Our passage this morning is found in the ninth
chapter of Matthew, beginning at verse 35 to
the end of the chapter. It says, Then Jesus went
about all the cities and villages, teaching in
their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the
kingdom, and healing every sickness and every
disease among the people. But when he saw the
multitudes, he was moved with compassion for
them. Because they were weary and scattered,
like sheep having no shepherd. Then he said to
his disciples, The harvest truly is plentiful,
but the labors are few. Therefore pray the Lord
of the harvest to send out labors into his harvest.
Let's pray. God, would you help us this morning,
Lord, as we bow before you, Lord. Desiring very
intently, Lord, to not only hear from heaven
through your word, but through the eyes of faith
to see Jesus, Lord, as the only hope. Lord, help
us to behold him better and to grow in our assurance
of who he is. And we ask this in his name, the
name of Jesus we pray. Amen. I've heard many
different preachers on different occasions say
that evangelism is simply one beggar telling
another beggar where to find bread. I tried to
find the origin of that quote, and no one really
knows. But one version has it going all the way
back to Martin Luther in the 1500s. So I don't
know where it comes from, and it really doesn't
matter. But it is a good summary of what evangelism
is. Now, when we talk about evangelism, what
do we mean? Well, when you take the word gospel,
and gospel means good news, the Greek word for
gospel is euangelion. Euangelion. And then from
there, it was transliterated, not translated.
They just made it. They just put it in the same
sound. Transliterated into Latin as Evangelium.
From Latin into English as Evangel. Now some
of you grew up and you probably heard like Camp
Evangel and you heard of the Evangel. But that's
an old English word. It's the word Gospel. So
Evangelion, Evangelium, and Evangel, Gospel,
whatever word you want to use. They're all synonyms.
And they all mean good news. Now that is your
grammar lesson, I suppose, for this morning.
But I want us to understand what we're talking
about when we say good news. When we talk about
the gospel, it is specifically the salvation
that God offers sinners in his son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. So the one who goes out sharing
the evangel is the evangelist. And the act of
sharing the evangel is evangelism. And in our
text today, we're going to see God's heartbeat.
We're going to see God's true love, as we just
sang about, for the world. We're going to see
his heartbeat for evangelism. If I were to ask
you this morning, where does evangelism begin?
I think most of us, when we think about it, we
would say evangelism takes place or begins when
one starts to proclaim to others the gospel message.
But today we're going to see that evangelism
begins much, much earlier. Evangelism actually
begins on our knees. As Jesus said, the beginning
of evangelism is prayer. You and I, as the people
of God, we are called to pray. Pray to God the
Father that he would raise up human instruments
to go out and proclaim this life -altering, life
-saving, awesome good news of the Son. to the
nations, to the world. Now we're back, we're
in chapter 9, we're in verse 35. And this text
this morning, it summarizes and it ties together
all the loose ends from chapters 5 all the way
through chapter 9. Now this section of Matthew,
and Matthew is broken up pretty cleanly in different
sections, began back in chapter 4, verse 23.
It'll be on the screen here, or on the wall.
Notice the text here, chapter 4, verse 23. And
Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their
synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom,
and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds
of disease among the people. Now notice our text
this morning. Then Jesus went about all the cities
and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching
the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every
sickness and every disease among the people.
These two verses, which essentially say the same
thing, they kind of form bookends to this section.
Chapter 4. It's getting ready to introduce 5.
Chapter 9 ties it up. So when we look at these
chapters, chapters 5 through 9, there is a great
emphasis given in Matthew's gospel to Jesus'
teaching ministry. I mean, three whole chapters,
5, 6, and 7, but also his acts of healing. Now,
in verse 35 of chapter 9, we're told that the
Lord Jesus went about doing three things specifically.
