THE SIMPLE, OBVIOUS, PATHETIC, MYSTIFYING TRUTH: We do not pray this prayer.
- Matthew 9:38.
- I do not have an explanation for this.
- It’s not hard to do. It’s not hard to understand. It’s not controversial. Yet it’s rare that any of us pray this prayer at all. It’s even more rare that a church will focus on this prayer and tenaciously cling to it until they see results.
- I don’t know why. It’s simple. It’s obvious. It’s pathetic that we don’t. It’s mystifying that we ignore it. Yet we do.
- More often when we pray about evangelism and witnessing, we pray for lost. We pray for our church to grow. We pray for open doors. But we don’t pray for God to send us workers.
- The workers could come by God raising up people within our church. The workers could come by God bringing people to our church. But in either case, the specific prayer we’ve been told to pray is for workers.
- We sometimes do lots of other evangelism stuff: host seminars, preach sermons (like this one!), read books, etc. But we don’t pray this prayer.
- Now, this is not the answer you’ll get if you ask people about how to see more people saved within your church.
- “Why aren’t we seeing more people saved?” Likely answers:
a. People just aren’t interested in the Lord anymore.
b. We need more training.
c. People are just busy with the world today.
d. It’s different than it used to be.
- One possible reason we don’t: it sounds a little insulting and embarrassing.
- When you’re in church and pray this prayer, you’re implicitly criticizing the people who are there. They either aren’t harvest workers or at least enough of them aren’t that we need to pray for more.
- Most evangelism prayers focus on the problems out there: the unsaved people are the problem (they don’t want it) or the world is the problem (it’s draw is too strong).
- This prayer points back to us as the problem. It’s a little uncomfortable.
- Every time we pray this, we’re acknowledging that those of us here aren’t seeing the results we want.
- Having 100 people in your church on a Sunday morning is not the same as having 100 harvest workers. Not even close.
- You might just need two or three harvest workers to make a difference in a church. Just a handful committed to seeing the lost come home.
- This is why Jesus said the workers are few – there aren’t many interested in laboring.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT THAT WE DO THIS?
1. Our harvest expectations are low.
- Matthew 9:37 – “The harvest is plentiful. . .”
- The first thing Jesus says here is almost unbelievable: the harvest is plentiful.
- Really? Seriously? Where?
- We have become accustomed to a dribble of salvations within our churches. Seeing a handful within a year get baptized is “pretty good.”
- I remember one of the first times I looked through the WVBC Annual Report. I expected the smaller churches to have lower numbers of salvations and baptisms, but two things really hit me:
a. First was the overwhelming number of small country churches that had no baptisms.
- It was maybe 50% of those churches who had nothing. Nothing.
b. Second was that even the big churches still had relatively few baptisms.
- Churches with 300 or 500 people might have had 10-20 baptisms.
- And I couldn’t find any “breakout” churches with signs of an outpouring of the Spirit.
- We think that drought is normal.
- We have come to accept that this is just the way it is and we have no expectations of great things.
- In fact, it can get to the place where we question the methods of churches that are seeing a great harvest.
- “They must be doing something Biblically wrong to see those kinds of results.” It sounds like the things the Pharisees said when Jesus drew great crowds.
- This is important (among other reasons) because of how often Jesus emphasized the need for faith.
- People with faith see prayers answered that people without faith don’t see answered. Faith moves mountains. Doubting and praying with a vague “hope” bring little results.
- So it’s not surprising that we aren’t seeing much in the way of results. We get so little because we expect so little.
- What would it be like if we became unsatisfied with anything other than an abundant harvest?
- What if every baptism caused us to go to the altar at the close of worship and cry out, “Thank you, Lord, but we want more”?
- What if we expected to be overwhelmed?
- What if the outpouring came and we weren’t shocked but instead we smiled and said, “This is what I’ve been waiting for!”
2. Harvest is not about programs, but people.
- Matthew 9:37 – “. . . the workers are few.”
- It’s easy in churches (especially long-established churches) for everything to be about programs and committees. We believe that our results are going to come through the programs that we start. We all meet together in our committees in order to organize and plan our programs.
- Now, there is a place for all that. You do need some programs in place to take care of the regular needs. Committees can (occasionally) be functional.
