Praying 938 for the 956

New Years Resolutions

What are your New Years’ resolutions? What do you want to accomplish? As I thought about this in light of our community here at The Table, I thought it would be good to ask another question: what are you praying for in 2025? You don’t have to answer out loud, and some of us might be embarrassed to answer that question out loud. When we pray, often our prayers are focused on what we want. And how life would be better if… How many of our prayers are asking God for something that will make our life better or easier?

There are a lot of prayers in the Bible about God coming to the rescue. However, most of those prayers are not about making life better, but the rescue is more dire: please save my life. Come to my rescue. And those prayers have their goal and are pointing to the rescue we need from sin and death. Prayers involving our salvation. The prayer we’re going to look at today is about rescue. But it’s not about our rescue, it about someone else’s rescue.

For The Table in 2025

Prayer is going to be a focus today and as I think about The Table in 2025 it looks like this:

Reading the Bible Prayer Saturate Los Fresnos with More Jesus for all of life

It’s this second piece that we are going to spend some time contemplating today and we will get to the last piece over the next few weeks.

As we concluded our Bible Binge, we were in the book of Matthew and Matthew has a unique way of presenting his biography of Jesus. Along the way, we found that Jesus, the baby born in Bethlehem, is the Son of God who descends for a specific purpose, a specific mission. The angel tells his earthly father Joseph that the baby will be born of a virgin… and then there are instructions about his name. And here’s what the angel says:

Matthew 1:21 “Mary will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

This baby is coming on a mission. You’re to name him Jesus, or Joshua, which means “salvation”, because this baby Jesus is going to save his people from their sins. That is his mission. And Matthew wants us to see in his biography that Jesus is all about that mission… to save people from sin. To provide forgiveness and salvation.

That baby grows up, and as he becomes an adult, he begins a teaching and preaching ministry, much like many other rabbis in Judaea in those days. But this rabbi is different. Here’s what this rabbi is doing in his teaching and preaching:

Matthew 9:35 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.

Matthew has already said it once in his biography and he says it again:

Jesus is visiting all the towns and villages Jesus is teaching in the synagogues Jesus is preaching the Good News of the kingdom Jesus is healing every disease and every sickness

While this looks like the activity of a Jewish rabbi in the first century, this rabbi is different. Yes, he’s going around to all of the towns and villages, and yes, he’s teaching in the synagogues. All good Jewish rabbis do this. But he’s up to something else. Jesus is preaching the Good News of the Kingdom. That Good News is that the kingdom of God is near and there is life and salvation and forgiveness in the person doing the preaching.

And as a sign that the kingdom of God has come near and that a new age is being ushered in… this rabbi is healing every disease and every sickness. Matthew’s audience wants to know if this Jesus is really the expected one of the Old Testament… yes he is. The Kingdom of God has come near and this Promised One is providing forgiveness of sins, reconciliation with God, and physical healing.

But while Jesus is doing all of this, there is a shift, there is a turn… and things will never be the same for his followers. And it all starts with a startling statement:

Matthew 9:36 When Jesus saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.

Earlier in the biography, Matthew has told us that Jesus was teaching and preaching and healing. We already sense there is something different about this rabbi. Now, Matthew peels back the curtain, and he flat out says out loud what all of this looks like. This is one of the first statements in the New Testament about how Jesus feels about the crowds who have been coming to him. And this is jolting.

Jesus felt compassion

You know what makes this rabbi different? Compassion. Love. Not that other rabbis didn’t love their students. But this statement says so much more. This is compassion for humanity itself. This is love that identifies with those who have been coming to him. And here’s his take on the crowds:

They were distressed, dejected, like sheep without a shepherd

Distressed is actually quite a bit more than our English can translate. These are people who have been oppressed and smashed down. Broken. Trampled. Sheep without a shepherd. And Jesus bleeds for these people. This is his heart. This is his mission. To save His people from their sin. To give them healing. Wholeness. Reconciliation. Forgiveness. Himself. Sheep: meet Shepherd. THE Shepherd. The shepherd who will eventually lay down his life for his sheep.

But Jesus has more in mind for the crowds. He pulls his disciples in. He wants them to have his heart. He wants them to see what he sees. He says this:

Matthew 9:37–38 Then Jesus 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.”

The harvest is abundant. There are so many people who are distressed, dejected, and without a shepherd. This is life. This is reality. This is my world. This is your world. And because there are so many who are in distress, so many who need to hear the Good News of the kingdom, here’s what you must do:

Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest

Jesus is exactly what the distressed crowds need and his workers are going to deliver the goods… deliver Jesus and his life and his salvation to those in distress. This is Jesus’ harvest. This is Jesus’ mission. But he’s not going to do it alone. There is a sense of urgency here. This is Jesus compassion spilling over into the lives of his followers… it’s my mission, but it’s your mission. The age of salvation has dawned. God has come and become one of us. To heal. To save. To give life. These people must hear the Good News. They must receive healing and salvation.

The task is too great for just one person. There must be more. We need more workers. The harvest is abundant. The crowds are overwhelming. Their distress is great. And we have this treasure. We have Jesus. We have what they need. There is so much harvest.

How many of you have been north of here during cotton harvest? It looks like rows and rows and rows of cotton as far as the eye can see. And someone says, “OK, harvest all that cotton.” I’ve seen those fields. You look at the cotton and you get the sense that you’re going to need a lot more help. That feeling can be overwhelming, and I think that’s how we are to hear Jesus in these words. Jesus, one of us, feels the weight and impossibility of being on mission alone. Jesus is feeling both the enormity and desperation of the harvest.

But this isn’t a task even for his best friends alone. They must pray to the Lord of the harvest. Compassion for the distressed and dejected drives this prayer. Compassion produces this prayer. And so before there is mission, there must be prayer. This is the Lord’s harvest. So we ask the Lord of the harvest to send more workers into His harvest because all these people are distressed, and there’s no way we’re doing this by ourselves.

