WIPE OFF THE DUST - Don’t Spend Your Time On The Wrong People

The Call of Jesus

Welcome to this series
"The Call of Jesus".

Step by step, we are going through
what Jesus has called us to in Luke 10.

We have now come to chapter 15:
"Wipe Off the Dust."

And this is very, very important.

We have seen that Jesus wants us to go out
and find a person of peace.

A person of peace is somebody
the Holy Spirit is drawing,

is somebody who's ready to receive
Jesus.

They are ready.

And they are many out there.

We have heard about it, how the harvest
is ready, but the workers are few.

But if you want to be effective
in finding the person of peace,

you need to listen to what
Jesus is saying here,

when He talks about how we need
to wipe off the dust and move on.

Because if you don't understand this...

...you would not be effective.

You would not be effective when it comes
to finding the person of peace.

What I will share here, in this video,
is very, very important.

It already has been a blessing for many,
many people out there.

It's so important if we want to be effective
in the Kingdom of God,

if we want to see homes and entire cities
come to faith,

as I spoke about in the last video.

In the last video we looked at what Jesus
was saying in Luke 10:7,

where He said that we should not
move from house to house.

In this video we are going to move forward
a little and jump to verses 10 and 11.

Why? Because that is really connected
with finding the person of peace.

And I want to talk about that first.

Jesus is saying in Luke 10:10-11:
"But when you enter into a town

and are not welcomed,
go into the street and say,

'Even the dust of your town
we wipe off as a warning to you."

What Jesus said here is very, very
important, if you want to bear good fruit.

If you want to bear good fruit,
you need to listen to His words,

and be fast to take the dust
off your hands and feet and move on.

It's not often we talk about it,
but it's important.

Try to imagine if you are a farmer
and you have some seed in your hand.

If you take that seed and sow it in
the ground that doesn't bear fruit,

you can keep sowing the same seed
in the same ground,

but it will not bear fruit. Why?

Because the ground is not ready for it.

But if you take the same seed instead
and sow it in the different ground,

some good ground,
it will suddenly bear a lot of fruit.

And this is what Jesus is saying here.

He said: If people will not receive
our message...

then take the dust off your hands
and feet and move on.

Don't continue just putting the same seed,
in the same people. Why?

It will not bear fruit.

When I started to tell people about Jesus
many, many years ago,

I did not know what He was saying there.

I was not aware of what He was saying.

And because I did not know
what Jesus was saying

I spent too much time just talking
to the wrong people

and I did not bear a lot fruit.

I did not know, at that time,
that some of the people I will meet

were people who were not ready.

And with some of those people, I should have
just taken the dust off my hands and feet,

and I should have just obeyed Jesus
and moved on.

But I did not know that.

So instead, when I met people who were
not interested,

I often ended up discussing with them.

You need Jesus!

No.
Yes, you do!

No. I don't want Jesus.
Yes, you need Jesus.

And people were not interested.

We just discussed, and discussed,
and discussed.

And I thought that the reason they
did not want Jesus is because

I was good enough to evangelize,

so I tried to be better,
I was practicing, I was preparing,

and if they came with questions:
Er, what about Darwin? What about evolution?

I thought: Oh, I need to give them answers.

So I went home, and I studied about Darwin,
I studied about evolution,

and I went out again. And I thought:
Now they are ready to receive.

But no one wanted.

Because when they asked a question:
Hey, what about Darwin?

And you gave them an answer... Hmm.
They just asked a new question.

Why? They were not a person of peace.

They did not want
to give their life to God.

They were not ready
to give their life to God.

The Holy Spirit was not drawing them.

And my words were not going to do it alone.

But what did I do?
I was spending a lot of time

studying evolution, and Darwin,
and different religions, Mormons,

Jehovah's Witnesses...
I was studying all of this because I thought

I needed answers for everything,
if people want to receive God.

But I did not see anyone of those people
come to Christ.

I should have done what Jesus has said.

If people wanted to discuss with me,
when people were not open,

when people did not want to listen...

...I should have just moved on.

If I have moved on, instead of spending
all my time with people who don't want it,

I could have moved on, and I could have
found those people who want it.

And this is so, so important.

Don't waste your time on people
who don't want to listen.

Because when you have used your time
one time,

it's not going to come back.

When you first have sown that seed,

you cannot sow it again.

If you want to be a good farmer,

if you want to see good fruit,

you need to be ready to move on.

You need to do what Jesus is saying.

He is saying: The harvest is ready.

He is saying: The harvest is ready.

He is saying that we should go out

and find a person of peace.

