A prayer request can sound like one more sentence in a hurried conversation, but it is often a burden someone can no longer carry alone. In Matthew 9:38, Jesus places His own burden before His disciples: a plentiful harvest, too few laborers, and a call to pray that may move those who have only watched into the work.
The following study questions and transcript are AI generated and may contain errors.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
Thank you, Pastor. I appreciate that very much. And I am so thrilled. Brother Brad has been a blessing to my life ever since I was introduced to him. He was still living in Tennessee the first time I ever met him, and then he moved back up here. And so, when we were in need of an associate, God laid Brother Brad on my heart, and he had been a blessing. He was a true blessing the whole time he was with us during that difficult year or better of COVID, and because of his help, I was able to navigate through that. It was a rough time. But I want to say thank you to Brother Brad for inviting me and giving me the privilege of preaching to you this morning on this very special Sunday.
To me, this is one of the most important days of the church calendar. I have often said that I have two favorite dates on the church calendar: one is Easter, and the other is our Faith Promise, our missions conference time. Easter gives us the power to live a new life. Missions give us the purpose that God has set before us. And so, we’re going to look at that a little bit this morning.
I believe today that I also have a very sacred duty, a very sacred responsibility to share with you this morning. In order for you to understand that, I want to explain to you first of all that I believe when someone gives you a prayer request, they are sharing a very sacred responsibility with you. We don’t always receive it that way. We don’t always give prayer requests in a very sacred way. Sometimes we just use it as an opportunity to gossip. We should never do that, Amen?
When a person comes to me and says, “Would you pray with me about this?” they are saying, “This is a burden that is heavy on my heart. I need someone to help share this burden because it’s weighing heavily upon me.” So they are asking me to get underneath that burden with them and pray about it.
But I’m here this morning not to share with you a personal prayer request. I’m here to share a prayer request from our Savior, Jesus Christ. That’s pretty important, Amen? I mean, that’s a pretty sacred responsibility. It’s not only sacred in the fact that Jesus is giving it, but it’s sacred that I share this with you, and it’s sacred for you to share this burden.
We find the prayer request of the Savior in the book of Matthew, chapter 9. If you turn there, Matthew chapter 9, and it is in one verse, it’s expressed in verse 38, the very last verse of chapter 9, Matthew 9:38. You say 9:38? I’ve heard that number before. Yes, that’s what this is. This is 9:38 Sunday, and that’s where the project gets its title from. Here in Matthew 9:38 it says, “Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.”
Very simple prayer. Let’s take a moment to pray, and then we’ll get into the message.
Father, we do thank you for this awesome responsibility, Lord, to share a burden with you. Lord, it boggles the mind that there is something so heavy on your heart that you would ask us broken, fallible human beings to pray along with you for something of great need. You’ve asked us to pray very specifically for the need of this world. We pray, Lord, that people would receive that this morning. It’s not about me, Father, it’s not about me being back here or my preaching. It’s all about what your plan is for this world. And I pray, Father, we would see that and receive it in our heart this morning. We ask in your name and for your sake. Amen.
This is a very straightforward request. There’s really nothing cryptic about it. He says, pray for laborers. “Pray the Lord of harvests that he would send forth laborers into his harvest field.” So there’s nothing really hard to understand about it. But I think if you’re going to pray for somebody, you’re going to pray for a request, you kind of need to understand where they’re coming from. You need to kind of enter into their burden with them.
Well, what is the occasion? Jesus here is speaking to His disciples. I think this is very interesting when you stop and break it down. He is about to give them a commission. In fact, you go into chapter 10, the very first thing we read in chapter 10, the first four verses, is commissioning of the twelve apostles. He’s about to send them out as His representatives. So just before He does that, He gives this prayer request.
He’s handpicked these men to come and follow Him. You’ve heard this part of the gospel before. Jesus came to them at different times. They were mending their nets, they were tending the tax booth, they were doing different things. And Jesus said, “Come, follow me. Come and learn my heart.” And so far, these men have been doing just that. They’ve been following, listening, observing, and learning from Jesus. It has all become very familiar routine. Get up in the morning, where’s Jesus going? Let’s just follow Him. What’s He doing? Let’s just listen to what He’s teaching. Let’s learn what He’s saying.