Who are the workers?

We should answer this question before moving into what this means for us. Because this question comes up often and will come up when we talk about this verse and prayer. There are those who insist that when we pray this prayer, we’re only praying for pastors, missionaries, and church workers to be sent into the harvest. To be blunt, that’s not a good exegesis of this passage. The context doesn’t allow for it. The disciples aren’t simply a church office, as some suggest. They are representative of the the entire church body in stories and conversations like this in the gospels. Yes, we pray for more pastors, missionaries, and church workers to be sent into the harvest.. we need more preachers and teachers. And yes, in the context, we’re praying for more shepherds, good shepherds, who talk about Jesus and give people Jesus.

However,

This prayer is given to the entire church for the harvest of the entire church.

When we are praying for more church workers, we are praying for more of us, period. More of us to take Jesus and talk about Jesus where we live, work, learn, and play. We’re praying that Jesus sends more of us into a harvest, where there will be more of us. This prayer is part of the grand kingdom expansion that Jesus has tasked his entire church. The entire church is sent into the harvest. In fact, to be church is to be sent. Sent is in the DNA of what it means to be church.

Do we all do the same work in talking about Jesus? No… we all have different gift sets. We have different vocations and different passions. But all of us should feel the responsibility of being on mission for Jesus wherever we live, learn, work, and play.

We are simply praying for more people to join us, whether it is here at The Table, or whether its more church workers and pastors and missionaries here in the RGV. This task is huge. The harvest is great. It’s too much for any one of us. In fact, it’s too much for any single church here in Los Fresnos. We need more churches here in our community because we have so many people who need Jesus.

What then, does this mean for The Table?

Jesus Heart for the harvest

First, this means that we are praying that Jesus give us his heart of compassion for people who are in distress. People who have no hope. People who are confused. When we hear sorrow, when we hear guilt, when we hear shame, when we hear distress, are we moved with compassion? It all starts with Jesus and his compassion, not just for the harvest, but for us. His compassion becomes our compassion.

#The938Challenge

What is the 938 challenge? What does it mean for us to pray the prayer of Matthew 9:38? Three things we are praying for when we pray 938:

Pray to have Jesus’ heart for the harvest Pray that the Lord of the harvest will send workers into His harvest Pray that Jesus would use us in His harvest

Praying 938 for the 956

What does that prayer sound like? It’s very, very simple. Let’s say this together:

Lord of the harvest, Please send workers into Your harvest. Here in the 956.

#The938Challenge Alarm

Set an alarm for 9:38am Pray the prayer of Matthew 9:38 Every day for a week

How do we know Jesus is going to make good on this prayer?

One of the interesting things about this prayer in Matthew 9:38 is that the phrase “send out” carries with it the idea of being force ably sent. This phrase is rendered as “cast out” in other places in Matthews biography. Including in the story of the vineyard owner in chapter 21. There, the vineyard owner sends vineyard workers to the harvest and the current tenants of the vineyard beat and kill a few of them. The owner sends His only son into the vineyard for harvest. And the tenants kill the son. But this is how Jesus describes it:

Matthew 21:39 The tenant farmers seized the son, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

“Threw out” is the same phrase as “send out”. While there are differences between that parable and this prayer, what we are supposed to see that the very harvest we are praying for workers to be sent, Jesus himself was cast out of the harvest. The son dies for the harvest. Jesus is cast out from the harvest in order to send workers into the harvest. That’s the Good News we have for the 956. That’s the Good News we carry into where we live, learn, work, and play.

Do you know where I hear the distress the most here in this community? You know how many conversations I’ve been part of where someone will talk about how they hope they are OK with God? I heard this in the past couple of weeks: “if I keep my nose clean, I’ve got nothing to worry about”. That was from a believer, a Christian, explaining their view of the Christian life. I wanted to weep. There is no hope in that viewpoint. It’s not biblical. Yet we have shepherds telling them that if they want to stay cool with God, they need to make sure they are living on the straight and narrow path. Wrong. That’s not Christianity. That’s not grace. That’s not love.

I meet so many people in distress because they’ve been told if they mess up, God is mad at them. God is part of one big karma scheme… you get out what you put in. Some of those conversations have been with Christians. They’ve had shepherds who only ever want to talk about consequences. And they are stressed out because of it. Many are broken because of it.

The Good News that we have for these who think and believe this is that God doesn’t operate that way. We cannot earn God’s favor, ever. Even in the Christian life. Grace has no strings. Forgiveness has no conditions. That is Jesus’ compassion for those who have no shepherd. You want to help out with the harvest? Just remind someone this week that they are loved by Jesus, no matter what they are feeling or going through.

Jesus loves us and them immensely. And he is willing to die in order for you and I to be part of the harvest. He is willing to die in order for others to be part of the harvest, the age of all good things in Jesus has dawned: life, salvation, and forgiveness.

What are you praying for in 2025? We're praying for compassion. We're praying for more of Jesus and his heart in our community. We're praying for Jesus to do His work in His harvest. Through us. We're praying for others to join us.

Let’s Pray that prayer one more time:

Lord of the harvest, Please send workers into Your harvest. Here in the 956.

The Table

The first place we intersect with the harvest is right here. It’s not an accident, in fact, it is by design, that Jesus uses the harvest of grain and wheat and grapes to give us Himself at this Table. He uses the harvest for His harvest. The harvest of earth points to a greater reality… that harvest that Jesus provides in all the great things of the new age: life, salvation, and forgiveness. Jesus is here for you, His harvest. The one who was kicked out of the harvest provides a bountiful of blessings to you, His harvest.

Benediction