SPEAKER_00: You know what breaks my heart?
SPEAKER_00: Not the tragedies that make the evening news, those break everyone's heart.
SPEAKER_00: What breaks my heart as a pastor are invisible wounds.
SPEAKER_00: The young adult that came to see me who does not see their worth.
SPEAKER_00: Pressure to succeed, pressure to fit in, pressure to become someone, pressure to find the mate, the self-loathing, the emptiness they feel, a sense of brokenness.
SPEAKER_00: The young mother who loves her family deeply but feels like she's drowning.
SPEAKER_00: She feels misunderstood, unappreciated, her marriage is just okay.
SPEAKER_00: She feels alone and mentally exhausted.
SPEAKER_00: The husband who goes to work every day, pays the bills, keeps moving forward, but feels angry all the time.
SPEAKER_00: He struggles with lust and temptations and feels inadequate.
SPEAKER_00: The widow learning how to live with an empty side of the bed, everyone tells her to be strong.
SPEAKER_00: Some suggest even to date again.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone tells her that she's doing well.
SPEAKER_00: But there are moments when the silence is almost unbearable.
SPEAKER_00: And most of the time her emptiness has nothing to do with her loss, but the uncertainty and having to live in a world among the living where the lives and meaning where others have seem to have purpose and meaning.
SPEAKER_00: The elderly man or woman who spent a lifetime serving others but now quietly wonder if they still matter.
SPEAKER_00: The phone rings less.
SPEAKER_00: Being sick or having pains and having to depend on others for simple chores is exhausting.
SPEAKER_00: The world seems to move on without them.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps the hardest part of all of this is that most of them will never tell anyone that they're struggling.
SPEAKER_00: They will smile, they will show up, they will tell everyone that they're fine, and they will carry along, carrying the wounds in silence.
SPEAKER_00: But Jesus sees them.
SPEAKER_00: He sees every hidden tear, every burden nobody notices.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus sees them, he does not look away, he is moved with compassion, his heart is stirred.
SPEAKER_00: Today in the gospel it tells us something extraordinary.
SPEAKER_00: When Jesus looked out into the crowds, he was moved with pity, it tells us.
SPEAKER_00: But unfortunately, the English translation does not quite capture the force of what Matthew was trying to say.
SPEAKER_00: The Greek word used here is one of the strongest emotional words.
SPEAKER_00: It means that Jesus was moved in the depths of his being.
SPEAKER_00: This gut-wretching pain.
SPEAKER_00: His heart was stirred, his insides were shaken, he felt their suffering almost physically.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a distant God.
SPEAKER_00: This is not a God watching humanity from a safe distance.
SPEAKER_00: This is not God who merely acknowledges our pain.
SPEAKER_00: This is God who enters into it.
SPEAKER_00: A God who sees the wounds nobody else sees.
SPEAKER_00: A God who notices the tears that never leave your eyes, a God whose heart breaks for what breaks yours.
SPEAKER_00: Why was he moved?
SPEAKER_00: Well, because the people were, he says, troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: Doesn't that describe our world today?
SPEAKER_00: We're the most connected generation in human history, yet loneliness has become an epidemic.
SPEAKER_00: We have more technology than ever before and less peace.
SPEAKER_00: More information and less wisdom, more entertainment and less joy, more followers but fewer real friendships.
SPEAKER_00: We're drowning in noise while starving for meaning.
SPEAKER_00: We are sheep looking for a shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: But here is where the gospel becomes dangerous.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does not simply feel compassion and walk away.
SPEAKER_00: He does not shrug his shoulder and say, What a shame I feel for them.
SPEAKER_00: He does not hold a conference, he does not hold a committee.
SPEAKER_00: He mobilizes.
SPEAKER_00: He tells us the harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does not say the harvest is small.
SPEAKER_00: He does not say people are not interested.
SPEAKER_00: He does not say nobody wants God anymore.
SPEAKER_00: He says to them, The harvest is abundant.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, people are hungry.
SPEAKER_00: Hungry for meaning, hungry for hope, hungry for truth, hungry for purpose, hungry for someone to tell them that their life matters, hungry for someone to show them that God is real and alive.
SPEAKER_00: The problem is not the harvest, the problem is the laborers.
SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus says something fascinating.
SPEAKER_00: He tells the disciples to pray that the master of the harvest send laborers into his harvest.
SPEAKER_00: And before they could even finish praying, Jesus points directly at them.
SPEAKER_00: The answer to the prayer was standing right in front of him.
SPEAKER_00: And who were these laborers?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Peter, who constantly put his foot in his mouth, Matthew the tax collector, whom everyone despised, Thomas, who would doubt, Simon the zealot, the political radical, and Judas, who did betray him.
SPEAKER_00: Not exactly an all-star team, which should be tremendously encouraged for and encouraging for the rest of us.
SPEAKER_00: Because one of the greatest lies we tell ourselves is this God could never use me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not holy enough.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not educated enough.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have those gifts.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not spiritual enough.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not ready.
SPEAKER_00: Yet the entire history of salvation tells us a different story.
SPEAKER_00: Moses stuttered.
SPEAKER_00: Jeremiah was afraid.
