Here now the word of the Lord from Matthew nine, verses 35 through 38.

"And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every affliction. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever.

In the year 445 BC, there was a Jewish man in exile in the Persian Empire who received distressing news. Um, people had brought him news about the beloved city of Jerusalem, which when they arrived, it had been broken down, especially the walls had been overturned and the gates had been burned with fire. And when this Jewish man received this news, he took it very hard, and it brought great distress upon him. And he went into many days of mourning and weeping over the state and the condition of his city. And he gave himself to fasting and praying that God would do something to raise up the walls again around Jerusalem. You see, in those days the walls around the city were a significant thing. Without them, the entire city was defenseless. Any marauding band that would come through any raiders, any armies that would come through, could do whatever they want to harass the people therein.

And the people there would be helpless and defenseless against anyone who came their way. It was a big deal to get the city walls in place. And so when this man found out that his beloved city of Jerusalem was entirely defenseless again, he mourned and he wept, and he fasted. And he prayed that God Almighty would do something to raise those walls again. Now, in God's providence, this man named Nehemiah was a cupbearer to the king. And in God's providence, God opened an opportunity for the king to recognize that something wasn't quite right with his cupbearer and to ask him, Kings don't care about their servants. But this one on that day did in God's providence. And he asked him, what's wrong? And Nehemiah again prayed to God. Prayer is a big part of the story of Nehemiah. He told the king everything that was going on in his city, and he had the boldness and the confidence to ask his King not only to send him back, but even to provide the materials to rebuild the walls around Jerusalem. And again, by God's grace and in God's providence, that's exactly what this king of Persia did. He said, go and and take stores, and let there be wood and everything you need to rebuild these walls. And that's exactly what Nehemiah did. He went back to the city of Jerusalem, and when he arrived, he saw it as exactly what the report had been.

The walls were knocked down, the gates had been burned with fire. There was so much work to do, far more work than a single individual could possibly do. And so what Nehemiah did has been celebrated throughout history. What Nehemiah did was not to sit down and say, well, there's a lot of work to do. I better get started and just plug away at it however long it might take him to do it alone. No, what Nehemiah did was to organize the people. Was to recognize that this work was too much for any one man to do, and to organize the people to do this great work. And so in Nehemiah chapter three, you have 15 times we read the phrase next two, next two, next two, next two. We read about one person working here. And next to him were these people over there. And next to them was this man over here and on and on and on, next to next to next to 15 times. We read this in Nehemiah chapter three. It was not just the work of Nehemiah, it was the work of the whole people of God as they rebuilt the broken down walls of Jerusalem, so that Jerusalem and the people who lived there and their children after them could live, not harassed and helpless, but in peace and prosperity for the rest of their days.

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Well in the story we were reading about today. We see Jesus and he's looking out on the crowds in not just Jerusalem, but all the cities and the villages. And he sees also that there's a problem, and this problem causes him great distress. He's moved with a deep kind of compassion. And when Jesus sees this great problem, it's not a problem of infrastructure, of buildings and walls and gates. It's a problem of the deterioration spiritually of the people. And he looks out and sees not just a threat of what might come if armies happen to come, but the right here and now threat. That people were helpless and harassed sheep without a shepherd, and he had great compassion on the crowds. Now. Jesus is the one man who could do all of this work by himself. Jesus, as God Almighty, could have done something where he did everything alone and yet graciously. He asks to involve his people. Right here we are entering a new part in the story of the Gospel of Matthew, where we are seeing Jesus turn a page where he had been begun working alone, and now he starts to commission his disciples, to then make other disciples who would also follow him. Our big idea as we see this is that Jesus shepherds his sheep through under shepherds. Jesus shepherds his sheep through under shepherds. Jesus starts shifting the work from his bodily presence alone to start to work through his disciples, to make other disciples who would know and love and follow Jesus.

So again, our big idea is that Jesus shepherds his sheep through under shepherds. We're going to see how this works starting in this story, but it's going to carry us through the next couple of chapters. Our two main points as we look at this story today is that there are, first of all, many weary, many weary, and then number two, that there are few working, many weary, few working.