The very first thing, it says he was teaching
in their synagogues. Well, I wonder, what would
he have been teaching? In the synagogue, which
was a place of local worship outside the temple,
Jesus would have taught from the law, the prophets,
and the writings. Those three designations form
the entire Old Testament. He would have explained
how they spoke about him. Now, I can say that
because we have an example of this in Luke chapter
4. In Luke chapter 4, we read these words. So
he, that is Jesus, came to Nazareth. where he
had been brought up, and as his custom was, so
this is what he regularly did, he went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up
to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet
Isaiah. And when he had been opened the book,
now notice he deliberately, so he gets the scroll,
Isaiah's scroll, he finds the place where he
wants to read from. And this is where he read.
Beginning of verse 18. The spirit of the Lord
is upon me. Because he has anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal
the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives, and recovery of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to
proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Now
notice what Jesus did. Then he closed the book.
He closes that scroll. He gives it back to the
attendant who had given it to him. And he sat
down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue
were fixed on him. And he began to say, he began
to teach. And he said to them, today this scripture,
Isaiah, what I just read from, is fulfilled in
your hearing. Who Isaiah was speaking of is now
taking place. So Jesus would go into the synagogues.
He would then take Old Testament scriptures,
read them, and explain their fulfillment in him.
But apart from teaching in the synagogues, the
Bible tells us that he also went about preaching.
The gospel of the kingdom. Now the word preaching
here, it's the word keruso, and it literally
is what a king's herald would do. Well, what
would a king's herald do? He would go out before
the king. He was kind of like the mouthpiece
or the spokesperson for the king, and he would
make the decrees of the king known. He would
make a proclamation. Jesus also, he went about
making a proclamation, but what was he proclaiming?
The good news, the gospel. The good news about
the kingdom of God. Now we talked about this
before. The kingdom of God, when you see that,
or the kingdom of heaven as Matthew titles it,
refers to the rule and authority of God. That's
what we're talking about here. Here's the good
news. God's anointed king had arrived. That is
good news. Because with him came God's reign
of salvation and restoration, which was now breaking
into the world through Christ. And since God's
kingdom was here and the king had arrived, the
people were called to repent. Thirdly, he started
to heal every sickness and disease. Now again,
guys, why was he doing this? He was preaching
something extraordinary. He was proclaiming that
the reign of God was breaking into the world.
Now, if I'm telling you, hey, the reign of God
has come upon you, the rule and authority and
reign of God is coming into the world right now,
there better be something to back it up. There
better be some evidence to back up those claims.
Hence, we see the miracles. The Lord Jesus then
went all over Galilee, that's northern Israel,
and what was he doing? Miracle. after miracle.
He was performing many miracles. And what were
they doing? Two things. They, first of all, authenticated
his message and his identity. Secondly, though,
they were signs. The miracles were not haphazards.
They were signs pointing to his mission. They
were showing how the kingdom of God was in breaking
into the world. What do I mean? Jesus had come
to restore all that sin had broken. He had come
to bring The word shalom. Shalom is a Hebrew
word and we know it means peace. If you go to
Israel and they will greet you with shalom. But
it doesn't mean peace like absence of conflict.
The word shalom means wholeness. Everything is
operating as it should operate. Jesus had come
to bring wholeness, shalom, back to the created
order. And his miracles were attesting to that.
For example. Where there was sickness, that came
because of sin, he's bringing healing, the kingdom
of God. Where there was injury, he's bringing
repair, the kingdom of God. Where there is suffering,
brought in by sickness, Jesus is bringing relief,
the kingdom of God. Where there was death, Jesus
is bringing resurrection. You start to see what
he was doing. He is transforming the chaos of
the world. Into the kingdom of God. The first
Adam, through his rebellion and disobedience,
brought sin into the world and with sin came
brokenness. The world no longer operated with
shalom. It was no longer operating as it was
meant to operate. And now the second Adam, the
Lord Jesus Christ through his obedience, he had
come and he's restoring wholeness and order and
shalom to the world. But you see the priorities
here. There's teaching. Teaching the law, teaching
the prophets. There's preaching, proclaiming
the kingdom, and healing. But all of those were
motivated by his mercy. It tells us he had compassion
for the people. Crowds, great crowds were following
Jesus, perhaps only for the miracles. But Jesus
saw them as sheep who were in danger. They were
in danger because they had no shepherd who was
caring for them. That's where we find verse 36.
