Matthew 9:35-38 * January 23, 2005 * World Mission Festival * E. Allen Sorum

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Jesus Christ,

Two weeks ago, I took 17 seminary students to the Ft. Lauderdale/Miami area for a 8 day course called Practical Experience in Urban Outreach. After a hard day’s work under the Florida sun, we were relaxing together around a picnic table and this sermon came up in conversation. These verses made me think of a country song about how God helped a cowboy by not answering his prayer. I asked them, “What is that song and who sang it?” As if on cue, two of them started singing, “Just because he may not answer doesn’t mean he don’t care. Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.” By Garth Brooks.

Jesus says in these verses from Matthew’s gospel, “Pray for workers.” So I start hearing this Garth Brooks song, not because I don’t think God wants to answer it and certainly not because I don’t think God can answer it. I hear Garth in the back of my head because I think we may not want God to answer it. So, the title for today’s sermon is a question: Pray for Workers? I’m not so sure. Let’s read the verses and see why we may not be too anxious for God to answer our prayer. (Read Matthew 9:35-38)

1. This Prayer Commits Us To Say Something

Jesus was an active pastor/missionary. He liked to get out into his world, interact with the folks, get to know new people. In fact, he went through all the towns and villages, preaching and teaching and healing the crowds. And you know what he saw? People were a mess. The people of his day were a mess. They looked like sheep without a shepherd. They were scared of every shadow, pestered by every predator, stressed out by the lack of leadership and direction in their lives; they were so exhausted from fear and running and confusion, it was as though they had been thrown to the ground to wait helplessly for certain death.

But Jesus wasn’t looking at sheep. He was looking at people. People were suffering like this so he had compassion on them. He was moved to the deepest kind of compassion, the kind of compassion that comes from deep within, the kind of compassion that comes from anger, “The evil one has misled my sheep and is killing my sheep because the shepherds I sent have not cared for my flock.” Jesus felt the kind of compassion that comes from a deep love for his sheep, that love that brought him to this dusty planet to rescue his sheep. Jesus looked at the mess his sheep were in and he was deeply moved, he was heartbroken, he was angry and he felt compassion for these folks whom Satan was tearing to pieces.

So he makes an observation to his 12 disciples. He speaks a truth that he wants the future leaders and pastors of his church to grasp. He says, “On the one hand, you see the harvest is plentiful.” There are a whole lot of unbelievers out there. Look at them. Everywhere you look: unbelievers, unbelievers, unbelievers.

But, on the other hand, very few workers. Now when Jesus says, few workers, he was probably being generous in his estimate, don’t you think? How many were working at rescuing unbelievers? Jesus was the whole program. The disciples were still being trained. They were about to get sent out on their own seminary course on outreach, but even if you count the 12 disciples, you still have 13 doing the work and you have a whole world of unbelievers to work on.

What happens when you don’t harvest the harvest? What happens when you leave fruit on the trees and grain in the fields? What happens when the harvest isn’t harvested because there are not enough workers to bring it in? It’s wasted. It goes to ruin. It rots and dies.

You know what. That’s not fair. Do you think that’s fair? All that harvest out there? The people out there? There are a whole lot of unbelievers out there. Have you noticed? Their lives are a mess. They are stressed out because they have no one to lead them, no one to take care of them, no one to protect them from the attacks and slavery of Satan. They are being ripped apart, and many of them are exhausted. What is our response to this huge unharvested crop of messed up unbelievers?

Wait. Before you answer, remember that we were once one of them. Back when. We were dumb, lost sheep, easy prey, misled, torn up, exhausted, depressed, stressed, in the dark awaiting death. But somehow somebody sent a worker for me who introduced me to this wonderful Savior whose heart is so full of compassion. This worker told me about the Savior who was so moved by my sorry condition that He insisted on taking on my burden, who insisted on shouldering my responsibility to obey all of God’s Law. The worker told me about this compassionate Savior who insisted on suffering all of my hell so I wouldn’t have to. And that’s when I got harvested. Someone rescued me from rotting and death. I’m harvested. I’m safe. I’m tucked into a nice bushel basket with a few other good apples.

We are no longer out on that limb. But look outside. Get out much? What do you see? All those unbelievers suffering all that misery. Do you feel compassion? Are you moved to compassion? Are you angry at how your fellow man has been misled, lied to, to suffer every form of humiliation until the last and greatest humiliation of all, death in hell. Does that make you angry? Does it break your heart? Look out there at that huge harvest and what do you do?

The farmer looks at a huge harvest and says, “Let’s get busy.” But Jesus doesn’t say to his disciples, “Let’s get busy.” What does he say? Let’s ask the heavenly Father, who is Lord, owner and master of the harvest field, owner and master of the harvest itself, the one who owns all these unbelievers that need to be harvested, brought in, rescued, let’s ask the Father to send out workers into the field. You who are safe, you who have been brought in, ask the Father to send workers out.

Pray to the Father, ask the Father, get down on your hands and knees and beg the Father to send out workers. Well, Jesus doesn’t say “send out” workers. He says, “Beg the Father to throw out workers, ask the Father to expel, repel and impel workers to get out into the harvest field. You see, the Father not only owns the fields and all of their harvest, he also owns all the harvest workers too. But I think Jesus is implying that these workers that the Father owns has a mind of their own and they don’t really want to get out into the fields all that badly so Jesus says, “Beg the Father to throw them out there into the harvest field.”

