Help Wanted
The Labor Challenge
TCF Sermon
November 7, 2010
If you’re the owner, manager or boss of a business, and you need more help because, maybe you’re having a grand opening, and there’s so much business, you cannot do it yourself, what do you do?
Chances are, you might put out a Help Wanted sign, or place a help wanted ad in the newspaper or on an internet site. You might hire a search firm to help you find the right person and weed through and eliminate people who might be wrong for the job.
One thing you wouldn’t do is just sit back and say, “oh well, we don’t have enough people to do the work. Let’s just hope we don’t get any more business.”
When Jesus walked the earth, He had plenty to do, and He did the work that God gave Him to do. But He, too, saw a need, and gave to His disciples, and to us, the means to the end of finding the solution to this need.
Matthew 9:35-38 (NIV) 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 he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."
We see some key themes outlined in this passage. First, we see that the harvest is plentiful. In other words, there’s plenty of work to be done. In this context, it means there are plenty of souls to be saved. This passage tells us that anyone working in some capacity in the harvest will not get bored because he or she doesn’t have enough to do.
Then, we see that though there’s plenty of harvesting work to be done, there are not enough people to do the work. There are more people needed to serve as workers in the harvest, because the crops need to be harvested in a timely manner, or the harvest will spoil.
We also see who the boss is – not just the boss, but the owner. Verse 38 says it’s His harvest field. It’s the Lord’s harvest. It doesn’t belong to anyone but Him. It doesn’t belong to the church leadership, and it doesn’t belong to the congregation.
We also see the solution Jesus gave for this dilemma. The dilemma is that the crops are ready, and there are a lot of them ready to be harvested. The crop is sitting there waiting to be picked. But with the number of workers currently doing the work of the harvest, it cannot be done adequately. So we need more workers.
If we’re to use our business owner analogy just a little further here, it’s as if Jesus was saying, “Ask your boss to send more workers into His business, so we can all get the job done.”
Please get the boss to put out a help wanted sign. But it’s also clear from this passage of scripture that it’s stronger than the boss simply putting out a help wanted sign and saying “please come.” The word translated send out can mean “thrust out” – “drive out” – there’s some strength or force behind this. It’s more like the master saying to the slave – do this work – than it is like an employer saying to a potential employee – please come work for me.
That’s one reason why it’s the Lord of the Harvest who sends workers, not us. Because he’s the boss and we’re not. We cannot recruit anyone for harvest work. We can cooperate with what the Holy Spirit is doing to bring workers into the harvest, but we cannot initiate something God hasn't already ordained.
So, then, we ask, we beseech or pray earnestly, as some versions say, that the Lord of the Harvest would send more workers to get the job done.
There are a couple of important subthemes in this passage that we’ll also explore.
1. The crowds are harassed and helpless (distressed and dispirited), like sheep without a shepherd.
2. Jesus had compassion on these people
TCF has never been a church that was about quantity. In terms of our devotion to the Lord, and our Kingdom service, I like to think we’re more about quality. Quality of devotion to Christ. Quality of relationships.
Unfortunately, this idea of not being about quantity, or numbers, has led some to think that the elders don’t care at all about quantity. In some sense, that’s true, so it’s not unreasonable for some to come to this conclusion.
We do not desire for TCF to grow just for the sake of TCF becoming a larger church. Just so we can have a nicer building in a different part of town. Just so the staff can get bigger salaries. That’s not what we’re about.
In this way, numbers are not important. Obedience is important. Obedience to God’s call and direction. That obedience has at times actually cost us numbers. When various winds of doctrine have swept through the church in Tulsa and around the nation, the leadership of this church has made the decision that we cannot embrace those movements. This has cost us, in terms of membership – numbers. When our vision for world missions has competed with other agendas, people left TCF then, too.
There are other doctrinal reasons people have chosen to leave TCF. What’s more, we’ve seen how church growth works in many churches, and Tulsa is a prime example of this tendency. People go to the latest and greatest thing in town, and when the new “latest and greatest thing” happens, they move on.
We’ll probably never be a church that’s comfortable putting ads on the radio or on a billboard that say something like, “if you’re bored or dissatisfied with your church because of … and then name a myriad of reasons…come to our church, because we’re better.”
Little known fact – I spent a lot of money to have these signs made for TCF, but the elders were so upset with me, they made this for me to warn me not to do it again.
We’re aware of a very real phenomenon in churches. "What you win them with is what you win them to."
Did you know that we’re larger than more than half the churches in America? One reason that fact might be hard for us to grasp is because we’re in Tulsa, where we have so many large and very large churches. But 50 percent of churches in America average fewer than 75 attendees, and only 5 percent attract more than 350. Here’s one chart that shows what churches look like, size-wise.