But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved
with compassion for them. I love this. They're
weary. They're scattered. They're like sheep
having no shepherd, he said. So these lost sheep
of Israel, they were supposed to have shepherds
who were caring for them. Now, who would have
been the shepherds of Israel at that time? Well,
the religious leaders were supposed to be their
shepherds. The scribes and the Pharisees. But
one of the contrasts that Matthew continually
highlights in his gospel is this stark difference
between Jesus Christ and the religious leaders,
that of the scribes and Pharisees. You're going
to see a stark difference all the time. So the
religious leaders are shown, through Matthew,
to be false shepherds, and Jesus is shown to
be the true good shepherd. Here we find Jesus,
and he's moved. He's moved with compassion for
the people. The Pharisees' friends had contempt
for the people. They saw them and they quote
people of the land is what they would refer to
them. They had contempt for the common people.
The Pharisees were not concerned for anyone who
did not share their same level of religious scruples.
So what the Pharisees would do, instead of moving
toward the people in compassion, they would keep
their distance from the commoners, seeing them
as defiled. They didn't want these defiled people
around them. But then you say, well, what about
the scribes? Scribes and Pharisees were often
at odds. The scribes were no better. The scribes,
when they were like the religious lawyers, they
are the elite. They're the upper crust of society.
They would have been the ruling class, born into
nobility, if you will. But they also had no real
interest in common people whatsoever. And in
fact, these false shepherds, both scribes and
Pharisees, only cared for themselves, for their
position, for their comfort, for their titles.
But that was nothing new. If you go back to the
Old Testament, the whole history of Israel is
replete with examples of self -serving shepherds
who were indifferent to the people they were
called to serve. What we see today in government
is really no different than what's always taken
place. People get in positions of power and prestige,
and instead of serving the people, they serve
themselves. But not Jesus. But that was the false
shepherds here. In fact, we can go back to Ezekiel
chapter 34, and there we see that God issued
a scathing indictment upon the false shepherds
of Israel. I want to show you something, because
I want to show you how there's an indictment
and there's a promise of Ezekiel 34. And the
word of the Lord came to me, that's Ezekiel,
saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds
of Israel. Should not the shepherds feed the
flocks? Of course they should. You eat the fat.
You clothe yourselves with the wool. You're getting
rich off of them. You slaughter the fatlings,
but you do not feed the flock. The weak, they've
ignored. You've not strengthened. Nor have you
healed those who were sick, nor bound up the
broken, nor brought back what was driven away,
nor have you sought what was lost, but rather
with force and cruelty you have ruled them. So
they were scattered, because there was no shepherd.
And they became food for the beasts of the field
when they were scattered. Ah, my sheep, they
wandered through all the mountains and on every
high hill. Yes, my flock was scattered over the
whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking
or searching for them. Let's skip down to verse
9. Therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the
Lord. Thus says the Lord God, behold, I am against
the shepherds, and I will require my flock at
their hand. God was angry. He was angry because
these people who were supposed to be serving
the people were only serving themselves, only
concerned for their own welfare. They were also
characterized by injustice. They didn't help
the sick. They didn't care for the poor. They
didn't do anything that they're required to do.
What's required in a shepherd? To feed and care
for sheep. Instead, they were taking these sheep
and exploiting them, getting rich off of them,
and profiting for their own gain. And God said
the people of Israel then were hurt. So there
was a desperate need of a good shepherd who would
tend and care for them. Well, if the leaders
were failing to do it, what's going to happen?
This is the good news. Here's the promise. God
said, I will come and personally tend to them.
Now, same chapter. Now let's look at verse 11,
if you will. For thus says the Lord God, I love
this. Indeed, I myself will search for my sheep
and seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his
flock on the day he is among the scattered sheep.
So will I seek out my sheep and deliver them
from all the places where they are scattered
on a cloudy and dark day. Go down to verse 14.
