And if you'll turn in your Bibles to Matthew Yes. Children's Church. Right. Alright. Matthew chapter nine.

We're going to begin reading in verse 35 and read down through 38. 35 through 38 of Matthew chapter nine. And Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues, preaching 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 on them. Verse 36.

But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for your record that you've given to us, for the witnesses that down through the years have told the old, old story of Jesus and his love, of what you did for us that we might be saved.

Lord, we thank you for that and for our salvation today. Lord, we pray for those whom you have laid on our heart that need you, that you might open their heart to hear the gospel message that you will use us and others to be the witness. And, Lord, we pray that you would send forth many laborers into your harvest, that you would burden the hearts of your people with the need of the lost around them and on the other side of the world. And we pray, Lord, if there's one in our midst today that is yet to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save their soul and give them eternal life, we pray, Lord, today would be their day of salvation. For it's in Jesus' precious name we pray.

Amen. Amen. If you look up on the screen, Mark sixteen fifteen says, and he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach or proclaim the gospel to every creature. This is repeated in similar fashion in Matthew chapter 28, in Luke, in John, in other ways, in Acts chapter one and verse eight, to be witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the uttermost part of the world. God has given his church a mission, and the mission is to proclaim the good news.

The good news is not a formula. The good news is not just a story. The good news is not just a religion. The good news is a person. The person is who?

Jesus Christ. And we are privileged to introduce others to the Lord Jesus Christ, their need of a savior, and that the savior has come, has died on the cross, is risen again from the dead, and invites all who come to him in faith to be saved and forgiven and receive everlasting life in him. That is the good news that we are to proclaim here and around the world. It is our mission. Now a mission is a good thing.

People have different kinds of missions. If you are in the military, you are often given a mission. You have a job to do, a specific task that you are given to do. If you are on a team, okay, a football team, a baseball team, basketball team, you have a mission. Well, ultimately, the mission is to score more points than what?

Than the other team. But you may be an assistant coach or you may be the water boy or you may be the striker in the soccer game or the the forward in the basketball game or the quarterback or or you might be an offensive lineman. But it's all part of a mission. A mission. We are part of a team in Jesus Christ.

The team is called the church. We are the children of God. We are part of his family, and the family has a mission. Our mission is to proclaim the gospel, to declare the good news, to show the world who Jesus is in our words and also in our what? In our actions.

We are to be representatives of Jesus Christ, to bring glory to him, to be the bearers of the good news to a world that needs it. And we need to get in the what? We need to get in the game. We need to get in the game. God is not looking for spectators.

Missions is not a spectator sport. It is something that you need and I need to invest ourselves in. It requires, it begs for an investment of yourself that we get in the game of reaching the world with the good news of the gospel. Now not everybody's the coach, not everybody's the quarterback, Not everybody has the exact same job to do in the team and in meeting the mission, but we all need to be part of the what? The mission.

We all need to get in the game. We need to find a way to be and to get invested in reaching other people with the good news of the gospel in service of Jesus Christ, our savior. Jesus was invested far more than we will ever invest. He invested his what? His life, the suffering that he bore on the cross of Calvary.

Our hell he took upon himself on the cross. He is all invested that we might be saved. We see that in the passage today that Jesus was invested, that Jesus was engaged, that Jesus cared, and that he challenges us to be invested and to care as well. Let's first of all look again at the passage in verse 36, and I want you to notice that Jesus cared. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with what?

Compassion. Concern. Loving concern on them. Moved with compassion on them, the multitude, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. He saw the multitude as he looked out at the vast group of people that was coming to him.

He saw them as sheep having no shepherd, wandering around, needing to be led to food and to protection and to water and to green, quiet pastures to deliverance and salvation. They were wandering lost. Sheep need a shepherd. So also do lost sinners need a shepherd and that shepherd is who? That shepherd is Jesus Christ.

When Jesus looked at that multitude, he saw lost people. He saw lost people that were spiritually hungry and thirsty, who needed to be led by the good shepherd that would fill their souls and fill their cup, satisfy their soul, and give them life, abundant life, eternal life. He saw them void and empty and wandering, and he cared. He had compassion on them. In Mark six thirty four, it says, and Jesus, when he came out, saw much people and was moved with compassion toward them because they were sheep not as sheep not having a shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.

