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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Doesn't it make you wonder what kind of miracles did occur in those places? I mean if Jesus is saying, "Woe to you, for if the miracles that were performed there were performed among you, they would have repented a long time ago in ashes and sackcloth." Makes you wonder because in our own country, great miracles have been done. God has brought to life those who are dead in sin.

Great amounts of preaching have been done, unhindered, unbound, and we just continue to get fat. I love my country, and I know you love your country, but this country will come and go like other countries before her. But the faith of which you and I are a part, the miracles done in your heart and in my heart, that is eternal. And that will continue to grow and be beautiful in heaven, but in this world and in this nation, we don't know how much longer.

When Jesus sent out those 72 to go from village to village, He gave them great authority, gave them power to drive out demons and to heal. When they came back, do you notice what they focused upon? In the text they come back and they focus not upon how many people heard the Word of God, how many people harkened unto the voice of the Good Shepherd. They rather fixed upon only, "Wow, what we did when demons left at the power of Your Word."

Now one could say, "Well, they're really talking about the fact that people did come to know the Lord Jesus, and demons were driven out in that sense." But my guess is, like all human beings, they focused on the glorious things and not the inglorious things which really those are the glorious ones. What do I mean? When the 72 went out and they did what God had given them to do, to proclaim, "The kingdom of God is near," having done so, rather than seeing the glory of God's work in the hearts of the people, they report only back what they saw that was glorious to their own earthly eyes. That can happen to you and me quite often.

We can look and say, "Is our church doing anything? We're not seeming to accomplish anything. Not like that church, or not like those people. What is it?" Do you marvel at the fact that you are a believer? Do you marvel at the fact that God took your heart, of all hearts, and resurrected it and made it His and called you by name? Do you not marvel at the fact that He did this in this church, or through that gospel? And f that gospel was good enough to have converted you and brought you to faith, it is pure and good enough for those in this world.

The problem is, like those places of which Jesus spoke in the gospel reading, and pronounced, "Woe unto them," our own country could be pronounced, "Woe unto you, O America, if the miracles that were done for you were done in Europe, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes, or Africa, or in Asia, or in South America."

It is at times we feel we want to see something powerful and we forget to look at ourselves in the mirror, and marvel at God's work in a sinful clay pot like us that God made us His believing child. He did so through means that the rest of the world looks at and says, "Ah, that's old fashioned, antiquated. That's old school and by-gone era stuff." No, it is the same kind of stuff that will convert homeless people. It is the same kind of stuff that will convert young people. It is the same kind of stuff which can make an old person come to faith who has denied it all their life. It is the kind of stuff that makes one who is dead, alive. That doesn't change.

In fact, that's the key in this text after Jesus, having sent out the 72 and they returned, Jesus affirms the fact that yes, He has seen Satan fall from heaven like lightning by God's power. "But don't marvel in that," He said, "Marvel that your name is written in the kingdom of heaven. Marvel that you have been converted."

We live in a nation that is pretty fat, and I know we are going through difficult financial times, but doesn't it make you sit back and just scratch your head sometimes and go, "Wow, on the other hand, we're pretty lazy?" There are crops to be picked in the state of Washington, and they don't have anybody to pick them. No one wants that menial of work. So they had to fly in hundreds of people from Jamaica and pick their crops of cherries and apples.

We have dozens of churches and thousands of opportunities, and yet no matter what church, we don't have enough pastors. Is it viewed as too menial? Is it viewed as unglorified? The reason I suggest this to you is that when it says, "Pray to the Lord of the harvest that He would send out laborers into His harvest field," first and foremost, He is saying, "Pray that we would have pastors." For young men must sacrifice a great deal to stand where we stand.

You've heard of sacrifices, and this is not to laud any one person, but you've heard of the sacrifices that Pastor Stenson had to give up in order to follow the call of God. As an engineer, well established in his career, having attained a good reputation, he laid that all aside for the sake of God's call.

There are young men in our congregation and there are middle-aged men in our congregation who God may want you to prompt. You see when we realize God is calling us, it's not through a lightning strike, and it's not through some vision, it's through people like you who say, "Have you ever considered becoming a pastor? Hey, have you ever considered being a teacher of the faith?" It's through people like you that God uses to prompt us to be a part of this great gift of proclaiming God's good news.

The second part of that is this, you…you my brothers and sisters are part of that whom God is sending out into this mission field. How long has it been since you have invited someone to come to your church, the church that you love, the people you are proud to be sitting in the pew with, the great gift of all that is a part of what this church is? Has it been a while?

Make that phone call, then. Stop by and see them. Put a bug in their ear because what brings God the greatest joy and pleasure, and how God has always decided to work, which you have to scratch your head at times, too, and think, Lord, of all the possible methodologies You would have picked, this seems to be the most innocuous one of all. That He would use people to reach people, people with hypocrisy and sins oozing out of every pore to reach people whose own hypocrisy and sins are just as bad. Yes, you are the ones whom God uses.

That's what was used upon you, a sinful mom and dad who brought you to church with much complaining at times. A loving grandparent who made sure you got to church. "Do I have to go to confirmation?" God uses people to reach other people. It's all about relationships. It's all about getting someone to come and hear the kingdom of God, for here, here is where it comes near to us and encounters us. Here is where we are joined to Him, and He to us. Here is where that person you invite will hear it.

Now, we may not always see the harvest right away, but know this. When we have seen harvests of baptisms and adult confirmations and so on, when we have seen harvest, it's not us who did it. Someone else took the time to plant those seeds and water them a long time before we did. We just happened to be the one who is blessed to see the harvest, and so we will plant and sow many times, but we will not get to harvest those, maybe.

So like the 72 who returned, and Jesus is trying to remind them of what they've seen is glorious, yes indeed, but what they've seen is not nearly as miraculous as fixating upon the fact of you. God chose you, of all people, and you are just as vile as the homeless person who you and I write off as being completely unreachable. You and I are just as stubborn as any youth of this age that we think we have to tailor, craft, or manipulate in order to bring into the church. Just look at yourself and what God has done in you. Wow! That should be enough proof to you and to me. If God can do it to me, He can do it to anyone.

You are a part of that that has been sent out into the harvest field, and you will harvest where you did not sow, but you and I will sow where we did not harvest. And one more point, take a moment to encourage a young man, to encourage even a middle-aged man to consider that God might be calling him into the office of holy ministry so that our grandchildren can have pastors too. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting, Amen.