1. Many Weary (Matt. 9:35-36)
2. Few Working (Matt. 9:37-38)

Many Weary (Matt. 9:35-36)

So let's start with the many weary in verse 35. This is the beginning of a new section. And so we read here. And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every disease and every affliction. Notice what Jesus does. He's teaching in all the synagogues. He's preaching or proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom. And then he's attending to the bodily needs of the people, healing all of their diseases and every affliction. Now, one of the key ways that we know that this is marking off a new section in the Gospel of Matthew is to actually flip back to the beginning of Jesus public ministry in Matthew chapter four. So if you want to put a finger here, flip back to Matthew chapter four, verse 23. There is nearly an identical work there at the beginning of Jesus public ministry, the beginning of the first section of Jesus public ministry.

Here we read in verse 23, and he, Jesus, went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues what we just read, that proclaiming or preaching the gospel of the kingdom. We just read that as well. And healing every disease and every affliction among the people. Now this area includes among the people. Our verse in chapter nine, verse 23 doesn't. But look at the one major difference. That's a minor difference, but look at the major difference. Here in Matthew four, verse 23, we read, and he went throughout all Galilee. But if you flip back over and you can settle here now, we won't ask you to flip again. If you go back to 35, notice it's not all Galilee, it's all the cities and villages. Now, it's one thing for Jesus to move in general among all of Galilee. He can go here and there, hither and thither, as they say. Uh, he can move throughout all of Galilee, going about his way. But Jesus, having taken a human nature, he's God Almighty, and in God he he fills the fullness of not only Galilee, but also the heavens and the earth. But having taken himself a single body, he is like us, limited by space and time. And so to get through all of the cities and all of the villages is something that he would not be able to do.

Bodily speaking again, as God, he he's without boundaries, but as a man he does have boundaries. And so it's here that Jesus in Matthew is marking this by by helping us to think about the magnitude of the task, what a great task is in front of him. How do you get to all the cities and all the villages to preach the gospel of the kingdom? Well, that's going to take other people who are going to do this work on Jesus's behalf. And that's what about what? This next section of the story of Jesus is going to involve for us. But before we continue to see the way that Jesus is going to commission his disciples into this work, I think it's important to step back and recognize that the mission of Jesus here is still the mission of the church today. Uh, you look at what Jesus is doing. He's teaching. He is preaching the gospel. He is healing every disease and every affliction. Uh, this is still, with some modification, exactly what we are doing today. You think about the two kinds of officers in the church today. The elders and the deacons. The elders are given to the work of the ministry of the word to teach and to preach. And the deacons are given to bodily ministries. They're our deacons don't miraculously heal, but they minister nonetheless to bodily needs. These miraculous healings served a specific purpose in time before the end of the Apostolic Age.

But now that that has done, uh, the deacons are still giving themselves to the ministry of healing bodily needs among the people, uh, dealing with practical needs. And so we have not just officers then, who deal with the ministry of the word and ministry of deeds. Uh, but what we see in the church is that everywhere, these are the things that the church is supposed to be about to serve one another in our daily necessities and, and to to to bring the word and speak the word. Let the word dwell richly among us as a whole church. We're seeing the beginning of this here. It's not just something that's limited to Jesus. Jesus is going to spread it out to his disciples. But it's not just limited to disciples. Jesus is going to spread it through his disciples, to the officers in the churches. But it's not just limited to the officers. Jesus is going to continue to spread it so that this ministry is something that every member of the church shares in. We all have a part in this, and it's continued straight forward, all the way back to here in the ministry that Jesus takes upon himself in his public ministry and his ministry on earth. Now look at what happens in verse 36. We read when he when Jesus saw the crowds. He had compassion for them. This word.

