The Harvest Ahead of Us

Matthew 9:35–38 CSB

Jesus continued going around to all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every sickness. When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.”

I debated whether to preach this text of not as I prepared this message.

Luke records the same statement from Jesus in Luke 10, so I thought maybe I should go there since in just a few weeks we will be back in the Gospel of Matthew and will eventually make it to this very text.

But I looked back through my sermons and realized that on March 8th, 2020 I preached this very passage.

We were praying for 2020 to be a year of Harvest for us as a church.

Little did we know that 1 week later we would be talking about a pandemic that was threatening to shutdown the world.

And 2 weeks later it did shut down the world.

The journey we have been on since that season has been challenging and frustrating at times, but I believe God has used that season to shape us as a church for this moment in our history.

This is the first Sunday of 2024, our 50 year of ministry as a independent church, and we are praying now the same prayer we prayed in 2020, that this year would be a year of harvest for us.

That this year we might see a movement of God’s Spirit that would move us all to a deeper commitment to Christ and that we would see lost people come to faith through the ministry of this church in our community.

I have never been one to put numbers on things, and I don’t like to call it a goal, but we are praying that God would save 50 people through the ministry of our church this year and that we would see those 50 baptized right here.

We are going to use these next few Sundays to prepare as a church for this mission we believe God is calling us to this year.

This Sunday I just want to walk through this passage to challenge us all to embrace this mission.

Pray

These verse highlight a few things must happen in us in order for us to embrace this mission:

1) We must SEE the NEED.

Matthew 9:36–37 CSB

When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.

When Jesus saw the crowds He understood the greatness of the need.

I think we often struggle to see the reality of the place we call home.

It seems like Ohio county is full of churches and most people have some kind of relationship with God.

Outside of a few people we work with and some of those we see at Walmart, our county seems to be doing pretty good.

It almost seems crazy to think that we could find 50 more people to baptize after baptizing 19 last year.

Because we don’t have the same struggles that bigger towns have, we struggle to see the urgent need to share the Gospel in our community.

In order to help us see that need I want to share some stats with you.

The Kentucky Baptist Convention put together a study based off the 2020 census called “Lostness Indicators”.

They chart the percentages of people in each county across Kentucky who attend church regularly.

Nationwide, Americans attending church weekly has dropped from 32% in 2000 to 20% in 2023.

41% say they attend church at least once a month.

In Ohio county, the numbers look very similar.

In 2020, the population of Ohio County was 23,772.

Of that number, only 4,492 people said they attended church regularly.

That is 18.9% of the population.

The other 81.1 percent represents 19,280 people.

Even if half of those were professing Christians who just weren’t going to church that leaves 9640 people who we can assume are lost.

Though it might seem like we live in a “Christian” community, these numbers tell a VERY different story.

The overwhelming majority of our county likely either has a weak or nonexistent relationship with Jesus.

I know church attendance isn’t a guarantee that someone is saved, but being a part of a church is at least a step in the right direction.

As Andy said last week, being in Christian community is an anchor of our faith that guards and strengthens us.

But these numbers don’t mean a lot until you think about those 19280 people being real, flesh and blood individuals.

Some of them are your coworkers, some are you friends, some are the moms and dads, and kids on your sports teams, and some of them are you own family members.

DO YOU SEE THEM?

Do you see them like Jesus did?

“Harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Lost and searching for answers in things that will never satisfy?

We won’t embrace this mission unless we start looking around and start seeing the need that is in front of us and all around us.

But seeing is only half the battle.

2) We must EMBRACE our ROLE.

Matthew 9:37–38 CSB

Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.”

Not only did Jesus see the need, He also saw the problem… the need for more people willing to go.

The Lifeway Research did a study a few years ago about how Christians view the calling to share their faith.

Their data shows that 58% of practicing Christians strongly agree they personally have a responsibility to tell others about their religious beliefs.

But 78% of Christians have actually shared their faith in the last 6 months.

Kind of similar numbers to eating healthy or working out right, accept this has to do with the eternal life of those we aren’t sharing with.

We can read Jesus’s words here and think “I will pray for more workers to be sent into the harvest fields.”

But we would be missing a really key point, in the next chapter, and likely in direct response to His words, Jesus sends out His disciples to the harvest fields.

So Jesus is telling them to pray to Him that He would send THEM and then that is exactly what He does.

And that is what we are doing as well.

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17 that we are to see people differently because we are different in Christ.

We no longer “know anyone from a worldly perspective,” meaning we no longer see people the way we did before we met Jesus.

He goes on to say that we are “Ambassadors for Christ” pleading with people far from God to come to Jesus.

Seeing need for the Gospel ought to motivate us to embrace our role in the mission of making Jesus known to those around us.

It is the greatest way we can love those we say we love.

3) We must UNDERSTAND the RISK.

As Jesus sends out His disciples in the next chapter, He gives them some instructions and some warnings.

All that Jesus had been doing as described back in chapter 9 and summarized in 9:35, He now send His disciples to do.

And He tells them to pack lite, not packing extra food and clothing, but only what is needed for the day.

They are to rely on the people they meet in the towns they go to.

Jesus knew His disciples were prone get distracted with the every day worries of the world.

Where will we eat? what will we wear? what will people think of us? how will we look? Will we have enough?

This isn’t a call to poverty, Jesus even says in vs 10 that a worker is worthy of his food.

He is calling them to be unattached, unhindered, and unwavering.

He is calling the to trust Him and to rest in His provision.

And Jesus is saying the same to us.

Matthew 28:20 (CSB)

And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

That is His promise at the end of this gospel.

Don’t let the concerns of this word distract you from the mission ahead.

He also gives them a warning...

Matthew 10:16 CSB

“Look, I’m sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves.

The mission before us isn’t an easy one.

Jesus makes a promise to His disciples in this passage that is not the kind of promise anyone wants to get.

He promises them that they WILL face trials and will be persecuted because of the mission He is sending them on.

And this is also true of us.

It is risky following Jesus, and even riskier to share Him with others.

But the reward is so much greater.

Seeing people come out of the water at the baptism, seeing there lives being transformed, their families being transformed, that is the reward of the mission that outweighs the risk of speaking the name of Jesus.

Someone in your life too that risk, now what will you do?