Notice the I wills again. I will feed them in
good pasture, and their fold shall be on the
high mountains of Israel. There they shall lie
down in a good fold and feed in rich pasture
on the mountains of Israel. I'm going to take
care of them, God says. Verse 15. I will feed
my flock, and I will make them lie down, says
the Lord God. Fast verse. I will seek. What was
lost? Are you starting to make connections here?
Jesus said, I have come to seek and to seek and...
I have come to seek and to what? Thank you. That's
not a hard verse, by the way, but I just drew
a blank. I have come to seek and to save that
which was lost. I will seek what was lost. I
was just testing you all. That's all I was doing.
Verse 16. I will seek what was lost and bring
back what was driven away, bind up the broken,
strengthen what was sick, but I will destroy
the fat and the strong and feed them in judgment.
Okay. That's Ezekiel. God said something here.
Here's the promise. I'm going to personally come
and I'm going to search and seek for my lost
sheep. I will deliver them. I will feed them.
I will protect them. I will save them. I will
come and bind up their wounds and I will strengthen
the sick. Great promises. What do you see Jesus
doing in Matthew 9? Then Jesus went about all
the cities and villages. He's teaching, he's
preaching and healing every sickness and every
disease. He's doing exactly what Ezekiel said.
God said, I will do it. Jesus is doing it. Make
the connection in your mind here, friends. God
said, I myself will come and do this. Jesus is
doing it. What's the connection? Jesus is God.
Jesus was showing compassion to the people. He's
healing the sick. He's binding up the broken.
And in fact, we read in John chapter 10, verse
11, Jesus says two times. He says, I am the good
shepherd. In Ezekiel 34, God's a good shepherd.
Jesus said, I'm the good shepherd. And the good
shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Verse
14, I'm the good shepherd. And I know my sheep
and I'm known by my own. Jesus would not be another
false shepherd who would take advantage of the
sheep for his gain. Rather, he's the true good
shepherd who would even lay down his life for
them. The word Jesus, friends, was passionate,
consumed with fulfilling his father's plan, which
was what? To rescue the lost sheep, all the lost
sheep that the father had given to him. John
6, verse 39. Jesus said of himself, this is the
will of the father who sent me. Here it is. That
of all he has given me, I should lose nothing,
but I should raise it up at the last day. Jesus
said, I had come to seek and to save that which
was lost. He said, I have come to bring into
one fold all of the lost sheep that my father
had given to me. Jesus will see to it that the
mission of world evangelism is accomplished.
In John, back in Matthew 9, verse 37, he said
to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but
the labors are few. Therefore, you pray that
the Lord of the harvest, that he would send out
labors into his fields, into his harvest. So
the harvest is plentiful. What harvest is he
referring to? He's speaking of the multitudes
that he just looked on with compassion who were
scattered, having no shepherd. The harvest is
all those whom he will gather into God's kingdom.
There are lost sheep that he had come to save,
he said. There were many lost sheep who needed
to hear. And he said there are so few workers
right now to get this done. Now was Jesus only
referring to the lost sheep of Israel? No. How
do I know that? If I go back to John 10 where
he said he's the good shepherd, look at verse
16. He says, speaking to his disciples, and other
sheep I have which are not of this fold, them
also I must bring, and they will hear my voice,
and there will be one flock and one shepherd.
The other sheep who are not of that fold are
they who are outside of Israel. He's referring
to the Gentiles. There are some Gentiles, he
says, I must, notice the language of compulsion,
I must bring them into the kingdom. Why? Now
this is not me. Look at the text. Why must I
bring them to the kingdom? He says, because they
belong to me. Other sheep I have. Not other sheep
I may have or potentially have. Other sheep belong
to me. But they're outside of Israel. And he
says, they're already mine. And I'm going to
bring them in. So there's going to be one fold.
One people of God. Not two. There was a multitude
of Gentiles who belonged to Christ. And he says,
I'm going to ensure that all these lost sheep
are going to come to me and I'm going to save
them and I'm going to bring them into one fold
because this is my father's will. He is referring
to a particular group of sheep who belong to
him. The father gave them to him. And he says,
I've got to bring them in because he's doing
his father's will. Now, let me just ask this.