Compassion is a very strong word. There are other words that Matthew could have used, but this is a very strong word. It's talking about a gut reaction. It's talking about the the viscera, the gut being turned toward compassion for the crowds, for the people when he saw them. We don't know whether this was a single instance. Maybe Jesus was standing somewhere and he could see crowds approaching him. Maybe that's when he felt this compassion. Or maybe this was a a growing sense of compassion as he went and these cities and villages, he kept seeing people with needs and needs and needs. The work was so great. Maybe that's how this compassion grew. We're not told, uh, either way, could work with what Matthew has written here. But it's important to note that the place of the crowds in all of this, when he saw the crowds he see. So far, the crowds have been very prominent in the Gospel of Matthew. They are the ones who are marveling at Jesus preaching and teaching. At the end of the sermon on the Mount, the crowds marveled, saying, this man speaks as one with authority and not as their scribes. If you remember, just in the previous section, after Jesus had done a number of miraculous deeds in verse 33, the crowds marveled, saying, never was anything like this seen in Israel. At his word and at his deeds. The crowds have been marveling over Jesus.

Well, now the direction of the attention flips. It's no longer the crowds watching Jesus. It's Jesus seeing the crowds and having compassion on them. Why? Because they were harassed and they were helpless. The word for harassed means flayed or skinned. It's metaphorical for harassment of any kind. The word helpless literally means thrown. You might think of what we say cast down. Um. One commentator, Noland, says the idea here is of sheep lying passive on the ground, with no sense of what to do in their need, lacking the protective and guiding role of a shepherd. Now, if this is true, then in Jesus's day, how much is this true now that everywhere we go we are meeting sheep who are harassed and helpless? This world is vicious. It is brutal. It is a dizzying weariness to try to keep up with the constantly changing lines of morality. What's big today? What cause do I have to give myself today so that others may know that I am righteous? People are harassed and helpless, kind and constantly chase after what will make them appear righteous in the sight of other people, but they don't know how to pursue it. They're not only harassed by this constant burden hanging over their lives, but they're helpless. They don't know where to go. Why? Because they, like then, are sheep without a shepherd? Sheep without a shepherd. This phrase shows up throughout the Bible, particularly to critique God's appointed leaders who did not do their duty to care for and protect the sheep of God, the flock of God, the people of God, to feed them, to nurture them, to teach them the Word of God.

Well, here we have the good Shepherd arriving and seeing these crowds, and he intends to do something about this. As he looks and sees that there are so many who are utterly weary, he intends to do something to meet these needs. Now. Harvest Community Church, you may know, was planted in 1994. And since that time many things have changed. But some of the core parts of that initial vision for planting this church have remained the same. Um, there's a document that we have. I think it's in Andrew's office. I was looking at it. It's not in mine any longer. I think it's in Andrew's. So ask him if you want to find it. Uh, but in 1994, there was this document of an initial vision for this church plant. And it was a vision for reaching the lost. It was a vision for having a church that would be prepared and ready to meet the the challenges of of a growing and rapidly growing city of Omaha. Um, at the time. And this is one of the things that's changed. The initial vision was to reach the northwest corridor of Omaha, rapidly growing at that time in the 90s. Uh, I think of where I-680 is and everything that's west of there and north of there.

The original idea was that this was going to be a church that was ready and able to go. And there are a couple of you who are originally a part of that, that group that met at the Holiday Inn. Well, in 1997. Then the church shifted a little bit, uh, by moving toward Benson, uh, buying a building at 49th and Ohio Street and then, um, under the leadership of, of my predecessor, Allen Mallory, uh, who had a great heart for mercy ministry, uh, moved here and or we the church moved here in 2004 to 30 ninth and coming. And we've been here, uh, by God's grace, since there. Now, as we've moved buildings or proximities or location as some leaders have gone and go who had a heart for particular things. Some of the details of this have changed. But again, the initial heart was to be a church that would reach the lost, a heart, a church that would have this evangelistic, this gospel proclaiming nature. There's a reason that we are called harvest community church Harvest because we're thinking about texts like this. The harvest is plentiful. I guess that's getting to the next passage, but you understand what I mean. We're looking at this great harvest of all of these people who are harassed and helpless, and they are everywhere surrounding us. And so regardless of all the details that have changed since 1994 to bring us to the current day today in 2023, nearly 30 years later, so much is the same.

