Outreach: Task

We have started a new series called Organic Outreach. And we started last week where we spoke about what the motivation is for evangelism, what the motivation is for reaching out to those who don't know Jesus with a message of Jesus. We are actually, I would say, a very outward focused or outward looking church. But the aim of this series is to move beyond simply being aware and praying to being equipped how to do, how to share our faith, how to start those spiritual conversations. And so last week, we looked at the motivations. Today, we're moving a little step further forward and we're going to be looking at what I would say is that the task is, understanding the task of outreach, what the mission or the purpose is to which Christ has called us.

So we're going to look at that and get an understanding of that from Matthew chapter 9 this morning to hear the heart of Jesus when it comes to this mission, to this task of outreach. Matthew chapter 9, from verse 35. And it's only three verses, four verses, but that is what we're focusing on today. Matthew 9:35. And Jesus went through all the cities and the 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.

And then he said to his disciples, the harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few. Therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. So far, the reading. What is the task of the church?

What is the task of outreach for the church? Well, the first thing we see in this passage if we start dissecting it is we see that there is a need. Jesus' assessment is that the people's hearts, as he looked at the crowds, were ready to believe. You and I think that it's a tough thing to work in the mission field around us. We say the work is hard.

The reward is low. I'm sorry, mum. I have to pick on you again today. But mum is reaching out to a young lady this week who promised to come to church today. And this morning, mum went to the designated pickup spot and she wasn't there.

Absolutely bailed. No response, no return on the text message, no calls. The work is hard. The reward is low. And yet Jesus tells his disciples that the harvest is what?

Plentiful. His disciples need only to believe him. He says it's there. His disciples need to believe that it is. In John chapter 4, you remember the incredible story of the Samaritan woman at the well where Jesus has this amazing conversation with her and she comes to understand and believe that this is the Messiah and she runs to her village and she tells the entire village that they must come and see this man who has told me everything about my life, who claims to be the Messiah.

And Jesus' disciples, they rock up after this event and Jesus is absolutely overcome. He's overwhelmed by this in his, I think, his humanness and he just says with happiness and joy, look out there. The harvest is white. The harvest is white. He says, isn't there a saying?

Four months until the harvest, I tell you the truth, the fields are white for the harvest. Like wheat fields, fields in Jesus' time that would turn a lighter shade of yellow to the point of white. As the harvest time came and the wheat was ripe for harvest, Jesus is saying, you don't have to wait. You don't have to wait. The harvest is here.

The question is for us, do you believe it? Do you believe that it is here? The latest census showed that 64% of Australians classify themselves as Christian. 64%. Two thirds nearly.

But when they are asked who participates in their faith with the lowest denominator being church attendance at least once a month, only 9% said they are Christian. 9% of Australia. And remember, of that 9%, Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses would be included in that amount. And they don't believe that Jesus is saviour as God.

It's less than 9% that attend once a month. How well are their spiritual walks going, do you think? 5%, 7%, maybe. Christians who love to worship God. But let's say we'll be generous and say this: 10% of Christians in Australia. That means that there's a 90% chance that the person you meet in your workplace or school does not know Jesus.

Nine out of 10 people that you bump into. Is that a shock to you? Maybe for some of us it isn't. Perhaps like me you think, well, that might be so. Perhaps there is a great need.

The harvest field is wide. We see that. The harvest field is big. There's many people. But that doesn't mean the harvest field is ripe. Reaching out to people in Australia is tough.

Aussies are hardened. Friends, my challenge this morning to me and to you is to take Jesus at his words here. He gives no parameters. He gives no caveats. He simply says the harvest is ready.

He doesn't say the harvest field is ripe except for Australia in 2018. He gives the church its marching orders and we are invited to believe that there is a harvest out there and we need to get the sickles out. According to Jesus, people's hearts are more than ready to believe. People's hearts are more than ready to believe. He says the harvest is plentiful.

It's not the harvest is sort of around. It's bounteous. It's plentiful. It is plentiful. So we see that there is a need.

People's hearts are more than ready than we think. The second thing we see is that Jesus calls for labourers, for workers in that harvest field. He doesn't call for middle managers. The people that can stand on the factory floor and organise the things and make sure that the thing is running well. He doesn't call for bosses who will find funding and apply for mortgages in order to get machinery into the fields to work.

