Refocusing wk 2
Notes
Transcript
An Urgent Call
An Urgent Call
This morning we will be continuing our series on refocusing.
There are times in life when we need to wait upon the Lord and be renewed.
31 Yet those who wait for the Lord
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.
There are times we need to step back and get a new perspective on things.
We live in a time where everyone is busy, we run from one thing to another.
With the busyness of life, we can lose our focus on Jesus, we can lose our focus on what He has called us to do.
We are going to be looking at a familiar text this morning in Matthew 9:36-38.
Just before our text in Matthew, Jesus spoke about fasting, and then a leader comes to Him and tells Him that his daughter had just died.
The official asks Jesus to come with him to heal his daughter.
On the way to the officials house the woman that had dealt with hemorrhaging for twelve years touches the hem of His garment.
Jesus turns to the woman and tells her that because of her faith she was healed.
Jesus then arrives at the officials house, and makes the professional mourners leave, telling them the girl is not dead but asleep.
He then goes to the girl and takes her by the hand and raises her up.
When leaving the house of the official, two blind men begin to follow Jesus asking for mercy, they wanted to see.
Jesus asks them if they believe He is able to make them see, they respond, Yes, Lord.
Jesus then heals them.
Then a man possessed by a demon, and was mute is brought to Jesus and He cast out the demon.
The man was then able to speak.
The Pharisees say that Jesus cast out the demon through the power of satan.
We know this is not true, as we seen a few weeks ago, a house divided cannot stand.
We are then told that Jesus went throughout all the cities teaching, preaching, and healing.
This brings us to our text.
It is important to know and understand the text leading up to our story today, as it will help us to understand what Jesus is saying.
Look with me at Matthew 9:36-38
36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.
37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.
38 “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
Pray
Pray
As we look at this text this morning, I pray that you feel the urgency that Jesus has.
In these three verses Jesus say two things: He says there is a great need, and He also says there was a lack of people meeting the need.
We must remember what Jesus said in Luke 19:10
10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
That should be the mission that we have as believers and as a church, to seek and to reach the lost for salvation.
There must be an urgency about this mission.
Jesus said in John 4:35
35 “Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.
We do not have a harvest problem in America today.
The truth is we have a labor problem.
The population in Flagler County, in 2023 was estimated to be 131,439.
Data shows that roughly 45% of the population adheres to Religious groups.
That does not mean that they attend church, it shows that roughly 35% attend church.
That is any where between 46,000 and 59,000 people supposedly attend church.
Going with the higher number, there is over 72,000 people that do not attend church.
Therefore we can see that there is a labor problem right here in Flagler County.
That means that there are a lot of people right here in our own community that are un-churched.
Let’s dig into our text.
I. We Must Do What Jesus Says.
I. We Must Do What Jesus Says.
38 “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”
I believe we are to pray for the lost.
Unfortunately that does not happen as it should in the average church.
Most prayer meetings consist largely of prayers for people with physical problems.
Don’t get me wrong, we should pray for the sick, injured, and grieving.
But it should not stop there.
What Jesus pleads with us to do in our text here is to pray for people who will have a passion to the point that they will do whatever it takes to see people come to Christ.
We need to commit to praying to the Lord of the harvest to send an army of people willing to do whatever it takes to take the Gospel to the world.
After Jesus ascended to heaven, the disciples went back to Jerusalem, and went to an upper room, where we are told in Acts 1:14
14 These all with one mind were continually devoting themselves to prayer, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.
The disciples, that is the eleven that Jesus hand picked and others which the total number we are told was 120 spent 10 days in prayer.
They were not just praying, but they were praying in unity.
The early church was devoted to prayer, and prayer preceded everything the church did.
One of my favorite stories is of a powerful prayer meeting that took place in Acts 4:31
31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
Peter and John had been arrested for preaching Jesus.
They were then told not to preach the name of Jesus and were threatened.
Peter and John meet up with the other believers, and they begin to pray that God would give them boldness.
These believers were praying in unity.
And when they had prayed the place, the building began to shake.
This was not an earthquake but the Holy Spirit filling the people and the place.
The people were given the boldness to go out and continue to preach the gospel even in the face of persecution.
The church’s boldness started in a prayer meeting.
Through the power of God the church believed it could accomplish unbelievable big things for God.
The early church began in a prayer meeting that went on for 10 days, they received boldness from a prayer meeting.
We can see that if we want God to build us, and make us into the body of believers He would have us to be it has to start with a prayer meeting.
Pastor A. C. Dixon said, “When you organize you get what man can do. When you pray you get what God can do.
I do not know about you, but I do not want what man can do, I want what only God can do.
II. We must see through Jesus’ eyes
II. We must see through Jesus’ eyes
36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.
We must see beyond our walls, the mission field is right out those doors.
We must see that people all around us desperately need the love of Jesus.
How do you see people?
How do you see your neighbor, the people around the church, the people who have nothing to offer the church, but who need the ministry of the church?
I want to challenge you to pray a prayer.
The prayer is:
Lord, starting today, give me your eyes.
I no longer want to see people through the lens of prejudice or apathy.
I want to see people the way you saw the people in the region of Galilee.
I want renewed eyesight that will affect everything I do.
If you will pray that prayer and mean it, you can become a catalyst for a changed church and a changed community.
III. We Must Love Like Jesus
III. We Must Love Like Jesus
36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.
I have always herd it said, people do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care.
The teachings of the church will never be believable until the burden of the church is seen through the way it loves people.
The primary ministry of the church does not happen inside the walls of the building.
It happens in the community.
It happens as the church reaches out to people with the love of Christ.
People who love like Jesus attract other people to Him.
People are not attracted to salvation and the church by the programs we have, or the things that we do.
They are attracted to salvation and the church when we love them like Jesus loves them.
We must allow the love of Jesus to pour out through us.
There is an urgent need for the church to begin to function like Jesus.
We must take down any and all bariers that would prohibit us from doing so.
As an individual Christian what are you willing to do in order that you may see with the eyes of Jesus and love with the heart of Jesus?
What changes are you willing for the church to make in order to be like Jesus in the community?
What traditions, programs, or attitudes need to go that may be getting in the way?
Are you will to pray until change takes place within the church?
Only when we get serious about the fields that are white unto harvest will we make a real difference for the kingdom of God for the glory of God.
We must remember it is not about me, or you, it is all about Jesus and what He has called us to do.
He said His mission was to seek and to save that which was lost.
He gave the Great Commission to Go, forth and make disciples.
We can only make disciples once people are saved.
Therefore, we must see and understand that we must have the focus of seek those that are lost that they may come to Jesus for salvation.