That initial vision of looking on the crowds and wanting to be a place where the gospel is preached. The gospel of the Kingdom is preached to every person who needs a sheep or who needs a shepherd. The sheep who are left without a shepherd. Well, again, going back to our story, Jesus is looking out on the crowd on these people who have great needs, these great spiritual needs that cannot be met. If Jesus is just going individually one to another as God, he could do all kinds of things. But as a man, Jesus recognized that bodily he is limited in place in time, and therefore he seeks to reproduce and replicate his work through his disciples. This is the Messiah, the one person who could do all of this on his own. And yet this Messiah does not have a complex about it. Jesus's solution is not to adopt a messiah complex and do everything himself. Jesus's solution is to raise up more workers to do his work on his behalf. So we're the first part of this section talks about many weary. Now we turn our attention to the second part. Few working in verses 37 through 38. Here in verse 37, the metaphor shifts again not to sheep wandering, lost, harassed and helpless, but to a field.

Few Working (Matt. 9:37-38)

To a harvest time field. Verse 37 then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Now those of us who are not farmers might miss the point of this imagery, this idea of of needing workers laborers for the harvest. We live in a wonderful place where we are blessed with plentiful food, that we can always go to the grocery store to purchase. And because we just go to the grocery store and purchase our food, we are sometimes cut off and aren't aware of agricultural rhythms. But if you talk to some of the farmers in our midst, they will tell you that harvest is a really important time. Harvest is a time when all hands are on deck. Everybody goes out and helps in one way or another to bring the harvest in. Because harvest, when it comes time to harvest the crop, there is a limited amount of time to get that crop in before either bad weather comes to make it more difficult, or before something could destroy the crop or hinder the crop. The problem of having few laborers does not only mean that the work becomes harder, although that's true. It also means that there's a sense of urgency because there is a fear that the harvest might be lost. Now, of course, our Lord Jesus promises that he will lose nothing.

That of all those the father has given him, he will lose nothing out of his hand, because no one can pluck anything out of his hand, and certainly out of his father's hand, who is greater than all. No one is capable of plucking anyone out of the father's hand. No one can be lost. But Jesus says, this isn't just going to sort of magically happen. This is going to happen through the work of my people. This is going to happen as Jesus sends laborers out to labor in the harvest. Again, the great Shepherd of the sheep Jesus is choosing. To shepherd his sheep through under shepherds who work on his behalf, who shepherd the sheep at his behest. The Lord of the harvest, to use the second metaphor here, is insisting upon bringing in the harvest through other labors the plan of Jesus so that no one is lost, is that the many who are weary will be served and reached through an increasing number of workers. Now this is such a daunting task. If we really think about what this would require, there's a great amount of fear and trepidation. How can I possibly do this? How could you possibly do this? We may be called to do things that may be uncomfortable to us. But what's so compassionate in this passage, and in the chapter that follows, is Jesus is going to lead us on this one step at a time.

Notice the first step here. Jesus just is just asking us today to take this first step and notice he isn't calling us to craft a great plans and visions of what this will be and strategies for execution. Jesus simply calls us to pray. That's where this begins. There's more to be done after we pray. But you can't do anything until you have prayed. As a wise friend of mine has often reminded me, everything we must do must begin with prayer. Jesus says, therefore, in light of all of this great work to do, don't just get out there and do it unprepared as you may be. Instead, therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Now, now, don't worry, he's not talking just about other people. He's talking about praying ourselves out into the harvest as well. So don't worry, you won't be left out. We all get to take part in this, but notice the emphasis and the priority on prayer. Leon Morris, one commentator, writes this I think it's so wonderful, he says, in a in an age like ours, we would expect a call to more vigorous, to take more vigorous and effective action ourselves. And situations continually arise where that is the right course to pursue. But Jesus points to prayer as the really effective thing. No matter how great our personal exertion, we will not be able to gather in the whole harvest.

