Praying for the Lost
Matthew 9:35-38
Billy Graham once said that he estimated that only 5% of believers had ever shared the gospel message of salvation with someone else.
Evidently, a young fellow named Jim did not want to be left out of that group.
Having lived in Orlando, FL all of his life, Jim was labeled learing disabled by the public school system. He never learned to read and had a speech impediment.
He walked with a limp and was a social outcast. After several frustrating years in the school system, Jim dropped out and committed himself to an assortment of odd jobs. He was extremely willing to give every ounce of effort that he could muster in order to please his employer.
Jim had trusted Christ and was in church every time that the doors opened.
His church offered a class on witnessing and Jim was the first to register. He soon discovered, however, that reading was necessary to successfully be trained in evangelism.
But Jim was not to be deterred. He had a plan.
Armed with a handful of tracts which he had practically memorized, Jim set his sights on several friends and co-workers. He approached them by saying with his slurred speech, I cannot read this. Would you read this to me?
The Holy Spirit did the rest.
In one year, Jim lead over forty of his friends to Christ.
He used what he had.
God honored it.
Matthew 9:35-38
35 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.
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on 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 workers are few.
38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
(NIV)
Jesus loved sinners more than He hated their sin.
Matthew 9:36
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
(NIV)
Harassed = Fleeced
Helpless = Flung away
No creature is more apt to go astray than a sheep, and when gone astray more helpless, shiftless, and exposed, or more unapt to find the way home again. Sinful souls are as lost sheep.
Will you love the lost person God has placed in your life more than you hate their problem?
The critics of sinners are never the ones who can redeem them.
A young lady named Sally took a seminary class taught by Professor Smith, who was known for his elaborate object lessons. One day Sally walked into class to find a large target placed on the wall, with several darts resting on a nearby table. Professor Smith told the students to draw a picture of someone they disliked or someone who had made them angry and he would allow them to throw darts at the person’s picture.
Sally’s friend (on her right), drew a picture of another woman who had stolen her boyfriend. Another friend (on her left), drew a picture of his younger brother. Sally drew a picture of Professor Smith, putting a great deal of detail into her drawing, even drawing pimples on his face! She was quite pleased at the overall effect she’d achieved.
The class lined up and began throwing darts amidst much laughter. Some of the students threw with such force that they ripped apart their targets. But Sally, looking forward to her turn, was filled with disappointment when Professor Smith asked the students to return to their seats so he could begin his lecture. As Sally fumed about missing her chance to throw the darts, the professor began removing the target from the wall.
Underneath the target was a picture of Jesus. A hush fell over the room as each student viewed the mangled image of their Savior¡ holes and jagged marks covered his face. His eyes were virtually pierced out.
Professor Smith said only these words, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" [Matthew 25:40, KJV].
Citation: Lee Rhodes, Wheeler, Michigan
Jesus took personal responsibility for the salvation of the lost.
Luke 19:10
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.
(NIV)
8 Reasons People Do not Share Their Faith
And how to overcome them.
Reason 1. I do not have any non-Christian friends.
Response: Jesus was a friend of sinners. We need to take risks to follow his example.
Reason 2. I do not have the gift of evangelism. It is not my thing.
Response: Jesus gave the Great Commission to the entire church. We all have a vital part to play by using approaches that fit our unique personalities.
Reason 3. I do not have time right now.
Response: Mix outreach with things you’re already doing by inviting unchurched friends to join you. Think of the difference one lunch made in the life of Zacchaeus.
Reason 4. I am afraid of what friends will think of me.
Response: That is a good sign. It shows you want to approach people in ways that will not offend them. Interact with them, and they’ll be open to the time when you tell them about Christ.
Reason 5. I will just live out my faith in front of my friends; they will figure it out.
Response: That sounds appealing, but it is neither biblical nor effective. Paraphrasing Romans 10:14, they are not going to see it unless we also say it.
Reason 6. I do not know how to bring up the topic.
Response: Pray for wisdom and courage to seize opportunities that come up to steer ordinary topics into spiritual conversations.
Reason 7. I do not know enough.
Response: Say what you do know. You can always delay answering a tough question until you’ve had time to look into it.
Reason 8. In our church, we do not talk about personal faith.
Response: Your friends need to understand the gospel message because it is the power of God for salvation. Stretch yourself to communicate it in ways that fit you and them. Take small steps, and sharing your faith will become more natural.
The church father Augustine writes of the important role played by his mother’s faithful intercession for him during his years of waywardness:
My mother asked [a bishop] in his kindness to have some discussion with me, to refute my errors, to unteach me what was evil and teach me what was good . . .
He refused. . . . He told her that I was as yet not ripe for teaching. . . .
"But," said he, "let him alone. Only pray to the Lord for him: he will himself discover by reading what his error is. . . ."
My mother would not be satisfied but urged him with repeated entreaties and floods of tears to see me and discuss with me.
He, losing patience, said: "Go your way; as sure as you live, it is impossible that the son of these tears should perish."
Citation: Aurelius Augustinus, "Book 3," Confessions, reprinted in Christian History (Issue 67), p. 19
Will you take personal responsibility
for the lost people you know?
Will you pray?
Matthew 9:37-38
37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
(NIV)
"We spend more time praying for the saved who are sick than for the unsaved who are lost ... more time trying to keep the saints out of Heaven than the lost out of Hell." Adrian Rogers
Five years ago the number one request coming into prayer lines across America was: Pray for my lost family and loved ones that they do not go to hell!
It is number eight today.
It has been replaced by number one, Pray for my physical body, and number two, Pray for my financial prosperity.
This has become the cry of the church. (Christian Research Journal, vol. 30, #3, p.22)
"If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish, let them perish with our arms around their knees. Let no one go there unwarned and unprayed for." Charles Spurgeon
The diary of George Mueller, Christian social reformer from the Victorian era, chronicles his devotion in prayer:
In November 1844, I began to pray for the conversion of five individuals. I prayed every day without a single intermission, whether sick or in health, on the land, on the sea, and whatever the pressure of my engagements might be. Eighteen months elapsed before the first of the five was converted. I thanked God and prayed on for the others.
Five years elapsed, and then the second was converted. I thanked God for the second, and prayed on for the other three. Day by day, I continued to pray for them, and six years passed before the third was converted. I thanked God for the three, and went on praying for the other two. These two remained unconverted.
Thirty-six years later he wrote that the other two, sons of one of Mueller’s friends, were still not converted. He wrote:
But I hope in God, I pray on, and look for the answer. They are not converted yet, but they will be.
In 1897, fifty-two years after he began to pray, these two men were finally converted, after he died. Mueller understood what Jesus meant when he told his disciples "that they should always pray and not give up."
Citation: Ben Patterson, Deepening Your Conversation with God (Bethany, 1999), pp. 105,106
Write down your response:
God has placed these lost people
in my life:
_______ I will love them more than I hate their sin.
_______ I will pray daily for their salvation.
_______ I will ask God to send a witness to them.
_______ I will partner with another Christian
to pray for them.
Matthew 18:14
14 your Father in heaven is not willing
that any of these little ones should be lost.
(NIV)