And so it got to be very, very familiar to them. But He is right now about to change directions on them. He’s about to give a major shift, and He’s about to commission these twelve to be His ambassadors. They’re about to go from being observers to being participants. That’s kind of getting out of your comfort zone. You’ve been watching. You’ve been listening. You’ve been learning. Now it’s time for you to do.
And you know, Jesus may be doing the same thing this morning for some of you. You’ve been coming, you’ve been listening, you’ve been watching others do ministry. Don’t they do a good job? That was great music. Thank you this morning, Brother Taylor, Sue, and Brother Mike. But it’s easy to sit and listen and watch other people do ministry, but Jesus wants us to be involved. And He’s about to move some of you out of your comfort zone. I hope.
This morning I got a lot to say. So I’ll do you a favor. I’m going to talk fast. You listen fast and we’ll end at the same time. Don’t stop listening before I stop talking, okay? That’s not going to have the right impact on it. So we’re going to try to get that to the end at the same time together.
Before Jesus makes this prayer request that we’re going to look at, He reveals to these men a pattern for diligent service. Read if you will, look at verse 35: “And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.”
Following Jesus was a pretty intensive thing because He was always busy. He was doing, doing, doing. They watched His activity. He went about all the cities and the villages. He didn’t build a comfortable modern worship center and wait for people to come in. He went out to where they are. So He was going all the time to where people were.
His message involved a very personal touch. I want to be where the people are. My wife told me the other day, “95% of your brain is made up of song lyrics.” Every time something comes up, I think of a song. And I was thinking about that this morning. That really was Jesus’ theme: “I want to be where the people are.” That’s why He came in the flesh. He came and dwelt among us because He wanted to be with us. He was God with skin on so that we could touch Him and know Him.
So Jesus was demonstrating this to His disciples. He didn’t call us to live a life of isolation, to crawl into a hole somewhere. Vance Havner says, “You don’t become more holy by crawling into a hole.” We need to be where people are. We can’t live a life of isolation, nor should we live a life of imitation. Just trying to be like, you know, some people say, “You got to be like the world in order to win the world.” Listen, you don’t have to dress like a clown to witness at the circus, all right? You just have to let Jesus live through you.
I learned a little phrase the other day and I’ve been trying to pray it: “Jesus, just be yourself in me, and let others see you through me.” A little boy asked his daddy one time, “Daddy, how tall do you think Jesus was?” And dad said, “Well, son, I guess nobody really knows for sure. I’ll just say maybe six feet.” “Well, daddy, how tall am I?” He said, “Well, son, you’re only four feet tall.” And the little boy thought for a moment. He said, “Well, daddy, if Jesus is in me, He ought to stick out.” Listen, if Jesus is in you, He ought to stick out. Amen?
So He didn’t call us to live a life of isolation. He doesn’t call us to live a life of imitation of the rest of the world. He wants us to live a life of invitation so that people know that they’re needed, they’re wanted. I had a fellow tell me just two weeks ago, “Man, my life was such a mess before I got saved.” He said, “I started coming to church. I was afraid to come because I thought all those people got it together. I thought if I go there, they’re not going to want to have anything to do with me.” And he said, “Instead of finding them holding me off, they were inviting me. They were saying, ‘Come. Be a part of this.’” And he said, “I found an invitation.”
See, God doesn’t want us to be isolated. He doesn’t want us to be imitators. He wants us to be living invitations to others of Jesus Christ: “Come unto me and be saved.” Jesus Christ is giving that invitation through our life.
As they watched Him going about from village to village, they could also learn the threefold aspects of His approach to people. He used His head. He taught them. He used His head. It says He was teaching in their synagogues. Matthew uses a New Testament word here to describe that our Lord was instructing, explaining, expounding the truth to people. Jesus would engage people in conversation and relate everyday activities to spiritual truth. He would find them at a well. He would find them in the marketplace. He would find them along the roads. Wherever He went, He’d start engaging people in spiritual conversation. He’d make applications of spiritual truth to some activity of their life. And you know, we can do that with people.