Bruce did a brief study for the elders – and if you exclude from the numbers those who’ve passed away, those who left for the mission field and those who moved away from Tulsa, we actually have more adults at TCF now than we did six years ago.
Not a lot more – essentially, our growth over the past several years has been flat. This just gives us some perspective on where we are as a church.
But, we’ve never been interested in growing artificially. We’ve never been interested in making wholesale changes for the sake of attracting more people.
Os Guiness wrote:
"To be always relevant, you have to say things which are eternal"
But, if we make significant changes simply for the sake of selling people on the idea of coming to our church, what are we going to do when the inevitable happens, and the culture, or the church, is drawn to something else? I’m not saying we can never or will never make any changes. But, if we change just to be like the latest and greatest happening thing, just to keep up with the Joneses, as the old saying goes, what will we do when that latest and greatest is no longer the latest and greatest?
QUOTE: When we speak of marketing the church (writes David Wells) we are not referencing such things as advertising church events, providing excellence in church programming, being kind to visitors, or providing ample parking. No one is arguing the importance and value of such things. Marketing, as defined by the new paradigm churches, goes much further because its focus is on what the consumer (Unchurched Harry) wants and thinks he needs, rather than on what God wants and what (God) says Harry needs. In other words, market-driven churches are built upon the foundation of polls, surveys and the latest techniques, instead of upon the Word of God. In order to market a church to the unsaved, the consumer must be given what he wants. Since unsaved consumers do not desire God, or the things of God, they have to be enticed by something else. Thus the temptation then arises for a church to change, or at least hide, who they are so that they appeal to Unchurched Harry. Additionally, the church is tempted to alter its message to correspond with what Harry wants to hear and thinks he needs. The end result is a … gospel that appeals to Harry's fallen nature in an effort to entice him to come to Christ, the ultimate felt-need supplier, so that he is fulfilled and feels better about himself. But, "Can churches really hide their identity without losing their religious character? Can the church view people as consumers without inevitably forgetting that they are sinners? Can the church promote the gospel as a product and not forget that those who buy it must repent? Can the church market itself and not forget that it does not belong to itself but to Christ? Can the church pursue success in the market place and not lose its biblical faithfulness" (Losing Our Virtue, by David Wells, p. 202)?
At TCF, we’ve made a considered and prayerful and we trust, obedient decision, before God, that we don’t want that kind of growth. But we do want God-given growth, not something that we have to generate by becoming something we’re not. We want this growth so that we have more laborers for this little corner of the harvest field called TCF.
One of the strengths of this church is our relationships – the longevity of our relationships – the fact that we’ve been together and work together and share our lives in Christ together, is a significant component in the reality that we have a strong core of committed Christians in this church. In that sense, we’ve experienced and continue to experience a growth in quality, quality of relationship with Christ, and with each other.
But this has not led to a corresponding growth in quantity – in the numbers of people attending this church. I’ve heard many people here say things like, “I can’t understand why anyone wouldn’t want to come to TCF.” That’s because they’ve gained so much, and grown much in Christ in their years here. It’s because they’ve seen how this body ministers to one another in times of crisis. It’s because we have a genuine sense of family here.
Yet, there’s a practical reality at work. If God has called us as a church to release laborers into the harvest – it’s right there on your bulletin each week – whether that harvest is the med van ministry, the Good News Club, the overseas mission field, some other church ministry, or your own individual circle of influence, with neighbors, family, friends, or co-workers – how can we disciple, train and release people who aren’t part of us?
In that sense, we do care about numbers, because the work of the harvest that God has given us as a church takes people. It takes a certain number of people who are committed to going into the harvest as part of what we’re doing as a church, and as a personal commitment to the Lord, in whatever sphere of influence they’re in.
Last month, on one of those rare Sundays I’m out of town and not at TCF, apparently many people were gone that Sunday morning. I heard several remarks from elders and others about the low attendance, and there was a sense of discouragement. There’s a reality that when you’re not here, you’re missed. There’s an emotional component at work here, but it’s very real. Yes, we know that wherever two or three are gathered in Jesus name, God’s here then, too. Maybe that should be enough for us, but empty seats can feel discouraging in some ways.
Then, in the elders meeting that same week, we discussed the ongoing need for volunteer help with some key ministries. We’ve had a couple of open slots in the nursery for a few months now. We have need of more children’s church workers. We need more help with the Good News Club.
And then there’s the med van. We’ve talked many times from this pulpit about the need for volunteers to help with various aspects of that ministry, which is a very clear example of the plentiful harvest with not enough workers.
We have 25-40 people and more every Monday night, harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd, coming right into our very own building. They’re coming to us. And yes, we help to meet some of their physical needs, and that’s a worthy thing.