He says that when we find a person of peace

we should stay in their house,

we should eat and drink what they serve.

He says that we should heal the sick
and we should preach the gospel.

But He does also says...

...that we should move on,

if people will not listen to us.

If I today, for example, should go out
on the street,

I will maybe stop 20 people
before I find that one who is open.

And because I don't waste all my time
with the first people I meet,

discussing, discussing, discussing,

I will find a person of peace,
much more often than I did before.

Before, many years ago,
when I was out evangelizing,

I met somebody who did not want God,
so I thought: You need it!

No, I don't want.
You need it.

And I ended up discussing with them.

And it was hard, and I went from one person
to another, and three people...

And suddenly I have been discussing
with three people.

And I went home and I was tired.

I was so tired. I was saying:
What is wrong?

The people in Denmark don't want God.
There's no people here,

or people in America,
and no matter where I was...

People don't want God.
They are not open.

They are.
Just not those few I talked with.

Instead of spending one and a half hour
with that person discussing,

half-hour with that person,
half-hour with that person,

if I have been fast in moving on...

I would have come to number 15,
or number 10, or number 8 -

that person who is ready to receive.

And I would have seen so much more fruit.

So, when Jesus said...

If people will not receive your message,
then take the dust off your hands and feet

and move on -
He really, really meant it.

In Acts 13 we can read
how Paul and Barnabas did it.

They did what Jesus said.

We read here, Acts 13:50-51:

"But the Jews stirred up the devout and
honourable women,

and the chief men in the city, and raised
persecution against Paul and Barnabas,

and expelled them out of their coasts.

But they shook off the dust of their feet
against them, and came unto Iconium."

Here we can read how Paul and Barnabas,
actually,

did what Jesus has commanded us all to do.

They were at place where people
did not want to receive the message.

They started to discuss and argue.

But they did not stay there and
kept arguing and discussing with them.

No. They obeyed Jesus, so they took
the dust off their feet and moved on.

And because they moved on,
they came to Iconium,

and we read here, in the next verse
(Acts 14:1):

"And it came to pass in Iconium,
that they went both together

into the synagogue of the Jews,
and so spoke,

that the great multitude both of the Jews
and also of the Gentiles believed."

What we read here was that Paul
and Barnabas were one place,

and in that place
people did not want to listen.

They only wanted to argue
and they created persecution.

What did Paul and Barnabas do?

They obeyed Jesus.

They took the dust off their hands
and feet and they moved on.

And the next place they came,
we read how the great multitude,

both the Jews and Gentiles
came to faith.

If they have spent all their time
the other place, discussing...

they would not have seen
that great multitude coming to faith.

If you want to see people come to faith,

if you want to see many people
come to faith,

then you need to do like them -

don't waste your time
on the wrong people.

Don't waste your time
on people who don't want to listen,

who don't want to get saved.

But I really want these people
to get saved.

Yes, you want.
And I want people to get saved.

And God wants. But do you know...

if they don't want it...

they don't want it.

Give them time.

Give them time to come to a place
where they are ready to open up.

Because if they don't want to get saved,

and you keep preaching to them,

the only thing you do is...
their hearts harden even more.

And I've seen that.

I've seen again, and again, and again,
people who did not want to get saved.

They were not ready.
They were not person of peace.

But they have their friends and family
around them

who keep preaching to them,
who keep preaching, and preaching,

and preaching, and preaching,
and preaching to them.

And they did not want it, but they
kept preaching, and preaching, and preaching.

They did not want it and they argued
against it,

but they kept preaching, and preaching,
and preaching to those people.

Do you know what happened?

They did not come to God.
The came farther away.

They started to harden their hart
and they became bitter.

Don't preach to people who
don't want to listen.

Don't keep doing that.

Give them time to come to that place
where they are ready.

And in the meantime you can move on

and find people who are ready to receive.

Let me read something from this chapter
in my book.

"In the past, when I went out to evangelize
on the street,

I only stopped three of four persons
within one or two hours

because I always had very long discussions.

Yes, I had discussions with them about God,
evolution, and science,

and after our discussions finished,
I went home

without ever finding the person of peace.

I went home thinking there was something
wrong with the harvest

because those I met were not open.

Yes, I thought the harvest was not ready
and plentiful, like Jesus was saying,

because I did not see those (few)
I talked to

wanted to have anything to do with God.

This was my experience until I started
to wipe the dust off and move on

like Jesus said I should.

When I did that, I saw that it is actually
just as Jesus says.

If your experience is that the harvest
is not ready and plentiful,

you are looking in the wrong place.

Maybe it is time to move on and not spend
all your time on the wrong people."