In fact, that’s what God told Moses to tell the children of Israel: how to pass on their faith to their children, in Deuteronomy 6:7: “When you get up in the morning, when you walk by the way, and when you sit down in the evening, and when you lie down, always be teaching your children My word.” In other words, in the average daily course of life, share God’s truth with your children. That’s a good way to do it with people. Amen? We can always find some place or point of contact with people.
My wife and I try to make a practice when we go out to eat somewhere at a restaurant, and we sit down and a waiter or waitress comes. We’ll give the order, and when they bring the order back, I usually say to the waitress something of this nature: “We’re going to pray for our food. When we pray for our food, is there anything I can pray for you about?” And you would be surprised at the response that I get much of the time. I’ve had waitresses in tears. In fact, just recently, we were in a restaurant and I was there, I think with Brother Brad and Brother Nate Hesse, and we were having breakfast together. We asked the waitress, “Can we pray for you?” And she was just almost overcome. She said, “Yes, I need prayer for my teenage son.” And can I stay and listen? I said, “Of course you can.” And we prayed for her son and for her, and I think that’s very important.
Again, I was going to say this at the beginning, and my brain outran my mouth, which is very seldom; usually my mouth outruns my brain. But I forgot to say this earlier, Dolly, I have missed you so much. Dolly took very seriously the calling of God to keep me humble.
So you know, I’m like many people that when I would be given a prayer request, somebody said, “Pastor, would you pray about this?” I’d say, “Yes, I’ll pray about that.” And then as soon as I turned and walked away, I’d forget. Not intentionally, but just because of my mind being what it is. I forget. And then I realized that it’s not good to tell people you’re going to pray for them and then not follow through. So I started a practice when people would come to me and say, “Can we would you pray with me about something?” Usually it’s a family or relationship issue; it’s maybe a health issue. It could be a sin, a besetting sin they’re struggling with. I said, “Well, let’s pray right now.” And we’d stop right there and pray because I didn’t want to be guilty of telling them I would pray and then not praying for them.
Now I’ve made it a part of my morning devotions. I have a prayer journal. You can buy a journal anywhere. I have one that I’ve just written on the outside: a prayer journal. And every morning, if somebody gives me a prayer request, I write it down in this journal, and then I’ve divided it into seven different sections. So each day of the week, I can focus on different prayer needs. One day it’s my family; one day it’s my friends in ministry; another day it’s missionaries; whatever it might happen to be on that day, I focus on that particular area of need because I think those prayer requests are very sacred, very important. So I pray for those things.
Jesus would use His head as He would teach; then He would speak from His heart; He would preach. It says that He was preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He spoke the word from His heart. You know, I was told years ago that a sermon that’s prepared in the head will reach another head. If you preach, if you prepare the sermon in your heart and your emotions, you’ll reach somebody’s emotions. But if you prepare it before God in your soul, you’ll reach another soul.
God’s Son came and He used His head, He used His heart, He spoke from the heart. It says that He preached the gospel of the kingdom—that means to proclaim as a herald. A herald in those days was somebody who was officially sent out with news from the king or from the government. They would go to the marketplace or public square, and they would cry aloud. You know, preachers have big mouths, big voices. Okay, Dolly, I was waiting for you. I was teeing that one up for you, all right?
We have big mouths, but that’s part of the gift of God to us. My wife says, “Honey, you don’t have to shout.” I said, “I’m not shouting; I’m using my preacher voice.” Every time you listen to your pastor or someone appointed to speak to you, you’re hearing an announcement from the King.
These heralds would go and they would give imperial announcements, municipal news, official decrees, and they were usually very important for the people to listen to. And so it ought to be enough to get your attention to know that there’s a message from the King for you this morning. Now He’s standing there preaching in public, and what is He heralding? He’s not heralding seven habits of successful people. Not some new phrase or phase of popular psychology, not five ways to positive thinking. No, the text tells us He was preaching the gospel, the good news of the kingdom.