Why do I say that the father gave them to him?
Because the scripture says it. John 6, 37, it's
not my words, it's his. All that the Father gives
me is going to come to me. And the one who comes
to me, I will receive. I will in no means cast
out. Those whom the Father gave to Christ will
come to Christ. And those who come to Christ
will be received by Christ. And they will be
kept by Christ. Because two verses later, he
says, I don't lose any of them. Verse 39, John
6. He's not speaking abstractly. He's not speaking
hypothetically. He is speaking particularly.
A group of people will come. He doesn't say might
come or hope to come. They will come. They will
hear my voice and they will be brought into the
fold of God. The harvest is the world. The gospel
is for the nations. God has people in every ethnic
group, every ethnos. is the Greek word, in every
ethnic group, every tribal group, every language
group, in every corner of the world who need
to hear the good news of Christ and his kingdom.
Well, how will they be reached? Well, if they're
going to believe, they have to hear the gospel.
The evangel must be proclaimed in the nations.
So what do we do? We have a great responsibility.
You're like, we've got to go. Yeah, but he didn't
say that. He did later, Matthew 28. But he said,
right now you've got to pray. Look at it. It
begins in prayer. Therefore, pray. The Lord Jesus
had been preaching and teaching going all throughout
Galilee, but now he's looking and says he told
his disciples. He said, will you pray that God
will call others into this mission and join me?
Now, friends, this is a great thing, and I hope
you see it. There is a partial answer to this.
In chapter 10. Remember, the original manuscript
has no verse divisions, no chapter divisions.
Those came centuries later. So he's praying,
the last verse, that the Lord of the harvest,
and you go to chapter 10, verse 1, he calls to
12. The prayer was answered. So there's a partial
answer, and I'll get to that a little bit later,
well, pretty soon. Now he says pray. If you're
looking at the King James or the New King James,
which I'm preaching from, it says pray. If you
have another version, it says pray earnestly.
Pray earnestly. This isn't casual. The idea is
to be in earnest, asking, seeking, begging. What?
That God would raise up workers who would go
out and preach Christ to the people. Once again,
you see divine sovereignty and human responsibility.
They're always together. Divine sovereignty because
who does the harvest belong to? God. He's the
Lord of the harvest. He's the one, by the way,
he's the only one who sends out workers. He didn't
say go out and recruit people. He says pray that
my father's going to raise them up. He sends
them out. But there's also human responsibility.
How's that? You and I are to be praying and somehow
God works with our prayers. If prayer didn't
matter, why would Jesus tell them to pray? If
God was going to do it even if people didn't
pray, why would Jesus tell them to pray? You
and I are to pray that God will send out workers
into his harvest. We pray because sinners need
to hear, they need to believe, and they need
to call on Christ. Paul said that in Romans 10.
He says, for whoever will call on the name of
the Lord will be saved. Amen. We all love that
verse. But go on. He's using a point here. How
then shall they call in him in whom they have
not believed? And how should they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? And how are
they ever going to hear without a preacher? And
how shall they preach unless they're sent? Who's
sending? God. Now the church will also send.
As it is written, how beautiful are the feet
of those who preach the gospel peace, who bring
glad tidings of good things. That's Isaiah there.
Notice Paul's logic. In order to call on Christ,
you have to hear about Christ. How did you call
on Christ? You had to hear about him. But if
you're going to hear about Christ, Someone had
to come and preach about Christ or tell you about
Christ. Christ had to be proclaimed or you couldn't
have heard. And Paul says, well, how are they
going to hear without a preacher? He's answering
himself. They don't. They won't. Someone must
go and tell them of Christ and his saving work
or they don't hear. This is why missions is an
integral part of the church. The church commissions
people. to go to lands, foreign lands, some local,
some foreign, some regional, preaching the gospel
that it is God who ultimately calls and sends
them. It must be. God is always the ultimate
and decisive factor, but that does not lessen
nor does it mitigate human participation and
responsibility. The mission belongs to God. And
Jesus said, I'm not going to fail in it. I must
do it. It does not blow dust. It is his harvest.
