Matthew 9:35-38 | Our Mission: Investing in people...

Thankful for the history of MEFC

Why was this church started? To reach people with the good news: Jesus died for our sins and on the third day he rose again.

To reach people for Jesus

Show picture of breaking ground & current charter members

50 years later our mission has not changed.

Our mission: Investing in people to experience Christ’s transforming power, together.

(Today’s message: Our MissionInvesting in people..)

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Matthew 9:35–38 “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. 36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; 38 therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.””

Do a little exegesis of what’s happening in vv.35-36

We are removed thousands of years later and thousands of miles from Israel yet the passage still applies to us today.

THE HARVEST IS PLENTIFUL

What a beautiful sentence! Sweet music to a farmer’s ear.

Wheat field picture

Jesus uses a wheat field to illustrate the world who need to be reached with the message of the gospel.

Revelation 5:9 “And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,”

God’s heart beats for the nations

Psalm 67:1–3 “May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, 2 that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations. 3 Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you!”

It’s all about people! The harvest is plentiful - it’s God’s vision!

Matthew 28:19–20 “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.””

Nations (Gk. Ethnos)

“In 1974, Ralph Winter stood up at the Lausanne missionary conference, and he just blew everybody out of the water and poked holes in all the balloons that were flying to celebrate the fact that we Christians have now penetrated all the countries of the world. But he stood up and said, “Excuse me [these are his numbers in those days], there are 24,000 ethnolinguistic people groups in the world, distinct ethic groups. And there are, in those countries where we say we have gone, 17,000 with no church at all.”” John Piper

Peoples Groups

Bambara in Mali

Banjara in India

Minangkabau in Indonesia

Tujia in China

Huichol in Mexico

An overview of the people groups of the world

People Groups: 17,453

Unreached Groups (less than 2% gospel believing Christians): 7,398

% Unreached Groups: 42.4%

Population: 8.00 Billion

42.4% of people in unreached groups: 3.40 Billion

Praise God the harvest is plentiful.

THE LABORERS ARE FEW

Good news, bad news.

It takes people to work in the harvest. God’s harvest is a big job and it’s going to take a lot of people.

Wheat field picture

Jesus using a farming analogy. There is a sense of URGENCY - the laborers are few

Farmers listening to Jesus would have understood this. You a certain window of time for the harvest. We need to harvest now. It’s now or never!

Story of RubenDario

We are not told why the laborers are few. Perhaps

Ignorance

Lack of priorities

Assuming someone else is doing it

Fear

More likely is indifference. The opposite of indifference is compassion.

What’s the solution for the shortage of laborers.

Imagine 12 of us sitting around a table coming up with good answers:

Our culture: productivity, goals, growth, strategies.

Develop a volunteer campaign (graphics, sermon series, social media posts)

Raise $100,000 in the next 6 months

Develop a plan on how you are going to recruit and train laborers

Set a goal - 1 new laborer each month

All of those are good ideas. However, The kingdom of God works upside down.

THEREFORE, PRAY EARNESTLY FOR GOD TO SEND OUT LABORERS

Why pray? Because God knows that our tendency is for self-reliance. Prayer = dependence on God.

Pray earnestly: to ask for with urgency, with the implication of presumed need—‘to plead, to beg.’

While our culture values productivity, goals, growth, and strategies, God values prayer!

Prayer is not reactive. Prayer is proactive.

God can do more in 50 seconds than we could ever accomplish in 50 years on our strength.

May I remind you that this is HIS HARVEST. We simply have the privilege of partnering with him in HIS HARVEST. I don’t have to, I get to.

Why pray? Only God can move the hearts of people to go into God’s harvest field.

Send out - Ekballo (cast out). When we pray, hearts are transformed.

Our eyes begin to see people for who they are: people who need Jesus.

Priorities are transformed

When you pray, God moves.

Revelation 5:8 reveal that in heaven there are golden bowl full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

Revelation 8:3–5 “3 And another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden censer, and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before the throne, 4 and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God from the hand of the angel. 5 Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth, and there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning, and an earthquake.”

“History belongs to the intercessors”

Until you believe that life is war, you cannot know what prayer is for. Prayer is for the accomplishment of a wartime mission. It is as though the field commander (Jesus) called in the troops, gave them a crucial mission ("Go and bear fruit"), handed each of them a personal transmitter coded to the frequency of the general's headquarters, and said, "Comrades, the general has a mission for you. He aims to see it accomplished. And to that end he has authorized me to give each of you personal access to him through these transmitters. If you stay true to his mission and seek his victory first, he will always be as close as your transmitter, to give tactical advice and to send in air cover when you or your comrades need it."

But what have millions of Christians done? They have stopped believing that we are in a war. No urgency, no watching, no vigilance, no strategic planning. Just easy peacetime and prosperity. And what did they do with the walkie-talkie? They tried to rig it up as an intercom in their cushy houses and cabins and boats and cars - not to call in fire power for conflict with a mortal enemy, but to ask the maid to bring another pillow to the den. (Joh Piper)

Main idea: The biggest contribution you can make in people’s lives is prayer

9:38 initiative: Pray at 9:38 every day for the next 38 days.

A prayer for more laborers

Lord Jesus,

There are so many lost people in our community and the world who need to hear the good news of salvation found in Jesus. Indeed the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.

Please forgive us for assuming that somebody else is already doing the harvest when in fact we are shorthanded. Please give us eyes to see what you see and a heart that breaks for what breaks yours. We earnestly ask for you to raise and send more laborers into your harvest field, amen.

Pray for:

New pastor of Latino ministries

For God to raise godly leaders at MEFC

For the missionaries we support

For the current pastors, staff, elders, and church leaders

Conclusion: The harvest begins in Stevens county. Investing in people begins in our region.

Acts 1:8 “8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.””

Imagine: Prayer walk this afternoon at 1:30 p.m.