Therefore, we are to pray to him who can send out the workers who are needed. Now. I think if we focus directly on the task, it's an overwhelming task. Remember when Nehemiah heard the great work that needed to be done in Jerusalem because of how Jerusalem was just left wide open to be harassed and helpless from anyone who had come along the way and want to steal from them and plunder them. So also, when we think about the harassed and helpless sheep that are everywhere around us, this task is overwhelming. But one of the things we talked about a few weeks ago when we looked at Jesus's teaching, do not be anxious, is that faith is by nature indirect. When we think about our problems and we think about the tasks that have to be accomplished, we want to get straight to the direct actions that need to be taken. What do I need to do to take care of this? But in that passage Jesus says, don't be anxious. Don't be anxious about what you're going to eat or what you're going to wear. Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things will be added to you. Notice the indirect nature of faith. Don't worry. And wringing our hands over what you're going to do to get all of this done, seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and then all these things will be added to you.

First, we wrestle with our gracious Heavenly Father in prayer and seek his things. And then God says, all these things will be added unto us. And that's why we start with prayer. We're seeking first God and the love of our Heavenly Father, as we seek to do the mission that he's given us to do. You know, sometimes I'll come into a room in my home, usually the kitchen, and I will find a chair where it's not supposed to be, and maybe some books or something stacked on top of that chair. And sometimes I will catch the culprit in the act. I will. I will catch a child standing on top of this terribly insecure tower that he has built for himself, reaching up to some place either that he's not supposed to be or something that is totally fine for him to to have, but it would have been so much easier if he had just would have come and asked me. I'm a tall guy. I can reach those things. You don't have to risk breaking your neck by climbing on some precarious tower. Just come ask me now. This very morning, my wife and I came out and in the hallway next to a closet, there was a a stack of books that was tipped over and as though adding fuel to this illustration that was previously planned.

What we found out is that our son, Caleb, had set up these books in order to reach things in the closet, and we said, why didn't you just ask? I didn't think about it. How often? Oh, and he fell off. By the way, that's part of the story. He wants you to know that, um, how often are we like that with our Heavenly Father? These things that are so big for us are so effortless for God. Do you know that it took no effort for God to create the heavens and the earth? It was utterly effortless for God to do what no one. What? No scientist? What no creator? What no alchemist has ever been able to do to bring something out of nothing? God did it effortlessly. These things are so simple, so easy for him. And yet we think that everything rests upon us. How often do we neglect prayer? How often do we fail to go to our father who is in heaven, who knows the things that we need? And instead of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, we pursue directly after other things. Instead of working out the indirect life of faith where we look first to our Heavenly Father. Jesus is saying the task is great. There are many who are weary and there are few who are working. But the solution is not to work harder on our own.

It is rather to begin by prayer. What's the application from this text today? This particularly pointed text from our Lord. Well, first of all, they want to speak to you who are weary this morning. I know there are some of you. All of us here are harassed and helpless to some degree, in the sense that we all live in a broken and fallen world. But there are some of you who are here today and you feel this palpable. You know how you have been flayed and skinned by the difficulties and the trials and the the conditions of this world, and you feel helpless, cast down, not knowing where to turn. Well, Jesus doesn't give the full answer to the questions you're asking to the problems that you're swimming in here in this passage, we have to look to the rest of this gospel, to the rest of the New Testament, to the rest of the entire Bible to get the whole answer. But in two chapters from now, at the end of Matthew chapter 11, Jesus is going to give one of his best answers to that question. If you are weary this morning, here is what Jesus says. He says, come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. The burden of the gospel is light, because the burden of the gospel tells us something that is absolutely opposed to everything else that we hear in this world. In this world, we are always hearing about something that we must do in order to be righteous, in order to be righteous before God, or more often, in order to be righteous in the sight of this world. That is a crushing weight for anyone to carry, no matter how well you think you may accomplish that, no matter how much righteousness you may think you have accumulated for yourself, it does not rise to the level that God would require of you. But the gospel says the message of the gospel of Jesus, the gospel of the kingdom that he is here proclaiming in all of these cities and villages throughout Galilee. He said, the gospel is not about what you must earn, what you must do, what you must accomplish for yourself to build up and present a righteousness to God as though that was what would save you. The gospel rather announces what Jesus Christ has done for you. Your king came into this world, the Lord of glory came into this world and was delivered over into the hands of wicked men, so that he was crucified. The rulers of this age did not understand the one they were dealing with, otherwise they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But in so doing the righteous one was substituted for you, the unrighteous. And in so doing, Jesus took your sins upon himself, and by laying down his life and by suffering under the wrath of the curse of God, he provided salvation for sinners so that you could be cleansed of your sins, so that your conscience could be purified and you could be counted righteous in Christ, not by what you have been done, but by receiving this gift of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And what the gospel says is, if you would be saved. Repent from your sins and believe in Jesus Christ. If you're harassed and helpless, Jesus stands ready and willing to save. Jesus is the good shepherd that you've been looking for all your life. But for those of you who know Jesus. This text is a call. To remember what we've been put in this world to do. The Great Commission. This is this is really beginning the trajectory that's going to culminate in the Great Commission, in the last words of the Gospel of Matthew, where Jesus tells his disciples to go out and make disciples of all nations. What this starts with Jesus is showing us is by seeing the great need around us. That's what Jesus did. He saw the crowds and and made compassion rise up in his heart.