It is not ours. But, he says, all of God's children
should be praying, and I want to slip in something
here, giving toward that end, toward the message
of Christ. Because you don't get to China with
your prayers. You pray and you give. The church
advances, though, God's mission on our knees.
So what's the foundation of missions? According
to Jesus, it's prayer. All of us should be praying
that God's going to raise up more preachers,
more missionaries who are going to go forth preaching
the good news of our Savior. But it can't be
stressed enough. I want you to notice something
and don't overlook it. Jesus' desire for missions
was motivated by his compassion. His heart bled
for the people. It went out to the people. He
was not like the Pharisees who were repulsed
by the people. He said Jesus looks on them. He
sees need. He sees suffering. He sees brokenness.
And it moved him. It says it moved him with compassion
and he was going to do something about it. As
disciples of Christ, as those who are followers
of this risen Lord, may the Lord produce in us
this very same attitude. We've got to look through
the eyes of the Lord. There's a song that says,
Lord, break our heart for what breaks yours.
It's a good line. Lord, break our heart for what
breaks yours. In verse 37, He commands his disciples
to pray. He says, hey, you need more workers
to go out into this harvest. Now, presumably,
they did pray. And we see God answer their prayer
because he called some of them to go. So notice
this next text, and we're ending it here. The
very last verse of chapter 9, the very last verse,
therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send
out laborers into his harvest. No chapters, no
verse divisions, right? So don't get the 9 and
10 all mixed up. We go to chapter 10. And when
he had called his 12 disciples to him, now notice
what he gives them authority over unclean spirits
to cast them out. That's what Jesus has been
doing to heal all kinds of sickness. That's what
Jesus has been doing and all kinds of disease.
That's what Jesus has been doing. There's starting
to be an answer to this prayer. God is raising
up workers. Who are these workers? And we'll
look at this more next week because this is an
interesting list. In the names of the apostles,
you have Simon, who's Peter, Andrew, his brother,
James and John, sons of Zebedee, Philip and Bartholomew,
Thomas and Matthew, the tax collector, the one
who wrote the gospel, James, the son of Alphaeus
and Lebaeus, whose surname was Thaddeus, and
Simon, the Canaanite, and by the way, Judas Iscariot,
who also betrayed him. We'll look at that next
week. Lord willing. But up to this point, our
Lord has been doing all this ministry. By himself.
But all that's about to change right now. The
disciples would become the very workers they
were praying for. And I find that's what happens
a lot of times. Sometimes you get burdened. You're
like, and you start praying. You're praying for
missions and then God burdens you. Hey, you go.
The Lord is now going to involve more disciples
in this mission to reach more sheep. How is it
possible? Well, the Lord had prepared the sheep
through his teaching and preaching ministry.
Now it's time to go and reap this harvest of
souls. But it's not going to be physical healing
only, but spiritual. Because what people most
need is the forgiveness of sins and to be reconciled
with God. And that is precisely what the good
shepherd did and only he could do. See, the good
news of the kingdom, folks, is not simply that
the king arrived. That's good news. But that
the king laid down his life for his sheep. The
gospel, the euangelion, the evangel, is our king
came and he died in our place and he was buried
and he rose again the third day and he offers
salvation and eternal life to all who would ever
call upon him. Israel's shepherds, they failed
miserably. God's true shepherd prevailed. ultimately.
He never exploited the sheep. Instead, he was
impoverished so that the sheep might be enriched.
False shepherds enriched themselves and impoverished
the sheep. Jesus impoverished himself and enriched
the sheep. 2 Corinthians 8, 9. For you know the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he
was rich, and that's an understatement, yet for
your sakes, for our sakes, He became poor. That
you, through his poverty, might become rich.
Amen. That is grace. You know the grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Do you know it? That's what
Paul said it is. So what do we do? Obviously
we pray. But first though, can I suggest something?
We need to see the world as our Lord saw it.
