Ordinary People, Extraordinary Mission | Sunday, April 12, 2026

After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also, and he sent them two by two before his face into every city and place where he himself was about to go. And then he said to them, The harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go your way, behold, I send you as lambs among wolves... Whatever city you enter, and they receive you... heal the sick, and say to them... The kingdom of God has come near to you... He who hears you, hears me. He who rejects you, rejects me. He who rejects me, rejects him who sent me. — Luke 10:1–16

The harvest is great, the laborers are few—and God still calls ordinary people to His extraordinary mission.

Technology and the Mission of the Kingdom

I had the privilege of attending a conference in San Jose, California, in the epicenter of all things artificial intelligence. It was called Missional AI, with more than 600 people in attendance—technology developers and entrepreneurs, engineers, and Christian missionaries serving throughout the world, especially in Bible translation and reaching the unreached. It was also filled with venture capitalists. I was amazed to discover that many of the people behind the funding mechanisms of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley are believers whom God has placed in key positions.

Everyone in that room was wrestling with one driving question: What does this current moment in technology, especially artificial intelligence, mean for the mission and the kingdom of God? We are at a phenomenal turning point, on the verge of a significant change that will affect nearly every segment of society. These shifts come from time to time, and at each one God uses them for His mission purposes.

In the century leading up to Jesus' Great Commission—"Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations"—the Roman Empire was expanding. Many people were subjugated, but the result was the Roman roads and the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. That forced peace and those roads made it possible for the disciples to do exactly what Jesus commanded. What the enemy intends for evil, God always uses for good.

Fast forward to the 15th and 16th centuries, where the advancement of movable type through the Gutenberg Press fueled the great missions movement of the Protestant Reformation. People like Martin Luther used that new technology to expand the kingdom of God. The same happened in the Industrial Revolution with powered transportation—what once took months by foot or sea now takes hours by plane, even if you have to fight TSA. And in the last five decades the technological revolution and the internet have made it possible to extend the message instantaneously.

What AI Is Doing for Translation and Outreach

Now, with artificial intelligence, amazing things are happening, especially in translation. I've served as a board member with Enduring Word since the ministry started, and in 2017 our board set out to translate the four-and-a-half-million-word Enduring Word Bible commentary into the ten most spoken languages in the world. Our only method then was human translators. Translating the commentary into Arabic took five years and about three-quarters of a million dollars. Now, with machine translation, we can translate those same four and a half million words in under an hour for pennies on the dollar.

People always ask, how do we know the translation is good? For one, the companies behind these tools have a profit motive to make sure the technology works—if it's not good, they go out of business. But also, native readers tell us it's spot on. Our team translating the commentary into German says the machine translation captures David Guzik's voice, his cadence, his theology, and his teaching. Wycliffe Bible Translators, the Seed Company, and others are now developing these technologies. The head of innovation at the International Mission Board told me how they use AI to expand the reach of their 4,500 missionaries—and even to maintain the cover of workers serving in restricted countries.

Here is what's worth recognizing: the mission can be aided by Roman roads, movable type, powered transportation, the internet, or AI. But at the end of the day, we will always need people to reach people. These tools help us fulfill our commission, but people reaching people is exactly what Luke 10 speaks to—and exactly what we'll do today, as we introduce and pray for those from our church going out this year to the uttermost parts.

The Mission Is Bigger Than the Names We Know

At the beginning of Luke 9, Jesus called the twelve disciples together, gave them power and authority over demons and disease, and sent them to preach the kingdom and heal the sick. Those are the big names—Peter, James, John, the ones whose names are recorded in the Bible and in history. It makes sense they would be the apostles.

But then in Luke 10, the same thing happens with another group: the seventy. We don't know their names. They're the unnamed ones who never get a byline in Scripture or a note in human history—yet they're equally important. The work of the kingdom is too big for one man or a small group of twelve. Immediately after sending the twelve, Jesus calls the seventy, the lesser known, and gives them the same task and the same mission.