Everywhere we look, there are harassed and helpless and weary sheep without a shepherd. I've mentioned this before in here, but it's been a few years. Um, but in the year 2017, the Barna Institute, uh, surveyed various cities around the country to to see the degree to which they were post-Christian, the degree to which they had moved beyond Christianity. Not to something better, indeed to something worse. Uh, but where they were no longer identifying in any significant way as Christianity. And so they basically asked how many people in that city had a meaningful connection still to Christianity, either identifying as a Christian, reading their Bible, occasionally, attending church occasionally it was an extremely low bar, but the city of Omaha reported 43% of people without any meaningful connection to Christianity. We have a city of about a million people that represents 430,000 lost souls. Well, just two years after that, in the year 2019, another study was published and I only recently saw this. I didn't know they did this study again, but that number went from 43% to 47%, post-Christian from 430,000 people to 470,000 people. We are at 47%. To give you some comparison, Las Vegas is at 46%. We are more post-Christian than Sin City. Think about that. Well, to my knowledge, there's been no updated study of this. But it's well known that during the upheaval of the last few years during Covid and all the shutdowns and everything that happened there that absolutely ravaged the church, there are many people who departed from the church who have never come back to the church.

It's very possible, very likely, that that number stands above 50%. Now, 50% of people who have no meaningful connection to Christianity, no pastors to shepherd them, no word of God read to them. They're wandering, harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. It's hundreds of thousands of people as Jesus looks upon Omaha. His heart is moved with compassion for the weary people who live here. The question is, is our heart moved to compassion? We live in a city where people are fairly well fed, well clothed, they're sheltered, and all of our material prosperity. Do we see the darkness, the spiritual darkness that is so oppressive to the people who dwell under this thick darkness? See the need. That's the first thing. The second is no. The plan. Jesus wants, he intends. His plan is to raise up and send out more laborers for the harvest. God's plan for reaching the world is through his people who labor for the gospel. Specifically, God seeks to reach the world through church planting through churches, which means we need more churches again, if only 47% of our city is post-Christian, that's 470,000 people. Um, if you do the math, and I checked it twice because I'm not very good at math, but that would take over 3000 churches the size of harvest to shepherd those sheep who are wandering, harassed, and helpless without a shepherd.

What this means is that evangelism and church planting are not electives in the church. This is part of our core curriculum. These aren't optional things. This is what we are all called to do. Again, this is a part of the original vision for harvest. If you go back and read that 1994 uh, vision document, it says this church will be about evangelism, about church planting, a church planting church to reach more and more people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because the recognition that those numbers are not statistics, they represent weary sheep. They represent people who are lost and harassed and helpless. Now, by God's grace, harvest right now is growing. And if you look at the attendance in this church service this year compared to last year, around the same time, we're running about 10 to 20% higher in weekly attendance. Again, these aren't statistics either. These are weary sheep who are not still lost. These are people who have come to faith in Christ. These are wandering sheep who have been gathered into the church to be shepherded. And the goal of this growth is not for us to just be happier and fuller. And isn't this wonderful? The goal of the growth is reproduction. Just as babies must grow to be adults in order to reproduce other babies, so churches must grow in order to reproduce new churches, to establish new outposts for the Kingdom of God.

