And if you take your bibles, turn back to Matthew chapter nine verses 35 through 38. Matthew nine thirty five through 38. We're gonna start actually in verse 36. But when he Who is he? Jesus.

When Jesus saw the multitudes, he was moved with what? Compassion, care, love, concern on them. Who were them? These were masses of people that followed him out of the cities. On more than one occasion, Christ had to get some rest because he was inundated with people in the towns that he went to.

And he would go out into the countryside in order to find a quiet place to pray and to rest. And the multitudes would follow him out of the cities and they wouldn't let him rest. Rather than getting angry and upset with them, it says he had compassion upon them. He didn't see them as obstacles in his path of irritations. He saw them as lost sheep having no one to lead them and guide them to what they really needed.

He says here, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Then he turned his disciples and he said, the harvest truly is plenteous. Look, look at the multitudes, but the laborers are few. Pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would send forth laborers into his harvest. Let's pray again, Lord.

Thank you for your word. Lord, lay some soul upon our heart today that needs Jesus. Lord, give us a burden for those around us. Lord, open our eyes and show us a way that we might minister to those in need, particularly spiritual need because we may not have a lot of gold and silver to share, but we do have Jesus And Jesus is what they need most of all. Lord, help us to share Jesus and Lord, us a burden.

Open our eyes Lord. And if there'd be one here today that's yet to receive Jesus Christ as Lord and savior of their life, I pray today they would make that decision. In Jesus name we do pray. Amen. I don't know about you, but I I like I kinda like soldier stories and soldier movies.

You have to be kinda choosy what kind of soldier stories and movies you read or watch because sometimes they just love to throw all kinds of nasty language in there. But in the battle between these these soldiers, oftentimes a soldier will be pinned down and under duress or a soldier will be injured. And the soldiers around them, they don't just go on their way and step over the guy who's wounded, what do they do? What do they do? They they they they go out in harm's way.

They go out amongst the bullets and they they grab a hold of their friend, their their comrade, their fellow soldier. And sometimes they drag them to safety, sometimes they prop them up to get them to safety, sometimes they they join them in the foxhole where they are to try to to help get them to safety. Sometimes they have to actually go pick them up and carry them carry them to safety. Why do they do that? Why why do they they run into gunfire and risk their own life to help a fellow soldier who's down?

Because they care. Because that that wounded man, that that man that's pinned down is a value to them. And they're willing to risk their own life if per chance they can save the life of somebody else. What do they show? They show compassion.

They show compassion. A compassion that leads them to what? That leads them to action. That's the kind of compassion Christ had here. It led him into harm's way again and again and again until it led him to the what?

Until it led him to the cross where he gave his life for all of us. That is the compassion of Jesus Christ. He saw, he cared, and he engaged himself. He didn't just stand aside and watch. He wasn't a bystander.

He didn't nonchalantly just watch what was going on. He got in the fray and he did it for all of us. 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 having a shepherd and he began to teach them many things. Jesus saw people as sheep without a shepherd. He saw people as lost, aimless, looking for hope, looking for direction, looking for forgiveness and not finding it.

And who had it? Who had the answer? Jesus did. Jesus had the answer. And so when he saw the people, he saw them as people who needed a guide, people who needed protection, people who needed a solution and he had it.

He wasn't and he cared. Brother Ian, could you do me a favor? Could you go shut the outside door? I can see cars going by through the crack there. So it must be open.

Alright. Thanks. Jesus saw them, really saw them. He didn't just step over them. He didn't just walk by them or go around them.

They weren't obstacles in his path. They weren't somebody driving too slow, getting in your way. He saw them as souls needing direction, needing to be rescued, needing help. He saw them differently than others around him like the Pharisees. The Pharisees were the religious leaders in Israel.

The Pharisees were the pious religious ones. They were the ones that everybody looked up to. They were the ones who were supposed to be setting the what? The example for others. And in Mark two sixteen, as Christ was had called Matthew or Levi to be one of his disciples, previously Matthew was a tax collector.

That means he collected taxes from his own people for Rome. He wasn't a good guy. He skimmed some off the top for who? For himself. So he wasn't accepted by the the good crowd.

His friends were the bad crowd. They were the drunks and and they were the the prostitutes and and they were the the non believers and stuff. They that was the crowd he hung out with because the other crowd would have nothing to to do with them. So when Matthew trusted Christ and left behind his tax collecting to follow Jesus, he invited Jesus to his house. And as he did, he invited his friends to his house.

Well, who were his friends? Well, they weren't the the acceptable people. They were the unacceptable people. They were the people that everybody recognized as sinners. That the pharisees would have nothing to do with lest they be defiled by being in their presence.