For us who live two thousand years on the other side of this, here is the essential truth: the mission of the kingdom is bigger than those whose names we know. It involves the big names like Billy Graham and Greg Laurie, but it also involves the lesser-known names like Miles DeBenedictis—and your name. Maybe you feel like the unnamed person no one will ever know. Yet God still has a work and a call for you. Guard against the temptation to think, "I guess I'm not called because I'm not known." Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Harvest Is Great—So Pray for Laborers

Point one: the harvest is great, so pray for more laborers. That's what we're going to do today. We've been collecting the names of those going to Paraguay, Peru, Africa, and elsewhere, and we'll pray for God to empower them. But there are others in this room whose names are not yet known, and God is calling you—because the harvest is great.

We have to drill this into our hearts. Here we are twenty centuries after the Great Commission, and the job is not yet done. There are still languages with no Scripture translated, and many of them have no digital data to train large language models. Groups are now going into those places, recording content, and building models to translate new languages. Yet billions remain unreached and unengaged. Even here, nine-tenths of the people who call San Diego County home are not touched by a gospel-preaching church. Only about ten percent are connected to a gospel-teaching church. There is much work remaining.

So in verse 2 Jesus says, "The harvest is truly great, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest." I remember praying this as a high schooler every time a pastor reminded us of it. I did not realize that as I prayed for God to send laborers, I was praying for myself.

Every Mission Begins on Our Knees

Every missional endeavor always begins with prayer. That's always the starting point. And here is the hard part: prayer can seem insignificant to us. "Have you prayed about it?" sounds like the answer every Christian always gives. But the first step is always on our knees. It seems small because the task seems great, and our entrepreneurial Western impulse says, "We've got to get to work." Jesus says, "Not yet. First, stop, pause, and pray."

In Ephesians 6, Paul tells us we're in a spiritual battle and must put on the whole armor of God—the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace, the belt of truth, the shield of faith, and the sword of the Spirit—and then he says, "praying always." Fully equipped, the first thing we do is not charge into battle but pray. And he asks the Ephesians to pray "that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel." Prayer is a weapon, the first step of evangelism and mission—and I confess that as a pastor it's too often the last thing I think to do. The best position for fighting in this work is on our knees, because prayer is the tool by which God tears down strongholds.

When You Pray, Prepare Your Heart to Go

Point two: when you begin to pray for God's mission, prepare your heart to go. It has been said that prayer is not meant to move the heart and will of God, but to move our hearts into alignment with His will. Sometimes we pray as though we're informing God of something He didn't know, or swaying Him in our direction. But He is omniscient. What He's doing through prayer is moving us into alignment with His will, just as Jesus prayed in Gethsemane, "Not my will, but your will be done."

So when you pray for workers, be prepared for the fact that He might be moving you. I don't say this to make you hesitant to pray, but to prepare you for what God will do in your own heart. I've never met a person who engaged with God's work—whether as a small group leader, in children's ministry, or on the foreign field—who didn't first begin with an impulse to pray, and then watched their heart move in that direction.

This is exactly what moved Jesus' command. In Matthew 9, when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion because they were weary and scattered like sheep without a shepherd, and then He said, "Pray the Lord of the harvest." He sees the lostness, is moved with compassion, commands them to pray, and then prepares them to be the very laborers they pray for.

Have you ever felt that this world is broken and lost, and wished it were different? That thought didn't come from you—by nature we are selfish. That feeling that the world or a friend or coworker is lost, and the longing that they not be so broken, is the compassion of Christ welling up within you. It motivates us to pray, and as we pray, God moves our hearts into alignment with His will—that none should perish, that all would come to repentance, that all people would be saved. Be prepared for what God might be doing in your heart, not only to pray, but to go.

Lambs Among Wolves: Wisdom and Reliance on God

Look at verse 3: "Go your way; behold, I send you as lambs among wolves." Wouldn't you rather He said the opposite—wolves among lambs? And you'd think He would then say, "Be prepared, take a sword." Instead He says, "Carry neither money bag, knapsack, nor sandals, and greet no one along the road." In Matthew 10:16 He adds, "Be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves."

The call of God does not lessen the danger. This is a broken, chaotic world, and there are real risks in the work God calls us to. He wants us sober-minded, not glossing over the danger. Point three: the reality of the danger requires our wisdom and reliance on God. As Paul says in Ephesians 5, "Walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil."