To proclaim the gospel of the Kingdom. In every city and every village, Jesus eyes are fixed on his people. But some of his elect people, he says, are still wandering, weary, harassed and helpless without a shepherd to lead them unto the pastures of God's Word, or beside the still calm waters of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We read this in John chapter ten, verse 16. He says, I have sheep that are not of this fold, who have not yet brought into the people of God. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there'll be one flock, one shepherd, to reach Christ's people who do not yet know him. We must plant churches. Now, we've talked about this. If you've been here for a while, we've talked about church planting in the past, but the timing has not been right. The session has been praying much in recent months, recognizing this growth, recognizing an opportunity, recognizing that this is the time where God seems to be opening the doors. And we've committed ourselves to praying and preparing for this in strategic ways. But to do this again, if the field is ripe for harvest, if the harvest is plentiful, we all need to be praying. The final part of our application is that everyone must execute his or her part to pray to the Lord of the harvest to send more laborers.

Sometimes sermon applications I know are very general. The goal is that the Holy Spirit would take general applications and apply them to whatever is going on in your life. This is a very specific application that is given by our Lord himself. Pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest. To send out more laborers into the harvest. Again, how did Nehemiah begin his overwhelming work? He dedicated himself to fasting and prayer. He prayed before he had an opportunity to declare to the King what needed to happen in the city of God. We too must pray. And so we'd ask you to pray that our church and all true churches, not just ours, there's so much work to be done. That our church and all church churches would grow in vitality. Pray that we would grow in health, that each of us would be growing in the the accountability that that Mike was talking about earlier to grow in and loving the Lord from the depths of our souls. Beyond that, pray that God would give you opportunities to share the gospel with other people and that he would give you the words to speak. When you're asked to give a reason for the hope that is in you. Pray that weary, harassed, and helpless sheep would be saved coming to faith in Jesus Christ. Pray that the whole church would be built up by this as we bring new people in, as we baptize people, as we see people professing their faith that they've wandered from, from many years.

Pray that God would use gospel growth to plant new churches in Omaha and throughout the world, and pray that God would train new laborers. Officers, pastors, elders, deacons, and other leaders in various aspects who can work in various ways. Because we have to remember, Jesus shepherds his sheep through under shepherds. Pray that God would then ultimately equip each of us to do our part. This is all hands on deck. Not because something might be lost. Nothing that the father has given to Jesus will be lost, but so that we might be faithful in reaching those that Jesus has given us to reach on his behalf. Pray that God would then prepare us to not only do this work here, but then ultimately to send out beloved brothers and sisters, to plant new churches and new areas, and to go to mission works and to labor on the far ends of the earth for the sake of the Kingdom. See the need, know the plan, and execute your part, especially to pray. Now again, I know this can be daunting. I know this can be scary. A lot of this. It brings us out of our comfort zones. We just want to be comfortable and and be together and be happy. Isn't that enough? But notice how Jesus so kindly and compassionately just one step at a time.

Start with prayer. Everyone can pray. Start simply to pray. To ask the Lord of the harvest to do what Jesus has commanded us to do on his behalf. That'll be his work, not ours. Therefore let us pray. Let us now pray together. Heavenly father, we are so weak. Jesus, though he could have done everything, chose graciously to include us, and yet we are scrambling. We're wondering, how are we going to get all of this work done? And so we begin by praying to you, asking that you would expand your Kingdom. Father, the gospel would go to people who have not yet heard it, or would come back to people who've been wandering from it. We pray that your spirit would give life and vitality to harassed and helpless sheep, that they would come under the leadership of the good Shepherd, Jesus Christ. And we pray that by this as they come into the church, that you would help us then to grow, to to spill out into other places, to establish new outposts for the Kingdom that Jesus Christ and his gospel, Jesus Christ crucified. The gospel of the Kingdom in King Jesus would be proclaimed to all those who desperately need a Savior. We pray that you would do for us and on our behalf what we cannot do for ourselves. We pray that you would save souls even this morning by the preaching of the gospel. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen.