Help Wanted: Apply Within

And I stuck it on the front of the lectern before the service. But as we talked about it today, I think you'll get what I'm talking about here in our primary scripture is Matthew chapter 9 verses 35 to 38. It says Jesus went through all the towns and Villages teaching in their synagogues preaching the Good News of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness when he saw the crowds he had compassion on them because they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Then they said he said to his disciples. The Harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few ask the lord of the Harvest there for to send out workers into his Harvest field.

Now the Harvest that's being talked about in this passage of scripture. You know, it's not about farming. We're not talking about corn or wheat hear something else. You know, it's about the Great Commission. It's about Jesus harvesting those in the world who don't yet know him his children of bringing them back to him. And you know, like I said last week my sister talked a lot about the Great Commission. But what is the Great Commission all about? You know, what is our job to be a part of this Harvest that this verse is talking about.

You know, it's not like a normal job where your job is all about completing a certain task and because you complete that certain tasks, you're paid a certain amount of money. You know completing the Great Commission is about making a difference and having an impact for God. It's nothing about personal recognition. It's nothing about personal Glory. It's about God. It's about knowing where God needs me and then Faithfully doing my part of completing the Great Commission. You're the Great Commission that we read about in the scripture isn't like, you know, when you go and you buy a new car that salesman gets a commission, right? That's not what this is about. That's not the same type of thing. It's about Jesus sending the gospel to the ends of the Earth through God's children. That's what it really is all about. It's about that gospel going out and you know generations of missionaries have given up everything in an attempt to complete that task and great. Headway has been made as they've given everything sometimes even including their very life to take the gospel into foreign lands to take it into the dark places. But you want spatula told us the job is still unfinished. You know, we still have a lot of work to do to prepare for the Harvest and that's why Jesus tells us in this passage of scripture to pray that the Lord will provide workers for the Harvest.

You know, here are some facts to help us get a good picture of the size of the task ahead of us. You often we think in this world that were in that we have to be pretty close to completing the Great Commission, right? Listen to this. There are over 7.1 billion people currently living on the planet Earth. More than 2.2 billion of those people call themselves Christian and that is a pretty broad spectrum saying that they're Christians that runs the gamut all the way from the Catholic Church to the Pentecostal church and all those groups that might say they're Christian that's all included in that Catholics, Orthodox. Everything is throwing in that 2.2 billion.

So of the 4.9 billion non-Christian people in the world. 3.4 billion of them live in a culture with no viable Christian Witness

So what does that mean that they have no viable Christian witness what that means is that there is virtually no church. No Christians know Bible and their area. It's hard to believe but there are still people groups in the world who do not have the bible translated into their language.

You know for a lot of people in other countries, it's very necessary for various reasons that they speak more than one language.

As Americans we think they should all speak our language. So most of us aren't that way but most people in other countries, it is not an unusual thing that they can speak to three four different languages. They have to because of different people groups in their country. But for some of them they might be able to find a Bible in one of these other languages, but they can't find it in what we like to call their heart language. Their native language the language that they grew up learning in the language that speaks the most to him. Yeah, that's one of the ways that people don't have access to you. See this little map up there on the screen. Yeah, that's an area known as the 10/40 window.

The 10/40 window is that place on the globe? And I didn't do it this week. I was going to make it on the wall back there the same box, but I can show you where it is. And within this little box if you draw it on the globe 98% of the unreached peoples in the world live there in that area or in the colored regions right near that 1040 window. And if you'll look up on this side over here the little tiny green spec that's out there. Just outside the 10/40 window. That is Bosnia. It is one of the countries that falls into that category because the high number of Christians in Bosnia is that it is 0 7% of their country is Christian. Evangelical Christian that is but eight percent of them fall there. We know that's we can focus our efforts there and we try to but I put it up there this particular map because it list some of the other religions on there. And it can hopefully start to help you understand why this area of the world is such a challenge to spread the gospel in.

You know, you might look at a map like this and something and think while you know.

If it's all over there, we don't have to worry about it here, right? Will remember there is still another 2% of unreached peoples. And unfortunately, we're seeing that the numbers of the unreached are growing faster in the areas that fall outside of the 10/40 window. So in postmodern Europe or in places like the United States, the number of underage people is rising because people are growing up not going to church not being a part of that sort of stuff.

And that's why this enormous task is something that's so difficult to complete with the numbers of missionaries we have which yes, there are thousands when you put all the different churches together. But they still are vastly outnumbered and they need our help. They need our prayers and many other ways. And we might look at this problem sometimes and think will surely The Sovereign lord of the universe who put the Sun the moon the stars and everything in place. He knows the problem. He knows where the problems at. He can handle it. You know, what can we possibly do to help it? Well, that's why Jesus gave us the Great Commission Matthew chapter 28 verses 18 through 20. Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven and on Earth has been given to me therefore go and make disciples of all Nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything. I have commanded you and surely I Am With You Always to the very end of the age. We all know that's the Great Commission. It's a rather famous verse and scripture in these are Jesus's final instructions to the laborers who he's asking to help complete the Harvest.