He saw them. He didn't just step over them, walk by them, go around them. They weren't obstacles in his path hindering his agenda. They were his agenda. They weren't cars slowing him down from getting where he wanted to go.

He saw them. He saw them differently than the other religious leaders, many of the other religious leaders of his day. They exposed how they saw them when they came to Jesus here in Mark chapter two. And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him meet with publicans and sinners Who are publicans and sinners? They're they're the sheep without a what?

Shepherd. There are those who were in sin and many of whom knew they were in sin and needed help. So Jesus sought them out to help them. The pharisees were confused. Why was he spending time with this rabble?

With these these publicans who in their eyes were traitors to Judaism because they were taking up taxes for the Romans and these these sinners, these drunks, and these prostitutes, why was Jesus spending time with these people? They said unto his disciples, that is the Pharisees said unto his disciples, how is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, they that are whole, well, healthy, have no need of the physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. Now were the Pharisees and scribes sinners?

Of course, they were. But did they recognize it? Sadly, no. They didn't. They thought they were okay just the way they were.

But the publicans and sinners, they were searching. And they found who? Or rather Jesus found them. He came to them. He loved them.

He showed compassion for them. Souls needing a savior. Not somebody an obstacle in their path or somebody to look down on. Souls. Like the bum sleeping in the front of the church.

We have quite a few of those. I get to hand out quite a few tracks. They need Jesus. The child playing across the street or playing in your front yard. The teen standing at the bus stop who wouldn't get out of the road.

The inconsiderate neighbor who fill in the blank. The waitress at the restaurant, the customer who was in a great hurry and was impolite, The telemarketer on the other end of the phone. The obnoxious and lazy coworker who doesn't pull their weight. The arrogant athlete who has the world at his or her fingertips. The filthy rich businessman whose riches only make him more selfish.

The celebrity who was going back to rehab for the fourth time. Those people are all souls who need a what? Savior. Unless you get the big head, you were a soul who also needed a savior. You were a sinner who needed to be forgiven.

You were lost in sin, but now you're what? But now you're found in Jesus Christ. And so can they. First of all, they need to what? They need to hear.

They need somebody to what? They need somebody to care. To care. Not to see them as obstacles in their path, something to be avoided, something in your way, somebody to gossip about, to scoff at, but souls who need a savior. Do we see them?

Do we notice them at all? Souls that will spend eternity in heaven or in hell? Do we ever see them that way? Do we even think about their eternal destiny? Are we too busy like the priest and the Levite in Luke 11, the story of the good Samaritan?

Too busy like the priest and the Levite to stop out of concern and at least check on them. Do we see them as Jesus sees them? Do we conveniently overlook them? And a lot of times, we're too busy, I am afraid. A lot of times, we do overlook them.

We need to see people as Jesus saw, people. And first of all, as Jesus cared and as he challenged his disciples, we too need to what? We too need to care. To care. That's what he asked his disciples here in verse 37.

As he showed compassion, verse 37, he saith unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous but the labors are few. Don't you see? Look at the field. It is ready to harvest. Where our youth pastored in Georgia for twelve years, the fields were literally white unto harvest.

And when they got white, when the cotton was fully ripe and ready, you look out a field, it looked like it had snowed on top of the field. It was white, literally, on the harvest. And it was time for the reapers to come before the harvest would spoil. He asked Jesus' disciples to open their eyes as he saw people to see them as sinners who needed a savior, to see that the harvest didn't have to wait till ten years or twenty years or till this happens or till that happens but the harvest is right there in front of them today. Souls who need a savior and to care, to care.

John fourteen thirty four thirty five, he said, say not you there for at four months and then cometh harvest. Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields. They are white already to harvest. They are white already. There are souls that need a savior today.

They're all around you. They're all around me and they're on the other side of the world. And God has asked us, challenged us to care for the neighbor beside us, to care for the coworker we work with, to care for the children, and to care for the people also on the other side of the world. It is our mission. Jesus asks us, first of all, just to open our eyes and see.

Open your eyes and see. Souls who need a savior. He challenged them to see that the harvest is ripe. It is ready. There may be someone that God has put in your path this week who is ready.

They just need someone to what? To care. To care. There are people all around the world that are ready looking for somebody to care. He challenged them to see the harvest is ripe.