The world can find all kinds of psychological help from other books. They can turn on Oprah or Dr. Phil or whoever’s out there now. I don’t even know if they’re still on there or not. But whoever’s out there, they can give all kinds of psychological help, but only the word of God can give us God’s answers for our problems. We need to preach the good news of the gospel of the kingdom of God.
He was teaching, He was preaching, but He was also reaching. He was reaching out His hand—from His head, in His heart, and out through His hands. He was reaching by healing. It says, “And healing every sickness and every disease among the people.” The word healing there is therapeuo. And obviously, you can almost hear it right there in that Greek word. It’s the same term that we get therapy from. There was something therapeutic about the very presence of Jesus Christ in somebody’s life.
People need people. A little boy called out one night, “Mommy, I’m scared. Can you come to my room?” “Johnny, don’t worry. Jesus is with you.” A few minutes passed. He said, “Mommy, I need somebody with skin on.” Amen?
Our world—it’s good to tell them Jesus cares, but sometimes they need somebody with skin on. They need somebody to come into their life that will touch them. Jesus didn’t stay within the little holy huddle of His twelve disciples. There were important times for that, but by and large, He was out there among the people in the villages and the cities. As the disciples saw Him laboring, teaching, preaching, and reaching, they also began to understand His perception of a dire situation. Something was motivating their Lord to do this, and we see in verse 36: “But when He saw the multitude, He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted, and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.”
If you mark your Bible—and that’s a practice I do all the time—underline or circle two words in that verse: saw and moved. When He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion. Jesus never merely looked at the crowds. He saw them. He looked and He really saw the individuals. He didn’t just see a big group of people.
We live in crowded urban areas, don’t we? Have you ever driven in St. Charles County? There’s a lot of people out there, and they’re all maniacs except me. Anybody who’s driving faster than me is a maniac. Anybody who’s driving slower than me is a moron. The truth is, I’m the only one that knows how to drive out there. I’m sure they’ve got their own opinions about my driving, so we won’t go there.
You know, we live in a crowded world; we fight traffic. Soon we’ll be Christmas shopping in crowded stores and malls. Young people attend crowded schools, with hallways full during passing time between classes. Families go to massive entertainment and sporting events. How many of you have gone to a Cardinals game this year? Sorry, it’s not been the greatest season, has it? But every time I go to a Cardinals game or a football game, I see that massive stadium full of people. I think, “Boy, I’d like to have a microphone for 10 minutes and address these people,” because when I see a crowd like that, the vendors see dollar signs, the owners of the team see dollar signs, television stations see ratings as they see all the people there.
But when we look at crowds, we ought to see souls. Jesus saw souls. When you look, do you see people as God sees them? And what happened when He saw the multitudes? How do we know that He was looking at more than just the surface? He was moved with compassion. That is, literally, His insides were wrenched. His insides just did the flip-flop as He looked at those crowds. They were wrenched.
He didn’t merely feel pity and say, “It’s so sad that these people are in this condition.” He was moved to do something. When we are moved, when we really understand the situation, we will be moved to action. Because here’s the reason—they were as sheep. Being compared to a sheep is not the most flattering association Jesus could have made. Maybe when I say sheep, you automatically think of cute little fluffy animals, but I want you to stop for a minute and consider where sheep fall on the survival scale. Where are they on the food chain in the animal kingdom?
If you want an argument against the Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest, just do a study on sheep. In the Animal World Olympics, they come in dead last in just about every category. They can’t run, they can’t fly, they can’t swim, they can’t fight, and they have no camouflage. All they do is eat and get fluffy. They are easy pickings in a world full of predators.
That’s how Jesus saw the multitudes. As He looked at them, He saw that they were worn down; they fainted. That means they were ready to give up. They were exhausted. This is a stressed-out, exhausted world. Life just keeps coming and keeps coming. Someone recently said the problem with life is it’s so daily. You know, it just keeps coming.
People are working longer hours, traveling faster, accumulating more possessions, pursuing pleasure, and have less to show for it. America is one of the richest nations in the world, and we have one of the highest rates of depression of any nation in the world. Why? Because those things are not bringing fulfillment. Climbing the ladder doesn’t always mean that you’re going to have a better life.