SPEAKER_00: Peter was impulsive.
SPEAKER_00: Paul persecuted Christians.
SPEAKER_00: Imagine the daughter of one man who Paul went into their house and dragged that man into the street, and that man was taken away.
SPEAKER_00: What do you think that girl would say about Paul?
SPEAKER_00: He's a Christian.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, you are now a changed man.
SPEAKER_00: And yet God uses all of them.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does not call the qualified, he qualifies the call.
SPEAKER_00: The saints were not superheroes.
SPEAKER_00: They were ordinary men and women who had the courage to say yes.
SPEAKER_00: But then Jesus says something that should stop every single one of us.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Without cost you have received.
SPEAKER_00: Without cost, you are to give.
SPEAKER_00: Everything you have is a total and complete gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: Your faith, your family, your talents, your possessions, your opportunities, your second chances, these are all gifts from God.
SPEAKER_00: You didn't earn any of it.
SPEAKER_00: You received it.
SPEAKER_00: And because you received it, it cannot stop with you.
SPEAKER_00: It has to pass through you.
SPEAKER_00: That's discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: A disciple is someone who receives the love of Christ and then becomes a channel of that love for someone else.
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask you a question this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Who has influenced your life for the better?
SPEAKER_00: Think of that one person.
SPEAKER_00: For most of us, it wasn't a celebrity, it wasn't a politician, it wasn't an athlete, it wasn't a billionaire, it was one person.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps it was a parent, a teacher, a coach, a priest, a mentor, a friend, someone who took interest in you, someone who took the time to listen, someone who believed in you, someone who showed up when they didn't have to, someone who loved you when you needed it most.
SPEAKER_00: Most lives are changed not by grand gestures, but by faithful presence.
SPEAKER_00: And that means every person sitting here today has the power to change someone else's life.
SPEAKER_00: This week.
SPEAKER_00: Not next year.
SPEAKER_00: This week.
SPEAKER_00: A phone call, a conversation, an invitation to mass, a word of encouragement, a decision to forgive, a willingness to listen, a simple act of kindness.
SPEAKER_00: You have no idea what God can do through you through an act of love.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel today is not ultimately about the twelve apostles, it is about us.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus is still looking at the crowds, he still sees the wounds, he still sees the lonely, he still sees the confused, the lost, he sees those who are troubled and abandoned.
SPEAKER_00: He's looking right at us.
SPEAKER_00: And he's still moved with compassion.
SPEAKER_00: Because the heart of Jesus has not changed, neither has his strategy.
SPEAKER_00: He still looks at ordinary people and says, Listen, the harvest is abundant.
SPEAKER_00: And he's looking at you right into your face, and he says, You are the laborers.
SPEAKER_00: Not because you're perfect, not because you have all the answers, not because you have everything figured out.
SPEAKER_00: No, because I have chosen you.
SPEAKER_00: There are people whose lives will never be touched by a bishop.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who will never sit down and speak with a priest.
SPEAKER_00: There are people who will never open the Bible, but they know you.
SPEAKER_00: They work with you.
SPEAKER_00: They live next door to you.
SPEAKER_00: They sit at your dinner table.
SPEAKER_00: They watch how you live.
SPEAKER_00: And for many of them, you may be the closest thing to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That is both a tremendous responsibility and an incredible privilege.
SPEAKER_00: So do not underestimate what God can do with your yes.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel's not asking you to save the whole world, to do these huge heroic acts.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel's asking you to love the person God places in front of you.
SPEAKER_00: One conversation, one invitation, one act of mercy, one witness, one disciple at a time.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's how Christianity changed the world.
SPEAKER_00: One person at a time.
SPEAKER_00: I want to tell you what Jesus has done in my life.
SPEAKER_00: Twelve ordinary men filled with the love of Christ changed history.
SPEAKER_00: And the same Holy Spirit that filled those twelve men has been poured out into you.
SPEAKER_00: The same gospel they preached has been entrusted to you.
SPEAKER_00: The same mission they received has also been given to you.
SPEAKER_00: The harvest is still abundant.
SPEAKER_00: The world is still hungry.
SPEAKER_00: People are still searching.
SPEAKER_00: People are still waiting.
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps today Jesus is not asking whether the harvest is ready.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps he's asking whether you are.
SPEAKER_00: That's the mystery of discipleship.
SPEAKER_00: God sees the wounded crowd, his heart is moved with compassion, and then he turns to ordinary people just like you, people sitting in the pews, and he says, Go.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you to go.
SPEAKER_00: Go into the ordinary places where people are carrying the most extraordinary burdens.
SPEAKER_00: Because when ordinary people trust in an extraordinary God, God can then break into this world.
SPEAKER_00: The labors are few.
SPEAKER_00: But may no one leave this church today thinking that Jesus is speaking to someone else.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's speaking to you.
SPEAKER_00: And he's still saying what he said 2,000 years ago.
SPEAKER_00: Go.
SPEAKER_00: Harvest is abundant, but people are hungry.
SPEAKER_00: People are in need.
SPEAKER_00: Just go.
SPEAKER_00: And I promise you, you will be the answer to someone's prayers.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.