Those words can seem very hard -
just move on and don't spend all your time.

But it's right thing to do.

It's the right thing to do.

Give them over to God.

Take those persons, pray for them,
and give them over to God,

and let God bring them to that place
where they are ready to receive.

And in the meantime be effective
in the Kingdom of God.

In this chapter in my book
I tell a story about...

I come with some example about it.

One example is a woman
I led to God some years ago.

She got born again, received the Holy Spirit.
It was very beautiful.

And then she invited me over to her house

because she wanted me to preach
to her brother.

She invited her brother over to
her house also.

And there were some other people there.

I sat down, eating, drinking, and then
I started to share the gospel to her brother.

But very fast I found out
that he was not ready.

I tried a few times to get it in,
I brought it up, but every time he just...

shifted the conversation
and he did not want to talk.

So, instead of having an evening where
I just sat and discussed the whole night,

I just talked about other things with him.

I went to his sister afterwards and said:

I know you want your brother to get saved,
but he is not ready.

Don't keep preaching to him.
You are just pushing him more and more away.

Just give him over to God.

Let him over to God,
pray for him.

Do what I have said here and then
go out and find some person of peace.

She wanted him to get saved,
but he didn't want.

That was the truth.

What happened here?
One year later I was back the same place.

And this time he was there.

And this time, when I shared the gospel,
he opened his heart and said:

I want it. I want it.

God has brought him to a place
where now he was ready.

And that night he received
the Holy Spirit.

He got baptized in water
and he received the Holy Spirit.

And it's so important that
we understand how God is working.

Don't harden people's heart by keeping
preaching to people who don't want it.

They are just going to attack you
in the end.

They are going to be bitter.

Jesus is saying that in Matthew 7:6.

"Do not throw your pearls to pigs.

If you do, they may trample them
under their feet,

and turn and tear you to peaces."

What does Jesus say here?

Jesus says: Don't give the gospel
to people who don't want to listen.

They are not going to appreciate it.
They are going to mock it.

They are going to attack you
with it.

No, when you meet people who
don't want to listen,

then move on.

Move on to the next people.

Move on.

And keep moving...

until you find those people
who are ready.

When you do that, you will see
what Jesus is saying is correct.

The harvest is ready.

The harvest is ready.

The harvest is ready,
but the workers are few.

Or, the workers, they are there,
are too busy in the barn,

doing other things.

The workers are too busy
with the wrong people.

They are too busy doing other things

instead of finding that harvest
that is ready.

So, this is very, very, very important.

I encourage you to start to do this.

Look at those people who are
in your life already.

If there's people in your life
you have spent months or years on,

and you have never seen them
come to Christ,

and they actually started
to harden their hart...

move on.

Don't continue spending the time
on those few people.

Move on.

Go and find somebody
who is ready to receive.

When you do this, you will be surprised.

They are out there,
those people who are ready,

those people who are calling on God,
those people who are seeking.

They are out there.

But you will not find them

if you spend all your time
on the wrong people.

Later in this book
I will put it all together.

I will put all of this together,
we have talked about, with the call of Jesus.

But until now, please, pray.

Pray with me.
Pray that God will send out more workers.

And then pray that God will lead you
to the person of peace.

Pray that God will open your eyes
to see who is not that person of peace.

And have that in your mind,
when you talk with people.

And then you practice.
You'll become better and better to recognize

who is the person of peace
and when shall you move on.

In the beginning it can be very difficult.

You know, every beginning is difficult.

In the beginning is difficult, like:
is this a person of peace

or is not a person of peace?

Is this a person of peace
I should sit down and talk with,

or is that somebody I will just end up
wasting my time?

In the beginning it's difficult
but you try and then you learn,

and then you grow,
and then you become better

to recognize where is the good harvest.
You become better to recognize

who are those people
who are ready to receive.

And then, when you find those people,
you will know what to do.

You will sit down with them.
You will lead them to Christ,

baptize them in water
and Holy Spirit,

heal the sick, cast out demons,
as we are going to look next time.

And you will bear so much fruit.

So let's do what Jesus did.

Let's do what Jesus' disciples did.

Let's do what Jesus has called us to do.

You know, Jesus did the same.

He did not end up discussing
with those Pharisees.

He said something clear to them
and then He moved on.

And where do we find Jesus?
He was sitting in the house of the sinners.

He was there to bring salvation
to those who were lost.

He did not come to call righteous,
self-righteous people.

He came to call sinners to repentance.

He came to bring healing to those people.

We are going to look at that
in the next lesson.

God bless you!
Bye-bye!

The Call of Jesus