But, we just don’t have enough people to help. There’s so much more we can do for these people than just take care of their physical needs.
As the elders discussed these needs, there was a clear recognition that with all the good things we’ve got going on here, we need more help. We’re already doing a lot with what we have, but there’s a desire on the part of many to do so much more, and to be more effective still with what we’re already doing.
But here’s the challenge. We see here that the harvest is God’s. It’s not ours. Yet, as we work in the harvest, we need more people to put their hands to the plow, and work with us.
As I was praying about this later that week, I had a very distinct leading from the Lord to study and preach about this passage of scripture. Normally when we set the preaching schedule, the elders give each other the freedom to seek God for direction, and we don’t require that we get topics approved.
But with this particular theme, I did ask for the elders’ feedback, and specifically, for their affirmation that this is God’s direction for us. I did that because at the end of this message this morning, I’m going to challenge all of you to join the elders with a very specific response to this morning’s word. And that kind of thing is not for me, as an individual elder to decide to do, but is for the elders as a team to decide, because it has to do with the direction and future of the church.
We noted that Jesus, when he saw the crowds, had compassion on them. Compassion is a component of our motivation here, our motivation to bring more workers to join us in harvest work. But, compassion is not our entire, or even our highest, motivation. We care that people are helpless, hurting. We care more still that they are lost without Christ.
The great Scottish preacher Alexander MacLaren wrote this about this passage:
It is perfectly legitimate, although it is by no means the highest motive, to appeal to feeling as a stimulus to action. We have a right to base our urging of Christian men and women to missionary work either at home or abroad, upon the ground of the condition of the men to whom the Gospel has to be carried. I know that if taken alone it is a very inadequate motive. I believe that any failure that may be manifest in the interest of Christian people in missionary work is largely traceable to the blunder we have made in dwelling on superficial motives more than we ought to have done, in proportion to the degree in which we have dwelt on the deepest. So I say that a deeper reason than the sorrow and darkness of the heathen is — ‘the love of Christ constraineth me’; but yet the first is a legitimate one. Only remember this, that Bishop Butler taught us long ago, that if you excite emotions which are intended to lead to action, and the action does not follow, the excitation of the emotion without its appropriate action makes the heart a great deal harder than it was before. You cannot indulge in the luxury of emotion which you do not use to drive your spindles, without doing yourselves harm. It is never intended to be blown off as waste steam and allowed to vanish into the air. It is meant to be conserved and guided, and to have something done with it. Therefore beware of sentimental contemplation of the sad condition of the shepherdless sheep which does not move you to do anything to help them. Alexander MacLaren
The phrase in this passage, “like sheep without a shepherd,” makes me think of something else related to our theme this morning. Here in Tulsa, because perhaps it’s always been such a “religious” city, there are a lot of people who say they are Christians, but don’t ever go to church. Now, some of these individuals may be believers, and some may not, but the reality for both is the same. They are like sheep without a shepherd.
But, specifically speaking of those many Christians who’ve been burned by a church and left it, or perhaps they’ve even left a church, and not connected elsewhere for reasons we might consider suspect in some way, they are still like sheep without a shepherd.
And as such, believers or not, they are in spiritual danger.
Ezekiel 34:5-6 (NIV) So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
I think these are some of the people God may want to bring to TCF. I say that with some sense of trepidation, because there’s a chance some of these left their previous church for suspect reasons. In other words, there was nothing really wrong with the church they left, but there was something wrong with them. But the fact remains. They are sheep without a shepherd, and they need a shepherd. They need a church family like TCF.
The word used here refers to the weariness and fatigue which results from labour and being burdened. He saw the people burdened with the rites of religion and the doctrines of the Pharisees; sinking down under their ignorance and traditions, and neglected by those who ought to have been enlightened teachers, Without his care they would stray away. Barnes Notes
So, while I would discourage any of you from making an effort to invite someone who’s already invested in another fellowship, to come to TCF, I would encourage you to remember that the unchurched, Christian or not, find their souls in danger.
So, how do we do this? How do we put out the help wanted sign?
We’ve noted first that the harvest is plentiful. Do we really have any doubts about that? We all know so many people who need the Lord. We can just look at our culture and see how lost people are. We can just look at our neighbors and co-workers and schoolmates, and see how lost people are. Jesus said the harvest is plentiful. It was true then, and it’s true today.
But we also see that the workers are few. It’s true everywhere. I don’t want this to be a sermon where I make people feel all guilty because they’re not serving, or not serving enough. hile there are always people in every church who could do more for the Kingdom work the church is involved in, I really believe that TCF is very different. I think where the old adage is that 20% of the people do 80% of the work, I think our percentages here at TCF are much higher – we have a much higher percentage of those who are part of this church who serve actively and faithfully as laborers in the harvest.
