Our Scripture text is Matthew 9:35-38 (Living Bible)
35 Jesus traveled around through all the cities and villages of that area, teaching in the Jewish synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And wherever he went he healed people of every sort of illness. 36 And what pity he felt for the crowds that came, because their problems were so great, and they didn’t know what to do or where to go for help. They were like sheep without a shepherd.
37 “The harvest is so great, and the workers are so few,” he told his disciples. 38 “So pray to the one in charge of the harvesting, and ask him to recruit more workers for his harvest fields.”
JESUS – Jesus travelled in and around cities and villages not because he was sightseeing. He knew every corner of every place because He created them. Jesus travelled to meet urgent and specific needs both tangible and intangible, immediate and long term, temporary and eternal, spiritual and physical; teaching in the Jewish synagogues, and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And wherever he went he healed people of every sort of illness.
Realize that many people are in these situations. They need to hear that Jesus is the good news for them. They need to be taught that they can lean on Jesus. They need to receive the healing of Jesus! Part of that healing is the empowerment of the Spirit! Jesus prompted his disciples to do something about it; to meet these needs!
John was a firefighter caught in rubble 20 meters below the World Trade Centre in the 9/11 attack. He was part of a rescue team but ended up being rescued when the part of the building he was on collapsed, and he waited for an agonizing 24 hours to be rescued. During that ordeal, he fought hard to keep himself alive and the hope to be reunited with his wife Donna and 5 children. Meanwhile, his wife and family were waiting for every inch of hope that John could still be alive. Donna kept saying, "please tell me that John is still alive. Please don't tell me otherwise." That's what people need to hear. They need to hear that there is still hope for them. That their situation can get better and that it is not the end of the road.
People need to hear that God is bigger than their troubles; that God is mightier than their enemies; that God can protect them from their enemies; that God can silence the noise around them; that God can give them peace; can give them songs of deliverance; that God can slay giants that threaten to eat them alive; that God still flatten mountains and valleys! This is what people need to hear these days. They need to hear words of hope and life from the heart of our loving Father God in heaven. We must give people not false HOPE BUT BIBLICAL HOPE!!!! HOPE! A DESIRE FOR SOMETHING GOOD TO HAPPEN NOW. A DESIRE FOR SOMETHING GOOD TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE. We must not lose hope because when we do, we start to lose the desire to go on.
The Reality: Many people feel
• Harassed/troubled/sad/confused/dispirited/weary/with great problems they possibly didn’t create or had no control like illness, sickness, disease, affliction, death – Things like these, people often cannot control.
• Helpless/aimless/distressed/could not do anything to change their situation; some of them had stopped trying until someone pushed them.
• Lost (sheep without a shepherd)/didn’t know where to go for help; no one to guide them.
IN THE BIBLE, JESUS ALWAYS refers to as the Shepherd. He is portrayed and described as the Good Shepherd who cares for His sheep against wolves and predators of many kinds. Without Jesus, people will be lost in sin and life.
v36) they were [b]weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Jesus saw this as he moved out and about!
Only God knows the full depth of someone's pain, need, or suffering, and He is full of compassion toward them (v36). And out of desperation, and after trying every help possible to no avail, people are ready to believe that only God is the way out. Jesus saw it with His eyes. He saw that people were ready to respond to God; they were ready!!!
Jesus said, “I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe for harvest.” John 4:24 Hence, there is a huge need for workers to meet these ready hearts – THIS IS GOD'S HARVEST FIELD!
Example of people who were ready: Jesus saw the faith of:
• A paralyzed man and his 4 friends (Matthew 9:1-8).
• those spiritually sick (sinners) (Matthew 9:9-17) – “Follow me!” Matthew was at his tax booth. He was literally at work when Jesus called Him, and Matthew left everything at once. What kind of faith was that?
• A bleeding woman (Matthew 9:20-22/Mark 5:24-27) for 12 years has been to many doctors and spent all she had but got worse instead of getting better. A glimmer of hope upon hearing what Jesus was doing. She thought she must come, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed."
• A father with a dead daughter (Matthew 9:18; 23-26).
• two blind men (Matthew 9:27-31) – these 2 followed Jesus begging for his mercy. When these 2 got closer to Jesus, Jesus asked, do you believe that I am able to do this?" "Yes, Lord," they replied. Then he touched their eyes (Matthew 9:29) – “According to your faith, let it be done to you.” And their sight was restored. They could not help; they spread the news about Jesus all over that region.
• A mute/demon-possessed was brought to Jesus (Matthew 9:32-34). The mute spoke! And the crowd was amazed and said, “nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel.”
What do these guys have in common? They are all ready to believe in Jesus!
MATTHEW 9:29 - According to your faith, let it be done to you.
The Solution: RECRUIT MORE LABOURERS.
The problem that the world and many industries face nowadays because of the pandemic is not having enough available workers to fill thousands of vacant positions, particularly in healthcare, manufacturing, and supply chain industries. In NSW, there is a huge shortage of classroom teachers, and the government launched a major recruitment drive to address this labor shortage. Reports show that there are enormous labor shortages in these sectors. One thing is true in this country, the US, and Europe. Laborers, Wanted! If the world and industries are experiencing labor shortages, the harvest field of Jesus Christ is in the same boat. From the time Jesus uttered these words in Matthew 9:35-38, Jesus was the first to launch a recruitment drive for workers/laborers. Laborers Wanted, and that cry, my beloved, still rings true today. The harvest is too great, but there are not many workers to do the work. Not all are called to be on a platform like this, but Jesus mandates all children of God to be in his harvest field.
In verses 37-38, Jesus said:
37 “The harvest is so great, and the workers are so few,” he told his disciples. 38 “So pray to the one in charge of the harvesting, and ask him to recruit more workers for his harvest fields.”
The default is to look for solutions from around us. Our eyes are set horizontally. The default, however, should be vertical.
• PRAY - (v38) "pray the Lord of the harvest to send laborers into His harvest.” Whom God can use to meet people where they are.
PRAYER IS TO INQUIRE FROM GOD! Prayer asks God to deploy his rescue teams who will carry out the Master’s mission in someone's life until it's done!
PRAYER IS TO HAVE GOD HAVE THE SAY FROM START TO FINISH. Prayer is God's gift to you and me. It's God's way of relieving us of stress, problems, and worries. It is God's way of showing us what to do.
Oral Roberts – God wants to stretch our faith, minds, and hearts. "I've been worried to death about our new worship centre and how we're going to get the money to build it. I was looking in the wrong direction. I was looking at the wrong source.
“We are looking at the wrong source. The easy stuff goes out the window.”
Prayer is not cheap! It is God’s training field for you and me. BREAK FREE CAMP – 3 consecutive Saturdays of prayer from 5:30 pm (Sydney), Philippines (Sat 2:30 am), Kenya – (Friday night 9:30 pm and Canada is Friday approx. 3:30 pm.
• PREPARE /PERSEVERE / PUSH THROUGH Surprisingly, Jesus deployed his disciples to the harvest field.
Isaiah 6:8 Also, I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
God’s Response: Whom did God send?
• Jesus sends His 12 disciples (Matthew 10:1-15). They didn't go on their own. Jesus gave them the authority to exorcise demons and to heal every disease and sickness. He instructed them to a) proclaim his message, b) heal the sick, c) raise the dead d) clean the unclean (repent). Freely you have received, freely give.
• Jesus sends out 72 of his disciples in two’s (Luke 10:2).
God doesn’t have to ask anyone for permission who He can use. He calls and anoints those who will say yes.
• Who is God going to send? You. When opportunity presents itself, look at it as a divine assignment rather than a disruption needing a response from you. Look at it as an invitation by God to show the world that he can use even the most unlikely person who is willing to take a stand. God wants to give you a breakthrough in your brokenness and own need. He wants to show you that he can still employ and deploy you even though you think you're not the best fit. Your obedience is key to your breakthrough. Your humility to God and people and your willingness to be inconvenienced are key to your breakthrough.