He calls for labourers, day labourers, people to go into the fields. The great preacher of the eighteen hundreds, Charles Spurgeon, once said this: we, the church, want labourers, not loiterers. We need men of fire. And I beseech you, pray to God to send them. The harvest can never be reaped by people who will not labour.

They must doff their coats. They must go at it in their shirt sleeves. I mean to tell you that they must doff their dignities, meaning throw off anything to do with dignity. They have to get to Christ's work as if they meant it, like real harvestmen.

They must sweat at their work, for nothing in the harvest field can be done without the sweat of the face. He says nothing can be done in the pulpit without the sweat of the soul. As Christians, we have to get to the idea that we need to work. We need to work. We need to invest.

We need to consecrate our lives. We need to sweat, to throw off, to doff our dignities, our pretences, our excuses, our rationalisations and we just need to start. But not only do we need to be willing to work, we need to get amongst the wheat. Nothing will get the work done if the workers stay in the sheds. Nothing will get done when the middle managers are in the factory office.

We could build the biggest barn here. We could build another patio around here. We could build silos to the skies through the clouds. But if there are no labourers in the field, the wheat stays out there. You can't reap wheat by standing a dozen metres back and beckoning that it jumps into the bags.

You have to get up close into the wheat. Every reaper knows that. And you cannot move people's hearts. You cannot bring their souls to Christ by staying in the sheds. The labourers that Jesus is asking for are those who smell like wheat.

Whose clothes have absorbed the scent of the things that they are harvesting because they have been out there for so long. There is a need for workers to smell like sweat and wheat. And then the third thing we see in just this short little verse is that there is a boss. Someone who is called the Lord of the harvest in fact, and that is Jesus himself. Friend, here we find an incredible comfort even as we feel the pinch of his blowtorch on us this morning.

Jesus said the harvest is plentiful, the workers are indeed few, therefore pray. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest, for it is His harvest. Notice whose harvest it is. It is the Lord's. He owns these fields.

It's His crops to be lost. His crops to be lost. It is His ripe fields that are standing out there with no harvesters ready and yet rotting. Ready and yet getting mould on it.

Pests are nibbling away at it. And if it doesn't get harvested in time, it is lost. The field doesn't belong to the workers. Thankfully, it belongs to the Lord. The assurance for our troubled hearts, we again realise is that despite the enormity of this task, despite our hearts faltering at the cost it might be for me, the assurance is found when Jesus says to us, pray.

Pray. Lord, there are literally millions who are being lost to hell every single day. Millions unsaved. Millions untaught. And Lord Jesus, send us the workers.

Send us the labourers. We need more help, but it's only the Lord of the harvest that can hire and He has a right to send whom He pleases. The Lord of the harvest is to be called upon to send out those labourers. Now the original word here to send out in the Greek is very strong. It's very strong.

It literally says to push them out. And who's maybe saying, well, I think the Lord needs to push me a little bit. The word was actually used when Jesus would exorcise demons. Pray to the Lord of the harvest to exorcise workers into the field. Drive them out.

Oh, that the Lord would drive us out into those fields. Move us so deeply that we would feel like we could do no other than to obey just like those demons who wanted to stay in their hosts, but could do no other when the mouth of the Lord of the universe spoke to them. So might His voice compel us. This is the Lord's harvest.

And so it is His to win and it is His to lose. And that brings comfort because it means we don't do it alone. And then it means even more comfort because we know that He is also not just the Lord, He is a good Lord. And we work then hard because we know that He cares about these crops and He will surely send out more workers if we would simply ask for it. So that is what Jesus says.

He says that there is a need. He says that we are the workers in that field and that we work for a boss. How would you say you're doing? How do you, how do you feel your motivation is going? Kevin Harney, if you're not sure where you're tracking with that, devised a helpful little metaphor for keeping this great command in the forefront of our minds to help us stay passionate, to stay on fire for this work.

He calls it the one degree rule. And you'll see up there, I hope hopefully, the numberings are clear enough. He uses a scale from one to 10 to identify our level of evangelistic passion. He says that a 10 represents a heart and a life that is absolutely sizzling hot with passion to reach those who are lost. He says when you're at a 10, you are praying often. You notice when people are disconnected.

