's not our own of this world news that we're proclaiming. It's God's above and beyond great news for a world that's hungering for it. And believe me, they are. And they're open to it right now. Another reason why we don't need to be gloomy, why we don't need to feel like underdogs, is this. It's not our world. It's God's. Every bit of it. He created all of it and it was all His in this day when these passages were written and it's all His today. All God's. Yes, tarnished by sin and continually tarnished even today, but every bit of it is still God's. I like to kind of picture it this way. If you were to buy a beautiful, cheery red Corvette, a convertible Corvette, and you had it parked on the side of the road one night or maybe by your house along the curb and a vandal came along with a gallon of bright green paint and he threw it all over that red Corvette. That Corvette is damaged, but it's by no means totaled. You still own it and you can still get that car fixed in much the same way. Our world, yes, is tarnished by sin, But God is still in control of every part of it. God is able to absolutely redeem the darkest, dirtiest corners of His world. And we see that happening daily in the prisons, in people I'm meeting. Incredible change the gospel of Jesus Christ can do, the grace of God. And if it doesn't happen today, someday when Christ comes again, everything will be clean. I hope for many it won't be too late. It will be a cleansing by burning. But God is in control. He's in control of all of it. He can redeem it, every bit of it, just like that. It's all God's. It's not ours. We are just called to be His delivery people. What a relief that is. What a relief that is. Well, because of these things, because it's God's good news led by God Himself and the Holy Spirit to be proclaimed in His world, which is all His. That is why in Acts 1, verse 7 and 8, the Gospel spread from Jerusalem and then into all Judea and then up into Samaria and then to the end of the world. To Europe. to Escondido, California. And it keeps spreading in Africa and Asia. And it doesn't stop. Because it all belongs to God. God is in charge. He is in control. Yes, we see ups and downs. We see ups and downs spiritually in our world, no doubt. But God seems to always bring it through. If you like to think of it in terms of a team, We are far in the Lord. We are far from being underdogs. In fact, in the Lord, we are guaranteed to be winners. To be on the winning team. That is a guarantee. Isn't that a wonderful thought? I think we see it as much today as ever. Especially as we look beyond North America and Europe. There are more people today in the world giving their lives to Christ than there have ever been before. There are great revivals happening in Africa and in Asia and in the former Soviet bloc countries and in China. And even in our country, David Bryant writes this. He goes on and he says, 55% of Americans believe dealing with the transcendent, that's with God, will play a much greater role in their lives as they enter the new millennium. Worldwide, there are about 170 million Christians who are committed to praying every day for spiritual awakening and world evangelization. Hear this. Worldwide, there are at least 10 million prayer groups that have as a major focus, every time they meet, to pray to seek God for a coming world revival. Things are happening because God is in charge. He's leading the way, proclaiming His message in His world. So, onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war. With the cross of Jesus going on before. Not coated with heavy armor or with weapons of destruction as if the world is our enemy. It's not our enemy. I hope rather with maybe exploding bombs of love and truth for a world hungering. God does not call us to say, get out of the way, as if we're a fortress. Rather, as the last verse in Onward Christian Soldiers says, but rather join our happy throng. Blend with ours your voices in the triumph song. Join us, our fellow image bearers on God. They are. Maybe they haven't received His grace, but they're our fellow image bearers, not our enemies. Join us. to receive this true, positive perspective for ourselves. We need to join in. We need to join in. Or it won't happen. Join in sharing about what God has done, what His news has in His world. Join it. Join the Holy Spirit who is leading the way. and we can do this in so many ways according to our giftedness that each and every one of us have at the center of hope if I as director am not offering opportunities to other people relational opportunities according to their giftedness we're not doing our job so many opportunities so many diverse ways to relationally share the good news of Jesus Christ maybe that means going on a short term mission trip and having an incredible life-changing experience. Maybe that means doing things within your local church and your community. Maybe that means giving money to good ministries around the world, and there are so many of them proclaiming the truth, the good news. But then also following up with how God is blessing your gifts. Certainly, I hope that means joining the other 170 million other Christians who are already praying for a spiritual awakening in our world today. I like this analogy. Soldiers who are in training often have things to complain about, about maybe their food or in the mess tent. But soldiers on the front line in war rarely complain about and maybe an ant in their stew. Likewise for us in the church. When we maybe squabble about things within our church, God is not blessed. God is not blessed. And we do not see the positive impact of His gospel. When we are involved in front-line ministries, when we join in, then we see it. Then we feel positive. We feel the power of God even within ourselves. great things are happening today great things are happening today because God is leading the way and it's not our news fortunately it's His good news and it's not our world fortunately it's His world but in order for us to believe that for ourselves personally we need to join in then we grow as believers they are our fellow image bearers who maybe haven't sadly received His grace grow with us wonderful and we all win let's pray God you are so good to us your grace is so undeserving but we appreciate it so much and God I just ask that you would allow it to bubble over inside us ourselves it's so great that we would not we would not cap it but allow it to flow to those around us and that we would god we and and those around would join your the happy throng with the cross of jesus leading the way we pray this in jesus name amen