It’s a very vivid picture of being without hope. Today, more and more people are fainting. They’re giving up on their marriages, their jobs, their dreams, their hope of finding any real meaning in life.
Then not only are they exhausted and worn down, they’re wandering aimlessly; they were scattered abroad. Many animals that God created have amazing homing and tracking instincts. Not sheep. They are nearsighted and dumb as a sack of hammers. They’re so short-sighted, they’ll pursue what’s immediately in front of them until they’re completely separated from the flock. They go, “Oh, more grass, bam, bam.” “Oh, pretty flower, b, b, b.” “Oh, another patch of grass, meh, meh, meh.” “Oh, more, meh, meh, meh.” Pretty soon, nearsighted sheep look up and go, “Where am I?”
They can’t find their way back to the flock, and they can’t see. They’re easy pickings for predators. They get away from the rest of the flock—not that the rest of the flock could help them out a whole lot anyway. But they’re all by themselves and easily picked off. That’s just like human beings. Sheep are pretty dumb, right? But how about us human beings? We get attracted by what’s in front of us. We’re pretty nearsighted. We’re just living for the immediate. “Oh, look, I really need that.” “Take out my credit card. I’ll buy that.” And then we go a little further. “Oh, that looks like that group’s having fun. I think I’ll go join them.” Then pretty soon we’re just following what’s right in front of us, and we’re so far out that we’re totally lost.
That makes Isaiah’s words in Isaiah 53:6 very relevant: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” We have gotten ourselves so far away from God, so far away from the real meaning of life. The only hope for us is to have a shepherd. And these sheep had no shepherd—having no shepherd. They’re without protection or guidance.
The only reason I can possibly see that such survival-challenged animals have lasted is that God created them to be cared for. I believe they were God’s great illustration to us in mankind. That was the reason for our Lord’s compassion, why He was so moved. He knew these vulnerable and weary people had no shepherd to care for them, and without intervention, they were sure to perish.
But wait a minute. Jesus is talking to Jewish people, right? This crowd, the multitude beyond the circle of disciples, were Jews. And He says, “They have no shepherd.” Well, the Jews had rabbis, scribes, Pharisees, priests—all those people described in the Old Testament as shepherds. What does Jesus mean by “They had no shepherd”?
Well, they had, to be sure, the spiritual leaders of the nation, but they could only offer them religion, not relief. Without getting too deep into religious profiteers that were just out to fleece the flock, the most sincere teachers of the law could only add to the burden of the people. The law was never given to show us the way to salvation. The law shows us how short we come of the perfection of God. All that Israel’s religion was teaching them was “Do this, do this, do this,” and they were failing constantly.
When we come to missions time and the topic of missions, some people say, “Why bother all these other people and the other religions? Why do we need to go take them Christianity? If we’re just taking them another religion, we shouldn’t go.” They do have religion. I agree. But they don’t have a relationship with a living God. What we need to go and give them is not another religion; we need to give them the gospel of Jesus Christ, the grace of God that will give them rest from the struggles of their life.
Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.” We know there’s religion in this world, but people desperately need a relationship with a living God. So with so many broken and suffering people that Jesus looks around and sees this multitude, it raises the problem of a deficiency in servants.
Verse 37: “Then He said unto His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few.’” Here is the burden that rested so heavily on the Lord’s soul that He requested that we join Him in prayer. Jesus said, “Listen, this harvest is so big that there need to be more people gathering it.” The harvest is large.
Brad was talking about my burden for missions, and anybody who is a member of this church knows that is where my heart really is—I really have a heart for missions. Someone might say, “Well, where did that come from?” Where did that sprout? I was thinking about that the other day.