Second Kings 4 records the account of Elisha and the Shunammite woman. The woman is described as a wealthy married woman in the village of Shunem. She had no child. This woman got permission from her husband to set up a guest room for Elisha, acknowledging Elisha as a true prophet and holy man of God. Elisha often passed that way in his travels and stayed in the guest room. Today, many churches have a "prophet's chamber" for traveling evangelists and other servants of God to remain free of charge.
Elisha asked his servant, Gehazi, how he could help the woman in return for her hospitality. Gehazi mentioned that she had no son and that her husband was old. Elisha then called the woman and told her she would have a son by that time of next year.
The prophecy was fulfilled, and the woman had a child, but the story was not over. Several years later, the child came down with some sickness, and he died that same day in his mother's lap. She immediately left to find Elisha and asked him to come to heal her son. Elisha came back with the woman to Shunem.
Second Kings 4:32–35 describes what happened next: “When Elisha came into the house, he saw the child lying dead on his bed. So he went in and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to the LORD. Then he went up and lay on the child, putting his mouth on his mouth, his eyes on his eyes, and his hands on his hands. And as he stretched himself upon him, the child's flesh became warm. Then he got up again, walked back and forth in the house, and stretched himself upon him. The child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes."
Later, in 2 Kings 8:1, we read, “Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, ‘Arise, and depart with your household, and sojourn wherever you can, for the LORD has called for a famine, and it will come upon the land for seven years.’” She left with her family for seven years and then returned. Upon her return, she discovered that she had lost her land due to her supposed desertion of the property. But God performed yet another miracle in her life:
"And at the end of the seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to appeal to the king for her house and land. Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, 'Tell me all the great things that Elisha has done.' And while he was telling the king how Elisha had restored the dead to life, behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life appealed to the king for her house and her land. And Gehazi said, 'My lord, O king, here is the woman, and here is her son whom Elisha restored to life.' And when the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed an official for her, saying, 'Restore all that was hers, together with all the produce of the fields from the day that she left the land until now" (2 Kings 8:3–6).
The Shunammite woman’s heartfelt hospitality to Elisha and simple, sincere faith led to an amazing series of events. Elisha was certainly blessed. And God abundantly blessed the woman’s life during a difficult period in Israel. Still today, God often uses His people’s humble acts of service to bless both the giver and the receiver.
• As a child of God, your Father can ask you to do something for Him at any time. After all, that's what family members do. Jesus may use you even if you need to take care. God may use your current situation to touch somebody.
Jesus may not also pay attention nor accept your excuses for him not to send you. He decides, not you!
EXAMPLE: JONAH! He was called and sent by God to go to a place called Nineveh, where Assyrians lived. God told him to preach repentance to them. And that judgment awaits them if they don't repent. Jonah did not want to go, so he tried to run away from God, but a big fish swallowed him on his way out. While inside the fish, Jonah prayed to God to save his life. He vowed that he would go and fulfill God's mission for him in Nineveh if only God would give him a second chance. And God did. Jonah fulfills his mission.
God wants to make the most out of the life, purpose and plans he crafted for you and me. That's why He deposited the Holy Spirit in you to help you and to make you useful in his harvest field, rain or shine, in good times and bad season of your life. I'm glad that God in the person of the HS is focused on revealing Jesus in the clay of jars like you and me. So we don’t have excuses. By his Spirit, we emerge stronger, healthier, hopeful, and full of faith. When you are open for God to use you and to represent Him just like the 72 disciples, don't be surprised when he turns your sorrow into joy, your mourning into dancing because when you take care of God's business (helping people find the way back to Christ through repentance and forgiveness of sins, he takes care of yours even though you don't ask him too. It's God's nature to do so. He's a good Father and the best employer ever.
Conclusion
• Luke 10:3 – “Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.”
• Luke 10:16 – “Whoever listens to you listens to me; whoever rejects you, rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects Him who sent Me.”