So let’s give that a try: Dear Father, the fields are yours and all the precious harvest of human souls. You created these people O Lord for you alone are the author of life. They belong to you because you created them and because you redeemed them with the blood of your son Jesus. But God, they are unbelievers now. They have difficult lives now because they are without a leader and, more importantly, they are without hope for eternal life. They will die O Lord and forever suffer the torments of hell. They will die O Lord and they will be so much more miserable forever than even the misery they suffered on this earth. O Father, do something. O Father send someone to get out there, off their comfortable couch, out of their custom built homes, get them out there Lord to bring in the harvest. Whatever you got to do, Lord get me…I mean get someone out there to help bring it in.

It seems that the old German farmers were right: He who prays for potatoes must reach for a hoe. Jesus says, “Pray for workers.” It’s the Father’s field and it’s the Father’s harvest but in his mercy God invites all those who have been safely gathered in to participate with him in the bringing in. And our prayers commit us to that fellowship with the Father. Our prayers commit us to the fellowship of compassion that Jesus has for all the lost. Our prayers commit us to the fellowship of the Holy Spirit that was active in Jesus’ preaching and teaching and who is active in our preaching and teaching. Just see what happens when your heart aches for the suffering of people you know because of their unbelief. See what happens when you are angry because of the abuse Satan heaps on people in his trap. You feel compassion for lost sheep so you pray for them, beg the Father to help them, ask the Father to send someone out to harvest them in. Watch as the Father recruits you for the task.

Pray. Ask for workers. Want workers. Don’t get conflicted now. You are safe. You’re harvested. You will live forever. Your sins are forgiven. Jesus rescued you. You are OK forever one with the Lord and one in purpose with the Lord to say something. And you know what to say. Just say what the Lord has done for you, how he has brought you into his kingdom, with the gospel of peace. So I cannot say, “there he is send him send him.” Christ’s loves compels me. “Here I am, send me send me.” Don’t resist the impulse. Jesus is throwing you out there. He is impelling, repelling and expelling you into the world to work with him to bring in that huge harvest of unbelievers one precious fruit at a time.

2. This Prayer Commits Us To Pay Something

Jesus was confronted with a situation that was overwhelming. There were so many unbelievers. There were so few workers. In his current state of humiliation, he had set aside the power to do all the harvesting himself. He invited his disciples to help him. Now, even though Jesus has been raised in glory to ascend to his rightful throne over the universe, even though he has all power and authority over this earth, he still chooses not to use his power to bring the harvest in by himself. He says, pray for workers. This prayer not only commits us to say something. It commits us to pay something.

Today we are faced with exactly the same situation that confronted Jesus. There are not only too many unbelievers for us to reach. There are too many kinds of unbelievers for us to reach. It wont surprise you to hear that the population of states like California and Florida and New York are about 25% foreign born. But even in the Midwest, the population of states like Michigan and Minnesota are 6% foreign born. That means English is not their mother tongue. It means they come from a culture that is markedly different from anything we might know. In the last ten years, the Hispanic/Latino population and the Asian population in America grew by approximately 60%. The Caucasian population in that same period of time grew by 8%. Hispanic/Latinos now number over 40 million in America; 15% of our nation’s population. In another generation, America will be the first truly multinational nation on earth.

So if our church will survive into that generation and be part of that blessed crew of workers helping to bring in that huge harvest of unbelievers, we will busy ourselves praying for many workers for the many peoples who are coming to North America and for many workers from these many peoples.

Somebody’s been praying this prayer already. Have you been praying this prayer? You know that group of 17 men who went with me to do urban outreach in Fort Lauderdale? It was an interesting group. We had in our company an African American, a man from the Caribbean, an international student from Germany, and a man from China. You know him. He is assisting your Chinese outreach program.

It’s such a privilege to be associated with all these men. I was wondering about one man, however, because he was rather quiet, at least around me. But then this quiet man from the Caribbean came upon a crew of island kids on a playground outside of Fort Lauderdale. All of a sudden, he became this walking, talking Sunday school program of evangelistic outreach. His heart went out, he started talking, and the children stopped their cussing and started asking if they could go to church with this man.

The student from China and I visited Chinese people in Miami. Do you know that a significant percentage of Chinese people who live in South Florida speak Spanish because the only way they could immigrate from China to America is to immigrate first to a country in South America, become a citizen of Brazil, or Argentina, and then immigrate to America. This student has a heart and a passion and a plan to reach these people for Jesus. And you and I get to pay. We pray for workers. We pay for these workers to be prepared for full time service in Christ’s holy church and in our WELS church. We pray and we pay and that is a blessing to get them educated and a place to serve.

Pray that prayer for workers again. Beg Jesus to send people out. He’ll tap you for a witness. And he’ll tap you for funds. But that’s a good thing. Jesus doesn’t want to do this all by himself. He wants to do it with you. He wants to be your partner. He wants you to be his partner in this great enterprise called the Holy Christian Church on earth. He has invited you as a gathered piece of fruit to add to the glory of the Father by filling up the bushel basket with more fruit. You do look good in that basket all safe and gathered up. You are beautiful all harvested and presented and displayed for the Father’s good pleasure. But you would look even better with a little company.

We can give it up because we have enough. And when we give our offerings of witness and prayers and money, the Lord will return to us as we have given, a full measure, pressed down, overflowing into our laps. And then the fruit will be brought in. And our church, God’s church will be full. Don’t be afraid to pray, “Send workers.” Some of God’s greatest gifts are powerfully answered prayers.