You make time in your schedules to be with those who are far from God. You talk often about your faith to those who don't believe and you try and share the gospel in natural ways. That's a 10. A one represents a heart that is cold when it comes to outreach. We don't pray.

We don't pray for lost people. We stay too busy to make space for others. We walk past opportunities to let the light of Jesus shine. We rarely tell others about our faith and we are apprehensive about communicating a clear message of the gospel. Now these are the two extremes of the spectrum.

But the one degree rule is a self assessment tool. Only you can define your own temperature and I ask everyone to go away today to think about that. Define your own temperature. But the beauty of the one degree rule is after you identify where you are, then you are simply encouraged to ask, what can I do to just move one degree up? To just turn up the heat one notch.

If I'm a three, how can I be a four? If I'm a nine, how do I get to 10? I find this a really helpful tool. Just that it's such a simple idea. But how often do we think, oh man, I am cold.

I am a one. But I'm supposed to be a 10. And we think the jump is far too much, so we just give up before we even try. What's helpful about imagining that this is a spectrum is the idea that we can just move up one. And we can just change one thing in our life, one thing in our circumstances.

So the question I want to ask you after you identify where you are is how can I increase by just one degree? I want to give you just three examples briefly that can help by doing that. The first thing here is to engage in prayer consistently. That is what Jesus' first command is here, isn't it? To pray earnestly to the Lord.

Pray consistently. Consider setting aside a few minutes each day to pray for people that God has placed in your life. Not simply the ones that you think are close. To pray for those who are in your life and who you know are spiritually disconnected. Make a list.

Put it on a post it note and you put it on your mirror. Every day you have to look at yourself in the mirror, unfortunately for some of us. And right next to you is gonna be your three or your five or your 10 people. And you can pray for them. Ask the Holy Spirit to speak to them, to soften their hearts, cry out to God to send out more Christians and more influencers in their life.

If you have children, you are blessed because you can start asking them about their friends who don't know Jesus and you'll be amazed how much more determined and how much more earnest your children are to reach those unreached friends. Ask God to make your home a lighthouse. The second thing is to make time. Man, that is a hard one. Make time.

Look at your schedule. Honestly evaluate how much time you spend with non-Christians each week. It's really easy to become engaged with your close mates, mates from church who are Christian and it makes sense. We are called and we are brought together into this wonderful family. We will have an affinity with one another that we will not have with other people.

We are brothers and sisters in the faith after all, but when we spend face to face time, heart to heart time with other friends and family who don't know God, who are far from God, our evangelistic temperature is guaranteed to rise. Because now we will care for them, and we will understand what a mess they are in, and we will understand what their great need is. Like Jesus, when we share time and space with them, we begin to love them deeply. We will begin to love them so dearly that we won't forget about them. We can't forget about them anymore.

And then lastly, and this is also so important, is to celebrate the little victories. We feel the weight. We feel the enormity of the task now. But I want to tell you, it gets easier when we can actually see that there is progress. In your home, with your family, in your small group, at Sunday church, make time to grab someone you know has been praying with you for someone or at least knows that you are praying for someone and celebrate with them whenever someone takes just that one little step closer to faith.

Just grab them. I'm so surprised when I sit with people and we talk about spiritual things and we get talking about family and friends who don't know Jesus, I often ask people about this and they will just accidentally mention, oh, yeah. So and so has started going to church. So and so has started reading a bible. And I feel like hitting them about the head saying, this is massive.

Why has this just accidentally fallen out of your mouth? Let's stop and thank God, right here and now, I will tell them for this. It is massive news. The amazing thing is, it feels like they haven't celebrated that fact yet. And so when we start praying about it, you see them getting excited about it too.

They have twinkles and sparkles in their eyes. They are so thankful to God. Everyone loves a good celebration. And so when we celebrate our spiritual temperature, our evangelistic temperature rises as well. And there's hundreds of more ways to raise it by one degree, but those three I think are very very helpful.

But in finishing this morning, we have to ask once again why? Why would we tell people about Jesus? Mum, why will you have to go back to this young lady again? Why is this so important? Or whether you are a new Christian, whether you are an old hand, whether you're still just curious about the whole Christianity thing, the question is the same.