You know and then and asked one just before Jesus ascends back into heaven. He reiterates the game plan on the different way and Acts 1:8 says what you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my Witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria to the ends of the Earth. You know God strategy for dealing with the problem of the unreached for bringing in the Harvest. Is this He sent Jesus to tell his followers. And essentially what Jesus told his followers was God sent me now. I'm sending you. And that's what we have to remember. We all have a part of it, you know, God did everything he could to bridge the gap between Heaven and Earth by sending his son to be a witness to let us know that he had defeated sending death for all eternity and that that forgiveness was available. So now it's our part to continue to spread that message to others to continue to let other people know Because God's plan has always been that Jesus would be made knowing through redeemed repositories of his grace called human beings. We have always been a part of the plant.

You know most of us panic when we hear that. We have a part in fulfilling the Great Commission cuz automatically we worry. Oh know if I truly ask God what he wants me to do with the Great Commission God's going to send me to like some unknown place in Africa kill. So I really don't want to say that. Well, as you can look when you look at the 10/40 window, it's only a small part of Northern Africa. That's a part of the 1040. So that's not where he'll send you. There's a lot of other countries where you can deduct know the truth is, you know for very few of us. Will that be what God ask is to do for a lot of us God might just ask us to pray. Different missionaries to pray for unreached people or to support them another way so they can get be done. But you know another thing that he asked us to do that. So often gets overlooked is that there are unreached people right here in our own community.

You know, if you all could spend the afternoon on my school bus you would be fully aware of that that there are unreached people in our community. There are kids that aren't being raised in a church. And you know if I drive around everyday, that's just something I think and I see that you know. Monroe was the community where 20 years ago. It was quite a different place. For what it was is a town what it represented but times are different and we need to know that but we also need to know that we can play a part in changing that that we have a crop that Jesus is wanting us to harvest in our own Community as we continue to work to help support World missions and all of that. We can't lose sight of the mission right here in front of us.

Okay, so you know what the job is where do you apply and that's where it starts to come in here that is where this job is far different than any other position that you'll ever apply for in your lifetime. Cuz you don't just go into the place and ask for an application. When you sign up to be a part of the Harvest what God is asking you to do is to apply within. deep within I'm talking about deep within your own heart and soul that you will tell God that you want to be a part of bringing in the Harvest. You know, we don't serve Jesus Christ out of a sense of Duty or obligation. We serve God out of our great love for him. And out of our great thankfulness for all that was accomplished on the cross. We serve Christ because we love him with all of our heart soul and strength. So hopefully you can see the clear difference between this job of being a part of the Great Commission and any other job you'll have in life.

You know most people think of serving God as something that you do on the side, right something you do with your free time something you just do on Sunday mornings, but it's much more than that. If we truly want to have a kingdom impact we have to understand that serving God is a 24/7 365 calling its everyday all day. Missionaries aren't the only ones who are called to serve. God everyday pastors aren't the only ones who are called to serve. God everyday. You know, the number of people I can talk to during a week or have an impact with is limited limited by time. It's limited by schedule. And you know if I want to try to see my family I have to be there something to its limited. Let's think if you multiply it by the number of people in our church. if each person tries to talk to one person a week It's a huge multiplication that begins to happen when you do that.

You know, I'm here to tell you that did something that we can do and like said we have to understand that there is a clear connection between completing the Great Commission and our full surrender to Christ, you know, those two things are tied together in a way that can't be separated from each other. because if we aren't fully surrendered for not going to be able to make the sort of commitment that we need to

Author a b Simpson called it the Deeper Life of seeking that Deeper Life with Christ and part of the reason that we do that is so that we can do more things for God because if we go into that Deeper Life he'll give us that drive.

You know, I think a really important part. Of reaching the unreached of completing the Great Commission is to ask yourself the question. Do the things that break God's heart break yours.

You know, that's why I thought that it would be very fitting to do this message on the sanctity of human life Sunday. As we highlight the value in the importance of human life.

You know a lot of those. Mothers and families that the Hope Clinic deals with our unreached people in our community not all of them, but a lot of them. Or even if they know Christ they may not be walking with him in a way that they need to be and they need someone to come alongside and Mentor them. But do the things that going on in their life. Does that break your heart? Does it motivate you to get involved and help do something about it?