In 1973, I was a teenager attending a church where they had a missions conference. I don’t remember the exact theme, but it had to be something about sending the light because somebody had built a lighthouse and put it on the communion table with a bulb inside that flashed constantly. They put a little sign on the front of the communion table that said, “Every time this light flashes, two souls go out into eternity.” I don’t remember who the missionaries were, or the message, I just remember that flashing light sitting there, thinking about how people are dying and going into eternity, and most of them never hearing a clear presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I looked it up to share this burden with you: from the time Brother Brad greeted you this morning to when we say amen and head over to have the harvest feast in approximately an hour or so, 7,000 people in this world will die. That’s 117 every minute, two every second—two people step out into eternity every two seconds that we sit here. Sadly, many of them will never hear a clear presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Again, part of my 95% of my brain being song lyrics: Untold millions are still untold, untold millions are outside the fold. Who will tell them of Jesus’ love, of heavenly mansions waiting above? Jesus calls to you and me to go and bring them in, for untold millions are still untold.
We have a responsibility. But you know something? 7,000 people every hour dying—don’t worry, we’re not about to run out of people. Because to balance that out, in the same period, 15,000 babies will be born in the next hour. So 7,000 will die, 15,000 will be born. We’re gaining about 1,000 every hour. That’s why the population of the world is still expanding and growing.
Sadly, many of those 15,000 babies born will live weary, aimless, vulnerable lives and die, going out into a Christless eternity. It’s mind-boggling when you get statistics thrown at you. The problem with these statistics is it’s hard to wrap your brain around those kinds of numbers.
You start talking about the national debt. Was it Senator Ever Dirksen talking about government spending? He said, “A million here and ten thousand there, sooner or later, it adds up to real money.” And that’s about where we are with our national debt. It really adds up. It’s hard to wrap your brain around these huge figures.
If I were to stand here this morning and tell you, in the next hour, some classmate of yours, some neighbor, some family member is going to die and step out into eternity, it ought to affect our hearts. If we just knew one. But there are thousands and thousands dying without hearing about Jesus Christ—and yet we’re not moved. That makes the problem even worse.
Jesus said, “The harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few.” There’s a deficiency in the number of servants.
As I was preparing this message, I called the missions office down in Springfield, Missouri, and asked for some statistics about the need for missionaries. They supplied me with some that just knocked me back: of all the mission agencies combined—Baptist Mid-Missions, Word of Life Missions (that’s what JD belongs to), New Tribes, and others—every year, 10,000 missionaries leave the field.
Folks, that’s tragic. Some leave because they die—they have no choice. Some because they’ve gotten sick and have to come back to the States. Some because of discouragement and defeat. Some because they got disqualified because Satan set a trap and they fell into it. But 10,000 missionaries every year leave the field.
And the number of people applying to go to the mission field is getting less and less every year. That means the gap is getting wider and wider between those who know the gospel and those who need the gospel. Folks, that’s why missions is so important. That’s why Project 9:38 is so important. We need to pray that the Lord of Harvest would send forth laborers.
That was Jesus’ answer to the problem. We say, “Man, what a big problem.” And it is; it’s huge when you stop and let your mind dwell on some of those figures. What are we to do? That’s what my friend John Connor was doing in an airport in Tokyo. I’ve been in that airport.
John was there on a layover, visiting some missionaries abroad. He was in Tokyo airport, masses of people passing him, and he was thinking about how many missionaries were leaving the field and how few were coming on. “Lord, what are we going to do?” God impressed Matthew 9:38 on his heart and said, “That’s what we need. We need prayer.”
That was Jesus’ answer. You know, for most of us, our last resort is prayer. “I’ve done everything else I know to do. Let’s pray.” But for Jesus, it was His first recourse. We have a problem, what do we do? We pray. We don’t leave it to the last. We do it up front. He said, “Pray the Lord of harvest.” This is God’s harvest, God’s world, these are people He cares about. We need to be praying that the Lord would send reapers into His field, laborers into His field.
Jesus didn’t ask us to recruit the workers. He didn’t ask us to go on a big recruiting campaign. I’m not here this morning to lay a guilt trip on you, though I have prayed that God might use this message to put a burning concern on your heart about the plight of world missions. But you know, if you are pastor-called or daddy-sent, when things get tough, you’ll quit. The call has to come from God.
So He didn’t ask us to recruit workers. You know, I pray all the time that God will give us new missionaries with a burden so heavy that they just must go and keep going to the field. He didn’t ask that we pray for better programs. Pray the Lord of harvest and He’ll give you a better harvesting program.