Throughout twenty centuries, missionaries have served Christ in the most contested and conflicted places. They don't shy away because it's dangerous; they go in with wisdom—wise as serpents, harmless as doves. The IMB recently had to use AI to keep their missionaries in Iran covert. Our own missionaries have served when wars raged in Sudan and in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan. They recognize that capture, torture, imprisonment, or death is possible, yet they go. Now, if you go to Peru or Paraguay, you'll probably be fine—some call it missional tourism—but there's always risk, probably more on the 15 freeway than in Paraguay.

When Jesus says carry no money bag, He isn't saying provisions are unspiritual or unnecessary; He's challenging us to rely completely on His provision, power, and protection. The reality of the danger drives us to wisdom and to dependence on God.

A Message of Peace—Received and Rejected

In verse 5 Jesus says, "Whatever house you enter, first say, 'Peace to this house.'" The ambassador of the Prince of Peace leads with shalom. If a son of peace is there, your peace rests on it; if not, it returns to you. When someone is open and receptive, stay there, eating and drinking what they give, for the laborer is worthy of his wages—don't go from house to house. And to those who receive you, heal the sick and say, "The kingdom of God has come near to you."

This is what it means to follow the Lord into mission: we go through the doors He opens, and as long as the door remains open, we remain there. These seventy were the advance team going before Jesus' face to every city He was about to enter, preparing the way. Two thousand years later the task is the same. Jesus ascended saying, "I will come again." We are His advance team, preparing the places we enter for the return of the King and the arrival of His kingdom.

But not every place will be open. In verse 10, when a city does not receive you, "go out into its streets and say, 'The very dust of your city which clings to us, we wipe off against you; nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near to you.'" The message is the same, but now the dust is wiped off—a striking, confrontational image. Why? Because in the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that city.

We good Californians would rather say, "Well, God bless you." But Jesus says, "Woe to you." It's meant to shake someone out of their slumber. He names three towns—Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum—the epicenter of His ministry. They saw more miracles and heard more of His message than anyone, yet they would not repent. If those works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, He says, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes.

The Kingdom Is Coming—the Stakes Are Eternal

These towns were like a man living next door to the fire station who felt secure because the rescuers were near—but he grew so accustomed to the sirens that one night, when his own house caught fire, he didn't wake, and he perished. That's why Jesus says they must be shaken out of their stupor.

Point four: the kingdom is coming, the message is urgent, and the stakes are eternal. Do you really believe that? That those who reject the gospel have their eternal future at stake? If you believe it, you will realize how urgent your message is, because a day of judgment is coming. This is the impulse for mission, and this is why Jesus says, "Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers."

Pray, Get a Passport, and Go

At the beginning of 2024 I told this church we wanted to re-engage in missions, and I gave two simple challenges: pray about how you might be involved, and get a passport—because you can't go without one. I said the same thing in 2025 and again this year. The first year only a few people prayed, got passports, and went. The next year, a few more. Now we have more than thirty people preparing to go.

For most of these people, one of the scariest things they've ever done was to say, "Here am I; send me"—and even now they're still a little worried. But every step of faith involves some hesitation, because we walk by faith and not by sight. These are the named ones, but there is still room among the seventy. God may yet move your heart, and it always begins with prayer.

So consider how you'll be involved—maybe not by going, but by helping them go, supporting them financially. They don't yet have all their provisions; they're trusting the Lord to supply. You can find them on the patio after the service or go to the church missions website. They are ambassadors, because the mission is not done.

Closing Prayer

God, we come before You today as Your church. You have given us this little plot of ground here in North County to be a light and a witness to this community, but You've called us not just to stay here but to go. For twenty centuries Your people have been going to fulfill the mission—to preach the gospel to every creature, to make disciples of all nations. This group is going to Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, and Africa. Would You pour out Your Spirit upon them? I know there are fears and unanswered questions, but You will supply their need by Your riches and grace, and You will guide and show Yourself faithful, as You have for two thousand years and will until You come again.

I pray for those of us who will stay, that we would remember them in prayer and support them as they go. Thank You for the work we get to be part of here at Cross Connection—not only what happens at 1675 Seven Oaks Road, but the work You want to do through us to the ends of the earth, partnered with You and with the larger body of Christ. Bless this group; use them as witnesses of Your grace on the trip, while preparing to go, standing in line at TSA, sitting next to a stranger on an airplane. And help all the rest of us to see that we are ambassadors here and now, lights to those in darkness. Help us to shine brightly with Your light. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those who agreed said, amen.