Friends, I want to... I want us to think about
this for a moment. Jesus did not see people as
a problem. He saw the broken world, but he saw
it through the eyes of compassion. He saw broken
people who need his grace, and that's what the
church is. We need to be operating in grace right
now, extending salvation. Don't look down our
noses. Let's not see people as a problem. Oh,
they can be problematic, but so can I, so can
you. But let's look at it through the eyes of
grace. We need to see them through God's eyes.
These lost sheep, they are hopeless souls. Who
desperately need Christ. Next, we pray. We pray.
We pray for God to raise up workers. Make God
raise up pastors and missionary servants who
will go out and proclaim King Jesus among the
nations. Proclaim King Jesus at Rock Hill and
Simms Alley and Holger and Ironton and Chesapeake
and Fairland and any other school I'm missing.
Home school and Sugar Creek and everywhere. We
need that. But friends, this is the thing we
have to understand. We need to pray that God's
going to raise them up. And I pray that God would
raise up some from this congregation. September,
as Pastor Kyle mentions, our missions emphasis
month. It's when we're going to renew faith promise
commitments. And this is by design. This is not
to take a break for September. It's not at all.
It's designed so that the missions is going to
be kept in front of us. My prayer for this church
is 100 % participation. If you have never been
involved in our faith promise giving, You've
never committed to it. I'm not asking you. I
will never know what you give. It could be $5
a month, $10 a month, $20 a month. Whatever it
was, God's going to use that. But if you have
skin in the game, you are invested at that point.
You're more interested. The other thing I would
encourage you to do, get to know our missionaries.
Take the list that Teresa is going to have printed.
And if nothing else, maybe take one missionary.
Your family said, you know what? I'm not going
to pray through all 40 because I know I'm not
going to do it. Take one family and pray for
them throughout the year. If not, take one family
and rotate it every month. But pray for them.
Be open, though, to God's call upon your own
life, that God would raise up people from this
flock. And lastly, I want to remember always
grace. The work belongs to God. Friends, all
your work, all your efforts, they're never in
vain, but only He can bring in the harvest. You
don't have to seal the deal. Your responsibility
is not to bring people into the kingdom. It's
not. You can't do it. Only God through his spirit
does that. Your responsibility is to proclaim
the gospel of the kingdom, trusting that the
spirit of God will work in the lives of those
he's prepared. 1 Corinthians 3, 6, and 7. Paul
says, I planted. Did you get that last slide?
Oh, I didn't put it up there. I'm sorry. Let
me just read this. Paul says this. I planted.
Apollos watered. But God gave the increase. So
then neither he who plants is anything nor he
who waters, but God who gives the increase. Friends,
listen. We sow, we plant, we water, but only
God can make the plant grow. Same thing in the
kingdom. We have a responsibility. Let's preach
Christ. And preaching doesn't mean what I'm doing.
It's just proclaiming him, telling others about
him. But realize you can't do it. Only God can
do it. But we are a responsibility to tell, to
pray. Let's do what the Lord has asked us to
do. Now, listen, the greatest thing about Sunday
morning ever is that when the church is gathered,
God has given this special meal where he says,
listen, you come and commune with Jesus. We need
to commune with him. And we get to do that at
the table of the Lord, where once again, by faith,
Lord, we commune with the risen Lord in the way
that he has prescribed. Let's go to the Lord
in prayer. Father, thank you for, Lord, this
time today. Lord, I pray that it has been helpful.
Lord, I pray that, Lord, you would continue to
instruct us and enlarge our understanding. so
that our affections will be touched, Lord, so
that we'll grow in love for you, Lord. Lord,
may we love you more, Lord, truly, Lord. God,
see people not as problems to overcome or avoid,
but as people who need Jesus just like we do.
Lord, help us, Lord, in the dirtiness of life
and the brokenness, Lord, and it is sordid at
times. But God, let us offer them this balm,
this medicine for their soul, the grace of God
that's given to sinners in Christ. And it's in
his blessed name we pray, Father. Amen. All right,
deacons, I'm going to ask you to come and prepare
the table, please.