- But God so loved the world that He didn’t send a committee.
- When we think of evangelism and witnessing, the focal point is not programs. We might occasionally see results there. But our real focal point needs to be people.
- People with a burden. People with a heart to share their story. People with a longing to see people saved.
- Even with programs, the difference between seeing a positive result and seeing it fall apart is people. Having that person with the harvest mentality. Having that person with a harvest heart.
- Jesus notes that the workers are few. What we need is more workers. People with that harvest heart.
- They are hard to come by.
- We need to both pray that God raises up people within the church who have that harvest worker mentality as well as bringing new people our way who have that heart.
3. If the Father doesn’t draw them, we’re wasting our time.
- Matthew 9:38 – “Ask the Lord. . .”
- John 6:44.
- This prayer is important because this all starts and ends with God drawing people to Himself.
- We can have the best testimony, but if God isn’t drawing them then it’s going to have no impact.
- We can put together deeply stirring worship, but if God isn’t drawing the person sitting in the pew then it’s going to have no impact.
- We can boldly witness to the resurrection of Christ, but if God isn’t drawing the hearer then it’s going to have no impact.
- In John we’re told that unless the Father draws them then no one will come to the Lord (John 6:44).
- This is why we start with this prayer.
- We “ask the Lord.” Prayer is the starting point.
4. God is not standing in our way.
- Matthew 9:38 – “. . . Lord of the harvest,” “. . . into His harvest.”
- We usually ignore the lost and fail to evangelize. Every now and again, though, we’ll pay attention to the lost:
a. A lost co-worker dies unexpectedly.
b. A teen who had been coming to church walks away.
c. A close, unsaved relative is in the hospital gravely ill.
- In those moments, our prayers sometimes sound like we’re the ones carrying the burden of evangelism. Our prayer can sound like we’re holding the torch for witnessing. We’re doing our part – why doesn’t God move?!?
- That, of course, is self-centered nonsense. We’d been largely ignoring the lost for months while God was thinking about them constantly.
- Verse 38 reminds us (in some telling phrases) that God is “Lord of the harvest” and that this is “His harvest.”
- He is the One who sent Christ. He is the One who loves the world. He is the One longing to see people come back to Him.
- God isn’t the One holding things up.
- If the harvest isn’t what it should be, it’s not because of any failing on God’s part.
- When we embrace this truth that He is the “Lord of the harvest,” it can encourage us tremendously.
- We can know that God isn’t indifferent to our prayers. He’s thrilled to hear us praying this. He doesn’t have to have His arm twisted to answer this prayer. He’s eager to do so. Of course, sometimes answering that prayer begins with some work on us, transforming us into the people who can be used as harvest workers. It may involve working within our church to get us ready for the harvest. It’s not usually as easy as God just opening up the spigot and bringing the flood of results.
- But knowing that He is eager for this is an encouragement.
5. This is not sales – it’s shepherding.
- Matthew 9:36 – “. . . He had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
- One final point worth making takes us to the preceding verse.
- We make evangelism feel like sales. It’s no wonder that so few people want to do it. It’s uncomfortable and seems intrusive.
- Jesus says something important in verse 36. His motivation was compassion (we talked about that last week). The compassion arose from seeing the people around Him meandering spiritually like sheep without a shepherd.
- The motivation was to see this person know that there was hope, that there was Someone who cared.
- Much of our evangelism feels more like trying to twist the arm of uninterested people than sharing the good news with struggling people. That’s where the sales idea comes in.
- Of course, the idea of “hard selling” salvation is ridiculous, not the least of which because our goal is not to get them to say “yes” for a moment but to get them to walk with Jesus for a lifetime. That requires a deep desire on their part.
- We need to believe that Jesus is indeed good news.
- It needs to have transformed our lives. It needs to be something that we can honestly say is the best thing that ever happened to us.
- My Dad had two knee replacements in the last couple years after literally and figuratively grinding it out for a few years. The surgeries have made his life so much better. Now, when he sees someone with knee pain, he’s quick to share with them that there’s hope. Why? Because it’s done tremendous good in his own life.
- We share Jesus because we see the lost, hopeless look in someone’s eyes and we have the chance to say, “I know where hope is.”