Another thing I think of is helping us as individuals find the connection between what we do, and the harvest. There are always somewhat invisible, somewhat thankless jobs in harvest work. Not everyone gets to reap. It’s easy for us to see the connection between what we do, and laboring in the harvest, when we have the privilege of leading someone to Christ. It’s a little more difficult when you clean toilets, or do the bookkeeping, or work in the tape room, or even greet visitors or change dirty diapers in the nursery.
But it’s all harvest work. It’s all important to the work of the harvest. My prayer is: Lord, help us to serve you, and help us to see that in serving you, we’re serving as harvest workers, even if we never personally witness a soul being saved.
Yet, we do want to see souls saved. That’s what the harvest is all about. It’s a harvest of souls – people converted from the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His marvelous light.
Romans 10:14-15 (NIV) How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"
Let’s be a people of beautiful feet, and play our individual parts in bringing the good news.
I think God does want to bring growth to TCF in these ways:
1. Evangelism and salvation growth (whether it be through a church program, or through our individual relationships with people) – new believers, coming into the Kingdom of God and coming to TCF to be discipled, to grow, and then to serve in the harvest themselves
2. Those who are unchurched, for a variety of reasons, and are thus harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd
3. Those who particularly resonate with the vision of TCF, training and releasing into the harvest, and specifically our calling as a church dedicated to world missions. IHI docs, ORU or TU students. These people just need to find us.
And Jesus gave us the first instructions on how to get there – how to see more laborers come into the harvest. We’re to ask the Lord of the harvest to bring workers.
That doesn’t preclude any further action. Those of you who are faithful pray-ers know that often, as a response to our ongoing prayers about someone or something, God will give us specific followup actions to do.
But where do we start? We pray. In praying, we’re acknowledging that this is God’s harvest. We’re acknowledging that we are absolutely and completely dependent on Him. We’re recognizing that anything that comes from our own designs, our own intellect, is worthless toward achieving the goal of more workers for the harvest.
But ideas, strategies, followup action, that flows from those prayers, will be more clearly His design, the very mind of Christ.
Yet, it’s critical to note that the only thing Jesus said specifically to do, was pray. He didn’t say, come up with an action plan. He didn’t say to create an advertising and marketing campaign. So, if you’re a TCFer who’s truly interested in seeing our church grow, not for the sake of numbers, but for the express purpose of having more workers for our little corner of the Lord’s harvest, don’t be disappointed that I’m not up here this morning outlining our five-step plan to make that happen. I do believe followup action will come, but it will be in response to, a result of, the only thing that Jesus said to do:
He said to PRAY
With that in mind, I want to close with a challenge to all of you here this morning, and for those who aren’t here, let’s all make sure they know about this as well. Encourage them to get online and get the recording of this message. We’ll feature this as a regular item on our intercessory prayer list as well.
The elders have also agreed to seek God for messages related to this idea in the coming 14 months. The challenger isn’t just me. It’s a challenge from the elders to all of you.
In the next 14 months, between now and the end of 2011, we want to challenge you to pray, intentionally, specifically, and regularly, this prayer that Jesus told us to pray. To pray that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers into His harvest. And specifically, since we at TCF are part of His harvest, that God would send us those He desires, to join us in the harvest, to work with us.
We’re challenging you to pray at least weekly, but hopefully more often, even daily, between now and the end of 2011. We’ll pray for this from the pulpit regularly. We’ll pray for this in our elders meeting regularly. We’ll pray for this in our monthly corporate prayer meeting regularly. And we want to ask you to join us. Let’s seek God together, and trust Him to bring the workers we need to do the things we believe God has given us to do as His church.
And let’s note that immediately after this passage in Matthew chapter 9, after He had told His disciples to pray for more workers for the harvest, what did Jesus do? He sent them.
So, as we pray and seek God, let’s be open to what He would ask us to do in response. But let’s start with no other agenda than praying, diligently, persistently. We as elders cannot make any of this happen. We’re not going to call you at home to see if you’re on board with this challenge. We’re not going to keep track of whether or not you fulfill this as individuals. God has to do this. God has to grow the church. We cannot.
But we do want to cooperate with what His Holy Spirit is doing to provide the laborers for that part of the harvest God wants this church involved in.
I thought about having people stand to commit to this, but that’s not going to work. I think everybody would stand, because who wants to be seen as the one who wouldn’t pray. Whether or not you really will.
So, instead, as I close, I want all of us to stand, and as I pray, ask God to convict you of your commitment to pray and make that commitment to Him, not to me, not to those around you.
On behalf of the elders – I invite you to join us as we pray for the Lord of the harvest to send us laborers, so we have the workers we need to do the work of the harvest God has given us.
Close in prayer