Mark two sixteen, and when the scribes and pharisees saw him, that is Jesus, eat with publicans, tax collectors and sinners, they said unto his disciples, how is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he said unto them, they that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. They asked his disciples, why aren't Jesus hanging out with this rabble rouser no good crowd? Doesn't he know that's gonna defile him?

Doesn't he know that that doesn't look good? And Jesus said, no, you don't get it. The the people that that are are righteous or so they thought in themselves, the the the moral people, so to speak, they didn't think they needed Jesus. The the people that are well, they don't need the physician, but the people that are what? The sick.

The people that are spiritually sick in this case. The people that knew they were sinners, those are the ones who needed who? They need Jesus. If you're tear here today and you're a sinner, you need a savior. You need Jesus.

Bible tells us we're all sinners. Therefore, we all need who? We all need Jesus. And he came to die for all of us. And he invites all of us to come.

But the pharisees didn't know they needed Jesus. And they just got upset at Jesus for hanging out with the misfits. Jesus said, don't you get it? They need me. They need what I have to give.

They need forgiveness. They need a savior. If you figure out you need me too, I'll be there for you. But they know it. So I'm gonna hang out with them.

Remember the good Samaritan? The good Samaritan, stopped to help the guy who was had been mugged and left for dead along the street. The the high priest, the the priest and the Levite, they just they moved over to the other side of the road and walked on by. They couldn't be troubled with the guy who was injured, but the good Samaritan, he saw him and he cared and he stopped and he helped. Jesus is quote unquote, the good Samaritan.

He saw our need. He came from heaven. He went to the cross because he could do something about it and he was willing to do so for us. That is the character of our wonderful savior. He saw souls who needed a savior and he came to save them.

He saw souls on their way to heaven or hell and wanted to help them. Do you see souls who need a savior Or do you see a bum sleeping on the front porch of the church? Do you see a child playing across the street? Do you see a teen standing at the bus stop who wouldn't get out of the road? Do you see an inconsiderate neighbor who doesn't seem to care about you?

The waitress at the restaurant who couldn't get your order right. The customer who was in a great hurry and is impolite. The telemarketer on the other end of the phone who won't leave you alone and keeps calling. Do you look down upon them as the Pharisees did? Do you thank God that you're better than them?

Is that your attitude? Are they just obstacles in your path, irritations in your life? Or are they souls for whom Christ died? Souls who need a savior. Allow yourself to care for their soul.

Allow yourself to feel their pain. Allow yourself to be touched with their play. If it were not for the grace of God, you could be in their shoes. How long has it been since you agonized over the lost estate of a relative that you let it touch your heart, that you sat down and you prayed and allowed yourself to be concerned where they were going. Oh, it hurts.

Yes. But you need to let it hurt so that you can be motivated to do your part? How long since you agonized over the state of a friend, a coworker? Rather than just saying, oh, that's just the way it is. You know, it's just the way it is.

Doesn't have to be the way it is. Maybe God has called you to open your mouth or to show some love and care for someone else and make a difference in their life. To be more like who? To be more like Jesus, your savior. Do you see them?

Do you notice them? Do you even think about their eternal destiny? Are you too busy like the priest and the Levite to stop and consider. Because if you stop and consider, then you might have to what? You might have to care.

You might have to do something about it. Watched a movie a while back about a lady who worked in abortion clinic. And though there were all kinds of people around her telling her that what they were doing was killing babies, she couldn't be bothered to stop and what? To think. Because if she really thought about it, if she allowed it to sink in, then she'd have to what?

Then she'd have to care and then she'd have to what? Do something about it. She'd have to change. She didn't want that. She didn't want to consider that those were really lives that were being taken because she allowed two of hers to be taken and it hurt.

Thankfully, one day God opened her eyes anyway. But in a way, we struggle too to see souls around us, souls for whom Christ died and thinking of them as souls that have an eternal destiny. Because if we do, we might have to stop and care and do something about it. Jesus asked his disciples to care and to engage themselves. John four thirty five, say not ye there are yet four months and then cometh harvest.

I don't know about you, but my human nature, my my biggest fault that I struggle with is something called procrastination. Anybody else have that Paul? Okay. Good. I'm not voting by myself.

What do procrastinators do? They wait. They put it off. They say it'll get done. I will do it when?

I will do it later. I will do it tomorrow. I'll get it together next week. It can wait. But one day, it can wait.

We're gonna wait too long. We're gonna put it off too long. That relative, that friend, that coworker, gonna be gone. There are people that come in and out of this church all the time. They're here and then they're what?

They're gone. They move. That happens a lot in Florida if you haven't noticed. People move in and they move away and they move in and they move away. It was good to see the Larsons last week.