Why tell people about Jesus? And we come back to the reading this morning again, and we see the heart of the saviour Jesus, that when he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them because they were harassed and helpless. They were sheep without a shepherd. Now it's important again to see that the Bible doesn't point out specific individuals here.

It doesn't even point out a specific crowd like this was a Jewish group or this was a Gentile group that these guys belong to such a culture or such a time and place. No. The bible is deliberately vague about the crowd. Jesus just sees crowds because the crowd is you and me, friend. The crowd is humanity who needs Jesus.

Jesus didn't have His heart broken for a special select few that were standing in front of him. His heart is broken for lost people. For you and for me. For those friends of ours. Perhaps if you could be honest with yourself this morning, you'd see that this is you, that this was you.

That you've at one point or even now sense of being have sense that you are helpless. Perhaps even harassed. Like that crowd, you've shuffled to various people and various things to find comfort. You've felt harassed like something chasing you. With tired hearts and minds, you've waited through this life.

You've turned to the voices of a hundred different leaders, a hundred different solutions. But perhaps this morning you can admit that you are still defenceless. You are still helpless. So frail, so fragile, so incapable to resist evil. Jesus doesn't see a crowd, he sees a little group of lost sheep.

They are chased by wolves, nipping at their heels, chasing them this way and then that. A defenceless frightened little group without the protection of their shepherd he sees. The saddest thing is the crowd probably didn't even realise it and our friends don't either. Friend Jesus sees us. Jesus saw us and he's seen me at my most vulnerable, like a sheep without the protection and the strength of his shepherd.

And this Jesus, we know, says of himself, I am the good shepherd. I am the good shepherd. And he says, I know my sheep and those sheep know me. And with the heart moved by compassion and a deep sympathetic sigh, he says, because I am a good shepherd, I lay down my life for the sheep. And this is what he did on the cross.

We are the sheep who have been led astray. We have been scattered by all sorts of false promises and motives and self-destructive actions, but Jesus says to you and I this morning, I have come for you and I will lead you home. And the rules of sin, the rulers Satan that nip at our heels, those who devour our very souls, who wrap their jaws around our necks. Jesus went and he conquered at the cross. The power of Satan, the power of sin has been crushed, and this good news needs to be told, friends.

It must be told. There's so much that can be said about Jesus and why he had to die, but let me just tell you this, he died to save you and me. Three days later, he rose back to life so that we may know that he for certain is the good shepherd. And friend, we have this greatest message to share with the world. We have it.

We know it. A message that breaks hearts at first as we see that we are the harassed and we are the helpless crowd around us without a shepherd, but a message that offers so much hope that we must tell it, we must share it. And so this morning, I urge you pray to the Lord of the harvest to send those workers into the field. And then friends, we get our sickles ready because we're gonna get sweaty. Sweaty.

We're gonna smell like wheat. I'm praying for our one degree increments, friends. Please pray for mine because I need a tune up as well so that our church, Open House Church, may be known to be the church who welcomes harassed little sheep back into the fold. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we are moved by Your grace.

Lord Jesus, we thank you for your great passion and conviction for us. Lord, it is one thing to be known, one thing to be seen. It's another to be known completely like we sung again this morning to have you know the depths of our hearts, but to love us well. That is the greatest thing we can ever experience. So first, Lord, we rejoice in this love.

In our great saviour who did not consider himself equal or having that equality with God, something to cling to, but made himself a servant in the shape and the form of a human. And even then humbling Himself even further on to death on a cross. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Father, we pray for Open House. We pray for each and every single person here who reaches ten, fifteen, 20 people a day.

This church of a hundred people reaching a thousand. And Lord Jesus, help us to see the field that is ripe. Help us to sense the urgency of the task at hand. Lord Jesus, I particularly pray for anyone here this morning who may sense the call to ministry, who may sense the call to mission, to the millions, the billions in India and China, in the Middle East, in Africa. Lord, the harvest is plentiful.

The workers are few. And so, Lord of the harvest, we pray, drive out, exorcise your people into the fields. We commit this church to you. We commit this series to you. We pray, Lord, that you will have your way amongst us. In Jesus' name. Amen.