Here is one thing you’ll NEVER have to pray for S31e124 Matt9:38

There is one thing you will NEVER have to pray for: the numbers of the harassed, sick, afflicted, and shepherdess. Why? Because their numbers are already PLENTIFUL.

What is not exactly plentiful are the numbers of those full of compassion and willingness to be sent. Pray earnestly with me to the Lord to send out laborers into His harvest! You don't have to pray for more lost.  There are plenty of those...;-)

https://youtu.be/TnQjA8kAtTQ

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning, my brothers and sisters, on this beautiful morning. There's one thing that you're never gonna have to pray for. We're gonna find out about it in our passage in Matthew chapter 9. There's this harvest in our passage. What it really means is an abundance of people. Now, what kind of people are we talking about? People that need teaching, people that are sick, people that are afflicted, people that are harassed, and people without a shepherd. Shepherdless sheep. He's gonna ask us in our passage today to pray for people to go out and help them. And he's not gonna ask us to pray for more of those people of the sick, afflicted, harassed, shepherdless sheep. Why? Because he tells us there's plenty of them. That harvest is plentiful. So motivating all of this is this compassion, and the Lord's gonna demonstrate that. He has compassion, and so should we, I think is the implication. So watch who is being identified in our passage in Matthew 9 as harassed, troubled, bothered, annoyed. This is from Matthew chapter 9, verse 35. And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. And he said to his disciples, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into this harvest. So if you feel helpless or harassed under your sin, you're actually in good company. This is sort of the way it is supposed to be. Because without that reality, there's no need for a savior. Are you spiritually content and at peace, exerting power when under harassment, or are you like a sheep without a shepherd? I like to think of sheep as basically portable mobile wolf food. Yesterday we looked at the word compassion, the Greek word splanktosomi, which refers to your gut. It means I have you in my heart. That's how we would say it. But they say it, I have you in my intestines, I have you in my guts, and my vowels, and my viscera. Basically, it means I feel deep pity for you. I'm moved, I feel and am moved with compassion towards you. It's a beautiful word. So we would say, I have you in my heart, they would say I have you in my bowels. Now, an uh numerical identification in our passage today is plentifulness. The harvest is plentiful. Well, what harvest? It's the harvest of the crowd that needs compassion, the harassed, helpless, the sheep without a shepherd. Just emphasizing again that sheep are meant to have shepherds, the organizational structure of a bunch of sheep without a shepherd, you know, it hardly even makes sense. Sheep are built to be in need of a shepherd. And if you know this, there's no problem. If you've never heard this, or you know, you'll as a sheep or a group of sheep, you'll be flailing around for months or years, frustrated, looking for leadership, lacking leadership. Is sheep leadership isn't even a thing? I don't think it is. That's why they need a shepherd. All right, the point, one of the points from our passage is that the harvest is plentiful. There's plenty of the harass to help us. The, you know, there's populist numerical shepherdlessness out there. And what is our shaver Savior's response? Well, chapter 9 is all you need to know. He's he's helping people with conquering creation, wind and waves that are out of whack, and leprosy and sickness, and uh isolation and familylessness, um, people that are possessed and oppressed by demons, and then other people that are that are challenged with even death. He fights that in chapter 9 of Matthew. So, what is Jesus' challenge to us? At least today, I think compassion is number one. The Lord starts with compassion, and then he asks us to pray for laborers. Do you pray for your pastor and elders and those on your missionary prayer list, who is on your future missionary prayer list, and maybe knowing anybody you can support in the ministry in their early training? So getting your church leaders, lay evangelists, professional, and part-time missionaries, to have the harassed in their gut. Lord, help us to feel compassion for those that you feel can have felt compassion for. Um, the shepherdless sheep. Get those people into our intestines and the helpless into our bowels. Get these people into our heart first first, and then he can help us with some of the practical stuff. So the Lord wants those who are sent out to be part of this process. How? Well, being sent out. So he wants them to be compassionate to the lost. He wants those who are sending the sent out to be part of the process. How? Pray earnestly to the Lord, recognize his lordship over the laborers, over the harvest, and over the whole process. It's this today's command really is to ask for more, more laborers, more harvest. Um, one thing you don't have to ask for is more lost. There's plenty of those. So this is one thing of interest that scripture tells us you never have to pray for, which is the quantity of the lost, the harvest, the afflicted, the sick, the untaught, the harassed, the helpless, and the shepherdless sheep. There's plenty of them. Our task today is to pray and participate in this process of having compassion and sending out the laborers. So again, does your church have a way to champion this sending out process? Champion people that are sent out, honoring the young evangelists or the pre evangelists. And who can you pray for right now in your church, as is commanded in the passage? A laborer who goes out into this plentiful far harvest of the sick, the afflicted, the untaught, and the shepherdless sheep. Let's pray for them now.