There are already programs in place at this church. Can I get nosy a little bit and stick my nose in your business? There are already programs at place even in this church that lack workers. We have the programs, the missions agencies. We need the personnel. We need the people who say, “Here am I; send me.”
Now I realize some of us are not as young as we used to be, Dolly. I was going to beat you to the punch, but maybe we can’t physically do all the things we used to do. But we can pray. We can be involved someplace.
If I know Brother Brad, I know his heart. He’ll have some outreach plan coming up maybe by the end of the month or so—some outreach. And I know how we are. “Yeah, they’re going to hand out candy and tracts and stuff to kids. I’ll just buy a bag of candy and put it in the barrel. And there, that’ll satisfy Brother Brad.”
But what about giving some time, a smiling face, and a warm heart to help hand out that candy to some kid? Amen? Some of you could be helping in Sunday school. “Oh, preacher, that’s for younger people.” Some of you love your grandkids, you just can’t stop bragging about them, you love them, you spend time with them, and you’re so glad when they go home. You know, you have a quiet house again. But some kids don’t have a grandma and grandpa that knows Jesus. You could be volunteering to help in those areas.
I think it’s very interesting. Jesus said, “Pray that the Lord of Harvest would send forth.” That word send is a very forceful word. Now in the book of Acts, when the church at Antioch sent out Paul and Barnabas, it meant they released them to go. They released them from their duties in the church. They were busy in their local church. The church sent them out, and they got behind them financially so they could afford to go. That was their sending.
But the word that Matthew uses here—that the Lord of the Harvest would send forth laborers—is a very forceful word. It means to thrust with force. It’s the same word that was used when Jesus thrust the money changers out of the temple. He physically began to take them out of the temple. It was a very forceful word.
Now, if Brother, what’s your name, Brad? Brother Brad suddenly decided he’d had enough of my preaching up here, and he designated a couple of fellows—Brother Dan, Bill, and a few others—and said, “Guys, get him out of here.” And they took me and thrust me out the door. I wouldn’t have a whole lot of decision in that matter, would I? I feel like God is leading me to leave, but about that time, somebody was holding my collar and someone else got a hold of my belt, and they were throwing me out the door. And the word here literally means that God would put such an impulse in that person’s heart that they would have to do it. That’s what He means. God will send forth laborers into His field.
I’ve often been asked, “How do you know if God is calling you into His service?” Good question. Many teenagers ask me that. Some adults ask the same question: “How do you know if God is calling you into service?” Well, that’s a pretty complicated question to go into. It’s not in the parameters of the message today. God deals with us as individuals. It may be a little different for each other.
But my response always is, if God is calling you, you will have an impulse in your heart that you can’t do anything else. God puts it in your heart. Someone said, “If God calls you to preach, you can do anything else—do it. But when God puts preach in your heart, you’ve got to do it.”
I told my wife many times, she loves me. God has given me such a wonderful helper. She is the best part of me. Thank you, Dolly. I was expecting that, and I was hoping for that. She has been there to encourage me in some really down times. But I said, “Honey, as much as you love me, you don’t fully understand the call to preach in my heart. What God puts there, I can never be happy unless I’m able to share that gospel with others.”
God puts that in our heart and our life.
How can I know if God has called me? Dr. Jack Baskin, a former foreign missionary and director of the BBFI missions, used to say every preacher has received a divine calling, a commission to go. Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” The word “ye,” if you have a King James Bible, is plural. Words that start with “y” are plural—go ye into all the world. He’s talking to all His disciples.
When it starts with a “T,” it’s thy or thee—it’s talking about the individual. So when Jesus said, “Go ye into all the world,” He said, “Go all of you. Every one of you, everybody—everybody’s called.” You don’t have to have a special call; you’re already called to go.
Bob Hughes, another of my missionary heroes, missionary to the Philippines, did an outstanding work there, would say, and I’ve heard him preach this, “If you’re waiting for a call, give me your phone number and you’ll get one.” Amen?