The Larsons came, filled up two pews back there. And it was good to see them. But the Lord moved them from Florida back to Wisconsin a few years ago and left a big hole in our church and several other young families. You gotta minister to people while there's what? While there's time because time's gonna end.

You only have this window. Don't put it off too long. The harvest is ready. The souls around us are ready. A lot of them are searching.

How do you know they're searching? Suicide rates going skyrocket. Why is that? What are people doing? They're searching for purpose in life.

They actually don't have hope. Do you think they'd like to have hope? Yeah. They would. It's too bad in many cases nobody told them where hope could be found.

They're going to drugs and alcohol and partying and promiscuity and and all this kind of stuff. It's rampant. Why? Because they realize there's something missing and they're trying to fill an empty space in their life. And what they're filling it with is just doing what?

It's just destroying them. They're looking for something. Do we have the something? Do we know the someone? We do.

Maybe God wants to use us to reach them. When I was in high school, I used to listen to a song. It was entitled, It's Too Late For Annie. Song about a teenage girl who took her own life. And the chorus, When It's Too Late For Annie, She Could Be Next To You.

Don't miss the chance to tell her before her life is through. You need to tell her Jesus loves her, tell her Jesus cares, tell her he can free her and her burdens bear. But it's too late for Annie. Do not know when you might be sitting beside Annie, when you might be talking at the restaurant to Annie, When Annie is a relative that's coming over for holiday, sometimes you just don't know. You have the answer.

We must dare to care, to see the harvest is right, to care that it's brought in before it spoils, to engage with others in meeting their need. Allow yourself to be moved with the lost condition of your neighbors, your relatives, your coworkers. The story read once, actually several stories, examples of this. Somebody knew someone they both of their kidneys went bad or their liver went bad and they were gonna die. And they heard about it and they thought, well, you know, I'll get myself tested to see maybe if I can be a what?

An organ donor. Because, you know, they can take part of a liver and put it in somebody else and both can function and live. They can take one kidney and give it to somebody else, to someone that has none and they can they can live. And somebody cared enough to get tested and cared enough to go through the surgery that somebody else might what? Might live.

No. You don't have to go through surgery. All you have to do is care enough to share what Christ did with you for somebody who needs Jesus. Jesus asked them to take off the blinders, the sage which conveniently kept the problems of the world out. He asked them to not be like the Pharisees.

He asked them to look at people as souls who need a savior, who people who have needs. And then he asked them to do what? Matthew chapter nine, he says, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. He said, pray for them. Intercede before heaven for them and ask the father in heaven to send forth laborers, someone to meet them, to share with them the solution to their need, the hope of the world, Jesus Christ.

The word to send forth in Greek is ekbalo. It means to drive out, to push out. Pray ye there the Lord that he'll push others out out of their comfort zone and into the face of someone who needs Jesus. Pray that God will send someone. Maybe that someone is who?

Maybe that someone is you. Maybe that someone is me. Pray you therefore the Lord of the harvest that he'll send forth laborers into his harvest. Maybe somebody else is praying and the person that God wants to tell them about Jesus is you. Maybe there's someone you know that you can't reach, but you can pray that God will send somebody else.

But get off the sidelines. Quit. Quit walking by the guy on the side of the street who's bleeding and dying. Stop and take a look and care enough to pray, to help, to share, to give, to go. Jesus came and left heaven for you.

He said, as the father has sent me, so what? So send I so send I you. It's our turn. It's our turn. Let's pray.

Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for the opportunity you've given us to be ambassadors for Jesus Christ, to share the good news with others, to show them the difference that God makes in our life. I pray that I pray, Lord, that we would not be content to be bystanders. I pray, Lord, that we would have a burden and a zeal to reach others for Christ and to be the testimony we ought to be. Lord, I pray that you bring people across our path this week, and I pray that you'd open up our eyes to see them as more than our server or more than our relative or or more than our coworker, but to see them as a soul who needs a savior. And I ask you, Lord, what can we do to reach them?

Lord, we need your wisdom. Some circumstances are difficult. We need your help. Lord, give us that wisdom. Lord, give us that zeal.

Lord, give us a burden And may we see souls come to the savior in our own lives, in our own families, in our own places of work, and in our own church, Lord. Help us to engage with a world that needs Jesus, to let our light shine this week. Lord, we pray if there's one here today that isn't sure that they're on their way to heaven, isn't sure of their relationship with you and that their sins are all forgiven, I pray as we give this in Tim of invitation this morning, they'd come. They come. We can share with them how they can be saved and know it today.

In Jesus' precious name, we do pray. Amen.