Yo, if we think about it for all of us, we've all experienced loss in one way or another we've all lost family members and you know it always in packs you. But can we see that impact in a way that can be turned for good? Because you know when someone Close to You dies. And you know that they don't know the Lord. That's when the sting of death is a little harder. As we think about it. You know for me, I'm always reminded because the told you I gave this message once before in the first time I gave this message was shortly after the passing of my uncle. He was my favorite uncle, but unfortunately my uncle's lives a rather hard life. You know, he was into alcohol and drugs and in and out of jail more times than I can remember our account. But you know all those things don't matter the thing that troubled all of us in the family the most was that he was openly defiant towards God. He would say he didn't want anything to do with

And he made that rather clear and there was even times he would come and listen to me speak when I first started giving messages at this church back in 8th grade. But when I try to talk to him about it afterwards, he'd be like I come to support you. I want nothing to do with that. That was always hard and you know the first time I gave this message cuz I talked about how you know, the hard thing of that for us as a family is to think. That we may not see him. When we get to heaven. Most likely he won't be there and you know for me it be the greatest surprise. I could have if when I get to heaven he's there. And a lady came up to me after church and she was extremely upset and she said that's not right of you to say that you don't know if at the last minute he didn't pray the prayer to accept Jesus and he could be there. I said, you know what you're right. But I don't want to count on that. And we can't count on that for other people, you know, too many people think that's their parachute that they can use at the end that well when I know I'm going to die then I'll do the whole Jesus thing. hopefully you can

you know what? It happened with my uncle is that most likely he had an overdose because he had a massive heart attack and they think he'd laid there to his house for quite a while till he finally had the strength to try to make a phone call to 911. so could heave during that time I could have Spaghetti, I don't know. I never will only God knows what happened there. And as I think about that, like I said, it breaks my heart to think about that. It breaks my heart to think of other families that have family members in that and we have to use that sort of thing. Hazard motivation for why it is so important to us to reach the unreached. this picture up here is actually of a Muslim graveyard from Bosnia when I went to Bosnia to spend some time with my sister once. I was talking with one of the other missionaries on his her team. I know his name was Mark cuz almost all the guys on her team was named Mark so they had three or four marks at one time on her team, but Mark was saying to me he wondered why. God put his family in a house that was across the street from a Muslim graveyard. He didn't understand it was like okay God of all the places in this city that you could pick. Why did you put me here? Why am I in this Muslim Muslim graveyard? Then he said one day when he was walking past it walking home it finally struck him. Those are the unreached.

That represents the unreached. And we don't like to think about it. But when we look at every single one of those white markers that someone that is spending eternity separated from God.

That's just one picture if you'll go to the next picture.

That's on a hillside in Bosnia. Answer banitsa. It was the largest mass grave in Bosnia from the war. The little white crosses up top that you see the white markers kind of across the top half. Those are all of the Muslim grapes. The darker ones if you come down the ones on the one side are all the Eastern Orthodox Christians. The ones on the other side are the Catholics. But they did that afterwards and oh, do you know what the buildings are right there in front? That's the Olympic Village from 1984.

And there are other pictures that I didn't share but you know. One of the places throughout the entire world that they bury people was through the whole Olympic thing. There's actually a picture of the entire Olympic Stadium filled with headstones.

But you see look at that picture. We need to understand that that picture represents. the unreached those are people, you know, there are over 8000 Graves there. In that place and that represents a bunch of people who never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that's just 8,000. You know, the number I said of non Christians in the world is 4.9 billion well over half of the world's population. And we need to realize when we talked about the unrighteous. It doesn't just mean that they don't know Jesus. Yeah means that but it also means unless someone tells them about Jesus. They will spend all of eternity separated from God. And that needs to be our motivation. You know this picture represents a field that was never harvested.

It represents a field where we lost the entire crop. The field was put there. It grew it had a life. It lived a life, but no one ever harvested it. No one ever tended to the crop. And that has to be our motivation as a church and as individuals of why it's so important to us to reach the unreached people in this world and our own community and our state our own country around the world. That's why it's so important.

because if we don't Their eternity is at risk and each of us should feel a motivation to be a part of that cuz don't all of us want to get through this life and at the end of this life when we're finally standing before Jesus hear well done good and faithful servant.

I think a big part of that well done is tied to you know, did the things that break God's heart break our heart.

Or did we just worry about ourselves? We just worry about how comfortable we were and did we have everything we liked in life? Cuz I don't think that we can expect to hear our traitor say Well done if we don't all realize that we play some role in helping with the Harvest.

So the challenge that I have is that I want all of you to apply deep within and ask God what your role is in bringing in the Harvest? We all play A Part somehow that's something that we have to be praying about and asking God what our role is. Please pray with me. Heavenly father as we come to you today Lord. We thank you for the many blessings that you've given us and Lord. We thank you. First of all and most for sending your son to die on the cross Lord that we could accept that free gift of salvation.

The Lord I pray that it won't be a gift that we cling onto so tightly that we don't want to share it with anyone else. Lord help each and every one of us to see what our role is in sharing the gospel and passing it to other people and helping people know who you are and what your plan is for them.

Lord so often all we have to do is point him in the right direction and you do the rest of the work, but Lord I pray that you will give us the boldness and the desire that we need. To help do our part and reaching those who have yet to know you we pray this all on your most. Holy name. Amen.