There is a call. The question is not if we should go but where are we to go? It’s not if I should be a missionary, but where should I be a missionary? For some of you, it may be across the sea, across the state, or even across the street. But we are called to go with the gospel.
The question is, “Does God want me to be a missionary here in America or on a foreign field?” God has called us all to this burden of missions. And you know what I have discovered? If you’re earnestly, sincerely, authentically praying for something, at the same time you’re willing to say, “God, if I am the answer to this prayer, please open the door for me and show me You’re willing to use me. Not just ask God to plug somebody else in.” Are you willing to go?
Because He’s telling His disciples right now, “Pray the Lord of Harvest, He’d send forth laborers.” They’re going to jump down one verse after verse 38. And you’ll see in chapter 10, verse 1, “And when He had called unto him His twelve disciples, He gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast out, and to heal all manner of sickness, all manner of disease; and He commissioned them to go out.”
In other words, “Guys, pray for this. Guess what? Tag, you’re it. You’re the ones. You’re going.”
I want to leave you with this challenge, really a four-pronged challenge on 9:38 Sunday. Will you share this burden with the Lord? First of all, a few of you may be challenged to go. Perhaps it’s no further than next door to invite your neighbor to come hear a man who changed my life. Or it may involve going to your pastor and saying, “Pastor Brad, here am I. Where do you need workers? Help in a Sunday school? Organize Operation Christmas Child? Maybe pack some boxes, keep the mission apartment clean and stocked?” Or really, you could be daring and say, “Do the teens need a place to meet? Would you be willing to open your home?”
Brother Brad asked me that about a month ago. He said, “Oh by the way,” and I said, “If you ever need any help, I’m not that far away. I’m willing to help you out. I’m not going to butt my nose in unless you ask me to help.” He said, “Well, now that you mention it, the teens are going to have an activity, a progressive dinner. Would you be willing to host one of those stops?” Me and my big mouth, right? But that’s what I’m here for.
Some of you or a few of you may feel God tugging at your heart to go. It may be to your neighbor or a family member. Most of you can give. I know this is Faith Promise Sunday. Some of you have been asked to pray about what you would give, and you’ve been kind of praying about it a little bit, hoping to keep things low. Maybe you’re not going to turn in a commitment card and say, “Maybe if I can get past this Sunday, Pastor, Jesus will forget it, and I’ll be off the hook.”
But you know, it’s your privilege to have a part in this worldwide mission. Every time I see a missionary, every time I still get missionary letters in email, and I hear about people being saved, I realize we’ve had a part in that. It may only be quarters or dollars that you’re putting in, but missionaries are able to buy tracts, hand out Bibles, host vacation Bible schools, and people are coming to know Christ as a result of those offerings you give. I think that’s a tremendous blessing. Amen? To be able to take part in that.
A few may go, most of you could give, every one of us can pray. Look around your world and ask God to allow you to see as He sees. Be prepared. You may be burdened to go or to give, but all of us can pray. A few of us can go, more of us can give, all of us can pray.
And fourthly: Are you a weary, wayward sheep, without a caring shepherd? You came into this place, and as I talked about the sheep getting further and further away, you kind of reflect on your life and say, “That sounds a little bit like my life. The more I try to get things together, the farther away from happiness I am in my life.”
God is the answer. There is a Savior who cares about you. There’s a Shepherd who gave Himself for you. Maybe today you just need to come and say, “I am one of the sheep that’s lost. I need the Savior in my life today.”
Let’s stand together with our heads bowed.
Father, we thank you for this time in your word. I pray, Lord, that the Holy Spirit would do His work in hearts and lives, that You would be the one who would send forth laborers. There’s somebody, Father, that knows there’s a lost person, a wandering person they know about. They need to be speaking a word to them. I pray that the burden would be on their heart that they can’t get away from it. God, that You would send them into the harvest fields.
We pray for those who have been praying about giving, that, Lord, they would realize they can be part of this worldwide endeavor of reaching souls for Christ, if they would just trust You, Father, by faith, to commit to give to the missions program of this church.
Father, we ask You to have Your way in this invitation time. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
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