He challenged them to care that it doesn't spoil. Every few seconds, another person dies and their soul goes out into eternity. In the course of the time that it takes to preach this message, dozens of people will have gone out into eternity. Jesus challenged them to see them, to care about the harvest of souls, to be fishers of men as he told his disciples, and to engage themselves in the need, To engage themselves in the need. Yes.

There are many needs in the world today. People are poor and they need food. People live in places where they have no no medical care and they need medical care. People need are in places where they they have learned to read and write and they need to learn to read and write. But the greatest need of all is their soul.

And while other organizations can help with their food and can help with their clothing and can help with their housing and can help with these other needs, we are the only ones who can help them spiritually with their soul. Now while we can do all the other things too, Jesus did help people in many ways. He healed many people. He cared about their physical needs. But he didn't come to feed them.

He didn't come to clothe them. He came to save them from their what? From their sins. And that is the mission of the church. The church can build houses and schools and churches, and the church can help those who are poverty stricken and are in need.

The church can help to teach people how to read and write but it's all for not if the church does not teach them how to be what? To be saved. If the church doesn't care about their soul, then we've missed the boat about our mission because the mission is the church is to proclaim the what? The gospel of Jesus Christ. And that begins with caring.

Dare to care. Allow yourself to be moved by the lost condition of your neighbors. Allow yourself to be moved, concerned about their soul. Your relatives, your coworkers. Yes, you have a job to do.

No, you can't spend your entire time at work witnessing. But just take notice. Allow yourself to be burdened just a little by that coworker that aggravates you, by that neighbor who ignores you, by that relative that rubs you the wrong way. There to care for their soul. Jesus asked his disciples disciples to take off the blinders and the shades which conveniently keep out the problems of the world.

And while it's wonderful to be a Christian, to have to be at peace with God, to know that God has forgiven of our sins, that he's preparing a place for us, and all of that is true. And it's wonderful and it should put a smile on your face and peace and joy in your heart. There's a world out there that's hurting. And they don't have that peace and they don't have that assurance and they don't have that joy and they're not going to find it until they find who? Jesus.

So, they're to care. He asked them not to look down upon the loss as the Pharisees did, but to allow themselves to care for their soul, to feel their pain, to be touched with their plight. How long has it been since you agonized over the lost estate of a relative, a friend, a coworker rather than just accepting their condition or ignoring their condition. Jesus asks us to open our eyes to see the field is wide unto harvest and the need is great. And then finally, in this passage, what did Jesus ask them to do about it?

Verse 38. He asked them to what? He asked them to pray. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. He begins fairly early in his ministry with his disciples.

Before he gets to go, he begins with what? Pray. Notice. Be burdened. Get on your knees and what?

And pray. Engage yourself in meeting the need, first of all, through prayer. Pray ye. Make request of the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth what? Laborers into his harvest.

That those souls may be harvested, those souls may be saved by the proclaiming of the good news. Start by simply opening your eyes and your heart to care and then expressing that in prayer. Pray ye therefore the Lord the harvest. Stop standing on the sidelines, complacent and satisfied that somebody else is engaged in the mission and get engaged in the mission. And if nothing else, the first step to getting engaged is caring enough to pray.

To pray. We can all do that. We can all pray. We can all bring before the Lord the names of the loved ones for whom we care and our neighbors and our coworkers and our friends who need Jesus for those God has burdened our heart with. There are half the missionaries on the field today that there were a couple decades ago.

Half of the missionaries on we aren't reaching more of the world. We're reaching what? Less in face to face missionaries today. Oh, yes. We have radio.

Yes. We have the Internet. But it is so much better to have a person in the flesh on the field. Half as many as there was a few decades ago. What has happened?

God's people have stopped seeing, stopped caring, have refused to engage themselves in the ministry of lost and dying souls. And we need to start back by getting on our knees and what? Praying. Just pray. Pray, Jesus says to his disciples.

Care enough to bring the need before who? Before the Lord. Pray that he will send forth laborers, first of all, into his harvest as he says here. The word to send forth, means to drive out, to push out. Okay?

Pray that the Lord will push people into his what? Out of the house. I sang the song a few minutes ago. My house is full but what? My field is empty.

Pray the word of the harps and he'll push people out of the house and into the wild and into the field. Pray care enough to pray that the Lord will push people out into the field. Be specific. What field, what person needs to hear? What what place in the world has burdened your heart?

Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send forth laborers into that field to to those people, to that person who needs Jesus Christ. And it may be a person you know intimately and it may be a person you don't know really at all, but God has laid it on your heart because you heard about them or you saw them or you read about them. Pray for them. Pray that the Lord will send someone to tell them about who? Jesus.

At least care enough to pray. Pray that the Lord will send forth laborers. Pray for boldness and opportunity for those he sends. Second Thessalonians three one, friendly. Finally, brethren, pray for us.

This is Paul writing. Pray for us that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you. Ephesians six nineteen, and then for me that utterance may be given unto me that I might may open my mouth what? Boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. Paul asked those in his churches to pray for him, to pray that God would open doors and God would open hearts and God would give him wisdom and boldness to open his mouth.

Sometimes, it is difficult. Yes, it is. God understands. God knows. Paul said, sometimes, I even have a hard time.

Pray that God will give me what? Boldness to open my mouth and just proclaim the good news. We can also pray for the health of our missionaries. There are people just like those represent on the board back there that we support. They're just like you.

Sometimes they have health needs. You can pray for those, For wisdom, for their families. They have families. For God's provision, for endurance. Sometimes being a missionary on a mission field isn't easy for protection.

Many missionaries have come off the field in recent years because of the violence and unrest in the countries. Pray for peace that those doors won't close, that those protection for those missionaries so they can stay and minister. Pray for your missionary. We have a missionary of the week in the bulletin every week. If nothing else, pray for that missionary.

For God to give them boldness, for God to give them wisdom, for good health, protection, endurance, open hearts and minds to receive the good news. Pray. And then second Timothy two one through four, pray pray for the lost who need a savior. Paul writes here, I exhort therefore that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings, and for all in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our savior who will have all men to be what?

To be saved and to come and acknowledge the truth. Paul tells Timothy to pray. To pray for the lost, whether they be the pauper or the one, the prince or the king. For as our presidents and governors and representatives need Christ, so do the homeless that are in our neighborhood need Christ. So do our relatives, our coworkers, and our neighbors.

Be specific. Pray for the person God has put on your heart. Pray maybe for this person on Monday and that person on Tuesday and that person on Wednesday and another person but pray Lord the harvest that he will send forth laborers. Pray for their souls. Pray, Lord, for those pray to the Lord for those whom God has already pushed out into the field for boldness, wisdom, provision, and protection.

Ask the Lord, as Paul and Isaiah did, what will you have me to do? What will you have me to do? And maybe the main thing he wants you to do is pray. Start there and see where he takes you next. But dare enough to care and begin by praying for those who need a savior, by praying that God will send forth laborers into his harvest.

That's what Jesus challenged his disciples with. We are his disciples too. Let's pray. Dear God, thank you. The missionaries that we have been blessed to partner with and support.

Lord, we pray for their protection, provision, wisdom. We pray for their good health. We pray, Lord, that you would guide them and direct them, that you would give them boldness in proclaiming the good news, wisdom in leading the congregation that you have given to them, that you would bless their ministry, that you would give them strength, and that you would give them many souls for their labor. We pray, Lord, that you would send out more into your harvest. More missionaries, more preachers, more proclaimers of the good news that Jesus Christ is alive and is calling and inviting them to receive him for the forgiveness of all their sins.

To pray for the lost, our neighbors, our friends, our coworkers, those who you burdened our hearts with, Lord. Let us not lose that burden. Let us let it grow to care for those around us, not be so self centered as so often we are. And, Lord, to ask the question, to dare to ask the question, Lord, what will you have me to do? Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to know you, to serve you.

We thank you for our salvation, the invitation to come boldly before the throne of grace. And, Lord, I pray that we will be willing to humble ourselves and trust you enough to ask in prayer, Lord, what will you have me to do? In regards to worldwide missions, yes. In regards to our neighbor also. Lord, thank you for this opportunity.

Thank you for all that you have done and for your compassion for us. Lord, give us compassion for the world around us that needs salvation and burden us also, we pray. And if there's one that is yet to receive Christ as savior, one who is unsure today that they would come as we give this hymn of invitation that we might be able to pray with them, to talk with them, to share with them how they can be saved today and know it for all eternity. In Jesus' name, do pray. Amen.